Personal Development Portfolio Reflection

Personal Development Portfolio Reflection

For the personal development portfolio three major weakens were identified although they were not all regarding the honour project.

problem one: regarding Timing: from previous experiences of animating my character would flow between each motion and action. This made them always appear to know exactly what they would do next. This problem was first addressed by doing shorter animations for other purposes in my project but as a source of practice. The first turning point of how I explored the timing of frames in my animation came from when I attended Abertay's Animation Jam, in which I performed acted out parts of the performance in which myself and Tabita were going to anime. At these times I got to the opportunity to test my theory work of my project toward preparing reference for animation. However,  My timing issue was also addressed from reading books such as Timing for animation, Animation: the mechanics in motion and acting for animators, These combined with the animation jam a had me considering walk cycles and giving time for the character to think. The concept of timing benefited most from the when I conducted case studies on Wall:E and Howls moving castle in which the importance and effect of timing really stood out it was also one of the defining factors which allowed me to improve my timing in animation.

This could have been improved further by performing more smaller animation tests which explored the movements of my characters and how they develop. If I had conducted such tests It may have been possible to build up an action, reaction and interaction archive for my characters which would enhance the submission of my project. 

Problem Two: Regarding character drawing: during my time at university I resulted in the habit of only drawing the faces to the shoulder of the characters. This was a major problem for my project as I was focusing on character animation and took an interest in story-boarding. My storyboards from the first semester took a large toll in my confidence of drawing as I attempted to draw the story performed by the character. The size I was drawing at being another problem. In the second semester I was recommended to do the life drawing classes held by the university. This pushed into drawing the body along with being aware of the forms and shapes created, This was also enhanced by taking out the  Gnomon DVD's on gesture drawing, Character mentor and Force Dynamic life drawing. However as I became more attuned to drawing the body I also lost my ability to draw the faces how I used to. This issue was identified but not addressed as my drawing practice began to decrease. By this time I was only required to draw when I had an idea for my exposition. Which in occasion I could draw the face but not the body while other times I could draw the body and not the faces. Below is one of the Images, I'm most proud of from this development of traditional drawing, because the characters drawn had been in my head for years. Of course this identify my need for the exploration of drawing clothes.

Problem Three: regarding Digital Drawing, Is one of my weakest area's along with the less progressed element of my personal development portfolio. Though it was not an requirement for my project it was focused to the display and presentation of it during the exposition and presentation. There were some advancement on  getting past the artists block when staring at the bank white screen. Along with methods that  allowed me to draw by accepting how sketchy my general drawing style was. The biggest advancement being the development of my business cards in which identified my interest in treating digital painting like charcoal drawings using the air brush tool to push and pull colours. However, in order to advance this area would take allot more time that originally dedicated. The process required to adapt to digital drawing from traditional drawing and then the progression into the same level as the traditional means.  As a whole I am unsatisfied with the progression in this area it will take allot more time to develop which will also require the resolution that drawing within this medium will take me longer than achieving the same result in traditional drawing.

Some minor issues explored during the progression of my project and provided useful information was drawn from rigging concepts. As my Project involved Actions, reactions and interactions the exploration of prop rigging was explored in the first semester, However when it came to implement this into my project I had failed to achieve the results I wanted. This was discussed with my supervisor in which I was taught exactly how the constraints and tools worked when used. another similar rigging concept came around from using the component editor to help skin solid objects during the animation jam. Other areas address were Topography and Drawing smoke/mist digitally this mainly revolving around the business cards again though the smoke and mist exploration allowed me to take a interest in my pushing and pulling technique used with charcoal.

With this I feel I am more confident in my technical animation & 3D abilities along with a brighter future toward my traditional drawing.  Though this being said I will have to re-evaluate and continue attempting to break into the barrier in my Digital drawing and Painting. By breaking past this barrier it will also spell a better future toward the methods I create textures for my models and environments.

Posters Concepts for showcase

So I had originally posted one of the concepts i had i mind for my posters,  Which was considering the personalities of Lilly and Mary while having text wrap around Lilly forming a bubble to illustrate her personal space. I drew the concepts in my sketch book multiple times trying to get the right body postures and weight distribution and when i finally get to drawing them digitally I choke because my lines in digital are far far worse than traditionally.

 

 I decided to try what i did with my business cards and paint the character in using the air bush to as i enjoy working back and forward with colors treating them like charcoal, graphite and a rubber. But as normal my head doeskin contemplate color particularly well.

 

After these attempts to draw digitally, I began thinking what other ways can i describe my project this was also shortly after i finished my entire dissertation. Which spouted  out and Observation concept

Though it was close to the concept i wanted i still cant accept the hideous lines of my digital drawings and the thought of them being blown up to A2 or larger makes me cringe. So i called it at that and stopped with the digital exploration for these poster. Instead  Iv went back to graphite,

Above is a concept from before only done with pencil, I took advantage of the way i draw and the things i could draw which were detailed eyes and faces. This image has a black out background as it is a PNG so when i finally use this image i will be able to blend it in with the background. The concept plays on the Observation of personality through actions reactions and interactions. From this point on my of my poster concepts will probably revolve around abstract concepts centered more toward still life/ life drawing concepts. These will be drawing is Black and White or possible blue pencil. 

Business card Building

Business card research  mood board for focused on finding out what other people put on their cards. I feel that Andy Fossey's Business card holds my interest though I feel i would have preferred the character to look confused and be looking toward the writing.

So  after my last blog post I decided to focus on doing some exposition stuff, A few days ago I was trying to think on ideas for Business cards which id feel hold some meaning behind them.

My  things id associate toward myself which could influence what I draw was,   Animation, Manga, Story boards , Personality, Body language , Emotion, Resonance(Music inspiration).  Some thoughts that went through my head.

• I am an Animator, This is my Puppet that obeys my will.
• Animation & Illusion of life to create a Living breathing character who has a will of their own.
• Would having a character coming out of a storyboard be interesting ?
• Is it weird to want to draw and have a girl character on my business card ? (This was the fun part making me not to keen on drawing).
• How about a hand holding a  soul ?.... What would a soul look like ? Perhaps.... Foggy ? Misty ? Smoky ?

 

 

Above is a stage in my sketch book when  I began experiment with the storyboard, Animator and puppet ideas, Along with drawing a hand to hold a soul, For drawing the hand I also reference photos of my own hand however I didn't like the poses or angle.

I decided to try doing some charcoal drawings while  watching Ryan Wood ward's Animation "Thought of you". 

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBk3ynRbtsw

One of the specific things that I'm inspired by this animation is the drawings and demonstration of fast motion as the hands stretch and extend. Below are my Charcoal drawings in which I wanted to create the same affect.

The Second attempt was my favourite, and was also by accident like allot of my favourite drawings.....  The parts I like about the drawing is that its abstract enough for people to draw their own meaning from what they see.  After this I continued doing more drawing until I ran out of hairspray. Attempts 3 and 4 were and attempt to reproduce the same affect however with more motive however they turned out far from what I hoped.  Attempt 4 however, set in motion my drive to  have  a character holding something like a soul.

In order to gain a better understanding of using charcoal I also watch some videos one was particularly helpful because she talked about the different result the charcoal types produce Allowing me to predict how the charcoal would react. 

The Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QwTjtAcR9w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMQs98drsBo

So as this progressed the my Idea began to finalize more. I want a character holding another character in their hand. I want both character to look like they are made from mist/smoke. Illuminated by light. I want the character whose holding the other to fade into the rest of the drawing.  I also want to make the drawings feel mangaesk/ Tattoo like not full body or limbs but line to hind toward the character structure.

 

 Above is the Stages I went through to create this idea. As I began drawing the character that was being held I wanted to create story within this image, and attempted to draw both character with some intimacy toward each other. However as I continued with the drawing I began making mistakes which began to take the image away from what I wanted. The main problem being drawing smoke.

I then took the images, drawing and began to experiment with them. To see if I could achieve the affect by combining the drawings. I took them into a vector based package and created traces of the drawings(Instant trace). This has a similar affect as some of the filters in Photoshop however because it becomes a vector illustration these can be zoomed in and scaled with no lose in quality. Below are the results of this experiment.

Sadly they did not achieve what I was looking for, However the first image here I still hold attachment to, the effect created from the vector trace I find appealing as it creates a good blend of colours. At this point I decided take a break from this project,

Later that day I decided to take another attempt at drawing digitally, This progressed into my finally concept for my Business cards. Although I extremely frustrated as I could not  shade or paint the way I wanted to, Or frankly I had no idea what I was doing. I knew i wanted to create smoke so I looked for tutorial.

This Tutorial being the means of progressing forward.

http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-Smoke

I began experimenting with my brushes and tools and finally got into the flow of how to use my airbrush.  On the other hand  the tutorial only gave me the concept of how to draw the smoke it was by accident that I actually  got into the flow if creating my own version. I began using the Airbrush under a Push and Pull concept that Life drawing taught us with charcoal and pastels. Below Are the different stages of my this digital drawing.

Stages  1 to 3 was  focused on stacking the images over each other, as the stage 3,s lower body held a better placement of the legs and I wanted to carry that into the next attempt. Stage 4 was focused on creating the Lines/Highlights which formed the structure. Here are two reference images or example images of the concept that was in my head.

 

(Images are the logo from the manga Dogs: Bullets and carnage by Miwa Shirow)

Stages 5 to 7 focused on creating the light source and smoke effect on the girl and her companion i then began focusing on creating highlight to suggest hair.

Finally came building and formatting the images into business cards below are the variations i created with the images i liked from this project.

However, There appears to be a problem with the colouring from my photo shop and vector package in this document. Below is a better example of the colour s however the this image can't be scaled.

So hopefully within the next week I will have samples of these cards from Moo Business cards. As I did attempt to print out the fog girl with my printer and special paper as reference however, as expect from a non professional printer the colour blending was a problem so I am using these samples to test how the images turns out when outsource. I also attempt to make sure my colour values were as pure as I wanted them to be (For example White being R255 G255 B255) Though Moo Uses CMYK. Which could result in colour being duller if I left my drawings as RGB.