For our new PPP brief, we are required to develop a creative presence, and as part of this presence we are encouraged to have set up several social media pages with channel art that will identify ourselves. Now, I've already got multiple accounts for different sites, and have actually updated my look somewhat recently, but I thought I'd take this as an opportunity to review my style and see what people think.
My Social Media Pages
It was pointed out to me that my first consideration should be the text that I use. The text I am currently using is very 50s Art deco, which is fine, but I should consider what this could say about myself and whether this is what I want my image to be. I'd never really thought about this before, and chose the font simply because I liked the look of it, though looking back over it, it might be a good idea to change. Whilst I am doing this, I shall also have to visit my YouTube page, as the links to my other blogs and pages have since been removed so now my art isn't actually pointing to anything.
Other than that nothing was really mentioned, other than it might be nice to design some more characters like the ones I produced for onform to have on my channel art, which maybe something I explore, not only for my portfolio but for my online identity too, though I don't think this is a necessity because I like the channel art I have currently. If it is not something I follow through with now, it is definitely something I will consider for the future.
Today I attended a surprise presentation by Zane Whittingham from Fettle Animation, a company that I had coincidentally researched prior to the talk for my Pitch Perfect project. He showed us a selection of his work - some of which I had already seen whilst I was researching, but it was nice to see the pieces I had missed - and talked to us about breaking into the animation industry. I thought it was interesting to hear about the freelance artists and animators that they had worked with in the past. Not all of them had been what Fettle had been personally looking for, and so they didn't end up working there very long, but it was nice to hear that they had achieved success in other companies, and that there are considerate people such as Zane in the industry that still found the positives in individuals to refer to other creatives and clients. It made me think more positively about the animation industry as it seems to be a closely knit network, and though you may not excel with one company, you may be comfortable with another, and that's okay; definitely reassuring.
After the talk, I took the opportunity to chat with Zane and show him some of my work. I thought my Responsive work related heavily to what Fettle were doing with their own, so I showed him and he seemed to like it, and even asked to see other work I had been working on, which was nice. When I asked if he had any pointers he told me to remember the principles of animation and try to incorporate them the best that I can, and that Anticipation might be a particularly good one to focus on with my current responsive project, especially when the character is working with the pitch fork.
I really appreciated the time Zane took to talk to me, and the tips he was able to provide. He had given me a business card, so I took the opportunity to email him to thank him again for his time, and show him some more of my work if he was interested.
In our second green screen tutorial we were shown how to key the green screen and remove it from our footage that we collected in the first session. The process was surprisingly easy, but then again we were only shown a very basic level of keying, it can obviously get much more complex than what we were working with. Still, I can definitely see how this process could be of use/beneficial to me in the future, if the opportunity arises.
Screenshots of Steps
As I said, the process was relatively easy. To start you drag the keylight effect onto the JPEG sequence then use the screen colour to select the green screen. You can tell that the screen has been removed as the red of my composition background is showing through, but there are still areas that remain due to the green screen being poorly lit to begin with. To correct this I played around with the screen softness and the shrink/grow until I was happy with how it looked.
To remove the rest of the unwanted background, I created a mask. I played around with the mask expansion so I could get a close to my subject as possible without erasing any of it. From here I was able to add in a background and compose the piece.
Final Product
Overall I found the session to be very interesting and informative, and I think I was able to do a good job with the source material we had. It was a shame that the windmill shakes due to the original photographs but it will do for a test. If I were to do this myself in the future I now know the importance of keeping the camera steady and keeping the green screen well lit!
Today we had a very quick session on how to use green screens, which I found to be really interesting. We ran over the basics of how green screens work and how they were used. I also discovered that green screens are green (or blue) because this colour isn't a common colour found in skin tones. Who knew?
We were shown how to set up the light stands and LED lights, and I found that you would have a number of different lights to do different things. You even have to have a separate light - or lights - to light up the green screen, which I did not know. I also learnt the standard way for lighting up your subject.
My Beautiful Diagrams
The diagrams that I have created outline a standard set up for using a green screen. The Edge light imitates the sun and will shine on the object, in this case, from behind. The Key light is set up opposite the Edge light to act as light that will be bouncing from other objects onto the main object, IE reflections from the sun/indirect lighting. This is usually not as bright as the Edge light, and you can actually replace this light with a reflector, but sometimes it's better to be able to have the control over the intensity of the light if you have the option to. Lastly, the Fill light is simply there to get rid of any unwanted shadows that are created by the first two lights. This light will definitely not be that bright and it is usually just a subtle addition to make the aesthetic of the shot nicer. Having said this, it all depends on what kind of mood or look you're trying to create. If you're wanting to have a shot that is reproducing the effect of the moonlight on a scary setting, you might only want to use the Edge light. For instance, Sin City is a film that used Edge lighting for almost 100% of their shots, as that was the look they were striving for, so it all depends on preference. What is important to remember however is to light your object first, no matter what set up of lights you are wanting to use, as well as trying to not let the light for the green screen interfere with the lighting for your subject. Above this you also have to consider the space you have to work with, and the size of the object/subject that you're photographing.
Using a green screen is not something that I had even thought about using before now, but I would definitely like to give it ago, whether it be for a future project or just something I experiment with.
There are around 9-11 main mouth expressions that are used in dialogue, and these can be broken up into both vowel and consonants. When creating a lip sync it's important to remember to animate the phonetics rather than each individual letter as the word would be wrote down. Instead, you need to study the phonetics of a word, or even how a group of words would be spoken together.
Examples of Lip Sync Charts
Some Golden Rules of lip syncing include:
- Animate vowel sounds
- Only add punctuation shapes where necessary. Too many will make the mouth movement seem un-natural and out of sync.
- You can be a couple of frames early your animation, but it will never work if the visuals are late.
- The shape of the mouth forms the sound.
- Exposure sheets are useful!
I wanted to quickly test my new lip sync knowledge as it is something I have not yet experimented with, as the opportunity has not arisen. I selected a sound clip from the audio for my responsive project (as it's the only audio I had with me at the time), and used Martin's prepared mouth shapes to try and create a lip sync.
Lip Sync Test
As a first try I don't think I did too bad. It was my first time using Hold Keyframes in After Effects too, and I'm so happy that I now know this exists as I can see this feature being very useful for future projects. Though I did have some issues that no one seemed to have the answer for; the mouth shapes were changing in between two keyframes that were exactly the same. With this being said I think the mouth movements look relatively accurate, and I would like to practice this further to see if I can improve this skill, as I definitely think I'm going to need it.
In order to gain inspiration for our own company and to find out who our competition was, I have researched a handful of 2D animation companies, both large and independent. I started my search by thinking of advertisements that were especially creative/narrative driven to accommodate for the interests of both Emma & Joe, and Ciara. Adam&EveDDB
The first I thought of was the Christmas John Lewis advert "The Bear and The Hare", so I started my research there. The company that produced the animation is Adam&EveDDB and I soon found that they are not at all a small company, but in fact have around 200 employees.
They have worked for a large range of clients, the majority seemingly being for products but have done the odd piece for different charities. Though, it is not just animations they have produced for their clients. They have made illustrative ads for different clients and campaigns, and a lot of their work is also live action, so seemingly have a wide range of skills and capabilities.
Client List and Company Overview
Overall: The company doesn't seem to be focused in terms of media and their approach to briefs, but instead seem more inclined to produce advertisements.
Martin Agency
I found out about Martin Agency from a featured ad I saw on one of my social medias about Oreos, and really liked the art style so wanted to find out more about who made it. I discovered that Martin Agency have produced many advertisements and illustration ads for Oreo before, but I just didn't realise who they were produced by.
Client List and Company Overview
Wonderfilled Oreo Advertisement
The company is again a very large one that employs over 500 people from around 27 different countries, and much like Adam&EveDDB they produce a variety of work that seems to lean more towards advertising, though they state that they have capabilities in strategic planning, digital work and data analytics.
Distant Future
An Animation company that specialises in 2D and 3D animation, producing work to ensure "audiences remember their experience". A large company that has produced work for the BBC, National Railway Museum, Twenty Twenty Films and other clients, ranging from logo animation to motion graphics and visual effects.
Farnell Element 14 - Distant Future
Fettle
A small animation company based in Pennine Yorkshire, made up of three creatives that have a "passion for character animation, strong design and telling great stories". They have won a number of awards and produced work for clients such as Cbeebies and Citv.
Founded in 2005, Kilogramme is an award winning animation design company based in Manchester. They focus on 2D and 3D animation and will "take you from initial concepts and ideas, right the way through to the finished product".
Blue Zoo
Blue Zoo is an multi BAFTA winning animation production company that are based in London. They specialise in character animation, and produce work across all digital platforms.
Studio AKA
This independent studio is based in London as is known internationally for their "idiosyneratic and innovative work, expressed across an eclectic range of projects".
A company that specialises in animation, CGI, motion graphics and VFX, with a team of more than 100 artists in their offices in Noho and Brixton. They provide a range of services from advertising to TV and film industries.
Comic Relief
Golden Wolf
Golden Wolf is a "solution-focussed production company bases in London's Shoreditch".
Here is just a small selection of companies and work that I like. I found when I was researching that generally the studios either specialise in a certain media or method, and apply this style to a range of different types of animation/briefs (for example, charity work, advertising, tv and film), or they have a particular client or output in mind but create the work in a variety of different ways. The latter was more common with larger studios, so I think we will be able to be successful by being open minded about the briefs and clients we take on as a company, yet being somewhat restricted by method.
I also like these studios not just for the work that they produce, but because of how they presented themselves online. The way they introduced themselves was very professional yet friendly and inviting, especially Martin Agency. In their about me they say "We are creatives, UX planners and number crunchers. We are mustaches, fixed gear bikes and cardigans. But we are also Jeeps, top 40 lists and the occasional selfie. Our goals are not just about dollar signs or rewards for our shelf (though we like those, too). Our real goal is to help clients find and tap into new energy for their brands", and I like that they have been able to get across their values and goals as a company while keeping the character and 'funness' of the company and employees. I would very much like to encorparate this into our own company, especially as we are striving to be fun and narrative driven.
Myself, Joe, Emma and Ciara have decided that we are going to work together on our new PPP brief that requires us to set-up and pitch an animation company. I thought this was a good group to be in as we all seem to have similar work ethics and the work we produce doesn't seem to be drastically different in terms of media and program preferences. We also didn't particularly have preference for what area of animation we want to specialize in either, which I thought was initially going to be a good thing as I thought this would allow us to be quite broad with what work we could produce as a company. We soon realised that because we didn't have a preference our options we TOO broad, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to think of what we could do as a company.
We sat down and made a list of all the things we were interested in and what skills we thought we possessed, and we realised that 2D was a common element in all of our lists, and that we all liked using Photoshop and After Effects, so thought it was a good idea for our company to specialize in those areas. We also decided that we will tackle all areas of animating, as we are all capable at post and pre-production as well as the animating itself.
Now we had decided how we were going to make work, we then had to decide on what it was we were going to produce and who for. We discussed what it was we were passionate about and what it was we wanted to make, and I soon realised I have absolutely no idea. I have so many interests in so many different areas (Eg. games design, stories and film & TV, advertising, info graphics) that I was willing to go with group majority vote on this one; I basically just want to create. Ciara mentioned that she was interested in advertising, but was more interested in the adverts that are creative and get their information across by using a story, whereas Joe and Emma were both interested in storytelling. In the end we have chosen to be open-minded with what kind of genre the work is, but it must be narrative driven. We are going to be STORYTELLERS, that are "serious about having fun".
For responsive I saw that a lot of students were submitting drawings to Onform as one of their individual practice briefs. I really liked this idea but I had already completed all of my individual briefs, so instead I thought I would submit a couple of entries for my own entertainment, with hopes of developing my Photoshop skills and broadening my portfolio and the range of work that I featured on my social media. I actually managed to gain a couple of followers across my different accounts when I posted my work too, which is always a bonus!
I definitely thought that these were beneficial to me, as it really made me use my imagination and got me thinking how the shape could be incorporated into a character or design. I found that I was also not jumping on the first idea I came up with too, and I would come up with many different ideas for each shape as I wanted my drawing to be unique compared to other entries (there were multiple entries that had more-or-less the same idea for the same shape, just executed in different ways).
Onform also limits you in terms of colour, and sketches that include anything other than grey-scale and the colour of the shape won't be considered, and I have never been constrained by colour before so it was a new experience for me.
I also took this as a good opportunity to work with the pen tool in Photoshop (for some of my designs). It has been suggested to me before because you can create smooth lines but is something that I've always avoided as I haven't had success with it with other programs. I soon found that it was a lot easier to use than say the pen tool on Illustrator, and I definitely think using it improved the look of some of my pieces. I found it especially useful when I was trying to trace the shape I was given, as the pen tool allowed me to do this accurately without creating a wobbly line.
You are also time constricted, and each shape is only up for a week. Though this is more than enough time to complete the task, it did further teach me the importance of submitting in good time, as my first design didn't actually end up getting showcased on their website, as it was submitted just too late.
The second game I am currently involved in producing art for is Jim the Annoyed. James came to me with the idea of a platformer where the character is being forced to move around and complete levels, and he wanted me to create the characters and backgrounds for him. Once again I accepted, and it is proving to be much more of a challenge than the previous game I helped with. This time I'm actually putting my animation knowledge to use in a way that I have not done before. Again, I'm working at an extremely small scale to what I would typically work at, and I really have to think about the movement of the character and pixels.
Though I have a lot of creative freedom with the art, this time around I have been given certain guidelines and characteristics to work with, unlike when I worked on Berry Picker. When he asked me to design the sprite sheet for the main character, he asked me to bear in mind that the character is disinterested and is being forced by the player to move around.
Example of Walk Sequence
Bearing this in mind, when I drew the character walking, rather than having him stood up-right, I had him curled over with his arms drooping in front of him to try and make it look like he couldn't be bothered and was putting in no effort. You can't really tell because of how small it is, but I also gave the character bags under his eyes to try and emphasize the aesthetic we were aiming for.
Sprite Sheet
Because I only had to draw out 8 frames, this process didn't take too long, though I did initially struggle with the shape of the character and how it should have been drawn. Once it was completed, I was also confused at how the sprite sheet should be laid out. When I initially drew the animation I worked around the planted-on-the-ground foot, but the frames will not be able to work in this way as he will take too much of a step forward when the player makes the character move. In the end, I thought it made sense to make each image line up by making sure that his neck was central horizontally throughout. I am still awaiting to see how this looks in game-play.
My boyfriend is studying computer science at University, and once again he has asked me whether I'd like to create the art for the games he is making. Though the scale he was asking me to work at was much smaller than what I was used to, I accepted the challenge as I'm always up for gaining experience and trying new styles.
The first game I had to produce art for was very straight-forward as there weren't too many things to design as it was an incremental game; I only had to create a background, title and a few visuals. Usually this would have been a very quick job, especially as he required the art to be quite basic, but it took a bit longer than expected as I was working at such a small scale, the background being around 800x800 pixels, and components being a maximum of 100 pixels wide/tall.
Screenshot of Berry Picker
GIFs Showing How The Components Change In-Game
(Poor Quality Due to Being Scaled Up)
Even though my experience with Pixel art is limited, I was able to produce components that both he and myself were happy with, so much so that he has asked me to produce art for his next project, which I happily agreed to work on. I really enjoyed the challenge of creating pixel art. and it was a nice to create work for a game for a change rather than animating. Game design is something I have definitely been interested in for a while, and as I'm still not sure what I want to pursue, I'm willing to continue to explore to try and narrow my choices down, building up my skills along the way.
