Category: Exploratory Practice

I wish I didn’t have to start on a downer but my long weekend was horrible. Friday and Sturday I had work so after, I only had a little time to work on redoing my animatic. I cleaned up most of the thumbnails, so you can tell what’s happening, in preparation the Wednesday’s interim.

I got really stressed over the weekend because the supreme court decided to legally define me as a woman, just another disgusting act in their longstanding assault against transgender people. I spent all of Sunday trying to paint one of my backgrounds, but hated how it came out so I will have to start over anyway. And my phone decided to die and I lost two months of photos, chats and lecture notes. I also spent the weekend ignoring a trext from one of the RCA students I’m helping because I hadn’t finished something they’d asked for, which was just a nasty move on my part, but everytime I looked at my phone I would burst into tears. (I have messaged her back now and we are trying to sort something out). All of that on top of the general stress of having to keep myself alive was just a bit of a nightmarish cocktail of anxiety. But I think if I can just make it to Wednesday and get my project greenlit, I think I’ll feel a lot better.

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On Tuesday, I did a different background, as my proof of concept needed two and I needed to stop looking at the first one. I was much happier with how this one came out, and while I’m still not entirely satisfied with my skill level at BG painting, I can definitely feel myself improving. My biggest issue is figuring out how to fill out the small details. The little objects and placements that give a background personality, without distracting from the main focus.

I begin with the sketch from my storyboard thumbnails. Over that I add a rough perspective grid and do the proper sketch. I’d like to be able to be looser with my perspective however. I initially intended to push the shapes much further, in the style of Invader Zim, but once I see the perspective grid, it’s hard for me to let go and break the rules. After that I do a value study so I can figure out where I want my focal points, and how to balance the image. Then its straight into painting. This is where my process gets fuzzy as I am kinda just flying by the seat of my pants trying to make it look good while I obsessively pore over other artist’s work.

I’m going to cheat the reflection by copying and flipping the other BG painting, as it is from the opposite angle.

I think I have yet to find my own way of doing backgrounds, I am very much still in the learning phase where I am trying to piece together techniques from people like Nicolas Saltos (who recently deleted all his work off instagram T^T), and Devin Elle Kurtz (who does amazing process breakdowns on instagram).

Looking back on that first BG, it’s actually not as bad as I felt about it initially. I will be adding some texture back to the flats and re-doing all the background props, but the base is solid. Which is good because I still meed to inbetween my entire proof of concept and hopefully cleanup at least a few frames.

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Alfie from a week later is writing, and I have no idea when the following happened as I cannot remember, but it had to have happened on Tuesday since for the interim, my proof of concept looked like this:

I managed to keyframe all my characters and inbetween and cleanup Petra. For cleanup I created a custom Harmony brush from scratch following this tutorial, as I couldn’t find any that mimicked the style I wanted.

I got some great feedback from the interim. First I need to further refine the animatic and add sound to make it as clear as possible. The trapeze sequence needs to be timed accurately to get an understanding of the pacing and intensity of that scene. It was also suggested that I play with the camera movement or a focus pull right at the end as Callie falls to draw attention to Petra moving the safety net. During this scene I also need to make it the uncanny emptiness of the tent clear through the reverb in the sound. Finally, Su-Lynn suggested I somehow indicate Podge’s presence before we see them, in the scene where they concoct the plan. I’m not too sure I want to do this but I will play around with the idea when I edit the animatic.

Most of the confusion was around the lack of clarity in the animatic, which I totally agree with. I think I found myself scrambling to get a bit of everything done in the two days I had off work, so everything came out a bit half-assed. I hope with a strict production schedule I can manage to whole-ass the rest of the production and produce something portfolio worthy.

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On Thursday I gave myself a break day from the overwhelming weekend, so after our class in the morning I came home and went to sleep. Friday I had to use to sort out some urgent course rep business and we also had class and a lecture, so I didn’t get to make any more progress on the film for now.

On Monday, I opted not to go into uni as I felt I didn’t have enough prepared for a tutorial, and I knew I wouldn’t get work done in the classroom as it is always too overstimulating during tutorial days.

I’ve been running into a lot of problems however working at home due to my computer not having enough storage, I spent the morning troubleshooting and eventually had to fork out some money for a new SSD (there goes all my extra hours from the break T^T). However, I have needed an upgrade anyway and now I should be able to run the programs I need to to keep working from home, when it arrives.

I finally managed to render my showreel which finished off another task I had been toiling over during the break, but by the time I finished all of this, including finishing off the last reflection post, it was time for our online class with Darren. He gave us feedback on our showreels, my main take away was to really consider the repetition in clips, if a clip wasn’t showing off a new/different skill, it’s probably not worth having in the reel. After that I spent the afternoon working on some layouts for the film.

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On Tuesday I finished off my layouts. I’ve rerserved a few books in the library to reference for composition as I am struggling with the two backgrounds I want to create for panning shots. I really like layout and background design so I really want to work hard on these aspects of the film. I have been referencing Devin Elle Kurtz, as she is one of my favorite background artists, but many of her tutorials and books focus on illustration rather that layout for animation. I also want to use a simpler more shapey render style like Genndy Tartakovsky’s work so I have been looking at the art for Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Lab, as well as the references I presented at the first interim, especially Mystery Inc..

I don’t need the perspective to be perfect, as I am trying to tap into a very exaggerated uncanny vibe, like in Invader Zim, however I still need it to make sense for the pans. I am strugging to find reference online, so I started with a panoramic picture I took.

This helps me see where the warping takes place for that second image.

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On Wednesday before class I put up a few posters calling for a composer and sound designer all over uni. I wrote up this treatment with all the details I think someone would need to help me out. I will also get my little brother to ask at his music school. We then had an animation skills session with Steve. He used the class to come around to each of us about our films. I had forgotten my flash drive, and for some reason the videos on MyBlog weren’t working (they are now though?), so I couldn’t show him anything, but I described the plot I have right now according to my beat sheet (see last post). He suggested I was trying to pack in too much exposition and I should narrow down the scope of the narrative even more. While I totally agree, I still don’t know how to find the right balance of exposition to action. One of the critiques I recieved in the first interim was about how my characters weren’t fleshed out, so I wrote long profiles for them, but I don’t know how to show all that characterization without my current exposition. Steve also suggested to pare down the narrative into more of a trailer focusing on little comedic bits, as I imagine this world as a more longform series. But other students who wanted to produce ‘trailers’ were quite negatively received by tutors so I’m not entirely sure what he meant by that. I wanted more help but he had to see other students so I’ve booked a tutorial with Su-Lynn to go over these points and see if I can clarify all of this for myself.

After uni I came home and immediately panicked because I don’t know how I will have a proof of concept by Wednesday. I planned out the rest of my week(end) however, and I should be able to produce something by Wednesday if I can muster up the energy. It is unfortunate that now we have classes on Tuesdays and DPS sessions on Thursdays because it means I can only work on weekends, and thus have no days off in the week, as I need to work two shifts a week, but I digress.

I checked out the books Setting the Scene by Fraser MacLean, Magic Color Flair by John Canemaker and Layout and Background from the Disney archive series. Looking through these books I am coming to a better understanding of layout and how I want to compose my scenes. While Mary Blair and Devin Elle Kurtz have been longstanding background inspirations for me, have I also put together a reference board pulling from Carol Wyatt, Scott Wills, and Stephen Nicodemus, as well as some other art and photography I found online.

I ultimately realized I have to focus the rest of my time leading up the the second interim on this proof of concept so I finished off the night by doing a value study on the background for my test scene.

Since I want to paint my backgrounds in a lineless style (à la Scott Wills, but digital), I’ll be skipping inking, and painting right over the sketch.

Finally, I’d like to apologize for the potential whiny-ness of the Wednesday section, I have been working extra shifts, working on the RCA films, been busy at home because my roommate broke her knee and had to go home to recover, and to top it all off, the day I go back to uni I wake up with a cold after having been fine all break. I half treat these reflections as a diary and it helps to get everything out in text LOL.

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On Thursday, I had a tutorial with Su-Lynn. I discussed my questions with her and I was given a lot of good advice. We made some changes to the animatic. Firstly, cutting the opening sequence. Since Briggs (the ringleader) doesn’t have much story relevance, and doesn’t really serve any purpose other than as a literal guide, we thought it would be more effective to open the film right on the shadow puppet scene. He will still feature in the background, as a circus still needs its ringleader, but that scene doesn’t have much impact, and cutting it creates less production work for me. Su-Lynn suggested moving the order of the panels around, when Callie realizes her trapeze partner has changed to allow the audience a little more insiught into Callie’s reaction. I’ll also be adding a shot right before she plummets as she reaches out, pleading for Podge to catch her, to intensify the drama. There are more cuts in the scene now, which makes the pacing feel a lot faster and more dramatic. Su-Lynn also suggested this scene could be done in a sequence of split screens as we see both characters perspectives in the moment, however I think I probably won’t do that, as it makes the format feel a lot more comic-book-reminiscent, and I’d like to stick to a more theatrical staging, of having one scene in front of the camera. I may still try the split screen in my thumbnails though, just to test it.

The most significant suggestion was for the central scene where Podge and Petra plot their plan to win over Callie. Su-Lynn thought there could be more reinforcement on the point that Petra is jealous of Arlo and Callie, so adding them flirting in the background would help contextualize the plotting scene. However when trying to recompose that panel, I couldn’t figure out how to fit all of that in frame while also indicating that the camera was hiding as they listened in. So I positioned some legos to map out a camera movement, where the viewer would first see Petra watching Callie and Arlo flirt, then as Petra turns away, upset, the camera whips back behind the curtain, and then peeks again at the reflection of Podge and Petra whispering sinisterly in the dressing room mirror.

This will be the sequence I show as a proof of concept for the interim. I hope to at least have it keyframed and the background done.

Finally, Su-Lynn suggested I think about perhaps giving an indication of audience in the tent, by maybe situating the camera behind some heads when they sit to see the show. This could make it feel more immersive, and indicate the setting through the silhouettes of extra characters. However, I wasn’t sure if I wanted there to be any audience in the tent other than the camera (the viewer), so I don’t think I’ll be doing this. This comment did make me think however, as the camera is supposed to be the POV of the viewer themself entering the world, I may draw a generic, humanoid shadow being cast by the viewer/camera, for immersion.

The first week of spring break I took off to visit my parents. Unfortunately, my roommate broke her knee so we spent the majority of that week trying to sort her out and get her back home for surgery. The rest of the time I spent working at my job.

I did however, spend some time connecting with the RCA students I met last Friday online, and wrote an email to the two I was interested in. They were both happy to take me onboard and one set up a call for us to discuss the expectations for the project. The second added me to a discord server for their project where I will receive updates for my tasks.

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Durning the second week I managed to finish my initial character designs. I tried to implement aspects of thier respective Commedia costumes, while also trying to create distinct silhouettes with vibrant palettes. On my slides for the 2nd interim I will create more detailed breakdowns for each character’s design and personalities.

I also bergan working on expression and pose sheets, trying to reference shows like Ed, Edd and Eddy, and The Ren and Stimpy show for those exaggerated expressions. Unfortunately, I didn’t get too far with this as I work extra hours during holidays.

I have also been wondering if I can get away with no dialogue. I love voice work and voice acting myself, but having to write dialogue and audition people and record seems like a huge undertaking I won’t have time for. I think it will depend on the story I settle on, and whether there will need to be dialogue to express some of the beats.

I thumbnailed all the beats in StoryBoard Pro, and timed them all out. It seems like I should be able to fit the beats I want, though it is slight;ly over a minute, but I’m not totally sure about the story. I may have to book a tutorial before the interim to edit.

I’m finding it very difficult to give enough context to the events, so the audience can understand what the story is, even though there won’t be an onscreen resolution. I am still sticking with the concept of an interactive film, in that the camera will always follow the audience POV. Below I have the updated beat sheet.

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During the third week I spent most of my days at work, and it was also my grandma’s 80th, so I was doing a lot of family events. I didn’t have as much time to work on the animation test I started, but I hope to use this test as the opening scene for the film anyway. I also put together a callout for sound artists as I still very much need them for the film. I hope to get back on track during the week before the second interim as I’d really like to have more progress than I have right now.

Final week of term – monday, tutorial with sulynn, told to focus on italian theater, plotting told me what i need for interim

The final Monday of term I had a tutorial with Su-Lynn. After the interim I just wanted to clear up exactly what I should work on over the break as I felt a little overwhelmed by the feedback. She told me my concept was very interesting, but since I expressed that I probably wouldn’t do a full interactive projection, I should focus on plotting the story for the single screen medium. In it’s current state my story is lacking in conflict, as it was initially plotted as more of a tour of the carnival rather than a linear narrative. So, she advised me to hone in the the italian theater aspect and consider writing about jealousy or betrayal, in the same vein as Commedia dell’Arte tropes. She also said fleshing out my Pulcinella character would be beneficial, as in my interim I stated that I wanted a character like them to be an ongoing “shit-stirrer” in the family. She reference the painting ‘The Fable’ by El Greco, and this also reminded me of ‘Stańczyk’ by Jan Matejko. These sorts of frames maybe interesting to reference in the film.

I’m having a very hard time ideating a plot that could work for only 1 minute. The biggest issue is that I want the conflict happen between the members of the circus company (as to not introduce too many characters), but it can’t be so severe that the instigator would turn into an overall antagonist. The cast have dysfunctional relationships but for the world overall I want the audience to root for them all together as a family. Essentially, they cannot be irredeemable.

Finally, she also clarified that for the second interim I would need a completed animatic with scratch sound, animation tests showing movement style, and proofs of concept showing a short example of what the final composite would look like.

During the remainder of the class I sketched a layout below of how I imaging the opening, setting the scene for the carnival.

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Wednesday, we had a Performance for Animation class with Hannah. We did several improv exercises as well as drawing. We started with warm ups focusing on observing movement and replicating it. It’s very important to be able to embody the characters we animate in order to understand how they will move, and make said movement convincing. Then we also did a pair exercise where we were given prompts to act out and more details were added as we went along, the partner then had to sketch observations. I was the acting partner but below I did some sketches of different scenarios, exploring the body language.

Lastly, we broke into groups to act a little scene based on our characters exploring goal, action, and obstacle. Then we got to perform them. My group portrayed a magic rabbit who quit their act after being berated by their magician and tries to leave the tent (goal). As they storm off (action), another rabbit enters the tent and they become awkwardly stuck in a side stepping battle (obstacle). This very simple structure for movement allows us to generate details about the characters thast really bring them to life, within a larger narrative.

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Friday, we visited the Royal College of Art to meet the MA Animation students, and offer ourselves to assist on their films. It was quite loud and overwhelming but I met two people whose films I was very interested in. One assisting with background paints, and another doing Photoshop work to separate layers in paper scans. I think I’d be able to do both as they wouldn’t take too much time, and It would look really good to have two RCA films in my portfolio.

On Monday we had a storyboarding session with Darren. We went over a few examples but most of the class was spend working individually on thumb nailing and developing boards. I did draw up some thumbnails based on the idea that my film would now just be 2D rather than entirely projected, as per Mario’s advice.

I’ve also debated doing the character vignettes rather than a full minute, due to much of my initial idea revolving around atmosphere for the projection, rather than movement and character. The idea is that I would mock up the projection, create a minute of vignettes of the narrative, in order to later be able to develop the full installation, perhaps as a DPS personal project. I will discuss this with tutors during the interim.

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On Wednesday we had our first interim presentations. Below are the slides I presented.

The general concept seemed to be well recieved, but I fell into my usual pitfall of not explaining myself in enough detail. I tend to have so many ideas but the time pressure gets to me. I also always find myself volunteering to go first because everyone else is nervous, so I never get a chance to gague what kind of feedback people are getting and time to adjust my presentation. I definitely need to prepare these pitches much more in advance so I have time to practice what I want to say, and get across all the detail I need.

I was given some great feedback, though I will be booking a tutorial to discuss it further so I have a very clear action plan over the break. I plan to watch both ‘Freaks’ and the episode of ‘League of Gentlemen’ Steve suggested, and also Killer Klowns from Outer Space as that has the bright horror/comedy vibe I’m going for.

My main takeaway was to really push the character personalities. I think I subconsciously sanitized some of my ideas because I was presenting, but I really do want to create off-putting gross characters. I really want the more childish art style to completely contrast these nasty behaviors. I described Calliope as flirty, but she’s not just flirty, she’s a borderline pervert, she crosses boundaries and says disgusting things. Petra is not just stoic, she is fully ignorant of other’s emotions, she speaks her mind and no one wants to hear it. Arlo is not just happy go lucky, he is entirely manic. I think I can write some character bios to reflect this, but I need to find a way to really push this in the dialogue I end up writing for the film. This project might end up a bit taboo but my main audience really is the freaks out in the world.

By the end of next week I want to have a very clear idea of the story, hopefully with the dialogue written as well.

I think the dynamic I’d like to create really falls under the Cesar A. Cruz quote “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” These characters normalise their behaviors within their company, they love each other in all their repulsiveness, and they revel in the idea that people find them offensive. However, the audience should marvel at how any of them can put up with any other one of them. I think the characters love for each other will still keep audiences rooting for them and the conflict I write for the story should also make them more sympathetic. Limp Bizkit’s ‘Hot Dog’ is a thematic representation of how I want these characters to be received.

Su-Lynn also said she’d like to see a mock up of an installation, perhaps using pictures of a space that I edit, but preferably a physical mock up. So I will definitely work to produce that, however it will not be my priority over the spring break.

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The toolkit sessions on Fridays have been very back and forth for me between Mario and Ben’s classes. Mario gives really good realistic advice, and good tasks to follow, but there are so many people in that class I find it hard to focus. With Ben I basically get an empty room and any After Effects help I want, but I don’t do much animating. This week, I sat in Ben’s class to figure out some of the projection mapping as suggested by the technicians and Su-Lynn. I found a way to link a Photoshop file to After Effects and then use the CC Environment effect to turn an equirectangular image into a 360 environment. This would let me draw the environment in Photoshop while checking the live proportions. I think this technique would be great for a digital mockup, however I’m still not clear on what perspective I should use if I have a multi projector, cuboid room set up.

I also realized that in the digital mockup if I wanted the character to be able to move around in space (rather than just 360 panning view) and have the structures all move in a realistic parallax, I would have to make a 3D model. I can always texture it in a very stylised 2D manner, but can’t think of any easier way to make the environment navigable. A very relevant reference I found was this video. I definitely won’t be doing that for this current project, however like I discussed in the interim, I would like to continue this project during my DPS and I could get a 3D artist to assist me.

Currently, I think the best path for me to take for the project outcome would be:
1. Produce a 2D film with a more clear narrative allowing me to develop the characters, develop the visual style, and focus on animation skills.
2. Create a mock-up using one of the environments to show how I would present this as an installation

On Monday we had a character design workshop with Rafael Hara.

We did an excersise where we had to draw only with the lasso tool. We drew a random shape, identified the the contours to understand said shape in 3D space, and then turned the shape into a character. I also drew a little Sonic for fun.

This was a great way to loosen up and explore slightly more abstract characters. Rafael also showed us his Pokemon designs done using this method which I really really liked. This is definitely a practice I’d like to incorporate as a warm up in tandem with my usual ‘draw characters from memory. I think both methods help identify what aspects of character design are most memorable and contribute significantly to a unique silhouette.

Afterwards we were tasked with thinking of one of our characters for our projects and designing them. My characters are each loosely based on Commedia dell’Arte stock characters, specifically the Zanni subtypes. I already had design ideas for the Arlecchino, Columbina and Scapino characters, but I knew I additionally wanted a Brighella, Pedrolino and a Pulcinella, so I opted to do Pedrolino.

As Pedrolino (known as Pierrot in French theater) is a little brother type, I knew I wanted the design to have a rounder, stouter shape, even though all the characters are adults. My characters will be very brightly colored both as a reference to traditional clown costume, but also to contrast the darker environments. I also hadn’t included references to the traditional stock costumes in my previous designs, but I knew I wanted to amend that. So for this design I went for a more traditional Pedrolino costume including the pointed hat and baggy clothes. To avoid using only black and white, I changed the accent colors to a periwinkle, however I may change the hair as well to introduce a third color.

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Wednesday we had another creative writing session, where we explored our characters and setting for our narratives.

I began exploring the overall antagonist of my world. I personally do not believe in good or bad, and I also do not believe that any person is selfish by default. We are all a product of our communities, and thats why I really don;t want my overarching villain to be one tangible person.

Then I did a little exploration of my Arlecchino character, Arlo.

Finally I put together a potential story ladder and exploration of setting. The story definitely needs work however, as there isn’t any conflic really.

I also came up with my synopsis and logline.

I wanted to write it in second person to highlight the fact that the audience is part of the experience. I ended up workshopping it at home editing the language to suit the tone. I also realised my longline felt more like a tagline so I wrote a new one entirely.

I also stated putting together character profiles on Character Hub, a new website I found that I think will allow me to keep a much more detailed record of the world and characters to use as reference.

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Friday, I discussed my project with Mario. He encouraged me to focus either on the character animation, or the installation, as if I want to create something new of high quality I should pick one new skill to focus on. I would like to still create at least a mockup of the space so I can explore projection and 3D space. I created some 3D thumbnail sketches as well as some thumbnails of the trapeze sequence. Then I redrew the thumbnails in Storyboard. I’d like to refine these further before the first interim presentation.

I also spoke with the technicians about projection mapping and they suggested I look into simple mapping with After Effects since I already know the program and they said it was possible to do. Sunni also invited me to join the experimental group’s workshop on the 18th. I really want to attend but I have work that day. I have not been getting a lot of shifts lately, so I have to have a big think about whether I skip work or not.

On Monday we had our first breifing for the new unit. I immediately got very excited about two things. First, was getting a chance to develop an idea I had been toying with for a few months, and the other was attemping to create a more immersive experience for an audience using projection, performance and sound.

The general idea is to have a full room projection and soundscape of little vignettes of a circus show, ending with space for the viewer in the center of the ring to perform a little talent if they wish. Each vignette would contain performances or interactions with my characters. My brother goes to music school and I know serveral amateur voice actors that I believe would be willing to help out, on the sound side of my project.

For a while I’ve had this bubbling idea of one day being able to pitch a Nightcrawler show to Marvel. He’s my favorite X-Man and his origin story has so much potential for exploration. However after a conversation with Darren, wherein I realized I should work on original concepts to establish myself, I put that project on the back burner. A few months later I went to the Tim Burton exhibition at the Design museum and I realized that the aspects of Nightcrawler I wanted to explore, tied with the darker themes, aesthetics and influences, all pulled from a fascination with the carnivalesque and circus arts.

I wanted to draw influence from Tim Burton’s work but I really want to dedicate effort to inclusion in my character designs and stories. Primarily, because of Tim Burton’s notorious statement, films “don’t call” for black people (and evidently other people of color) and repeated instances of racism in his casting and story-telling (there’s only so many times you can try defend yourself Tim). I think the circus and particularly clown arts are a perfect medium to gather a wide variety of characters of all different backgrounds with distinct designs, while leaving room for audiences to insert themselves into the narratives and connect with “masked” characters.

This new idea combined with the original concepts and influence from my Nightcrawler series idea turned into a world I slowly began building over the last few months. I think in the future I’d like this idea to be developed for TV, but this project gives me a great opportunity to create a portfolio of concepts for these characters and settings as I continue to work on over arching stories. I combined my list of references from both ideas as a way to start building my vision, drawing from animated media as well as music and literature.

On the technical side there are a few things I need to explore including:

• What space will I have to present my project?
• Who can I work with to produce sound?
• How do I go about creating a full room projection?
• Will I need to learn any new software?

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On Wednesday, we presented some of our initial research. In all honesty I forgot about this until the morning of so I very quickly threw together a presentation. Luckily, because I wrote the above section of the post on Tuesday, I already had a clear idea of my references. Below are the images I showed

Su-Lynn liked the direction I was heading and established that we could talk further about the installation medium in a tutorial. Through presenting I distilled that I’d like to focus on color and composition in the context of a 360 animation, dynamic, action focused character acting, and atmosphere and audience integration.

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On Friday I went to Mario’s toolkit session. I mostly spent the class doing the abstarction excersise, but Mario also came around to offer individual help on personal/other class projects. I told him about my idea, but since it’s still very early stages there was not much concrete we could work on. He did however, offer some clarity as to what I would need to do, and agreed that my first steps should be to write and storyboard the narrative idea. Then I would work on design and conceptualization for the projection, and then later learn and try out projection mapping. He emphasized the need to think about why I wanted to use the intallation medium and to weigh the value of using this method against the cost of producing something of this scale. Essentially, I have to come up with a good rationale for this medium as well as just the narrative idea.