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Author: Weronika Zgoralska

By Posted on Posted in Designing, Uncategorised No Comments

As soon as I knew whom I was paired with, I emailed Nicole. The initial communication was very quick, and we quickly swapped to instant messaging rather than email – as sending one-sentence emails wasn’t really useful and was more difficult to keep track of.

We got onto a video call and discussed Nicole’s project, she showed me the animatic and talked about the concept – basically gave me the whole pitch. This made me super excited to work on her film as I really love the aesthetic and story of it.

I’ve received three tasks: A Pony Character Turnaround, A Hairdresser’s Belt Prop Design, and A Background to paint. I’ve successfully completed the first two, but I am planning on painting the background later in the week. Prop and Background design is something I’m currently interested in, so I was looking forward to them.

A sketch I got from Nicole and the completed turnaround I did
A sketch and colour palette I got from Nicole as a guide. I then designed the props separately, before exploring colour combinations (Nicole specified the bag to be purple) and then combined everything for a final shot.

I don’t consider myself a good character designer at the moment, so I was glad to have the Pony design given, and I was happy to make a turnaround from it.
I tried to utilise the knowledge I had from Bianca, when she came to talk about character design. I knew the importance of a good and consistent turnaround, using the lines in the background to keep track of various features. It made the task much less daunting.

On the other hand, I was very happy to have the Prop design more ambiguous and given more freedom in working with it. I did the research to make sure all the tools were included but opted to go for a soft bristle brush – inspired by horse brushes, as I felt it would fit the Pony World better.
Following this, I definitely plan to look more into Prop and Background Design artists and their workflow. I’ve also purchased Melissa Malone’s intro to Background Art for TV Animation to start my research and to get more familiar with the requirements.

The work was done over the weekend, then the designs were sent off to Nicole for approval, and she really loved the belt – I’ve probably put into it more detail than she would have been able to, due to the fact she’s got so many other things to work on, and I could easily focus on it. But I’ve decided to put this amount of detail in because it’s the main prop, and it seemed like there will be close-up shots of it. Nicole also said she’ll just add the grunge texture to it so that the grain matched the aesthetic of the film – so I didn’t need to do any revisions!
I also made sure to send her the raw files, so she could use them for models on any shots. It was very satisfying to send off work that got approved.

I wish I followed up sooner (our communication broke for a bit and I had to wait for a little to receive work) – as it wasn’t Nicole’s fault and life happens. But because I waited to be sent stuff after the initial call, it put extra pressure on me later, as I needed to fit it around other tasks in the latter week. So in the future, I’m definitely going to try and be more insistent on communication.

As well as this, if I had more time, I definitely would have liked to render the designs further- adding shading. It’s something I still might do later on. But I’m definitely looking forward to painting and designing the background from Nicole’s sketches. I particularly enjoyed seeing her workflow – the moodboards, the animatic and her pitch, her energy making me more excited about the project. It’s definitely something I would like to bring into my practice.

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I’ve recently watched a short music video by Gaille/BishyFishie (both sang and designed/animated) and was absolutely mesmerised by the colour choices and the transitions. So, naturally, I needed to look more into it.

In the process video, they explain their workflow from planning and designing to making. I was actually surprised to find out they used Paint Tool Sai to paint each frame, export it as images and put the animation together in Sony Vegas. It truly shows that where there’s a will, there’s a way.

I personally have experience using Paint Tool Sai for illustration work in the past and, honestly, it’s the best program I ever experienced for lining and colouring. The brushes always did what I wanted and expected them to, just perfectly. Despite this, I can’t imagine not being able to playback the frames, hence why I don’t think I would ever use it to animate. However, I can see myself making the rough animation in TVPaint with all the timing figured out, then working on individual frames in a more illustrative program (such as Paint Tool Sai or Clip Studio Paint). The downside is, of course, the frames need to be exported as PNGs so any changes, later on, could be difficult to carry out.

I did really enjoy the way Gaille works out their frames/storyboards. They use a set of post-it notes in a sketchbook. This is certainly something I would like to adopt into my practice, mostly because I find myself moving frames around a lot – and when doing work digitally, it can become quite messy, trying to move between files or folders – while I imagine flipping a sketchbook page would be much easier. I worry I’ve become too digital sometimes, so I think this would be a nice way of getting back into a more ‘hands-on’ approach.

Although their colour scheme seems very minimal, I went ahead and colour-picked from multiple frames to get a better grasp of it. I quickly noticed that despite the scheme looking like it only consisted of 4 colours, it had much more to offer. Most of the colours are muted and “soft” which is what I think attracts me to them – they are easy on the eye and are in hues of reds and violets, shades of pink. Gaille avoids using black in this music video and instead goes for a darker ‘plum’ which unifies all of the design – noticing this reminded me about the talk we got from Sue Tong yesterday, where she mentioned that colouring the outline the colour of the prop/design could make the design softer, rather than having striking black lines. However, colouring the lines in n amount of different colours can be very time consuming (i.e. all bushes dark green, rocks dark grey etc.) – but choosing a single deeper colour other than black for all of the lineart can be a great way to unify and soften the art. So it’s definitely something I will consider and keep in mind.

I used to be rather scared of colour, but this quick and simple exercise definitely helped me. It showed me that I don’t need a full rainbow to have a cohesive and well-working colour palette.

On top of that, I truly love so many of the transitions and shots from the video, despite it being so short.

I really like how some frames ‘jump’ to the beat of the music. Especially when they’re still frames – it gives them a little bit of movement. On top of this, it feels to me like they’re a heartbeat, which works well due to the song being about love.

However, I found myself mesmerised by the shot at 0:09 and the smooth transition into the heart, then the bedroom scene, which takes less than 2 seconds.

I wanted to understand it better and not feel so intimidated by it. So I took multiple screenshots to analyse it. If I were to approach this transition, I think I would fully animate the ‘heart-smoke’ and then slide it in during compositing in After Effects. The bedroom scene quickly jumps into the shot from the top, but there’s a more subtle change that adds to the quick tempo of the song – the background lilac colour starts transitioning from yellow smoke into the final lilac when the scallop frame settles. It’s the little details and illusions that make it so smooth.

These are all little lessons I’ll definitely try to implement in my future projects – working with minimal, limited, cohesive palettes to build up the confidence with using more colours. Also, the transitions aren’t as scary as they seem, haha!

By Posted on Posted in Animating No Comments

In today’s session with Shaun we looked at various artists who use animated character on top of live-action filmed / photographed backgrounds. Or who manipulate photographs into collages and rigged characters. I was particularly interested in Christoph Niemann’s (Abstract Sunday) work (below).

His work is simple, yet experimental and unique. The simple forms move in the real world and give a feeling of unease – because they don’t belong. But at the same time look sort of quirky for the exact same reason. They’re familiar to a human figure, yet so different – doing things a person would, yet in such non-human-like ways.

His work very slightly reminded me of doodles where arms or eyes are added to animals, or inanimate objects, or of Jeremy Nixon’s work.

Given half an hour to film the scene to work with, I quickly drew a bath – I knew I wanted a simple, calm scene that I could easily finish during the 3 hour lesson. (I used Listerine for colour, and washing up liquid for foam. Also, cold water trying to waste as few resources in the moment – in the future I’d hate to waste water, so perhaps I would film similar scenes when actually making a bath for myself).

The footage ended up a bit shaky, unfortunately. Personally I didn’t like it and re-shot the scene, but Shaun showed me how to track and parent footage, so I could work with it if I ever run into a similar problem in the future.

I normally don’t like filming out and about without a tripod, but now I feel like it wouldn’t be that much of an issue. It could even add more authenticity and interest to the animation, if it ‘shakes’ along with the footage.

I began working on the short animation, which took longer than expected as I ran into some trouble with Animate CC (my brushstrokes were disappearing, but reappearing when I moved the frameback and forth) despite trying to troubleshoot, the only thing that worked was restarting the program.

Despite this, I persevered and got a simple animation done. I’m actually really happy with how it came out, as i feel it would work well as a looped gif or video. I really like the nose sticking out, as I think it’s a little detail that adds personality to the character.

It still seemed a little bit flat, though. And so I’ve decided to record some water, foam and splashing sounds.

Once everything was put together, I am actually very happy with the result. The animation is actually quite personal to me, as I find bath time and sounds of water relaxing and something I often look forward to after a long day.

I think it’s a successful piece of work and it let me explore a new style that I didn’t think was ‘for me’ initially, but that I actually grew fond of and heavily enjoyed working in. Most likely for the same reason I was drawn to Niemann’s work – the weirdness yet familiarness of it.

I think if I explore this further, I would like to add different actions / scenarios – where maybe the character blows a bubble, or swishes their hand in the water.

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For my walking animation, I wanted to play more with the background design, as I have some interest in it and can see myself taking it more seriously. I knew I wanted to have a bakery or a sweet shop, which is where the mood of the walk changes as the shop is closed.

I started out with a moodboard of different storefronts.

And then I got to work!

It’s a simple straight-on background with a one-point perspective. It’s not a finalised design, but I am relatively happy with the first pass on it. I didn’t want to over-crowd it and I tried to keep the threes – big, medium, small – rule in my mind. I will possibly add some more detail to the pavement, now that I’m looking at it. I’ve also moved the plants to the side, so that they weren’t the centre of attention, and there was more focus on the bakery.

I also got some feedback from a friend, and when cleaning it up, I will try to keep in mind line weight and try to vary it by structure. Also, the canopy might have too much detail in perspective, so I would be looking to simplify that.

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Today I’ve attended a webinar from The Japan Foundation about Atsushi Wada and Sarina Nihei’s work. Below are their works, the notes I took during the webinar and some of my thoughts.

Gentle Motions: Atsushi Wada’s Short Animation
My Exercise – Gameplay (Atsushi Wada)
Small People with Hats | Future Shorts (Sarina Nihei)

It was quite interesting to see the work of Japanese animators, who are inspired by the work of artists from other countries. It’s not the typical style of animation that a lot of people think of when they hear ‘Japanese animation’ (at least I don’t). It’s unique to them, and hearing Wada and Nihei talking about their work was super inspiring. I absolutely love the soft but limited colour palettes they use.

They both talked about how they don’t really write scripts, and they tend to start their animations by thinking about a pleasant movement that they want to animate, then work out the rest of the film around the scene. This was rather relieving, because that’s how I tend to work too, and for the longest time I thought that was just ‘wrong’. Nihei also tends to write a lot of ideas down, before working on the storyboards, so there’s a lot of scribbles in her sketchbooks.

I really enjoy these soft, comfortable movements in their work, and it’s something I would definitely like to consider in my future work. I’d also like to be a bit looser in my ideas ‘plot-wise’.

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Although not part of the project, I wanted to share how I approached the design of one of my Dungeons and Dragons characters.
I first started by creating a moodboard. I wanted an overall feel, a vibe, not necessarily something to strictly follow, but something that could inspire me and keep me on track.

Afterwards, I worked on the silhouette and design, using white, grey and black as I tried to consider the values at the same time. I tried to keep in mind how practical the outfit would be, while still staying true to the character.

I really liked the ‘heavy on the bottom silhouette and tried to push it further by layering different pieces. I’ve decided the shorter dress / skirt was more practical, as she was to be a fighter, and of course, I don’t want her tripping on the edge of the fabric.

I’ve actually taken some videos of myself (long deleted, spare me the embarrassment) to figure out the pose and proportions. The final design reminds me a little of SheRa design.

Of course, I couldn’t help myself and had to draw her with her orc wife, Mursha. I also played about with different light settings.

By Posted on Posted in Animating No Comments

Today we looked into animating using Adobe Creative Cloud Animate. I find it’s quite different from TV Paint, but because it’s vector-based, the lines and shapes can be resized without losing quality.
We started out by creating a character inspired by the shape of an item we had around us. I had a pepper grinder on my desk, so I used the textures and shape of that but turned the peppercorns into gumballs. The character’s name is Pepper in homage to that.

Next, we looked into frame by frame animation within CC Animate. The Onion Skin is a bit more confusing than TV Paint, but it’s much more accepting of copying and moving items within frames. I decided to just animate one of Pepper’s gumballs, as I wanted to keep it really simple and just familiarise myself with the program.

We also looked at turning animations into Symbols that could have been animated further via tweening. One mistake I did was turning the frames into a Movie symbol. It’s really important to turn them into a Graphic symbol, so that the animation is preserved. I know the highlight wouldn’t have moved, but I’ve done it for the purpose of the exercise and I really like how it turned out actually.

I think this might be a good way to animate the mood walk change, but I’m not sure how to time it right. So it might be something I will explore.

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Making a horse walk is much more complicated than I anticipated. I had a hard time getting my head around the concept and would definitely be unable to animate one without a reference.
I found that animating the back legs first, then going back to animate the front was more manageable than doing all of them at once.

It’s currently animated on threes, but I might add more in-betweens to take it down to twos. I also need to add a tail.

As per Steve’s feedback, I might make the neck move more. And also need to ensure the steps are the same size. The lines can be simplified – the less the better. And the legs that are further away, can be higher off the ‘ground’ due to perspective.

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I’ve started watching Hawkeye, and I must say I’m impressed with the opening credits. It’s clearly very heavily influenced by David Aja’s work (who apparently, unfortunately, did not get compensated for this) and is very graphic. Although the animation is minimal, it is just enough for its purpose. The opening credits explain the character’s story t us. It also looks like it could have been made with CC Animate due to its graphic nature. The cohesive colour palette works great with subtle textures that add dimension.