Anchor Points vs Puppet Tool|Extended Practice

I came to the point where I should start thinking about what tools can be used to animate. Initially I thought about using puppet tool in After Effects, however, while drawing puppets and props, I came to the conclusion that it'll be more efficient and easy to just use anchor points. So, whats the advantages of anchor points over the puppet tool?

First of all, puppet tool is great when used on a drawing as whole, as it creates rig/mesh - great for pieces that are not made from multiple parts. However my puppets and assets are made from many separate elements. Puppet tool can't be used across multiple layers, which is another advantage of anchor points. I can parent joints and create hierarchy (e.g. finger > wrist > forearm > arm). Anchor points can be moved at the end of each joint, which will be marked by a pin. By using rotate I'll be able to animate them. After a brief conversation with one of the tutors I also found out that anchor points moved in Photoshop will be transferred into AE so I don't have to do same job twice. Below is a screenshot showing how I parented shoe and knee to the leg and that change of rotate values makes whole leg move.

Another thing i had to consider was whenever I should add sticks to the character arms or not. Problem with that is that I'll have to imitate the motion caused by it, which could be problematic and difficult to do in After Effects (oh and time consuming). Moreover I like the current aesthetic and with digital media I don't have to worry abour 'is it even possible' thing ;).
So what's next on the agenda? Lots of tests and wrapping up background painting. 

Finished Props|Extended Practice

Below are finished assets I'll be using. It might seem like I'm repeating it over and over again, but thinking modular was a key to the success. I'm able to fill up scene quickly, while not making it look boring.

I feel like those are the most important props I'll need but I may draw some more, depending on what will be needed.

Plants- Modular Approach|Extended Practice

I need to draw forest. And I want it to move and interact with characters! Okay, Betty, slow down... From the beginning I knew that there will be a point where I'll have to change my approach and create modular parts which will speed the whole process up.

Above is a simple sketch that explains this idea and shows few initial rough sketches that I quickly created. From it I've created a finished assets. Keeping each part of the plant separately makes it not only easier to animate but also allows to create multiple variations. Below is an example of what I mean by that:

• 3 different bush assets where created with 7 elements;

• each element can be scaled and manipulated, allowing to create complex parts of set fast;

• colour of each element can also be adjusted in Photoshop, allowing for even more variety in design.

 It's also worth mentioning I used the same brush for lines (FernFlowerLineBrush) and shading was done with 'spongy' Sample Tip1 brush from Artur Fast brushpack, which gives a realy nice texture.

Business Cards|PPP3

I've created my business cards a while ago, last year, just before the Showcase Spectacular in Corn Exchange. Since I was taking part in a student collective exhibition and shared a selling table, having business cards with contact information was a must.

I used Moo service as they've got a good opinion, their cards are quite thick and print quality is decent. I used few of my favourite drawings on one side of the card, while other had my name and contact details. I like to call myself concept artist - illustrator. Those are two jobs I'd love to do for living and are my passion.

In total I've created 8 different designs, half of them showcasing my concept art work (character designs) and other half with illustrations. 

 

On the back of each card I've added a link to the portfolio and my professional e-mail address.
I'm quite happy with how the cards look like, however I'm a bit sceptical on where I can potentially use them (other than Final Year Show) as I still lack a lot of confidence when it comes to approaching new people.

Storyboards|Extended Practice

Below are very rough storyboards I've quickly drawn to map out all the scenes. They are far from perfect and I wish to have more time to work on them.

Finished Puppets|Extended Practice

Below are finished puppets which I'll use in this project.

I'll add more pins to make them look even more puppet like. Also I changed eyes on the Girl to make her look less creepy. Right now all those puppets are more or less same size, but I'll scale them to match my needs, as they were drawn on pretty big canvas. Again I used FernFlowerLineBrush (which is basically a normal chalk brush with extra scattering and texture) and a FernFlower texture brush for shading (which is a rock brush I got from one of the sets with some options changed). Freckles were made with a brush from Loish brush set.

Shape Language|Extended Practice

Creating recognisable and easy to identify sillhouettes is always a challenging task. In this project I wanted to put a lot more thought into shapes and make sure they support told story.

Let's start with the characters:

• Boy and Girl are kids so I wanted their shapes to be read as that. Since everything is made from paper, it was a bit challenging to keep their proportions right and suitable for kids (larger heads, small body). I kept Boy sillhouette rather long while Girl has a big hips and more rounder shape siginifing feminity;
• Vodyanoy is a villain of the story and a water demon. With that information in mind I decided to use more angular shapes,which are typically associated with dark characters - sharp edges, rectangules and triangles. Also his body have a tear drop-like shape which signify his natural habitat - water.

As for the forest I decided to stick with strong, big, bold shapes to create trees and bushes. Moreover modular design was something I had to keep my eye on as it saves a lot of time while enabling me to create multiple itterations.

Battleblock Theater|Extended Practice

BattleBlock Theater is a platform game developed by The Behemoth and published by Microsoft Studios on Xbox360 (it was also a part of the Games with Gold offer last year).

Okay, so it's another game that caught my interest when working on FernFlower. Why? The stick-puppet style of cutscenes! While game concentrates on battling the evil kittens and collecting gems, cutscenes are used to explain a story in a fun and freshway. Style is very simple and cute, while animation matches the way characters are designed perfectly. They really do feel like pieces of paper attached to the stick!
Many solutions I saw in BattleBlock Theater won't be used in FernFlower, but I'll definately try to take some of the vibe and feel of character movement. And use it as inspiration for future projects.

Atomahawk Design|PPP3

Atomhawk Design is a studio based in Gateshead. I've been following their twitter account for a long time now and it's nice that their followed me back. I really like their style and the fact that amazing Charlie Bowater and Viktoria Gavrilenko (Viccolate) works their as artists makes this studio my little dream job. It's great to see studios with gender diversity, as it could be scary to be the only girl in a team.

Atomhawk specilize not only in game concept art, but also in marketing art, UI/UX design and motion graphics. Their portfolio of projects is impressive, with game projects such as Killzone:Mercenary.

They are looking for intermediate to senior concept artists but I feel like giving it a shot anyway after graduating. You never know if a studio need somebody extra or not and so many of them decide to keep portfolio submissions for later.

Redesigning Vodyanoy - how I work|Extended Practice

After talk with Mike and presentation-crit I've decided to go back to Vodyanoy. The reason for that was simple - initial designs were done very early, when I didn;t had any clear idea of where this project was heading. Since I've established overall look and style there was no other solution that reworking my water deamon character.
This post is just to show workflow I used for this task. First, rough sketches weren't a complete waste of time as I found some things that can work even with the new style. For example I'm going to keep his tear drop body shape, which indicates a habitat this creature lives in (water). Also facial explorations came in handy - I had a lot of different head shapes to play with!
In case of my puppets I followed simple few steps, so here is a little breakdown of how to create a animation ready character in this particular style:

1. Design part: draw a rough half of the character (as they'll be shown only from the front), copy and mirror-it to create a whole silhouette;
2. If there are any things that still needs changing - change them now, if not...
3. Start on the outline! However keep in mind that each element needs to be kept on separate layer, so it can be animated, for example layers can be made for: head, eyes, neck, torso, arm, leg, knee, etc.
4. Arm and leg parts can be done only for one side of the body and then copied and mirrored;
5. Fill-in each element with flat colour, still keeping layers separeted;
6. Using textured brush shade each part of the body;
7. Add little details;
8. Add pins to each part of the body, merge together lineart and colour layer for each element (e.g. head lines and head colour);
9. Done! Import to After Effects and have fun!

I used this process for all the front views and saved a lot of time thanks to coping and mirroring some of the parts (e.g. arms, legs).

Paper Plants|Extended Practice

Since I've more of less established look of my character I started gathering some more references for the enviroment. I came across these paper plants of Etsy created by TaylorStonePrints and imidiately felt in love with them.

I really like simplicity and flat, bright colours.Also the way leaves are stylized is quite charming.Colours are definately too bright, but at this stage I'm more interested in shapes and silhouettes. Designs of bushes and trees need to be easy to read and recognise.