LAUAN603 - Weekly Update

 Over the past weeks, I have been working on some animation and animatic work for my own directed project.

Horse Galloping

For the title / credit sequence of my project, I have decided to animate a horse running alongside the credits. I have arranged it in different colours that represent the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

I began by using a reference of a horse galloping and using that to block out the movements and timing.

Horse Animation Process

After this I refined it into a rough sketch using the block out as a base.

After making this incredibly rough sketch, I decided to refine it further and add more features to the horse, as well as make the movements less static.

I have noticed that I need to fix this animation as the back leg doesn't show on a few frames. I will work on this when I have the time to.

Finally, I blocked out the colours and refined the lines further.

Credit Sequence

For the credit sequence, I was inspired by The Good, The Bad and The Ugly's title sequence that uses bright colours and rotoscoping. I decided to adapt this sort of approach myself. While I do believe it needs refining and work, I think it's a good start. I will refine it further if I find the time to, as I need to focus on the film itself. I also have to decide whether to put it at the start or the end of the film. This decision will follow from my discussion with my tutors.

Backgrounds and Ideas

Over the week, I have also been helping my background illustrator with rough concepts and ideas for the Saloon and environments. I have created some rough ideas using both Clip Studio and Maya to get a sense of space and where things will be located within the interior.

Rough Sketches

Refined Background Concept (By Jason Lam)

Maya Environment Screenshots

Script Updates

Due to constraints in timing, me and the producer of my project (Emily Kate Mullis) have decided to cut down both on the script and the storyboard to make it more manageable.

Storyboard: Rough Sketches and Ammendments

I have assisted my Storyboard artist (Marta) by making some very rough guidelines for her to follow.

I have also decided to cut some scenes entirely to save time and make the project more manageable

Animatic

Furthermore, I have also been working on an Animatic for our project. So far I have timed the first part of the film, including voice lines and soundtrack.

In conclusion:

I need to work on getting more voice lines and timing the second part of the film in the animatic.

I need sound effects.

I need to fix the horse animation.

LAUAN602 - Study Task 1

 In this Study Task we were asked to review and reflect our presence within the creative industry, and what we want to pursue in the future.

• What is my practice? - My practice is creating fictional worlds and stories and bringing them to life. Because of this, my skills cover a variety of practices. My main practices are:

• Worldbuilding.
• Concept Art.
• Character Art.
• Script-Writing.

• What is my skill set? - Much like my practice, my skills cover a large variety of approaches. I am quite proficient in practical and visual skills such as character and world designs, but I feel that I am also quite good at the technical parts of animation, such as directing, creating notes and outlines for team members and making references for my team to work off (Examples below). As mentioned previously, I am also fairly skilled at story writing and character development. For this reason, I see myself as a generalist or as a creative director. I feel that I need an updated show reel to show all this, including showing scenes written by me in my new project.

• What are my plans for the end of this course? - Due to current circumstances, I plan to pursue a freelance business. I want to work for people by creating character concepts and create my own story projects. I also want to open commissions for character illustrations for the general public and attempt to grow my audience through such a way (See Examples Below).

• My online presence - When it comes to social media, I do need to revise my approach. I have found that I am not gaining any new followers on sites such as (and specifically) Twitter. Because of this, I have migrated to other social media platforms such as Instagram to try and expand my audience and I am trying to focus on making more art for people to follow me for when I begin opening commissions.

LAUAN603 - Live Brief 1

 For my first live brief I have taken part in a Clip Studio Illustration competition called The 26th International Illustration Contest.

The theme of this contest is The Best Smile. We had to create an illustration revolving around this theme.

For my idea, I decided to take the theme literally. I thought to myself that we smile when we're happy. Then, furthermore, I asked myself "What makes us happy". From this, I decided to go down the scientific route of happiness and how hormones, chemicals and neurotransmitters.

From there, I decided to create my own anthropomorphic characters based on the four chemicals that are used when feelings happiness:

• Dopamine
• Oxytocin
• Endorphins
• Serotonin

From here I begun sketching rough concepts of the chemical structures and figuring out which ones will have what sort of personality:

Character Descriptions

Chemical Structures / Shapes

After this, I began sketching some concepts of the characters:

Character Concepts

Finally, I created a concept for what the background may look like roughly alongside the characters.

Rough Blocking Out

Rough Sketch

In the end, I combined everything together to create my final submission for the competition, and submitted it via Twitter.

Final Illustration

In development, I changed Endorphins' colour to green to reflect its involvement in exercise through 'Outdoorsy colours'.


Twitter submission

LAUAN603 - Weekly Blog

 Over the past weeks, I have been working on some character designs for my project, The Last Riders. I have created concepts and a turnaround sheet for the main character, Marow, and a concept for a side character bartender called Tarant.

Marow Artworks

Rough Concept

Refined Concept

Character Profile

Character Turnaround

In my design, I have tried to keep the colours very pale, desaturated and earthy to emphasize the theme of death around this character. I have also done my best to make him look like a western character with moustache marks, holsters and bullets.

Tarant Artworks

Rough Concepts

Refined Concepts

For Tarant I searched up references of late 1800's bartenders and wild west saloon owners. I have used the theme of a tarantula and reflected this in his colours, eyes and fuzzy hair. 

LAUAN603 - Weekly Blog

Over the past few weeks I have decided what to do for my final project as well as working on the early pre-production. I will be directing in this film.

Worldbuilding and rough story outlines / Script Draft 1

From the start I had begun writing some world information to help flesh out the environments and the characters. I have also been listing different world names and names for our film. In the end I decided to call the world 'Elvida' and the name of the film 'The Last Riders'.

From there I began making rough drafts of the script. After critique from Stacey Wilkie I had updated the drafts into the final script.

Script Draft 2

Script Draft 3

This is the final draft of the script. I have made some minor changes to dialogue and fixed the formatting further. I have also removed the mention of shots to help make it feel less bloated.

As a director I began handing notes to my artists and musicians to make sure they keep on track with their work.

Musician and Soundscape notes