D&AD

After waiting patiently, D&AD finally released their briefs for this years New Blood competition. In previous years I always assumed it was just for Graphic Designers to enter, and hadn't ever properly looked at the briefs on offer and just dismissed the whole competition. However looking closely, it is a lot broader, but still under the category of creative advertising. Each brief is quite open allowing you to use any medium and any visual style to complete it, which includes animation and illustration. There a few more specific briefs too, but these are mostly for graphic designers.

The two I am most interested are below.

National Trust 
The first is a brief for the National Trust, making some information packs and content to attract people aged between 20 and 40. At first when seeing this brief I imagined creating activity packs for children, so I had to rethink how I would target such a different age group. I am really interested in this brief and started making a mood board which you can view here- http://www.pinterest.com/iambambiwillow/national-trust-brief/
http://www.dandad.org/awards/new-blood/2014/categories/8/national-trust

Don't Sell, Make Your Mark
The second brief I was interested in wasn't for a specific brand, and is more of an open brief designed by D&AD themselves. This brief is to tell a story interestingly, it can be any story but you can't sell something in it. As a concept itself it could be fun to do, especially as I was hoping to write a narrative for an animation anyway. However I feel this brief slightly juxtaposes with its intent, as by completing the brief and if you win, you are trying to sell your own brand and your own style of working in hope for recognition (which I suppose is making your mark, and technically there is no prize money so it wouldn't be selling necessarily, however I just think it is a little odd!)
http://www.dandad.org/awards/new-blood/2014/categories/5/d-ad

Tom Sito

In a lucky flook, I came across this great lecture by Tom Sito on animating with live action sequences. I personally had never heard of him before seeing this video, but was completely blown away by his showreel and by the amount of knowledge he so clearly has.

What I liked best was his planning drawings for the main character sequence in Who Framed Roger Rabbit at the end, where he mapped out where every character would be and what action would take place at each camera movement, to ensure it didn't look flat. What an inspiration!


Animation and Live Action: Lecture Highlights with Tom Sito from Virtual Animators on Vimeo.

Regular Show Animatic

As a huge fan of the cartoon Regular Show, when finding the animatic for one of their first episodes I was really excited to compare it the finished animation. Unsurprisingly they had mastered the timing, movement and content, which all looked near identical to the episode.

What I personally struggle with the most is keeping to the animatic/storyboard when editing, as I tend to edit with the footage I have and what looks best, whilst sticking mainly to the sequence in which the events happen.

Temporary tattoo test

After deciding that a temporary tattoo pen would be best for the costume of my actor, I ordered one on Amazon and gave it a test.

I drew out one of the designs I had created and tried to replicate it as best as I could, given that the pen nib was a lot larger than expected. Saying this when scaling my designs up it worked well and was a lovely shade of blue which wasn't too bold and looked slightly washed out. It washed off quite easily but still left a slight marking for a few days, but nothing too noticeable (saying this, my skin is really sensitive to facepaint/pens/full make-up so I find it notably difficult to wash off). Overall I am happy with the outcome, and can't wait to see what it looks like as a full tattoo sleeve.

Persopolis

One weekend I decided to watch the graphic novel turned animation, Persopolis. I had heard that the story was pretty dark but dealt with really beautifully and I couldn't wait to see what it actually was about.

Although very different in subject matter to my own film, there were some elements that I took away from watching it which linked directly to my own VFX practice. The main point was how they animated water. Much like the opening title sequence for 'The Series of Unfortunate Events', they used spiraling waves to give a more dramatic effect and stylized look. The style really stuck with me, and this is how I hope to portray my own waves.

Below is a short trailer for the film, including snippets of water animation.

After watching this film I was so inspired to animate and learn more on their process that I went in search for any behind the scenes info I could find. Luckily for me they created these small videos on the  process and team which were really interesting. I couldn't believe that they had rendered each frame by hand in pen! I absolutely love that this was all created by hand yet looks so graphic. What I love more is the small things that show a hand has created it, such as the slight roughness the ink has given to each line. It is completely perfect in it's own imperfect way. Depending on the amount of time I have left in this module I would love to render sections of my animation in such a way.

Winnie the Pooh

I was concerned how to make my bear character cute and stylized yet still have believable, and found this really cute fan-art model of Winnie the Pooh which has been rigged and animated in a Pooh like walk. It was really interesting to see such a well known character in a different medium and personally I think it works well. What I like most about Winnie the Pooh is his distinguishable movement and personality in his walk, and I need to really work on this with my chracter.

Grizzly bears in 'The Living Edens: Kamchatka' documentary

The Living Edens: Kamchatka from MacQuarrie-Byrne Films on Vimeo.

This video has some gorgeous shots of grizzly bears, especially when fishing and playing in the water. Some great reference footage in here.