10/11/17

For DGA 210 this week I worked more on shot 3 and also checked up on everyone in our group to see how shots were progressing. As director me and Gabby have made it our responsibilities to regularly check in with the rest of the group so that we can give constructive criticism where it's required. This way we can also catch errors early on and correct them to avoid more problems further down the line. I feel that being given this role has helped me improve on my time management and leadership skills, and has given me more confidence to speak up to others when I feel there can be improvements made.

For DGA 220 I continued to do research and worked on finishing my scripted sections for the presentation. Me and Katy assigned each other different sections to cover and we shared our research in order to fill our sections with information. I think that it went pretty well and I'm almost done writing mine up, ready for recording next week.

For DGA 230 this week I drew up some character concepts for the mom character. These included some poses and character expressions, although it's limited due to the simple designs of character faces, in keeping in line with our chosen artist. Not as much focus was put into pre-production this week as I was prioritising other modules this week.

3/11/17

In DGA 210 this week things have been very busy since I have been in betweening a key shot for Heroes Wanted. In the end I was unable to complete the shot by the deadline because I made a mistake when reading the timing charts which I wasn't sure how to fix. I feel bad for letting the team down but the animatic was still approved and the film wasn't cut so I still have an opportunity to fix the shot later on.

For DGA 220 I did some more research and decided which animation programs I was going to primarily focus on for my essay. I also teamed up with Katy for the presentation, and we've decided to make our focus on open source and how it impacts not only the animation industry but the global programming community online too. I think this will be a really interesting topic to cover because the idea of sharing and growing together as a community intrigues me and I want to see how it will impact the future of the industry.

For DGA 230 this week I created a character turnaround for the dad in Alienation. I feel that he turned out better than the mom turnaround and that his body looks more dynamic.

27/10/17

20/10/17

13/10/17

For DGA 210 we had our first production feedback session. We were asked to look more into whether the cat was a necessary addition to the advert, which I agreed with, and afterwards our group held another meeting where we discussed how our idea was kind of flat. We created the idea of Shelterbox as a character being a new box, and having a narrator instructing him on what to do. It has somehow turned into a spy thriller.

For DGA 220 we had a lecture introducing us to the history of computers, which was also fascinating. We were also introduced to the idea of coding and how necessary it is for everyday life. I've learned some python coding in the past for coding basic visual novel games, but I do want to learn some more of the basics to make my experiences using computers easier.

For DGA 230 I received feedback on my artwork. Later on in the week we had a pre-production seminar and a guest seminar with James Henry, where we generated story ideas. I had more inspiration for the first idea I generated in a group. The story was about a sheep who became mutated into a sheep-man in a radioactive explosion, and how he still wanted to marry his sheep lover despite being ostracised by their herd.

Inktober 2017 - Week 1

This year I decided to take part in Inktober to improve my traditional drawing skills, as these days I mostly create art using my Wacom tablet. I decided to do something fun so that I would stick to drawing every day, and ended up re-designing an old original character for the Pokemon franchise and drawing her on her adventures. Since she is an old character of mine from my early teenage years it was fun bringing her back, and I want to use this as an exercise to practice drawing environments and creatures since I mostly draw humans.

1: Skye arrives in the Hoenn region!

2: Skye meets her starter pokemon, Venus!

3: Skye meets a new travelling partner from the Johto region, Menta!

4: Training for the first gym battle!

5: Skye meets her hero at Poke-Con!

6: Skye earns her first gym badge!

7: Skye and Menta become culinary masters! (Or, Menta becomes the 'Brock' of the group.)

6/10/17

This week we were introduced to our new modules.

For DGA 210 we had our client briefing. A volunteer from Shelterbox gave a presentation talking about the organisation, what it does, and what they were looking for in an advert. We then got into groups and started assigning roles. Gabby was made producer in our group and I stepped in for role of director. We created a group chat to keep people organised and arrange meeting times. When we met up our goal was to come up with an initial idea to give at the feedback meeting, and we struggled to find an idea that all of us liked. In the end our initial idea was a personified shelterbox talking to a stray cat while in a truck going towards a disaster zone, with the box telling the cat all about what the organisation does. I'm not sure how happy I am with the idea, although I like the idea of making Shelterbox into a character that kids can relate to.

For DGA 220 we were given a brief introduction to animation technologies and watched an example video about a piece of software developed for Dreamworks. It was fascinating and I was intrigued as to how other pieces of animation technology worked as a result of what I found out. I began thinking about the kind of technology I want to research, and while I know I want to look into some kind of 2D digital software, I'm not sure what just yet.

For DGA 230 I was assigned the artist Ben Nicholson to study in order to replicate his artwork. I found this challenging because his art focuses heavily on traditional painting and an abstract style, things that I struggle with. However, I do think it is something that I should try and gain more experience with and that it will benefit me as it will force me to adapt to art styles, a useful skill for animation.