Premise - Reflective State

During this premise project I really enjoyed the design process. I found that I was able work on a story that I was really invested in, which in turn improved my work. 

When I first started the project I found the idea of coming up with a narrative entirely on my own a little daunting . I had lots of visual ideas, but no story to go with. In the end I knew that I wanted to look into character design as it is the area I not only enjoy the most, but I feel I have improved on the most recently. 

Once I came up with the idea surrounding anxiety, I think that my work ethic picked up as it is an area I am interested in. The subject matter feels topical for the current climate, as well as something that I can draw on personal experience from. After lots of refining and the added music, I feel that my characters and story are in a really strong place for 3rd year. Overall, I am really happy with how the project turned out. I know hat there is lots of work to be done yet but I think I produced some good outcomes, and I feel that my message came across well. 

To improve, the narrative needs some work still, as well as some minor changes to the animatic. I want to make sure that the story is as readable as possible for an audience. I did suffer from some burn put half way through the project and I think that was just down to the design process, being stuck with my ideas, so for year three I know what I need to do and what to focus on. Looking forward to year three I think that I am a little nervous about the modelling/ rigging faze as well as the animation. As I like the design process so much some of the maya work is somewhat daunting, but I am excited to see my characters in 3D. I plan to get lots of this done as soon as possible to leave time for errors and the general length of the process. 

I found the careers pack valuable, it was a good insight into the working world and the things I need to work on. It has given me a lot to think about in terms of asperations and goals. 

Premise - Submission Post

 

Premise - Update

 As I am towards the end of this premise project I am beginning to sort through work that I have in preparation for crit. Below are some extra drawing and developmental designs not included in my OGR. The environment needs to be developed further which I plan to have progressed through by the deadline as well as some minor orthographic drawings. I have also been testing some designs in maya to give an idea of what this world will look like in 3d. I am currently reworking my animatic, one of the major problems I am facing is making sure that the narrative is as readable as possible to an audience that knows nothing about the project, as there is an underlying message I don't want it to get lost and make no sense. I also have the first version of music which I plan to use for the crit, and after some feedback I will make some changes. I like the design work I have overall but it is really just a case of finalising everything and getting as much done as possible by the deadline as well as making sure it's of a high standard. 

Premise - Animatic (no sound)

The narrative starts with a young girl reading outside of her house, moving on to a school environment. The events show an example of social anxiety and the build up of emotions before and after. The colour are design all relates to emotion and distortion. 

Above is my first draft animatic. I am in the process of sourcing a suitable backing score. I think that the story is nearly there however there is some timing issues and a few tweaks need to be made which I will finish over this week. At this point in the project I am aiming to get as much done as possible to give myself a comfortable amount of time to complete the next few stages, Maya based work still takes me longer than I would like it to and I want to make sure that by the end of this project I am happy with what I have produced. I think that my main concern is making sure the narrative gets across, so after adjusting the timing I will also go back over my script and make some adjustments to make the story more accessible for an audience. 

Premise - Violet Orthographs

 I response to my OGR I have begun to plan out what I intend to have finished by the end of this premise project. Below are some initial orthographic drawings for my main character. I also plan to have an animatic with sound as well as all my major design work finished so that I am able to begin the modelling process of sets and characters.

Premise - OGR

 

Premise - Character Development

For my premise I have developed some background character designs so that I can get my overall style for this project more refined. I really like how the colours work against the black background however I still need to develop an environment design that interacts well with the harsh colours. However, as far as the characters go, I like the style, colour choices, and the overall designs just need to be developed further as they are a bit rough at this point. 

Character Line Up 

Background characters, before and after warping

Premise - Location Ideas and Designs

 After developing the narrative for this project further I have started some rough designs for a location. The main characters colour choices are based around emotion, so I wanted to see what the environment would like like if it also reflected that. I like how the more vibrant colour pallets look and it could be interesting to develop this idea further, however, considering that much and the surrounding characters are also high contrast, it might be a bit to confusing for the eye. I will continue to design more spaces as well as adapting the characters design until I get something that is cohesive and feels right. 

Premise - Developed Sketches

I have worked on developing some different designs for a main character. I have spent some time looking into some Japanese folklore, and some ghost/ creature designs. Studio Ghibli really excels in the mixture of source material and personal style. While I am not working from an existing piece of source material, in terms of style I would like to take the best aspects of all my influences and mix them with my own style. Currently in my designs there is lots of contrast in colour to environment. I am not completely decided on the look that I want to create but after some more sketches the idea should hopefully be more clear. 

Premise - Ideas So Far

Starting premise I knew what direction I wanted to go down in terms of content, to create some characters and have a story based narrative. I am not necessarily the strongest when it comes to maya so I want to play to my strengths. I started off with a few quick sketches of some ideas I already had, looking into different examples of animation in the area that I am interested in. After developing some ideas I have decided to go down the more abstract route, having at least one detailed character but the environment and any other characters more basic.

 

The narrative so far is based around the character below and her anxiety's around re-entering the world. The idea is based on the current pandemic and the fear that comes with going back to normal after being away from other people for so long. This world that she sees is bright/ overwhelming and too much to handle all at once. I have looked into Japanese and French animation, as much of the story telling is more abstracted than typical western animation. The ghost like characters in Spirited away have also influenced some ideas around characters that populate this world.