ASSIGNMENT IMAGES

For the assignment, we are to create no less than 4 creatures/animals, no less than 5 scene assets or props and an ecosystem/environment for the film.

Within my film, there are warring corporations in a futuristic/cyberpunk world.
One of the corporations I am focusing on is called Van Laaq.
I set about designing logos that will be present on the corporation's buildings and uniforms. It went through several iterations until I found a version I liked.

Left side of the image shows corporate ideas.It started as a military style emblem with the initials emblazoned  on it. I knocked this idea back, as it was too generic. The idea behind these corporations are that they have replaced the government and need to have a recognised symbol of their own. Something I wanted was for the first word, "Van" to be shown. It became apparent that the best way to join the letters up would be vertically, allowing me to create an eye-catching design. So began trial and error, using line vector style, but I thought that it would not be easily read. When I began further experimentation, I found that adding an "N" would prove quite difficult. I came to a decent version with a diamond replacing the - inside the A. Still, I thought this was lacking the eye-catching design I wanted. I began to think about what the corporation would do. Why that would cause rivals to attack. They war is from breaching copyrights, something they take very seriously, similar to an act of treason or terrorism by today's standards. As it is cyberpunk, they deal in human upgrades. Chip implementation. So they deal in human science. The Double-Helix of the DNA became a design focus. I drew out a double-helix and thought how I could make it say "VAN". Using a thicker line I created the A. Now came the task of making an N. I thought that with them altering humans, possible the DNA would be altered? So I made a "mutation strand" which allowed an N to form, thus creating a logo for Van Laaq Science.
Next came the agent logo. I wanted it to differ from the main company logo to show that, although they are part of the same group, they are a totally different branch. They don't deal in human alteration, unless you count blowing of limbs and filling them full of lead as alteration. I used the DNA design with a previous iteration, but still didn't like the look. I took an approach with a Medic style symbol, making VAN out of snakes, but thought it seemed a bit "Life Saving". I kept the idea of snakes, though. I created an image of two snakes interlocking. Although I liked it, I didn't see how it would convey Van Laaq. But if I changed the order of the links, I saw that it would, in a way, spell VAN. One snake being the V, the other being the A, with the space inbetween being an N.

CHARACTER DESIGN!

Character design is part of our project/assignment. So we were tasked with designing a scary creature. As I have a distaste of moths, I modelled my creature on that. And I must admit, I had a bloody good time doing it! I used a couple different sources to do quick research. Mostly, I looked at Mothra, a giant moth that fights Godzilla, the Giant Moth from Resident Evil 2 (by Capcom) and the Pokémon, Venomoth. They gave me a basis to create a rough sketch of my design (the top image) of which it is destroying a city, setting it aflame with it's napalm-dust, foaming at the mouth with rabies.

From here I wanted to ground the creature in a semblance of reality and looked for the biggest moth I could find. The Atlas Moth, the largest moth in the (actual) world. Looking at a photo of it, I was disgusted. It wasn't the horrible earth tones you see on a house moth, no. It was a disgusting blend of orange and red, with a dab of yellow, and a pattern that would make you swear it was going to maul your face off in a second. Urgh... That was the worst part of it.

Regardless, I powered through, laughing about Mothra and my original name idea of "Fucking Huge Moth", something I would abandon and later call "No Gusta Heterocera", then gave a brief, ambiguous back story, which can be seen on the bottom image.

Drawing for animation pt5

Arcs, squashing, stretching, timing and spacing.

Three examples of arcs. Two of a laptop and how it would arc from open to closed, pivoting on a hinge and a clock and how it would arc around it's central pivot. This also shows examples of spacing.

Using a pendulum example, I have shown timing and arcing.

Timing and spacing, squashing and stretching. The image shows this as a step by step process. Imagine the view as you would see it whilst onion skinning the animation.

The video shows the ball bouncing, which I made on Flash. I made the Key images, then manually "inbetweened" the ball. But it's not quite right, is it? Although the ball would maintain a constant mass, it should still squash and stretch, right? Well, depending on the material, yes. So here is an example of the ball, as though it was a rubber bouncy ball, with added easing, or cushioning. All done frame by frame.

I was tasked to show the timing and spacing of a hand waving. As I finished it, I found that the hand didn't move as it should through the arc. The hand would move further, around it's own arc, as gravity draws on it. I started a new attempt, as seen below.

Drawing for animation pt4

The posing and angle of your character is important, as it can add a sense of urgency, mystery or any other emotion you wish to convey in your animation.

Here are three examples of the same pose but from different angles.

The left side image, the character is pointing behind the viewer, adding a sense of mystery and possibly fear, showing that they can see something that the viewer doesn't. The use of foreshortening is needed here to show they are reaching out to the viewer.

Upper right image, a profile shot. The partially obscured face adds a sense of mystery by not showing us the entire character and their features.

Lower right image, 3/4 view. I feel this is the most effective shot. It gives a sense of action, using both foreshortening and obscuring the face. The hand being closer to the viewer in the way the angle falls draws you into the scene more.

Drawing for animation pt3

The use of light and shading to create a 3D effect.

The above examples demonstrate the shadowing caused from a single light source. The surface that the object is on reflects a portion of the light back, which lightens the lower edges.

Drawing for animation pt2

In this post, I will be showing muscle structuring, with examples of the human anatomy and animal anatomy.

Four examples of the human muscle structure, focusing on the upper body.

Using an anatomical model, we had to draw what we could see from whatever angle we were at, here I was on the back left of the model. One side of the model showed more muscle mass than the other, which displayed the skeletal structure more clearly. From where I was sat, you could see examples of the bicep, tricep, latimus dorsi, trapezius, deltiod, sterno mastiod and the external oblique. 

This view was of the front right of the model, allowing view of the facial muscles, and the muscle groups named above.

A drawing which should have been larger, to allow for more detail to show, a dog. Firstly we were to draw it's skeletal structure, and on top of that, in a different pencil, the muscles. When we drew this, we noticed that the bone structure is similar to that of a human, with a few differences in size, some slight shape change and the lack of the collar bone. The same was with the muscle groups. The muscles are in a very similar set up. I added the drawing of Trudy, because she's great.

Our next challenge was to mix the bone structure of a couple different animals to create a totally outrageous animal. With my example, I drew a horse, but gave it the lower jaw of a whale. Although this would stop the horse from eating, I held to the notion that this creature gains sustenance through blood, stabbing it's prey with it's insane jaw. -oh, my imagination! 

This lovely little chap (or chick) is a drawing I was quite proud of! Drawn firstly by boiling the shape down into basic shapes, then added to to give it detail. This dog is covered in fur, which covers the muscle mass, making it appear less defined.

Whilst drawing this, I discovered the importance of negative space, to get the spacing and size correct.

This big beastie looks fierce, but I'm assured it's a really well mannered dog. She's a whippet that was born with a rare affliction which gives it double muscle mass. It's truly an impressive sight. The cranium of the dog seems a little too large on this drawing, but the definition of her muscles I felt came out very nicely, conveying the tone nicely.

Drawing For Animation pt1

Below are some examples of drawings for animation that I have done.

We have been practising drawing complex shapes, like this gorilla, by breaking them down into simple shapes, like squares, circles, triangles and so forth. This allows you to form the basic shape of the subject.

This rhino was done in the same way as described above.