CDME1001 Communication Skills in Digital Media - Week 9 (25/11/2011)

This week in communication skills my group set about to finish planning and filming the short film assignment we were given last week called "A Chance Encounter"

We had pre booked the camera and tripod and had originally planned on meeting up on a Tuesday to finish the storyboard and treatment but ended up not doing it despite my going to the place and time decided to find no one around.

Regardless we managed to get it done although crudely.

We set about filming it using my flat room as the set, we couldn't figure out how to attach the camera to the tripod so for the shots that warranted it we just stuck it on with masking tape.

Personally I feel that the team was unprepared and somewhat unorganised, we really should have put more thought into our story board and treatment and should have asked when we were unsure about what to do as we had some difficulty figuring out what a treatment even was.

I have to say I don't think the idea we chose best reflected the idea of the task and seemed almost like a random nonsensical film with no real plot. I felt we should have brainstormed more on ideas instead of what seemed like use going for the one that seemed the easiest.

I don't mean to sound egotistical but I did like my idea of a man finding himself in an unfamiliar place as we works his way in deeper to the place he finds that he is being pursued by an unseen monster. I would have ultimately have the film end with the moster catching up with the man and having it cut to black.

Sadly it was deemed "to difficult" by our group but I think it could have been relatively easy to execute, using the university hallways for the "unfamiliar place" and having the "unseen monster" simply be me holding the camera moving in a monstrous fashion, sure it might have been a little dark but that how I like it :).

In addition I think we should have ask the technicians on how to attach the camera to the tripod before leaving with it as some of our scenes did seem somewhat wonky due to the camera being poorly aligned before being taped to the tripod. Also when it comes to the actual filming process I think we should have planned it out a little better so as to include all the group in the process.

Well thats all for now, thanks for reading :).

ILTN1001 Illustration Origin and Function - Week 9 (24/11/2011)

This week we had bee set the task of creating a presentation on an illustrator of our choosing from the 20th and 21st centuries.

My chosen illustrator was Mike Mignola an artist that has had a big influence on me, my art and my interests.

Here are my notes from my presentation.

Notes

Side 1

•       Mike Mignola is an American Illustrator specializing in comic books,

•       He was born in Berkeley California in 1960.

•       His career began in 1980 and he has do work for various comic book companies such as the big 2 of DC and Marvel eventually joining Dark Horse Comics

•       But he is most notable for the creation of the comic book series Hellboy a Demon from hell destined to bring about the end of the world but instead fights against it very nature to fight the forces of darkness and its off shot B.P.R.D. which stands for The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense.

Slide 2

•       Mignola’s style has been compared to that of German Expressionism.

•       It uses a lot of shadow and make his artwork very dark which helps give a feeling of mysticism to his stories.

•       This dark and dingy feeling is aided by the simple use of colour (or some time no colour at all) in which there are single shades with little to no tonal variation.

•       He also occasionally makes use of Negative space.

Slide 3

•       As for the cultural background his work and in particular his Hellboy and B.P.R.D. work is very heavily Engrossed in folk lore of various cultures.

•       It takes bits and pieces from everywhere although one key source it draws from is Christianity and the Bible albeit with a few creative liberties.

Slide 4

•       Mike Mignola has draw in influences from a wide variety of folk lore, myths and legends from countries all over the world.

•       He has also drawn Influence from things such as the old pulp magazines, vintage adventure and horror fiction.

•       But one of his main Influences has to be the author H.P. Lovecraft, his writing of the Great Old Ones, vastly powerful alien beings who’s very appearance is enough to drive someone insane, monstrosities that exist in dark vistas of realities that exist beyond space and time.

•       This was a big influence from Mignola which is clearly seen in his work as he creates his own menacing monstrosities and revolve large story arcs around powerful dark beings imprisoned long ago and waiting to be let out so they can deduce the world to ashes.

Slide 5

•       Mike Mignola has influence me because I love his dark almost noir like style.

•       I also like the various subject matters that he tends to work into his stories.

Slide 6

•       Mike Mignola helped to open up a vast world of influential references and material in the various religions and folklores across the world.

•        He also led me to older pulp and horror fiction as well as H.P. Lovecraft who I consider to be one of my favorite authors.

•       All of this is having a huge impact on my work by giving my a wide range of sources which are helping me to develop my own style.

 It's not much and doesn't go greatly in-depth as it was only supposed to last roughly 3 minutes.

I am quite happy with how I presented it going 3rd even though I was really nervous.

I do wish i had prepared for the after questions a bit more as I had a little bit of difficulty answering them but aside from that I did pretty well.

Thats all for now, thanks for reading :).

ANIM1001 Animation Origin and Function - Week 9 (23/11/2011)

So in animation we went about finishing off and presenting our animatics.

My group decided to use our time in trying to get the timing of ours to a decent level at least what seemed like one.

after we presented our we got some advice on the timing and pacing, we really should have looked into it more. 

There were places that warranted more frames to help tell the story and places that warranted a change in how long they lasted.

In the end we decided to re do the whole thing in our own times, we decided this time to go with a uniform style and to judge for ourselves how many frames our individual sections would take.

After that we looked at some examples of animatics from the 2nd and 3rd years to get a better idea of the kind of pacing that we were working towards.

And thats all for now, Thanks for reading :).

ANIM1001 Animation Origin and Function - Group Meet Up Week 9 (22/11/2011)

Ok so on tuesday I got together with my group for animation and we set to work in piecing together and organise the animatic for our final group animation.

We just focused on getting the story board scanned in and getting the images cut and in the right order.

we used an older version of Imovie as we had been taught it worked well for animatics.

We didn't really bother with the timing of each frame as we decided to do that in our lesson the next day.

I felt the group worked fairly well, though we could have spent some time then on the timing of the animatic as the key thing we are working on for this module is timing in animation.

Thats all for now, I know it was kind of short but there wasn't really much to it. Thanks for reading :).

ANIM1003 Drawing for Animators and Illustrators - Week 9 (21/11/2011)

This week in Drawing we focused on depicting a character through the use if a descriptive text, since as illustrators if we are ever commissioned to design a character we will typically be given a short description to work from.

As part of our homework from last week we had to prepare 10 A2 sheets of paper with light coloured ink blots of various shapes and sizes.

In addition to this we were also given a list of images to collect an put into a mood board, here is mine below.

In the lesson we proceded to use said ink blots and mood board as guides to draw aspects of a character that had been described to us.

The description stated that the character had a long fox like face with a floppy hat that has a long rim and various feathers attached to it. I ended up drawing an actual fox but I rather like it.

It also stated that they had a flute or shepherd's pipe in one hand, I drew this rather cool flute that looked like it had been carved out of a stick.

It said that they had thing wrists with strings of cotton tied to their fingers with rose beetles on the ends.

It also siad they had some bamboo cages with chickens and pigeons in them. I draw this tied together cage so it looked like it had been roughly made :).

It also said that they wore pointy shoes with pom poms on the ends very similar to the ones greek guard wear.

I didn't manage to get a whole lot done as I couldn't draw anything i was happy with that often happens when I see other peoples works and think they are better then mine. it's really a stupid way to think of it, I should know better then to let that kind of thing get to me.

Well thats all for now, thanks for reading :)

ANIM1003 Drawing for Animators and Illustrators - Sketch Book Task Week 8 (20/11/2011)

Here is my work and my thoughts on the sketch book task for week 8.

The task itself was to create 3 images the same that had been done last week only this time to use the printing method we had been experimenting with in that weeks lesson.

First is my face, I kind of like how it came out although it doesn't look to much like me the beard is a little bushier then my own and the hair looks more like some kind of cap or hat.

Next is my hand...all i have to say on this one is I wish I had done it completely different, I really don't like the solid black look.

Last we have my foot and as you can see after not being happy with my last pint I tried a different approach, I like the further detail and texture it has but again its not as great as I would have liked, I should really choose the things I print with moth carefully.

Well thats all for now, thanks for reading :).

CDME1001 Communication Skills in Digital Media - Week 8 (18/11/2011)

Ok so in my friday lesson we started off by presenting the web pages we created last lesson, after that we were given the task of in the groups we had be assigned for the final project to create a short 4 to 5 minute film on the subject of our choosing.

We spent most the lesson coming up with ideas, I had the idea of a man finding himself in a dark world and is chased by a mysterious creature, but we eventually settled on the idea of a Man having a strange dream.

We aren't aloud to edit the video so we must film our shots in the order they will apear in the film.

Near the end of the lesson we boked the equipment needed for next weeks lesson which is when we decided to begin working on the film and worked on a short story board of the events so we had a better idea of what exactly would happen.

Thats all for now, kind of a short one I know, well thanks for reading :).

ILTN1001 Illustration Origin and Function - Week 8 (17/11/2011)

Ok so Today in my lecture we covered the 18th and 19th. centuries in illustration history, We looked into how with the advent of books making information easily accessible to the masses some people began using the medium to create works of fiction.

We also looked at how illustrators and artist began creating artwork that was much more critical and commutative on the governmental hierarchy which is still a very prominent subject of interest in todays illustrators.

We were then set the task of choosing a well known figure wether it be from history or modern times and were asked to create a caricature of them.

We then split up for a short break to gather information.

After that we got to work, I went for an obvious and kind of an easy one in George Bush Jr.

Overall I'm rather happy with how mine came out I got the character down pretty will and even tried to add some features that refer to their past misfortunes.

I did notice after pinning it up along with everyone else's and comparing them that I' dont seem to be very confident with my mark making, my lines where much lighter and there was a lot less shading so I think thats something I need to work on. I need to try to be bolder and more expressive with my line work.

Well thats all for now, thanks for reading :).

ANIM1001 Animation Origin and Function - Week 8 (16/11/2011)

Today in animation it was kind of an unprepared lecture, we thought that our tutor would be helping out with the open day activities but he was changed back to our lecture on short notice for both him and us so he didn't have anything prepared to show us.

So instead he showed us a technique for creating an animatic and set us to work drawing some small storyboards for our final animation project so that we could turn them into animatics.

Last lesson we had divided our animation into 5 sections between the group and decided on which section each person would do. Mine being part 4.

Our basic premis is to produce a looped animation of a teddy bear being assembled and then dis-assembled, my part was the removal of the head. I chose to reprisent this with some lasers and a grabby claw :3.

We managed to get our story boards scanned into a computer but only got some of them cut and prepared for the animatic.

All in all the group worked pretty well together and didn't have to many problems aside from some lack of photoshop knowledge.

Well thats all for now, thanks for reading :).

ANIM1003 Drawing for Animators and Illustrators - Week 8 (14/11/2011)

Today in my lecture we started by going over the sketch book collage assignment and the results of our work.

Mine were ok but due to me only doing them this morning they weren't as good as I would like them to be.

After a short and early break we got on with the lessons main task which was print making.

Here is my work.

First we started of my trying out some different objects to print with.

Next we tried to print a portrait of the person sitting oposite us.

Since I had some time left I just did a random one of my friend sitting next to me, he kind of looks like a lego man xD.

I'm not to happy with these, I wish I had prepared more in regards to gathering things to print with.

Well thats all for now, thanks for reading :3.