Research

Today I've begun to gather information regarding the research I will be doing for my character animation and design.



I have a blog on a website called Tumblr, and on this blog I follow hundreds of Artists designers and creators, even famous ones who have worked on famous cartoons and who are very popular.

So I have had no trouble in finding a good number of them who I know inspire me and help me with coming up with ideas and styles.

I have found some really famous designers as well who are some of my favorites and inspire me the most, and its so interesting to see their blogs as it feels really personal but at the same time professional

All of the artists work that I picked is definitely useful for developing my work, I also looked on this website for several interviews from the artists, and to see if there were any others I would find interesting.

http://characterdesign.blogspot.co.uk/




I have included all of the artists in my sketchbook PowerPoint and also added notes from the artist themselves.

Competition

As I was doing my research today Nick was talking to us and mentioned a website called

https://en.eyeka.com/

He mentioned that this website was full of project briefs from different companies, all looking for work to be created to advertise their products, and they did them as competitions, with cash prizes for the winners and runners up, this interested me right away, And I signed up on the website and started looking for projects, eventually finding one for a hair dye transformation, which I knew I wanted to do because I usually dye my hair and I can relate to the situation, the competition had passed, but the brief was still available to work from, so I saved it.

Nick also helped me to come up with ideas for the story in which revolved around a young woman who transformed her life by dying her hair. Both coming up with ideas and writing them down, this was a big help towards imagining my animation, especially the story and the characters personality.

 

·         Create a touching and original video or animation that shows how hair coloration can transform a woman’s life!

·         Your video should tell us a good story of a captivating transformation that will affect her personality, her style, her feelings… and ultimately, her life!

·         Strong emotional content is what we expect here. Of course we are talking about positive emotions: empathy, happiness, joy, hope, inspiration… any emotion that feels true to you and that everyone can relate to.

·         Your video should also appeal to young and modern women

·         Your video must have a viral potential. By viral we mean that people who see it would want to share it with their friends

·         Simply tell a story that any stylish young woman can relate to! This means that your work should be dynamic and edgy.

·         Don’t be controversial. Stay within a universal framework

·         Humor does not seem to be a right way to communicate our story of hair coloration. Preferably bring it to life into an emotional story

·         Storyboard (No character looks just basic shapes of people doing the story)

·         Layout of each scene

·         Film Footage Reference

·         Personal Video Reference

·         Posing Reference

·         Thumbnails (Rough drawings of each character movement)

·         Think of composition, how the audience views each shot

 

1)      Girl is down, unhappy, grey, lack of colour (Room/outside)

2)      Flat hair, holds her hair and flicks with disdain

3)      Friends are colourful, laughing at her

4)      Changes to her in bathroom, dying hair

5)      Hair is colourful

6)      Things become colourful as she walks past (Little dog)

7)      People say hi to her, take pictures,

8)      Walks past her old friends and they turn grey

 

More research

This time for research today I was looking more at character design so I looked up on the website Pinterest character turn abounds and Model sheets all of what I found I was glad I did and just loved getting all of the images together and getting inspired. 

New project

Our new project is here, we also have a new tutor, and we get to decide what we want to do for our own work, I know I've wanted to do Character designing and character animation since before the summer, so I know Its definitely what I'm glad I've chosen.

After choosing our modules we were then asked to start our Learning plans, this would be setting out what we wanted to do in our work and what we hoped to achieve, I had a lot to write, but I knew what I wanted to do. I was pleased that I got a lot written down.

I then went onto the VLE as I knew this is where all the project briefs were so I could go over everything incase I needed to get anything else before I started.

On the project brief I always note down the Reading, resources and references list. As I know that this list is very useful in helping towards my research and development work.

The one book that I thought was most relevant to my project was Digital character animation 3 by Maestri, G. (2006). This was available and I got it out, I wasn't looking into getting information from the whole of the book as most of it was on 3D animation, but the pages of information on 2D animation I know I can take notes on.

 

At home I have been going through the book, and I have gotten a lot of notes, all very useful towards my work, these include :
 

“Make choices that communicate the characters personality visually”

“Characters should be well proportioned and appealing to the eye, Even the Villain should be appealing, particularly if it's in a delightfully gruesome way”

“Avoid criticizing your work during the creative process, critique is important, but should happen during revision, not creation.”

 Sketch on paper rather than on computer, computer gets too technical whereas drawing on paper with pencil is more free

Design falls into two very broad categories – realistic and stylized, with a lot of gray area in between.

This book gave me a really good idea as well on characters personality, so I have been looking at different personalities and picking some which I feel I might want to pursue in creating my project. 

Here are some examples of personalities that I looked at, and tried to add notes as to what I would include in the character designs.

-          Quiet (Headphones)

-          Serious (Evil grin when doing art)

-           Sensitive and kind (Cuddling pet or friend, doing good deed upset at someone’s remark)

-          Do not like conflict (Breaking up a fight, crying over a fight, or angry at a fight)

-          not likely to do things which may generate conflict (Tip toeing around people, avoiding saying things)

-           Loyal and faithful (Bringing something back for a friend, comforting a friend)

-          Extremely well-developed senses and aesthetic appreciation for beauty. (Photographer, Sit in park sketching, Tattoos, Dyed hair, Self love, Flowers)

-          Not interested in leading or controlling others. (A little anxious, letting others lead)

-           Flexible and open-minded. (Happy with decisions, eager to try new things)

-           Likely to be original and creative. Enjoy the present moment. (Photography, happy enjoying most things, Playing instrument, writer, sewing, painting, Sculpting, fashion, computer art)