update

I haven't updated my blog in a long time and this is due to a work placement. I have been working on a something involving sabers. Its going well so far and I am looking forward to the final product.

But i will put some work up later on nothing relating to the work related for I am not allowed.

AE WORKS

After Effects is working again i figured out that for some strange reason the fist few frames would glitch the programme not letting me render my work or it would just crash after effects :/ Very bizzar but at least i have rendered what i have been creating :D

And here it is just like the other orb going across the scenery but this one has particles that will hit the floor and have a small beam coming form the back of it. All of the new effects have been done using the Trapcode plugins like Lux and Particular.

God Damit

After Effects is being a right pain!! I decides to crash at the most unappreciated times :/ Don't get why but it doesn't like me today. I have been working on a effect like you see on skyline when the orbs come down through the clouds :D Its looking good but every time i start to get some were it crashes. I have a test of what the orbs will look like and how its going to emit stuff. But i come to render and nope it just crashes.

Looks like i may have to take a tiny 3 minuet break from it.

Hopefully i shall get the thing to render and put some more samples up for you all to go ooooooooo or ..............

The orb in Scenery

I learned how to create a light source in a still or video footage and make my light go through creating a realistic lighting effect.

Glowing Orb

I created this in After Effects using masks and some new toys like the vages filter and learning some new stuff for how to create depth of field in after effects this is the orb i created :D

AE Test 3

This time i have made it so the text explodes into dust :) Going to try making the dust glow as well :)

AE Test 2

Here is the other version ever so slightly different haha only the colour is abit more depleted the background has changed colours and there are small particles in the background flying past like small bits of glowing ash.

AE Test

Been messing around with after effects :) found some pretty awesome stuff you can do with it thanks to video copilot. I am now able to make a 3D environment with all 2d objects. I am able to simulate volumetric lighting and i can also make font look 3d.

O and i can create shadows haha. This is what i done with all the things i have learned it took me about 2 hours to do but that was me flicking between what does what and well hopefully i should be able to create these similar effects fairly quick in the near future.

Makes me smile

And here is my latest piece of the lady that makes me smile :D

Visual step by step of how i done it as well :O

I wish i had recorded this :S would of been nice to watch haha

Has been awhile

Am back to post bits and bobs, so these are my layout sheets. My favourite part of them is the colour spectrum. Yep a strange thing to like out of it all but its true.

I have also written my treatment and made a start on the amazingly fun powerpoint presentation.

Iphone paint anyone

This is what i have done with my iphone painting app called My Paint Free. It is a bit faffy to use but after a few days of messing around on it i managed to come up with this!

let him climb

Yep this animation was a pain in the area were the sun dont shine! Really fiddly and overly complex to male it look right but other than that i think it works very well with the spear getting put away to am happy :D there are a few pieces left but i need to concentrate on the writing side for a few days :(

ITS THE END AND WE KNOW IT

Here is my loverly animations of what i handed in two cycles one with white background and one with a background. There are still things i need to tweak but i can easly do that over the assessment week. I will also be doing my treatment...... yep here goes some eye popping stuff, since i am a great writer you will see words spill out of the paper into real life creating a strange and biezzar world.

Well i have more new images to upload to which i will do in a later post :) One image i done on my iPhone painting program ;P

of Water and Earth

I have decided to start creating illustration again in lovely high detailed colour. I was talking to a friend the other day about the zodiac signs and how water is compatible with earth and so on. So i have decided to create a piece called "of Water and Earth"

and here is what it looks like so far. Yep its the beginning of a painful piece but if i get it correct it should look very lovely. Please tell me what you think even though its at the beginning of the drawn so not that much detail just the silhouette work.

And here is the initial sketch :D

Little Trip to Sunderland

I went up to Sunderland to meet a lovely friend of my and she took me to the winter gardens i took some photos of these lovely vines and some strange plant that was squidgy. I can use these photos to come up with the tropical and unusual design of the trees and plant life wish i took more photos though. I was more in awe about some of the strange plants that lived there.

Run Cycle

Here is the run cycle with a background the background moves to quick and to slow for certain parts but the run is fine just looks off because of the background.

And here is the run cycle with no effects or backgrounds just white.

Its getting there

its nearly right now just messing around with stuff plus the wind is to fast for the movement of the cloth until the wind is meant to be fast.

Here be my test for the flowers power

Yes as the title is saying i have made my flowers move and snap like Venus fly traps :) tell me what you think. There are bits that needs sorting but all in all i am happy with the way they move. O yeah i also added a faded oval to the frame which i will use for when the child becomes afraid.

Skills and stuff

All right kid time for story time

Through out this week i have developed the skills to be able to make things dance in after effects. Am geet proud of the test i have produced. Those puppet pins do wonders that i thought would of created complications. But they didn't, so now my tubby fingers are going to be flying with my mouse to create every walk, jump, skip cycle i need. There are other lovely little elements i have found in this wondrous creative programme called after effects such as, i am able to do layer filters as if i were in Photoshop and well Photoshop is my home when it comes to drawing. So the layout is more Premiere pro but this i have used before. All in all after effects was a new programme for me but it did not cause any confusion simple because of the Photoshop and Premiere Pro's layout.

So to say the least i am rather happy with my work this week i have also done story boards. Just need to finalize the script in proper script style. Which i am terrible at so there is a skill i must try and develop on.

O i also was taut how to use emitters in cinema 4D by the lovely Paul. Thanks to those lovely emitters i have been able to take a huge bulk load of work of my shoulders for the fairs and dandelion seeds.

Walk Cycle

Here is the first walk cycle its still slow in certain areas and he covers to much ground for how slow his legs move. But this is just to give a general idea on how the animation will roughly look like when it will be complete. Well the visual style that is haha.

the segmented character was joined together doing a hierarchy in After Effects and the all done with puppet pins. I will throw up the screens on how i done it in a later post but i still have IK chains to try out to see if its better than the puppet pins.

I used After Effects to put the dandelion seeds in as well by just using filters to overlay them onto the the piece. The emissions was created in Cinema 4D using emitters and wind. :D

Look out!

Here is my latest piece that i mocked up today. He is soo happy to have his lovely teddy bear "plush" in his hands that he doesn't even realise were he is walking. Oooo dear, anyways there is other little critters if you look for them. Also the vegetation is all mad up, hopefully by the time i come to composite anything to my animation when the walk cycles are complete i will have time to put these lovely plants in.

Timetable

Here is my time plan for next week and hopefully i will stick to it and create loverly pieces of animated walk cycles :D

Dandelions "fairies" emmiter

Here is a quick test using the emmiters in cinema 4D and the wind tools to create the effect of dandelion seeds floating across the screen which i will need for some scenes. Please tell me what you think.

Test the puppet

Here is a quick test of the puppet pins and what i could use it for. And with puppet pins i can do thins like simulate grass physics and cloth physics. Its only a small test i will do a image to test out what i can do to benefit my animation with these lovely puppet pins. I will also try out the ik as soon as i have installed it. Which i should be doing tomorrow.. hopefully.

teddy got present?

Here is a image that i created for a dear friend who is not feeling so grand. So i though what the hell why not may as well relate it to my project as well as for her. Hope you like it and tell me what you think!

Time to Go

This piece is along the same theme and idea of the other recent piece i have done. Instead of seeing the poor child running for his life or looking serious, i though "hell everyone needs to be happy". So i have started to make a series of the child playing with his teddy "plush". They seem to be going well and i have also decided to make new vegetation for the piece and will be put into the animation.

This gives more work for my self but i feel it will give the animation that little bit more of life to it. These will only be implemented if i have enough time.

I also have made my assets for my after effects test's to see how the character moves with ik chains and puppet pins. These will hopefully be up by the end of the week. I also have teddy "plush" walk and climb to put under the dragons eyes to see if it looks worthy or not.

Update

I have changed one of the hands for the child looked uncomfortable with the way his hands were orientated. So hopefully it looks as though his hands are not odd looking.

New T-Shirt Design

Here is a new piece that i may print on a t-shirt later on depending on how the test print turns out. I though i would draw something more nice and show the child's happier side of things. Please tell me what you think.

more sketches

I have been sketching like crazy i have a good few designs for t-shirts badges and so on. I will use illustrator for some of them then the rest will be done in photoshop. The reason for the illustrator usage is simply i havnt got much work using it so i will try and brush up on some skills will it.

Video Game

I forgot to mention in my previous blogs that i am working closely with my brooother on this project of mine. He has decided to wont to make a game of my little boys adventure. So i will have my work cut out for me thinking on the terms for the animation and the game. So i really need to get my script nailed in the next week. So Dave if you reading this i will be stalking you on Thursday for help :3

Through out this week i have been making teddy bear walk and climb cycles which i still need to test to see if they look ok. On top of this i have been refining my layout sheet still need to do the expression's sheet to smooth out the images.

I have started to do some file management to organize my modules. I still need to decide were a lot of my concept work will be placed in a certain module.

I will be redoing my t-shirt again due to the image being to small on the t-shirt and the image being a bit to dark to work out. I will also be making a few more posters. All of this is done in my spare time and its all for my marketing of my work to try and get my awareness up with world!

I will need to start a strict time table to manage my testing times and my character animation so i can find out which looks the best and what will take less time but still get the style i am going for.

These videos have influence me and is making me want to try out some technique's that have been used in the videos.

BBC Winter Olympics

Olympics 2008 Monkey

Varmints

The Tale of How

Heavenly Sword

Layout Views

Here are my layout views of the character there a bit late but they are done :D

T-shirts and stuffffffffff!!!!!!!!! 2

Okay so i got my prototype t-shirt done today and here it is!! With a lovely fashion pose for you all to be in awe over... yeah its a bit creepy hahah

The t-shirt design i feel needs to be bigger and cover a bit more of the t-shirt but i will test this next week or tomorrow if possible. I have also been doing a bit more frame by frame work for the teddy bear and its going okay will see soon enough though.

T-shirts and stuffffffffff!!!!!!!!!

I have started to do my line test's for my teddy's walk cycle! They seem to be okay so far but i will creating 2 different types of walk cycles just to see what the best one looks like for the character.

On top of this i have been doing my research even though its going slow just trying to find good examples of what i wont to do, but seems there is a very few amount of animations that are easy to find. So i will have to go about looking at different ways people have approached certain way of animation such as cut out and stop motion.

Plus as something that only took me a few minuets to do i have created a nice little t-shirt design which i will get printed off soon and will post a picture of it's gloriousness...

Dynamic Poses

Here are some Dynamic Poses i have done will be creating some concept pieces soon on how the animation should look when its done! Lets hope i get it right

New book :)

I got my new art book to add to my collection today :D The Art of Uncharted 2 Among Thieves!
And yes Naughty Dog are the creaters and this book is amazing! Iv always looked up to these guys along side the likes of OddWorld! I also managed to get my grubby hands on a dead risen 2 one not much in there but there is some good stuff.

I will be working out what i need to submitt to which module out of all the work i have. I am also working on a few test so i will update the stats on them as i go along. The layout sheets are almost completed which am happy about.

The music side is still gritty and i havent really touched it much but i have started something, will leave it for a while so i can grab the feel and motion of the animation its self to work with.

Through out this week i have been working on my layout sheets this week and it has been going well, i need to finish and tweak my dynamic poses. I have also been watching the making of DVD's and one that really took my interests was Alan Wake's making of for one simple fact it covers nearly everything.

The Alan Wake making of coverers how they progressed from being stuck in a Basement to a thriving well renowned company of the name Remedy. They progressed from a simple top down game called Death Rally then to the Max Pyne franchised. Now Alan Wake is there latest and the visuals are stunning.

This kind of company really interests me as well as Starbreezer.

Timetable

20/09/2010

Monday Morning	Complete character research and layout research. Print off work and print of image recently done. Start thinking up layout of character sheet
Monday evening	Start layout sheet roughs create roughly 3. Think of textures and pan tones plus the style.

Just the beginning of my timetable :D

His Final Journey Poster Monochrome

Okay same image but monochrome instead tell which you prefer :D

His Final Journey Poster

I have simply taken out the title text for it dose not look right at all! Might design another one were i think about were the text can go ahaha

Poster

This is a much better version in my opinion but the writing is still naff even though thats not my area haha so i might get someone to think up of something for me if you have any ideas please let me know

A poster for the new style for the animation will brighten it up later!

Research and progress

Research and progress

After looking around for awhile I stumbled across some lovely animation one I already know of and the other is not so much a animation but its still involves animation since its a game.

Limbo

The style of this is very well done I really like the silhouetted style with the very nice faint glow of light breaking through. The characters animations are greatly done to I notice that he never actually looks at the player face on or turn his back. That is clever for the way the game works and I might try this in a test sample for my animation.

Kwoon animation

The style of the character not really showing much of its face is what I have ended up simplifying my character to be like. But mixing the style I have done with the likes of limbo style could work really well. The processes of this animation are all done in 3D I still haven't determined what I will be doing but I don't think I will be doing it in 3D. Heading towards the animation being 2D and hand drawn frame by frame. But this could change as soon as I test some styles out.

Whilst I will be focusing on creating ether a more simplified version of my character and doing the character sheets I will be making some test concept art pieces to see what it would looks like if I mix the two styels together. After doing this I will be making a very small version of the leather bound book that I wish to create ounce the animation and the illustrations are finished.

Mushroom Kingdom

This isnt the best in the series of drawings i have done even though i have only spent about 3-4 hours on it were as the rest are around 8 hours. But i may come back and tweak this This is only a piece i decided to do for i liked the idea although i may implement it to the story of him going through a massive Mushroom kingdom

New Child Layout

This could fine well be the final version of the child for the animation but time will tell. Please tell me what you think plus you may like the next piece and working on

Well here is the new character that i may end up going with since he will be more nimble to animate. Perfect really the character that it not the concept doesn't seem right but i didn't spend to long on this one about 1hour 30 mins. The colours are to bright and vibrant i wont the vibrant look but nor the really bright look. So i think i will stay with the technique i used on the rest of the concepts.

His Final Journey Update!

OK its been awhile since I have updated anything on this and the reason for this is I am trying to work out new designs that will benefit the animation in the movement side of things. The other character "short and fat one" looks cool but will cause problems for my animation on the way the character has to move in some of the scenes. Plus I am trying to create a new look for the animation were each frame wont take me hours to complete. This is and obvious one for many reasons.

I am still going to be creating the scenes as highly detailed illustration to go along side with it and hopefully if every thing turns out the way am hoping it to i will be trying to get in printed in as a art book with the animation and tutorials of how i created the work.

Character layout sheet

Here is my character layout sheet nothing fancy.

Becoming Friends

This in the new style for the animation. I am starting to grow to the style for it will be easier to draw frame by frame and i can still get the atmospher i wont. I used two main colours here pinks and blues to gain that very mystical dark forest feel. The whole piece is based on the child finding a creature of beauty in a place of fear. I hope you like the new style for this project and please tell me what you think. O and i will still be doing the highly detailed version of this and the rest. This is only to make the animating easier for me.

Concept style *Busy bee part 3*

This only took me a less of 20 minuets so its not

detailed or anythin

g but i was trying to think of a simpler style to animate the animation in.

Not the final version but it may be good to show the dream world with odd

proportions and strange vista's.

Please tell me what you

think! Will be much appreciated

Child concept *Busy bee part 2*

After that I decided to try and make more simpler version of the child in the animation. Here is a silhouette version which would be the part where the child will feel a great amount of fear. The idea was to make the child resemble fear it self. So he is scared but the child's fear becomes a physical appearance.

Busy bee

Iv been a bit busy of late with the move house *again* The wedding and work. But i have been drawing from time to time.

First of is a few butterfly concepts for colour.

Then i created a 3D version of the butterfly for no reason what so even just felt like doing a 3D version.

Update "His Final Journey"

I have begun my next piece and its called Becoming Friends! This piece is about when the boy is surrounded by fear in the middle of the woods and a loverly glowing butterfly flutters to him creating mass amount of light.

This light giving the you boy something to hope for. As like most children they can make friends with anything even thin air so I decided to pair the two together.

With the way that iv been doing my work and uploading is kind of muddled up since i havent even done the begining of the childs adventure through "His Final Journey". But ounce it is all done i will put them in the right order and upload some of the boys characters sheets and the butterfly's. Even though the first and only butterfly i drew up is my final chose hahah only messed with the colours.

But keep and eye out this week i will be trying to get a lot done but for today am being lazy since am tired hahah.

His Final Journey update

His Final Journey has fully been drafted out. The script that is. I have a lot to start drawing and to work out what kind of media I will use and the approach I will do for this animation. My estimate time to get this animation fully completed is maybe around a year with college on top of it. That is if all goes well. I have to choose a certain segment of this entire animation for basic concepts on how the animation will look and how the animation will work. Also since I would not be able to get this entire animation done for my current project.

I haven't though of the sounds I will use yet but I know it will only be sound effects of the surrounding area and the music there is going to be no narration or voices. I wont the viewer to decide on what they are saying and the full reason behind the animation.

I will keep you all posted on any changes and the segment I will be choosing for my course. I will also upload the test animations and you can tell me what you think. At this moment in time I am thinking of making the animation more like a graphic novel. So I can really concentrate creating a really beautiful animation.

I have also decided to just keep the child's name as child. This can give the audience a bit more of a connection and actually name the child what they wish. Making it there own story but not at the same time.

Update

I have added more highlights to the Butterfly and a bit more detail to certain things on the boy and the butterfly hard to see since the original image is massive But I hope you like it.

Havens Gift of Healing

Okay the child is back and this one has been created more for this contest than my personal project ahahah. The idea behind this one is even in the harshest of times the simplest things can grow shear beauty. So the rain is healing the child's wounds like a mother would her child. So the mother and farther are in this piece take a guess what am referring to. I hope you like the piece for it was trying its best to annoy me hahahah. Any crit is appreciated. The links to the other pieces referring to this piece are below, please take a look if you wish!!! [link] [link] [link]

Entering His Dream

Okay so I have updated this piece but i just cant seem to get it right but everyone gets like that don't they? Anyway I changed the position of the arms and made the legs longer to fit the proportion issue's but still not satisfied with it.

I have added more like and made the entire image more vibrant in colours. There is a different film/old effect to this one compared to my other ones.

Entering His Dream

This piece is the begining of his dream. I though i would enter it into the this comp sonce there is some reference to it. But bassically the child is in a dream world and this is how he enters it. Crossing a fast flowing river on a fallen tree. This piece was hard for me for am not the best a drawing trees but i will leave it for a while then probably go back to it to make small amends when i see them hahah. The dream world is located here and then what will happen later on is located underneath the first link. The second link is sad for this is the reason why i did not post it in this competition. [link] [link] Please enjoy and leave feedback if you wish.

The image so far

Here is the latest piece i am working on at the moment :D

The lighting needs correcting in a few places and shadows need to be applied with reflections and more detail.

So i hope you like what you see at the moment.

New Piece on its WAY!!!

Yes I have begun my next piece may take longer than my other ones but it should hopefully have the same visual impact as the rest. Will be more vibrant in colours but at the same time have the style that I am known for. So there are going to be loads of textures and very distinct colour overlay.

In the future I may post how I actually colour up my work but for now this will remain a secret :D

O and I need a name for this entire series of work with the boy in it. For there is more to come and I mean there is loads to come.

My goal is to get at least 3 minimum done a week. :D So i may be a corpse sitting at my screen before I go back to college hahahhha.

Art Slide

Here is video i threw together with Mar de Grises's unconscious passenger with mar de grises's approval to use there music :P

Blogger!!

There is one thing that irritates me about blogger is that the images i upload are shrunk. Even though the images will make your screen spaze out for the shear size of them. But you cant see the tiny detail is put into it. But i guess that's what I have to live with.

His Journey Ends.

O i changed the name to just fits better. I have put a lot in this to make it at my personal standards. And to say the least I really like this piece! I have improved lighting and shading I have also changed the tomb stone. Made some colours more vibrant and there is also Seagulls and if you look very closely you will see the moon. Please tell me what you think But any ways the meaning behind the piece is after searching through deadly woods to find one of his family members he ends up here. The story for this child is very very very sad. I will be writing up the script soon so please follow my blog and I will post it as soon as its done.

Progress

I have started to really refine the latest image His Journey Ends and well its looking really good. I have put a huge amount of detail in the you child. Started to work more into the lighting and i have put things in like the moon overlapping the sun. There are small things in this image that you will really have to sit and look at it for a good while since i am putting a lot into it.

Even though i have a few more things to sort out with my last piece. I have already sketched out my next one. And i think people might like this one. For it is happy. When the boy meets the butterfly :D Going to try and make it magical :D.

End of His Journey

This piece has a very vibrant cherry blossom but the child is very dull. The reason behind this is for the tombstone *which i will probably sort out* is his Grandfathers tone stone. So i tried putting a contrast on the two things. One of beauty and the other of sorrow. I may come and work on this some more but at the moment this is generally the finished product. Will participate and feed back.

I have to put seagulls in the back ground completely forgot :O silly me.