My Mickey Mouse Degree

Clearly I haven’t updated recently. Why? Here are the reasons, bullet pointed to save you work.

• It was my birthday on the 15th so I took a couple of days off
• I had a driving test on the 19th so I took a couple of days off
• I’m going back to uni on the 23rd so I’m taking a few days off

Am I lazy? I think the lazy arrow is ironically resting on “yes”.

Anyways, here’s what I did on the 14th before the lazy streak -

Before the Lazy

It’s a group shot of the main characters in for my final year project. Or rather, provisional final year project, I still don’t know what it is I’m supposed to do. I keep having new ideas for short animations that I want to do this year but they’re all wildly ambitious and I’m not sure what’s actually required of me, so for now I’m just mulling them all over and we’ll see which one fits the bill when I get a brief, either way, I’d really like to do something based on musical timing.

Not long to wait I guess. It’s unlikely I’ll be able to update for a while too, since I won’t have the internet when I move into the new place on Sunday (something to sort out, plus all the other crap you need to sign up for like phone and gas and God knows what else). Anyways, what I’m saying is I’ll be back in a bit, with something to show for my time I hope after all this slacking off.

Cheers fer reading.

Been reading Richard William’s Animator’s Survival Kit through recently. When I read it at the start of my course 2 years ago I didn’t really understand a lot of the technical stuff he was talking about, but now I pretty much grasp it. Still trying to nail timing on a real x-sheet though, I find myself confused at times since I’m used to computers doing all that stuff for me (and improvising as I go along).

Bleh, still so far to go…

Anyways, kinda starting to get out of my slump now so I’ve been doodling stuff up to get going again. Here’s some of the fruits.

Helix1

Came up with this guy this morning, just popped into my head.

Helix 2

The was actually the first drawing I did of him, but then I coloured it, and coloured images ALWAYS appear after sketches, and never before, such is the law of the world.

Pillow Walk

This was from a couple of days ago. I stayed over at my mate’s house and only took a pillow. Stupidly, I forgot that I’d have to walk through two towns and catch a bus while holding said pillow.

Initially I felt stupid, but then I got used to it and started wondering why everyone else wasn’t carrying pillows. It was great!

That’s it for now, hopefully I’ll have more soon.

He’s been done practically for days, but now he’s actually done.

Do I like it?

A bit. Not as much as I thought I would.

If you watch it and wonder what’s actually happening you’ll see its major flaw (aside from the background being “experimental/dodgy”), explained further on the page linked in the image below -

Link

Much closer to model than my previous bugs attempts though, so that’s a consolation. Also, my timing is appalling, I need to work on that. Either way, I’m done with it now, it can bugger right off.
As far as my recently discussed project goes, I think I’m just going to run with it and see what happens. I’ll have a better idea of what’s actually expected of me when I get back to uni (hopefully), so I can decide whether to scrap the whole thing or rework it or whatever needs to be done. Until then I’ll just refine the concepts and try and come up with some kind of personalities for the characters.

More amazing news from me tomorrow I expect, see you then.

Hey all,

I’ve not been wallowing in self pity or anything since my last post, I took a day off and then I started a new little animation using Bugs Bunny after watching some Looney Tunes stuff frame by frame.
Up to now I’ve really been aiming for Disney “realism” and smoothness in my work, but after looking at the WB shorts properly I’ve decided to have a bash at more snappy, energetic animation, hence me doing this Bugs thing.

It’s pretty much done, I’ve just got a couple of overlap frames to do on his ears and about three more keys, so it should be up by tomorrow, it ain’t much, but I like it.

As for the post title, my good friend Karl just got a two page interview up on IGN about Team 17’s new game - Worms: A Space Oddity, that he’s working on.

That pretty much makes him famous, which automatically makes me famous. Almost.

Check it out - here.
More tomorrow, hopefully.

Haha, oh man. I’m kicking myself now. In the face. With spades attached to my feet. It hurts a lot.

So today I’m getting on with some designs etc. for my final year project, I’ve been trying to get all the design work and all that stuff sorted before I go back to uni in order for me to concentrate on the animation and story and all that for the 8ish months I’ll have to work on it.

But recently I’ve been getting to the point where I can’t really design much more, and I need to start thinking of the story. At this point I’ve realised that none of my “characters” have any personality whatsoever, they just look nice. And thusly (nice phrase), I’ve had to start thinking about what makes them all tick, and have now realised I never envisioned them to have any personalities in the first place.

Fun.

Tomorrow I’m going to have to go back to the start and really focus on what this is all about, because I’m struggling to come up with an entertaining story with my bland, lifeless characters right now.

Silly, obvious mistakes, yes, but I figured I’d share them just to highlight how important it is to have a strong focus on personality and story from the start, after all, that’s what this animation lark is all about, right?

Ah well, I never liked doing things the easy way. Bring it on, tomorrow!

Here’s your drawing for today, keep it safe -

Beach Fight

What would happen if a beach going wolf threw his ice cream on a man with massive hands? They’d probably fight, and then I’d probably draw the moment just before they started hitting each other.

I’m rooting for the wolf.

Since I’m not really “feeling” the drawing at the moment I’ve done a bit of 3D modelling today. Pretty simple stuff, because I’m still not that confident with anything complex, plus it’s for my final year project which coincidentally doesn’t requre realistic sets. How nice.

HouseProp

I must stress these things ain’t finished, and will probably get redone later into the project, but I’m just throwing stuff out there at the moment. I’m leaving the texturing for now until I got a solid colour palette for the piece in my head. At the moment it’s all over the place.

Well

A lot of the stuff in this project will involve doing normal stuff in odd, but nevertheless practical ways, as evidenced by this well. The bucket on the left still needs a handle, and the rod needs some string or whatever fancy technical term fishermen use for string.

I’m also looking to make sure everything is uneven or off kilter. It gives it all a homemade look, plus it means I don’t have to be as precise with my modelling. Clever, eh?

As far as life news goes, I’ve just starting listening to swing music and enjoying it. Is that a bad or good thing?

Bleh, been in a bit of a slump recently, I dunno what it is, I think I’m getting impatient with the rate of my skill development as I tend to every so often. Still struggling with anything bordering on realism as usual, and I’m not happy with the poses I’m putting out in my cartoon sketches.

I’ll get over it soon enough.

So today I’ve been looking at some cartoons that I haven’t really checked out since I was a kid. Generally speaking since starting my degree I’ve pretty much ignored most television animation that I grew up with, assuming it all would be disappointingly cheap and nasty looking if I saw them now, but today I had the sudden urge to take a look at Alvin and the Chipmunks (the 1980’s series) on YouTube and was pleasantly surprised by the opening titles.

It wasn’t superb, certainly, but it was compared to a lot of the stuff that was about in the 80s, and it leant much more towards Disney than it did the limited stylings of Hanna-Barbera.

As often happens when I get suitably impressed by an animation, I’m now on the lookout for a DVD of the show, but it looks like I’m going to have to delve into Region 1 because I can’t seem to find an R2 release.

Anyways,

From today’s Chipmunk realisation.

Street Scene

I wanted to see what I came out with without using any construction lines (how I used to draw).

Yogi

The one on the left is copied, so don’t give me credit for the nice pose. The one on the right is all mine.

And this final sketch is part of some concept sketches for what should become my final year project at university, I’m putting it up here in good faith, so please don’t rob me blind, as it were.

Final Year Project

That’s all for today, come back soon.