Windsor McCay – Little Nemo

Windsor McCay – Little Nemo 

 For being way back in 1911 this animation is stunningly executed and an overall wonderful piece of animation, it is made with a traditional sketch and snap animating style, and he draws each frame  out freehand with such accuracy. 

 

I love the fact that the animation looks so surreal and Three Dimensional, it has been created with oil paints a black fine brush for line work and the colour has been blotted on to give the animation a more organic and alive feel to it, all of the drawings are crazily accurate and are drawn in a way that makes them look almost as if they were created in cinema 4D.  

 

I like this Scene where the prince materializes from lots of little black line’s and starts to stretch the Two characters, this must have taken quite some time to do, compared to now when you just add an effect to your work and it would replicate this process 

 

  

Dragon Chair 

The dragon chair that took the two queens away at the end was a lovely touch as the mouth opens it looks like a picture frame corner, but when it pans round they both sit down and it is actually a side view of a chair in the dragons mouth. 

 

For being from 1911 this is a ridiculously skilled piece of animation and something that I should try and aspire to, it really makes you judge yourself as an artist and want to strive to become better at your craft. 

Chinzadopeness – Mogu Mogu

Chinzadopeness – Mogu Mogu 

 

Music Sync 

 I thought that the music and attention to detail while syncing the animation to the music was excellently executed, the animation it's self is crisp looking but rather simple in most case's, but it all work's together perfectly. 

 

(This is a few screen shot’s to show how well synced the video is to the music and how they have incorporated word’s and motions to replicate speech)  

Running animation 

The run cycles on Mogu Mogu were just simple 5 frame run cycles with no hop or skip, therefore giving a sliding effect almost as if he’s ice skating along the floor. 

 

Overall 

The over all animation is pretty top notch, the contrast of simple animation and the more intricate scene’s make it very exciting to watch, I like how the sun has many arm’s with all move around it, while it whistle’s to the music, this probably wasn’t to difficult to create, it looks like it was created on after effects (Screen shots below) 

 

DCM IDENT S.W.O.T

                                    DCM IDENT S.W.O.T

As projects go I think this one was pretty simple, I created all of my 3D objects in cinema 4D easy, with the aid of tutorials to help me create the effects that I wanted, those of them that I wanted to use were added into my compositions, along with video footage and put together very successfully I might add, there was the odd hiccup here and there but I resolved it and adapted, I have added a few more skills to my arsenal also, i've learned how to create an erray of different pattern's shapes and transitions in 3D software something which I never thought I could accomplish, and learned how to composite it into a composition in after effect's, and from there used new techniques such as vinnetting and gradient multiplying, if there was anything I would definetely improve on during this project if anything is my time planning, as currently as always I end up doing everything at the last moment because I have over catered my time on another project, but also I must expand my know how on 3D software so I can get the most out of it, and work on my after effects editing skills, as this would be a very helpful tool in many of my future ventures.

Proposal

I am currently preparing for the final stages of my Foundation Degree in Animation at Newcastle College, now nearing the end of the second year I have decided that I would like to take my skill set further and push my self to a higher level by acquiring a place on a degree course which will not only encourage me to gain a better understanding of my animating style and versatility but will prepare me for a job in industry.

Animation is a growing passion of mine and I believe that this course has allowed me to express and develop my skills in a way which I never thought possible, taking part in a numerous selection of projects which include; 2D, Stop motion, 3D, Traditional and rotoscoped animation. I have become confident and fluent with a broad range of production techniques that I have acquired over the years.

During my second year of study I am working on a animated short called, The Adventures of Munblunko, a story about a young African boy living in an African compound with his large family, he always gets up to many mischievous deeds, which do not go un noticed as there is always the foreboding presence of an ancient demon called the Tikoloshe which take’s naughty children and wrong doers away, this was my first and final idea that I chose quite confidently as it catered to my rather adaptive skill set and also past experiences between me and my friend Zuki after a trip to the mother land in 2012.


The animation entails a few different animation techniques; Pin puppeting in after effects, Real rotoscoped video footage in flash cs5.5 and paper cut out animation, but most of the images created were made in Adobe flash cs5.5 so my drawing style is kept the same.


While studying Animation, I have enjoyed being able to get on with projects and finding new artists, animation techniques and modes of practice.

You can't have influence's without having influence, the chance to research into artists has been very helpful inspiring, Julian Opie's simplified portrait drawing gave me the idea to use pebble eye's and using mouth and eye brow gestures, control facial expressions, emotions etc.

I greatly admire Monty python's animating technique, how he uses paper cut out to make simple yet quirky animations while consuming a lot less time, which would be a good thing .......

By taking on a third year of study I wish to delve further into the interesting world of animation, produce more flash animated animation shorts and refine my work flow and style to a level in which not only friend's and followers online notice me, but employers and companies who believe that my style best fit's they're 1may also offer free lance or possible job opportunities.

What do i want from a third year of study......? to build more skills, develop professional approach, industry experience, commercial and personal project work.

DCM logo ident's - CHECK IT !!!

DCM LOGO IDENT'S

I have created my four ident's for my DCM project check em out !!!

IDENT 1

IDENT 2

IDENT 3

IDENT 4

I had fun creating these idents and would like to do more in that field of work at some point, maybe with the launch of my own animation company or webcast advertisements etc, i had a few problems along the way like masks not working in some of my final compositions, and also a mask that wasn't quite lined up on my first ident, but in my opinion i believe that i did a good job with them, and i got a big thumbs up from my tutor when i showed him my work.

Munblunko S.W.O.T

S.W.O.T- Theo Akpofure

Strengths


My strengths lie very deeply within Flash CS 5.5 I find it a lot easier than doing traditional hand drawn animation and the fact that lines smooth themselves out which is very convenient saying as my line work isn’t always the best,
Rotor Scoping is a skill which I have developed from past project’s when I have added a video file to my timeline on Flash and traced over each frame, to create an over all pretty much realistic anematic, I developed this skill from Tracing picture’s or tracing over piece’s of work that people have already made and then tweaking and editing them with my on unique style and flavor.


I would like to involve some stop motion in my current project for a scene where the demons come to get munblunko, I have worked with stop motion before at my old college I made a 2 minute animation of an action man swinging from rope’s scaling walls and I even yellow screened a fight scene in there, so as you can see I have some experience in the field, i'm really excited to do this and i can't wait to see the finished piece, i am going to make some card cut outs and hopefully get some pin puppet silhouettes of my spirits that i am creating, i think i could complete this in one day. 



Weakness


I have trouble with proportioning hand drawn animation but I think that is just because It take’s me to long to draw each frame unless I have pictures as reference(Rotor scoping as I mentioned earlier), 3D Animation is not a part of my animating vocabulary at all, the last animated 3D project I did was a robot on lightwave at my old college which basically fell over and broke into piece’s, it wasn’t that visually great either, I just created a box and added picture texture’s to everything to try and make it look more realistic, I must set myself the task of creating a 3D animation when I next get the chance, another point I would like to add is about my Line work, I prefer to use flash as it’s a vector based profgramme which mean’s when I draw a line it will automatically smooth it out for me, which is handy because when it come’s to hand drawn animation my line work is terrible, and lack’s consistency.


Evaluation of both


Looking at both my strengths and weakness’s together like this has shed a new light on my animating exploit’s, I have decided that on my next project I will be using 3D or traditional animation, even perhaps some stop motion as I mentioned in my strengths section, this is to test my skills as an animator and push me into more complex methods of animating, more efficiant more effective 

Jeff soto a short story + Aspirations

Jeff Soto

 Jeff Soto’s style developed from an influence of skateboarding, hip-hop and graffiti culture, cultures which thrive on individuals developing their own styles. This set of influences results in Jeff’s work being instantly recognizable, a feat that many artists seek their entire careers.

Soto’s latest solo show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York City. (The show is on display until October 6th, 2012.) Entitled, “Decay and Overgrowth,” the show explores his recent musings on life and death after the passing of both his grandparents.

Soto sought out myth and the beginnings of time to help him overcome the grief of loss, an investigation that brought him closer to nature and human existence’s ever growing relationship with it. This body of work reflects - In Soto’s trademark style - those ideas of beginning, nature and renewal.

Aspirations

Jeff soto's story on how his style and his drawing are swayed by different emotional connections in his life is inspiring, it has lead me to aspire to the fact that maybe i should be putting more emotional content into my work to get the best result's, he is obviously a very skilled painter and i hope to aspire to his greatness one day with my own series of jeff soto style picture or graffitti one day.