Set, Series, Sequence - Stage 3.3 (Sequence)

I am not going to lie or sugar coat my words here, I was struggling a lot with this assignment, especially near the end, since I had to draw something I never even liked drawing in the first place, well… that's not necessarily true, but drawing something over and over did traumatize me enough to not want to draw that subject for the next few months (Transformers don't count, not when they are in bipedal mode).

Anyway, I still couldn't really decide between two mediums (Watercolors and typography-collar), and so I decided to do both, especially since the other would work as a back up piece in case the other one turned out horribly.

Let's start off first with the easier piece I did, the watercolors one, I believe the only things I messed up on is the shading (The car could have especially used more shine to it) and the order of the panels (I only realized this by the time I finished sketching out all the panels, and I was not going to erase and draw them all over again in their correct panels!), so I wounded up cutting out each panel and pasting them back in the right order.

Again I really like the dreamy look the medium gives and the challenge of not using black for the shadows and even the sketch lines (I firstly sketched out everything with a green pencil before drawing over them again with a blue pencil after I finished painting each panel). I definitely still need to improve more on my painting technique however, the diffusing could have been done so much better.

Sketches

Moving onto the other version... I drove myself to the brink of insanity hand drawing each letter, that's the problem sometimes when things are done digitally, since you have the option to go back and fix mistakes, you waste your time redoing things over and over instead of getting it over and done with. 

I wasted a lot of time trying to get these to look the way I wanted them to, only to have them scrapped in the end.

 

Thankfully by going back to this style of typography (Which I had also used for my 8-piece series), a lot less time was wasted and I actually was able to get this storyboard finished in time (Which would not have been possible if I had stuck to the previous technique).

By doing this digitally, it was much easier creating more intricate shapes, so to make the objects and the character more recognizable (It looked like more like a blob than a human at times, an issue I addressed in my Stage 2 (Series) blog post), I included more details like windows for the car and slightly more shapely hands for the character.

I actually enjoyed recreating the cut out look (Though the shadows were a bit of a pain…) and trying to make everything look more traditionally done. There was so much masking and layer editing done for this entire storyboard...

Out of everything however, I struggled mostly with the font choices, it was difficult finding fonts that would best suit the character and car, I wanted to go for a raw looking font that showed how much the character loved its car, and something that evoked how expensive but nonetheless stylish the car was… 

And so after trying my best in choosing suitable fonts, the next best thing I could do was choose colors that would fit them (Which was definitely easier), such as a pinkish red for the character (A color that normally represents love and passion) and purple (A color that tends to represent stylishness) for the car.

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Guillermo del Toro

A Mexican film director, screenwriter, producer, and novelist, Guillermo del Toro has alternated been spanish-langauge dark fantasy pieces and american action films. Notable films he have worked on are "Pan's Labyrinth", "Blade II", the "Hellboy" series and recently "Pacific Rim", we has also been known for producing "The Orphanage", "Kung Fu Panda 2", "Puss in Boots" and "Mama".

Del Toro's works have been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales and horror themes, having a lifelong fascination with monsters, he considers them symbols of great power, this fascination is evident in most of his works, especially in his sketchbooks, that are brimming with his immensely creative and original concepts.

Sketchbooks are pretty much where Del Toro's keeps all of his ideas, keeping ever-growing notes on character design and plots (Most becoming critically acclaimed films), it made sense how utterly devastated he was when he had nearly lost one of his notebooks when he was in London., and how he so gladly gave such a generous reward upon getting it back.

Aside from incredibly detailed sketches of monsters and devices done with a various mediums, Del Toro writes down notes that are just as detailed as his illustrations, there never appears to a single bit of space left on any page. His sketchbook reminds me more of a mad scientist's journal or a black magic tome (There are even really intricate symbol designs), what with the highly detailed sketches and notes (And yellowish pages).

Some other interesting things: 

http://fuckyeahbookarts.tumblr.com/post/35477978228/the-lost-sketchbook-of-guillermo-del-toro

http://io9.com/guillermo-del-toro-explains-why-he-wants-to-ruin-the-hu-1445090880

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3020262/master-class/guillermo-del-toro-shares-14-horror-insights-from-his-spectacular-sketch-book#2

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Set, Series, Sequence - Research and References

I decided to go with a Citroen DS3 simply because my sister owns one, so in a way, this piece will be dedicated to my dear older sibling. However, the exaggerated love story about a man and his strangely sentient car is in no way based on her relationship with her own car (Though she does take good care of it). 

Thankfully there was a decent amount of photo references available for this model, so I was able to familiarize myself with it by drawing it from various angles.

I believe the biggest issue for me when it comes to drawing this model (Even though it will be done as typography silhouettes for the finalized storyboard, which should make it simpler) is giving it more humorously human poses (Like making it dance, or sit beside its owner), seeing that it has such a flat 'bottom', it will look really odd when it tries to stand on its rear wheels.

As mentioned in the previous post, my lecturer and I decided to go with Typography as the main medium for the final storyboard, it definitely allowed for a more interesting narrative style and also gives a more unique presentation of the character's emotions.

So obviously I had to go search for some more references and see if there were better ways to play with the words (Different shapes, sizes, exaggeration, etc) instead of simply 'masking' paragraphs of random words (Like what I had done previously for Stage 2), so to better describe certain emotions during each scene.

This outline style would prevent each sequence from being too busy (Something that I have been worry about since I first gave the style a try), though it would be a little dull, I could probably mix it in with other typography styles.

This style does give a more solid rendering of characters and objects, but the words are really hard to read since they are squeezed so tightly together, so what's the point in that?

This is really vibrant and expressive, I will however to draw each letter by hand to get this effect, also I still do want to use some proper words instead of throwing random letters about (Though I don't mind doing so for certain areas, like the wheels).

I almost considered simply making the character a plain silhouette like the above images, but one part of me thinks that the character would be more interesting if it was literally composed of its own thoughts, while another part of me once again worries about how busy everything would look...  I am still a little torn about this matter actually, so I just might do two versions and see which looks better after.

 

These are just other references I have been referring to when creating more solid shapes out of type while still allowing the words to be somewhat readable. A variety of things are used, such as different colors, opacities, sizes… they do however try to stick to just one type of font, despite stretching and distorting them.

Again I was considering giving my character some facial features... despite how I decided to go with a faceless character, these references are still useful for color usage and expressiveness. I also noticed how some of them had effectively used the same lines of words without rotating them to give the subject a better shape (Referring to the 3rd to 5th images), and once again, instead used size differences for some proper hierarchy and contrast.

Set, Series, Sequence - Stage 3.2 (Sequence)

I actually made a lot of changes since the last VL post, in fact I think I pretty much redrew the entire storyboard. At times like these, I really need to remind myself that it will never work out if I just rush through something and have it done with, if there's still time especially, I did better do my very best.

I am happy however to go back to the fluffy, lovey-dovey story I had planned on doing originally, though right now, having chosen to go with typography, I am deciding on whether I should have this done digitally or traditionally, either way, both are going to take a lot of time, which I really don't think I have.

Panel 1: Car comes into view
Panel 2: Zooming in, as the car passes by, we see the driver laughing away
Panel 3: We see the back of the car as it drives away, leaving behind a very wriggly looking rainbow trail
Panel 4: Rainbow Screen Phase
Panel 5: Shifts to a field scene, the character coming from the left
Panel 6: Car comes from the right
Panel 7: Both 'embrace' one another, but scene shifts again just before they actually reach each other
Panel 8: Character cleans the car thoroughly (Hence why its seen in various spots)
Panel 9: The two are sharing a shake
Panel 10: Watching a movie
Panel 11: Dancing
Panel 12: Watch the sun set, before all fades to black

Adobe Premiere Pro Induction

And so Friday inductions finally returned this week, starting with a brief look at Adobe Premiere Pro. Pretty much a video editing software, there are however quite a few more things this program has to offer as compared to iMovie (A program that I have been using for all of my video edits thus far), and allows for more thorough editing. Our lecturer was kind enough to carefully run though with us on the features that would be of use to us in the future.

Two key factors to take into consideration before editing videos are the size and frame rate (Something we have already begun to familiarize ourselves with the first few animations we have worked on this semester), while the standard frame rate is 25 fps, there are other choices to considers such as 12 fps (What we have been using for our animations), and even 30 fps (The frame rate normally used in iMovie and in most american film productions. It was also interesting to hear that a frame rate of 48 fps was actually used for the Hobbit.

Much like Adobe Indesign, it is advised to keep all the files (Raw video footage, sound effects, still images, etc.) in one single folder, as moving them will cause a loss in that data inside the project (And you will have to go through the trouble of relocating where that file is once the software informs you of it going missing), it also makes things a lot neater and easier that way.

I was pretty taken back by the variety of presets that were available when we had first started, there were actually so many filming devices that could be used, and they were all separated quite neatly in the preset section, and even if you were to choose the wrong one, the software easily allows you to change to the right one once they detect that the format does not match your data.

And once you got the hang of it, the video effects available are pretty easy to use, you just need to get use to the layer arrangements and particularly the pen tool (That helps a lot for opacities and time adjustments for certain effects), it's the same thing as always though, the best way to familiarize yourself with a software is to use it more often.

I got rather excited hearing about the school's recording studios, I wasn't exactly sure what they were for when I had passed by them a couple of times (For some reason I kept thinking that there was a music course here and private lessons would take place there… doh), and as always they had some of the most advanced equipment available, even having the same mixing consoles that Pixar uses! (If I remembered right)

Humorously the most boring bit as stated by our lecturer is keeping our files organized, which is something I actually don't mind (I am use to arranging my laptop files nearly every week anyway), and I am really glad that he is so willing to help give some more pointers for this software along with the others (The mass editing of images in Photoshop using Actions (I believe?) especially got my attention), and has told us to seek him or Matt out whenever we have the time to.

It is just so hard not to love this school...

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Set, Series, Sequence - Stage 3.1 (Sequence)

I decided to keep the story simple for this one, while I really would have loved to make the car seem more sentient by making it go on dates with its own owner (Prance in the fields, go out for milk shakes, watch the sunset, etc) , I feel that I will be squeezing in a lot into just 12 panels, and I really didn't want to make it seem too rushed. 

Panel 1: Character happily whistles as it takes a stroll

Panel 2: It passes by a large glass window

Panel 3: Just as it nearly disappears completely from sight, it turns its head sharply and looks in

Panel 4: Suddenly it presses its face against the glass to have a better look of what caught its eye

Panel 5: Close up of back of car

Panel 6: Close up of front of car

Panel 7: Overview (In all its shiny glory)

Panel 8: Character falls in love with it

Panel 9: Slamming the doors open, the salesman inside turns its head in surprise from the sudden entrance

Panel 10: Character suddenly shoves money in the salesman's face

Panel 11: Character practically jumps at the car, as if wanting to embrace it (Not see, salesman rather warily holds out a hand to main character, telling it to be careful)

Panel 12: Character drives car off, leaving a wiggly looking rainbow in its trail

I think the right choice of medium will make this story look a lot more interesting, as soon as I figure out which one I should go for...

Set, Series, Sequence - Stage 2 (Series)

Ugh, I am really behind schedule for this one, I will just have to immediately move onto Stage 3 without getting the chance to show these to my lecturer first.

While I had planned to design a cute, cartoony character for this series. After much thought, I decided to keep this character's design ambiguous so to show how it relates to most (If not all) car lovers, I will however at least give it a mouth in the storyboard later on to make it a bit more expressive.

I tried keeping the perspectives simple and instead tried doing different close-ups (Since cars aren't one of the easiest things for me to draw).

Collage

The mixture of textures definitely gave this piece a pretty fun look, it depends though if I have enough of the same materials to make several more of them (And making them for scratch also takes time).

Ink

One of the more detailed ones, it was nice figuring out ways to convey the love the character feels for its vehicle without the use of colors and instead with different lining techniques (Though I could easily throw them in with other mediums if so desired). Thankfully this wasn't too time consuming... though I probably could have done a much neater job than this, the scratchy style doesn't really work for this subject.

Markers

I wanted to give detailed marker rendering a try, but as I was also thinking more about how to present this into a story, flat coloring might actually work better if I was to choose this medium for my storyboard.

Pencils

My least favorite, aside from the fact that it was one of the more boring ones to work on, I just feel that it doesn't convey the character's love as much as the others.

Pens

Probably the fastest one, instead of giving this one a huge amount of details like some of the other pieces, I decided to instead go for a more simplistic line sketch (With minimal shading) for the character and its vehicle, especially after seeing some nice, stylish examples that takes advantage of negative spaces while also adding a decent amount of details into selective areas instead of all over the entire thing.

Poster Colors 

My second least favorite (Maybe mainly because it takes longer for works like these to dry), I really wouldn't use this type of medium for my animations unless I was given a decent amount of time, it would be better to use these for single illustrations… like this one actually. I also decided not to add in the character for this one and instead show a proper close up of the back of the car.

Typography Collage

I decided to just do a collage version for this one too as penning in each word would take me awhile (Though it will probably give a different visual result). It isn't too different as compared to the other collage piece, though of course the usage of typography does perhaps give more insight into what the character thinks of its car. 

It's terribly hard making out the figure of the character curling on top of the vehicle (It just looks like a lump to me)… this might have probably looked better if I had penned in the words by hand (Though it would be much more time consuming).

Watercolors

Aside from the really awkward hugging pose in this one (It looks more like a defensive pose… which probably still works), I do like the dreamy look the watercolors gave this piece, I was also trying to follow my fine art teacher's principle of not using black in my watercolor paintings, and simply use darker shades of colors instead. 

I have noticed too that the composition and perspective for this one is pretty flat and dull, which unfortunately does take away the pretty feel of the watercolors used. Even if I was to draw the same subject from a variety of perspectives, I never should have drawn one as flat as this. I will definitely keep this in mind for the future.

Final Animation for Animation Skills

Titled "Fear" (Of being interacting with others and being judged, mainly sociophobia), alternatively titled "That Escalated Quickly", enjoy!

Pose to Pose and Frame by Frame Research

Most of the time these two factors tend to go hand in hand when it comes to animating (With the exception of straight ahead styled animations), I especially needed to use these two when I worked on both my photoshop (Frame by frame) and hand drawn (Pose to pose) animation studio tasks, so why not combine the two into one post?

By drawing in the key poses first, this works as a useful guide and gives you a proper idea on how you can draw out the rest of your animations from there as well as have better control over the animation's timing, especially when following a storyboard. You will probably notice the difference between an animation that uses the pose to pose technique and one that uses the straight ahead principle instead (The latter tends to look a lot more rubbery, and sometimes smoother than a planned animation).

Looney Tunes (Pose to Pose)

Bjork (Straight Ahead)

Once the key poses (Also called Extremes) are drawn in, it's time to smoothen out the animation by putting in the in-between frames it is also easier to decide from there how fast or slow you want an animation to move, by putting in less frames or by putting in more. Normally an arc guide is also used next to create the wanted flow of movement (And this pretty much applies to everything, even a finger raising to point at something).

The pendulum animation is a perfect example of how pose to pose and frame by frame is applied (Especially since, as I mentioned at the beginning, had to use them both for my digital and traditional pendulum animations) as well as the arc line guide .

While 12 frames are normally drawn for each second, you'd be surprised how smooth animations can be even with fewer frames, here is a great site that breaks down a variety of animations and show them as references for animation timing (Though if you have a Mac, you can open gif files in Preview and see how many frames one tends to contain, I tend to do that a lot):

http://framexframe.tumblr.com

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Storyboard Progress 4 - Research

Storyboards are an important guide to not just animations, but to any other form of moving media (Music videos, live-action films, commercials, video game cutscenes, etc.), it only makes sense to always draw up one (No matter how rough, so long as you yourself can understand it) before commencing with creating the final product. While they are mostly used as rough guides, at times I see them as another form of sequential art, especially since I have come across so many highly detailed examples (Such as Seung Eun Kim's works, and no I will never stop talking about him). Storyboards are also drawn in many different ways, some might go into more detail while some… are a little harder to comprehend by those that aren't involved in the project.

Drawn by Bruce Timm and colored by Eric Radomski (1992-1995), the storyboard done for the title sequence of the ever loved Batman the Animated Series made use of various lighting (By showing how the backgrounds can still contrast properly to characters that are practically just silhouettes, the stark alley lights to create a proper focus point, and the dramatic flash of lightning at the very end) and camera movements, I find it to be a really good guide for the animators and shows exactly what Bruce Timm's vision was.

Turbo (2013)

This one focuses more on one small scene where two characters are conversing with one another, while it only takes place in the same setting the entire time and barely shows them moving, it does show the wide range of expressions that the two snails are suppose to display as they talk. It also works as a rough guide for animating the lip synching later on.

The Legend of Korra

While most frames are incredibly simplified and lack a huge amount of details, it makes sense as this is apparently for an epic, fast paced action scene. Only outlines are needed to show what it is that is suppose to occur in this scene, face details are only ever drawn when the character close enough to the camera. But I will be honest though, it was hard understanding this without screenshots of the finished animation being placed beside them for comparison. I believe however that this is a typical example of storyboards done for shows that already have episodes released and is still ongoing, so obviously deadlines are a whole lot tighter.

Far more detailed and polished storyboards are only done for when a show is being pitched or is still in the early stages of 

Disney's Frozen

One of the roughest examples I have seen that appears to be drawn directly from the script (Especially since they seem to be drawn on various scraps of paper), it still gets the scene across and clearly shows the important bits like the camera shots, and roughly the expressions the characters are suppose to convey, and I guess that's all that matters (Though I am sure they polished it later on).

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