Post #4 Shapeshifting

Today we worked on using simple geometric shapes as building blocks for drawing cartoon faces. The idea is to basically use a shape, or combination of overlapping shapes to guide for placing feature similar to the pictures in this link: http://drawsketch.about.com/od/cartooning/ss/morecartoonfaces.htm

For most of the drawings I didn't start off with any particular idea of characters, I just molded them based on whatever seemed to come naturally.

(From top left to bottom right): 

1. First image was just a standard circular face shape without much expression.

2. Second image started off as a rectangular shape.

3. I overlapped two oval circles, one on top of the other, to see what I could form from that. Made a sort of crude looking platypus...

4. Went with an circular shape again but tried drawing at a front on angle and experimented with a different mouth shape.

5. This was a similar idea to the first image, but just scaled up and with more expressive and exagerated features. Tried to add a Tin Tin style flick of hair as well (I find drawing hair is especially difficult).

6. Used overlapping horizontal and vertical ovals to create this Freddo Frog type character.

7. This one used a triangular base. Wasn't too successful here...

8. Started with a circular base then layered an oval on top of it. I got the main face from the circle then used the oval shape to add a cap, added in some expressions to make it look like a clown.

9. Used a rectangle and an oval shape.

10. Started with a vertical rectangle and a diagonal rectangle which seemed to work best in creating a side view. Not sure what I ended up with - sort of a space marine style helmet.

11. Overlapped a square and triangle. 

Next I tried used different expressions on the same face. Kept it fairly simple but I think it looks effective enough (although I've just noticed I haven't drawn an ear on the last face).

Finally I attempted to draw a bearded character. Needs some work. Got a bit frustrated and went a bit wild with it, but it has a sort of early Disney, Fantasia-like feel to it...

Learned some useful tips, but obviously I need a lot more practice. When I'm storyboarding for films, I usually just draw blank mannequin-like figures as I'm pretty crap at drawing anything living, but hopefully by the end of the course I might be able to draw at least good enough to indicate expressions.

Returning to my post yesterday about rendering as a shading style, it reminded me of some really nice artwork from the Playstation 2 game Ico. 

Source: http://videogamegeek.com/thread/841591/playstation-2-game-review-ico 

Source: http://www.destructoid.com/ico-the-essence-of-art-155124.phtml

Source: http://wall.alphacoders.com/by_sub_category.php?id=169874

 What made the game so great was firstly, the simplicity of the gameplay, but also how stunning and evocative the visuals and the sound were. It all adds up to a very dreamlike quality. There is virtually no dialogue (only a few lines of dialogue in the cutscenes, and there weren't many of those) and only a subtle score, so the visuals really have to pull their weight.
Anyway, I really like the style of the art work (especially the cover art) and I would love to be able to recreate it myself at some point (although this is in colour, I might begin with black and white first).

Post #3 The Dark Side of the Sphere

I did a bit more work on shading over the weekend. I had to run out and grab a few supplies before I could finish work on the blending and the rendering (figured if I was going to do it, I might as well do it properly). 

So I got myself some more pencils, blending stumps, brown pastels, black pastels, a plain eraser and a couple of kneadable erasers.

1. Hatching/Cross Hatching 2. Blending 3. Rendering 4. Squiggly Lines 5. Cross Contour Lines

Quite happy with the result. They seem a little crude close up but they looking decent enough if you take a step back. Found the blending and rendering methods gave the most realistic look, whereas the hatching, squiggly lines and cross countering gave a more impressionistic look. I wouldn't say any method was the 'right' way to do it, and I could see all of them being useful in different situations. You could easily mix most of these methods as well. I quite like the rendering method because, as you lay down the graphite originally, as you erase the background away you leave just enough graphite so that the background isn't quite solid white, which means you end up with sharp contrasted image. Also, i found it easier to get more graduated shading by using the combination of the blending stump and erasers.

I enjoyed this little exercise. Drawing is something I'd like to practice more. I'm not great at drawing people, or getting the scale of things correct, which are areas I'll need to address. Being a filmmaker, storyboards are quite important, so I'd really like to get better at drawing. 

Post #2: In honour of '50 Shades of Grey'...

Enjoyed today's class - we had an overview on the twelve principles of animation:

1. Squash and stretch

2. Anticipation

3. Staging

4. Straight ahead and pose to pose

5. Follow through and overlapping action

6. Ease in and ease out

7. Arcs

8. Secondary actions

9. Timing

10. Exaggeration

11. Solid drawing

12. Appeal.

I'm sure we will be going over these in more detail in the coming weeks.

In some ways I'm slightly daunted by the skill of good animators as I'm not a very good drawer. I'm not too bad if I can see what it is I'm meant to be drawing, but I find it difficult to draw things from my mind.

However, the principles helped to put things in perspective - it's all pretty logical when you think about it.

We got a chance to practice our drawing skills, adding light and shade to various shapes.

Quite happy with these. Not too bad for a rookie. (Some of the detail has been lost in the photocopier unfortunately). 

We also touched on a few styles of shading and I had a go at crosshatching.

Post #1. The Pen

Welcome to It's All Fun and Frames.  This is a blog which is essentially an electronic diary of sorts to accompany an animation paper I am studying at S.I.T. It is mainly to back up learning from projects in class and for tutors to check on my progress, but it's open for anyone to peruse if desired.

Today was just a brief introductory class while everyone sorted logins and such, however we have been set a task which is to find an animation we like and give a bit of information on it.

I'm a massive fan of claymation, so I decided to look into a New Zealand short film called              The Pen which I had seen on TV a few years ago.

This is the first episode in a series, made in 2001 by Prod Productions. It was written and directed by Guy Capper and produced by Elizabeth Mitchell. You may also recognise the voice of Flight of the Conchord's Jermaine Clement (who also shares a writing credit), playing the role of the laconic 'Robert' .

I really enjoyed this film, which proves again that you can make a very entertaining film with a run time of about one minute. The claymation might not be as polished as precise as those from Aardman Animations, but I think that actually adds to the charm. Very simple concept that doesn't need any setup because the characters are instantly relatable - we all know someone who's bigger than himself, especially after a few drinks, and we all know there's usually an enabler at his side.

The film won the Trans-Tasman Nescafe Short Film Awards and since then, several more instalments were made and shown online. Classic and iconic kiwi comedy.