Final Major Project

Time certainly flies as the last project is upon us for the third and final year at CG Arts & Animation. Over the next 15 weeks or so, we will carry out a self directed project showing the best of our abilities of the CG pipeline. Needless to say, this is the big one.

Project ideas to come soon as I gather my thoughts - so stay tuned!

The Wolves Within Project Proposal

With the foundations of The Wolves Within project firmly in place, here is the formal document of our project proposal.

The Wolves Within Project Proposal

Unit 3 - Transcription

The last project for the second year is entitled Transcription, where we are challenged to create a transcribed piece or work of our own choosing, transforming an abstract source into a visual form. This can include an extract from a novel/poem, to a piece of music or artwork, fuelling our designs to create either an Animated Short, Digital Set or Character Design be it for a film or game. Essentially, one must identify the end goal of the project and shape the production pipeline accordingly.

Thus, with this project I intend to create an animated short with the aim to focus more specifically on environments. As I have focused pre-predominately on the character production pipeline with the recent narrative project of the Chainsaw Wielding Baby, as well as character designs with the previous character design project, it would be refreshing to turn my attention more towards environments and further refine my skills in these areas of my development.

The subject I'm intending to transcribe is an extract from Persian philosopher Omar Khayyám, where he questions the unknown of life after death.

'Strange is it not? that of the myriads who
Before us pass'd the Door of darkness through,
Not one returns to tell us of the Road,
Which to discover, we must travel too.'
(Lloyd, 2008:5-6)

With this, the main idea of my animated piece would begin with a calm, serene garden type environment, establishing an atmosphere of peace and harmony. From a first person perspective, the camera would travel through the garden environment to arrive at a small Church, where we are lead inside to find a open casket with a body inside. From here, the camera pulls away to reveal that the individual we have been following is actually the person inside the coffin, but in a spirit form visiting his body one last time before disappearing once more.

Effectively, the animation becomes my interpretation of Khayyám's words into a visual form. I do not intend to present a sombre or fearful portrayal of death, but rather a peaceful and perhaps comforting tone of the journey that not one can return to tell us, but a journey we too will travel and discover. Here the animation provides the opportunity to create two diverse environments of the calm, serene garden to the exterior and interior of the reverent man-made structure of a church. Along with the challenge to capture the right tonality and atmosphere of the piece with lighting and pacing. While the narrative contains a character, it will most likely be a model and not one that is fully animated as we move in a first person perspective.

With this idea in mind, hopefully it will be manageable to fit within the limited 10 week time frame, allowing for further development and refinement. Any thoughts and feedback on this idea will be most appreciated.

Lloyd, John. (2008). QI:Advanced Banter - The QI Book of Quotations. London. Faber and Faber.

Unit 2 - Character Design

The second project we have to contend with individually is a 10 week project on Character Design. The premise for this project is that an eighties Saturday cartoon series is being rebooted, requiring Character Designs and an Animation Bible for three of the shows main characters - a Hero, Villain and Sidekick.

The theme of our eighties cartoon show is again given by random by the draw of the cards - literally in this case. Draw two cards from the deck and refer to the legend to see our corresponding theme. I drew the 3 of Diamonds and 9 of Clubs.



...which effectively gave me Soldiers/Cyborgs.



We did this in this way, as typically cartoons of the 1980s comprised of multiple genres or a ‘mash up’ of ideas such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, incorporating a random mix of themes from mutants, ninjas and turtles into one happy mix that children can enjoy.

This project's primary focus is in traditional drawing skills, so digital designs are not essential at this point. Their may be an opportunity to visit a character in CG or as a digital painting at some point, although this is will likely be towards the end.

Unit 1 - Narrative: Retro-Fest

Our first project titled, Narrative: Retro-Fest, is actually a group project where we must produce a short animated trailer of a maximum of 2 minutes, based on a random retro movie title dealt by the draw of cards. Interestingly, our group has to function with a studio mentality in mind by delegating roles and tasks while developing a studio brand and identity in order to promote ourselves.



The members of my group are:

Dan Bright - http://dbrightba.blogspot.com/
Kin Chan - http://kinseye.blogspot.com/
Elliot Mcgregor - http://ellymcgregor.blogspot.com/

...and the title for our retro movie trailer is:

Day of the Chainsaw Wielding Baby from the Centre of Earth


Indeed, its a crazy title that should prove to be fun and interesting with its potential possibilities. Another interesting thing to note, is that potential awards are up for grabs in respective categories such as Best Editing, Best Character or Best Art Direction. Simply put, its a fun incentive to achieve the best we can in this project and to be formally recognised as such for doing well in a particular area.

With my group, we've establish a group blog to centralise our project work, so feel free to check it out at:

www.kled-studios.blogspot.com

Our studio name derives from our initials, but you can find out more about that over at the group blog. I've also added a link up top on this blog for easy access.

Summer Project: '1 Becomes 2'

For the summer, we have been given the opportunity to engage in a project and further our creative development. The project is very open as we are to respond imaginatively to an allocated 'soundscape', be it a full CG animation or something more specific such as a story or gaming concept with character and environment design. This can then be readied to be professionally printed as an 'Art of...' book. Most interestingly, the project is to be treated as a competition where entries will be judged by an outside panel and prizes can be won.

Its big, bold and exciting - so lets get the project underway!

The soundtrack I received is 'Soundscape 17':



The track is very evocative beginning with soft sounds of the eerie night, continuing with an ominous drumming that escalates to a crescendo of chanting and singing. Immediately, images of a tribal ritual dance come to mind with a wild and exotic nature. Yet, despite these initial impressions, I don't want to go for the obvious but rather try for something more inventive. As such, I hope to capture the spirit of the track with an inventive twist that remains fresh and appealing.

The main idea along this trail of thought is a microcosm where the remnants of mankind seems all but lost and forgotten. With a small tribe of humans reduced to a wild and natural state, they occasionally discover artefacts and technologies of humanities past such as a cassette player or set of keys. Although with no knowledge of what they are, they simply use them as little more than objects of jewellery or attire, where larger artefacts have become symbols of worship or reverence invoking such rituals as ascribed by the soundscape.

In this way, a creative twist can be applied to some everyday objects in a world where man has seemingly reverted back to a previous state. Nature rules once more as man has forgotten his past. Its a quirky idea but something I hope I can pursue and develop further.

While I may not specifically create a final CG animation, I intend to start by creating the building blocks of this world from character design and environments, which will involve drawing, concept art, modelling, texturing and most likely many more. This will certainly give me the opportunity to further develop and refine my techniques both creatively and technically.

Any suggestions or comments are most welcome.

Unit 6 - Commission

The final project for the first year is a simulated commission project requiring us to produce a complete CG animation of a maximum of 2 minutes. Of course, this includes all the pre-production, production and post-production processes that we are more than familiar with, as well as an added task of proposing a pitch to our client. Not forgetting the fact that our chosen target audience will also affect the design and presentation of the animation e.g. aimed at a primary school curriculum may sport a more cartoon stylised aesthetic.

Our client, Dr. Peter Klappa, has requested one of 4 possible scenarios concerning the biological world of cellular development, or part of the development cycle of either a slime mould, mushroom fungi or ferns.




I am yet to make a decision on which scenario I will pursue, but I hope to make an informed decision soon enough with some more research.

Its an exciting project as much as it is daunting, where one must certainly keep on top of things throughout to succeed. Here's hoping the last 5 weeks will be a good one.

Unit 5 - Animation

Onwards to Unit 5 - Animation! It seems we're going back to some good old traditional animation, requiring to produce an original one minute drawn 2D animation in response to two prescribed story components. These two components encompass an adjective and a given object to relate this to. So my components are:

The Cantankerous Refrigerator

Cantankerous

• Disagreeable to deal with; contentious; peevish: a cantankerous, argumentative man.
• Ill-tempered and quarrelsome; disagreeable - "disliked her cantankerous landlord."
• Difficult to handle - "had to use liquid helium, which is supercold, costly and cantankerous"

It will definitely be interesting in combining this with the common household object of an refrigerator!

Unit 4 - Story Telling

Our next project will be our first moving animation piece focusing on the elements of storytelling and the early stages of production from an Animatic to a CG Pre-Vis. With 3 story components given to us at random, we are to pre-produce an original one minute animation.

The objects I received (in curious envelopes) were:

• Big Game Hunter
• Castle
• Deck Chair

This should certainly be interesting, and I'm looking forward to the challenge that awaits!

CG Pre-Vis example


Animatic Example


Note: The Timetable is up on myUCA so be sure to download it!

Unit 3: Environments - Tableux Vivants

After today's lecture briefing on Unit 3, I'm feeling pretty excited with the prospects of this project. Our goal to combine the concepts of tableux vivants and the theory of the uncanny together as a digital model set is definitely intriguing and inspiring, which will no doubt prove challenging in forming our own such unique piece.

Tableux Vivants, French for 'living picture', in an example of artists capturing a carefully posed moment of stillness, often living people caught in static attitudes. Often, a key and deliberate sense of ambiguity is formed where one cannot come to a definitive outcome of the piece becoming open to a variety of interpretations.

A particular example is Edgar Degas's 'Ballet Rehearsal', where the cropping of the piece disarms the viewer of any precise clarity leaving only ambiguous possibilities. One dancer performs with the other bent to one leg, we only see part of the spectators as the framing of the piece limits the information we can read in the piece. Ultimately, we can never quite know for sure what is actually occurring in the precise moment of time leaving us to speculate with ambiguity.



Such framing and composition will be key in dictating a shot in creating a sense of ambiguity in an environment, while pushing ideals of the uncanny - which I will cover soon enough, as well as more artists and examples.

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Incidentally, I am unable to download the lecture pdf off myUCA as I get an error message of the file being 'damaged or broken'. Everything else downloads fine, just this one being stubborn. If anyone has the file they can send me or know how else to obtain it I'd be grateful.

Unit 2: Space - The Lost World

Our next project begins with the title of 'Space'. In this project, we are each given a random designated folder which will serve as our source material to produce conceptual art from, with the focus being on environments in communicating a sense of depth and space. I'm pretty excited with this prospect as it is structured similarly as a commission, where concept art is also a particular favourite of mine.

The source material given to me as 'Folder #6', is Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Lost World written in 1912, concerning an expedition to the Amazon of South America where prehistoric animals dwell. I believe there are a number of film adaptations of Doyle's novel, ranging from the original silent movie in 1925, to Hollywood's blockbuster The Lost World: Jurassic Park which we all know and uh... 'love'.

I think the key to this project is in creating environments that are visually striking and unique, while being respectful to the original source material. A fine balance indeed. As such, I will set out in reading the original source material, while I would be wary in watching film adapations so as to not impede or limit my creative ability in creating unique designs. I may watch the original 1925 version, but most definitely not the latest adaptation which I do not have much or fond memories of.



Admittedly, I haven't played around with creature design much, however I think it will prove interesting in using dinosaurs to further communicate the sense of space, depth and scale in my environmental concepts. I'm guess I find my source material quite good, its pretty new to me and should prove interesting.

Oh and anyone else on folder 6? Let me know and we can talk!