Reflect - Changes to Final Product

So I made quite a few changes to my idea in the past few days due to time constraints, and so I don't think that I was able to keep a consistent art style for this one, as I ended up doing some of the drawings and animation in a much simpler style (I think the only thing that remained consistent was the hard brush I used throughout, haha).

Initially I had wanted to do my presentation in the form of an animated scrap book, where the animated illustrations would also be placed into them, I realized however that it would take some time to tweak it to my liking (Such as how the next image would appear as the page is turned, I really didn't want it to just suddenly pop out of nowhere once the pages have been flattened. Still, I was glad I made my first attempt at rotoscoping, I might be able to use this for another project in the future, so it is not all for naught.

I hadn't realized that the black pages would make it so difficult to see
the outlines of the turning page, so I was glad that it turned out pretty well
considering the wild guesses I made as I blindly traced over them.

After cleaning it up a bit more, all I did was stretch the image so that I wouldn't
waste most of the space available on the sides of the screen.

I kinda liked how it looked, but I felt that so much tweaking was still required,
and I was starting to get really exhausted and confused trying to find the right
layers in the thousands that I had made.

While we were advised to avoid using Powerpoint and be a little more creative, I decided after awhile to use it to arrange all the images and little animations I had done, it also makes the timing for each one a lot easier to control, I really didn't have enough time to estimate how long each one should last and so as always, Powerpoint was a big help to me.

I had also realized how silly it was to waste so much space in repeating animations (With less than ten frames sometimes) for nearly twenty seconds, and so after testing out to see how different the gifs looked in terms of quality to a video or normal JPEG image, I decided to export most of them as gifs. Some of them might be a little pixilated, but otherwise they shouldn't be that bad… (I hope)

I am still considering whether I should put in some music, the only thing so far that I have actually put in is a sound effect for one animation, I might go in that direction (I really wouldn't  want to pick a piece of music that would irk any of my classmates), gathering other sound effects for the other images and animations shouldn't be all that hard.

There are still two more I hope to do, but right now it's time I switched back to my other project. Will I survive and have all these finished by Thursday? Stay tuned.

Reflect - Moodboard

While I'm working on those illustrations for my Studio Brief 4 presentation, I decided to quickly do up a mood board that I can refer to for inspiration when it comes to the art and coloring style (I felt that I needed something like this especially since I am working on more than 20 illustrations, I need to keep the creative juices flowing you know?), pictured above are a variety of works from various talented illustrators I have came across over the years, all having very different art styles and level details, the only thing they have in common is the charm that is presented in each of their pieces of work. Rebecca Mock's works aren't pictured in this mood board because… they are down here.

While the amount of detail in these animated gifs are insane and something I definitely can't follow up on (Maybe some other time (Yes, that's always going to be my excuse, EURGHHH)), I am instead referring more to the cleverly subtle but effective animations done in parts of them that enhances each piece, the only illustration that seems a tad stiff is the last one, seeing how the baseball player has frozen into place, the people in the other pieces are posed in a believable manner, making it seem that they can stay in that pose for long periods of time.

Reflect - Storyboarding

It took some time to get this in order (I was rewriting the script over and over since I kept thinking up of new scenes and rearranging them in a better order or more accurate timeline) but here is the storyboard for my first idea, I tried my best answering all the questions that were listed in the brief, hopefully I didn't miss out anything.

1. It was definitely a huge decision to travel so far out to continue my studies.
2. My parents thankfully kept me company for the first part… though of course in the due time they had to go back.
3. Being on my own wasn't as frightening as I thought it would be, soon enough I did get the hang of things. (Extra Scene after about homesickness)
4. And the weather didn't take too long getting use to… really
5. I was definitely worried about how I came off to my teachers and classmates…
6. Nearly every day (And I'm not exaggerating), I would work away on my laptop.
7. I did try to do other things, but I would be too exhausted by the time I had some time to myself.
8. I especially need to travel around this country more (Otherwise it would really be a waste!)
9-11. Still, putting it simply, school has been fun.

12-16. Despite the struggles I faced at times.
17. I have learnt so much in such a short period of time.
18. Oh? Have I achieved what I wanted?
19. Yeah… I did, I can do better though.

And there are some extra scenes I thought can also add in if I have any time left (I'm sure I will):

What else I want to learn Scenes

1. I look forward to when we start learning about 3D animating.
2. And goofin- I mean learning about video games mo-cap and design.

Stressed out Scenes

1. I did get stressed out pretty easily, since I wanted to do my very best here…

2. It's a miracle that my laptop has not yet completely died on me.

Reflect - Brainstorming

For our final PPP project, we are to do one last presentation reflecting on our experiences for the first academic year as it draws to a close, extracting a few highlights from the past year and critically reflect about our progress (Strengths and needs). This presentation can take the form of a storyboard, animatic or of course, an animation.

Points that should be focused on in the presentation are: 

• What was learnt and I do want to learn
• What I enjoyed and disliked throughout the experience
• Mistakes made and how I learnt from them
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Have I achieved what I want this year

The presentation must also be formal, critical and reflective and should be between 5 to 10 minutes (This does not mean that the animation must last for that duration, the rest of the duration after all requires us to also vocally present to the audience).

As this is my final project for the year, I thought I'd try something different from my previous animations (That especially  includes all the silhouette animations I have been doing), and perhaps showcase most of the techniques I have learnt and put them all together. 

Music is not necessary (Though I'm still considering it and hoping to pick out something suitable if I do), I should try to keep things simple due to time constraints (I after all also need time to practice presenting it) and avoid making my animation text heavy.

Overview

Brainstorming

A little of Both

Ideas:

1. I'm considering doing a series of animated illustrations (A little something like this http://nicefucking.graphics/ilustraciones-animadas-rebecca-mock/, only less detailed I suppose, and I miiiiight have to add in a little more animation for some pieces, I will write in some text for each piece, so it's like a little animated journal. (I have roughly 5 weeks left, so I still think its possible, as long as I narrow it down to the main points)

2. A simple little supporting animation (Like just a animated character presenting my thoughts) to go along with a showcase of some of my old works. Though I don't really like that idea since it seems like I will require to put in a lot more text to explain myself.

3. Or an animation (Probably done in a rough sketchy look and with limited colors, I was sort of thinking of making them look like chalk drawings) that just highlights a few outstanding events in the past year, though this might require the most animating.