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 My Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram are now included on this one, with the Wix site removed seeing as it is heavily outdated as compared to my other portfolio sites.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.

50 Hour Skill

If the figure drawing, studies and my participation in Inktober wasn't enough, I have also tried to fill out numerous sketchbooks during my free time, so whenever possible, I tried my best to fill out at least one page before turning in for the day. Below are some sketches from observation and original concepts and designs that I did as well, and of course fart fanart. 

I believe I have went way past 50 hours worth of drawing during my free time, but I still hope to do, much, much more, especially during my summer break.

Show and Tell

I was (And still am) focusing mainly on improving my drawing skills during whatever free time I had, and that was one of the main things I had to show for my Show and Tell on the 21st of April. I had the opportunity to attend one of the college's last few figure drawing sessions (Thanks to Fiona), and so had the chance to see just how bad I actually was when it came to poses and perspectives...

I also did speed paint studies whenever I could, which allowed me to focus more on shadows, and aside from the usual study into anatomy and poses, it also gave me the opportunity to see just how incredibly differently structured human facial features can be to one another (Which definitely helps for my character designing).

While this was done for COP2, I felt that it was the first time where I had the opportunity to do some proper character designing (With what should be focused on, how they should be presented on each sheet and so on), and that this would later on aid me for when I require to do any sort of character design for myself or for anyone else. I was glad I took the time to properly research into my practical response, despite how it was not marked as heavily as the essay itself and the little time I had left.

One more thing I did share with my peers and tutor was my first ever collaboration, and with a music student to boot. I wanted to share the rather amazing experience I had of finally working with someone here as well as the exciting experience of getting original music composed for my own works (Not to say that I don't enjoy making my own silly sound effects and what not). I also believe that he will be able to help me with the musical aspect for one of my final year projects next year.

Below you will see a rather familiar piece of work (If you have been following my Studio Practice blog or have seen it on my Youtube Channel or on my Tumblr), but now with some really lovely music playing over it to give it a much more whimsical feel as compared to the original... I believe this music lessens the belief that he dies at the end.

Name Card Design

I decided to simply reuse an old business card design that I had used for my graduation show back in my previous art academy, and simply updated some information (Such as my email) as well as did a few tiny tweaks to the overall design.

The card was originally just black and white, and so I decided to add a little colour this time round... I really like the somewhat 3D-ish look it had once the green and brown was added (Which was pretty much just by toggling with the hue and saturation settings). 

I started playing with the colours again about a week or so later, this time, I played with several texture overlays before I came across this.

I actually really like the fact that it seems to go with both my showreel (Which has a somewhat moody feeling considering the music I used) and portfolio (Which has a much warmer and more colourful look) now! I still do wish to set up a better portfolio site however, but in the meantime, Wix will have to do.

Portfolio

For my portfolio, I decided to put in the background designs that I have done for my Applied Animation 2 project, as well as some of the background concepts I did for my Character and Narrative. I especially wanted to show how focused I was on both Narrative works (Animation and Storyboards) as well as Visual Development (Background and Character Designs). A few stills from some of my animation projects are included too, as well as a few concepts and development images inserted alongside them.

Showreel

Showreel from Rebecca Wong on Vimeo.

I started putting together my showreel over the last few days and I was thankful to learn that I did have a few decent works to pick from to put in there (It really pays to give it your all for every single assignment you do, despite the chest pains that is). As I started putting it altogether, I kept reminding myself about two important things, to show only my best possible works and not to make it too long, a piece of advice that has practically been given in all the talks I attended and the advice videos I watched.

While I was initially going to insert my Pixilation and Maya animations in there, they just did not seem to fit with the rest of the 2D animations that were already in there. And unfortunately, it did not seem right to insert the animation sketches that I have done for my Applied Animation 2 project in there either (Seeing that they were both unfinished and did not seem to fit with the rest of the pieces I had already put in, and if I was to show off the lip syncing, it would probably be better to put it into another showreel), I would however later on insert other works from that module into my portfolio.

Despite the fact that nearly everything was done only in Photoshop and After Effects, I did wish to show more of my drawing skills and how I could work on all sorts of genres (Children, horror, humour etc.). And so my Pixilation and Maya animations just would not belong in any part of this showreel.

I ended up using "Sleep Scape" by Aura Distorter, a song that I found through SampleSwap, I immediately contacted the artist in hopes of getting his permission. I am still waiting on a response, but I am sure that I can use it since it will be for non-profitable purposes.

I started splitting the animations into several clips and started spreading them about when editing, in hopes of getting my works to sync better with the music that played. There were also some weaker parts that definitely had to be cut out, and seeing that it would be weird to put the cut up animations side by side, it was better to separate and spread them apart.

This is my first showreel and I hope it will catch the interests of some folks... I definitely do have to start working on some new material.

The Animated Self - Animating

Seeing that I only had two days to finish this up (So I had initially thought… well, we still have to submit the first version at least), I had to cut back on a lot of details, most of these scenes are just still images that are later on edited to have some movement in After Effects. 

As seen here the background, Felicity the central character, and the groups of people crowding around her are all separated into their own layers (The background was separated from Felicity just in case I needed to make any changes in details to it).

A little shadow was given to her body after on a separate layer, which I then
decided to combine for easier animating later on.

David gets a cameo for his contribution.

Nothing but straight lines for the first bit of the background.

Once I figured out a train interior design I was somewhat satisfied with,
I then started shading it in.

I then added in a bit more lighting.

I had to mess around a bit with Felicity's sitting pose, initially it had looked
like an exact copy of Chihiro's in Spirited Away, I also thought that
she looked a little too composed, and so I went with something that shows
more exhaustion.

Seeing how monochromatic everything already  is, I had to sketch out the crowd
in red so that I could actually see anything when I started painting over it.

I was considering adding in some blood details, but it would take away the tension I was trying to evoke… people however would probably still question why is it that woman in the bottom right is crying. To create better focus on the main character, I then painted a shadow over most of them.

The background perspective turned out to be a real huge pain in the ass,
I had to decrease her size and draw out a rough outline of her body to better figure it out.

After numerous attempts and references that weren't all that helpful...

After animating the head turning bit, I then started painting in her hair, it had originally simply looked like a blob without any volume whatsoever and it just looked so darn weird… (I think I had a gif for it, but for some reason it won't upload properly here, so I will just talk more), so I decided to take a bit more time in improving the movements of her hair sliding off her shoulder.

Another layer was placed over the last few frames so that there wouldn't be
a spastic change of hoodie shadows.

For the last scene where she reaches for her mother, I was clearly rushing with this bit and was thankful that the last section where she gets thrown from the sudden braking of the train had to be done quickly (So I didn't need to be too precise with the details on her).

I had originally drawn her arm frame by frame while copying and pasting
the hand, but in my rage I decided to scrap it and try something else.

The arm was instead separated into two sections, that I started to piece and position together for each frame, while it still looks pretty stiff and weird, I think it looks a lot smoother than the other hand drawn version.

I after that rushed to paint in each figure, coloring any transparent bits first.

I then once again did some quick shading.

I was suggested by my teacher to lessen the shaky movements of the train, which I will definitely do once I get some sleep… and fix up that darn white line at the top of the reaching scene… that's just my fault for not shading that sill properly.

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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