Week one: During this rotation, we focused heavily on different compositions within film making and different angle shots. One of the first few activities we were given was to a brief and draw a quick image inspired by it.

The prompt i chose was ‘Knocking down an antique vase’. I really liked the idea of how cats are known culprits of knocking down random objects. Both images are of the same scene however they’re both drawn from different perspectives as I wanted to experiment with different shots and compositions. I think that both sketches turned out well and managed to portray what was happening in the image.

We then had to create an observational sketch of our whole surrounding, adding more paper onto the ones we were using as we expanding the drawing. I forgot to take pictures of my work unfortunately however, I remember it being difficult as people and objects were constantly moving. It was also difficult to capture the perspective of different objects which made some objects look bigger than others when they should be smaller.

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Week 2: For this week, we went to Southbank and the Tate gallery to do some observational drawing of different people around us. At first, I found this difficult but the more I drew, I became more comfortable/ confident in drawing strangers. It also helped that since people were constantly walking and moving, I had to remember not to go into too much detail and make quick sketches as well which meant I didn’t have time to focus on what I see was ‘wrong’ with my sketches. Here are some of the sketches from the lesson:

 

 

 

 

Using the observational drawings, We then had to make a three panel story with a beginning, middle and end. I found this a little difficult as I didn’t know how to portray a full story in three panels. I chose to use the man taking a picture as my character in my story where he sees something strange/ beautiful and decides to take a picture of it.

Week 5+6: For my 3D world, I decided to create a mystical looking glass container with jellyfish. Originally, I wanted to create a tree house, however, due to my lack of knowledge using maya I opted to make something more simple.

Moodboard and planning: Firstly, I decided to create a moodboard first using pinterest By doing this I was able to come to the conclusion of creating a jar or glass container containing a scene inside of it.

I also researched different types of jellyfish and how different jellyfish look like before drawing out some different sketches as well as some ideas of what I wanted my world to look like. In the end, I decided to go with the purple striped jellyfish. The sketches I made are only rough ideas however, I ended up going for an opened ball that opens up, similar to the round design I made.

 

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Before starting my work, I wanted to try experiment and make a jellyfish in Maya first, specifically how to make the tendrils look smooth and curved. After some time, I was able to make a simple jellyfish with two curvy tendrils. I was quite happy that I succeeded in avoiding any sharp edges when experimenting. With this, I was able to recreate it in my final work.

Final piece:

 

I’m not very proud of this scene. Whilst I didn’t hate Maya, it was extremely frustrating to learn and figure out. The scene looks a little empty however I believe that if I had another week or two to learn Maya it would be easier for me to use. I think that maybe in future I could make a better narrative using Maya. It was quite relieving and rewarding when I finally figured out how to make/ do certain things within Maya. It required a lot of trial and error to create certain textures and looks for different surfaces. Overall, I would benefit from learning more about this program.

Week 3: For this rotation, we are introduced to motion graphics and how to apply a few of the 12 principles of animation within adobe aftereffect; animating using ease in/ out, arcs, squash and stretch as well as animating heavy and light bouncing balls.

Whilst I’m not proud of the squash and stretch or the arc experiment, the bouncing balls and the ease in and out experiment I found to look more natural. However, initially, the rotation of the bouncing balls were a challenge as I would end up rotating it too much, changing the position of the ball when it would hit the ground.

In the following video, I’ve experimented with overlapping action on a jumping figure, using hair.

In this experiment, I wanted to add in squash and stretch in the hair to emphasise the movement and the gravity acting on the figure and the hair.

Week 4: For the second half of the rotation, we’re tasked to make a 10 second video using one of four provided audios on adobe photoshop and after effects.

Seagulls

Clean lineart (with audio):

With background and sound:

Finished Video

Since I’m unfamiliar with adobe, using after effects and photoshop was quite challenging. I think I may have overestimated myself during this project as I was unable to finish it on time. I think that once i get used to them and start using these programmes more often, I’ll be able to finish something similar in a smaller amount of time.

Week one: In this animation, we were learning how to use the programme ‘Dragonframe’. Here, we chose a movie from a list of ‘Top 100 Movies Bucket List’ on IMDb. As seen here, we chose the movie ‘Spirited away’ by Studio Ghibli.

Week 2: During the second week, we were tasked to create a 10-20 second stop motion video with original sound.