Encounters 2013

At the start of last month I was given an amazing opportunity to help out with Encounters Festival in Bristol which is a short film and animation festival.

I spent most of my time helping out in the Arnolfini where all of the animation events were being held. It was great to meet fellow film makers and animators and I had some great chances to do some networking. I enjoyed the fact that all the animation screenings were organised into groups with a theme running through them like puppet animation or a bunch of creepy/disgusting animation. Some of the batches were better than others but if I had to pick on it would have to be the feel good factor which I enjoyed the most.

This screening included the award winning short of the festival called "In the air is Christopher Grey" by Felix Massie. I have to say that it was highly entertaining and really stuck out in my mind after the screening had ended.

My own personal festival highlight was getting to sit in on the Richard Williams "Desert Island Flicks" interview hosted by Phil Jupitus. It was really surreal to be sat metres away from this amazing animation legend who has influence the industry and the way a lot of animators have learned their craft. It was also very pleasant and surprising to discover how much of an animation enthusiast and buff Phil was. He also disclosed in the interview that he had done cartooning before which I found fascinating and my respect for the man has grown. As for the flicks Richard had a pretty healthy pick of american animation ranging from big disney features such as "Dumbo" to the classic Chuck Jones short "One Froggy Evening". To top it all off Richard did include Bristol Based studio Aardman's "Pirates" almost as a nod the festival itself as it was the one and only non US animation he picked and even then he told us that it was between that or Toy Story.

Overall I enjoyed what I experienced and being involved in such a great festival really got me pumped to start working on my own short film work with a view of entering into future festivals. Up next on the horizon is the Bradford Animation Festival which is happening in the middle of November. I have applied to volunteer there as well but I am yet to hear if I have managed to get in. Either way I should be heading to it and I'm excited to see what BAF has in store this year.

Inktober update

If you are following me on Instagram (Follow Here) you may have spotted that I have been taking part in a month long drawing exercise called Inktober. Where the rules are simple: To draw a design in ink once a day for the month of October or as many days as you can. its been fun to try and wrap my head around different styles and play around with line weight as I continue to learn more about inking techniques. here is what I have managed to produce so far:

August Sketchbook Project

Over the past month I gave myself the task of filling a sketchbook up with different faces. I got inspired from a masterclass video I spotted in storyboarding on CGAcadamy's website. It's a great exercise to help understand the form of a face the structure as well as caricaturing.

Another challenge was to work in pen for the majority of these drawings. To give my line quality a bit more confidence as I can be quite reserved when I work in pencil. Below is just a quick snapshot of some of the pages from the filled sketchbook of hundreds of different faces.

Overall I am really pleased with my progression and development and will try and do this as and when I can.

End of July Art Gatherings

So here are some of the pieces of digital and mixed media artwork that I have been working on as I try and experiment with different styles and techniques. I am really pleased with them all.

Girl Got Vamp

Dear Nana _ Shot 28

Spent about a day Doing the rough animation then Clean up and colour as well. Still need to finalize the look of the bottle and oil with the director.

Dear Nana (Character Turnarounds)

Here are two Turn Arounds I have done for Dear Nana. They were very easy to do with great designs made by Lydia. They took about 2 hours each. 

Mother

Daughter 

Patsy Animatic 08/03/13

Here is one of the lastest versions of the animatic that I have been working on after being given feedback from last wednesday. I wanted to make the ending clearer. So you could see more of what what going on. I think it has a better pace to it as well and doesn't feel like it is rushing too much. The rough sound edit as well makes the story feel richer. I am pleased with the progression of this animatic.

Land and Power Animation (Work in Progress)

So I have been working on a shot for Land and Power. It  has been a long time coming as getting pre-production for Patsy took priority. But I managed to sit down and work on this shot again. I did post some progress a while back and I got some feedback from the director.  As it was not going to be cut out the lines didn't need to be so thick as they used to be so I have gone through and made the lines thinner and the character more on model now that the final character design has been nailed. I am pleased with how this is progressing and I hope to get it fully finished soon.


 

Patsy Animatic 06_03_2013

I havn't blogged in a couple weeks so I feel bad. So I'm going to try and get myself back into the routine of it again

Over the past few weeks I have started storyboarding the new script of Patsy. I was given a script that Marc had worked on and then I was given the oppertunity to rewrite it. This was interesting as I don't often write the scripts for projects and such. But I digress. I have started to take more of a story director form of role on the project where as Marc is now taking the more technical side of things and organising people to help out on the film.  While he has been doing that I have been taking the re worked script and boarding it all out. I have to admit that even after all these months of re works I am still really enjoying storyboarding. I think that working at A Productions for that week really helped my drawing skills and helped make me draw more dynamic storyboard frames. Which will help communicate the way that the story begins to change.

Below is the first full animatic I have cut and edited. After looking back at it within the feedback session I have noticed how quick alot of the shots are. I think I was a little too harsh with my cutting as I was trying to make it as short as possible. I think that I will spend some more time working on the timing. I will also spend some time looking at the final scene where he pushes him to give it more of an impact.

Patsy Animatic - Scene 1

First section of the animatic in progress. rough scratch track along.

End of the Week Update - 11th of May

So it's the end of the penultimate week of a fair few of my projects at the moment. So I'm Gunna touch base on a few of them at the moment.

Red or Dead

So this project is in post production phase right now. At the beginning of this week we did the majority of the filming that was needed for the final cut. As the green screen studio was completely booked out we decided to make do and turn my bedroom into a temporary studio. It worked surprisingly well. As a group we also decided to make Zuzanna the other model in the piece. As there meeting within the film is a culmination of Persian culture (Jaz) and urban london culture (Zuzanna) Below are some of the production shots and also one of the lovely Jaz who was great to work with.

Now that the shooting has been done we are now in the process of putting the footage into backgrounds we have been making from cut out photo montage. Next week will be crunch time as I hope we get to finish it in time. I believe we will but it mean alot of long days next week. I am determined to win.

Alice Holmes' Project

I have been also dipping my toe in with Alice's yes/no project and helping her with line cleaning and painting. I have really been enjoying it. The shots alice has been animating have been so beautiful to work on and the final piece is really going to be something to behold. Its also been a great opportunity for me to learn how to use TV Paint. So far at the moment I have done about 6 or so shots for them and I'm working on the last couple now.

Freddy Pooley's Project

I have been given the first 3 shots for this project to animate. Which is very exciting. So far I have wrapped up the 1st shot and I have roughed out the 2nd and 3rd shot. It nice to get back into Toon Boom too. The style is also really interesting and fun to work with.

Cinematography

I am so impressed with the how this is coming along. We have a soundtrack that has been composed by my colleague Ted Whitehead (BLOG) and has a beautiful etherial feel to it and also a somewhat haunting echo to it. Which I think really makes the film look even better. The next step for this project is to animate the Monster so it can be Comped in and also get some sound effects from me to plus it.

Start of Week Update - With photos

Back again. Trying to make these updates a bit more informative and interesting for both me and you the reader.

So lets get to it.

Alice Holmes - Yes/No Project


I have been working hard this week on this project. I have been given the task of line cleaning and painting. I was given rough animation that Alice had been doing and then taking it and making the lines more sketchy and then painting them with a somewhat watercolour look to them. I am pleased with the final look that this project has and I can't wait to see the final cut. Here is a quick screenshot of what i've been working on.

Cinematography Project


This is coming along really nicely. After a few idea session my group and I settled on an alien sci fi theme with chase elements and we went about on last wednesday to go filming. I stepped up the be the actor for the piece as due to time that Frankie gave us for the project finding actors on such short notice was just not successful. But the footage that we came away with looks really good. So far from just the rough cut it has the potential to be really interesting. We are now just working on the soundtrack for it and Ted has been working on a simple moster model in Maya to place into the background of a couple shots.

Love/Hate


So this shot is almost done now. I have been given the size and dimensions now so I can work out the final output of the shot. All that is left to do now is just to clean up the shot and colour the girl. I am really pleased with this shot as it's one of the longest pieces of animation i've worked on in a while and it was a great challenge to work back in flash and also to animate two characters interacting.

Red or Dead Progress

Back from a super busy easter break working for good old starbucks I've come back hitting the ground running. Firstly tackling the Red or Dead Brief we were given. I did a first draft of the storyboard/animatic before we broke up. This one is a lot more polished and includes information for the rest of the group.

Red- Frames
Blue- Time in Seconds
Green- Shot


 

 It doesn't have a scratch track as I am waiting for another student on the film course who is working on specializing in sound to help us out.

My Vimeo Channel

Animated Exeter 2012 Ident

Here is the Final version of the Ident we produced. I am pleased with the outcome and what made it worth it was the thumbs up by the McLeod brothers. Thanks to everyone involved. Check it out below.


 


My Vimeo Channel

Animated Exeter's Vimeo Channel

Animated Exeter's Festival Website

Posing Max

As a little simple exercise I took a rig from the web and messed around with it. It's nice to get back into Maya and think about keyframes and pushing character poses. Even if the facial rigging here is not the best.   

The Evacuee Animatic - WIP

As part of my group project I have been working on the storyboard for our short. It was fun working from Dave's Script and developed a storyboard from it. I think that the pacing works really well. Even though this is not the final version as it still needs to have added voices and sound FXs it still gives you a good feel for the piece.

The StackHouse Pitch

So through our Pre-Produtcion unit we have been working up to creating a pitch to perform infront of some in industry. I was really pleased with how my pitch went. I was a little shaky at first but I began to get into it and I am proud of how it looked in the end.

Plus the feed that was given back afterwards was really helpful and I look forward to applying it to when I have to pitch in the 3rd year.

Here is the PDF of the pitch that I used. It showcases the art style and a few pieces of concept art as well. The Stackhouse Pitch

Anticipation and Overlap

Here is another small animation test we had to do this week. I think that it works really well. It has character and you can really feel the flow of the jump. I would love to try and attempt it with legs next time.

Morning Sunshine and Don Hertzfeldt's Animation

I can't quite remember how on earth I found this animation but I really love the humor and the absolute love the randomness of it all. The animation is simple but extremely effective. Marker Pens. That is pretty much all it is. But It works so well. xxx