Portfolio 2016

   I haven't made all that many changes to my portfolio this year, aside from adding in some new works from both my Context of Practice 3 and Extended Practice projects. And while I had wanted to put in my new character designs as well, I feel that it wasn't enough to fill out an entire page spread (I only really have two at this point in time), and so decided it might be wise to do a few more before putting them all in there. Seeing that it practically has the same layout, I decided to simply update my old portfolio publication on ISSUU instead of simply publishing a brand new one. Another exciting fact is that I might print one or two physical copies to bring to studio visits after this deadline.

Business Card 2016

   I wanted to make a huge update to my business card design, seeing as I have been using the same one for nearly several years now. And after collecting some incredibly gorgeous business cards that also had a nice clean layout to them back at Thought Bubble, I used them as my main inspiration whilst putting together this new design. My Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram are now included on this one, with the Wix site removed seeing as it is heavily outdated as compared to my other portfolio sites. And I have to honestly say that this is actually the first time that I properly used one of my works as a way to decorate my card (Unlike that texture overlay I made for a content page all those years back... yup, that wasn't even a real illustration, to be perfectly honest).

Showreel 2016

   I made a little update to last year's showreel, aside from taking out a couple of old stuff and adding in some new stuff from this year and last year, I also made a few graphic tweaks. The opening and ending title cards have been reversed, with the opening one now being white and the closing one being black (Not a particularly important change but it was just a little detail that I liked and wanted to make). 

   The music has also been changed to HOME's "Resonance" (Who I was fortunately able to get a very prompt a friendly response from when asking for permission to use it!). In terms of the arrangement of clips themselves, while it has always been advised that with start with our best works... In a way, I simply followed my heart and went along with what felt right whilst listening to the song itself, playing around the music over and over whilst moving them about. And referring back to some of the showreel examples that I had written about in the previous year, I have also added in a few character and background designs in there as well. While I had wanted to make two separate showreels, I believe that I will need more work in both areas before I can actually do just that. 

   Seeing that we will be presenting our showreels in class tomorrow, hopefully I will get some helpful feedback on what should be removed and what parts should be rearranged.

Cannon Busters

   I first mentioned this series back during PPP2 and mentioned it again earlier this year when writing about my trip to MCM London, and while it appears that there is some delay for the pilot's release date, there is still so much that I can talk about since my first post on this Kickstarter. Being heavily influenced by numerous anime classics, you could say that LeSean's work was a love letter of sorts to many classic anime Shonen series. But before we get into the anime adaptation itself, Cannon Busters was originally a fantasy comic book series written and drawn by LeSean Thomas that was first published in 2005. 

   The first issue was due to be published by Com.x in 2003, but was moved to Devil's Due in 2004. And while the series was very well received by both critics and fans alike, Thomas' incredibly hectic work schedule resulted in him making the decision to have the series reprinted and to have it continued as an OGN. And so, the graphic novel was due to be out in the winter of 2009... can't say there's any other news about it other than this, unfortunately.

   While the pilot was expected to be released at the end of January this year, due to minor production delays (That was announced through their Kickstarter page), the release date ended up being pushed back just a little, and while it's already May... it is unknown when exactly this will actually be released in the end. It was also stated however that at the risk of creating another fake promise, they have decided to simply keep their heads down and push towards the finishing this properly for everyone's enjoyment. And heck, for the sake of a quality piece of work, us loyal backers will most definitely be willing to wait for everything to be properly straightened out. Nothing good ever comes out of rushing out a project (And I have especially seen that so many times when it came to video games...).



   I am not necessarily the biggest expert on Kickstarter, and in fact, I think Cannon Busters was one of very few projects that I backed (The other one was this science fiction graphic novel years back) simply because of how big a fan I already was of LeSean Thomas and how I just knew that this was most certainly going to turn out amazingly. Reading through their progress posts on Kickstarter, I found it incredibly enlightening just getting to know the behind the scenes process when working on such an animation. 

   From the well known names in the animation industry that are hired in to work on the character designs, backgrounds, etc, to even what is going on exactly when delays occur and retakes of an animated scene need to be done (Basically redos on individual, completed scene cuts, which could be grounds for change on anything from character model check revisions, missed timing, to inconsistent colours, all the way to re-animating scenes from layout... and that honestly sounds a lot like a lot more work than redoing a live-action scene in a film), LeSean and Co. always kept us in the loop when this project had first taken off.

   This is most definitely the dream, one day getting the chance to work in something as amazing as this alongside all these amazing folks... But anyway, I am happy to wait, even looking back to their unfinished production stills inspire me so much as I struggle to finish my own Extended Practice animation. Just... thank you, for still wanting to keep hand drawn animation alive, especially in this day and age.

A Little Portfolio Expansion

   While it won't be possible to have this work finished before this module's deadline, I would still however like to talk about how it was that this had all even started.

   Through roleplaying online (A hobby that allows me to further improve on not just my writing, but also my storytelling, scriptwriting and even character development), I have met and befriended an incredibly talented writer with some of the most inspiringly developed original characters I have seen in years. Having a diploma in Communication and Information Design, my friend is also considering a course in Game Design in the near future, as her ex-facilitators encouraged her to do so after learning of her interest in creating stories and characters. 

   While roleplaying would be considered a casual hobby by many, I do also believe that people can also take advantage of it and use it for more professional means if they truly have a deep passion for writing and creating their own characters, such as my friend.  

   It was in due time where I felt that I just had to do an illustration of some of her characters to show my appreciation for them myself. But, while I initially planned to have this done as a simple gift for her, I began thinking that it would actually be a worthwhile addition to my portfolio. I felt that this could be a very special art piece that is akin to Sam Spratt's artworks (I am no longer a huge fan of his works due to how repetitive they have become, but I can still appreciate the amount of detail that he puts into each commissioned piece that he does for celebrities). Unfortunately, I had to spoil the surprise and tell her of my plans as it was only right to ask her permission on this. And aside from saying yes, she was more than happy to help me in any way she can and share with me an extra details I could possibly need whilst painting them.

   And with all of these characters already being give face claims by her (Such as actress Maggie Q), it will certainly be fun getting the chance to tweak their appearances to make them appear more like how she had envisioned them.

Big Fish and the Begonia

   Big Fish and the Begonia is an upcoming Chinese animated film directed by Liang Xuan and Zhang Chun. It is notable for Studio Mir's (Known for their involvement in the Legend of Korra, Season 4 of The Boondocks, and the upcoming Voltron: Legendary Defender) attachment to it (It's pretty obvious when looking at the style of the animation itself).  The directors have been developing this ambitious animated fairy tale over a decade via crowdfunding and their self-owned studio, B&T. The expected release in China will be on July 8th 2016, but as of now, it would see that there isn't any official news of when it will be released outside of the country.

   The synopsis goes as such:

It is a world within our world, yet unseen by any human, and the beings here control time and tide and the changing of the seasons. On the day Chun turns sixteen, she is transformed into a dolphin to explore the human world. She is rescued from a vortex by a human boy at the cost of his own life. Chun is so moved by the boy's kindness and courage that she decides to give him life again. But to do this, she must protect the boy's soul, a tiny fish, and nurture it to grow. Through adventure and sacrifice, love grows, yet now she must release him back to the sea, back to life in the human world.

   Chinese animation has certainly come a long way, especially with other animation fans calling this very film "the dawn of the Chinese animation industry", and even voting it as "the most anticipated animated film".  And as one who was a fan of older Chinese animations... that were never necessarily masterpieces when compared to all the other animations out there (I'm looking at  you, A Chinese Ghost Story, though, then again, this will also be hand-drawn/CG hybrid as well), it does my heart good to see how they going in so many directions when it comes to their animations. Aside from this film, there have been other recent Chinese animations that have been very well received, such as Monkey King: Hero is Back (Another animation by the same film company), and Little Door Gods. Though, being a bigger fan of 2D animation myself, I certainly can't help but be part of that excited group of animation fans who are really looking forward to this gorgeous film once it is released.

   There really isn't anything else I can actually say (Seeing that this film hasn't even been released yet), but once again, with films such as this, I will definitely be keeping a closer eye on the Chinese animation industry (I must shamefully confess that neither the Chinese nor Korean animation industries have truly interested me at the start of this course until I had actually looked properly into them) for years to come, especially if this is how they are going to progress. It is of course also interesting to note that this is yet another film that had only been made possible with thanks to crowd funding.

   Enlight Media, which is among China’s largest private film companies, has its sights set on becoming a global animation powerhouse, announcing an aggressive plan to produce 22 animated features through a new entity called Coloroom Pictures.

   “Most Chinese animators have struggled for years,” said Enlight chairman Wang Chang-tian. “I believe the improvement in the quality of domestic flicks will give us a Chinese answer to Pixar.”

   Other animated films that will be produced under Enlight’s Coloroom Pictures label are:

1. The Legend of the Jade Sword
2. Charlie IX & DoDoMo
3. Dragon Nest, based on a game
4. Fantasy of Journey to the West, based on a game

Unravel

   Unravel is a puzzle platform video game developed by Coldwood Interactive and published by Electronic Arts. It was announced on 15 June 2015 and released in February 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. The game centres on Yarny, a small anthropomorphic creature made of yarn whom the player navigates through the environment, utilising the unraveling yarn which makes up Yarny to solve puzzles, avoid dangerous creatures, and traverse obstacles.

   Although developer Coldwood's previous works received unfavourable critical reception, Unravel reportedly showed enough promise for EA's DICE to arrange a publishing deal with EA. Many would have remembered the game's developer and creative director, Martin Sahlin, presenting the game back at EA's E3 2015 conference. What however made it all so memorable was the dear man's incredibly nervous but still excited presentation, having "reacted on-stage appearance like most of us would: with shaking hands and a warbling voice." This presentation was met with a positive reception from the conference's audience, and from outside audiences as well. Following the announcement, Sahlin himself became the focus of well-circulated appreciative posts and fan art on social media website such as Twitter and Tumblr. 

   If you haven't seen it for yourself just yet, be prepared to "Awww..." your heart out (Though, I wish I was more coherent in my presentations as he was):

   The game itself, especially its aesthetic, was also well received after its announcement. I mean these gifs don't even do its beauty justice. The game did however also drew comparisons to Limbo (Most possibly due to the fact that they are both puzzle platform video games, but other than that, they are both pretty different if you truly had the chance to properly play the both of them for yourself) and Sony's LittleBigPlanet . The game's backgrounds and puzzles are inspired by the landscape of Umeå, Sweden; Sahlin drew inspiration for the game after creating a Yarny doll out of tire wire and yarn during a family camping trip in northern Sweden (Which was also mentioned in the video above). Sahlin has elaborated, "We live in the sticks. It's a very small town, very far north, close to the Arctic circle. There's not a lot of people, but a whole lot of countryside. I wanted to share some of that, some of the places that I love. I think you don't really see enough of that in video games. You tend to see more fantastical stuff."

   And in addition to its design, the game runs on Sony's PhyreEngine, which has been adopted by several game studios and has been used in over 90 published titles (Such as Disgaea 4: A promise Unforgotten, Amy and all of thatgamecompany's games)

   ... And what do I have to say about all of this? Needless to say, I found incredibly huge appeal in this game's aesthetic and thought it to be one of the most breathtaking games that I have seen in a long, long time. Remembering back to my COP3 dissertation and my look into acting in animation in video games, I really felt that Unravel was able to make you emphasise with its adorable silent protagonist. He has a really simply backstory when it comes down to it, but its adorable design and incredibly endearing animation almost immediately makes you want it to remain safe throughout the game. Which isn't possible, seeing that its a puzzle platform and all, so one needs to ready themselves for when they accidentally kill the poor guy during certain challenging puzzles.

   Like many others, the game had caught my interest when I had first seen Martin Sahlin's presentation. Not only memorable because of how nervously he had gone about talking about it, but also for the fact that so much love and passion had been put into the idea itself. As he mentioned what it was that had inspired this idea in the first place (That being family and happy memories), you just know that this would be a game that would be born out of pure love, and that it would have so, so much potential to be what it ought to be.

   While I am never necessarily a part of the subjective arguments that have been held by gamers over indie video games (Heck, I haven't even had the chance to watch Indie Game the Movie just yet) and studios, seeing Coldwood Interactive finally receiving such a positive reception for this game after their past failures signifies something pretty important for all us designers. You really have to make sure that there's real love put into whatever you're working on to meet true success (Also I know that I used the word love about 5 times in the past two paragraphs, shush).