Follow the Rabbit - New Blog

Yes that's right! Follow the white rabbit to wonderland (or dinosaur in this case) through the magic of the interwebs to my spandangled new blog.

-----> Lemons and Lines <-----

(A brand new blog - Go check it out!)

1. Brand NEW animations! 
2. Even more Life Drawing adventures.... /AND/
3. Things I learnt while I was supposed to be studying for Uni (and what I learnt at Uni too)

January 2014

I've enjoyed playing with some digital painting and using watercolour textures in Photoshop. So here's a little fantasy and princess bubblegum to start the year.

Playing with Colours.

Original Sketch.

Because life drawing is a thing we do... sometimes

Woohoo. Claire and I finally made it to another Life Drawing session. I know. Shock, horror. It actually happened.

Toothless

HTTYD II was as fantastic as the first. SO I didn't really have any choice but to draw toothless for a mate's birthday...

The romance between ruffnut and dragon sailor boy was hilarious! I love that HTTYD has both adult and child humour without alienating either. Some very boss dragons.

Also love that Hiccups Dad actually died and didn't come back to life, much as I loved him. The treatment of it and the ability for the story and the characters to deal with and move on made me love it even more.

P.S. Don't let Toothless eat all the cake...

Nope.

Needless to say, I miss Summer. 

Having to sit at the computer with a blanket and scarf is not so much fun.

And I would very much like some sun please!

Arnie visits Youtube.

Well I have a private version of Arnie up on YouTube, (I know, not much point in an unlisted video when I post it on my blog xp) but I'm not sure whether I want him up there or not. So here he is for your amusement, fellow students and lecturers and travelers who pass by this blog....




Also, any advice or reccomended tutorials on youtube upload settings? I seem to always get a rather dirty final image for full view. I've done some googling but haven't invested an awful lot of time as of yet.

(Yes Adil, I will look into Vimeo as well...)


So yes, constructive criticism welcome...

Guess what (..Yes, what?)

 Yes, that's right, I actually, finally, indeedy finished the Arnie Project (yes Ryan, it's actually truly finished!). Here are a few snap shots, I'll upload a suitably compressed file when the moment comes .

 I'm not entirely happy with how it finished, but I had lots of fun on the journey. The final product is somewhat odd and lacks punchline. It worked well when it was just Arnie, but then I ran out of time and lost inspiration for the rest of it. Maybe I'll upload both to compare.

Focus for next 2d project is: colour scheme-age, time management, continuity of line size and general proffesionality of drawing quality. But aside from that, decent story boarding and laughs were achieved :)


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On a side note, the blog I mentioned to Adil the other day. There isn't a heap of posts but these bits caught my attention.

Suspense of Disbelief in Animation

"There is an implied contract between actors and audience, and the terms of that contract are fragile.

It is not so easy for an audience member to suspend his disbelief for two hours.  The storyteller has to help by telling the story consistently within the pretend parameters established at the beginning.

...If Indiana Jones sprouts wings and starts flying mid-way through the movie, the audience will feel betrayed, cheated.  Nobody said anything about Indiana flying when the movie started, and nobody said anything about him having secret wings. " 

 An Indianna Pic, for your amusement :)

After being cajoled into watching Stephanie Meyer's "Host" the other week I had a few thoughts on suspense of disbelief.

I realised it is not just about the rules established at the start about plot and the physical rules of the world it is set in (the work of the storyteller/storyboard artist) but it also extends to sound fx, soundtrack, visual style and many other things -especially acting. 

A bad actor can just as easily transport us back into reality. We want to see the character in the story, and this suspense of disbelief is destroyed by awkwardness of line delivery and body language.

Same goes for a sub-par soundtrack. It only leads to disappointment when that same cliche over-used track comes our for the nth time, unchanged in the one film. Or random electric music for two bars in between orchestral work (yes that did happen... and was never explained in the film ...).

Which brings me back to my very early post about what makes a good animation. Indeed it is visual, audio and story brought together that makes it worth the watch.

The other interesting posts:

Animators of the next Generation
An Illusion of Life: The New Normal
Acting for Animators

I'm not sure I agree with all that is said, but some interesting thoughts are certainly there :)

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Arnie Concepts

For those of you who have seen me giggling and pulling funny faces in class for the past few weeks, here is why. He turned out quite amusing to animate, and i'm enjoying the 2D project a lot more now ;)

Arnie says: Click for da full view -dis view size it sucks!

Idea #2: Girl on Fire

Girl on Fire is a story about a girl coming to terms with a constricting society, and the tightly controlled emotions inside herself.

This animation is somewhat more personal and relates to aspects of my own high school experience at an all-girls catholic school. Emotions and are the driving force of this concept, and sound plays an important part in their communication.

This animation would basically be an exploration of self-identity. I would keep audience in mind but it would be more of a one-of chance to have some fun.

Inspiration also came from this animation, one I keep returning to again and again. The music is half of its power and I think something with those continuous ascending and descending notes surging their up and down might work for me too. Also the great long strides for my giantess.





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Setting/Establishment [Control, suppression,mundane life]

 Her hair is tied back slicked down. Tights flat without wrinkles. Jacket is dusted by hands off screen. She is zipped up, folded, collected and then heads off to school in her cumbersome uniform.

City shots, heat, tension, the height of summer. Steel train wheel discs grating on the tracks. A heat-hazed footpath. A feeling of enclosure and suffocation radiates from the monotonous skyscrapers that enclose all view of the sky.

 TICK TOCK TICK TOCK the train rattles. Stops starts. Passengers on the seats and standing sway back and forth. The protagonist's quite small and child like in comparison. The shriek honk hiss of city traffic is quite loud and intruding. Visually it is also quite mundane with cold hard windows and metal and not too much colour at all.

[Emotion, reaction, reality remade] Conflict & Development

Morphing shapes, from little girl to giantess striding the streets to the sky. A disfigurement of emotions and mind. She becomes a hunched witch, straining under her backpack. Her hair becomes wire, breaking free of its confines. her eyes are on fire.

When she trails her hand on the brick wall it leaves a burn mark/scorches. Then her footsteps do too, souring green grass. Dogs bark, cats hiss at her. When she decides to run to the top of the staircase/balcony to get some fresh air everyone gets out of her way because she is literally shedding sparks/fire.

Animosity radiates from her. When she gets to the top of the stairs she is bursting from her uniform, her body deforming breaking free. The top of the building breaks as she grows taller and taller, more adult like.

She screams as she grows and grows, running past the scrapers, looking down at the people now scared of her, she scared of them too.  Heads towards the river banks/between the city skrapers  she looks at herself in the mirror windows pushes away still growing growing growing she writhes and twists like a fiery tornado. Growing, growing, growing.

Resolution [rebirth]

Then it slowly gets quieter and quieter as the sounds disapear below her and she is enclosed in white cloud cool and misty. Her growing slows and slow then it starts raining and a drop lands on her cheek her eyes fade from red and she closes them. She shrinks and falls from the sky to plunge into the river.

There are a few moments of peace where she is submerged/enters the subconscious/womb. Bubbles escape from her mouth and she appears lifeless suspended, floating.

Then version 1: arms/net collects her and she rises from the water reborn and sound of the real life resumes. She opens her eyes, the music climax and cut.



Version 2: she is washed ashore, and lies similar to the foetal position as the waves come in and out.  Zoom out and fade. Form death rebirth. Cleansing of soul.

The burn and then the tears that come from healing.

Good

It would be really interesting to create such an


I would also love to try my hand at putting the audience through such a wide a range of emotions from anger, rage, sadness, suppression to catharsis and an emotional release purge that leaves them too reborn. Clean. Fresh empty. New.

I also love central motif of water. First the lack of it, or its opposite fire in the rage and heat of the suppressing summer, and then the rebirth of the cool clouds, rain and finally the waves of the beach. Water is a great means of communicating emotion, and I think the imagery of the womb and rebirth would also be fun to play with.

Bad

I'm a little iffy about this idea. Firstly while I wouldn't mind doing a personal piece, I think I will get bored with it quickly and end up uninspired to complete it. I noticed also that it was a lot harder to write than the first concept: I don't think I have a clear image in my head of what the message is behind it, or how i'm going to communicate it.

Also, I think this animation might find better expression in 2D form. The morphing shapes combined with a very stylized expression would bring so much more to it that what I feel 3D can. On top of that there are a lot more characters and a much larger world to deal with. I want to dedicate most of my time to character animation, and less to modelling.

Some thoughts on style and location...

Just finished Story and concept class where we re-watched the animated shorts up for Oscars (Paperman won of course, my second favorite is  still Adam and Dog).

So here is one of the vague concepts I have with a Russian flavour -perhaps imperialistic Russia vs. Communist new world? One of my mates has fostered in me an interest in the Romanovs/Tsarist Russia/Nicholas II's family that I also loved studying in modern history... but what about a plot?

I don't want a repeat of disney's cliche Anastasia, as much as she was one of the four daughters -perhaps something more realistic?/ After all the entire royal family was murdered in the process of revolution. A view from the inside out or outside in? Starving serfs and revolutionaries also play a part here too.

Hmmm... plot that will come next. First the visual/cultural/thematic inspiration.

A very interesting climate and architecture -very much victorian-esque but with the russian candy-house north/eastern european feel as well.

Very lavish decorative setting. Rich Imperial family. A bit too complex for modelling time restrictions? Or a challenge to be accepted? Some good matte paintings could save a heap of time. Quite a very English feel for the petersburg palace- close relations to other royal families- how to not loose the Russian feel and style vs. classic european?

St Petersburg Palace and the royal crest.

The royal family -some cool costumes that can also match character personality. A bit different to our Australian climate at the moment :)

Classic scary rasputin - the presence of religion in russia so closely linked to state/royal family.

And a slight contrast of reality..

 

Revolution, famine, violence as well. I would refer to this indirectly, a short animation is not long enough to deal with such topics. History is such a massive thing xD

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There's something quite romantic and idealized about the royal family/loss of an era/ but they were also causing a lot of damage to the people of Russia -quite a large empire it might be good to recognize. So where to progress from there and how to treat the story?