Good Animation Book

I found this book in my college library and I thought it contained much useful information and had many good tips. I didn't get to read it all but from what I have read I would definitely recommend it.It explaines everything from pre-productions, animations, recording up to promoting yourself. I will borrow it again in the near future to read over it again

Here is a picture of what the cover looks like:

IDI Storyboard

Today we had to hand up our story boards. Only after I saved the image did I noticed that I spelled Fashion wrong so I apologise for that. This time I wanted to try making the storyboard on a program rather than drawing it by hand just to learn more about Photoshop. I did draw the figure by hand though and then scanned her in. I might change her though in the final animation.

The message that I'm trying to get across is that Design is constantly changing, just like the Seasons. I just so happened to pick Fashion because Fashion is constantly changing not only in general but also due to the seasons. (Not that I like Fashion or anything. In fact I hate it). Because the animation is only 12 seconds long there is no point in changing angles so I am sticking to the one point perspective.

Camilla D'Errico- Illustrator and Comic Artist

Camilla D'Errico is half Italian and half Canadian. She created various paintings and comics.

I noticed that many of her images include female figures (mostly nude) biting into something and having some kind of animal,insect around them or fruits. Despite the subject of the image being kind of weird sometimes the style she draws in is beautiful. Even when she uses oil  it all just looks like it was kind of done using water colour and I personally love water colour. Her style looks refreshing, new and unique. I like her work.

The image above was done using oil just like the other three images underneath.

Here are three of her acrylic works which some of them look like they were done using a pen:

Here is one of her images done using ink:

The two next images were done digitally:

I came across the artist through this picture in a book and I found her unique style interesting and made me want to look at more of her works.

 Camilla D'Errico also works with others to make comics but also self-publishes her own series, such as: Tanpopo, Helmetgirls and Burn.

The image on the right shows one of her 3D works.



I added a link where more of her amazing art work can be seen:




http://www.camilladerrico.com/art-camilla-derrico-gallery-painting.html

The Richard Balzer Collection

http://dickbalzer.tumblr.com/


All it is in this collection are still images drawn on a circular page that is then attached to this wheel thing that spins and makes it look like the images are moving. I think it's a simpler effective way to make mini animations and I might try it out my self some day.

My tutor send us a link to this and I completely forgot about this method of animation. When I was younger I saw something like this in a german museum but it was more like cut out images of figures rather than everything just on one page and the figures were attached to a stick that went around like a carousel.

Life Drawing- Dramatic Effect

This time in our life drawing class we were trying to learn how to make an image look more dramatic. Last week we looked at shading and tone this time it was more about the contrast of dark and light areas in the image. To be honest I didn't understand out teacher fully but I tried anyway and did what she told us to do. The reason the objects are so simple is because she didn't want us to focus on detail but rather the way the light shines onto the objects. 

We were told to draw the image using charcoal. My charcoal was willow charcoal so it was a bit too light. 

• First we were told to draw the horizon line and the follow the outline of the objects over the horizon line
• After that we drew the outlines of the object under the horizon line (so my proportions were a bit off) 
•  We then shade in the darker areas thickly with charcoal
• Then we use tissue, or in our case toilet paper, and smudge the charcoal into one direction. 
• When it is smudged we use a rubber and rub out the parts that are light. 
• We then repeated this process a few times until eventually the image had a dramatic effect and a sense of depth. 

I tried to take as many pictures as I could to show this process. I am not sure if the outcome is what the teacher hoped for. but at least I tried. 

Stanley Kubrick- One Point Perspective

Stanley Kubrick is American Film Director and his movies are known for having one point perspectives in parts of his films. In my new 12 Sting animation I was also thinking of using the one point perspective so my tutor suggested me to look him up. Underneath is a video that shows different movies that Stanley Kubrick worked on and they all use the one point perspective. There is definitely something interesting about it. I think it could be the depth that it brings to the overall view but I'm not fully sure why I like it. 

Vincent Diga- Design Artist

From looking at his work the first thing I would say everything is completely different. He not only produces Design and Illustration for print but also does Broadcasts and Web. From reading about him he has collaborated with various Design Houses in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles.

ttp://www.strangefauna.com/

This link shows some of his works.

Bruno Werneck- Filmpaint.com

Werneck was strongly influenced by Akira and was impressed by Otomo's vision of neo Tokyo. He was raised and born in Brazil and has done everything from print design to 2D animation to videogames concept art.


He moved to L.A. and started his own business called Filmpaint.com. This site provides Matte Painting, Concept Art and style frames for creatives in the entertainment business. His site is worth taking a look at.



http://www.filmpaint.com/

Anna Wieszczyk- Illustrator

Anna Wieszczyk is a Polish Illustrator whom I came across in a book. The above image is the one that was shown in the book. For some reason I find her work unique and interesting so I looked her up. Her work is dark and mysterious and I really like the sketchy Gothic style. Here are a few more images of her work.

   















Want to see more of the artists work? Here is a link:




http://annawieszczyk.deviantart.com/

Origins of Anime

On Friday I went to look at books in the college liberty and I found a book that caught my attention. It was called NeoYork- Anime And Beyond. In the first few pages it explains the origins of Anime which I never hear of before.

According to this book the oldest Japanese animation in 1917 was only two minutes long and featured a samurai and his sword. Here is a video of some of the old Anime. The very first animation in 1917  is shown in this video at the start.

The book states that Anime only started to properly become popular in the 1930's and in 1937, through the success of the Disney movie 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' began the American's influence with japan's animators. 

In 1963 The Mushi Productions produced one of the first television series called the Mighty Atom, also known as Astro Boy in America. This series influenced fr more Japanese titles to enter the States.

From reading in the book I also found out that during the 1970's and 80's that Japanese animation was called Japanimation but was replaced by Anime in the 1990's. 

Star Wars influenced Japanese to have space themes in their animations such as well known series/films like Dragon Ball Z, Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell (and many more). Even now days I still hear people going on about those animations.






The image above is from Cowboy Bebop. The image to the left is from Ghost in the Shell and as written on it, the last image is from Dragon Ball Z.

Life Drawing- Volume and Tone

Today for life drawing we had to draw two eggs, a cardboard box and a cone (made out of white paper) on A2 sheets. But we were not allowed to draw an outline. We had to draw the entire picture using shades only to express the volume of the objects.

I kept moving so my angels are kind of off.

The photograph of the objects was taken at a different height then the drawings. I just added them in to show what I was drawing from. This way I can see my mistakes easier and learn to improve for the future. 

Categories of The IDI Rewards

All together there are 8 categories that we can do an animation for. At the moment I'm not particularly leaning towards any of them as I am still trying to advance my Idea for my animation. My Idea so far is about 'change'. By change I am talking about how design is always changing, such as, Fashion and Car designs for example.


The 8 Categories are:

• Craft Product- (craft council)
• Fashion
• Textiles- fabrics, knitting etc.
• Interior Design and Interior Architecture
• Digital Media- gaming, interactive design etc. 
• Motion Graphics and Production Design- set design, theatre etc.
• Product Design- objects etc.
• Visual Communications

I looked at some of the IDI works that were an youtube. Here are some of the links. Most of them are no more than 30 seconds but I still find them very entertaining to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDE2lqWGUEA -Universal Design, cool, colourful stop motion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdk3k8smuOQ - Title Design, unique food stop motion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uyA_k4iKBo&list=UUnlLx6HKNTug3FBwsgxbzpQ -Visual Communications, mini 3D village stop motion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fii-i1-ZWSo&list=UUnlLx6HKNTug3FBwsgxbzpQ  -Title Design, cool digital stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKcRsmIfdSk&list=UUnlLx6HKNTug3FBwsgxbzpQ- Title Design, amazing 3D town.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN-SRGGQSgA&list=UUnlLx6HKNTug3FBwsgxbzpQ- Title Design, this one reminds me of the Irish animated movie `The Book of Kells'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbKZaelIAXc&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL2972F5F2C2383C8A -TV/Film Title Design, cool swishing movement lines. Dunn how else t describe them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x1aX8uE1Pk&feature=c4-overview&list=UUnlLx6HKNTug3FBwsgxbzpQ -interesting and unique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz_KTlCdAWY -Title Design for Beijin Olympics

For Jenni

My friend Jenni surprisingly said she liked the profile picture I made for my Googleplus (despite all it's scribbliness) and requested I make one for her. So I did. :P This is only my second time using my drawing tablet and I have slightly improved from the first time I used it. I hope to improve much more in the future. :P I might need to change it if she doesn't like it. 

Life Drawing- Hands

Last Friday, during the life drawing classes we were asked to practise drawing hands. Our tutor asked us to do a minimum of 4 drawings on an A2 page. Because I was sick today I managed to catch up on the class that I missed due to an important appointment. I was never good at drawing hands so I thought this would be a good exercise for me. I used three different drawing materials, so some sketches were done with a HB pencil, Willow Charcoal or a black Crayon. I used my left hand as my model, except for the last two, those are my granny's hands. (my granny doesn't have much wrinkles for her age). Some hands are worst than others...I definitely need much more practise when it comes to drawing hands though.

Trying out my new drawing tablet

YAY!!!! I finally got a drawing tablet. It took me long enough to save up for it. So today was the first time I used it. I thought of making a little anime me for my profile picture because I noticed I had none. Using the drawing tablet was weird and I hope I'll get used to it.

This is what my terrible drawing first looked like when I drew it on Photoshop. Using the drawing tablet was quite hard and unusual. 

This is my finished little picture of the mini me. :P It could be better but sure it's the first time using the drawing tablet so I will forgive myself for now. I hope my drawing skills using the tablet will improve though. 

Rob Richard's Blog

Our tutor send us this link of Rob Richard's blog. I had a look at it and I thought it was worth to post the link onto my page to let other people know about his blog too. It shows backgrounds of various animations.

http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.ie/

Two Face (Batman) Face Paint + more

My boyfriend's daddy asked me to paint his face for a fancy dress party because Nathan (my boyfriend) told him I did a good job with for Halloween face paint last year.                                                                                                                                         At the time I had no idea what kind of face paint he wanted but sure, I agreed anyway and I had a lot of fun. 

My boyfriend took pictures while I was painting his dads face.

After he shaved one side of his beard I first dabbed on the white base layer with a sponge.

I didn't have pink face paint so I had to mix white and red.

So I then dab over the white layer with red.

So yeah, right now it looks like his children attacked him with face paint but that didn't worry me because I knew the outcome will be better than that.

Now to make his face look more burned I dab on the black.

Me dabbing on the face paint...well my hand

Now I am nearly done all I need is to add little details, such as teeth and muscles, with a paint brush.

And here is what he looked like when I finished the face paint.I only needed three colours- white, red and black. He even made his costume himself an won best costume at the party. 

Here are some more face paints:

Here is a picture of me and my friend Patrick during Halloween 2012.



I went as a Zombie and just spiked my hair. I used white, red, black and blue face paint.

 

This was also during Halloween 2012 and this time
I'm beside my friend Kevin. I did both of our face paints that day (mine was just drawing on a beard). Kevin went as a skeleton and I went as Jack Sparrow.

I had a lot of fun painting Kevin's face.

This is my boyfriend as Dark Maul. ....He is the hardest person to paint...he never stays still.. I could have done better if he didn't move every second. I did this face paint right after I painted his dad. Even though we weren't going to the fancy dress...all we id was bought food in Tesco and went home. :P We got many funny looks. :P Good times indeed. In November I might get to paint more faces for another fancy dress party. I'm looking forward to it already.