Considering PPP Practical: Informing my Practice

In order to create and develop my practice further, I first needed to identify what practice I wanted to be situated in. I knew that I enjoyed storyboarding and character design, however I also enjoyed animating a character with secondary animation. I also wanted to look into creating backgrounds for characters that I had created to be placed into, creating a final image. I enjoyed creating backgrounds in the applied module in my first year in which we created title sequences, through how I had created backgrounds that related to the character and would be shown through the characters figure. I quite liked the idea of possibly making something similar to this however I'm still debating with pin pointing the exact practice I wanted to develop through this PPP2 module. 

Using these interests as a basis I began to note down possibilities of practices to develop further, merging a few ideas together to try and create an interesting idea to continue with. For example merging storyboarding with slight animation, creating a motion graphic like piece or creating a storyboard and creating an animated image for the storyboard, with the addition of background and secondary animation on a character. I also noted my inspirations that could help influence my work and style, such as the work of Bruno Mangyoku who creates animations with a simple colour scheme and shape but work well with the atmosphere and narrative, I was particularly inspired by his 'A Tribute to Drive' animation. The lighting and use of completely black shadows helped to give it that action and sinister appeal. As much as I loved these ideas something was still lacking, they didn't feel like they were helping me with locating my practice, with what I enjoyed creating. I know that I wanted to create: A character, a narrative, animation tests, a background.

Idea 1
Create a character that shows the personality and background with in the narrative that the character would be situated in. Create animation tests that show secondary animation of the character within a background that would compliment the characters background. For example could create a character who spends the majority of the day working at the office, hardly any sleep, drinks a lot of coffee to keep themselves awake. The character design could show this through bags underneath their eyes, if male could have stubble, scruffy hair, half tucked in shirt with a few coffee stains and a loosened tie. The animation would relate to the character through showing the character at their desk, could be in the evening to show how long they work for, leaned in close to screen, hunched shoulders, coffee next to them etc. Can create a character with this basis of making each part of the process relate to each other, showing the characters personality and narrative. With this idea can take even further and create a storyboard for the character, could be everyday life routine or a scene that relates to the secondary animation that would be created.

Idea 2
Create a character that shows personality relating to narrative that would have been created for the character. With this character design the basic T-pose, 3/4 pose, profile and portrait stances linking to a head turn around - showing all angles of the head. Show the character with dialogue, how the character would act within an environment (concept art?). From this create secondary animation for the character, hair and clothing moving, could have them within a background with slight animation much like Rebecca Mock or OfSparrows work.

I quite liked both of these ideas, in which they were both quite similar, with one including a bigger storyboard and narrative. I feel that creating something that would work with both of these ideas merged together would not only help me locate my practice but create something for my portfolio and showreel.

Initial ideas mind map

1st year applied animation - example of the background
within the characters figure

Bruno Mangyoku

http://ofsparrows.tumblr.com/

Majikkon Convention Huddersfield: Considering a table

Majikkon Convention was an event much like Thought Bubble in Leeds, however it focused on the Anime merchandise and artists who draw in that particular illustrative style. It was interesting through the amount of artists that were there and how friendly they were with talking about hobbies and interests that they were passionate about. It reminded me Thought Bubble in that respect with how easy it was to network with the artists in which ranged from different styles. As the event was quite small there wasn't as many events to see compared to Thought Bubble however I believe having a stall at the event would be good experience with networking and promoting myself and work that I have created.

I researched more into the price of a stall table, which was £20 for a table, or £30 if there are two artists sharing a table. Considering the price for the table, it didn't seem too much for a first try at having a stall at a convention however I would need to plan the traveling cost, printing costs and other costs in which I would be selling at the stall. Another consideration would be the price in which I would sell prints, badges and possibly my own comic. I found that the majority of the artist stalls sold badges at £1 to £1.50, A6 prints at £1.50 to £2, A5 prints at £2 to £3. They did sell A4 and A3 prints but the majority of the sales were for badges and A6/A5 prints in which I would be more likely to make and sell if I were to get a stall at Majikkon. If I were to sell my comic at the convention, I think having a sample of the comic and at a low price would attract more people to buy the comic, not only would this be less costly but it would help to promote myself and my work to others. A necessity for this table would be to produce business cards in which people would be able to take with them.