Another Week Missed...

Another midnight deadline missed...

But I had a reason! I was have a peek around the amazing MacKinnon and Saunders puppet and stop mo studio. It was so cool seeing the place in action and the stuff that they've produced over the past years not to mention the wonderful hospitality and invaluable advice I was given. It's just gone and rekindled my love for stop-motion - the thing that got me into the animation biz in the first place. So. Got some life re-assessment to do, but got to focus on my final year first.

I've spent most of my time recently putting together a wee portfolio for some potential business, so because of that I don't really have any work to show you. I only got back up and running on Monday and have started a mishmash of various projects:

1. Some environments for a friend's future comic (s'gonna be huge)

2. Started a new 3D 11 second club (I WILL submit this one)

3. Started painting up my first Sushi background.

So I promise you something from one of these next week.

So to appease you for now, NUDITY!

2 Min Gesture sketches. Trying to improve my accuracy and getting a line down correctly first time, so these were all done with a brush pen on some scrap animation paper I found.

Hmm... I wonder how many times I can continue to use the "nudity" get out to distract you from the fact I'm getting nothing done...

When I was little like you...

Finally managed to finish this damn 3D animation. The graph editor is one of the most whoreish things out there. But it does the job. Watch it and see if I done a good.

CLICK HERE BECAUSE YOUTUBE CONTINUES TO DISAPPOINT. 

Aiming to get a 2D test done this week. Considering the face that I'm going to be spending all of next year doing 2D animation, I really should start to get back to it... Because I have done none this semester. Hmm...

Uhhhm. I don't think I really have much else to say to you. Just a short one this time you'll glad/emotionally destroyed to hear.

G'day.

Operation: Upgrade

Yes. I know. I was vacant last week. I understand that I broke many hearts and dreams, but I have a reason.

After 4 years of faithful use, I decided it was time for a new computer. My trusty Vaio has served me well, but Photoshop Elements 7 and a 15" screen were starting to feel a bit restricting...

So, I have squandered away my savings into a shiny new desktop with Maya that works and access to Photoshop CS6, and others I'm yet to delve into... I have so much SPACE now and so many TOOLS, I just don't know what to do with myself...

But I'm more than sure I'll work something out. So here, I introduce you to my new and old computers, sitting comfortably together, like brothers.

Also a sneak peek into my "studio" (desk). Compact.

So not really much to post tonight really as I've just been playing around with stuff as opposed to doing work (except from working on the "stars" 3D lipsync test which I'll hopefully upload next week once finished...) But I couldn't not do something with all this new technology at my disposal...

So what to do?

Why, draw naked people of course!

A selection of 2 minute studies, just getting a feel for stuff. Normally I'd have hidden this away to the dusty depths of my hard drive, but for some reason I feel kinda happy to show this, despite its lack of accuracy. It seems to have more character, which is something I've really been trying to work on.

Just gotta reel it in a tad...

Peut-être...

Les Retrouvailles

This year, I decided to continue my 3D work. It was given as an option, but I decided to persevere. Employability and all those shenanigans... This semester we were focusing on character work, so we modelled, rigged and animated a character. People were following a standard template, but after having had a bad experience with this certain model last year, I couldn't bring myself to face it. So I decided to challenge myself and make my own; Dave.

He started out as a doodle in my sketchbook as our tutor talked through something I probably should have been listening to...

Which then led onto a turnaround:

Which then led onto the final model:

And then rigged:

(And then later textured but I don't have that file with me...)

I'm aware that if you have been following my blog, you'll perhaps recognise this man with the wonderful nose. To be honest, I just chose to model him because of the nose. When it came round to animating him, I didn't really have any idea what to do as I didn't know what kind of person he was. So I just got stuck in and started playing about and his personality just sort of appeared through the tangled web of the graph editor. So I animated him and enjoyed it. 

I'll upload the 3 wee tests I did tomorrow - the converter on my laptop has given up tonight...

So, yes. That was all well and good. I handed in and headed home feeling content. But then I got the itch to work again. With no desire to touch my grad film for a while, I naturally came back to this (and drawing cartoons of myself of course) and felt I wasn't ready to let him go yet.

I've managed to land the chance to get a tour round the awesome MacKinnon and Saunders studio (think Tim Burton, Fantastic Mr Fox and Postman Pat) so felt like it would be beneficial to have some character sheets for Dave. Make it look like I actually did it officially instead of off the cuff. With a minor style development which seems to have snuck up on me from nowhere (not that I'm complaining) I sat in the sun and doodled some expressions for the first sheet of the Model Pack:

I'm really pleased with these, though I should probably go in and tidy them up. Like I've said before, I don't really feel character stuff is my forté, so when things turn out how I want them, it seems like a success. So. Plans:

1. Finish the model pack

2. Finish inbetweening the incomplete 3D scenes

Then Bonus:

1. Do some more 3D tests

2. Design a new character for him to interact with

3. Do some 2D tests.

I actually really want to do some 2D tests. Hoping to acquire Flash in the near future (alongside a new compooper, finally) so as I'm feeling comfortable drawing him, he could be a good place to start.

We'll see.

À la semaine prochaine! 

Cured Through Divine Intervention...

Of Penicillin.

First off, I must apologise for my lack of a post last week. I thought I could let it slide by, but my girlfriend, Aimée, pulled me up on it... It appears I cannot get away with slacking any more. My fans deserve better.

(She's not actually like this. She normally has something sharp to jab me with.)

But yeah, it was the last week before assessment and I had a print deadline to hit and then a Lit Review to produce and then on top off all of that, I managed to catch myself a nice bout of Tonsillitis. Not being able to eat, sleep or speak actually does wonders for productivity.

But I do not wish for it ever again.

So that's me all handed in. Don't really have anything new and personal to show you as all my efforts went into my course work which has been submitted already... So here. Have some of the observational work I did this semester that I managed to scan before submitting.

I'm really pleased with this last piece. Aimée had the great idea of taking her laptop into a café and using her tablet to draw people as it was less conspicuous. So I copied her.

Definitely going to do this is again. Nero has mint milkshakes after all.

The best type.

REVISION: Apparently if you promise the internet rabbits - even in a drawing - you must come up with the goods. So:

Stars

Just a wee one this time around... Things are rushing up quickly to the deadline so finding time to do fun, unrelated things is near-on impossible to come by. But, one of the things I have recently finished is a quick 3D lipsync (emphasis on quick). I just got the inspiration to have a go at an 11 second club whilst I was in a Maya mood, so this happened. Never done it before. It's rather trickeh. But, I feel this was a first good attempt (minus the crazy eyebrows).

I'll maybe get the other 7 seconds complete once semester's over...

For more interesting stuff, check out SUSHI. It's where most of my work's going at the moment anyhow...

Youths

I've been back home for Easter weekend, getting a break from Dundee and playing with puppies. It's been awesome. Whilst I was home, I discovered an old sketchbook I'd had when I was in first year high school (about 8 years ago?) and remembered a couple of characters I'd drawn in it that I recall being incredibly proud of when I drew them:

I think they were created as a frustrated statement against how my sister used to watch "Sailor Moon" and how annoyed I was at how girly it was...

I never used to draw cartoons as I never knew what I wanted to do until the end of high school - I've only really been working on drawing from my imagination properly for the past couple of years. These two are examples of the very rare instances that I dared to draw from my mind.

Anyway, as a break from SUSHI work, I decided to try redrawing these now - 8 years later - as a gift to my former self. They're soo far from the kind of theme of stuff I draw now, but they were fun to do. I tried to keep it as close to the original drawings as possible - I don't think younger Andrew would have been impressed if I'd changed them...

Who knows... Maybe in another 8 years I'll come back to them again, hopefully having improved a bit more...