Puppet and Furniture Making

 Above are the furniture pieces and my handmade dog puppet for my stop motion project. The table, beanbag chair and bone are made out of clay and painted on. The book was made out of card with the help of this tutorial on how to make small books: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNrJNi3tR44

The dog puppet is my 3rd prototype and will be my final puppet once I've made some changes to the body and added bits of fur to him. He is a Giant Schnauzer (hence the beard) and his eyes and mouth will be made out of paper, making it easier to change mouths when lip syncing him.

There's More to Storyboarding than You Think

 Last semester when I was doing the storyboard module, I was surprised. And now I'm once again surprised when I made a portion of the animatic for the Title Sequence Project. I was surprised because I didn't know how difficult and time consuming it was to storyboard!

 Before I came to university, I have made storyboards for short films I worked on during my time in A Level and BTEC film. At the time, I was the only one making the storyboards because nobody else wanted to do it and they knew I was the best at drawing out of all of them. The criteria for making storyboards during the course was to make one…and that's it. I wasn't really taught how many drawings to make for a shot or how many notes you need to write around the panel, as long as I made one for the team I would've done my job properly. These film courses were mainly about production and post-production, so pre-production didn't matter at the time…well it did to me but it wasn't needed to pass the courses (this is why I know so much about editing in Premiere Pro).

 So naturally when I found out I was doing a storyboard module in the first semester, I thought I was going to pass with flying colours because that was my main job for the past three years! I thought I can easily become a storyboard artist when I leave university because of having experience before anyone else. The key word here is thought. I thought I can easily pass this and be a storyboard artist. In reality, I knew nothing.

 Storyboarding is more than drawing scribbles on a page and labelling the type of shot underneath it. Unless you're a fast worker and are already good at drawing, this module would've been tough, and it was for me. 

 First of all, despite people telling you you don't have to be good at drawing to be a storyboard artist...you have to be good at drawing. I know this because the students who were already good at drawing had the better storyboards. They had textures and prominent shadows and expressive faces to really show how the characters are feeling. The drawings were simple but they had the fundamentals of of a drawing that represent a part of the movie. My drawings were far too simple, like what I did during my A Level and BTEC, having no shadows, no textures, the characters looking very stiff and some objects not even looking like objects! I ONLY JUST passed the module because of this.

 On top of that, everyone used a tablet to draw the storyboards and they knew how to use it. I got my first tablet a month before I moved to university and was still trying to get used to it. The digital storyboards looked horrendous, so I ended up drawing the storyboards on paper and scanning them into the computer.

 Another thing I didn't understand was how many drawings to make for a shot. The more action that's happening in a shot, the more panels you should draw. I, on the other hand only made a few panels for an action shot. The drawings didn't match the action-packed feel of what's happening on screen. Even if the characters are just sitting down and talking, having multiple drawings for a shot adds life to the storyboards and looks more complete.

 Finally, the notes around the storyboards: shot type, shot number,  action on screen and dialogue (if any). Do this for all shots or panels (if action or dialogue changes during each panel). These notes will be helpful for the director, producer, editor, animators and practically everyone whose trying to get the grasp of the story.

Storyboarding is harder than you think and I found it extremely difficult to make one when I realised that how I made them before was NOT how to do it in the real world. Some studios might even be particular with thier storyboards, wanting them to be extremely detailed or allow you to be as messy a you want. I don't think I can ever a storyboard artist when I enter the industry as it's not my  niche anymore, but after that learning curve I'm very appreciative of storyboard artists and you all should be too.

Can Women be Directors?

 OKAY. So a while back my course got a visiting lecture from an animation director who came to talk about directing (mainly to help the third years with their final films). He was a very funny guy, giving us advice on how good directors work and showing us most of his sketchbooks, explaining how certain things he draws can turn into ideas. I really liked this lecture! But there was one element that caught me off guard during part of it, and that was when he explained why there aren't as many female directors as there are male directors.

 We were shown pictures of many great male directors from multiple studios, including Aardman, but the thing we spotted the most was the lack of female directors. Out of the many directors Aardman has had, only one woman has managed to direct a feature film; Sarah Smith of Arthur Christmas. We also noticed that there were a lack of male producers in the animation industry as well, most of them being female. Our visiting director then told us right there and then that there aren't many female directors because women don't make good directors. At first I laughed at this because I thought he was just joking, but as he then continued to show scientific evidence that women are better at producing because they were more organised than men, I started to feel uncomfortable.

 I have always believed that it doesn't matter whether your a man or woman, if you're good at something, then you're good at it, regardless of who you are! But I'm also not one to turn down scientific evidence…because it's science. You can't really argue with it. I found myself so conflicted about this! Is this the true realisation that women are genetically better at producing? Or can a person defy science by just being so good at what they do? We have had good female directors in the past (again, Sarah Smith who made the brilliant but underrated Arthur Christmas), so why is it so hard to believe that women can be good at directing?

 I have seen people use these facts against women doing certain jobs before. Back in 2016, a Studio Ghibli producer claimed that women can't direct Studio Ghibli films as women would be 'too realistic' in their direction, botching up a good fantasy film. I almost feel unsure about this one, because in a way I agree with him. I would love to write for an animated film one day and even try my hand at directing, but the ideas I come up with for animated features are  set in very realistic situations and environments. I want the audience to relate to my films and feel for the characters that are going through real problems that real people go through. Animation can empathises these sort of things with extravagant images sticking in someone's head. But then again…this is just me. What about women who love fantasy stories? Most directors in Japan are male anyway, not allowing women to make films at all, let alone realistic films! So where is this producer getting these ideas from?!

Now I know that there are many women out there who are producers because they like doing it! They're aren't forced into the job. But I can't help feeling that, as well as women wanting to be directors, there are men out there that want to be producers, but they can't because 'it's a woman's job'. The scientific evidence may be true (I admit that I'm quite good at organising like a producer), but we should encourage ANYONE to be what they want to be regardless of that! You can't stop learning a certain skill because of your gender, but you can stop learning by giving up or being lazy (trust me I know). I can't wait to work with great producers and directors no matter who they are, and I myself can't wait to write and direct like I've always wanted to. Can women be directors and men be producers? Duh, of course they can, because they can!

How a 3D Pen Can Be Used in Stop Motion

Above: The 3Doodler making the Eiffel Tower

3D pens started with the 3Doodler by WobbleWorks Inc, and are growing more popular each day in the art community. Now there are many 3D pens on the market to buy, like the 3Doodler Start, Scribbler, LIX and 3DSimo Mini. All have their own qualities, like temperature and speed settings, but they basically all make 3D art in mid-air, with the same sensation as drawing with a regular pen.

Looking at different blogs and YouTube channels, many artists have tried the 3D pen and have given it good reviews, whether it be for fun or to create an installation piece (just look up '3D pen' on Pinterest!). But being an animator [in training] I always like to go back to stop motion and see what new things we can use to make more outstanding visuals! 3D printing has already taken the stop motion world by storm, and the 3D pen is a piece of technology that is perfect for creating objects and small details during stop motion production.

Above: Face sets for Paranorman

There are some things you can't use a 3D pen for in stop motion, however. A 3D pen's filament can dry very quickly and stay put in mid-air. A puppet's hair, skin or clothes need to move easily between frames, so therefore needs to be made out of flexible materials, unlike newly heated filament. 3D pens aren't advised to use whilst making soft or cushiony objects like pillows or bedding, the filament will shine after it dries and will loose the illusion of a soft bed or a comfy sofa. Large sets also seem impractical for 3D pens. Though it is possible you can use them to make sets, it will take a long time to complete an entire building out of filament. Make your life easier by using large materials like cardboard boxes for large sets!


The following things however, are things you can use 3D pens for in stop motion:

Set Details

You've used your cardboard or clay to make the building itself, so now move onto your 3D pen to create the doors, windows, ledges, balconies and artsy details that make the building extremely fancy-looking! Why stop at buildings though? Add more flowers to the garden set or complicated gadgets to the puppet's car! If you want to go more practical than artsy, make an armature for your building in order to make the set more stable before adding on your main materials.

Props

Props are the first thing you should turn to a 3D pen for! Smaller objects like crockery, cutlery, plant pots, garbage, instruments and weapons are quick to make with a 3D pen and ready to be put onto set immediately after it cools. Do not underestimate the small things in stop motion set. The more you have, the more you add to the atmosphere and environment.

Nature

I've mentioned garden sets and plant pots before, but adding that one extra leaf on a branch or more magical mushrooms can be just what your woodland set needs! Nature doesn't stop at the woods though, more rocks and boulders will add to that pebble-filled beach, and more vines will turn the rainforest into more of a jungle than before. Twisted branches and roots are also good to make with a 3D pen, as the way you usually use a 3d pen is by twisting the filament around until you get the object desired, and then carve off the unwanted parts in order to create a smoother shape.

Puppet Armature

Whilst the outside of the puppet will mostly be plasticine and clothing fabric, the skeletal armature itself can be made by a 3D pen! Just remember to make a plan of your puppet first and make it in parts before putting it together with the nuts and bolts. You want your puppet's joints to bend like real joints do, and some filament won't bend after it dries.

Puppet Accessories

Sure you can't make the clothes out of filament, but things like hair clips, bracelets, helmets, armour, rings and phones are also good to be made out of a 3D pen. Like props, they are easy to make and quick to add to the set after being cooled.

Above: I know this isn't a puppet's phone but use your imagination!

Glue

Yes! F*ck the glue gun (even though it's an extremely handy tool and I love it), use the 3D pen to glue pieces together! However this time the filament will be able to match the object, therefore the 'glue' will be camouflaged!


Find what 3D pen suits your liking in this video:

3Doodler blog: http://the3doodler.com/blog/

3D Pen Lab's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOvm1ePlttS6hWatuHThw_A 

Make Anything's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVc6AHfGw9b2zOE_ZGfmsnw

Stop Motion is hard…but I still love it.

From this point on, Monday 13th - Sunday 19th will officially be regarded as one of my most stressful weeks as I was convinced I was cursed to not complete any of my work, due to technical malfunctions and minor illness.

Dragonframe is a stop motion software that the university uses, and I do love it compared to any other stop motion software out there, but this week every single computer that had Dragonframe on it malfunctioned whenever I tried to import images of a face set. Clearly I did something wrong in the making of the images but can you blame me into thinking that I was cursed?! So this week I had to do some of my stop motion work manually and alter the images in Photoshop before trying to import them on Dragonframe again.

The videos above show what I filmed this week, the green screen one being made manually, and the other from what I managed to make on Dragonframe. These are some paper plane tests for my group title sequence project, where for a small part of the sequence, we would show a stop motion paper airplane over a map of the world.

I've always preferred stop motion over any other animation technique  as it requires you to get physical and create the sets and characters! Nowadays, it's the only kind of animated film where not everything on screen is done on computers, which gives the audience some real and often breathtaking visuals. A lot of animators however, while appreciating stop motion, would choose not to go into it because there's no money in the market. If you want a guaranteed job, 3D is really the way to go. Even films like Kubo and the Two Strings or The Lego Batman Movie both have stop motion and CG elements in them to create some outstanding animation, but in the end it still looks more like CG than stop motion. It's now become uncommon to see a full stop motion movie (PS. Defiantly go and see Kubo and Lego Batman, they are amazing movies!).

I always knew that if I were to make my own stop motion film, it'll be tough but also fun at the same time. This week was the first time I realised that production will not always go so smoothly, and that setbacks will ensue and cause you to loose track of time, causing the entire process to be even harder. I imagine that huge animation studios also have to deal with weeks like this during production, when everything just goes wrong and you have no choice but to take a break.

I almost broke down this week when I didn't get my work done, but it still doesn't take away how much I like doing stop motion. The video with the green screen showed the first time I tried moving the camera and the puppet at the same time, to create the illusion of zooming out to show the bigger picture! The fact that I at least managed to learn one new thing is still good! Creating something you like is at times painful but to you it's a lot of fun, so if everything goes wrong, there's no shame in taking a small break to claim your sanity back before you keep going.

Life Drawings: I'm getting BETTER??

Here are the latest drawings to my life drawing sketchbook. And, no joke when I say this, but my life drawing teacher says I'm getting better! I really think I owe it to the needle technique I mentioned in my 'Drawings Drawings Drawings' post. If you could just ignore the faces and focus on my improvements on body proportions, that'll be nice, thank you.

2D Background Project: A New Inspiration

In my last post, I said that I wanted Indre Bankauskaite to be my inspiration for the naturalistic environment of my background project. However, it turned out that their work was to stylised for the shot and that I couldn't use them. I was rather hoping I'd use their art, but I wasn't sure what constituted as a naturalistic artist at first. It turns out I should chose an artist who actually tries to replicate real life! So life drawings…for environments.

I decided on Stepan Fedorovich Kolesnikov since I really like his almost-sketchy drawings put together with only a few shades of colour. The winding trees he paints are also good for the trees I'll be drawing in my background shot.

The paintings above are my intimidations of his work (even further above). I was using watercolours since most background artists use watercolours to blend everything together in the background whilst the character animation stands out. I'm still not sure whether it would be better to use watercolours or acrylics to intimidate Kolesnikov's work. 

As you can see, my watercolour skills aren't up to scratch. I've always liked painting since it's a very therapeutic hobby, but I know it's not something I'm talented at. Some of the brush strokes look too messy and first painting looks like it's been blended too much. I like some parts of the second one, but it's still lacking.

I went on to practice my watercolour skills still in the style of Kolesnikov, and ended up with the paintings above (and one pencil sketch). I feel myself getting better at painting, mainly because I used colours that I enjoy blending with. Kolesnikov's colours are quite subdued in his work, but I decided to try using shades of red since I like the combination of fiery colours. My favourite pieces are the mountains, mainly the one with patches of red on it, as I feel like it instantly tells me where the mountain resides: in a hot area where not much green is seen.

I even tried drawing and painting in a city environment to see if I'm better at that! The shading on the pencil drawing is good and I do like how I painted the lamp, but the block tower became a mess and I didn't enjoy painting it.

IN OTHER NEWS!

The thumbnails for the 2D background project are done and so is the storyboard of the shot I will be making! For the project we only have to make one background and some character animation for one shot, but it was deemed helpful to look back on thumbnails for a whole scene based around the shot. The scene shows two children, who press a button on a control panel to turn the environment into a beautiful landscape of nature. The girl (who is going to be animated in the shot I'm making) turns to see a bicycle against a tree, which reminds her of an alien boy she knew, and cries.

In the thumbnails, the area highlighted in pink is the background shot for my project. The storyboard itself shows in more detail how it'll look in the end. The areas that are outlined in black indicate the character animation (the girl, birds flying, trees blowing in the wind). The camera will also pan across the shot, from left to right.

2D Background Inspiration

For one of my projects this year, the 2D Background project, I have to research and take inspiration from two artists: one for environment design and one for character design. These artists should help me with my final look for a 2D background.

For the characters, I've decided to go with an artist whose style is  the opposite of how I design characters: Retrograde-Entropy (there was no indication of their real name).

I purposefully wanted to find an artist whose character designs were different to mine so I can learn to adapt to other art styles. As much as the dream is to make my own product with my own drawings, if I want to get a job in animation, I have to adapt to a show or studio's style of drawing!

The three coloured drawings above are Retrograde-Entropy's artworks, whilst the pencil drawings in the sketchbook are my interpretations of their style. If you look at my character designs, they are very angular and sketchy. The eyes are very big on the head compared to the other facial features, and the eyebrows go over the hair to immediately indicate a character's emotion. The hair itself is very scruffy and looks very thin. The alien design of Geoffrey is designed a lot like Mothman! I prefer to design aliens as giant bugs since an insect or invertebrate design is the furthest away from a relatable human design. The link below will take you to a great video about alien design that goes into more depth than I do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srul5Xd2kT4

Retrograde's characters are more round with very few angles or sharp edges. The eyes fit inside the head and the nose seems to be larger than usual. The hair is very fluffy and naturally pleases the eye when it flows with the wind. The lips are also larger and have a slight upper cleft to some of their characters. The alien design is also more humanistic, most likely to allow the audience to relate to the alien more. Retrograde's work is soft, subtle and pleasing to the eye, especially when they use pastel colours in their other artworks.

You can look at their DeviantArt page here: http://retrograde-entropy.deviantart.com


For the environment, I've always been fond of illustrations that capture the simple side of nature, yet still manage to make it look beautiful and detailed. I immediately decided to go with one of my favourite artists: Indre Bankauskaite (freeminds on DevinatArt).

Indre Bankauskaite creates backgrounds, characters and environments that are so simple in style but pop out due to the small colour palette they use in each drawing. Concepts like the blue and orange tree are very surreal, but the drawing of a cave entrance is more naturalistic due to it's softer colours and shades. It's the naturalistic drawings of Indre's that I want to use inspiration for the environment of my background project. 

The watercolour paintings in the sketchbook are my interpretations of Indre's artwork above, and I'm debating whether I should stop painting all together. I am happy with how I made the blue and orange tree look 3D and the blending of some of the colours in either of them, but it comes to no surprise that painting isn't my strongest point, neither is sticking to a colour palette. I feel like I can replicate the artwork better in a digital painting since that's most likely how the artist made them in the first place.

You can look at their DeviantArt page here: http://freeminds.deviantart.com

Drawings, Drawings, Drawings!

   

Part 1 - LIFE DRAWINGS! 

Hooray! It's been a while since I've done them so don't look surprised if they all look sloppy. In this particular lesson though, I learnt how to do a very useful thing, measure the anatomy! How many heads tall or wide is the model, and such. Using a needle to help measure the height and width of some areas of the body allows you to create a more accurate and, dare I say lifelike, drawing of your model. Perspective and measurements have always been a weak spot in my art, so a simple knitting needle is the best thing I can use for life drawings!

Part 2 - Armature Structure

For motion studies, I have chosen to study stop motion since it's my favourite animation medium. One thing we have to make is a stop motion puppet of a dog for an upcoming animation. I chose to base my dog off a giant schnauzer (because schnauzers are the best dogs) and have created a side view plan of the armature (not to scale). My problem is how am I going to make it? I know HOW to but to actually do it is still a challenge! Also what materials shall I use? Aluminium? Wood? Latex? Plasticine? Help!

 

 

Part 3 - Tonal Observations

I'm sorry two of these are sideways. Just turn your head to the side to look at them.

When studying background design, you want to look at the darkest and lightest areas of the background, which will show you where the light is coming from. Observing the shades of tone of another background will help you get used to showing where the light source is in your own backgrounds. These tonal observations are done in charcoal and pastels, and three of them are studies from Your Name, Wolf Children and Lilo and Stitch. Lilo and Stitch is definitely an interesting one since the film goes back to traditional Disney watercolours instead of digitally painting them. It makes the scenery of Hawaii look very beautiful. Wolf Children's backgrounds are beautiful too, but not too glamorous since the true driving force of the film is the relationships with the family and their simple yet complicated lives. That's what comes first. Your Name on the other hand has the most beautiful backgrounds that I've ever seen from an animated film. I've always loved space and astronomical-inspired art, so it comes to no surprise that Your Name blew me away from it's stunning visuals of comets, meteors and constellations.

Part 4 - Personal Poses

The sketches above are mainly of my original characters (not fandom-inspired, actual original characters), but two of them in the left photo are Invader Zim and Chihiro from Spirited Away (although Chihiro looks more like Invader Zim now). I spent some time testing out different poses and emotions with my characters, mainly to see how exaggerated I can go with them. Exaggeration is also a weak spot of mine, even if it's a major part of character animation. Other sketches are to expand my skill on shading, since that used to be a weak spot, but I'm getting better at it. Cute little drawings that I do in my spare time are more than that, they are small steps into making my art look a lot better than before.

[Existential] Thoughts on Myself as an Artist

So I went to a lecture thinking it was going to be about title sequences, but the lecturer decided otherwise.

Now, our guest lecturer has made a lot of title sequences in his life and he is very talented at it. But boy, his talk about how to make good title sequences turned into a realisation that our existence as artists will become extinct in the future if we don't become the best at what we do.

Just a heads up to say I'm exaggerating a lot in this blog post but these were the things I thought of about myself after the lecture.

He hosted two lectures for us, one about making good title sequences, and another which I thought was going to be about title sequences again, but instead it was about the future of creativity and an artist's working environment. How will humans interact with one another? Are we able to get work when robots will soon take over from us? How can I show that my work is better than a robot's and that you should hire me? All this and more was discussed and I had no idea what to think.

Whilst this guy is a nice and interesting creator who has lots of positive thoughts about the future, I looked at this possible future and thought it was scary. Because whilst I practice a lot in order to get better at what I do, I still don't call myself an artist because I don't believe I'm astounding at what I do, let alone the best! And now I can't earn a living if I don't force myself to be the best?

Knowing I'm not the best gives me little confidence when I try to sell myself. The guest lecturer kind of gave advice on how to sell yourself: get talented and have an ego. These two things are good traits to have but I know lots of people who have a hard time becoming either of those things, so just to say 'get talented and have an ego' isn't good advice for introverts who aren't sure if they're talented and don't like having an ego! Sorry sir, you're a great title sequence maker, but stay away from counselling.

This lecture wasn't the only thing that made me think about myself as an 'artist'. A new project set for us this semester, called the experimental project, is a task where we make an experimental animation to show who we are. Again, listening to the subject matter of this project caught me off guard. How do I show myself in an animation?

The problem is, I don't think I want to show who I am in a film and allow anyone to watch it. I have grown in confidence over the years but I don't like being an open book for anyone to put their grubby sticky hands on (that metaphor though). It's ironic since I have a YouTube channel and I'm on lots of social media sites, but on those sites I talk about movies, games, TV Shows, celebrities, media that has made me feel happy whenever I think about it and now I want to share my love for it with the world. If I ever talk to someone about my feelings and traits and beliefs, it shows that I trust the person who is listening. I don't want the entire general public to know! And yeah, it's also ironic since this very blog post is about me telling you my feelings about this topic, but I have a feeling that the people who are reading this will understand me in some way.

I have no idea what to put in this experimental project other than memes, Undertale references and the fact that I spend most of my time slouched in my chair still trying to learn how to shade. I don't believe I'll ever be considered the best at what I do or if I get my dream job. But what I do know is that I'm at least trying to be good at what I do and that if I keep practicing, there's a small chance I could still get to the top.

There was a lot of things I disagreed with the guest lecturer about, but he mentioned an amazing photographer who only started doing photography at age 65! I agree with him that you're never too old to start creating and perfecting things. And because I'm still young (even though I feel really old), I have plenty of time to perfect my craft, and not to force myself to do otherwise.