Tag: pp2

portfolio

Concept Development – Storyboarding

Chalon Joy

Now that my character designs have been finalised, I can begin to storyboard the narrative.

While I do want the story to be interesting, I’m planning to make the main focus ‘interaction’- between the characters and their environments. This means a more gesture based approach to the animation, where characters will bond with their environments and explore new ones. In this case, the young girl will journey through her own woodland environment to the Deer’s house, where she’ll discover a new environment.

I’m most inspired by the way in which Studio Ghibli animates even the most mundane of actions with a quiet, curious interest- this is present throughout all of their films. It really brings out the natural beauty in the scenery without drawing the focus towards anything in particular.

The story is short (clocking in at just over a minute), but at an anticipated 12fps this should be more than enough to keep me busy!

[Update 19.01.19] And here are my finished storyboards… I’m sure I’ll refine these more in future once I’m better informed with the limitations of the Semester 2 project, but for now these will do nicely. I had a few problems with drafting out proper perspective in such a simplified way, but these are not written in stone so I can definitely correct these little problems in future when I have more time to dedicate to properly exploring environment design~

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Narrative Storyboards, PP2. (Collingwood, 2018)

 

I’ve really tried to look at how I can animate even the ‘still’ scenes, with background elements that move continuously or small pieces of animation to liven up an otherwise stagnant frame (e.g. the steam from the teacups, or the breeze blowing branches and leaves). I’ve used a blue pen to describe the animated aspects or camera directions- hopefully this will help me to clarify what to animate in each scene.

I’m overall pleased with how these have turned out, and even though there’s room for improvement this is my first experience with visual storyboarding. Can’t wait to get this project tied up and finished so I can start on Semester 2 work~

References

Collingwood, C. (2019). Personal Project 2 Narrative Storyboard Panels [Digital].

portfolio, SWOT/Target Setting

Concept Development – Character Designs

Chalon Joy

I have some new character designs to share! c: I’ve been working constantly on these since my last update- I feel I’ve made good progress even though there’s still so much to do!

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Young Female Character: Initial Concepts (Collingwood, 2019). 
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Young Female Character: Face Revisals/Development (Collingwood, 2019). 
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Young Female Character: Palette/Colour Application Experimentation (Collingwood, 2019). 

 

Meet our heroine of the story- she doesn’t have a name on purpose, because I want the audience to be able to relate to her and put themselves in her shoes. Since she’s youthful, naïve and curious, I wanted these traits to shine through in her character design. I went through loads of concepts (some of which were really awful, haha) but settled on a final design for her that best described her personality to the viewer. I’m sure it shows, but I was really inspired by the ‘chibi’ characters of Studio Ghibli, as well as the loose, simplistic art style of Heikala (info on both of these here from my artist research for this project).

I’m pleased with her design- she went through quite a few refinements as I progressed through my workflow! Final character board below:

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Young Female Character: Final Character Board (Collingwood, 2019). 

 

To be honest my favourite aspect of her is her ‘paper bag’ trousers- I didn’t want to put her in a skirt lest that undermine her childish adventurous nature, so I decided to go with these oversized paper bag pantaloons (which also matched her boots and cape much better… too many ‘loose hems’ otherwise!)

I really love them ^^”

 

Next up, we have our anthropomorphic deer character:

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Anthropomorphic Deer: Initial Head Concepts (Collingwood, 2019). 
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Anthropomorphic Deer: Anatomy/Front View Development (Collingwood, 2019). 
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Anthropomorphic Deer: Palette/Colour Application Experimentation (Collingwood, 2019). 

 

I designed him to both contrast and complement the young girl character, since the contrast of their environments and designs is central to the narrative journey. The palette is still natural while being different to the bright, fresh toned greens I used on the female character’s designs.

He’s very scholarly and loves a good cup of tea, I hope you can tell~

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Anthropomorphic Deer: Final Character Board (Collingwood, 2019). 

 

It was a real challenge to simplify the characters enough so that there wouldn’t be any issues when drawing them repeatedly for the animation- I think I’ve nailed this down enough, but as always there’s always the chance I’ll refine these some more in the follow-up Semester 2 project.

I’m pleased with the outcomes- targets for the next few weeks include finalising and collating all of my projects for hand in, and starting to think about the beginning of Semester 2 and how I’m going to tackle the next few months. Using my previous SWOT analysis’ will help me circumvent any problems I anticipate I’ll have, while also playing towards my strengths to produce a strong semester of portfolio work.

 

References

Collingwood, C. (2019). Anthropomorphic Deer: Anatomy/Front View Development [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Anthropomorphic Deer: Final Character Board [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Anthropomorphic Deer: Initial Head Concepts [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Anthropomorphic Deer: Palette/Colour Application Experimentation [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Young Female Character: Face Revisals/Development [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Young Female Character: Final Character Board [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Young Female Character: Initial Concepts [Digital].

Collingwood, C. (2019). Young Female Character: Palette/Colour Application Experimentation [Digital].

Heikala (n.d.). Instagram – @heikala (online). Available at: https://www.instagram.com/heikala/?hl=en [Accessed 2 Jan 2019].

 

research

Concept Development Progress

Chalon Joy

Now that I’ve signed off the Penguin Student Award and Printmaking projects, I can finally dedicate my focus to the Concept Development project- I’ve already conducted a bit of artist research late last year (my post about it is here), so this has already given me a good foundation on which to design my concepts~

For this project, I need to produce as much development/concept material as possible for the upcoming Animation Production project in Semester 2. This includes character/environment designs, storyboards, narrative info, and other supporting material that will be of use to me in the coming months.

I’m starting with the character designs, since I feel that this aspect is the most important, and therefore want to get this done first. I’ll be designing a human young female character (who’ll serve as the centric narrative device), as well as a more visually intricate anthropomorphic deer, who’ll act as an ‘opposite’ character, with contrasting design aesthetics, environment and colour palette. I’ve made two concept boards with palettes and existing artwork that mirror what I want to portray for each of these two characters… a few pics below from each board (all referenced at the end of this post):

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Top left: Figure a. Top right: Figure b. Bottom left: Figure c. Bottom right: Figure d.
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Top left: Figure e. Top right: Figure f. Bottom left: Figure g. Bottom right: Figure h.

Using these images and palettes as a loose style guide will help me to design characters that will complement these visual concepts, while also using my notes on personality and traits that I’ve written up in my sketchbook.

I always find it useful to map out key persona information before designing my character, as I often have a good idea of how I want them to act before I bring them to life on paper- this allows me to incorporate design elements into their aesthetic that support their individual personalities.

I’ll post next week with some character development sketches ♥

References

h. Heikkala, L. (n.d.). Pond [Ink].

e. Jansson, T. (n.d.). The Moomins concept art [Graphite, watercolour].

a. Ma Van As, Y. (2018). After School Violin Lessons [Digital].

c. Mountain Lumber. (n.d.). Reclaimed Antique Hickory [Photograph]. Available at: http://www.mountainlumber.com/portfolio_page/reclaimed-antique-hickory/ [Accessed 1 Dec 2018].

d. Rockefeller, M. (n.d.). Paul’s Cabin [Digital].

f. Studio Ghibli. (2010). Concept art from The Borrower Arrietty [Watercolour].

g. Studio Ghibli. (2010). Screen capture from The Borrower Arrietty [Animated feature].

b. Studio Ghibli. (2010). Concept art from Kiki’s Delivery Service [Watercolour].