Monday 29 October 2012

My rat character called 'Tails'

Here are some of the initial character designs for my second main character called 'Tails'. These are early concepts but I have an idea in mind what style I would like to go with. I have tried a variety of styles but I think I will go for a vector line style, to keep it quite 'cartoony'. Anyway here they are........




Friday 26 October 2012

Cowboy silhouette night scene

Taking that previous dusk shot I created using the silhouettes i simply adjust the hue and saturation to create a night scene. I am very pleased with the outcome and I think it is very effective. The animal silhouettes within it will have to suit my final style if I take it further but as a test it works very well. I removed the sun and glow and replaced it with the moon, more stars and a coyote instead of the lizard......

A quick cowboy scene concept

I have designed alot of characters now for this project and have loads of funky character ideas to show you guys but I have to scan them in this weekend. Here is my quick cowboy scene I have created using silhouetees and simply testing colour schemes.........hope you like...........

Tuesday 16 October 2012

New project!

Finally a chance to do some drawing. This new brief is fairly open which I am happy with. As I am doing art strand (design) I have the opprtunity to concentrate on some character/background concepts, but if some of my characters are succesfull I may try animating some short clips or even ask some others to collaborate and animate my character for me.

I have an idea in mind of a child character who, one day, wanders through an old scrap yard and finds an interesting object that captures his attention. To his knowledge its just an object that he will use in his imaginary games (as every child does). Not actually realising that it has the power to teleport him through different time eras and realms. In these different eras he will have to change something in the past or contribute to something that is vital to that era before he can journey home...

I have other versions of this story in my head and i will most likely change it to suit my needs. At the moment this is a rough basis for a premise.

I liked this idea not only as it provides me with the chance of coming up with some interesting character/background concepts but it had good an educational value aswell to those who watch ( a young target audience)

Anyway thats my idea so far and I will update my blog with any progress in the story or design side of things.......

My videos

here are some of my videos, hope they work


First project finished

Its been a long, jam packed first two weeks of the 3rd year. Its had its good days and days with major hiccups...more hiccups to be honest but its been a great learning curve. Ive enjoyed learning how to use the basic tools of flash, especially drawing in a vector based line and seeing my character come to life. My animation was only simple but I think I did fairly well considering we only had two weeks for this project and I have produced a decent body of work.

The main problem for me was when it came to exporting my video sequences. It would either start lagging or some elements (such as the symbols within symbols) wouldnt show on screen for some peculiar reason, despite my many efforts to try and correct this by experimenting with different export files. I managed to create each of the seperate sequences but not join them as one as yet due to the rendering/exporting problem. I will put them all together as well as our whole collaborative sequence as well. Even though none of our group members sequences are joined together as yet we may continue this even further to the main deadline on the 7th December where it will be looked at by those working for the NSS which they will then decide if it is suitable. Anyway here are some of the sheets I have to show, and hopefully the videos will show aswell.....













Thursday 4 October 2012

Another Flash test

Here is another test involving a little bit of lip sync aswell, I apologise if the video doesnt work properly or may seem out of sync but everytime I exported it or tested the movie it kept on going out of sync....


Tests on Flash!

Here are some of the tests I have created on flash, simply trying to get prepared and widen my knowledge as much as possible for the main animating sequence next week.

To be honest I have had an awful day, I tried to create a small animated clip using the bone tool, it took me nearly all day and ended up not working :/ ARRRGGGGGHHHH!!! Very frustrating but I havent give up yet and so I am going to have another go at it tomorrow, to see if I can solve it........Anyway here are some of my tests....

Their basic but its a start in a new software so fairly pleased......


Wednesday 3 October 2012

NEW YEAR!! NEW PROJECT!!

Its my final year in Uni now and so we have kicked off right where we left off (neck deep in work) haha. Our new project is a short two week project, basically split into two parts. They both involve the use of flash and animating within flash. The first week is basically a recap on how to use this software and learn any new methods by researching tutorials on the net. It is a good way of learning as we write down these sites in a 'Research Journal/diary' so that we can recap if we are struggling in any areas. As I am not an animator but a designer instead I will use this diary often. I know the basics of flash which is a start but have a lot to learn. Its important to be diverse in the animation/design industry so minor projects such as this will widen my experience and hopefully widen my career opportunities.

The second week will be based on animating a short 10-15 second sequence. The theme of this project is to create a clip that will entice students to fill in the National Student Survey (NSS) forms in. Its a good project because it is simialr to what we coould encounter in the future. It also enables us to collaborate with others to create one long clip or a montage of smaller sequences. I will put up any designs that I have created aswell as the clip I create.....Looking forward to seeing the final result!!

It also gives us the opportunity to have our work possibly displayed (if chosen and appropriate) around the University of Glamorgan campus, on show to around 20,000 students. Hopefully it will make the cut:)