Sketch 2 - Developing my own style and drawing from reference & memory

For my first warm up sketch, I decided to draw from memory to see if I could draw the character in mind well enough to be recognised. I felt that this worked well as the characters I had drawn could be recognised apart from the use of the proportions in which I needed to edit. This warm up sketch prepared me for the reference sketches that I wanted to draw for the day. I wanted to be able to use reference to help me draw a character and build up on my proportion skills of the human body.

I mainly drew female characters as I am normally reluctant to draw due to the curvy and contoured shapes that I panic with; Male characters are easier to design through the rectangular shapes that they are built from. I used a Pinterest board that I had made for reference to be able to draw the female characters. I found that the majority of the drawings I made were successful through the proportion and the style of the character, I really liked the design on the bottom of the right hand page through the shape of the face and how I had drawn the facial features, I felt that this would also translate well into animation and I would like to carry this style on with development at a later time.  I also really liked the sat down pose at the top of the right hand page, I felt I had captured the atmosphere and emotion of the character well, the use of the shading helped to make it stand from the page, giving the viewer a direction of lighting. 

From memory

Female sketches

Sketch 1 - sketching different styles

Whilst all the modules were undergo for the year, I took time to develop my work by drawing fan art of characters from music bands and cartoons, trying to absorb the style and change it slightly into my own. I thoroughly enjoyed drawing Jamie Hewlett's work from Gorillaz, I loved the proportions and the angular style of the characters, however I changed this slightly to work with my own style that I have at the moment. I loved exaggerating the body with the limbs and the stances, and adding characteristics to the faces that worked with the characters personality. I wanted to continue this form of proportion into my work in which Responsive gave me the opportunity to do so with the Animation Portfolio Workshop brief that I worked on as one of the individual practices for that Module.

I then moved on to more cartoony styles, particularly Gravity Falls and Over the Garden Wall as I loved the simple shapes and wanted to use this style to twist it into one that I could use for animating with. I find that even though I go into an animation with the intention of keeping the characters simple, I always end up making the character detailed with line and colour which makes it difficult to finish nearer the completion of the animation.  Drawing in Over the Garden Wall style worked successfully, I loved the simple shapes and it was aesthetically pleasing with the proportions that I had edited as I wanted to adapt the style. I think this will definitely be a style of illustration that I would want to try and animation later on, most likely during summer, when I will have more time to focus on animating and nothing else.

From memory I then drew Batman and Robin in a cartoony style without any reference, I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could create a simple and effective illustration. I felt that this worked well apart from a few of the body proportions, the main body was simple and sausage like, helping me to add less detail with line shading. I did however end up shading the design in with graphite as I felt it needed something to make it stand out from the page, to give it more character.

Designing for volunteer groups

I am currently a volunteer at Selby Globe, a community based cinema in Selby, and The Abbots Staith Project in which the community of Selby are striving to get one of the oldest buildings in Britain to be renovated so that we can make this piece of history safe for people to visit, and hopefully make a museum for Selby. I have been involved with helping with ideas and marketing with local shops within Selby Little Festival. This festival brings the community together with local businesses turning into art galleries, venues for bands and performances for families to visit and more importantly have fun. Last year we had a graffiti artist painting on a bus that was parked in the centre of Selby, which was amazing to see but a lot of work trying to get paint for the artist, as the festival is all about helping an promoting each other rather than for profit reasons.

Last year I helped to make a map for that would be legible for all audiences to read and be able to navigate their way around all the different venues. I didn't have enough time this year to be able to make a completely new map for them however I was able to change and add parts to map so that I could hand them back the file to add text onto the image. I would like to make something new for them next year as I feel that my skills have improved considerably since then in which I want to give back something more professional to my volunteer group. I did edit the logo of the Selby Festival by adding the dates on the logo as well as adding the twitter bird for networking.

For The Abbots Staith Project I created a simple logo for them, in which they wanted a very simple drawing of the building until they build up the project more with marketing and a website. I created this on Photoshop using sepia colours to match with the age of the building, with slight detail of bricks and the roof tiles. I added this logo to the map for the group and sent the rest of the image and its components to my other volunteer, Selby Globe, who was given the task to create the map and advertising for the Festival, as one of the participating community projects and businesses.

As well as helping with the creation of the map, I also volunteer with setting up the stages and workshops so that the artists can go straight into the space and focus on performing. It is difficult sometimes especially when there is no clear indication of what they want to do, however the perfectionist inside me activates and I end up taking over and adding things to make the stage and workshops more enticing and attracting to the viewer.

Thoughts on Presentation

For my Learning Journey Presentation, I wanted to show my development through the visuals with added animation with the use of puppet tool and moving text with After Effects. I purposely used my previous presentation from last year as to show the development of both the aesthetics and the technique used to create it with. I felt that adopting the style I made last year and reinventing it into my level 5 one worked well as there was a clear line of improvement with the style of illustration and the content.

I wanted to use After Effects to create my presentation as I had learn a lot of new and helpful skills over the year, especially with using it so often when editing the animation for the Food module. With After Effects I was able to use the puppet tool to make my work move slightly for both a visuals and a comedic appeal; I was also able to use the key frames to move the images onto the screen or fade it out for a transition to the next frame. Compared to my level 4 presentation I was able to add more content onto the screen, making it move or pop in and out of the frame.

The content of my Presentation needed to be reflective, so I wanted to start the presentation with my personal debate of character design and storyboard, which would link nicely to the end of the presentation with telling the audience that I found throughout all the modules, that I wanted to lean more to storyboarding but have opportunities to character design as well to ensure that I definitely want to continue with just storyboarding. At the end of the presentation I wanted to tell the viewers what action plans I had for the summer, what I wanted to do to improve my skills and studio visits that I had in mind. For the content of the presentation I wanted to reflect over the good and bad times over the course, which mainly consisted of Food Mod and Responsive, but I felt it showed my development of my work through the year and work that I have used for my portfolio.

For the audio, I wanted something fun. I wanted it to be slightly silly but happy as it was the last module and everyone had worked so hard to be able to create the work this year that I wanted it be light and fun, hopefully getting a few giggles with some of the content.  I was quite proud of the ease in and out of the audio as it worked really well with the end of the presentation with the high tempo ending.

Level 5 Presentation

Business Cards Development

Whilst designing a simple business card, I looked into layout with both the text and imagery. I knew that I wanted a full image for the front of the card to entice people to look at the card, with the back containing the contact details. Initially I had my name on the front of the card so that it worked with the image, along with the role of practice that I wanted to be known for. I felt that this worked well with already defining my practice, as well as telling people the work that I wanted to do. I experimented with the placement of text around a few expressions that I had made from the Responsive modules, I felt that it was more successful on the top of the business card rather than on the side.

Peer feedback -  really liked the back of the card that had three of the character faces on top, it worked well with my practice. Showed a different style to the considerations of the front designs of the cards.

When adding the text to the front of the card, I felt that it wasn't as successful. I really preferred the use of all the text being on the back of the business card allowing the front of the card to be the attraction to the viewer to pick one of the cards up. If I was to create a business card that would fold out to show examples of storyboards, I wouldn't make the image incorporate the text, with my name and role, within the image, becoming a part of the design. I would also have used the back of the card that had the use of the three expressions on the top of the structure as I felt it was a nice touch with the text.

I didn't go with this back design purely because when I matched it up with the front of the card, it looked cluttered and the red colour scheme didn't merge well to the other design. I didn't want to change the colour of the red text as I had used the same colour of the characters hair, and felt that this link worked well.

Final Business Cards

I felt that for the work that I wanted to promote with storyboarding and character designing, the style of the business cards worked well. They were simple, easy to read and included all the contact details that I would needed for networking. They show the work that I have produced and with the research that I undertook with the business cards that I found at Thought Bubble, it worked successfully. I liked how I had left the front of the design plain and without text as it looked aesthetically pleasing for the viewer.

I wanted the text to be legible but have a tactile and script appearance. I've always loved the type writer font as I loved the aged appeal and I felt that the font worked well with the script font that I added to it. I added all the current social sites that I had uploaded work with so far, especially my behance link as well so that people would be able to view more of my work. 

Thoughts on business cards

I wanted to create a business card that would look and be presented in a professional manner, with the layout of the text and the position of the image being legible and aesthetically pleasing. I mainly found inspiration from business cards I had collected from Thought Bubble and other conventions through the structure and the size of the cards. I found that a common link between some of the business cards that I had collected, had the front of the card filled with one of their works, the majority only including their name and practice on the back of the card. I felt that this worked well as it made it seen as if it was a piece of work itself and would be nice to keep. I did prefer the smaller business cards that reminded me of mini bookmarks rather than a business card, however I liked how different it was. I found that the artists that had these style of business cards offered more than one design, which I felt worked successfully as again it felt that you were given a piece of work to take with you. I debated creating a business card in this size however I felt that a normal sized business card would be better for the final outcomes for the module. I did however like the idea of creating a business card much like Jake Lava's one, through how the business card opens up to show a few comic panels with his details on the back. I felt that this would work really well with one of my storyboards or just a very short story with 4 frames so that the visuals can be easily depicted. However due to time I wouldn't be able to create something like this due to not having a short story to put into the inside. I could have cut some of the frames from a storyboard I had already done, however I felt that there wouldn't be a nice end to the last panel, making it not work as successfully as I would have wanted to.

Primary Research 

I then researched into creative business cards, as during my time at college I created my CV to replicate tarot cards, which worked with the style and line of illustration that I had used. I wanted to consider to create something like this for at least next year as I love the idea of creating something that is different, it makes people remember and keep the business cards. I felt that for summer and in time for Thought Bubble, I wanted to have a simple business card that would be cost effective so that I would be able to print a few at once. I want to ensure that I have a business card in time for next years career track tuesday and networking events so that I can build up my confidence with networking in a more professional manner.

I researched into a range of professions for the business cards, I loved the use of having the business cards within a sleeve that gave something to the silhouette that was cut out of it. The use of the business cards being practical was a fantastic idea to go along with the profession that it was advertising, I found a range of interesting designs stemming from bottle openers to tape measures. Thinking practically for my profession, I felt that the style of Jake Lava's business card would be the most efficient if I was to make the business cards more creative however if I was creating an animation style business card, I felt that the use of a mini flipbook or in the form of lenticular imagery to give an understanding of movement.

Final Showreel

I found creating my showreel quite difficult, the most hardest parts being narrowing down the clips I had chosen to transition well and work with the overall aesthetic as well as consideration for the music track. It took me hours to find a soundtrack that I thought would work well with the showreel and work with my personality. In the end I really like the final outcome, I felt that the clips worked well together and that there was enough variety of animation for the viewer to see the skills that I had learnt over my time on the course so far. I am quite proud of the beginning and ending animation sequences in which I used the Sandman Titles animation for it. I can safely say that the Sandman Titles animation is by far my best animation work, I really like the style I went for with the silhouettes and the watercoloured splashed backgrounds that moved within them. Beginning and ending with the animation that I love the most with what I have created so far, made me more confident about my showreel. The soundtrack works well through the use of the tempo being in time with the animation, especially at the beginning and ending of the showreel, it eases and eases out successfully with the animation.

I aim to create more work over the summer so that I can create a showreel that can be compared with the sketchy design and the final composition. I felt that this would work well for myself wanting to be a storyboard artist as I could look into matching my animatics to the final animation, showing the translation of the camera direction and narrative of the scene.

Thoughts on Showreel

For my showreel, I wanted to create something that not only showed animation work that I was proud of, but show different styles and media as well. I felt that this would work well as not only for aesthetics but also showing the viewer the different styles of animation I could achieve. I knew I wanted to include the Sandman Titles animation that I made for Level 4 as I really liked the style and form of animation. The disappearance of the man at the end of the animation would work fantastically at the beginning or the end of the sequence, the same effect with the gate sequence as well. I also wanted to include a hand-drawn animation as well so that the use of different media would be entwined into the portfolio, I decided to use the turnaround animation I made for Visual Language module in Level 4 as it would show the viewer that I can animate different perspectives.

I researched into other animation showreels as to gain inspiration from them, with the structure and content. I did find it difficult trying to put the different animation files together purely because I wanted to focus on storyboarding, so I debated for awhile to add animatic sequences into the showreel. However after looking into a few different showreels, there were no animatic sequences, but there were sketchy animations which I felt worked really well as it shows the viewer the working in process animations that the animator is currently undergoing.

I was really inspired by Louie Zong's Showreel, the use of the animations being in tempo with the music worked well as it enhanced the visuals for the viewer more, grabbing their attention. I liked the use of the music as it was easy to listen to, simple and was happy to go alongside with the style of animations that Zong had produced. I really liked the use of the finished animations and the rough line animations as it showed the viewer the working process of the animator, how they work and plan their animations with not only movement but with the shot inside the frame as well as. The ending of the showreel worked well as again it kept in time with the tempo of the music as well as the ending animation of the chicken growing in size and decreasing to the track.

I was also influenced by Eva Figueroa Lopez's Showreel through the use of the visuals and the transitions of the animations, as well as the soundtrack that included the instrumentals of a track from one of my favourite bands, Gorillaz, The transitions worked well through the movement of the animation clip that was shown after the previous, the use of the same motion helped to ease the cut in rather than the cut being harsh. I loved the animation style that she had used with in her clips, the idea of the animations being played out as if someone was pressing the buttons in a game was such a clever idea and this is enhanced by the stunning visuals of the animations. I felt that the lighting and the style of illustration for the animation played a key part in this role.

Another showreel I was influenced by was Sarah Pocock's who began with a sketchy animation which was then compared side by side with the finished animation. I loved this effect, it worked so well with the aesthetics of the animation. I love being able to see the development stage before it got to the finished outcome and this was perfect for being able to compare, to see the slight changes and how the movement is translated to the completed animation. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to do this for my portfolio due to not having as much animation compared to my portfolio however I will definitely be aiming to create animations over the summer in which I would be able to create another showreel and use this process within it.

Other showreels that I found where either lacking in audio or over 3 minutes in length. The lack of audio made it difficult to continue watching, even though the overall time was for 2 minutes, the visuals did not grab my attention as much. The sketchy appeal to the animation worked well but it just didn't hold that visual aesthetic. I believe with the inclusion of audio it would have enhanced the animation reel even more. The showreel that had a duration over 3 minutes began really well, the aesthetics and tactile appeal of the visuals matched with the audio enticed me to continue watching however at about the 2 minute mark the visuals lost their appeal and the transitions didn't work as well as the previous few minutes. I really felt that they needed to cut down the reel and leave it to the first few minutes and possibly make a second one explaining the different animation techniques that would be in the content, as from watching parts of the show reel I could tell that they loved using mixed media and processes to create the final outcome.

Louie Zong - Demo Reel 2013! from Louie Zong on Vimeo.

Show Reel from Eva Figueroa López on Vimeo.

2011 Animation Reel from Sara Pocock on Vimeo.

Chris Sasaki: Visiting Professional

Studied in Burbank for 4 years - it was the central hub for animation, such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. He was a production intern at Dreamworks Art Department and learnt alot from the experience, He began to bring his work into the studio in which talented artists gave him valuable advice, helping to narrow down his practice to just character design. Before which he was undecided about what area he wanted to continue with and with the feedback and support from the amazing artists at Dreamworks he was able to narrow it down.

His first proper animated movie was Monsters University in which he designed monsters, such as the Oozma Kappa among many others, and whilst he was working on this movie he was also working on Inside Out. When getting an assignment, he would focus on one character with a lot of research involved, spending at least three days collecting research material to make him understand the characters more. His stuff might look stylised but alot is from reference, and this drives the final design.

When you find that small sense of authentically, work on it, make it believable. Add those little details, those considerations of how big the stitching would be, how much of it would there be, what pattern would it depict or would their be none at all?

After spending about 3-4 days on researching the last two days would be spent on drawing. He would then meet with the production designer before showing to the rest  (directors), and he would then gain feedback and start the process of researching and drawing again. A crit of work - prefers having the directors that are straight forward as it's their vision, you're there to support them, bringing it to life. Make sure you get used to the bad feedback, and if you do get bad feedback, start from the beginning, go back to researching and try again. You have to lead them through it - He tries to subtly make them like the designs that he likes but they always end up choosing a different design.

He considers about who the character is, what he is trying to sell and what the purpose it has within the story. Every artists is different, try to bring your own influences into it. The use of different media depends on the timeline of the project he gets, wants to do as much as possible with the time he is given. When he does get given more time he does explore with media however with short deadlines it is easier digitally. Will create turnarounds of the character, pretty much the blue prints for the characters.

The reality is you can work with other people but you need to tell people what to do - leave notes, everyone is on the same team.

Art is 20% of the production, the rest is behind the scenes and working on the film. Whatever you can do to bring your personalities into your work, the better it is. Authenticity, something fresh. There needs to be a reason why as to what work you are going to do - don't jump in, state your intentions and know what you're going to do - who are your characters, research into them. When you know that you know the world then you can design.

Sasaki tires to do as much as possible with hand drawn works, however using a computer can be the most efficient tool, as the end product would be transferred to digital. Try to keep work as lose as possible. Learning to sculpt now, as he needs his drawings to translate to 3D, sometimes his designs don't work well when they become 3D so he has to tweak and redesign until it does work well.

He uses a lot of storyboarding into the character designs that he does. You need to learn everything before narrowing it down. You need a foundation of everything to help you inform your practice everything is a resource.

Sasaki had 3 portfolios, one for TV, Sets and Character Design. He put something in one of them that he felt ruined it. The character design portfolio was filled with all the work he was proud of. Got him all the jobs that he applied for,

We're all like costume designers, a lot of research is needed to be specific, for example the consideration of stitching, thickness of cloth, folds and style of cloth. All these elements can change the image. With colour however he gives suggestions but it is up to the others for the colour.

Twelve artists on a film, a few people doing the lighting and shading - broken down to specifics, they all work together, they have a common understanding and know that they are in a team.

Character Silhouette - As he has a 2D animation background, he already had an understanding of gestures and actions, from the movement to the line of action. It was always there in the back of his mind, This helps him to consider the shapes of the character and storytelling.  Is constantly considering performance, need that key pose, that gesture that captures the character. Studying film for performance helps to understand what makes that character. What actions are they known for?

Sometimes the characters are affected by the voice actor, especially the famous ones.

They always have a code name for the title first as sometimes this can take awhile to be decided.

Story - Once the director has an idea - they find out the heart of the story, need to make sure that this is something that everyone wants to do. Character designs that are not used are put into the archive department and someone else chooses the work to put into the art book. They also have a gallery showing of the work.

Any personal projects? Currently working on his own short stories, illustrating them himself. You've gotta have that thing for yourself, to grow and keep interesting in what you love. Consider the new advancements, new storytelling in gaming with the Oculus Rift for example. Consider designing around that, how can you make your work fit with these specifications.

This talk with Sasaki was amazing, I learnt so much and was very inspired by the work he had done and tips that he had given us for the industry. It was very motivating with trying to sort out my portfolio to suit my practice as well as try and develop my style of drawing further. I was honoured to have Sasaki quickly look at the work that we were currently working on in the Food Module, with the 'A History of Cake' work, we unfortunately didn't get a chance to explain our idea to him but we were able to show the design work so far for the production. He really liked Anna's character designs and loved the textures of the backgrounds that Rebecca had made so far.

Interim Presentation and Feedback

For the presentation I wanted to show the work that I had drawn in my own time as to show the development and process that I was trying to take my drawing style with. I drew a mixture of Japanese and Western styles as to inform my ideas further with exaggerating the proportions and style of line. I really enjoy drawing fan art of different cartoons and manga in my own style however I felt that I was sticking to the same style abit too much so I challenged myself with drawing more simple characters with the shapes. I enjoyed drawing Jamie Hewlett's style of drawing with the proportions and style of line, I adapted the angular style to a more curved lines which I felt worked successfully and I wanted to carry this form of illustration further.

After presenting my work that I had been doing in my own time, I gained quite a lot of valuable feedback in being able to improve my work. I was trying to develop my style further by mixing more styles together however recently I've just been stuck in this same style that appears more Japanese in line and structure rather than western with the cartoony style that I wanted to try and draw more of to develop my work. I think the idea of going to more life drawing sessions would be a good idea as I never got chance this year, I think this will help me with both style and proportions on my work. Another suggestion was to continue drawing fan art of cartoon animations to help with consideration of lines.

Food for Thought Screening

The screening for the Food For Thought show was amazing, it was so satisfying watching everyone's hard work play out on the big screen after the stressful submission for the module. It was nice seeing a mixture of completed and not completed animations as the audience were able to get an idea of what we want the animations to look like in its entirety. The animations were nearly equally split into stop motion and 2D animation which was a really nice blend with the variety of both techniques.
We gained a lot of feedback, the most common being how funny and cute the style of the animation was and how they couldn't wait for the animation to be finished. It was nice hearing feedback from the voice actor that took part in our animation, it was lovely having him share his thoughts and offering to help us out in future projects. I quite liked the idea of possibly creating a music video for one of his bands tracks as I think that would be a really nice summer project for me to practice my animation skills and improve them further before the start of third year.

Overall I loved the poster that Fiona had created for us all, it showed all of our animations together in a professional and aesthetically pleasing manner. The amount of work that our whole group went through to not only make the animations but to organise the practice screening for our the public was amazing and the results were even better than we all had hoped. It was a lovely touch to end our finished work on.

Portfolio

I created my final portfolio using the skills that I had learnt from college, and set the pages out as if I was to mount the boards. I felt that this worked professionally and was easy to view with the pages. I created this portfolio on Illustrator with the ease of ensuring that the imagery was positioned correctly and being able to view each page on an art-board next to each other in the work space. I really enjoyed making my portfolio, it built my confidence up as I was looking through the work that I created over this past year at university. I had a mixture of both character designs and storyboards which I felt worked successfully for my own personal practice so far, I hope that through my action plan over summer I will be able to be sure about which practice I want to continue with or if it is just a matter of wanting to both. However I felt that the portfolio I had created accurately showed my skills in both aspects of the practices.

My Issuu and Behance portfolio only differed in the layout of the imagery. In the Issuu portfolio I wanted to show how my portfolio would look like if created using mount boards, and with Behance, how it would look when uploaded online. With Behance however I did leave out a few of the 'A History of Cake' storyboards purely because of how much imagery was on the page and it would have taken even longer to scroll down the page. With the Issuu submission of my portfolio, these extra images worked well aesthetically on the page which is why I included them in this version. I knew that the requirement for the portfolio was for 10 images however it is difficult to show a narrative using only one storyboard from a series of storyboards which is why I included at least 3 of the boards so that the viewer could see how the sequential imagery would flow through the pages. I also wanted to show more of my character turn around with the poses as to show the style and exaggerations that I could achieve with character designs.

On Behance

Behance

Thoughts on Portfolio

Before making the portfolio, I went back to my SWOT analysis and reflected on the work that I had done over Level 5. In my SWOT analysis I noted the skills that I had within the practice that I wanted to go into when looking for jobs in industry. I was torn between mainly character design and storyboarding, and honestly I still am. I did have a lot of opportunities in which to use these skills to produce work in the modules over the year, and I took advantage of this in the Responsive and Food For Thought modules. However even though I had created more work in both of these fields, I still couldn't narrow down which one that I particularly wanted to stick with. I thought about which process I enjoyed more and found that I loved making the storyboards in the Food module, so I decided to create a specific portfolio that would promote my storyboarding skills.

I wasn't entirely sure what to include in my portfolio apart from my storyboards, so I researched into how to build a professional storyboard portfolio. I found a few helpful sites but each one differed from the other in different ways. One of the most helpful tips was a podcast from Chris Oatley's site in which they had a guest speaker, Justin Copeland, who gave insightful and valuable knowledge on promoting and developing storyboards; Copeland is a storyboard artist at Marvel Studios. His advice was mainly on producing work for portfolio and also what he would like to see within the storyboard. He reveals that his work mainly consisted of comic pages that he had created, and even though these were not storyboards, these still showed a visual narrative, portraying the placement of the panels and character to tell the story. Copeland suggested to use a mixture of character design, storyboards and comic pages, anything that tells a story and shows how well you can draw as sometimes you will need to draw on model or at least close to it for the production team to follow with. I also found it interesting with the amount of people that approached him with tablets and phones to show their portfolios to him.

I found another site that was extremely helpful, currentflavour.tumblr, in which an interview with Ted Mathot Writer/Artist/Story Supervisor at Pixar Animation Studio's answers questions about building a storyboard portfolio. This helped me immensely with considering what add into my portfolio, with how he tells us what he expects to see, the do's and don'ts and tips on how to make more interesting portfolios. Mathot suggests using a script online and recreating it within a storyboard format to help you create a good quality of work for your portfolio. This is definitely something I will be doing over summer as I believe this will be a fantastic way to improve my skill set.

I couldn't really find anyway portfolios online that were dedicated to storyboards and presented in a portfolio format, most storyboard artists presented their work in pdfs or animatic format. However I did find one storyboard artist/character designer that had created a portfolio in a standard portfolio format, her work consisted of mainly character designs and sketches but ended with full pages dedicated to storyboard panels. I felt that using the whole page to show the panels worked well as the viewer can easily depict what is happening within the action in the scene. Other examples on Behance, only really showed a few finished panels that were coloured and lacked that immediate sequential visuals that I love in storyboards, it was more of a cut to the next character, rather than the movement or action to that character.

In the end I decided to show a mixture of character and storyboard designs, I did think that it is important to see character designs as well so people get an understanding of the styles that you draw. As I was indecisive about which practice to follow with, I felt that both would be a good choice to continue with until I know which one is perfect for me.


Research Sources:

http://storyboardsecrets.com/blog/ask-sherm-on-storyboard-revisionist-portfolios/

http://chrisoatley.com/storyboard-portfolio/

http://aronjshay.tumblr.com/post/45172656696/how-do-you-suggest-building-a-storyboard-portfolio

http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/2008/02/20/building-a-storyboard-portfolio/

http://currentflavor.tumblr.com/post/70918039874/story-portfolio-questions-and-guidelines

Internships research

I wanted to start researching into internships as a possible route to take during summer or after graduation. I felt that internships was a fantastic route to take with not only getting to learn new skills and getting used to the studio space, but the company gets to know you, they get to know your work and your work ethos. I looked at the bigger companies first, being Disney and Dreamworks, however there were no internships left that I was that interested in, as most were to do with post production rather than the pre production side, that involves character design and storyboards, which was what I wanted to aim for with the internships. I also wanted to try my skills with a possible animation internship if there was one but unfortunately there were none available. I was disappointed with Dreamworks as when I was researching last year for possible internships, I stumbled across an amazing find, a 3 year course of storyboarding at Dreamworks, with the last year allowing you to be involved with the production of one of the films that they would be working on. I couldn't apply for this last year as I had to have graduated university and had my degree before I could be considered, I was absolutely gutted but I do hope that Dreamworks haven't scrapped this course. 

I then researched into Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network for internships. I couldn't find any internships for Cartoon network but I did find a job referring to a position as a designer at the studio, unfortunately it was more of a graphic designer role with the marketing and prop designs, in which you are required to have at least 2 years of experience with graphic design. I still liked the sound of the job, it sounded fun and a challenge as well. I kept on searching for more jobs on the site with in the animation area but I couldn't really find anything that suited the practice that I wanted to do. In order to be able to find good internships I need to search as early as possible and not be shy with submitting my work. This happened twice, the most recent was with the Nickelodeon Artists Program, in which there was a storyboarding track that you could apply for and it sounded perfect. I was too scared to submit anything at the last minute as I didn't have an up to date portfolio, I didn't have any completed storyboards that I had shaded that I wanted to submit and I ended up just missing out on a possible opportunity. This time I am going to submit the work I have so far, I need to start to build up my confidence with my work and show it online to get some interest in my work - I will force myself to submit my work to the program next year, and if I don't get into the program, I will at least get some feedback on my work and how I can improve. 

Using Behance

Behance is a fantastic site where you can upload and view other professional portfolios in which a lot of people have picked up work, whether working for a company or with another artist to create a project. I found so many inspiring artists from this site to do with both animation and illustration based artists, and I felt that it would be a fantastic site to upload my work to, especially to try and kick start my networking skills. However it is a case of selecting work that I think would be noticed by people as well as being confident to show my work. I think in order to get my work seen I need to show my work on other networking sites with a link to my behance in order to view more.

I finally built up my confidence and began to upload work onto the site, however I think I may re-upload some work as it isn't that organised and I would like to add some little additions to the work. I also uploaded my storyboards to the group folder that Anna made for the food module work that we had created. I felt that this was a nice touch with the group folder for the recent module as it is a nice link to the final animation, which will be posted onto Vimeo, and with this group folder they can then see the work that lead up to it as well as see individual works. 

Reflecting on aims this year and editing on the Food for Thought Project

Unfortunately I didn't get chance to blog about my big part in the post production part of the recent Food for Thought module. This was due to me editing the animation till the very last minute so I only had time for a very minimal blog post that I made a few minutes before I had to frantically burn the disc and run to hand in my submission.

I just wanted to talk about the techniques that I used in both programs I had used with the edits, in After Effects and Premiere. My over all aim of the year was to try and learn and use as many different techniques in different areas of production during Level 5 before I completely decide what I want to focus on next year. This year I was able to focus on purely the movement in animation thanks to the Character and Narrative module, Responsive was extremely difficult but it did allow me to create pieces of work for Portfolio and Food Module allowed me to focus on storyboards and allowed me to learn new skills with editing animation.

I thoroughly enjoyed storyboarding for the Food Module, it was so much fun and it allowed me to be creative with not only the shots but the humor as well. I felt that it was my job to bring the script alive with add visual humour to help the gags that had been added to the narrative.

I had already learnt some skills with editing in college before I came to university however thanks to Level 4 I was able to extend this knowledge with the use of After Effects. I used After Effects to edit the animation with the use of the moving backgrounds and the other small animating parts that I could achieve and help take the workload from Rebecca. Animating the backgrounds mainly consisted of using the position key frames, in which I used the anchor point to position the image so that it would not effect the position animation. This was difficult at times as sometimes the key frames would confuse themselves and swap values with the next key frame, this was frustrating but at least I knew the cause of the problem which could be easily solved. I also used the offset effect on the background in the first scene with the walk cycle. This made the background forever loop, giving the illusion of the character walking forwards even though he was in the same place. This worked really well as I was able to make each layer of the background move at slightly slower or faster speeds to further enhance the illusion.

After Effects Editing

After Effects Animation

I also animated a hand that I drew for the icing scene, creating a motion path so that it would follow the animation of the icing that Rebecca had made. To do this I made a mask on the layer using the pen tool to follow the main shape of the icing before cutting the mask path and pasting it into the position key frame of the hand layer. This worked well however some of the key frames had moved slightly up or down, so I had to go back into the key frame to move it back to work with the icing. This took awhile to fix but I did learn a few little tricks to make the process faster along the way which I can apply next time I use a motion path in After Effects.

I also used After effects to import image sequences of the final coloured animation that I had imported from Photoshop to ensure that the quality was still there as sometimes rendering the animation straight to video made the quality pixelated. I rendered them in PNG files so that I was able to acquire transparent backgrounds making it easier to drop onto the backgrounds that I had animated already.

I didn't really learn anything new from Premiere however it was an essential key to editing the animation. It allowed me to add the finished pieces of animation that I had edited and added to on After Effects and match it up with the final recordings of the voice acting. I was able to slow down the speed of some of the animations as I found that the majority of the animations were incredibly fast and it took me while to slow down that animation to ensure that the animations would work well with both the pace and the sound.

Premiere

Overall I found animating on After Effects cut the amount of time it would have taken me on Photoshop, and I learnt a few new techniques and tips along the way. I was quite proud of my animation of  Johnny changing outfits at the exact point he crosses over the background line. With the added use of Premiere I was able to sync the animation to the audio easily, using key frames to fade out the animation and the audio. However I was gutted that we couldn't finish the entire animation and I felt that it was slightly down to me not being able to colour and edit everything together. I was disappointed but I did find that all the workload hit me at once and I couldn't handle how much I was suddenly given. Having said that I gave it my best shot to the point that I was still editing up to 30 minutes before the final deadline. I refused to give up, I was adamant that I would finish as much as possible to the best quality that I could do.