Well... officially its the end of our timetable, and we're given in our last submission for the year.. and probably ever for the ANIMATION department at Ravensbourne.
So now all thats left is to reflect back onto whats been done, things thats gone wrong, how I wouldve done things differently and..the usually drift.
TEAMS
I think I've chosen to work with the best 2D animators in the class to be honest. Both of which hate to stress others. So its kept both my teams stress-free throughout the whole year. The freedom to explore and create was truly an experience and luxury I probably wont have in the future. However, as leaders Matt and Iredia are both really responsible, and even though they both hated sticking to schedules, tasks for set, and work got done. I think I've achieved and more then a enough for my artist folder to be honest. As my main folder its looking very big. Especially with all the frame painted shots.
If you imagine the pain of doing a FEW peoples work in one go. There were only two of us in Mayfly.
As the Art Director for the Mayfly It wasnt as simple as going over Iredia's shots frame by frame but I also..
- Outlined every frame
- Changed the rough characters to fit the model sheets.
- Cleaned up
- Frame Painted Base Colours
- Frame Painted Shadows
- Frame Painted Lighting
- Designed and Painted Backgrounds (which is also a few layers there...)
- Applying Filters
For Smitten, Matt, Michelle and Emma were lovely people to work with, not only giving their HONEST opinions but also giving advise. With the constant support through the year its built my confidence in finishing backgrounds in general, and its given me a clearer idea of hw fast I am able to improve with a "rival" on the side. Something I've been missing since secondary school.^^ My problem with backgrounds from the start was spending rushing through them and thinking less about them since I've always focused more on character. I joined Smitten to broaden my skills and view of backgrounds. As a result. I now spend around 6 hours on a background and maybe some extra hours on top instead of spending 1-2 hours per background. Matt and Michelle have encouraged me to think in more depth in terms of the backgrounds. Bringing the "mise en scene" if you would call it that to life! The work I've produced for smitten in definetly different from my usual comic like style.
For Mayfly, It slowly become my focus from 2dn term onwards. There was only two of us, and I'm very thankful Iredia had decided to contact me. If it wasnt for this project, I dont think my stronger elements of painting couldve been reached through smitten. Getting the chance to explore two worlds a the same time whilst being so differently in terms of style was like a relief of stress, I never got bored since the concepts were so different. Iredia has been one of the best people I've worked with by far. Not only is he a responsible partner to work with, but likes to take any new ideas on board. Which I guess was the main difference in Smitten and Mayfly. Mayfly had the freedom to change, whereas Smitten had to keep to the flow of the chosen music piece. Having saying that, Smittens storyboards were already drawn and planned out so well, I guess there was no room for improvements really?
We contacted each other almost everyday, mostly skype meetings in order to get the most out of the time left. Since westarted a term later then everyone else, plus we had to learn a new program it was the only way of getting any work done. Truthfully, before this year, I had never really gotten the chance to speak to Iredia properly, so it was nice meeting and working with someone new this year. Hes very inspiration, all the people I've worked with this year really.
Our Mayfly/Dayfly film really does stand out from the crowd since it looks so traditionally made, if it doesnt wow people then.. well.. what can I say, Ravensbourne has become so DESIGN based theres just no space for real art is there now. We deliberately made everything washed our and messing to avoid Ravensbournes clean design style thats just running through every inch of the building right now=P
Even after slaving through TVPAINT being a new software I've only started learning from 2nd term of 3rd year. I think i'll probably continue using it. Its bit-mapped feature of working seems to work better in terms of my own style. And even so vectorization looks nice and clean, I still prefer the out traditional messy style, It seems like more can be achieved through experimenting in bit-mapped programs. Artworks create in photoshop can also be create in TVPAINT. The bonus factor would be for it to move. Which makes this program so amazing.
FILMS
The films are both not finished. However, since SMITTEN is such a complicated film in terms of animation, and Matt being the only animator really give him lots of pressure. Pressure in which we dont plan to give him since his works so amazing and HE IS the director after all. We hope it gets finished, ready for future festivals and such. And of course, I will continue working with SMITTEN until its done.
For Mayfly, we've only got around 4-5 shots to finish really, to get that done by degree show would be another challenge. After looking back to our old work. The both of us have now realised how much we've matured within our fields, and it seems 4-5shots wont be as stressful as it seemed before since we're now our accuracy and SPEED bars have gone up so much. If we don't manage to get it all polished off by the hand in for degree show theres also the hand in for skillset show we plan to aim for. which would be on the 11th July giving us plenty of time really.
Our Year Group
Through this course I have definitely met some inspiring and most talented young people in my life. I want to take this time to thank them all for the motivation to push myself harder through the years. I've learnt many new things not only in animation, but in true craftsmanship. We've been through our ups and downs, but overall, we've all become pretty close. Despite the small majority of people whose tried causing a few clashes within our last term, most of us have produced some very extraordinary pieces of work. Its also very funny how theres actually so many people with hidden skills that really suprises me, and it makes me wonder, why does the nature of our course make us all hide these skills from one another? I mean there are so many students who are fine art based to start with, and yet they've had to close off that side, in order to adapt to 3D skills in general. I just feel its a shame I never got to see this side within these 3 years until now! There could of been some really interesting scripts made.
Contingency
After graduating I plan to continue working on my project, so i'll probably continue blogging for the sake of watching my progress. After finishing MAYFLY I'll be working on a project that i've started from our E&E project; AngryPoop. We're animating and producing merchandise based on a character i've designed. I have a few people onboard already. I've spoken to a few tutors including Lorna for some support and it seems everyones pleased and given positive feedback from the standard of work we've produced in that short term. Our next step is to harass the EnE department really, apparently Libby Anson is the person to go to in order to get some space on the first floor next year. There may be a charge, however, if all the facilities are still available WHY NOT =) I wished EnE was placed somewhere else in our year and hope others find it as useful as I did.
But yeah, Thanks for reading^^
I want to take this time to thank my tutors too, Mike, Dan, Jared, thanks for all the support and encouragement through these 3 years!
STAY TUNEDD, since i'll probably post more since we've still got until our degree show hand in AND skillset =D
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