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.

The Animated Self - Further Information about Lurk

Don't worry, I will get new concept art done later on.

As you can see, I chose to go with one of my horror narrative ideas for the final PPP project. Seeing as the teaser trailer won't give too much away, I thought it'd only be right to write a little more about the story.

Lurk was a survival horror video game concept that I had worked on for one of my classes during my final year, it was based on a rather lengthy dream/nightmare (Call it what you will) I had a long time ago, upon waking up, I had quickly penned it down for future use. 

Several events occurred throughout the dream, one of them involved me sitting in a subway train, a woman whom I believed to be my mother sat across from me, looking so frail and weak, the strangest smile on her lips as there was a blank look in her sunken eyes… And for awhile, I just looked back at her, things were quiet save for the noise the train made as it travelled through the tunnels… 

And like a video game, everything faded to black. It was as if a cutscene was playing, I was seeing everything from outside the train, even though I knew my physical body was still inside the train, something huge had stopped the train, I could only describe it as some hellish sort of demon… 

Something even worse happened then, a stewardess had somehow fallen out of the train… flames suddenly burst from the entire thing's body before it attacked her, for some reason the scene shifted and all I could see was the side of the train as blood splattered everywhere… I think I could actually hear people screaming, trying to escape.

In another part I was scavenging for weapons and food, this had possibly taken place before I had gone onto the train with my mom, for some reason I had decided to enter a deserted underground club of sorts, it was nearly pitch dark, save for the light of a few functioning soda and snack machines, and some surprisingly expensive looking pool tables (The ones that had their own lights), the dim blue lights that came from all these sources did nothing however to help me to see better.

I found myself picking up a few pool sticks then, including some broken ones with splintered ends, before I suddenly heard quiet weeping in one of the dark corners of the room… I obviously got the hell out of there afterwards.

Other random bits in the dream involved me meeting with my cousin and his family, and even my siblings in another train station, they were surprisingly well equipped with all sorts of guns… I didn't add this bit in obviously.

Inspiration was also taken mainly from the Silent Hill series, along with various other horror games as I worked on new settings, characters and monsters that hadn't been in the dream. While I have yet to even come close in finishing the script for this game, a 'sequel' is already in progress (Oi vey).

Cover Design

Everything was done in ink and markers, I was still trying to familiarize myself with Photoshop and my new tablet at the time, and so I had only use Photoshop and Indesign for cleanups, the layouts and the title design. Markers to this day however remain one of my most favorite traditional mediums, even though I had been told numerous times by an old lecturer of mine that they should never be used for professional works...

Characters

Monsters and Stages

I couldn't exactly remember how Malorum (The one on the right) looked in my dream, and while he was the only creature that I had seen, I had to mess around with his design just as much as I did with the others. I never liked the more traditional designs for demons, and so I tried incorporating some more twisted human features to it, so that it bore some similarities to the other monster designs.

The hotel setting was also a new addition as I had to figure out other settings to include in the game aside from the subway, I know I had sketched down some other ideas, hopefully I have them saved somewhere in one of my external hard disks...

I later on tried to do a new set of concepts for my admission portfolio, this time they were colored digitally, though the lines remained traditionally inked. In all honesty, I really disliked the flat coloring I did for these character concepts, I was really tempted to go back to using markers (Maybe next time), but at least they gave a pretty clear view of the characters' designs.

Felicity 'Filly' Marshall

Helen Marshall

I had a lot of issues when it came to their face designs, for starters, Helen Marshall's change of appearance overtime made her look like two entirely different people (And not in that way, really, it just looked like two completely different characters standing beside one another). I was also told how Father Alex and 'Peter' looked related to one another when they weren't, and so during this update, I hadn't bothered to add 'Peter' in.

Mrym and Malorum

This was probably the only thing I liked from my updated set of designs (Seeing as I also decided not to ruin them by coloring them in), a mistake from the older designs made me decide to design several different versions of Mrym, and so some featured scraggly hair sticking out from other the hood while others had more pupil-less eyes.

Sister Diawara and Father Alex

Sister Diawara is just one of those designs you find yourself favoring over the others simply because she is so fun and colorful looking. I was upset when it came to her redesign however as I thought the original marker render I did of her actually looked better.

Yeah… I'm going back to the markers next time.

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The Animated Self - Storyboard Ideas

I decided to focus on a narrative-related animation (I bet you didn't see that coming did you?) in the end, it would evoke the right amount of challenges and would definitely be much more enjoyable to work/struggle on. It would also give me the chance 

Lurk (Horror Narrative)

This was the first horror game project that I had actually done proper designs for, while it had its fair share of monsters like any typical survival horror, it was the atmosphere and sense of helplessness from the main character that I wanted to utilize more. Again, I wish to define myself for my narrative works, based on my own ideas aside from existing works, this 'teaser trailer' will allow me to experiment a bit more with shadows, a more dramatic coloring style and more defined characters designs as compared to my previous projects.

Based on some brief research I did on video game teaser trailers, these previews normally contain one ambiguous scene that does not explain much, or a a compilation of incredibly short clips, both allowing the audience a sample of what the game's tone and mood would possibly be like (And I say possibly, because game designers tend to make a lot of changes to these games after the teasers are released) that gives us an idea on what the game will be like but not the story itself, all that manages to last around 30 seconds, give or take. More research will be done on teaser trailers in the coming posts.

I then quickly drafted down three ideas:

1. The Pool Room

While not shown here, we get a few pan shots of various areas that are completely deserted and completely void of human life, before cutting to the first scene of a supposedly abandoned pool room. The camera raises up from pitch black darkness, showing the edge of a pool table, and the shadowy figure of a young girl approaching it, only the light from her phone's light lighting up the area.

The scene then shifts to her point of view as she looks at the table covered with scattered balls and shattered glass (One of the ceiling lamps having broken off not too long ago), trying to get a further look at the other parts of the room but there doesn't seem to be anything of use to her, she sighs quietly...

Weeping is suddenly heard then… that seems to sound like that of a child's, even a baby's, she raises her head, freezing in place, but only for a moment as she whips around to the direction she hears it from, turning towards another dark corner of the room where another broken ceiling lamp lays.

The camera pans moves past it then, before the entire scene fades to black, the young girl then calling out to the voice as the title appears on screen.

"… hello?"

2. Father's Call

The camera pans downwards where a phone is seen on the ground, the phone then lights up the once dim area, the voice message activates as the young girl's father is heard, desperately trying to reach his daughter. A montage of various scenes are shown during the voice over, of monsters lurking in the darkness, the young girl hiding and exploring different areas on her own, before the final scene shows her mother sitting on her own in a train carriage, cracking an eerie smile.

The scenes cuts abruptly to black as the father ends his message there, assuringly say that he and the rest of the family will be there waiting for their safe return, the title appearing on the screen along with that last line.

"We will be here, waiting for you…"

3. The Train

In a train crowded to the brim with passengers, everyone is notably distressed and distraught, some even trying to comfort others. The young girl is shown sitting in the centre of one of the benches, for a moment staring down at her lap, looking nervous and unsure as she tries to contemplate her situation.

She looks to the side then, where her mother sits beside her, having been eerily quiet throughout, her features appear paler and more sunken than before, she can understand that what had occurred earlier must have frightened her mother, but, there was something off about her…

Just as she tries to comfort her, the train jerks to a stop, people scream, the lights go out.

Before a hellish shriek is heard echoing throughout the area as the title appears...

Blade Petals in the Wind (Fantasy Narrative or Sequence)

This idea is based on an old illustration of mine that I have yet to finish, I was taking a small break from a larger project that had a very similar art style at the time.

This short animation focuses on a tiny little fairy dancing among several blossoms as they bloom from her encouragement, her dance ends with her revealing to the audience the tree she had aided is now in full bloom and is ready for spring.

We are H2O (Sequence (I guess?))

Based on one of my scrapped ideas from my Animation Process and Production project, the animation focuses on the amount of water each human body holds and how it changes throughout the day.

 I found several problems with this idea, that being which gender I should give this character (Would it offend certain audience? Especially as they are seen drinking alcohol?) as well as what activities I should include that depletes and increase the amount of water within him or her body, aside from the usual drinking and exercising that is, after drawing a part of the storyboard, I realized it seemed a tad dull and required more development.

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The Animated Self - Brainstorming

For our final assignment, we are to produce a short 15-30 second animation that is 1920x1080, full HD in H264 .mov format, reflecting our emerging interest in animation and consider what we have enjoyed, where our strengths lie and what it is that we wish to push further in the future (The title sort of hints to that). 

Aside from that, we should also demonstrate an investigation into:

Context/Function: Narrative, Sequence, Satirical, Persuasive, Promote, Agitate, Subvert
Methodology: 2D Traditional, 2D Digital, Stop Motion
Visual Language: Line Quality, Shape, Texture, Composition, Color, Abstract, Realism

We also much take into account that this final piece of work will be presented in a coming show (So no half-butting it, eep) and so this piece of work must define us.

As always, I quickly drew up an outline for myself (It's just a habit that will allow the details to sink in better for me):

Studio Brief Outline

It wasn't that hard choosing which of the suggested animation functions to focus on when it came to brainstorming for ideas, and while I didn't feel comfortable in dabbling with something more satirical, I did up a little section just in case (For who knows, my end choice might have been something I wouldn't have actually expected) alongside the others that I favored the most.

First Idea Generation

The first draft was all over the place however, and so I decided to do a neater one that separated into smaller sections after (This is just the OCD talking here), revisiting the definitions of each function while throwing out a few topics that I could work with for each. 

Revised Idea Generation

Working on narrative works be they original or based on existing media has always been a passion of mine, I always find it fun to explore into various genres and create different sorts of settings and atmospheres that can draw the audience in (Aside from the obvious reason of wanting to tell one's own stories in an artistic manner), and so it was no surprise that this was the first context/function that got my attention and gathered the most ideas, I found myself burrowing deep into my folders of personal projects and listed them down into the idea section.

The first idea that game to mind was to do a promotional piece for one of my video game concepts (Since I was around 10 (That was around the time Silent Hill 3 came out I believe), I had found myself drafting down ideas for my own video games and comics that I still dream of getting produced or published in the future), and considering the duration and once again the amount of time I have left, I feel that a teaser trailer of sorts would work best if I was to focus on something narrative.

Aside from listing down old ideas, I had also listed out some elements in relation to that genre as well as what could possibly inspire me further (From video games, other artists and films) that could perhaps improve on those ideas.

Ideas for Fantasy Narrative

When it comes to the horror genre, I have always been a odd sort of fan, while I absolutely adored games from that genre, there are only a handful of films from that genre I actually enjoyed (Or maybe I'm not all that odd…).  Much like my idea generating for the fantasy narrative mind map, I followed the same process for this mind map (Actually to be honest, I did this one before the fantasy one).

Ideas for Horror Narrative

As a back up as always, I did one for sequence animations, that would perhaps focus more on the aspect of motion itself, which I honestly believe would take a lot more time especially since more complicated movements would have to be animated. While I found myself growing fond of most of the ideas, I once again believe that I would need more time that I presently have to properly animate any of them.

Ideas for Sequence Animation

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.

Zane Whittingham

I attended a pretty insightful talk last friday, with character animator Zane Whittingham (Whose studio is based in Marsden, near Huddersfield, Wesk Yorkshire), who has had 20 years of experience in the UK animation industry. Working in partnership with producer Kath Shackleton, the two takes commissions for both 2D and 3D animation projects, as well as run education projects and All Animated, a network that brings together animation professionals from across the north (Which I have been following on Twitter this whole time without realizing it, whoa~).

In his early years, Whittingham humorously struggled with gadgets, mistaking printed for scanners (And in the process destroying his heart earned work by attempting to scan them in), but it was no surprise due to the fact that computers, printers and scanners at the time were still generally new  to the public, in his 3 years of studying, only 5 computers were actually available to the entire class, and a bidding had to be held just so that each of them can use one for only 20 minutes a week (Definitely makes me appreciate what I have a lot more than ever).

Interestingly, his portfolio in the beginning that consisted of short traditional animation exercises (He didn't have enough time to do full animations and so focused on something he was more confident in) allowed him to get his first job after graduation. It involved him animation walking and running cycles, as well as design posters, and paint and trace over cels (Which ones has to be careful and precise in, otherwise those mistakes have to be carefully scratched out of the cel).

I have already heard this numerous times since I started this course, about connecting with as many people as you can in the industry, even before you get out there to work, and I am aware that it really is one of the most important aspects when one desires to get into the animation business (And it's actually a lot harder than it sounds, harder than hard)… I'm still trying though, and pathetic as it may seem, this has always unnerved me the most, especially since I keep hearing it over and over.

Perhaps what stuck with me the most from him talk was his advice is training one's self to be diverse with art style, to look into things that you are not interested in, as most of the time, you are required to work on a variety of licensed characters where you will be required to animate in a specific style (Not very often will you be allowed to use your own original style for animations, unless they are your own personal projects). This is especially notable in the animation and game reels he showed us, where each example shown differed incredibly from one another in terms of the style used (And of course the subject matter, ranging from typical children shows to ones with more mature content (And when I mean mature, I don't mean butt naked explicitness-ness, why do people always think that???)).

One has to keep with the times and also learn and familiarize themselves with as many techniques and softwares as they can, Whittingham especially was trained in 3D animating when the industry commenced with their higher demand for it (And obviously to this day, 3D animations stays in high demand, sadly in comparison to 2D animation (But we all already knew that didn't we?)).

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