3rd Year Major Project

I'm hopeing to take an idea that came about this year for the 'Storyboard' project (which is on the previous blog entry) and take it to the next stage of develoment for my final year major project. The panarama artwork above, of fish and a manta ray, is a snap shot of the imagery that I would like to achieve.

It is the story of a woman who falls asleep and starts to dream. The dream is common to her as is it a memory from childhood which caused her stress. It is the time that she learnt to swim, when first taking her feet off the ground and trying to float. Unfortuantely she goes under water and a sense of panic grips her, as it probably did with all of us at some point or other when learning to swim. Of course she is only under water for a few moments but these moments last much longer for her whilst in her state of panic. Her mother, who has just let go of her hand, reaches down and grabs her arm to pull her up out of the water. She splutters and gasps for air, there is no harm done and it is the usual learning curve for being under water, but the memory of the fear and the feeling of not being able to breathe never leaves her.

This memory becomes a recurring dream, it starts out as an under water adventure with colourful fish and flashes of colour in turquoise water but the light turns to the blackness of the abyss and she sinks so far down that she cannot get back to the surface and the darkness brings scary creatures from the deep. Sharp teeth, dark slimey scales and bulging eyes appear from out of the darkness and swim at her while she trys to pull herself up to the surface. Eventually the hand of her mother reaches down and pulls her out. At this point of fear it is normally time for the woman to wake from the nightmare and she sits up in bed to calm herself before falling back to sleep.

I want the artwork to become abstract when the dream begins, with flashes of colors dancing around and the fish becoming these flashes of colours. At one point I would like the girl to become abstract in shape also, so that she becomes at one with the water before turning back into the girl as the fear sets in with the darkness and the scary creatures.

It will be 2d and I hope to do the artwork for the pre-production: character designs, backgrounds, script and animatic. I would like to work with someone on sound, which would take alot of pressure off and achieve a better result.

Storyboard Project Inspiration

The storyboard and the lyrics of the song which inspired the images and story, have inspired me with the idea for my final year project . . .

The theme of the project was to create a music video for a song, I chose a Kate Bush song called 'The Fog' which tells of:

". . . is this love big enough to let go of me, without hurting me

. . . deep and dark like the water was . . . the day I learnt to swim".

As with most Kate Bush songs there is normally some form of personal experience included in the sentiment of the lyrics, particularly about family and friends.

Life Drawing

I didn't get as much life drawing done as I would have liked this year, but managed to get some done in a few hours here and there.

I am hopefully doing some in the summer months and it is something that I am going to try to concerntrate on next year. Mainly because it seems to be the key to improving drawing in general.

Tabby Monster concept artwork

Following on from the script writing assignment in the 1st year, I did some further work on the story and drew up some sketches, mainly just to get some ideas down on paper.
Again I suppose this would make a 'book' story but I also can see it working as a short animated film.

Scale Drawing Project

After sketching in the garden (although not too low to the ground, as when I did finally get the chance to sketch it had been raining, so the ground was a bit damp!) . . . I decided to have a little garden nymph waiting to pick a flower to make a hat. So in the first picture she is sheltering under a plants large leaves, standing in a plant pot. . . and in the second she is sitting on a reel of cotton thread and looking at herself in a powder compact mirror, fixing her new creation.

Scale drawing Project

I really liked this project and would have liked to have alot more time to experiment, had only about 2 days in the end. . . and my images are probably more illustrative than film orientated, but they could be used for concept artwork and in the use of scale for film characters and objects.

Editing and Sound on Talking Dog

Editing took some time to get right, I did get rid of quite a bit of stuff. . . from about 6 mins down to 4 1/2 mins. It did flow better, but it is very different editing your own work compared to someone elses.

I didn't get all the sound finished though. . . got some metal sounds done for sword fighting, the trumpets, and the tools sounds but ran out of time for voices and other background stuff.
I don't mind editing sound I think I just get lost when you have to think of how to create the sound effects and what type of sound to use, which is not always a literal sound, for animation.

But overall I suppose I should be pleased that all the visuals were finished for the deadline.