Pick n Mix Final work PDF

Animation Test Shot

I created an animation test shot for the Pick n Mix project to show that I can animate dancing from both my imagination and from reference footage. the first video is the simple line drawings, and the second is a cleaned up on 3s, to be animated on 1's over the Christmas, or I might just do another one  or two with the other two characters with different dance styles. maybe have samuel do the robot... who knows :)

Pick 'n' Mix Project - Concept posters

Concept Poster Designs for the Strictly Come Dancing: Prison Edition animation piece. Backgrounds are black because I've yet to see any of the final backgrounds of the cells or the stage.. 

Storyboarding at its Finest

So I blocked out a traditional ball room dance sequence between two of the 'prisoner' 'competitors'  for the Strictly Come Dancing: Prison Edition'  final test animation. I did, however have to watch hours and hours of Strictly youtube videos to look at the leg extensions and how they held their heads. Problem was, one is meant to be a professional in traditional strictly series, so Im not exactly sure how this would work, I just made them semi professional dancers making some mistakes like dropping the elbow or looking at feet instead of the partner. 

 As you can probably guess, I know almost nothing about dancing or what a storyboard should apparently look like. 

Christmas Art Nouveau Advert (and a rant on the side)

So, Uni Pt2. has begun.
I think the class has learnt to stay in the studio longer this year. We got assignments on day one... two assignments.  The Tv students were thrust upon us Animators and dealt to deal with them and work with them on a christmas episode. Not only did I never even meet the Tv students, but I don't recall them actually contributing to the project. Angry to say the least.  I wrote the script for the advert on day one, so my part was complete until the final stage which was the presentation powerpoint which I was meant to work on with Maj, Lucie organised and had final say as both Producer and Director. She was nice, hearing out everyones opinions before her final decision, Harriet Mira and Sam did art work and storyboarding then Amid edited... the tv students... found the track Sam chose and... took Amids footage of the meetings to make a documentary... which we never saw -.-

the thing was decent... i cried with laughter when I saw it for the first time put together, not the intended response but maybe thats because it was cringy and embarrassing more than anything else, have a look:

The second project, was less of a stress to do, but more a pain to find time to complete. Its Thursday today, and that means Class at the Poly all day tomorrow, so no time to animate before my parents come to visit at 7pm. I mean there is about 3 hours if it doesn't over-run, but then dinner and travel time, not really worth it in my opinion. This means that on Monday I have until 1pm to get it done from the time it takes me to wake up. Ill show you the problem this causes this is the piece I am meant to me Imitating:

and this is what's happened so far:

day 1 

 

day 2 (today)

so you see... its going to take longer than (9am-1pm = 4hours) 4 hrs to complete when i spent 5 hrs today and 3 the day before on this. and before anyone messages me saying 'do it at home' i can't afford to pay for adobe software.. and its pretty impossible to torrent a Mac version of Photoshop without the Adobe Suit mucking everything up so I don't even try. 

all in all. i like the advert, i do, I just wish i could have contributed more to the animatic, and as for the Art nouveau piece i need to copy... well Ill keep you updated on its progress next week. 

:) 

Undead Love

 Cinematography class had us split into groups of 4, designating roles, coming up with a script and  taking on a 2 minute silent film to make, which we called Undead Love...  imaginative, I know.
So I came up with a story from what the group had brainstormed, which was basically 'Xsenia falls in love with THAT skeleton' - Luke, pointing. So at first it was all jokes and laughter, i made some funny ideas that could have worked with their original idea and for some strange reason they seemed to take it seriously. this resulted in myself taking a directors role and generally helped with anything that needed an extra hand.
Spike was in charge of lighting, sharing the role of 'Rigging master' with Luke, Xsenia acted and Maj was camera man.

i believe it was a success for 5 hours of filming with equipment we had not used much previous to this project. we spent the first hour setting the camera and lights up with the help from some passing 3rd year animation student who had a moment to tell us how we mounted the camera and other jobs that should have only taken a minute or two each to complete.  Another thing that took way too long was the 'rigging' of this skeleton. We worked as a team tying string to every bone in order to get it to move properly, had problems getting him to fall without breaking him, or even getting any emotion. I believe that with more time and given a change to play around with the rigging before filming, we could have created a much more realistic film, though the humour may have been lost if that were the case.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the project, got to work with some people i had previously never spoken to and generally learnt a lot through the trials and errors we encountered. I found the end product funny which was the point and hence i believe that the project was a success.  :)