YPGTTO: Kingdoms Of Sound Speed Paint Challenge #3 The Woodwind City / The Oboe District

The Astrologer- Prop and Environment Research for Adaptation B

I was lucky enough to visit the R.A.S in London, the Royal Astronomical Society, to go see and photograph some antique telescopes. I needed to have something to reference my own telescope design for the adaptation project. I took a lot of photos, and tried a couple of sketches whilst I was there, but I mainly stuck with taking photographs.

I'd like my telescope to look slightly unusual and since there is a bird watcher theme to my astrologer, I'd like the telescope to resemble giant binoculars. 

The R.A.S had an incredible looking library, which I may use to reference from when designing the interior of the astrologer's home.

The Astrologer- Character Model Progress for Adaptation B

I wouldn't say I've finished the head yet, as I keep finding things to improve on it, but I've started on the rest of the body anyway. So far it's looking how I imagined, but I'll modify it more when I've completed and put together all the parts for him.

Kingdoms Of Sound Speed Paint Challenge #2 In The Woodwind City - The Flute District

YPGTTO: Kingdoms Of Sound Speed Paint Challenge #1 'The Map' - First Concept

My first attempt at the speed paint challenge. I've only done one so far, as listening to one piece of music repeatedly for a good twenty minutes was getting slightly annoying.

The Astrologer- Modelling Head Progression for Adaptation B

Recently I had been focusing on concept art for the prophecy birds and only really went back to this model today. I've given him a neck and some snazzy brows, which I'll probably develop more at uni with the help of Alan. Whilst at home, I'll model as much as I can so he's ready for refinement. I may even start modelling his body, then start on his character bio. He will also be getting a hat pretty soon, but the body is priority now.

The Astrologer- Prophecy Birds Design Development for Adaptation B

I like the idea of having different nebulas for each type of prophecy. The peacock symbolizes wealth, the vulture symbolizes impending death, and the swan symbolizes love. So for each prophecy I want to create different colour schemes to help portray their meanings.

The Astrologer- Bird Thumbnails and Backdrop Concept for Adaptation B

In my animation I imagine the astrologer acting as a kind of bird watcher, scouting the night sky for prophecies of the future, as if they were rare birds he wants to document. Whilst drawing thumbnails, I realize that different species of birds could represent different types of prophecy. For example the swan could represent love, the peacock could represent wealth and the vulture could represent death. In terms of drawing style, I feel that using sharp, angular shapes make the birds resemble star charts. I also plan on using 2D animation for these as it creates a new dimension that separates the astrologer's world from the world of the stars. It also may save some time as I wouldn't have to model, UV and rig bird characters for the animation.

Below is a concept painting of the sky for the animation. I looked at images taken from the Hubble telescope, which depicted vast and colourful nebulas in space. I really want to use a nebula as the backdrop for the animation, as it introduces a new idea for the narrative. I can imagine the astrologer coming outside to look at the sky at night. He waits for a moment in the night where the sky suddenly bursts into the colours of the nebula and the prophecy birds appear. However after the thumbnails of the birds I realize that they may be drowned out in the bright background of the nebula, so I need to make them stand out more.

Below is an animation test done by an independent animator. Their account on YouTube is 'FiddleGriff Animation' and they are currently working on an animation about aliens. In this animation test, they show the alien fully coloured and animated with the backdrop behind. What I really like and want to know is how this animator got the texture for the alien creature. It seems to be some kind of mask that is used in After Effects, but I'm not sure. So if anyone knows how this is made, I'd really like to know as I'd like to test out a similar effect with the prophecy birds.

                            

If I can replicate the effect in this animation test then hopefully I can get a similar effect for the prophecy birds. 

Mudbox- Posing

Mudbox was crashing a lot today so I couldn't work on my personal project (which was a little fox character) so I decided to start again using one of the default models. I felt like making a deformed zombie character, so I started with the human body model, but I wasn't happy with the default pose it had. I wanted it to be hunched over so I messed around with the posing tools. I managed to create joints in the model and move the body into a new pose using those joints. This worked well and I have done more progress on the model than what is shown in the screenshot, but Mudbox crashed just after I saved it and it refuses to open that scene without it crashing again.

 



Astrologer- Photoshop Animation Test

I wanted to learn how animating on Photoshop worked, so I tested it out using the astrologer character. I don't plan on animating him in 2D but I needed something to work on for the sake of this experiment.

The Astrologer- Character Modelling Progress

I have started modelling the head of my character for adaptation B. I need to get modelling finished and out of the way quickly as I'm likely to struggle with rigging, skinning and animating. For my adaptation B project I aim to make a short animation. I know that this is ambitious but I feel like I'm really behind with the technical side of this course and to attempt at making a short animation is the best way of learning.

I've been going back to the character modelling tutorials from last term to guide me in making this character. I tried to model it on my own at first, but I found it difficult and it caused the model to be more complicated than it needed to be. That's why I deleted the first model and started again with the tutorials helping me.

To start modelling this character has actually helped me draw him as well. I now have a much clearer image of what he looks like and this will benefit me for when I'm working on concept art and the animatic.

The Habits of the Single Lady- Infographic: Adaptation A Submission

                        

My submission for the adaptation A project. My infographic listing the habits of the single lady, with the art of included. 

Adaptation A- Habits 1 and 2

This is some of the first two habits animated for the infographic. I made a couple of changes to the transactions in this scene, and have applied these changes to the other scenes I'm working on.

    
                         

Mudbox Dinosaur

Adaptation A- Infographic: Habit Number 1

I've been experimenting in After Effects with animating the first habit listed in the infographic. I might go back and tweak this a bit before the infographic is finished.