jforbesmysterybox

[jforbesmysterybox]

Reflection:

I apologise there is not more work here for you to review. When I transferred over to the course in January I knew I had set myself a very big challenge, and I think in hindsight I’d bitten off more than I could chew. Working weekends, settling in, trying to catch up with work and the numerous amounts of software I was having to learn each week I think just got the better of me. (I still find Tumblr tricky to figure out- as you can probably guess as the work is all over the place)

Not having used Tumblr much before I saved my ‘catch-up’ work onto my hard drive - I was then going to upload when complete, this to my dismay fell out of my bag on the train home and was never handed in to lost property. I have tried to upload the little work I had saved on my computer at home (hence the random CG and Stop Motion work amongst the Mystery Box project), but I feel this might not be enough.

I hope through all of this you are able to see some potential, and that I have enough work handed in to get me into the second year. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on this course since starting in January, I’m just gutted its taken me so long to figure out what I wanted to do. I plan on really pushing my self and developing the skills I have gained over these months in the summer, so that if I do manage to make the second year I can start a fresh.

[jforbesmysterybox]

Mystery Box

Week 1 - 11.03.18

On returning from independent study week, we started the second part of BA1b. On our time off we were asked to design character model sheets, and had to decide whether we wanted to pursue CG or stop motion.

It was a great start to the week, having workshop in maquette making using our character design sheets as a reference. I had missed the first model workshop from the previous term, so the hands on experience was a great opportunity. I really enjoyed bringing my character to life and get a feel for how they looked from all angles. I found the Super Sculpey a very pleasant, pliable material to use, there was no need to warm it up first in your hands or keep a damp clothe near by to moisten it. I was surprised how long it took to get the basic skeleton made.

Although the design is quite basic (as I’m not sure how quickly I will pick up Maya), I’m pleased with how it looks, with more practice I’m sure I can add more embellishment and details with future models.

We also had a very insightful lecture on storyboarding by a previous NUA student, Helen Schroder (it was exciting to hear she had just finished working on the storyboards for the remake of Watershed Down, a film I had grown up with). I’ve never looked that much into storyboarding before, I was amazed at how much work goes into this stage of development and how important the role is in animation and film.

Week 2 - 18.03.18

Expanding our knowledge in Maya, this week was looking at the basics of 3D modelling using imported reference images as guides. This session seemed to flow more easily than the last, as the workspace was feeling more familiar and I started using more of the shortcuts. I started my modelling a sword and then moved on to modelling a basic human figure, using the tools I had already been introduced to as well as the addition of the extrude and quad tool. It was all about experimentation so the pressure was taken off and I was free to make mistakes and learn from them, so the outcomes weren’t perfect but they were useful workshops help to develop my skills and increase my understanding of Maya. Only just scrapping the surface of what this program is capable of, still have a long way to go but in only a couple of weeks I have definitely improved from my first attempt.

We also had a fantastic lecture on ‘Model Making for Animation,’ with John Lee. I was a little start struck as he’s been in the industry for about 30 years and has worked on some major features like Aliens, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Moon, Harry Potter, John Lewis  advert and most recently Isles of Dogs - just to name a few. He really has lead the most amazing life, and after all this time is so passionate about his job.

On Tuesday we were given our new research project brief, Media Industries: Roles and Practices. This section is to help gain further insight into the possible career paths in the future, and how I can use the skills I learnt from uni to get a job in this field. The session started by going over the four main animation disciplines and

Week 3 - 25.03.18

On Monday I had an introduction to After Effects. As I have done some previous work in this Adobe software it was almost a slight relief/break from the mind-boggling world of Maya. I was supplied with images and was talked through how to import/edit layered images from Photoshop, the basics of how to move objects on the timeline to create a sequence and how to use green screen to help remove unwanted background and insert preferred imagery.

Moving on from how to model characters in Maya, this weeks workshop was how to assign a material to a model using UV mapping and texturing, as well as a brief introduction on how to rig a character. The initial task,I was wrapping an image around a basic rectangle shape (cereal box) I found to be a lot easier, the second task where I was adding colour to a pre-made bird was a little more tricky. This time, the areas of the bird that I wanted to add colour to were selected, and I had to create a cut down the centre as so it could open up and lie flat making it easier to work with and paint in Photoshop. Confusing at times, but when I managed to get my head around it all it made sense and was very effective method.

We had a visit from guest speaker and another previous NUA student, Millie Woodcock. Based in Norwich she works as an Animation Director at Lambda. She spoke about her experiences after  leaving uni, how she got to the position she is in today and gave positive advice about how to present yourself and your work to gain successful employment later on.

Also this week, the class were presenting our practice presentations. I don’t know many people who enjoy giving presentations so nerves were running high with apprehension. We were put into our individual groups, and I found my group a little difficult to work in. Having never spoken to each other before this project, there was a lot of shyness resulting in lack of communication. No one really wanted to take the ‘leader’ role and therefore the presentation wasn’t as well researched and put together as well as it should have been. Still feeling very new to the class and having missed half of the year, I didn’t feel I had the confidence to take charge just yet. However this was a good experience, as in the future as I’m sure there will be many times I will have to work with new people/teams so its essential I learn how to work with others in this time now.

Week 4 - 01.04.18

Back from the Easter Break, this was a time to give the project a real push and try to get as much done - though I don’t feel I have achieved as much as I would have liked. Still trying to catch up with previous projects I’ve missed, working weekends and deciding to change the design of my character, time seemed to just fly by.

On re-designing my character, I failed to refer to the pre-made rig that were supplied to us to save time and effort with this project. Therefore, my new model doesn’t match up to the skeleton and I’ve had to create a new rig for my character. Using tutorials I found on the internet on rigging all was going well until I came to the legs. I really wanted my robot to be light and springy on his feet and decided to give him blades in place of the lower legs and and feet. This proved difficult to get them to move correctly, and I sought advice from Jon. Ending with a headache, he showed me how to use a ‘Bind Skin’ tool - something we haven’t covered yet in the lessons, but it seemed to do the trick. Jon went through the process quite quickly, and at first I didn’t quite grasp what he was doing. However, when I got home so I could fully understand how he made my legs work, I made a copy of my file and began to dissect the process with with an accomplished result. It felt really good to solve the issue - even though I wouldn’t have had the issue if I’d stuck to the supplied rig.

All in all I am very pleased with my model result, and my designs could be relayed into 3D form successfully. I’m glad I changed the design of my Robot as I think it is a stronger result and I have learnt more in the process.

During the easter break, I was to continue my research for our group project. As a group we decided to focus our area in the pre-production stages on animation. My particular area of focus was on character design. I chose this area as I really enjoy work that has a back story, I feel more passionately when I can understand the driving force behind a design. Character design is also an area that is very versatile and can be seen across almost all forms of media - without a character there is no story. I looked into a few artists who’s styles were of interest to me and were relevant to the project.

Week 5 - 08.04.18 Week 6 - 15.04.18 Week 7 - 22.04.18 Week 8 - 29.04.18

[jforbesmysterybox]

Completed rig

I had issues with the leg rig, therefore I had to use a tool we had not yet covered in the lesson, ‘Bind Skin.’

Create leg joints starting from the hip

Skeleton > Ik handle options > current solver > Rp rotate solver > connect from hip to lower leg joint

Skeleton > Ik handle options > current solver > single chain solver > lower leg to foot

Select foot/leg geometry and lower leg joint > skin > bind options > max influence, 3 > bind skin

Create curb handle > select Ik handles and parent to controller

One of the legs I had to start again as when I moved it forwards to take a step it twisted awkwardly. I found out this was because my joint positions where slightly off, but after the skin was bound I was unable to just quickly adjust it and therefore created a new one that worked much better.

Adding Colour

 I decided to use Arnolds presets, the eyes are made from a copper material which you could adjust the shade by adding a colour underneath. I used Jade as the dominant body colour, and used the same copper material that I used for the eyes on the joints to break up 

Attempt 1

Attempt 2

[jforbesmysterybox]

Stop Motion

Week 5 28.01.18 (my first week after transferring|)

I’ve transferred from a different course, the class are about halfway through the year and there’s definitely no messing about. My first day I jumped straight not the thick of it into my first induction on the 3d animation and modelling software Maya. Quite an over-whelming start as the only computer art software I’ve used is a few of the Adobe suites, and its only been in the last couple of years since coming back to higher education that I’ve started doing computer work. My natural instincts were to use the shortcuts for the Adobe programs, I will need to do lots of retraining.

After an initial introduction, we were talked through steps of how to to create a cactus- which put into practice the information we had just learnt. It was quite tricky, just when I thought I was getting the hang of things, I’d change the perspective of the camera and the other side had gone horribly wrong, or I’d press a shortcut that I’d use for Illustrator which made Maya do something strange and I didn’t know how to resolve these issues yet. However by the end of the lesson I had a completed model, it was very basic but I felt quite achieved.

Straight in with the next induction, this time it was for stop motion…and another new software, Dragonframe. Luckily -as there is limited equipment, this work was done in pairs and I had the lovely Olivia to work with. She ran me through some of the work the class had covered in the year already. I was very impressed but also nervous about how much they had accomplished already and the true scale of what I needed to do was beginning to sink in, my first call of attention was the 12 animation Principles.

This was the second day using Stop Motion, the previous week the class were talked through how to use the software and using pre-made armatures they completed a walk cycle.

Todays task was to make a plasterceine ball bounce, and this is when some previous knowledge of the animation principles would have come in useful. Olivia had to take the reins here and guide me through. I felt bad I wasn’t able to contribute more but she was very patient with me and didn’t seem to mind answering all the questions I was throwing at her.

There was no planning for this so a lot of the setting up the ball was guess work and improvising as we went along. One of us would be adjusting the ball (that was attached to a wire arm-this is edited out later on) and the other was on the computer looking at the positioning and informing where to adjust the model and take the image. The software has an onion skin tool, which shows you where the previous positioning had been as to be able to line up the next shot for a smooth transition. I was always curious how this was done.

Halfway through the morning, we were reminded about the increment tool in Dragon Frame. This tool allowed you to to draw guide lines that we could have the ball follow to allow for consistency.

There is also a research section of the course, and to be honest this is the area that I think I will struggle with the most. Having missed out the majority of these lessons going in today I was a little lost on what was going on at times.

We were looking into the psychological and social reasons for storytelling, and why change is important within the narrative and character’s arc. Looking at Pixar’s ‘Up,’ we touched on plot resolutions and how the structure of this story could be separated into acts.

Week 6 - 04.02.18

After looking at some basic tools and how to navigate around Maya, it was time to start animating. For this task we were to make 3 balls made of different materials of different weights bounce. (bouncy ball, football, balloon) The 3 hour sessions are quite fast paced, and as we were talked through I was trying to keep my own notes that I could refer to later while practising. This proves difficult, as if you stop for a moment by the time you look up again the lesson was 5 steps ahead, or if I accidentally pressed the wrong key weird things would happen which I didn’t know how to rectify. Luckily there are plenty of tutorials that can be found online, and we were told about and educational site called ‘Lynda,’ which is very thorough and has lesson plans sectioned into chapters so you can skip to the ones you needed.

Stop motion this week, we were animating a character walking up to a box and lifting it. We had come prepared to the lesson with a rough thumbnail storyboard that planned out our characters movements. This proved very useful as it saved a lot of time. This was definitely more difficult than simply making a ball bounce, movements had to be subtle as to create smooth motions and transitions. We also had to be sure of each position, if anything goes wrong its not a case where you can just press undo and reposition your model, the whole sequence would need re-doing.

The narrative lecture this week was all about visual story telling. How they can portray emotion without the use of any dialogue, but instead focus on how different mediums, music and human mannerisms can used to capture emotion and emphasise a story.

This was the last narrative session, leaving the remaining time to plan and write an essay on one of the provided questions. Only having attended 2 of these sessions this is a completely daunting prospect, and I’m not really sure where to start.

Week 7 - 11.02.18

I’ve started my panorama, this was supposed to be based on the work created from our sketchbooks. Obviously I don’t have much work in this at the moment, so I have decided to base my visual scene on something I know well. My partner is a chef and I’ve always thought he has really distinguishable features that would work well as a cartoon or caricature. Being in the catering trade myself there are many things that only a person in this field would know and understand. Life as a chef is gruelling work and many don’t know what its like behind the scenes when the go out for a meal, and therefore decided to create a comic-like strip emphasising this kind of life. I grew up with books like ‘Where’s Wally,’ and busy puzzle scenes from ‘Jan Van Haarsten,’ and wanted to create a illustrative strip packed with lots of fun and playful little details.

This week in CG we were making a simple character jump, firstly on the the spot and then from one post to another. We started by setting 6 key poses into our timeframe, idol pose, anticipation, mid air, contact, follow through and ending once more on an idol pose. Once these initial pose were in position I went back to tweak and refine their positions to create a more believable effect. This was a good exercise to utilise the knowledge gained from the ball bounce workshop and develop our skills further. I kept my jumps quite simple while I’m learning, when my confidence has grown I can always try doing more complex and exaggerated movements.

I have found its so easy to lose all track of time with Maya, all the little tweaks and adjustments that you can make to try and get the most effective result.

Stop Motion this week was having a character walk across the screen conveying an emotion. Halfway through they must this emotion must change to reflect another. In preparation for this lesson I was to research and analysis various walk cycles, and again create a rough storyboard planning out the sequence.I unfortunately missed this weeks stop motion session, but I plan to come in to make up the work.

Week 8 - 18.02.18

Our next task in Maya, was to animate a character reacting sequence. This lesson was short lived as unfortunately the computers decided to crash

[jforbesmysterybox]

CGI

Task B

Non Linear Framing

Taking the new skills I learnt in task A, I now had to ‘throw’ a ball at a wall so that it falls over and the ball bounces back off it a few times before coming to a stop.

Taking the complexity up a notch with this task as a few more elements had to be added to thee sequence.

I started by creating the 3 key stages of the sequence as seen above, by simply moving the ball. Once I was happy with these positions I went on to add the rotation. As the ball travels towards the wall it rotates forward, but on impact as it travels backwards the rotation is reversed.

[jforbesmysterybox]

CGI

I used these reference videos from Youtube to get a better understanding of how these 3 different materials bounce to the ground.

Looking at my animation, I am a little unhappy with the speed in which I have the balloon falling. I have made it appear a lot light than it actually is. I should have it falling a faster pace and increased the height it bounces back up. The reference video also shows the balloon toggled rotate to the floor a lot quicker.

Also with the bouncy ball reference video, the ball bounces quite consistently at first but as it draws closer to stopping the bounce becomes more shallow and and more frequent, where as I have left the spacing in my animation to spread out.

If I was to develop this exercise, I would also consider adding squash and stretch to the bouncing ball to give a more accurate representation.

Having never animated anything before, I found this exercise very enjoyable. However, I can imagine as the scenes become more detailed, more curves will be added to the graph editor and in doing so will make it more complex.

[jforbesmysterybox]

CGI

Introduction to 3D Software (Maya)

Completing my transfer from Illustration, I have jumped  into the deep end of the Animation Course and straight into CG software.

On my first morning I was in the Media Lab for a technical induction to Maya, an animation and modelling program used to render three-dimensional, full-motion effects.

The three hour session introduced a few basic tools and how to navigate around the interface.

Above: Hitting spacebar brings up various viewing panels as to get a better idea of how the model is developing

             Q : Select Tool                         E : Rotate Tool                      W : Move Tool                          R : Scale Tool

Top right of the interface is an icon which appears as a cube with a hammer, this will bring up Mayas Toolkit.

Modelling Toolkit

Above: Object, Vertex, Edge, Face and UV, with one of these tools selected you are able to manipulate the model. Click + Hold right mouse button for the same options.

During the session I was talked through how to create a simple cactus and add colour. The pot was created using a cylinder where I used the multi-cut and extrude tools to form the rim, and reduced the base edge.

Clicking this icon to display the Hypershade Window, this panel allows you build shading networks by creating, editing, and connecting rendering nodes, such as textures, materials, lights, rendering utilities, and special effects. Today however we only had time to add some basic colours to the cactus using Lambert.

Or another shortcut to add colour is to right click on the model, and go down to assign new material.

I wanted to make sure I understood the mornings task and downloaded the software to access it from home. While still fresh in my memory, I re-created the cactus using the notes I made in the lesson, and used a tutorial from Youtube I experimented with the tools to design a strawberry.

It was a lot to take in, and was like no other program I’ve used before. I was having to re-program my memory with a whole new set of shortcuts and commands.

It was slow going and the end results are very basic and rough around the edges, but by repeating the practice I felt a bit more comfortable with some of the tools and was able to find my way around more easily than I did in the morning.

Introduction to D3D

Task A

Key framing Techniques

Following on from last session, today was took us through how to start animating objects.

Make each ball bounce until they come to rest, bouncing to a rest appropriate to their material and weight.

Bouncy ball

Football

Balloon

Using the same tools I was introduced to last week (move, rotate, scale) I was able to move the object into the desired position. To set a key frame, highlight the object and press ‘S’ on the key board.

To add a second key frame, the slider needs to be moved across the time frame and the object moved into its new position and press ‘S’ once more.

Initially just to get a feel for this process, I set a key frame every 10 frames - reducing the height each time as the ball begins to slow down to a stop.

Graph Editor

Maya’s Graph Editor allows you to control animation in a much more precise and visual way.

Computer animation records the motion of an object over time. The graph editor visualises this motion in the form of curves that can be interpreted by animators. Though it will take a lot of practice to get used to this tool, in the long run it will give me extra control to create successful a scene.

The graph editor can be used to solve motion problems, by identifying kinks that cause a jerkiness to the sequence.

Using the graph you are able to adjust and tweak multiple keys at once.

Above is how the graph editor appears for the bouncy ball sequence. I kept the the spacing and fall rate quite consistant by spacing the key-frames quite evenly across the graph. Keeping the animation principles in my mind, I lengthened the time the ball spent in the air before picking up speed on the way down.

Above is how the graph editor appears for the football sequence. The football is the most dense of the 3 materials, and therefore doesn’t bounce as high or as much as the bouncy ball and comes to a stand still first.

Above is how the graph editor appears for the ballon sequence. Unlike the other 2 as the balloon falls, the weight of the toggle causes it to rotate. The rotation is represented in the graph editor as a blue line.

Being a light weight material, by the time it has reached the floor the other balls have already bounced several more times.

[jforbesmysterybox]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGzfewq_Vfc)

Render/Export Video File

Composition > Add to render que

Output Module: Click Lossless > Quicktime. Format: Animation

Audio Output on. Format: Uncompressed

Output to: Click not yet specified > chose location and name for file

Click Render to render

Always check your render works and has exported the sound.

I’m really happy with my end result, I think the added head tilts definitely brought the whole composition together at the end.

Initially I had created only a few basic mouth shapes, but when I played back the sequence they didn’t quite match up. Some of the prolonged words would flow and merge with next, making it difficult to hear the separate words clearly and figure out the correct mouth shapes. Therefore, I had to go back and create additional mouths that I could use in these instances.

I was particularly happy with how the the exaggeration on the word ‘trillion,’ turned out, all the features seemed to gel together and I think the timing was on point.

After the all consuming work I’ve been doing in Maya, this was a very welcomed break. After having some experience in After Effects, having a quick project like this where I can see the end result felt very satisfying.

What I would develop further next time would be having an addition of a moving jaw/chin, and have the characters hair move slightly as he tilts his head. Its all these subtle details that make an animation more believable. I would probably make my character appear older as to suit the tone of the voice a little better, but for a first attempt at a project like this I’m very pleased.

[jforbesmysterybox]

Lip Syncing

Use a digital cut out technique to create an animated sequence, which focuses on the syncronisation of facial movement with a set dialogue audio clip.

For this project I am required to design a character, which must include a head, neck, eyebrows and multiple mouth and eye shapes. The character must be human as to be able to use myself and others as visual references - taking videos and photos of various mouth shapes to base initial sketches on. I can take inspiration from other resources, but I must design my own unique mouth shapes and chart. 

Above was a quick exercise we completed in todays session, looking at the keyframe assistant option. These tools can help create smooth transitions between mouth shapes in our sequences.

Blue square - no assistance 

Yellow square - ease in (shift,F9)

Green square - ease out (shift,cmd,F9)

Red square - adding rotation to create anticipation

Tips:

Right click on keyframe > key frame assistant > ease in

Hold command and click key frame to remove ease in

U - shows activated keyframes

Command A - selects all layers

LL - audio sound wave 

Before creating my own character, we were supplied with an audio clip, a pre-made face with a variety of mouth and eye shapes to practice with. I listened to the audio clip numerous amounts of times, and using a dope sheet I was able to note in which frame each word started.This would act as a guide to position the various facial features.

Unfortunately, I didn’t save my file correctly and I lost this practice sequence I completed in lesson. 

I found when I was positioning the mouth shapes to the key frames I had planned out on the dope sheet, the audio and mouth were a little out of sync. I corrected this by having some of the mouth shapes starting a little earlier than the sound. 

A very enjoyable and effective afternoon session, I will be going to sleep with this audio clip spinning round and round in my head. Obviously there are areas I could improve on, like adding ease in and outs to my final sequence for smoother transitions, but for now I understand the concept of how it works and I will spend more time on my final composition.

Before starting my own character to lip sync I needed to look at other references to increase my understanding of the task. 

I will have to consider my characters mood, this will determine if my mouth shapes will be curved upwards or downwards. Will I be drawing the face front on or at a slight angle.

Character

After listening to the 3 different audio clips available, I decided to use the iPhone dialogue. You can hear a man talking at quite a slow pace, with a few pauses and prolonged sounds, and emphasises certain words. All of which I think would work well in this sequence. 

The voice sounds like he was giving an interview, therefore I wanted to make my character to appear well dressed and intelligent, and so decided to add further details of glasses and a bow tie. He uses the full word ‘telephone’ instead of just ‘phone’ so I think maybe he’s a bit old school, looking back to ‘his day.’

Audio Dope Sheet

Like I had done previously, I repeatedly listened to my chosen audio clip and started to plan out the timings and the sounds on a dope sheet. This sheet helped me decide what type of mouth shapes I would need at certain times. 

In the provided Photoshop folder, we were given some initial letters to draw mouths of and then a few blank layers to draw any additional shapes that I would need to produce a smooth sequence.

Mouth Chart

The best way to study the mouth shapes of this audio was to use myself as my main reference. I sat in front of a mirror and talked out loud along dialogue. I studied how my mouth blended between shapes and what kind of pose it's in for each word. To take it a step further, next time I could film a video of myself saying the dialogue and copy it to my computer to look at it frame-by-frame, but for now sitting in front of the mirror worked well.

There were a lot of sound/letters that looked similar but had very slight differences that made them unique.

I started the animation focussing on just the mouth at first, I used the ease in tool on the words/sounds that were being prolonged. Some of these prolonged words would flow directly into the next word making it difficult to hear the separate words, and therefore I had to design other mouth shapes that would reflect this transition.

[jforbesmysterybox]

Presentation Research

Illustrator and Character Designer | Oscar Ramos

Ramos began his career when he had finished school and had the opportunity to work with a leading illustrator in the advertising industry. They would work on traditional illustrations using airbrushes, which had a huge influence on his later work.

https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/create-a-clueless-racecar-driver-illustration-in-photoshop--psd-29243

A fantastic step by step tutorial going through Oscar Ramos digital illustration process. I’ve only been introduced to digital drawing since returning to higher education, and it’s definitely an area I need to develop if I wish to pursue character design, and this will be a good project to tackle over the summer period.

It explains how to properly control all the elements of a composition including colour balance, contrast, textures, and more, as well as all of the tools and techniques that you’ll need to know in Photoshop to build a highly entertaining and detailed caricature illustration.

Speed drawing: Create a Clueless Racecar Driver Illustration in Photoshop - Oscar Ramos

I have been following Oscar Ramos for the last couple of years and have been infatuated with his style. Some of his images borderline on grotesque, but with his high level of detail and colouring they create quite an impact of beauty. The characters are amazingly expressive and stand out from the crowd. 

Q:Can you offer our readers three tips to help them create more expressive characters?

1. Keep it simple and avoid ambiguity. If you are drawing a complex character, try to boil the expression down to its simplest form. It can help to make quick sketches of the expressions that you are trying to create. 2. Play with extreme expressions. While it is great to be subtle with expressions, there is no harm in exaggerating. Test how far you can go with an expression. 3. Characters communicate with their entire body. While the face is very important, make sure that the body is also helping your character express the type of emotion you are trying to portray.

https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/interview-with-digital-illustrator-and-character-artist-oscar-ramos--cms-2040

An insightful interview with Oscar Ramos, going into his background, how he got started as an Illustrator and advice on how to strengthen your designs.

‘Well, detail is something that I am a bit obsessed with, but for me, it’s not really about saying “OK, that's enough detail, time to stop”. For me, I stop when I feel that the full illustration has enough of a “story.”

Much of his work is inspired by Maurits Cornelis Escher, a Dutch graphic artist who is well known from classic mind-bending and perspective-defying drawings.

Animator/Character Designer | Luis Grane

Animator, Illustrator and Character Designer  who started his career with creating graphic humour in Argentina. Since then, he has gone on to work for acclaimed studios including as DreamWorks, Pixar, Disney, Laika, Sony Pictures, Aardman, and Warner Brothers.

Grans work can be seen on many animated films including Prince of Eqypt,  Hotel Transylvania, Ratatouille, and most recently his character design work for The Box Trolls.

‘Graphic humour requires the ability to summarise and express complex ideas in a simple way. I guess being able to do that plus knowing how to communicate liveliness, sense of volume, and the acting required in animation, helped me later in my work as a character designer. ‘

Technology

Animation technology has come a long way since the early days of hand-drawn cartoons. The techniques used by animators to bring characters to life have improved dramatically over the years, and unlike traditional animation, which made its debut in 1906 and created the illusion of movement through frame-by-frame manipulation of drawings and illustrations, most animators today use computers to generate three-dimensional images.

New technologies are shaping the way characters are being created, and the way they interact with audiences. As we become increasingly more obsessed with our own image, tweaking the way our own ‘character’ or self is portrayed online, artists are reimagining faces and expressions in innovative ways.

https://news.usc.edu/91424/the-future-of-gaming-create-your-own-character-in-just-four-minutes/

Researchers at the USC (Institute for Creative Technologies-SmartBody)  are making character design more personal. They’ve released a set of free tools to allow players to upload their own face and body into a game. It takes just four minutes to scan and upload a digital avatar of yourself, and the kit supports a range of game engines, including Unity and Unreal.

[jforbesmysterybox]

Presentation Research

As all the members in the group had different interests in animation, we chose to investigate job roles within the pre-production stage. 

Pre-Production

Character Design

Character design is all around us - feature films, in comics and video games, on the Web, in corporate icons, and children’s books to name a few. Its a unique art form with its primary role being a storyteller. Without characters there is no story. They are the vessels that breath life into fiction.

A character designer is a traditional artist who creates original drawings of characters for the visual media. Their goal is to create characters that fulfill the needs of the script, scene, game, or story to suit the storyline. They essentially play the role of an illustrator, graphic artist, animator and actor all rolled into one. 

The amazing thing with character design is that the possibilities are endless, but the principles behind strong design are very much the same.

Its about the thought process behind the character design choices, the aspects that go into a strong design, and how to infuse the designs with personality. Its the ability to take something inanimate/non-human and giving them traits of something we can connect and identify with. Creating profiles help refine your character and understand their development, its the driving force behind them. This additional knowledge will give a fictional character depth.

To formulate some boundaries, a character designer will need to consider a few points:

What’s the character’s place in the film? (hero, villain, comic foil, sidekick, heroine, etc)

What’s the character’s personality? (content, dysfunctional, passionate, loving, etc)

Are there plot points within the storyline that affect the design? (Dumbo’s big ears; Pinocchio’s small nose, which becomes long; Shrek’s ugliness, etc)

A successful designer should be very creative and think outside the box, so that every character possesses its own unique personality. Paying attention to the finer details is what could take a ‘good’ design to a ‘great’ design. 

Having knowledge in the fundamentals is key.

Perspective

Form

Construction

Anatomy

Draftsmanship

Having a core foundation with these fundamentals will enhance your observational skills and understanding of 3D space. This will help build up an internal visual library where you will be able to rely on your own experiences to create more believable drawings.

Animator and Character Designer | Tom Bancroft

While in the library I found the book, ‘Creating Characters with Personality’ by Tom Bancroft. It writes about these fundamentals, and shares Bancrofts insights and skills to inspire and instruct budding designers, and I have found it most helpful.

Tom Bancroft's advice for young animators @Comiccon Germany

25 years of experience in the animation industry,12 years of that time he was developing his skills as an Animator/Director with Walt Disney. He joined the team as an intern in 1988 after finishing his studies at the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied traditional animation. Bancroft was an animator on 4 animated shorts and 8 feature films of which ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘The Lion King,’ ‘Aladdin,’ ‘Pocahontas,’and ‘Mulan,’ were part of the list. 

Bancroft loves anything that has a character or a story, and he’s able to use his talents across multiple medias ranging from children’s books, comics, animated features to card design, proving how versatile the specialism is.

Character Designer and Teacher | Stephen Silver

Art Talk 07- Stephen Silver : Becoming a Character Designer

‘Caricaturist and designer became one and the same thing. Pushing, pulling, manipulating shapes.’

He states the opportunities as a character designer extends into a wide range, but in order to work on multiple projects you need to show you have versatility and good draftsmanship. Learn how to draw and draw well.

Stephen Silver, born London, England on August 30, 1972. He gained his first professional job in 1992 drawing caricatures at Sea World in San Diego, and since has gone on to design characters for Disney Television Animation, Sony Feature Animation,  Nickelodeon Animation and many more.

He’s an author and artist of 7 self-published books on the art of sketching, character design, caricature and life drawing. While also available for freelance work and teachings.

It was interesting coming across Silver’s work and finding out that he started his career as a caricaturist, as I had only bought the book below last year. I feel theres a real talent being able to exaggerate features to the extreme, while still retaining the key details that makes the individual unique and recognisable. This animation course constantly returns back to the process of manipulating shape and form to create the most dynamic and believable representations. Therefore its definitely a good area to explore and build a strong foundation for character design.

Caricaturist, Cartoonist and Humorous Illustrator  |           Tom Richmond

Tom Richmond, author of the best-selling caricature instruction book   ‘The Mad Art of Caricature.’

Richmond began his career at age 18 as a part-time caricaturist at a theme park in 1985, while attending college. From there he started sending his work to art directors, publications, magazines and comics before gaining an opportunity to work on the comic book ‘Married with Children.’

Breaking into the freelance world was not an over night success, it took Richmond nearly 15 years before being an established designer. He worked many years in advertising, being open to any project that came his way.

He created award-winning art for a great variety of clients including Scholastic, Sports Illustrated for Kids, National Geographic World, Time Digital, Penthouse, Marvel Comics, The Cartoon Network, Warner Bros Animation, and many others.

In the mid-90′s he realised the future of illustration was going to be digital, therefore he bought himself a tablet and learnt Photoshop. Today, he uses a Centique for his conceptual work, but still uses ink and pencils on paper which he then colours digitally.

Part of this research assignment is to contact various people within the industry. As professionals working within animation, I hope to gain insight and knowledge of their experiences within the field.

I chose to contact Stephen Silvers because of his versatility in the area. He’s had experience with some big names, but is also a successful freelance designer. The fact that he advertises lessons and runs many tutorials on Youtube, hopefully shows he is open to sharing his knowledge.

On Silver’s website there was an option of contacting him directly, my e-mail reads:

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Robot Modelling | Maya

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UV Mapping | Maya

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Materials and Rigging | Maya

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After Effects

Today we had our introduction to Adobe After Effects. Focussing mainly on the animation aspects and navigating tools today, we were supplied with reference images to use within the session. (a bike, grass and sky)

As I 

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Model Making for Animation | Jon Lee

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Modelling | Maya

Today we were introduced to the technique, ‘Box Modelling.’ This is when a primitive shape - such as a box, cylinder, sphere, etc - is used to make the basic shape of the final model. This basic shape is then used to sculpt out the final model.

To help build a more precise model, reference images can be imported to work from - don’t use images that are at and angle, as these will be difficult to get the angles right.

‘Artstation’ is a non-commercial, concept art source.

Supplied with the sword reference above, I decided to model the the first option as it looked the easiest to recreate.

A shortcut to uploading the reference into Maya is the ‘Plane’ button above.

In order to model the proportions of the sword accurately, I needed to change the view of the camera angle from ‘perspective’ to ‘front’ view. 

Using the shortcut icon above, I started the model with a cube polygon as a base and positioned it in front of the sword reference. Using the transform tool I manipulated the scale of the cube as to cover the length and width of the sword.

I reduced the transparency of the cube in the Attribute Editor, or alternatively press 4 to view in wire frame mode, as to see the reference image.

Switch into face mode, and use the ‘multi-cut tool’ found in the modelling toolkit to add divisions into the polygon. 

To create a ‘multi-cut loop,’ hold down ‘ctrl’ then click for either a horizontal or vertical cut. Each division made is where the form will alter its shape, which can be done in ‘vertex’ mode. The more cuts made, the more vertices there are to alter and add definition, but can become difficult.

Clicking and dragging over the vertices before moving them, will ensure the selection has also been made on the vertices that cannot be seen in front view.

To delete multi-cut lines - to begin shaping the handle, make the selection in edge mode and delete. If you want to ensure you have also removed the vertices, select edge > edit mesh >delete edge/vertex. 

Dragging the selection tool over multiple vertices allowed me to move large areas simultaneously, allowing for more symmetry. I experimented with the move and extrude tools to as to form a more realistic shape. 

A very useful workshop on Maya, there was a lot of repetition during the exercise, so as the session went on I was beginning to feel more comfortable with the tools. 

Modelling A Figure

I wanted to make sure that I had digested the afternoon’s information and repeated the exercise at home, but decided to follow a tutorial on Youtube to create a child figure.

Pressing 3 on the keyboard activates the smooth tool, press 1 do undo.