Week 4
Character Design
Rough notes taken during video:
Fast Gesture Drawing - loose and quick but maintain clarity and weight. Show force and sometimes even emotion. Practice (life drawing classes, people references, copying frames from live action footage). 30 secs to 1 min per pose, get the point across.
walt stanfield artist ref.
Useful for storyboarding, a skeleton of idea. 1st draft of sketch/animation. show idea first before further work, a rough pass. Character design, character poses.
Figure invention - how to construct something (e.g. the basic human form from scratch). Anatomy, proportions, basic mechanics of movement.
Look art videos with physical tasks, break down frame by frame. Ani, storyboarding...
essential for character designs. maintain proportions, different angles for character rotations.
Pantoja, T., 2021. Drawing Skills you NEED for animation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm66LOQgz-o
[Accessed 20 April 2021].
Line confidents/bold strokes - best through practice. avoid scratchy lines. deliberate with strokes. show decisiveness. just go with it.
Clearer shorthand's in storyboard and animation. clarity. clean up.
Make 1 side of a drawing a single line. less super sketchy/scratchy. move onto the next line.
solid construction - fundamentals of academic drawing, breaking down complex figures/subjects into simple shapes. giving a drawing form, making them 3d. e.g. breaking down the human skeleton.
Andrew loomis, michael hampton, bridgeman artist ref. good at using basic primitives. Learn how to stack together so they have form, in perspective, like they made out of building blocks.
practice - take drawings really slow. after a few drawing passes. draw building blocks. everything technically works and fits.
draw through them like they were see-through.
useful for every drawing department. Need to be able to animate character with consistency in form, proportions and overall construction.
Basic understanding of perspective - learn how to utilize vanishing points, horizon lines, 1 and 2 vanishing points, learning how to draw solid objects and making them match to vanishing points.
layout and storyboarding. learn cubes, ellipsis and perspective. take an image and draw over top of it to understand better.
once your better you can shorthand it or eyeball it.
Simple understanding of lighting and value (lighting and shadow) - like adding cast shadows, adding the crest of a shadow, learning how to deal with values, soft shading, indicate heart shading, convincing lighting on solid figures.
when learning, dont make too rich/detailed, focus on a few tones. get better at using (e.g. 3) values to showcase believable lighting.
lighting and tone especially good for storyboarding. describes atmosphere, time of day, mood, focal point. character design, helps to describe form and how it reacts to light
Layout and compositional skills - knowing how to compose drawings, easier and clear to look at. e.g. effective camera, effective layout, visual design that emphasises story elements. Using shape abstractedly, pose could have really bold shapes. Push an audiences eye direction. Us it to compose the framing of the shot. Animation - shape language of the character animation.
character design - shape language
storyboarding - how to use those shapes to strengthen story or shot.
The forgotten skill - observational skills - see something, able to break it down quickly and know how to recreate it. Immediate capture it and understand why it is the way it is. know how to replicate it. An animator being able to draw in multiple styles. creating different storyboard styles.
Practice - blind contour sketching. drawing something in front of you without looking at your drawing/paper. Can't use systems to help you. strengthens hand to eye co ordination. You would do drawing choices that you would never normally do.
Skills Specific to these areas:
Animation adds acting, mechanics, mechanics an d principles of animation.
storyboarding adds storytelling aspect, shot choices, composition, filmmaking, cutting, editing
character design add explore different shapes, experimenting with approaches, research actual stuff so it works in the animated world.
visual development/concept art adds painting, colour theory, advanced knowledge on values, convincing materials (how to).
Now this video was a further extension of research regarding all of my sketchbook work. However many of the techniques it talks about can also be applied to digital work. The plan was to look and identify the fundamental skills that are present in areas such as animation and storyboarding. In watching this and making rough notes, I was able to not only identify key areas of skill but how to improve them, what they are useful for and in some cases - artists known for them. I feel great now I know where I need to go from here. I can apply the above to practically most if not all my drawings and work in the fmp. For example my lines are incredibly sketchy and not 'confident' in comparison to other artists lines. So the area called 'Line Confidents and Bold Strokes' would be an ideal area to explore further. The video gives me methods of improving them as well. So in this case it is essentially down to practice and forcing yourself to complete your shape with big, sweeping lines instead. Solid construction and perspective are areas that I have been constantly developing since the start of the course in September (evident in my sketchbook work during week 1-3). Layout and compositional skills have also been touched upon but not thoroughly explored (will need to look into it further). However its lighting and value and line confidents that need the most work. I have very little understanding when it comes to lighting/shadow, I also know how much it will improve my storyboards. And confident lines will only make it easier to animate. Having fewer lines will simplify my shape and make it easier to manipulate and keep consistent. Positively I learnt a lot from watching this video. While the information and video itself is a form of secondary research, my actual experience with it is primary. It has given me a goal to work towards in terms of expanding my drawing ability. On the negative side this experience was unplanned and not accounted for in my timetable. It is my intent to develop my fire character during this week. This does translate and will be helpful but it's impact is very debatable. My time would be better spent researching into fire or ways to improve character design in particular. This was useful and I personally enjoyed it, however I reckon my time would be better spent in other areas at this stage of my fmp. In terms of the video itself, I have no issues. If I wanted to be picky I would say 20 minutes is very long. Now what I plan to do is focus on examples of fire characters and animation. See what other artists have produced and use it to inspire my own fire character. This will include looking at existing animations with fire as it's focus and images of other fire characters.
YOUTUBE - Fire Animation Examples - Inspiration 20/4
ECLYPSO, 2018. ice vs fire epic animated fight (check out the description). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeGYX-57-I4
[Accessed 20 April 2021].
Apprentice, V., 2011. Alight. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLZJ-E2CWuw
[Accessed 20 April 2021].
Pantoja, T., 2021. Drawing Skills you NEED for animation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm66LOQgz-o
[Accessed 20 April 2021].
Taki, 2020. Fog Hill of Five Elements - Blood // Water 「AMV」. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAWxNO8puw4
[Accessed 20 April 2021].
Now the plan was to find a wide range of fire animations that already exist in order to see what others have done when tackling a similar concept. Between these 4 videos, I have found a wide variety of clips ranging from armature/beginner animators all the way up to professionals. Some of these clips are within my own ability while others reach levels I am currently no where near - but inspire to be in the future. Now the '41 INCREDABLE Fire Animations' video was my biggest inspiration in the concept of the fmp. It was this video that made me begin to animate fire in my own private time, then incorporate it into my Project 2 and finally explore it further as the focus of my fmp. The good thing with this is the complete range of skill, style, artists and ability. I was able to see many animations at once by talented people I haven't heard of until this point. I even joined the discord server and have spoken/held interviews with some of these people. They open up new doors and possibilities I have never even considered. Now the video 'alight' was created about 10 years ago, an old animation made during the birth of the mainstream internet culture. This is an example of what animation was like a decade ago and acts as a good reference point to where it has developed today. The last 2 videos listed above are apart of an ongoing series with amazing production quality. This is the most developed/complex in terms of pure animation skill out of the 4, an example of what I could become in the years ahead. My goal in 2D animation has always been to know enough knowledge and experience to tell any story I want. To be able to come up with and visually create my ideas for people to see. These videos are examples of the past, present and future of animation. How people were 10 years ago, many examples of animation today and what I inspire to do in the future to come. I don't have any negatives in regards to this. I could say I can find even more videos to act as reference or use a site other than YouTube to find animations. However I am amazed by all 4 videos and essentially, as corny as it sounds, feel inspired to one day reach these levels. What I did was watch all 4 multiple times and analyse the fire elements in particular. The idea was to see other peoples are styles and interpretations of flame. How it moved, any similarities between examples... Many of these are beyond my ability as of this moment but act as a reference to what I could do given the handwork, practice and patients. What I intend to do from here is to find some still image examples to support the animation videos above as research. Then finally I will start experimenting with my own fire examples. I will use these videos (and later images) to help me design my own style of fire and eventually movements of flame.
Blog - Week 0 to Week 4 Current Progress - 20/4
123, T. R., 2021. blog 20/4 - Summary of Week 1 to 4 (FMP). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZxrpi2SKo0
[Accessed 20 April 2021].
Essentially, this is a video that summarises all of my progress since starting the fmp. I talk about my beginning ideas in regards to what to do for my fmp and how it evolved into what it is today (21/4). There won't be a lot of writing as I explain and evaluate everything during the video. I also talk about previous work that has lead into or acted as inspiration for all the current work and ideas produced. It is very long but blogs are a way to track my progress alongside my evaluation and walls of text. After this I want to try and do more blogs to bridge the gap between work. I feel like that 2 entire weeks between blogs means that many small works and ideas get missed out of during the project. This is to record my progress and give documentation to my swirling ideas and rough/unfiltered thoughts.
Instagram Moodboard - Examples of Flame 18/4 - 20/4
As I said during my animation video research, I will be backing it up with some still images to support my research and experiments going forward. The idea is to have a wide selection of reference to refer back to while I attempt to create new styles of fire. Many of these still images were used as direct inspiration for the art styles below, just adapted to my own technique and mediums. There are around 30 images give or take, all from Instagram. Normally Pinterest of Google Images are my go to source for images but Instagram allowed me much more benefits. For starters I could see all the artists that created the image instantly, rather than going through multiple links to find another site with the same image. It also allows me to explore their other works and get a deeper understanding of their techniques and methods. Furthermore (like Pinterest) Instagram gives me recommendations dependant on the work im searching, which I can narrow down further with hashtags. This new research source was partially discovered when I conducted the interview with greyghost during week 1-3.
I looked for a range of styles with a range of characters, artists and materials. Although the majority are digital, there are also many examples of traditional pencil, pen and paint to explore as well. From Tattoo concepts to Mario, Pokémon fanart, fire tutorials and multiple anime's such as My Hero Academia and Ju Jutsu Kaizen.
This gives me a very broad range of examples to refer to when designing my own flames and characters, although I want to create a second mood board specifically on fire characters. The one above is more for the flames themselves rather than character designs. More research will be needed before my animation is near completion, most of it so far has been into emotion, fire, drawing techniques and character. I still need to research into sounds, perspective, lighting and especially explosions. This is a good step in the right direction in creating and contributing to my final animation, although much more needs to be done. These examples above were a source of inspiration to my designs below. Overall I am happy with the outcome and content with the amount of references available going into experimenting. Although if I was to do this again I would include more reference images from a wide range of websites. Instagram is a new source of research for my fmp but a singular source is never as good as multiple recourses when it comes to research. What I intend to do is now experiment and use all of the above research to inform my fire design and character design. The goal of this week is to establish a character for the animation. The next 2 weeks after will specifically be for experimenting with animation software's and creating the first drafts of my final animation.
Sketchbook Experiments (Pen and Pencil)
Styles of Flame - 18/4 - 20/4
Welcome to the first experiments to be associated with fire. So far my experiments have been in storyboarding and emotion/general drawing skills. Fire is an area that I have been interested in for a while now. As explained above, it was watching fire animations on YouTube that got me inspired to make my own flames to begin with. Previously, I compiled my previous animations into a 30 second montage to show where I was and how I progressed by the end of project 2 and the start of the fmp. Now it is time to develop it further and see how far I can take my idea.
Between the 16th and 18th of April, on the advice of my tutor and classmates, I took a break from work for my own mental health. However, during the 18th, I got bored and started drawing for the fun of it. Using the gathered Instagram references above, I drew (in pencil) around 25 sketches of flames. These were direct examples (or my own version of) the Instagram images sitting in front of me. Now to make it my own work, I developed it further by drawing over the top in fine liner pens. This is another medium that I have used as experimentation during the project. So far I have shown my skills in pencil drawings and delved a little bit into digital drawing (although I haven't shown the extent of my skills so far as of writing this).
Now the issue with pen is blending. With pencil it is a matter of layering multiple colours made of varying pressures over the top of each other. If I did this with pens I would damage the tip and create a negative affect on all future work using the same tools.
So the first challenge was blending.
Out of the 25 drawings, I developed 14 of them further and asked for feedback from others regarding them. No 1 I left deliberate gaps between each section of colour and filled them in with the innermost colour. This created a more gradual fade and resulted in small sections blending well. No 2 was me attempting to get the colour of flame and a better texture to No 1. No 1 is incredibly smooth, round shapes and still looking while No 2 is extremely rough and wild. The colours are scattered so there is less of a clear divide than before. Now it is a singular entity rather than 3 shapes next to each other. No 3 was a completely different style to No 1 and 2. Inspired by the blocky shapes of the Tattoo image, it stands out in bold shapes to give the shape of flame. I also attempted to use a range of pencils and pens together to help it stand out.
No 4 (the favourite of many in terms of feedback) is a further development of No 2. The colours are blended further and cinders have been introduced. The flame looks like it breaks away from the source and fades into air.
No 5 was me trying to keep the same shape as no 4 (or following the same principle) but keeping in mind animation. No 4 with all it's precise detail it great for a still image but would be a utter nightmare to animate. No 5 simplifies the shape and uses blocks more similar to No 3, while try to expand on elements of 4. No 6 retains the colour scheme of No 4 but attempts to simplify is a different style. It is inspired by the skull image above. I tried to make it my own by changing the shape and flame style into a range of short and long flames. I also have flames expanding from the shoulders into arms, with the shape outline as the source.
No 7, 8 and 9 was me playing around with the shape (and specifically the flow) of flame. No 7's fire is much more curvy and smooth compared to the previous, but has the same length and danger dur to the sharp points. Many before it had their sections broken down into smaller shapes while 7 build of the block style of 3 and 5. No 8 is probably my second least favourite out of the 14. I used highlighters to try and create a greater contrast in colour by ended up in the flames becoming neon. It is also very rushed and I should of spent more time in experimenting with the curved flame style. No 9 was me manipulating flames into shapes besides a massive blob. How would it look as a spiral? How would it move? My animation will require a greater change of shape for flames so experimenting now is vital for success later. No 10, 11 and 12 all experiment with a simple candle flame (like No 1). However the sharper lines and rough style make the flames look much less friendly. I have also noticed that I've become a personal fan of the blue flame and deep red flame. Now on the heat spectrum fire turns blue at it's hottest while red at it's coldest. For my transformation panel I could have a red fire character turn blue in rage. A way to use colour to also tell a story and show emotion. No 13 was the most rushed out of all of them was was done to simply fill in the page. No 14 is my personal favourite, taking the idea behind No 9 and trying to create more intricate shapes out of flame.
The above explains what I did and some of the issues I had to face when completing the sketches. Now it's to to evaluate it. This area of text and down was made after my lesson on Wednesday 21st April 2021. During this time my tutor broke down the red model and the mark scheme, giving us a few key ideas to think about when structuring our wix site. Now although my evaluations have been solid (in my personal opinion) up to this point, there is always ways to improve. Essentially every piece of work, every varying example of research must have a reason behind it - a why. How does it impact the project, how will I use it in my own experimentation and how will I develop my work from there? A piece of information that stuck with me in particular was what he said about others work. Find those more skilled than yourselves and learn from them. See what they do and how they do it, learn from them to support your own work. Essentially look at someone better than you and improve your own stuff using their knowledge.
That reminded me of a conversation with another student on the course. They showed me a 2D animation they made by using a film clip as reference. Drawing over the top of certain frames. This let them understand the movement of their character much greater than images alone. The best way to learn is to do, or so the old phrase goes. I can try and use this method in my fire/explosion attempts later down the line. Then I can draw over the top of it in my own style.
In terms of this sketchbook work. I wanted to experiment with styles and just explore the many ways I could interpret fire. I plan to digitally create these styles in my character design and/or animations. So these are really early drafts of my character experiment. The feedback from these will greatly affect which design I bring forward and re-create digitally. It also allowed me to experiment with other mediums besides digital animation. I want to show my skills in a wide variety of areas in order to show what I am capable off.
Positively I managed to get a wider pool of feedback for my artwork. Compared to the normal amount of 2 responses I got 6 digital messages. The issue was that every response I got had a different favourite. I went to Instagram and Facebook to ask for feedback.
Now the winning work is photographed on the left. Now during the creation of all of these I honestly felt really relaxed. It was nice just to doodle. Positively, the wide range of responses mean I can use multiple elements to help my character design (plenty of choice). The downside is that these fire designs are clearly down to personal taste. What one person loves another might hate. This mean that the appeal of my design may be narrow than I intend. What I need to do is see how these designs translate to a digital medium compared to their traditional counterparts.
The intent is to go onto a digital software like Photoshop to start designing and adapting a character made out of flame. I will use what I learned in the creation of these designs to inspire the design of my character. The blue colours and broken up shapes of no 2, 4 and 6. The curves and flow of no 7. The realistic colours of 2 something much more abstract such as no 3.
Furthermore, I will gather more references from the Internet (more secondary research) before completing a design. This will give me a greater knowledge of what others have made, the similarities between each existing design and may give me a few ideas on how to differentiate myself from the pack. Combining that with the Instagram posts and I will have 2 mood boards worth of examples to go from. Add the videos of existing animations and my own sketches, creating a range of references to use. Now I just need to create the character. The research is done for now, it is time to experiment.
Fire Character Attempt 2 - 22/4
While the first moodboard was created out of Instagram posts (essentially other artists work), the new one was created of google images (most popular results from the internet). There isn't a lot I can say about it I haven't already said in the above section. I would say that it would of been better to find a different source of reference, rather than more internet images. There is plenty of secondary research but what about primary? How would primary research benefit my character design compared to secondary. The feedback on styles helped me narrow down my style choice. My experiences watching animations on YouTube gave me ideas on how fire moves and is interpreted. I have conducted interviews from tutors in regards to my general ideas and that helped me narrow down my idea into what it is today. I have also done interviews in regards to emotion (specially the greyghost interview). I found that speaking to other artists increased my understanding the most. They give ideas and suggestions that I would never of even considered. The point is that the above images will definitely help in regard to my character but I need to conduct a wider range of research. The easiest way to solve this is to make some drafts and get some feedback face to face. Conduct more interviews and attempt to find some real life examples.
So on the 22nd I created 3 different character designs, some more developed than others. The first attempt was trying to mimic human anatomy, this particular example didn't go very well and is considered a warm up in my eyes. The second attempt was a still figure of a man enveloped in flame. This is the most basic design of the 3 and me re-trying to get it to scale of a human. The majority of my time went into the 3rd design. It follows and is inspired more by the draft design of my storyboard. The shapes are basic and easy to animate. Most of the work would go into the fire movement, explosion and facial expression.
Now I personally like the bottom part of the character, specifically the cloud like flame in which he floats on. The flame design was inspired by the Chinese animation above. In it the characters have very sharp lines and a bold colours. What I did to replicate this is clearly defined lines for the flame, copied it and moved it downwards. After playing with the brightness and contrast I was able to create the character on the left. Although I like it there is way more work that needs to happen.
My main worry is that it is too simple. For a 5 second animation, the character shape is extremely simple (essentially 2 balls with arms sticking out). I reckon that the humanoid approach of attempt 1 and 2 would come out much better with a bit more development. I can still take elements out of this design and my sketchbook attempts into my next design, but this is the end of this one. I want to show what I can do and this design won't simple work for what I intend. The expression looks bored and lifeless, the body and arms are raw and undefined. The best part is really the fiery head which is at best generic and at worst rushed and unimpactful.
The idea was to take the climax of my story, where the character is at it's angrist, and animate the huge explosion finale. So why not exaggerate. Lets chain up the character and have him struggle to escape. Lets show a broken man, or an enraged beast. Let the design show anger in shape and posture. This is far too peaceful for such an act.
I also said to my tutor that ill have a developed design by the Wednesday (the 28th of April). This is my self-imposed deadline in terms of character. At this point I really want to start experimenting with the animation.
What I intend to do from here is to redraw my character. I have a vision in my head that I want to put to paper. Once I have sketched out the roughs I will then digitally draw it. Furthermore I will also attempt to find some real life references and primary sources to help back up my moodboards. Overall this is a good start but no where near finalised.
Secondary Research - Anime - JoJo Part 1 (23/4)
Now the main issue with my character is simplicity, or so I through. The simple design would be easier to animate and would be the better option for a 30 second story animation. Now that I have decided to reduce it to a 5 second piece, I need to be more detailed in my design choice. I also need to be much more deliberate. My previous attempts were very generic in terms of ideas. I just got examples of fire and shot darts in the dark. I need to establish a theme more narrow than the idea of fire alone. How will the design portray the angry emotions of the climax? What colours will I use to show it? How do I show anger through shape and body language? These questions and many more all have to be considered as I progress further in my design. There is already a backbone of research and many small experimentation pieces, now I need to develop off that to make something better.
JoJo's is an Japanese anime that I have been watching in my spare time along side my fmp. I intend to use it to inspire my new design. I did similar with Full Metal Alchemist during my project 2. Now instead of taking a face value piece (such as a metal arm) I intend to use it as a bridge to a new area of research.
JoJo's is known for its over the top action, dynamic poses and the use of stands. Stand represent the psychological state of the fighter and the use of them allows the story infinite applications. However the early parts (especially no 1) is more akin to classic Shonen. The 2 pieces of inspiration I am interested in is it's use of masks and the ever famous Japanese writing in scenes.
xaos_art_333, 2021. The Fire Phoenix tattoo - art , BW version. [Online]
Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNDJ3A8hrxn/
[Accessed 19 April 2021].
FANDOM, n.d. JoJo's BIZARRE -WIKI- ADVENTURE EPISODE 2. [Online]
Available at: https://jojo.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_2
[Accessed 23 April 2021].
NETFLEX, 2012. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. [Online]
Available at: https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80179831
[Accessed 23 April 2021].
Honey's Anime, 2019. The Writing of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. [Online]
Available at: https://honeysanime.com/the-writing-of-jojos-bizarre-adventure/
[Accessed 23 April 2021].
Now while the images used as reference are secondary (and the anime material also secondary [made by someone else]) my personal experience with it is primary. As of writing this I am part way through part 3 ,where they introduce stands. The Mask in part 1 and 2 is used to power up villainess characters from humans to creatures of legends (specifically vampires). Now while vampires and classic horror would be interesting to explore. I am more interested in it's influence. JoJo's takes inspiration from not only Japan but all over the world. From the vampires and English tales to ww2, Italian and American influence in part 2. I intend to use Japanese fokelore (tales and legends) in a similar application. The fact that this show originated from Japan is one source. Also I got the idea to use anime as a research source from a small piece of experimentation from earlier. No 3 in the sketchbook (inspired by a tattoo artist on Instagram) looks very similar to the writing in JoJo's. Now JoJo's uses Kanji (one of the 3 Japanese languages) to add emphasis to high tension scenes. Many move alongside the character animation, a single attribute to it's identity as a whole.
This provides another source of entertainment than just online videos and images as of the moment. It also opens the doors to an entirely new culture to take inspiration from. I plan to use Japanese influence to theme my character and narrow it down as much as I can. Although I don't want to go surface level similarities alone. For example just ripping off the writing from an existing media. I want to put my own twist on it. Each Kanji symbol has a meaning, a symbol for basically every word. I will use this massive alphabet to form my own combination and meaning. If I was to do this again I would watch all the way to part 5, the more I delve into my research topic the greater I will understand it in the long run.
Fire Character Attempt 3 (STORY NO 4) - 23/4
The next stage, before I start designing my character again, is to decide what kind of movement it will carry out. If the movement is long or complex it would be better to design a simpler character to save time. Likewise if the movement is minimal then a well detailed (many lined) character would fit nicely. The idea is to use the climax panels rather than the entire 27 panel story established in week 1-3 - one the feedback of my tutor Adam. However these panels alone need refining for this particular movement, not just ripped out of my original idea. So it was time to sketch.
The first shot is of my character staring upwards into a facing down camera, arms outstretched in pain. This is to establish the beginning emotions and the core goal, to escape. The chains are brought into the spotlight alone with the face. The face is one of the most expressive parts of the human body. The research done in emotion and how to show it will be especially helpful here. The shot will then cut as the arms move downwards to a side view of the character, giving the audience a full view of the locked up monster. The pose is dynamic, clear strain is shown and the flame will get larger with the more effort. Then 1 of 2 routes shall occur. No 1, the chain snaps, the arms swing down to come back up again. The shot will cut to the 3rd scene of the explosion where the camera will zoom out to get the full shot of the devastation. No 2, the camera will rotate round the struggling character ,with more emphasis being on the emotion and anger. When the camera reaches a 90 degree front view the chains will then snap and the explosion will commence. The 2nd option is more ambitious and much harder to pull off. A moving character with a still camera is one job. Moving the camera with a moving character is much more adventurous. The issue would come down to time - weather I have enough to pull it off. With so many new elements such as the improved flame, the explosion, impact frames, the cube effect and keeping body language, proportions and angle consistent - its a tall order.
An idea to explore is to incorporate rock into the character design to act as a further lockup measure to the chains. I could have the character get hotter and hotter to escape until the explosion sends the rocks flying into the sky and ground. This would make more sense in justifying the surface destruction and act as a symbolic release. Thus being free of their capture. That is more through out than anger = bang. The original design lacked deliberation, it was too random and for "why nots" sake. The rocks would be a way to start adding meaning - although a shallow one.
Furthermore, choosing to do it on paper meant that the new storyboard/sketch is a lot harder to read. These are just doodling's, not full digital panels. This would make it much harder to interpret to the casual viewer. What I intend to do is to digitally draw and design my characters in these body positions. That way it will give me practice for the animation and provide a dynamic position to draw off. What I plan to do now is to look for Japanese legends revolving around masks and once I find the one to go with - write it down here.
Japan Fokelore Research - Hanya Part 1 - 24/4
The Japanese Hanya was one such legend. This is a mask specifically for women. The mask represents wisdom but is commonly associated with the stories of jealousy and anger.
Now the main emotion of my story is anger and rage, so this fits nicely in terms of meaning. Now according to Wikipedia, they say the mask is commonly used in 'Noh theatres' (a potential research topic) and represents 'jealous female demons'. This means that if I use this particular mask my character will have to be female (not male like before) in order to fit the legend.
'The Hannya mask is said to be demonic and dangerous but also sorrowful and tormented, displaying the complexity of human emotions. When the actor looks straight ahead, the mask appears frightening and angry; when tilted slightly down, the face of the demon appears to be sorrowful, as though crying.'
Anger towards those who wronged them. sorrow and sadness caused by the betrayer. The fact that the mask can portray so many emotions (especially for a fixed face) is a achievement on it's own. The mask is truly a balance between sadness and anger.
There also seems to be 3 main stages of the Hanya. The Namanari (the most human), the Chunariand the Honnari (the most demonic).
Kurihara, J., 2015. A little history of Hannya Mask – Why it´s so scary? –. [Online]
Available at: http://www.iromegane.com/japan/culture/a-little-history-of-hannya-mask-why-its-so-scary/
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Linton, S. J., 2015. Hannya in Japanese Folklore. [Online]
Available at: https://suzannalinton.com/hannya-in-japanese-folklore/
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Pinterest, n.d. Uncle Oni Mask 303 - Blue Japanese Noh Style Fiberglass Art Mask Costume - FREE SHIPPING. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/323625923195118988/
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
VectorStock, n.d. Japanese demon mask vector image. [Online]
Available at: https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/japanese-demon-mask-vector-21198041
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Wikipedia, 2021. Hannya. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannya
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
VectorStock, n.d. Japanese demon mask vector image. [Online]
Available at: https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/japanese-demon-mask-vector-21198041
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Kurihara, J., 2015. A little history of Hannya Mask – Why it´s so scary? –. [Online]
Available at: http://www.iromegane.com/japan/culture/a-little-history-of-hannya-mask-why-its-so-scary/
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Pinterest, n.d. Uncle Oni Mask 303 - Blue Japanese Noh Style Fiberglass Art Mask Costume - FREE SHIPPING. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/323625923195118988/
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Wikipedia, 2021. Hannya. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannya
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
hilo, D., 2017. Hannya. [Online]
Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/z4oEL
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
The Hanya expresses sadness and 'anger from jealously'
Female Samurai Warriors - Onna-bugeisha - 24/4
women sammuri
Serena, K., 2017. The History Of The Onna-Bugeisha, Japan’s Bad Ass Female Samurai. [Online]
Available at: https://allthatsinteresting.com/onna-bugeisha-female-samurai
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Chao-Fong, L., 202. 10 Facts About the Onna-bugeisha: Japan’s Female Samurai Warriors. [Online]
Available at: https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-the-onna-bugeisha-japans-female-samurai-warriors/#:~:text=While%20the%20word%20%E2%80%9Csamurai%E2%80%9D%20is,their%20homes%2C%20families%20and%20honour
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
fire char
lava
Lava References - Fire Research Continued - 24/4
Allen F. Glazner, J. M. B. a. D. S. C., 2016. We Need a New Definition for “Magma”. [Online]
Available at: https://eos.org/opinions/we-need-a-new-definition-for-magma
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Israel, B., 2010. Massive blob of scorching magma discovered under southern Africa. [Online]
Available at: https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0621/Massive-blob-of-scorching-magma-discovered-under-southern-Africa
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Now many of my fire research is in flames themselves, but what about it's other forms? Although the character is now bases strongly in Japanese legend, I still want to retain the fiery elements of my original idea. Furthermore, my fmp is the development of fire and explosions. I still need to find a way to bring fire into my animation. Lava will allow me to retain a lot more shape (due to its much more solid form compared to flames) while keeping the heat elements in. My particular favourite among the images above in the far left. The way the lava cooled into rock to form lines is very sinister. The strongest heat lays beneath its rocky exterior.
NATIONAL GEOGRPAHIC, 2019. Magma. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/magma/
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
HUGHES, P., 2019. Iron in Earth’s magma oceans forged diamonds deep underground. [Online]
Available at: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/iron-in-earths-magma-oceans-forged-diamonds-deep-underground/3010913.article
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
dreamstime, n.d. Magma Background, The red crack astage for background. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-magma-background-red-crack-astage-background-image91428086
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
The plan is to incorporate lava into the design to help retain a more human form. The colours and shapes of the other images will help inspire the design and give me more reference to work off. Overall I am happy with this selection. If I was to do this again, I would look for a greater variety. The weakness in this piece of research is that it is only 5 images on the internet. I have done this method to a better degree through the moodboards. To only have 5 images makes the method less effective.
Female Anatomy and Angry Female Ref - 24/4
Pinterest, n.d. Online Drawing Lessons and Tutorials. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/ARaYvbNTmiDIdbVE4peyDN9j97od_MFxJtVdVaiJHxAbqXIMb_ruNZg/
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Pinterest, n.d. 【服装设计必备】人体动态. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/176836722846933868/
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Now the main legend that this character is based around is a female one. The Hanyaa is for women. That means that a male character wearing this particular mask wouldn't make sense. Now many of my human design are proportionally male, with the main proportions male. This means that I will need to do some practice and have many references. Once again, my go to source was internet images. Basically it is the easiest source to access and offers a big enough range to get what it needed. I found several images of angry women. The main focus is to have a reference to get proportions and anatomy correct. However I cannot undercut the main emotion - anger. Anger was always the main focus of the climax of my storyboard (what this was all based off) and a key emotion in the story of the mask. Women may show anger in different ways compared to men. So these images gave me insight into multiple topics at once. A common similarity between these images are the hands. Many raised in the air, sharp angles and strained joints. In most cases the expression is a cross between a shout and pained. The eyes narrow, the mouth either locks or is wide open to make the biggest noise possible.
123rf, n.d. Stock Photo - Anger young business woman in glasses strong screaming with wild open mouth and holding head the hands on blue background. [Online]
Available at: https://www.123rf.com/photo_49004391_anger-young-business-woman-in-glasses-strong-screaming-with-wild-open-mouth-and-holding-head-the-han.html
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
dreamstime, n.d. Portrait of angry pensive mad crazy asian woman screaming out expression, facial. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dreamstime.com/portrait-angry-pensive-mad-crazy-asian-woman-screaming-out-expression-facial-portrait-angry-pensive-mad-crazy-asian-woman-image101665333
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
dreamstime, n.d. Portrait of angry asian woman isolated on white background. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-portrait-angry-asian-woman-isolated-white-background-beauty-young-tan-image98610214
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Body language is either closed in and pent up, moments from exploding or huge and outwards. Eyebrows narrow and all the joints stiffen up, these are very common signs seen in both men and women. So in my own personal opinion, there are little differences in terms of physically portraying emotion between the 2. I did feel uncomfortable researching this. Seeing pages and pages of screening women is not very pleasant. The biggest weakness is the research source itself. I reckon at this stage I am relying on Internet sources (images and videos) far too often. In order to achieve a successful character design, I need to have a range of sources delving into varying details around my character. The abundance of internet images would also mean that my fmp lack in primary sources, which is a massive issue.
Michelle Lall, M., 2019. Are You Angry?. [Online]
Available at: https://feminem.org/2019/11/11/are-you-angry/
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
dreamstime, n.d. Portrait of angry, screaming young business woman in a leather chair behind the office Desk. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dreamstime.com/portrait-angry-screaming-young-business-woman-leather-chair-behind-office-desk-image107916897
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
dreamstime, n.d. Portrait of angry woman shouting. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dreamstime.com/portrait-angry-woman-shouting-angry-girl-shouting-young-emotional-woman-screaming-raised-fists-dark-background-blaming-image116532051
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Positively, this does give me a greater understanding in how anger is portrayed. Although all of my images are examples of extreme cases. When people get angry, normally they do not get this exaggerated in their reaction. There are also many more ways to express anger than just raising your arms up and shouting your lungs out. This is really only an example of the tipping point, or the explosion of pent up rage. I know that leaning in and physically intimidating someone (especially pointing) is an example of angry body language - although a lot more subtle in comparison. Going forward, it is my plan to do a lot more research. Name I need to gather a range of sources from books to real places to films, newspapers, interviews, feedback...
There are many more forms of research than just internet images and videos alone. I also want to attempt another redesign. The previous design was based off the "childlike" features of the original, which was hastily made for the storyboard. Considering how much my animation has shrunk down, it would make more sense to push for a more complex design.
123rf, n.d. Stock Photo - Angry women screaming. Collage of young interracial group of girls shouting in fury, demonstrating negative emotions and bad mood, panorama. [Online]
Available at: https://www.123rf.com/photo_137320754_angry-women-screaming-collage-of-young-interracial-group-of-girls-shouting-in-fury-demonstrating-neg.html
[Accessed 24 April 2021].
Character Attempt 3 - 24/4
This is the 3rd major attempt at designing my fire character. It is also the most complex of the 3 so far, using human anatomy instead of just circles and rectangles alone. Much of my experimentation has been done traditionally, using pencil and pen as the choice of medium. Although quick and much easier in my own case, I need to show my digital skills in order to build up to the animation. This is an improved version of the same skills I used in attempt 2. The sketch lines were done in a custom hard pressure brush, a slight alteration to the original set. I focused on the silluett, attempting to make my design memorable. Transformation tools were used to adjust the shape, such as heavy use of the lasso tool. Fill, layers and opacity were heavily used as well. The first part of this design was establishing body shape and pose. I already had a rough idea of my pose, based off the first shot of my animation (sketched out on paper above). The arms are wide and stiff. The face pulled back and in full display. Body language is open and threatening. This was mainly inspired by the "angry women" research
The base lava design was planned out as base colours over the frame of the body. However I found this only lead to more issue than solutions. Compared to the rest of the built up small lines, the block colours stood out like a sore thumb. I attempted to rectify this by going over in a smooth brush but it only resulted in the character blending into the background. The flame coursing off the body, combined with the smoke and extra fire just massed the character from view. its hard to see where it starts and ends.
Red is a classic colour to convey anger and pain. Basic colour theory was used in my colour choice. Deep reds represent wrath and rage. I also used white flame to help the body stand out a bit more, attempting to solve the issue of the lack of shape. Positively, it improved massively off the previous design. Attempt 2 was based off the base storyboard character. In doing so it looked more innocent, curious or even bored. This character looks angry, sad, in pain. The emotions of the tale are captured in this drawing. I would argue that this character is the first 1 that achieved its purpose in terms of emotion and intent.
The Japanese influence gave my character a theme and narrowed down my design choice. Although (with the exception of the mask) I would argue that the character design choices need to be more deliberate. When it comes to Japanese culture, everything has a hidden meaning. With the exception of the mask, the rest of the design seems random. The lines are extremely sketchy and will need refinement in order to work in an animation. Right now the shape is too undefined to confidently animate. What I intend to do is to carry on with my research into Japanese legend and use a range of research sources to inspire my next design. I will then attempt to redraw my character for the final time and move straight to my animation. I have already spent too much time on the character design and have been forced to cut many elements out. The background is no longer apart of the animation, the story is reduced to a 5 second flash of rage and the design has been over run by an entire week.
Research Planning - 25/4
Now what my project has lacked so far is an official plan. With the exception of my timetable (that I have rarely stuck to) and my list of references. There has been little evidence of planning. I already had a small list of references from online due to my previous research. So I went away and explored many new sites and made a list of websites on word. Through this I was able to plan out my research sources in an specific order.
The idea is to get a range of research sources. The internet is a tool ,with many paths to go down. I already had images covered. There have been plenty of animation videos already.
In doing this method, I found the main source of the mask in modern culture today. As well as the booming tattoo industry in terms of this mask, there is also a famous type of theatre genre called Noh. Through YouTube, I was able to watch a segment of a traditional Japanese play to see how actresses use the mask in their narratives.
I also took further reference from feedback (primary source), books (secondary source) and a physical experiment (primary again).
Female Anatomy Research Continued
BOOK REFERENCE - 25/4
Hart, C., 2009. Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. In: I. Edition, ed. Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. New York: sixth@spring books, pp. 84-85.
Hart, C., 2009. Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. In: I. Edition, ed. Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. New York: sixth@spring books, pp. 88-93.
This book (Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People) was used during my previous projects. However these particular pages are brand new to my project work. Originally I had 2 images to act as reference for my female anatomy, which is not a lot. Add that to the fact of the amount of image research I have done it was clear my range was extremely low.
These 10 pages give me a concise method to build up the body, along with full body images from multiple angles to work with. This is a huge advantages compared to the 2 images of previous, as I only had a front and back view present. The varied poses also gave me a decent understanding of female proportions. With several shots and angles of (e.g. the arms), I am able to visualise much clearer how each muscle is structured and shaped.
I have few negatives when it comes to this source of research. If anything having the images in a book I find far greater than just internet images alone. If Anything I should use books more often. The drawback is price. I have to pay for every new book I get. Although a collection would build up and be handy for future works. I plan to use these to identify several anatomy errors from my pervious design and be aware of them going into the new design. Also my anatomy research won't stop at just a book. Below I explore it further through physical models, an extension of the research created here.
Hart, C., 2009. Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. In: I. Edition, ed. Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. New York: sixth@spring books, pp. 102-103.
Hart, C., 2009. Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. In: I. Edition, ed. Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. New York: sixth@spring books, pp. 88-93.
Hart, C., 2009. Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. In: I. Edition, ed. Figure It Out! The Beginner's Guide to Drawing People. New York: sixth@spring books, pp. 88-93.
Character Lighting 1 - Real Life Experiment - 25/4
PRIMARY RESEARCH - ADAM FEEDBACK (WATER CHARACTER)
Now this was actually a recommendation of my tutor Adam. When showing him my water design his main piece of feedback was how off the lighting was in my water character. He also suggested this method to try in order to fix it. Use a physical model as reference.
PIRMARY RESEARCH - CHARACTER LIGHTING EXPERIMENT
In response to his suggestion of using a physical model, I went online and brought 3 wooden figures for my fmp. However they did not arrive in time for his next lesson (on timetable anyway). So when browsing a charity store, I discovered a small version of what I order and hastily brought it. This way I was able to get the recourses in the time required to complete my idea. I took over a dozen photos experimenting with lighting. By dimming the room through curtains and cushions, then shining torchlight onto the figure, I could see how light would interact with the human anatomy.
This in itself would be an amazing reference to use when drawing poses. This also gave me another idea. During Project 2, I took many screenshots (from my video) of myself in order to get reference for my punching animation key frames. What if I do the same here? While the body couldn't move my camera could.
I adjusted my character to be in position 2 of my 3 scene animation. While the first (attempt 3) character was in position 1 of 3. However instead of cutting from 2 to 3 like before. Why don't I try and rotate the camera? These photos track the journey from a side facing character back to front facing. It captures lighting and angle while keeping the position constant.
I did have an issue. When rotating the camera to the front of the character, the phone would block the light source (torch). I was forced to angle the light higher in order to avoid the phone shadow. This resulting in a different lighting and angle to the other 6 photos. After some reshoots I was able to get 8 contestant images to use as a reference.
The character has no male or female proportions, a base of human anatomy only. This could also affect how the light interacts with a different shape. However, disregarding all the issue mentioned so far, this was extremely helpful. The reason I struggle to draw non-front/side facing characters is that I can't visualise it very well. However having a physical model in front of me negates the problem. I don't need to visualise it because I can literately see it.
If I was to do this again, I would experimenting with light direction more. Many of my photos were taken with the light in a single direction. What would happen if it shone towards the camera? What I intend to do is use all this new anatomy research to support my base design. The remaining part of my character research needs to delve deeper into the Japanese theme, to make each piece a deliberate choice. Overall though I am very happy with the results of this experiment. The variation in research sources is hugely benefitting over before.
Japanese Influence
Continued (RESEARCH)
25/4
Now the idea to research into female samurai was a complete fluke. I associated samurai with japan and through, why not? But how does it compare to more conventional clothing. The amount of eastern styles of clothing is massive. It just have to be female to work after all. The Kimono was 1 such source. This is the more formal version of the (...). Very popular with more traditional citizens of older generations. The colours and flower design all carry meaning. This means I need to look for a combination that fits my characters lore and the myth it's based on. You always wear it left to right, the reverse is disrespectful. The only time its right to left is during funerals.
Negatively this is the least explored area in my Japanese research. I need to do more for a greater impact. However it served it's purpose in bringing meaning into clothing.
Wikipedia, 2021. Kimono. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
Wikipedia, 2021. Onna-musha. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna-musha
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
Wikipedia, 2021. Kimono. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
Wikipedia, 2021. Onna-musha. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna-musha
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
Hanayya Mask Continued (KIJO and Oni) - 25/4
I have already went over the mask itself and what it represents. This section is more looking at the legend of the demon and seeing how it can inspire my design. The Kijo is the demon that wears the Hanyaa mask. They are female demons that transformed because of jealousy horrific crimes or terrible grudges. The article used for my main source of research also describes physical traits such as 'red or yellow eyes, blue skin, sharp horns, long claws, or other supernatural features. They usually dress in rags and wear their hair long and unkempt. They live like savages far from civilization.' This means my character would be incredibly unclean, messy, more animal than human.
It also discuses the origin of the Kijo. The term is used for most female demons> Many see the Oni as the male counterpart, although this is not correct. Kijo have no connection to hell/afterlife and harbour their own motive.
Now becuase of the heavy ties with the Oni, I decided to look at their artical too. Oni are male demons that are ' born when truly wicked humans die and end up in one of the many Buddhist hells. Transformed into oni, they become the ogreish and brutal servants of Great Lord Enma, ruler of hell. Wielding great iron clubs, they crush and destroy humans solely for enjoyment.'
They also have similar physical traits such as wild hair, horns and fangs. However according to the quote, they are much more violent in nature and heavily tied to hell and the afterlife. When a human is so horrific they are transformed into an Oni before reaching hell and terrorize the mortal realm.
Both of these tales have physical descriptions of their respective legend. It also gives me an idea of their backstory and where their history originated from. This a great template to use to inspire my character
Yokai.com, 2021. Oni. [Online]
Available at: http://yokai.com/oni/
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
Yokai.com, 2021. Kijo. [Online]
Available at: http://yokai.com/kijo/
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
However, it wouldn't be fair to completely rip off the tale. I can use the legend (especially the Kijo) to inspire the main design. But I need to put my own twist to it. So what I intend to do is to incorporate my flame research and fire elements into the character. Merge the Japanese influence and the fire astatic into 1. I could give a story of heartbreak, of betrayal and anger. I could create my own scenario using the same emotions described in the legend. Everything has a meaning in Japan. SO each part of my character design should also be used for a specific reason. IF I use the colour red, then why? IF we give her a blue Kimono, then why? What does it represent? How does it tell a story about the character?
hilo, D., 2017. Hannya. [Online]Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/z4oEL[Accessed 24 April 2021].
I also had an idea when researching into these legends. Why don't I take the 3 stages of the Hanyaa demon and have her transform throughout my animation. In shot 1 she could start as a Namarari. And by the end of the animation she could complete her transformation to a full demon (a Honnari). Fire can be incorporated as part of the transformation as well as the explosion. This means my design will be in a constant flux so it add another layer of difficulty to my animation.
IrezumiEmpire, 2020. The Meaning Behind the Hannya Mask. [Online]
Available at: https://irezumiempire.com/blogs/articles/hannya-mask-meaning-1
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
'white to dark red mask
horns small to big
horns, fangs and claws lastly to serpent
Namanari - Smaller horns can be seen on their heads as compared to the other two. These demons still resemble humans and are not completely evil. Their demonic nature can still be reversed and they have a chance of returning to humanity.
Chūnari - A much deadlier Koji with intense feelings of jealousy and vengeance. More powerful compared to Namanari, these demons have longer horns, sharp claws, fangs, and have stronger abilities. They can still be affected by prayers from monks and, with a lot more effort, have a chance of being exorcised.
Honnari - The strongest of the three female demons. Hate, jealousy, and vengeance run so deep in the woman that they have completely embraced the possession of the demon. Nothing can turn them back to normal. They take on the form of a giant serpent and can breathe fire on their target.
https://irezumiempire.com/blogs/articles/hannya-mask-meaning-1
Transformation during animatic, shot 1 to 3 transforms character through stages'
QUOTE BY THE WEBSITE REFERENCED BELOW AND EXPLAINED IN THE TEXT JUST OUTSIDE THE BOX...
IrezumiEmpire, 2020. The Meaning Behind the Hannya Mask. [Online]
Available at: https://irezumiempire.com/blogs/articles/hannya-mask-meaning-1
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
The black box above has 3 references that I used for the research of the Hanyaa. Every site references (picture or text) has been used in some way to support my artwork. Even if the site itself is not mentioned in the text areas of this site. It was this area of text on Irezumi Empire that was the biggest inspiration behind my character design. It broke down the differences and attributes of each of the three forms of Hanyaa. Many of the website I looked at were to discover the physical traits of the Hanyaa as well as their stories and legends surrounding them. The design that I have created below (date is 8/5 when I wrote this) it was based off the Chunari. While the above design (attempt 3) was based off the Honnari (although limited research was done at this stage).
Noh Theatres - 25/4
While the video is a secondary source, my experience watching the play is a primary research source.
According to wikipedia ' Noh (能, Nō, derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent") is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today.'
Basically this is one of the oldest viewing plays of the modern day, easily 500+ years old. When watching the video myself the YouTuber explains the plot and various pieces to do with the play.
THE NOHGAKU PREFORMER'S ASSOCIATION, n.d. History of Nogaku. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nohgaku.or.jp/encyclopedia/whats/history.html
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
Wikipedia, 2021. Noh. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh#:~:text=Noh%20(%E8%83%BD%2C%20N%C5%8D%2C%20derived,is%20still%20regularly%20performed%20today
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
Arts), i. (. C. o. L., 2017. Excerpt from the Noh play 'Kuroduka'. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk76K59z4DU&t=1s
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
Kurihara, J., 2015. A little history of Hannya Mask – Why it´s so scary? –. [Online]
Available at: http://www.iromegane.com/japan/culture/a-little-history-of-hannya-mask-why-its-so-scary/
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
IrezumiEmpire, 2020. The Meaning Behind the Hannya Mask. [Online]
Available at: https://irezumiempire.com/blogs/articles/hannya-mask-meaning-1
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
_jp.jpg)
Brooke, M., 2017. 10 great films about masks. [Online]
Available at: https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-films-about-masks
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
Onibaba (1964 - FILM)
Avenir Light is a clean and stylish font favored by designers. It's easy on the eyes and a great go to font for titles, paragraphs & more.
Sharp, J., 2017. Where to begin with the Japanese New Wave. [Online]
Available at: https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/where-begin-japanese-new-wave
[Accessed 25 April 2021].
Avenir Light is a clean and stylish font favored by designers. It's easy on the eyes and a great go to font for titles, paragraphs & more.
Character Attempt 4 (MOODBOARD) - 25/4
The extra research on particular areas of Japanese culture has greatly supported my character art. However I need a visual reference to help guide my through my design period. Already, many mood boards have been made and I discovered this is the best way to use images online. I can get a wide variety from several sources at a much greater quantity. I prefer this method of research over individual images alone. What I have noticed from this board compared to others is how more refined the images are. Instead of general fire characters alone, I now have a constant theme running through my layout. The Japanese influence is very pronounced when looking at the board without losing the original idea of fire. Although a very simple observation this extra clarity will greatly advantage my design. I feel much more prepared this time around. Creating a design of the idea of a fire character alone is just too broad of a concept. The previous design was created on limited research and resulted in a ill defined shape and very messy lines. This extra research will help me refine the previous idea into a better design.
At the time of writing this (1/5) I have noticed a general weakness that has affected the quality of work across the entirety of week 5. What I did was research and experiment from the 23rd to the 27th of April. The intent was to then write it up in bulk across the 28th to the 2nd. This gives me 5 days to start the actual animation for the first deadline. Then finally a week on sound and a week on improving the animation. I found that cramming these events together rather than spread them out between each other has not worked as well. The first few days (research and experiment) went very well. The new info was fresh and easy to mentally access during my experiments. It also provided me a solid 2/3 days to draw my character. However all I have been doing since is retracing steps and documenting all my work. However this is the point when id rather move on and progress further. Instead I have spent the majority of my week in a stagnant position. Furthermore, remembering all the sites and how I used them in my work is difficult, especially remembering how the ideas developed and adapted overtime. This has proven to be less effective than documenting my work as I go along rather than in a 5 day bulk. It also lead to the writing quality being less compared to before. I generally rely on my current mindset and ideas that adapt as the work does overtime. I don't have that with this method. Next time I go forward I will be resuming my old method of write up as I go along. It did feel nice to try a new format to my workflow and it resulted in my best character design so far. However the drawback is that my documentation suffers - the main evidence I am marked upon.
WEEK 5
Character Attempt 4 (EXPERIMENT) - 26/4
Using the position of my physical character experiment (specifically the photos), I was able to draw the character on the left. My issue, as mentioned before is that I struggle to visualise my character in a 3 dimensional form. With a model this is no longer an issue. The plan here was to simply get the body position and the general sizes correct. This is only the forth human shaped character this project, and only the 2nd main one at that. Many of my characters during my previous projects always had a areas of proportions off or incorrect. Size and shape differ from male to female but there are also many general rules to get right first.
A big issue with the previous attempt was the fact that you couldn't tell if the character was male or female. The proportions didn't have any female specific proportions. This is still a weaker area for me but I want to at least improve this from before.
Next I lowered the opacity of the base line art and started drawing my new character over the top. It took 3 attempts to get the line art to the standard I was looking for. I found that increasing the brush size made my lines bolder and cleaner, in comparison to my sketchy nature.
To makes the line stand out more, I also constructed a base white layer. That way I was aware of all the line I placed, nullifying the background from hiding any. The flames and smoke were planned out in very rushed lines. The line art in general is a huge improvement in general. It's not special compared to most art available but its a personal improvement over my old work. This character design is where I show off what I can do in Photoshop and so far I feel very proud of it. And now finally the colour begins. My original idea was sharp corners that radiate off the character into a singular direction. However this makes the silhouette not as defined. Although the sharp edges do increase the intimidation factor of the character. The original colour were in blocks rather than blended or shaded. It comes down to personal taste and I personally didn't like jhow my style was developing. I decided the keep the sharp edges but removed much of the bulk pink colour. This was layered upon by multiple colours and smaller sparks carrying off the main body. Finally a glow effect was created using a soft brush.
That was the progress finished on the 26th of April. Now the glow definitely helped make the bold coloured lines more softer. However when looking back the day later, I realised I went far too heavy with the soft brush glow. The character is the light source, but the glow just ended up acting as a frame instead, not a result of the flames. So I stripped back the glow effect altogether. My biggest issue was the block art style. It makes the character look far too cartoonish. So instead of glowing up the character, I decided to alter the background instead. Behind the flames I made the background a dark orange with varying levels of pressure. The character was framed off the same streak of colour as the original with the bottom right corner darkened up as you get further away from the light source.
In terms of the character itself, I started working on the clothing. The dress was based off the kimono, a very traditional Japanese dress. However, like the Kijo, the clothing will be all torn up and ragged, kept unclean from months of neglect. This forms from the fact file I found on Kijo, as it says they live like 'savages far from civilisation.'
Character Attempt 4 (EXPERIMENT) - 27/4
Japanese culture is very deep in terms of everything has another meaning to it's surface level one. Certain colours, dresses, flowers and even hair have deeper meanings that say a lot about the person. My own idea was to tear the dress up and set it ablaze with the flames, a destruction of whatever meaning it once held.
I chose purple because of it's representations in terms of colour theory. Although purple is associated with wealth of royalty. It also has strong ties to mystery and magic, very fitting for my character. It has the energy of red but the calmness of blue according to bourn creative. Like all colours, it's shade creates much more specific feelings within it's colour. Bourn creative also goes on to say that 'Dark purple hues evoke feelings of gloom, sadness, and frustration.' Sadness is a huge factor in the tale of the hanyaa. It is the mix of anger and sadness (originating from jealously) that forms the mask in the first place. Also it's a small impact on my work, the use of the colour purple was a deliberate choice made by me.
Likewise the flames themselves are extremely deliberate and have been experimented with throughout the fmp. The block colouring is easier to animate but looks a lot worse in comparison to what I did instead. Fire is very fluid in terms of it's shape is not fixed. Layering up multiple colours and shapes of varying opacity adds to the more wild nature of flame. I took what I learnt from the sketchbook experiment in deciding shape and colour. No 1 and 10 were praised because of their natural/realistic colour pallet. Hence why the main leg flames are of the natural fire colour. The flames is hottest at the inner area (yellows and whites) while cooling down as it rises (turning to oranges/reds). These flames are a result of the lava falling from the legs, the source of heat. The lava itself, in contrast to the fire is extremely more defined in shape but still retains the curves and denser shape. This was inspired from sketch no 7 - praised for the shape (specifically the flow and curve of the design). Finally there are the flames coming off the arms. The Hanyaa legend (or kijo demon) are known to wield strong magic. The flames coming from the arms are generated by the character and look deliberately unnatural compared to the flames below. The flames start with hints of white but skip straight to a vivid orange only normally seen in chemical reactions with certain metals. It makes these fires stand out from one another.
The skin is essentially a plain white. The honest reason is that I ran out of time. But I can create a in lore reason for this. The first stage of the hanyaa demon still resembles a human, with the mask a pale white instead of it's red counterparts. The skin therefore will also still be human. But as the demon transforms into it's later stages and becomes more demon than human, the body will distort much more and become more monstrous.
The mask will transform from a pale white with red tints all the way to a deep red mask. Red is the colour of anger, wrath and intense rage. The eyes and hair, directly connected to the demon, will be the hottest areas and therefore turn into a pure white.
The embers coming off the flame (introduced in screenshot 4.0). Have been thinned out and layered gently with different colours of the flame. The embers are more in the style of sketchbook flame no 4. When the demon has fully transformed into a Honora, the flames will turn blue (much hotter than the normal yellow to red). The legs will meld into snake skin, with the lava acting as the catalyst.
Even the flowers have a special meaning. The flower is a (...), the symbol of love. The masks story lies in a lover getting jealous and turns into a demon. That jealously terns into sadness and deep anger. The flowers burning represent how the love has been lost and betrayed. How what started it all off is no more, replaced with a burning hatred and sorrowful pain. The kimono, when researching for examples normal came with flower patterns embedded into it, so I attempted to give it deeper meaning.
This, in my own opinion, is the best character design I have made since starting the course. The quality of my Photoshop designs have slowly improved overtime - evident in the fmp alone as well as my previous projects. The flames are my favourite part of the piece. All of my research of other artists on Instagram, my sketchbook experiment, existing animation and even videos taken from past projects all helped me create this. The Japanese influence is a new idea for my artwork and the more narrow theming helped me focus very well. I particularly like how few elements were made out of pure chance. The majority of the design was either inspired by or research into. Many if not all the elements have some kind of deeper meaning or purpose behind it. Although the clothing was the area I struggled with the most (and is arguably the part that needs the most work to fix), I still had fun making it.
Many of the negatives of the artwork are highlighted in the feedback below - ill be evaluating them there. But essentially the fires effect on the dress and the flame colour itself needs more work .Also I need to keep in mind the position itself, as comments said about the stiffness. This was intentional because the character is supposed to be locked up in chains. However I did not draw them in so that is a huge error on my part.
What I intend to do is use a version of this design in my upcoming animation. I have allocated 2 entire weeks to animate it and 1 week of sound. This could always change depending on how fast it takes to animate. I will sacrifice my week of sound if it means I can finish off my animation. The design will have to be adapted for tv paint - designed with whatever brushes are available. Similarly this particular flame design would be too complicated for a frame by frame basic. I will have to adapt the style for a more productive (time saving) way for animation. Overall I am happy with how this design turned out. Much of the research and experiments have all been to create this design. And this character will be directly used as the main focus of my animation. The focus was narrowed down and the idea for what to make at the end has adapted and evolved as the weeks past. Now finally, I am at a point where I am ready to begin the final animation.
Week 4 and 5 I decided to take a step back from work. Before I done far too much of it to the point where I had both teachers and students telling me to stop and take a break. Instead of doing 5 hours + a day, I have limited it to 2 or 3 hours a day instead. This has allowed me to rest in between and do stuff for myself. For example learning how to play the guitar, my own personal drawings, socialising or even just doing nothing and watching tv. I still need to fix my sleep pattern, for most of my time, I'm still mentally or physically tired from gym or work. If I can add even just 1 more extra hour to my sleep I will be able to preserve my mental state for longer. As of writing this (3/5 - very start of the 6th week), I feel much better in myself taking it easier than before. In sheer quantity of work I reckon I have enough to do well in the fmp. Weather it's a distinction or not I can only hope and do more.
When the animating starts I will be allocating more time for my work again. I will admit my work has suffered because of how little time I gave it (in comparison to project 2). It will definitely pass but to what extent I don't know. I do know. I thankfully kept my sanity as a result of the time cutback, wish I'm grateful for. I feel much better in myself now I am not under constant pressure and never ending work. I feel happy again and passionate to start making art once more.
Social Media Feedback - 28/4
Google Forms Feedback - Survey - 28/4
So once the character design was complete, I sent it out over many social medias to see what people thought. Turns out people really liked it. Facebook, as normal, got my family to see it. Instagram got a wider audience of Internet goers to take a look. 18 likes and 3 comments saying they loved it. And finally I tried a new method of Primary research - surveys. In past projects, surveys did not go as well. They got very few results and generally the answers had little impact. These 2 forms of primary research will also help balance the huge amount of secondary research currently on my site. In terms of how I will act on it, the responses here will directly feed into my animation. I don't have time to completely redesign the character and as I said above, the write up for week 4 has taken far to long to get done.
Likewise I have already talked about bias in terms of my sample in previous feedback evaluations. My family will always like it because they have a good connection with me, similar to my mates from college. Although each sample of people will always have their strengths and flaws. So this alone is not enough to invalidate my results. The multiple source approach also allowed me to show it to a wider range of audience with varying quality of feedback as a result. This method has produced the widest range of feedback so far: it will be used again.
Examples of feedback include the lack of glow on the dress, from the fire. The stiffness of the arms. The focal point of the work, such as direction. I already explained about the stiff arms above. The glow of fire is something I need to keep into account during my animation. It will directly affect the shadows of clothing and mask. In this particular example, the purple dress lacked the orange shadows of the flames. Focal point is a new one to me. The main eye catcher is on the legs - the bright yellow flame. However the viewers eyes should be on the arms - not the legs. This is a simple fix but a necessary one.
I will admit that I am incredibly biased towards my work., And if it wasn't for feedback like this I would struggle to find huge flaws in my own work. Getting another perspective is invaluable.
123, T. R., 2021. 2 of May blog - 1 hour long (fmp). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oF1K_TuV4M
[Accessed 2 May 2021].
WEEK 6 BEGIN - ANIMATION START
Day 1 (3/5 - Monday) - the 5th day of write up...
So as I already said above. Doing 5 solid days of experiments and research, followed by 5 days of writing, is a bad idea. It means by the time I start writing on the 6th day I have forgotten my thought and ideas from previous. It also mean I need to backtrack in all my website research and have to evaluate in bulk. This means I absolutely HATE writing for a week. I end up getting no new work done or any progression because I'm too busy writing up old work!
So week 6 onwards will be different. In response to the mess that was week 4 and 5 (in terms of workflow), I will be structuring my day more differently. Every day I do work I will do either a small write up or blog of my progress.
If I do 2 seconds of animation I will upload my work that day under a date heading. This will include what I did, evaluate it and explain how I will go from there. The same applies with research. The majority of research has been completed - but not completely finished. There will be more research that is done alongside my animation. Any new references, tutorials, ideas, old work, software's, photos, feedback... will be written up on the day I use it. This will negate the issue I had before with my write up and allows me to space my writing and drawing evenly (not in huge bulks). It does mean that research will slow down. Instead of having entire days dedicated to it, It will be done in pieces.
Every method has its strengths and weaknesses. I will discover them as I attempt to do the idea above.
Day 2 and 3 will be specifically for my animation. While day 4 (the Thursday) will be used to do all referencing of my previous work and bibliography. This is because my first deadline is on the Friday - the original deadline. They say it's more than a checkpoint, to see if my project has any glaring issues to fix.
However it is a deadline. I want all my previous work to be completely sorted by this point. The work after this will be for the animation - either animating or directly to support the animation. After this day I will have 9 days to improve and finish the animation - with a week to focus on sound. At this point I will have the basic skeleton of my animation and will be able to sync sound accordingly to movement.
The last thing I need to remember is to give myself time at the end for any huge issues that pop up or any holes to fix in my current work.
Day 2-3 (4/5 - 5/5) - TV Paint Experiment and Write Up
TV Paint is my new alternative to Adobe Animate. In previous projects, animate was all I had access to so I was restricted to its functions. TV Paint fixes a lot of the issues I had with Animate. For one, animate has only 2 brushes. TV Paint has a standard 12 brushes and a huge range of customisable brushes. You can also import brushes into TV Paint like Photoshop, so the possibilities are endless.
My biggest issue with TV Paint is complexity. There are at least double the functions/commands than Animate. Add that to the fact I had little to no experience and you have a recipe for disaster. I know the software is much more powerful and advanced in comparison, however if I cannot use basic functions it will be useless for my animation. I had a lot of fun messing around but struggling on a new software is incredibly frustrating. I also found that Animate is very jerky, on some occasions the brushes won't register and lag is a common occurrence. Now in my limited experience of TV Paint I found the experience to be extremely smooth in comparison. Where I had the most problems were the key binds. Every single key bind was different to any software I have used before. I did find a way to manually alter these but the options are so vast it will take a lot more time.
So the plan is to teach myself a brand new software, whilst creating the most complicated animation I have ever made. I made a 30 minute video of my experimenting, hours into the work day. This had the weakness of me being exhausted and very unmotivated. To show a good reflection of my experience, it would be better to start the video earlier.
As established above, I would not of used TV Paint until this point. So the first thing I did was to find some tutorials. Now YouTube is a good source of tutorial videos. However the drawback to this is that any help would be completely unstructured and varying in quality.
But what if I tried a paid source?
During lockdown no 1, before the college term started, I brought an online animation course. This covered the basics of 2D animation and also covered many software's that are commonly used in the animation industry. One of these is TV Paint. I had a paid source with multiple videos on a software I knew nothing about.
The tutorials were structure in a way for beginners.
123, T. R., 2021. 4/5 - Tv Paint Experimentation 1 (fmp). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjgg-jSDir4
[Accessed 4 May 2021].
Whimshurst, H., 2020. Getting Started in 2D Animation. [Online]
Available at: https://animator-guild.teachable.com/courses/enrolled/730200
[Accessed 5 May 2021].
It went over the basic functions such as the timeline, onion skin, brush tools and even a brief dive into custom brushes. I watched for around 2 and a half hours of tutorial videos which introduced me to all the important layout keys and customisations. This all resulted into 4 A4 pages of notes and a lot of headaches. Although my understanding of this new software increased significantly. This was invaluable in helping me to learn this software. I would also say that these paid videos are more effective than the normal YouTube tutorial videos. They were structured and tailored for the user, compared to the random nature of YouTubes selection.
So my first experiment was done before any kind of tutorial or external help. I sat down with the software and just experimented with what the buttons did, specifically the tool section.
It resulted in the mess you see on the right. Many of these were experiments on the many brushes available with the base version, others were with the shape tools.
It was fun but extremely chaotic. However this will be good as a benchmark to where I was at at the start. The plan is to get from this to a full blown produced animation.
On top of the tutorials, this online course also came with a set of custom brushes. I download them, created a custom panel and got to work. The image on the left is my experimentation with the new brushes. Each one can be adjusted in terms of opacity, size, jitter, angle, step...
The brushes act more like the Photoshop brushes rather than Animate brushes. Something is also an optional extra. While Photoshop has animation functions, it's not built for animating. Every new frame, the layers duplicate and the PC starts struggling after 7 frames.
However, TV Paint is a animating software with Photoshop functions. I have the benefits and variety that Photoshop brings while combining the animating capabilities from Animate.
My notes can be seen in the photos above. Photos, I personally find, to be better references than Internet . This experiment has turned into a wide comparison of research sources. I also found that taking notes during these videos helped me remember much more information. Engaging in a physical task rather than watching videos alone helped me retain a lot more than watching a video alone.
In terms on controls, which I will go over very briefly here, I have written down many important functions above. Shift k deletes everything on my frame. While ctrl k allows me to alter all my shortcuts. T was for text but I changed it to transform. It allows me to move my frame information and engage/shrink. It seems though that distort and rotate are separate functions. The online course also comes with a digital list of commands/shortcuts to help with learning TV Paint.
Custom Brushes are a huge area that I have barely touched. Like Photoshop, every base brush can be altered, saved and imported for a huge range of uses. On top of that, there is also a 'PAPER' function that adds texture to your brushes as well. There is a huge range that I know little about. Even the pressure can be adjusted per brush.
The timeline and frames in general also act very differently to Animate. Once again, my notes above go into more detail regarding them but here's a summary. Each frame is a box with 2 small boxes and side parts. These parts are key for any manipulation of frames. The right sides pulls the frame out to drag and add more. A box will open up with several options for frame choice/action. The small boxes are used for the timing of each frame, extending the time it stays on the screen. Frames are also knows as 'exposures' here and the onion skin is known as a 'light table'.
So after binging several videos, while my knowledge was fresh, I got to drawing. I didn't start animating but I did create some still shots. The main position of shot 1 and 2 (out of 3) were sketched from memory. I had a single image to help with the positioning of front frame. The custom brushes acted just like the hard pressure brush in Photoshop. These were sketches done in a limited time span without the references/research gathered. What it shows is that in terms of art ability, I have as much freedom as I do Photoshop.
I am still able to mimic my sketchy nature. So the quality of work will come down to time. The more time I give myself to create the animation, the better it will get. I like the camera angle on the front shot. The side angle is more dynamic compared to the character design. Instead of being exactly sideways, there is a slight angle which adds to the shot. Although it's far to subtle. I need to exaggerate and make it impossible to miss. I also found out how to add multiple layers and how to adjust the opacity of each. I essentially have the same freedom as Photoshop. However any custom brushes I made in Photoshop (and the base brushes) are not in my version of TV Paint. Right now all the brushes in TV Paint are foreign to me. It will be my inexperience that is my biggest weakness during this animation. Key functions that I know the software can do, such as zoom in/out, I don't know how to do. Functions like redo, where I found the button, are still not mapped out to a key. My work set up (such as my graphic tablet buttons and essential key binds) are not set up and will only be sorted over a long time. A final weakness is accessibility. My PC at home is capable of it, but no computer at school will have the software. This means that the times I can work directly on the animation is extremely limited.
What I intend to do from here is to produce the raw skeleton of the animation, just to get the timing and camera angle. Then get feedback on the movement. Once the movement is a high enough quality, I will then implement the character design and fire over the top. Specific research to benefit the animation will be done alongside. Such as principles of animation, certain techniques, examples and references.
Day 4-5 (6/5 - 7/5) - Referencing and Deadline Prep
123, T. R., 2021. 7th of may - fmp end of week 6. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF3uSopUHHM
[Accessed 8 May 2021].
Day 6-7 (8/5 - 9/5)
TV PAINT ANIMATION BEGIN
So this is the second round of TV Paint experimentation, my software of choice for the final animation. Now while the previous experiments were learning the controls, importing new brushes and a handful of drawings to familiarise myself, this next attempt focuses on animation specifically.
Now the actual animation can be found at the start of the week '7-9' page of my wix website. It will be there that I evaluate the actual animation. This section will be talking about my experiences with the software itself and the challenges I had to overcome.
O)ne of the first issues I came across was frame manipulation - especially inbetweening. The previous tutorials (found on the online animation course above) taught me how the frames worked and the functions attached to them. For example, dragging the right side would expand and create more frames. However I wasn't to sure how to add frames between 2 existing frames I had already drawn on. This isn't normally an issue with Animate, it's simplicity meant learning it was fast and basic functions like this were easy. However TV Paint is much more complicated. Thankfully, a YouTube video (on the right) showed how to fix this. I have to extent the previous frame for an increased timing, then draw on the frame with the curser at a half way point. Essentially while having the curser at the beginning of the frame draws on that frame for the full duration. However if the cursor is not at the very start of said frame, it will automatically cut and turn it into 2. Although there is probably a much more effective method (with this 1 being more of a work around) it did the job. More research will be needed to get to a confident enough position for long animations.
While in Adobe Animate, I have it set to key binds of f5 (extend keyframe), f6 (new keyframe) and f7 (new blank keyframe). This grants a much greater ease of access compared to TV Paint which speeds up the animating process overall. Although TV Paint does allow me to customise key binds by using ctrl k. This means that theoretically there should be a way to mimic the shortcuts of Adobe Animate in TV Paint itself.
Another huge issue that I take for granted on Animate is exporting. It's a simple as pressing files, export and finally export animated gif or export video (depending on what I need it for).
Developpement, T., 2017. Inbetween and Light Table (TVPaint Animation 11 tutorial). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4AE97QdykI
[Accessed 8 May 2021].
Developpement, T., 2015. Export a project (TVPaint Animation 11 tutorial). [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKnFCG2wkGI
[Accessed 8 May 2021].
However TV Paint is once again, much more complicated. IN this case, I have to go file then export to. It then comes up with a box of settings (like Animate) but has much more options that heavily impact the export. For example, instead of 6 types of export (Animate), there are 21 different types! Add to that I can export as still images of animation I have a huge variation of export types. Furthermore, there are bottom tick box options that greatly effect the final export including background, notes, slate, fix pixel ratio, stretch to frame rate, time interpolation and split scenes. Many of which I still don't know their exact impacts on exports or their functions. Now in the long run, this is incredibly helpful as I can fine tune it to my changing needs and use this software for multiple functions. However, with my lack of experience using TV Paint, it became a massive headache. I have to be able to export my animation during the production stages in order to record and document my progress. This issue greatly slowed down my work and became a must to fix before I could progress any further. I turned to YouTube again due to the huge number of tutorials and my success with the in-between problem. This included the official TV Paint YouTube channel and when that didn't work, a general tutorial catered for beginners of the software, which lead me in the right direction. As shown in the week 7-9 page of my wix, many of these setting changes lead to a black screen or a huge drop in frame rate. It really came down to trial and error in the end, which is very inconsistent and frustrating at times.
123, T. R., 2021. 20210509 104247. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPyJnM5nle0
[Accessed 11 May 2021].
imsmallfry, 2019. TVPaint Tutorial for Beginners. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6hkKp4g7QY
[Accessed 9 May 2021].
TVPaint, 2012. No matter what settings I try, my exported vid runs too fastTopic is solved. [Online]
Available at: https://forum.tvpaint.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6170
[Accessed 9 May 2021].
TVPaint, 2013. problems with lagging. [Online]
Available at: https://tvpaint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7641%20forum%20export%20help%20%E2%80%93%20failed%20export%20att
[Accessed 9 MAy 2021].
On top of the YouTube videos, I tried another form of answering my issue. The students and possibly the tutors in my class would not be accustomed to TV Paint. However there are many random people on the Internet that are. I started searching through old internet forums looking for those that have had similar issues with black screens or severe frame rate drops. I got a few answers which I have screenshotted above, the issue being they were on older versions of the software. What I discovered was that I need to export it as an 'AVI (DirectShow)' format as' animation'. A background must be included and I also need to 'fix pixel ratio', everything else was de-selected. 'MOV', 'AVI' and 'MP4' format was surprisingly not compatible. MOV was shown in the beginners TV Paint tutorial while MP4 is normally my go to video format for animations. It took a while but I was finally able to solve this, which is a huge relief. Furthermore, changing the aspect ratio from 4k to 1920 by 1080 greatly reduced the lag when playing the video file. The raw video file still lagged, although not as badly. However I did find that uploading the file to YouTube and playing it through there removed all lag, ideal for documenting my animation at particular stages of development.
I also want to mention about button mapping. I covered this in my first experiment but developed it further here. A huge issue in my first experiment was the zoom function. There was multiple short keys labelled 'zoom' and I had no idea how to do it at the time. Zoom is essential for focusing on small areas of work whilst seeing the entire canvas to evaluate my current progress. I was able to map the 'a' and 'd' button to zoom in and out the canvas. Furthermore, I mapped the timeline zoom for 'r' and 'y'. Adobe Animate has each frame as a tiny rectangle and dot to show if it has been drawn on. The rest of the frame functions are accessed either through shortcuts or right click menus. However, TV Paint frames are much more complicated in terms of layout, with multiple areas of the frame icon creating different functions. When I have a huge range of frames at once, these buttons essentially for navigating and creating frames become difficult to click. In order to take advantage of how TV Paint's layout, a timeline zoom is invaluable.
On top of this, I did some research on the side to help with the production of the animation. I re-used the mannikin to gauge where the body sat with the ideal head position.
Then to cap it off, I created a video to use as reference, similar to the photos I take of myself to use for my work. This was a research technique I used during the production of my Project 2 arm punch animation. It is where I mimic the desired body movement, chop it into key frames and animate it. However in this particular case I discovered something. With the pose I chose for my animation, it leaves little room for movement. With the body as strained as it is, there is little room to actually move. In order to create a good animation with complex enough movement, I will need to rethink the position and scenario. Being chained up and breaking free would work for this idea. The character wouldn't move as much, meaning the focus is on the breaking chains and flames. If I want character movement, the scenario will need to be reconsidered. Also it is another primary source (along with the photos of my mannikin) which tends to be more valuable for secondary in terms of overall impact.
Overall I would say this experiment was a success. I created my first ever TV Paint 2D animation that will be evaluated on page 7-9. The above focuses on the new features, issues and solutions of my experience. What I intend to do is to experiment further with the brush selection, the main feature of TV Paint, and focus on developing my animation further.
If I was to do this again, I would of experimented with more features and attempted to map the shortcuts as close to animate as possible. What I intend to do now is to evaluate the actual animation and look for inspiration to improve it going forward.
BIBLIOGRPAHY WEEK 3 TO 6
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Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm66LOQgz-o
[Accessed 20 April 2021].
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[Accessed 20 April 2021].
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[Accessed 20 April 2021].
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[Accessed 23 April 2021].
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[Accessed 23 April 2021].
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