Author: Layton

Ideas and Process:

I used garage band for the main soundtracks (using my laptop keyboard as a note input) and then used after effects to add a few effects such as fading out. I used royalty free tracks for effects such as rain fall.

For the first image, I drew inspirtion from the resident evil series. In the remake of the second game, there is an emphasis on sound as you can hear the main enemy walk around the police station, with a musical soundtrack only coming up when he hasspotted you or knows where you are (for example if you make too much noise). I wanted to imagine what it would be like if there were a musical track in this section. I tried to keep it minimal and play into the horror theme, with a choir in the background as the police station used to be an art museum, and I thought it would fit the ambience. I used air bell synthesisers, as I thought they added to the horror ambience and sounded like an empty echo, emphasising the isolation theme the game tries to impose. This image is a screenshot from the game while the other two I drew myself.

For the second image I imagined it as a scene after the main dramatic scene in a movie where the main character walks into the rain and contemplates his actions.I used a roya`lty free light rain sound over raindrop synthesisers over synthesised glass bells. It was hard to balance the volume of each of these components as I didn’t want them to drown eachother out.

For the third image, I again went for a horror vibe as the sound design in horror media is one thing I admire a lot. I tried to make it seem like there was an unseen enemy quickly approaching in a haunted hospital corridor. I feel like the synthesisers in the background clash with the synthesised ‘even horizion’ chords I used and I wish I could have made it a bit more gentler. For the next time, I’d love to have some musicla knowledge so I can make better decisions, as I feel like my lack of a musical background held me back in this assignment.

For traditional animation we had to practice pose to pose and straight ahead animation. I found straight ahead slightly harder as it was easy to go off model, for example in the second ball animation, I had to redo some frames as the ball started getting bigger and more off model. However I liked the looseness of the straight ahead animation and there was more freedom to change the animation, for example adding an extra bounce in the ball bounce animation. There was more creative freedom as well as you made it up as you went along, as I did in the first animation with the ball exploding and then becoming a dog. However I also enjoyed the pose to pose animation as it was relaxing to do the in-betweens and I liked playing with the timings of the keyframes for different effects, and I enjoyed how it mirrored digital animation, something that I’m more used to. I wish I could have had more time with the final animation as it seems to lack life, I would have liked to have added a 2-3 frame boil and loop it so the character does not seem so static.​

Link to the pov film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ApJm6VyMjc​

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As I was completing this unit I decided I wanted to show my perspective in the form of my own personal characters, as they mean a lot to me as I have been developing them for over 12 years. I drew inspiration from comic works, and from our motion-graphics rotation and combined them to show tweened comic panels. I also wanted to learn Toon Boom harmony and did so for the rough animation section. I want to share my characters with animation, as though illustration can convey a lot- animation can convey even more. For example, in the fight animation, I tried to show Westley ( long eared dog) as someone who was acting out of anger but was not used to fighting or using his strength by making his movements determined but also full of evading and dodging- he starts a fight that he does not know how to win. Diablo, (The black dog) on the other hand I tried to animate in a way that shows he has a clear upper-hand, he never dodges, only attacks. I used techniques we learned in our 2d rotation, using an animation timeline and using both pose to pose and straight ahead to build up the movement. I was inspired by works such as Felidae (Michael Schaack) for the animal movement and animation style. I wish I could have utilised colour more to show symbolism or dynamic, and some of the compositions could use strengthening.​

Song Credits: Glass Animals- Gooey (Raido Edit)

Working Shots:

Process:

This video is more of a ‘sketch’ version of what would be a more detailed video. I am not a fanof how it came out and the final product would be much higher in quality.

I used tweening, and tried to keep it subtle so not to make the video look too ‘busy’. I also used easy in and easy out, since the video is simple I did not use velocity graphs or anything similar.

I limted myself to 3 colours, with red being the most saturated and vibrant.

Analysis

The theme was ‘connection’ and the video is meant to show the connection between violence and loss of identity, and how our identity is connected to our actions, and how a dissonance between our actions and our identity can cause a disconnect. I chose this theme as it is something I enjoy a lot in media, as I feel like it is the most interesting way to explore a characters personality and personhood. I wish I could have conveyed it better though.

For this rotation I drew inspiration from games such as RDR and modelled a countryside scene of a fenced gate and a wheat field. I improvised and instead of using particles I modelled a set of 4 wheat stalks and copy pasted them across the ground, mirroring them so it did not appear too repetitive. I went for an orange theme as I wanted the scene to feel as if it were a snapshot of a warm summer day. The trees were made using the extrude tool and so were the ‘leaves’. I had trouble with shading and rendering, but I watched tutorials and read instructions on the official Maya website and managed to work out how to use materials and a sky dome properly. 

Sketch reference:

View full image here.

This is my final render of Delta. I used this very quick reference I made to complete it:

View full image here.

Analysis:

I used the song prompt, ( The song being ‘down under’ by Men at Work). The song’s tone reminded me of someone who boasts and exaggarates about their adventure, not only to make themselves feel better but to make others laugh, and so I created an ex-sailor who tells everyone in earshot about how great his navy career was and how everyday he completed a new feat- while in reality he actually had a miserable time and was kicked out of the navy with a dishonourable dismissal. The innards of his coat used to be blue but I hanged them to yellow as I felt like it tied the design together better, as it was the same yellow as his belt buckle, and the coat being blue made the drawing boring as nothing really stood out. Delta’s coat is supposed to make his figure look more imposing, similar to how a cat raises its hackles to appear bigger, but he doesn’t wear it properly as he’s pretty casual. I was inspired by works by Sango Harukawa and Kazuya Nuri, and tried to incorporate assets of theit style into my final render. The ruffle buttons on his coat are inspired by Gosho Ayoma’s Kaito Kid, as I wanted Delta to have a similar humorous nature. The second image was supposed to be a 3/4 turn but it seems like he is still looking forward. I also don’t like his face in the second image, I feel like the proportions are off putting.

You can see the image bigger here.

I chose the song prompt, I thought the tone of the song sounded like someone telling a tale of their adventures, so I designed a character who is an ex sailor who tells everyone about his supposed voyages and escapades.

Moodboard:

Inspirations:

Sango Harukawa

Kazuya Nuri

Something outside the cabin, if the mess of damp wood could be considered one, made a large squelching noise as it hit the marsh ground. Followed by an incongruous crunch-squelch, that suggested something sickening.

It was such an unmistakable noise, especially in the silence of the wetlands, and the two men sitting at the dinner table looked up from their meagre meal instantly. The one with large ears stopped scraping marrow out of a chicken bone to wring surprisingly silken hands (considering his age) and crane his neck to look over the soft brown down that was his companions head, as if though height would allow him to see through the closed door.

“I think Clement’s killed the bank people.”

“ Of course he did.” the other replied, returning to the potatoes he had been gnawing into strange little shapes. “They want to repossess the house. He did warn them.”

Analysis:

I wanted the snippet to start almost ‘in media res’ as I enjoy stories that seem to start in the middle of a larger arc, with a beginning that you can onlu infer from snippets in the characters conversations. I get this inspiration form naratives such as RDR2, where the player is dropped in the middle of the aftermath of a heist gone terribly, terribly wrong and it is only over the course of the game that the player manages to piece together what happened before they even started playing. I also wanted the narrative to be the start of a large journey- the consequence at the end ( Clement killing the bank people coming to repossess his squalid house) leads onto a large journey along with the two men in the house, as they avoid the inevitable chase that follows the murder. I wanted the narrative to be seen as an element in a larger story, there is history in the past of these characters but the reader has dropped in in a random moment in their lives, and not necessarily the logical beginning. I was also inspired by narratuves such as the Portal franchise, where the player feels like a smaller part of a larger story. The focus is on the two men in the house, who are a small part of the story that is Clement decdiding to rid the bankers of the burden of living. The image inspired me as it made me think of the vastness of their journey ahead.

First Panel:

The first panel was inspired by some rubbish pickers I saw near waterloo, on the bank of the River Thames. Despite doing something that is hardly rewarding or much fun, they were talking to each other as if they had been drinking tea. So I knew I wanted my first panel to start on the beach. I decided to use two characters I have who’s odd friendship I wanted to develop. And though they are not picking up rubbish, I tried to make them seem mundane whilst discussing something that did not fit the vibe at all ( a heist on a gambling ship.) This panel is blue as it’s morning, and it is meant to have a calm vibe- the cat is speaking about something dangerous but is too naive to realise the implications, again going with the clash of atmosphere theme.

Also I should mention that the cat and canine are also the two people who appear later on, they are shapeshifters.

Second Panel:

This was inspired by two men I saw in front of festival pier, who were having some kind of discussion. It wasn’t heated or anything, but they could have been having a difference of opinion. After a while, one walked into the pier and sat at the ticket booth, so I decided to incoperate him in the narrative with the same job. The black shadow on him is inspired from a figure I saw at the skate park. They had their back to me, and in the shade their phone only illuminated their front. I wanted to have them in the narrative as their own character but couldn’t make it work, so I added the shadow instead. It also serves to show that the sun is setting, as his illuminated side is the one facing the sun.

The orange is meant to show the progression of the narrative (it is now evening) and also hint at what is to come (the red) and a rise in aggression.

Final Panel:

The conclusion of the narrative- the canine ends up killing the captain that the cat had asked him to spare. I used the skatepark as I wanted something with perspective and a large space- something that was as stark and disorientating as an empty football pitch bathed in stadium lightning. The place is empty except for the canine and the corpse, so you’re forced to look at them. The saturated red is uncomfortable if you look at it too long, disfiguring the image.

The red is supposed to show the escalation from a calm blue morning to bloodshed., aka how quickly things can go wrong.

Experience Making This

I am not very happy with this. I don’t mind the idea but I am unhappy with the artwork, especially of the person in the last panel. I feel as if, I had had a more clear idea earlier on in the week, I could have made something much better with more colour and shading ( Which was my initial plan.) So I am not happy on how much this differs from my orignal idea. However the rotatin itself was very informative, I enjoyed it.

Art Inspirations