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 My Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram are now included on this one, with the Wix site removed seeing as it is heavily outdated as compared to my other portfolio sites.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

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.

Chris Sasaki

I will admit that I squealed an awful lot during this talk... on the inside (By the way, I'm still waiting on that photo, Ms Beth~). Chris Sasaki is a character designer from Oakland, California. He has done work for Monsters University and more recently, Inside Out and The Dam Keeper (That was nominated for an Oscar not too long ago). His primary mediums when working on concepts are digital, ink and pencil, though it really depends on how much time he is given to work on them.

Coincidentally, Monsters Inc. was the very film that inspired him onto the road of becoming an artist, while he had attempted to enrol in CalArts at least three times, Chris instead ended up attended Woodbury University, since then he believed that he was glad that things went the way they did, that the pedigree of a school did not matter as much as the quality of the teachers and one's own effort.

During his senior year, Chris was given the opportunity to work as a production intern for DreamWorks Art Department, where he met with many other inspirational artists that worked there, particularly the character designers. As he did his work, Chris also brought in his work in hopes of getting some form of aid, and it was from there he met his mentor, Tony Siruno, and it was from there that he knew what he wanted to do in life...

Finding a job after that however proved difficult seeing that people never ever thought that he had enough experience, but the thing was, how could you gain the experience needed if you weren't given a shot at any job? Still however, the smaller jobs that Chris managed to get soon became bigger jobs...

Character design is very research driven, in fact it possibly takes up 80% if not more of the time given to them when working on concepts, humorously and somehow unsurprisingly, even those working in the industry tend to rush out physical works during the last few days before the deadline. Research however is required in figuring out the worlds of these characters (Something that would be believable to the audience), that 'something' that is needed to make these characters unique and overall what simply drives their designs. Research is needed to make these designs appropriate and not generic, hence why good designs are always built around them.

Chris meets with his production designer for critique sessions almost every week and frankly prefers his directors to be straight forward about what it is they want so that he could actually get their vision right. It is logically better than wasting time beating around the bush and trying to be nice, especially when both parties desire to get it right.

When presenting a pitch, walk them through your thought process. You obviously have to discuss the story, characters, and of course the selling points. It would make sense to include the personal influences that have been gathered from your research. To show your findings and what you believe that others can possibly relate to.

While Chris does enjoy using traditional mediums for his work, it really does depend on the timeline he is given to work on these designs, and clearly digital tends to be the way to go during those tight deadlines. Once these designs get approved, this is where you have to follow through and work closely with the technical team, to draft out proper blue prints that they could use when building the models.

There is something that especially stuck with me during Chris' talk, and that was his advice on making sure that you have passion projects that you can work on during your free time. As he was so focused on following orders throughout most of his school years, he was not able to take the opportunity to find what he himself liked. Every person should find a true idea and story that they can really attach themselves to, instead of simply creating something merely because it looks cool... 

As for whatever art college you attend, it is honestly up to you and what you get out from it, it only makes sense to learn everything before figuring out what your focus is. Get your foundation down for everything before you start focusing on something. And when you finally start working for others, do remember to always have that one thing for yourself that will push you as an artist.

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.