The Pitch

Pitch project done and i feel that i need to improve my presenting skills. I did practise and wrote notes down but when it came to it i tried to remember it from memory and that was a bad idea as i lost my place. Im not sure whether i presented it very clearly either though i can't really remember what i did because of nerves, though they seemed to understand the idea.

I enjoyed working on this project and feel that my idea has potential but still needs work to improve it. I feel my characters are the strongest in this project the environments and storyboard however i feel need improvement. It was fun to do this project as i got to think of my own idea for an animation which i should really do more in my free time. I do have problems with thinking about my own idea as i can usually get a good basis of an idea but its never really finished. I would really like to take some of the other ideas i thought of when brain storming for both the pitch and negotiated project and take them further and design characters and concept for them.

For my third year i probrably won't be working on this idea unless i found some people that would be interested to work on it as i don't want to work on an idea on my own and would like to work in a team. This term has deffinately been a learning curve for me as i have decided that i am more interested in the animating aspect of animation. Though i still love character design and other areas of pre production i feel that it is something i need to improve in my spare time.

I have decided as an idea for the summer i would like to design two characters that have a tom and jerry type of relationship as i really like slapstick humor. I would then like to model and rig them and make short animations with them. Only focusing on the characters and the animation and i could then add this too my show reel. However if i don't have enough time i would atleast like to thumbnail some ideas and i plan to enter the 11 second club over the summer as well and could animate with the rigs that are already on that site. Least now i know what i want to do so now i just need to PRACTISE PRACTISE PRACTISE!!! =D

Design Bible Part 3

Design Bible Part 2

Final Backgrounds

These are my final backgrounds. I ended up deciding to make them completely digitally.

I definitely think that they have worked better digitally than in watercolour mainly because I added more detail. The colours work better and shading was a lot easier to do digitally than traditionally. I decided not to give them an outline as I felt that they worked better without.

For the first background I really like the grass part of this background as I feel it gives depth adding the blue and has worked effectively. However I am not too sure about the windows in the tree as they look flat. The mushroom in the foreground might have been better with more detail as well.

The second background I like the texture I gave to the trees in this background though I feel that the tree trunks don't really blend together with the tree and they look disconnected. I feel that the colours have worked well in this image and the background has depth.

The third background I like the colour scheme in this background as it looks gloomy which is what I wanted for this background. I do feel it could have worked better with more detail and the shading on the tree needs to be darker around the hole.

If I had more time to work on this project I would have experimented with other mediums to see if they worked more effectively. Though I'm quite pleased with the results I got producing them digitally. Though I feel they could have had more detail but I was conscious of the fact that they are backgrounds and that they shouldn't have too much detail otherwise your attention wouldn't be on the characters in the animation and more its surroundings.

This project has definitely taught me a few things such as I have learnt a few tips on using water colour though need to practice and improve this a lot more. I also learnt some tips on making an effective background like foreground elements need to be higher in contrast and need to have more detail. Also things that are further in the distance grow increasingly more blue. I have enjoyed this project as it has got me into painting both digitally and traditionally and surprisingly really enjoyed using watercolour though need to practice a lot more. I feel from this that my digital painting skills have improved as well and has gotten me more interested into practicing this skill in my own time.

The main problem I had with this project was time as I had a hard time juggling both the pitch and negotiated brief project and watercolour takes time to do and feel that they ended up being rushed which is probably why they didn't work as effectively.

Both projects this term have been a learning curve for me as I was undecided on whether I was more interested in the pre production area than production. I feel that it has helped me make that decision as I now feel like I am more interested in the animating side of animation. I still really enjoy the pre production part of animation though I am more interested with character design. Backgrounds don't excite me as much though this project has definitely been interesting and worth doing as I have never really drawn environments as I usually focus on characters. It has also helped me with my use of colour and composition. I would definitely like to improve the skills that I have learnt from this project in my spare time.

Pitch Design Bible Part 1

negotiated brief continued

I then changed my first background to this. In this background it shows that the little villagers live in side the tree. This i think is a better idea as it ties in better with the other backgrounds i also think the composition works better.

I then went on to create my first attempts at painting my backgrounds in watercolour and this is what i have so far. At this point i don't think the backgrounds are looking very good as they don't look very good quality and feel that i will probrably redo them. However i haven't added the detail that i was going to add with photoshop so they may be saved will have to see what they look like when i have finsihed them. The holes in the tree in the first background will be darker and the third background will be tinted bluey/ green using photoshop to give it a gloomy atmosphere. I was thinking seeing as this isn't looking too good so far that i might try out different mediums such as coloured pencils or creating them completly digitally or using all the techniques together. I will experiment and see which backgrounds work the best.

Negotiated Brief continued

After producing some sketches and thumbnailing my idea i drew out the compositions for my backgrounds.

The first background of the flower is of the little peoples village. The second would be from the little girl's perspective looking up at the trees. The third is the background for when the little girl is sad and runs into the woods and ends up sitting alone on the mushroom.

I then produced some rough colour versions of the backgrounds using photoshop to get an idea of the colours i am going to use before i created them using water colour. I showed these backgrounds to kathy and she said that the first background didn't work very well because of the composition the background looks divided as well as being divided by the different colours used. Which i agree with completly even though i completly didn't notice when designing it opps.