Thursday 25 November 2010

The Rose




Besides the animation, I've also posted these gorgeous photos of roses I found again on the Internet, from bud to rose. Just a couple more images to refer to for my creations.
The top image looks like a silk cushion the way it glistens in the light and its lovely round soft form.

Sunflower Blooming









I found these images on the Internet and after looking at the different stages of a Sunflower blooming these images seem to fit the bill the best and are the most expressive in form and colour. The shapes are beautiful and colours so vibrant.
Also, through looking at these images if one were to zoom in to the extreme in one of these images not only would it look exquisite though the image would also begin to appear abstract, the viewer not clearly understanding what they are watching which is what I want for the beginning of my animation, then for the camera to slowly zoom out to reveal this beautiful creation.

Blooming Rose



Seen as I'm looking at flowers and the possibility of them blooming within my piece I thought it was appropriate to include a blooming flower to inspect at detail what happens, for example the furling of petals, the movement of petals how the petals are arranged at full blossom.
It's a beautiful process and as I've explained in my sketch book I'd like to create an animation similar to this myself. I was planning buying roses and taking pictures through the course of many days then import as footage into After Effects. It would create a lovely jumpy quirky feel though also describe visually the blooming of a rose.
However we are in late November and trying to find a rose late in the year is quite impossible. Though my experimentation has now reached out to researching other flowers so I may consider the process I was going to undertake with a different style flower.

Wednesday 24 November 2010

New Habits, Charlotte Hardy




Charlotte Hardy is another designer I found by looking through card designs in various shops.

The top image is the design I saw on a card and caught my eye instantly. I love the fragile sketchy look of her work. Charlotte is an illustrator, also an artist so has exhibitions, though after looking at where they are held they are all in London.
Her works are very sweet looking, reminding me of sprinkles on top of cakes or ice-cream, looking good enough to eat.

This style of work could be inspirational in looking at for my Green and Blacks piece. I'm looking at producing an organic feel piece reflecting Green and Black's organic chocolate incorporating my own drawing style to create that organic drawing feel so Charlotte Hardy is definitely an artist to look at!

Tuesday 16 November 2010

PORTFOLIO VISIT: LOVE, How my visit went!


MONDAY, 15TH NOVEMBER

My visit at Love went well, the studio was the biggest I've visited so far so I got a completely different perspective of things. Yolo was a 1 man studio and love consists of 35 people. I'm seeing pros and cons of both though has brought the subject to mind, after visiting two completely different studios ,which type of environment would suit me best? This is a question at the moment I don't know the answer to.

The guy I had my visit with was called Ed, who was great to talk to and down to earth.

After showing him some of my work he was impressed (I still get surprised when professionals seem like they are being genuine when they say this to me). He liked my ideas and concepts especially after watching my 'making of' (an aspect Yolo also liked). He thought my Disney Ident played on a great idea and enjoyed my Ted Baker window display. He pointed out the lace I had used for curtains and thought it looked like whipped cream and the beads I'd sewn on looked like sprinkles you can get on the top of ice-cream, I'd never realised the curtains resemble cream though after looking at them now it does look like that and the whole piece actually works better in my eye now.

I explained to him my Ted Baker piece isn't exactly the way I wanted it to look as my photoshop skills aren't that strong. He said it's completely all about the idea, someone else will then create it for you in 3-D or whatever format. He began explaining this as this is how the studio works. He said he was a storyboard artist and then another part of the studio will help me realise my ideas.

Everyone in the studio seemed to have a specific job doing what they did best. He said if he ever gets stuck he just asks someone to help him. As he explained this to me I began wondering what would work best for me when I am deciding on a job.

Looking at my Vogue title sequence he explained he like the slight rotation of the flat imagery, thought it was very effective and mentioned the part where there are three girls lined up next to one another, and the negative a positive space change in synchronisation with the beat. He thought this looked really good and that it gave off a 60s vibe.

I didn't get many negative comments at all which surprised me. He also mentioned to me to keep in touch and keep sending work his way and visit again once I've graduated and he will take a look at my final pieces, maybe some work experience could be at the end of it or better a job offer.

Monday 8 November 2010

Show-reel



This is a compilation of some of my work I've created so far. The music and the original Disney Cinderella footage are not mine and the photographs used within my Vogue pieces were taken from 'Unseen Vogue' the book.
All animation is done by myself and all concepts and ideas.

Sunday 7 November 2010

PORTFOLIO VISIT: YOLO, How my visit went!


FRIDAY, 5TH NOVEMBER

Visiting Yolo for me was great help personally besides giving me advice on my work.

The studio is run by one man, Martin so the studio space is modest but contemporary, on the day he had also employed a freelancer to help him with some work.

He began looking at my work thinking my Disney Ident especially was good. Though he explained that the rotating spheres would have looked more appropriate if were blended or faded in better with the original footage, which is the main critical aspect my tutor has also touched upon. Calling upon his experience, he explained he had took a design degree at Salford and had never been introduced to 3-D software at degree level and found it quite fascinating I had been using it (even though its most definitely not my strong point). Martin stated that he used Cinema 4-D for his three dimensional projects, admitting Maya confused him.

I showed Martin my Audrey Experience piece and instantly could see the Saul Bass influence which was a good thing, and said Saul Bass sometimes influences his work. He liked the 'drawn' feel of it however he explained as the camera moves along it would look better to include some more shapes (triangles) to give a more Saul Bass feel and to diminish some of the white in the background. He however gave a little laugh as the line carried on on round the mountain at the end, which makes me kind of not want to change it now. Adding to this I also decided to show my making of. This was a great advantage that I wasn't sure of to begin with. My making of includes many of my free hand drawn drawings, which establish where my ideas came from. After Martin saw this he admitted he actually liked my hand drawn designs better than my actual final piece and said that if I had used my hand drawn designs within my video instead that would have given it a much better look. So that is most definitely something to think about for future projects, the advantage of this is all my pieces would carry my signature style, impossible for anyone to copy.

I also showed him my Vogue title sequence. I explained that the timing isn't exactly on the mark at the moment as I hadn't been able to find the project only the rendered video. Martin's response was that he thought that added to the effect, explaining how a fashion piece like this should have a 'raw' effect being a bit quirky and different.
As my Vogue title sequence used a lot of rotating flat imagery he decided to show me a piece of work he had been doing at the time. The client was JD Sports and he had incorporated flat images of people within festive scenes and another piece that contained rotating shoes with quirky little animations which were very good though I am not great at explaining myself. These videos were to be used in store and I thought this is exactly what I want to do and was great finally getting to meet a person that did that. He spoke of how he hoped he would eventually work up to clients such as Topshop.

I quickly showed him my Ted Baker window display explaining my thought process, he thought it was a good idea and said people also associate cakes with parties. My piece was for the autumn selection so my display could also indicate christmas parties are around the corner. I had never thought of that.

I felt quite comfortable at this stage and explained I probably have the worst time among my fellow students in grasping the technical side. He made me feel much better after explaining that it really is all about the idea and you learn the technical stuff later on. He said he was initially graphic design based and has only just began working with animation and 3-D and he was picking it up, you learn along the way he explained. He said anyone can learn software but not anyone can think of great ideas.

By the way he also kept saying he was thinking of beginning to hire people as his workload has become quite heavy, then threw in the question asking when I was due to graduate. I didn't want to look too deeply into that but seemed promising in my head. Hopefully if I keep in some kind of contact with him a job maybe at the end, fingers crossed!!!!!

Monday 1 November 2010

Response from Yolo


This is the Studio I phoned up and asked me to send an e-mail. Few days later I received this e-mail which I think confirms a studio visit. I sent an e-mail back asking if I could come the Wednesday as it suited me better, and asked what time should I drop by.

All I have to do is wait for another e-mail confirming a time then another visit is sorted.

Second reply from Love Creative Studios


After receiving an e-mail from Phil at Love, as he claimed someone from Love got in contact with me asking me to e-mail them the days I was free and that something will be sorted out so looks very promising and hopefully Love will be included in my visits.

Response from Love Creative Studio

Love is one of the design studios I even tried getting a visit with last year, though this time maybe lucky after e-mailing a particular member from the company. 
This e-mail sounds very positive so fingers crossed.

Response from Shape Design Studio

I'm happy to say Shape Design Studio replied to my e-mail to request a portfolio visit stating I should send some digital work via e-mail to them first. I think they would receive a clearer picture of my work if I constructed a mini showreel to send off. So tonight that's what I'll be doing.