New Music

A few days ago, Chris got in touch with me again about the music. This time he had created a longer version of the soundtrack music. This one starts the same as the previous version, but changes halfway through and becomes lighter and more uplifting. He wants to me to send him the correct timings of all of the actions in the animation so that he can tailor the music better to suit it. I think I will create a detailed animatic using Photoshop so that he can see for himself the precise positions of all of the shots within the storyline.

Sandra Dieckmann

“Imagine a thing and bring it to life to share your inner vision”

Sandra Dieckmann is a German freelance illustrator working in East London. Her skills have been applied to a wide array of international commissions and projects, and in 2011 Sandra won an award for Upcoming Talent in Illustration in the UK.
Her work combines the emotional depth of the hand-made with the boldness of graphics. I have always admired her style of drawing, and it reminds me very much of Julia Pott's own artwork. She often focuses on animal characters with a cartoonish appearance, making the lines and patterns stand out in her pieces. She in another artist who's work I try to emulate slightly in my own.

The link to a full tutorial of Sandra's Photoshop process can be found here.
This helped me a great deal when I was creating the backgrounds for my scenes. Seeing her process helped me to get into a flow of my own and grow more comfortable and confident with what I was creating.

Presentation

Tomorrow I have to give a short presentation to my animation class about the proposal for my animated piece. I prepared a slideshow to run through with all of the class. It contains minimal annotations, as I plan to talk a lot over the slides. I included as many visual references as possible and kept it concise. I even went as far as creating a sound-cloud account so that I can play Chris' music to the class as part of the presentation.

Brother Bear - Production Tests

Brother Bear Animation Moose Tony Stanley and Broose Johnson from Helpful Bear Productions Inc.

Original Moose Test from Helpful Bear Productions Inc. 

Castle In The Sky

Castle in the Sky is a 1986 animated adventure feature film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was the first film officially produced and released by Studio Ghibli. 
In the film's backstory/ exposition, human civilizations built flying cities which were later destroyed by an unspecified catastrophe, forcing the survivors to live on the ground while the sole exception Laputa remains in the sky, concealed within a powerful thunderstorm. 

The name 'Laputa' is derived from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, wherein Swift's Laputa is also a flying island controlled by its citizens.The anime also makes references to the Hindu epic Ramayana, including "Indra's arrow", while the name of the main character Sheeta may be a reference to Sita, the female lead in the Ramayana. This ties the fantasy element of the story to recognizable elements of our human society.

Some of the architecture seen in the film was inspired by a Welsh mining town. Miyazaki first visited Wales in 1984 and witnessed the miners' strike firsthand. He returned to the country in 1986 to prepare for Laputa, which he said reflected his Welsh experience. It shows how animators use their own experience and knowledge to delve into for their creations.

As it is one of Miyazaki's older works and takes much place in the everyday world, the film is not as visually spectacular or deep in its storyline as Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, or even Princess Mononoke. 'Castle' is very accessible to people of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds. The dubbing or subtitles allows it to be seen across the globe, and as it focuses more on children as the central characters many questions of representation or adult issues don't come into play.

First Sound Draft

My friend Chris sent me a first rough draft of the sound production. It is the soundtrack that will be used at the start of the animation, in the more melancholic scenes. He has said he will continue to work on it and refine it, and send me later versions of it soon. I am getting pretty excited now!

'Bounce' Version 1, Chris Barker

Completed (Yet Unfinished) Storyboard

Using the template provided on Study Direct by our course tutors, I created a very basic initial storyboard. It finishes earlier than I intended my plot to finish, so I will have to supplement it later with additional pages. I created it in Photoshop with my pen and tablet input, and typed all of the text. I tried to include both plot description, and lighting, sound effects, camera angles and movements.

John Lewis' Christmas Advert

This year, John Lewis' advert int eh run up to Christmas is an animated piece, featuring a bear and a hare preparing for Christmas celebrations, accompanied by Lily Allen singing Keane's Somewhere Only We Know. The animation uses traditional line drawing for the animal characters (by artists who worked on The Lion King), who echo the creatures of Watership Down. The commercial uses a unique animation style that combines traditional 2D hand-drawn animation, stop frame, and 3D model made sets. This is apparent in the scenes where animals are frolicking in the snow with their presents. The wrappings paper and gifts seem to a a distinctly different material to the backgrounds and the animals.
The advert id poignant, and it's aim is to create an emotional connection with the audience, with sympathetic characters and a sentimental storyline. Many  viewers have commented on crying after watching it. As well as holiday celebration, the unifying theme is friendship and gifting loved ones.
The colours are light and airy, emphasising the aesthetically beautiful parts of winter rather than the gloomy ones. The animals are not depicted particularly cartoonishly, like in Julia Potts works, although they possess anthropomorphic features, such as the hare's large, doleful eyes.
The framing is constructed very well, with the Christmas tree always appearing in the centre of the shot as a focal point of the scenery.
There is a clear, defined narrative to the video, which plays out in just over 2 minutes. This shows how much I could accomplish if I scripted my plot well for my own 2 minute piece. The structure of the narrative follows typical conventions, with the setup introducing us to the main characters; then creating a dilemma/conflict; bringing it to a head in the climax; and then the story ending with its resolution.
Update: Just found out on the Toon Boom website that Toon Boom Harmony was used for the production.

More practicing of artwork

A poorly photographed image of a sketch I am working on. It looks better in real life, I promise.

Practice drawing