The Bond of Four - Presentation Session

   Not much has changed for the direction in which I will be taking this project in since my last tutorial with my lecturer a couple of months back. I will still be working on an animation of 1 and a half minute duration (We will see really, once I get the storyboard and animatic done) and an artbook (A much more comprehensive one as compared to my COP3 one) to go along with it. I believe that I have learnt so much during my struggles with Context of Practice 3 and will try to do a much better job this time round. I will attempt to incorporate more strong and dynamic poses for my characters when designing them, and of course, this will be a good time to relearn how to draw (When it comes to perspectives especially, I believe that my drawing skills have become incredibly rusty, seeing as I was struggling so much to make my character drawings more lively when working on Lurk).

   While I am very keen on creating more intricate designs for my characters for this particular series (Especially with all the beautiful references and inspirations I have gathered from various traditional costume sites), I will also have to do a simplified version of these designs for when I animate them. When considering other aspects such as coloring, lighting (And of course the body and facial expressions of the characters themselves), there will be no need for crazy amounts of detail to make them stand out. And it is due time that I get some proper animating done for my final college project, I swear, I'm going to go all out for this.

   All forms of research and development will of course be documented here. I will however use my PPP blog for when I begin working on marketing material for this series, as suggested by our lecturer to the whole lot of us. I had made a really quick poster for this series back when I studied Illustration in NAFA, and so this would be a good time to put together a much better one alongside other promotional materials.

  As I had written before on my COP blog, I am very enthusiastic about relearning After Effects, I am sure that I will be able to put it to very good use for this project. While I am not necessarily sure when a workshop for it will be held, I am sure I can take that time to learn the basics of the camera and puppet tools on my own in the meantime (Seeing as I was shown how to only 2 days ago... it all depends on this god awful memory of mine, to be honest).

   It is also during this module where I will attempt to collaborate or at least contribute in some shape or form to my friends' own projects. Continuing on in her designing of various title sequences for animations and films from COP3, I just might be working again with Rosy on getting a one done for this animation. During Becky's presentation, I was interested in helping out a little in the concept art aspect of her project. Seeing as she will be working on an animation based on Rumpelstiltskin and wanted to give it a creepier and darker look akin to that of Grimm Fairytales, I find myself interested in contributing to that area (It would be nice to work on some slightly darker stuff alongside my own project).

   I put together a really rough gantt chart that I will be updating again soon (After all, I will probably have other plans aside from staying in to draw and animate all day, especially during Easter break, and I will most definitely be attending MCM Liverpool in March). All my classes have already been put in there, as well as roughly when I am going to do what and for how long. Research, concept art and scriptwriting will especially be worked alongside one another for the next two weeks. I am sure I will get things done properly this time round so long as I don't procrastinate like I did for COP.

1st Gantt Chart

   I especially find appeal in getting some of our characters printed out as cardboard cutouts for the end of year show. I still can't believe that this really is my final year here...