Level 3 Pitch Presentation and Showreel

Here is my pitch presentation (that was presented at our Animation Pitch forum) designed to showcase my skills and method of working in Concept Art, Environments and Storyboarding.

The subsequent showreel also demonstrates my skills in Compositing and Animation.

These are areas I would like to focus on throughout my third year and hopefully build up an Industry standard portfolio/showreel. It may be that I end up focusing down onto one of these areas or that I continue to be more of a generalist. Time will tell! Ultimately, I would like to work in the Industry on feature films, short films, music promos etc..

Presentation

The only bit that isn't really explained - as it's a presentation the explaining was done verbally - is after my first concept piece. The subsequent slides show how I produced that piece, starting on a city I put together in my room made from things found around the house (for initial reference and inspiration.) It builds up from there switching between Maya models and working over it with pencils and pastels.

Final Pitch

Animation and Compositing Showreel



This was produced a bit last minute and combines work from my Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Film, my previous Showreel and my last main project from Uni 'Colours and Cogs' that I produced at the end of level 2.

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My Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Film - now available to watch :-)

My film entry for this competition is now officially open to the public to watch and review! Please feel welcome to watch and review it :-) It appears that 'When I grow up' is just one of four in the 'Chance of a lifetime' gallery that has been shortlisted by the judges. Ouuuu exciting!




When I get a bit of free time spare I will upload more information here about the 'making of' this film. It took about 4 months to make it (on and off) so it feels like a very nice achievement to have it handed in, in time for the deadline (with at least 24 hours to spare - result!)

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CND Film Competition - Freesound credits

I'm on the verge of completing the film I've been working on for the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) film competition. Here is a list of Freesound sound credits that I have used in the project.

I will post the film up on my blog in the near future...

Downloaded on October 29th, 2011


S: Free At Last.wav by Phr4kture -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Phr4kture/sounds/71066/
S: 20070918.galloping.horse.wav by dobroide -- http://www.freesound.org/people/dobroide/sounds/41180/
S: white noise citypark 9 pm sunset.wav by klankbeeld -- http://www.freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/118824/
S: 061810_park.wav by sagetyrtle -- http://www.freesound.org/people/sagetyrtle/sounds/99500/
S: LondonTraffic.wav by pcaeldries -- http://www.freesound.org/people/pcaeldries/sounds/103026/
S: forest spring birds windy 3bft 1pm.wav by klankbeeld -- http://www.freesound.org/people/wanna73/sounds/20291/
S: Thailand Jungle Cicade.wav by Greencouch -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Greencouch/sounds/103563/
S: ambience01.wav by yewbic -- http://www.freesound.org/people/yewbic/sounds/31904/
S: The Begining has End.wav by Proxima4 -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Proxima4/sounds/104318/
S: modulated_radio_static.wav by Incarnadine -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Incarnadine/sounds/16997/

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Time management

The next three weeks look busy!

Projects and tasks:

Time Schedule:

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So it begins...the third year! My plan of action..

Third year. The final year. Our last year. (On our Digital Animation BA for those of you who may not know what I'm on about.) Its a little bit scary but also very exciting!

To summarise my statement of Intent for this year: I will be focusing on the following areas:
Concept Art,  Backgrounds/Environments and Compositing.
These are areas that I enjoy working in and also where my strengths lie. I'm not directing for now as I'm currently finishing off directing an animation for the campaign for Nuclear Disarmament film competition (Deadline: October 31st.) I'd also like to try specialising as up until now I have been very generalist. On the side, I'm hoping to work through 'The digital matte painting handbook' by David B. Mattingly and learn the basics of Nuke.

This sketch sums up my work situation at the moment:

So long as I maintain a zen-like equilibrium calmness in my day to day life I will manage to work successfully on all the projects I have chosen/been chosen to work on! Its early days at the moment so naturally I'm optimistic and very determined. This sketch makes me realise that I should practise drawing hands - they're meant to be big as I was playing with the perspective/fore-shortening but they look a bit funny!

Here is a brief rundown of each project I'm working on at the moment :

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) Film competition

This is something I have been chipping away at since July working with my friend Carl Norris (a recent UCF Illustration graduate.) He has designed and painted all the backgrounds and done some animation of a butterfly (stop motion.) I have written the script, done the layouts, produced animation of a horse running and currently I'm compositing. My little cousin Brenda (14) has done the voice over (of a girl aged 8ish.) Tom Gameson is helping me out with the animation of the little girl. At the moment I still have to put together 2 more scenes, re-render an apocalyptic version of the first 2 scenes and create the final piece incorporating the voice over and sound effects. For now check out Scene 1 below:

Here is a still from Scene 2:

I am working hard to get this in on time, it will be great to free myself up for the other projects.

London Riots Animation

This is Tom Gameson's project continued on from Summer where he worked on it at Newgrounds in America. In exchange for him helping me out with some animation for the CND project, I'm helping him out by producing a couple of backgrounds for his animation. The animation shot I'm doing the background for can be seen here.

Work in progress/sketches:

Tom would like the riot-ridden city to be a bit overwhelming, looming over the character. I will keep working more to the style of the 1st piece as he prefers this one. Other things to bear in mind is that it is cental London (ie. Tottenham court road) and its after the sun has gone down so a colour pallet of mainly blues/greys. He also mentioned I could put in some bright colours - ie. a Dixons store front etc. There should be some smashed windows but nothing to dramatic and no landmarks/iconic London buildings. Incidentally here is a good video of the London riots put together by Mike Skinner from 'The Streets'

This could come in very useful for reference..

Wife left home.  Director - Tom Gameson

This is Toms Final Major Project idea. He would like me to create backgrounds inspired by a mix of Ralph Steadman, The Beano and The Iron Giant. Its going to be a working class love story set in a town. Tom mentioned that he would like to do it to this song:

Sketchbook work (inc. inspiration from Ralph Steadman):

I have also taken lots of photo reference and produced some other sketches.

Specimen Paisley. Director - Olly Skillman-Wilson

This is going to be a 3D animated film that is Science Fiction but with some allegorical reference to our current energy situation. It involves an ambitious lab scientist, a cat and some Amazonian eels. My job is to be a concept artist and work on the environments and characters. Its great to have the opportunity to do some concept work. I will post work up soon.

Shell & Paddy. Director - Thomas Spettle

This will be done in the style of Loony Toons. So it will be a 2D animation with some great cartoon characters and visual gags. Thomas would like me to produce the backgrounds. I will post work up for this in the near future.

Dissertation

Hopefully I will just chip away at this on the side comfortably and with great interest! My title is "Analysing Animation as a powerful, effective and free art form in Music Videos." Music videos are a great area for the more Avant Garde side of Animation.

To finish this post on a random note. Here's a cool photo I took yesterday morning.

The light was caused by a recycling van that woke me up!

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Some Art I did before term

This first image I made following a Photoshop tutorial from the magazine " Illustrate with Photoshop - volume one" by a chap called Magnus Kjall. I thought it would be especially useful to go through to get a feel for matte painting. I found it quite satisfying to produce. 

Here's an album cover I produced for my friend Nathan. The music is a groovy blend of trip hop and ambient electro. Nature is a theme that features strongly in his work. He wanted something a bit Kandinsky. You can listen to the tracks for free here..

This is a painting I did (using Gouache) of the view outside my bedroom window. Its quite vibrant for a car park! After doing the drawing, I got the paints ready at which point I looked up and the car had gone. I decided to paint the rest anyway - I quite like the look of this. Gotta love serendipity.

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Summer - Inspiration, art work and thoughts..

This Summer I have had the opportunity to do some research into the industry and the chance to re-assess my approach to the world of Film and Animation. I'm going to specialise in the artistic and design side of Animation and Film. So that means concept art, matte painting, environments, storyboards and character design. These areas cover where my strengths lie and what I enjoy.

Whilst wishing to focus on the areas above, I should add that I am also experienced with compositing, editing, 3D modelling/texturing, working to sound and 2D animation. The reason I mention this is to highlight that I can be helpful in a project from start to end. I have directed before as well but I'm currently unsure whether or not I will direct for the third year.

Inspiration has come from various sources. I came across the work of Dylan Cole recently and his concept art is amazing. His work has appeared on numerous blockbuster films including Avatar:

I also like a lot of the stuff that comes out of Passion Pictures. Theres a concept artist and matte painter named Romain Jouandeau who works for them, his work is more stylised and suited more for Animation then film/live action. Heres one of his pics:

Also at Passion pictures they created The Journey to the East - the Beijing Olympics animation spot, which is a visual extravaganza. I know I've put this up on my blog before, but hey..



A chap called Lucasz Pazera was one of the chaps who did the matte paintings for 'The Journey to the East.' An example of which is below. This shows how important use of composition can be in creating a suitable space for the animation to take place and getting the audience to anticipate the action. The colour creates a warm and appealing atmosphere. This painting can be found at 1:12 on animation above.

A friend of my Uncles - Scott Mcinnes is a matte painter and concept artist that I've been in touch with. He now works at MPC. His work is definitely worth a look at. An example of his personal work is below:

Sketchbook work I have done over the Summer


Here are some sketches, drawings and paintings I have produced over Summer. I have used a combination of markers, gouache paints, pastels and pencils on these.

I have also taken hundreds of photos of textures from my holiday in Wales and my time living in Stroud - so lots of trees and rocks! I'm visiting London soon so I will add city textures into the collection. My next step will be to experiment working with these textures and try some digital painting. I also want to keep producing sketches and paintings from real life.

CND film


My friend Carl Norris and I have been working together on the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) film competition. We're currently in the middle of production and have a couple of months before the deadline. For now here are some clips that I have produced. Carl is working on the backgrounds for this project (not the quick backgrounds I put together below.)







It probably seems a bit random now, it will all make sense once the film is complete :-)

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