Chekhov Cover Text

I've been experimenting this afternoon with ink and various tools to try and create some appropriate type for the cover of my Chekhov book (still not finished aaaah) as I have a major struggle with type this is probably a good idea for me to do but I still have no way of telling what is good and what isn't and I think that could be a major downfall. Anyway here are the screen shots:

Animations

I was determined to improve my stop-frame animation skills this term and I wanted to try and do at least 1 animation for each project so over the Easter holidays I planned and filmed an animated version of my papier mache Panic heads and the 3d Enid Blyton creatures that I created during the first term. It was a bit of a challenge for me as I've never really storyboarded properly (apart from the Chekhov animation) and I didn't realise how much planning was involved in making something as simple as a 30 second clip of objects moving around a garden/wood but it was a learning curve so I'm pleased with myself for keeping going. I did both animations in one weekend which is something I will never be doing again as I have never been so tired in my life and I think I pulled all of my muscles from bending down so much. The Panic animation (below) took about half a day to do, I'm really happy with the outcome, I quite like the way that the shadows move across the screen and they change so often, it makes it look very obviously hand-made and not too clean cut which is perfect for the way that I work. At the moment I'm putting together some sounds for it, voices/background noise etc which is all new for me so I'm very excited!

The second animation for an extension of my Enid Blyton project is probably my favourite, I filmed it in the woods and the lighting is a bit more consistent because of this but it still has that really nice stop-frame jerky-ness to it that corresponds so well with my other work. I'm going to record some appropriate sound this weekend for this as well. I'm really glad that I found the time to animate these pieces as I think they work so well and it's a perfect addition to the project from last year which was a little unusual. Although it was exhausting work it was really worth it and I feel a lot more confident with my animation work.

New Chivalry Photos

Last Friday I rephotographed the Chivalry project in the photo studio at university. The first set of photos were really nice but I had a few issues with names and consistency and also I really wasn't happy with the lighting so I thought that using the studio would help to solve a few of these problems. I'd forgotten how bright the lights were in there so they're not quite as atmospheric looking as the first set of photos however I think they look a bit more professional and I managed to ensure that the book barely moved at all so when the photos are put together as a title sequence it runs pretty smoothly. I sent the photos to Joe as well and he was really happy with them which is obviously the most important part as he is the client.

Panic Heads

Here are the studio shots of the panic heads, I'm going to try and animate them this weekend, scary!

Panic Paintings

Last night I thought I would practise my watercolour skills and painted some of the photos that I collected for Panic. I wanted to do some extra experimental work for the project and I'm always looking for the chance to try and improve my painting so this was the perfect opportunity! I'm pleased with the paintings, some more than others but I always seem to misjudge things like this and think that it looks better than it does so I need some impartial eyes!

Chivalry

This week I've been working on a project for my good friend Joe Taylor, he (and others) made a short film for their final project on their course and Joe asked me to do some illustrations for the title sequence, he wanted it to be quite story-bookish and the story was based around a knight and an old woman who finds the Holy Grail. I began by doing drawings of the props, characters etc and yesterday I spent literally the whole day photographing the sequence.

Inspired by some work by Container Plus I decided to use an actual book as a set and use the drawings and lettering to create a 2D/3D set. As I've mentioned on here before photography isn't my strongest point and lighting is always trouble for me so I'm not 100% sure about the photos. I wanted them to be quite shadowy to give the impression of medieval-ness and candlelight etc. part of the film is set in a junk shop so the shadowy darkness also applies to that.

Below are the 11 images that I edited quickly this morning, I think they still need a bit of work and I need some help to make the light look a bit better but I'm still happy with them.