Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Union Holistic Clinic
Branding for a Holistic Clinic in York. Designed the logo, sign, business cards, letter heads and compliment slips
Death Hand Approaching Work In Progress
This is a design I'm working on with my good friend Stoz. It's for an album cover for Death Hand Approaching's new CD.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Learning Agreement
I have always been experimenting and playing with animation since my foundation. Here are a few pieces I have created with help from Lewis who engineered the sound.
For Fox Sake - a satirical animation about fox hunting.
Prologue - an animation of my interpretation of the Prologue from The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It is about how someone has to live with the guilt of killing their friend. This was done in my first year.
Immediate Beauty - an animation about plastic surgery done in my first year
In my second year I experimented with 2D and 3D animation. I wanted to mix 2D into a 3D environment and explore these possibilities.
This is a test to see how to animate water in 3D Studio Max.
This is work from an animation about a man and his dog.
This is a stop frame animation test inspired by 'Flatworld' by 'Daniel Greaves'
In my third year I will work on a few projects. The main project is a music video for 'The Plight' which is a collaboration with Jon. I will also continue working on an animation from my second year about a man and his dog.
We started the Plight project throwing ideas at each other. At first we thought of doing live action. Shots of the band playing but that would be a bit shit. Here's an idea we had using just photos for each word in the song. We did this just to ease into the project and to help us get to know the song.
Other ideas
We then started to design characters based on the band. This is what the band look like.
Here's some I came up with.
The band really like Jon's characters so we decided to use them.
So what is going to happen in the music video? Well we didn't want to do something run-of-the-mill. We looked at a lot of music videos from various genres.
This is Goodnight by Hot Hot Heat
This is Sunny Road by Emiliana Torrini. This has a nice narrative.
This is Strict Machine by Goldfrapp. There's some nice bits in this video.
From the character designs we came up with a few ideas and went with a pirate theme, because it suits the band really well.
The outline of the story.
Band are playing in a basement (which is based on Lewis's basement)
A squid gone bad watches them from outside
The monster floods the house
The basement is flooded and the band are transformed into pirates on a ship in the sea
A fight breaks out between the plight and the squid
The plight make friends with the squid and they have a tea party
Lewis and the squid get it on!
Here's the animatic
I guess this is where I take over. I've been thinking about the work flow of how to animate this ambitious project.
How do the band move when they play?
What about lip sync as well as syncing the instruments with the song?
Editing? How do you edit this video once the animation has been done with out going out of sync? To overcome this problem we have 2 choices.
1. All of the editing would have to be done at storyboarding/animatic stage and then animate from that. So any changes we want to make after animating will be very limited if we want everything to stay in sync with the music.
2. I will have to animate each member of the band playing the song (well the first 30secs or so since the band will be pirates about 30secs into the song). The characters are put into the 3D environment and then we can film any shot we wish using a virtual camera. This may seem like a lot more work but it allows us the freedom of editing after the animation stage.
I've split the animation into 3 main parts
Part 1 - Band playing in the basement
Part 2 - Band are pirates
Part 3 - Band and squid are friends
This is my work flow plan.
1. Ideas and character design
2. Storyboard/animatic. From this I can make notes on what expression/movement each character will be doing
3. Create 3D environemnt
4. Rig each character with the ability to animate him based on my notes from above.
5. Animate characters together then export each one separately
6. Bring each character into the 3D environment
7. Render the shots needed and edit final thing
If I want to alter any of the character animation, I can simply alter it and re-export it and the linked file will update automatically in the 3D environment.
This is stoz rigged up. I can animate him facing any direction, lip sync, expressions using a mixture of switch layers and bone systems. It takes a while to set the character up but it makes animating a lot quicker and I am not limited to what actions he can do.
Here we are in the 3D environment with the characters in it. I can see the characters move when I move the timeline. From here I can animate water, lights, cameras and the environment as well as move the positions of the characters. So if i wanted to make a character walk across, I would animate a walk cycle, bring him into the 3D program and animate his position in there.
For Fox Sake - a satirical animation about fox hunting.
Prologue - an animation of my interpretation of the Prologue from The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It is about how someone has to live with the guilt of killing their friend. This was done in my first year.
Immediate Beauty - an animation about plastic surgery done in my first year
In my second year I experimented with 2D and 3D animation. I wanted to mix 2D into a 3D environment and explore these possibilities.
This is a test to see how to animate water in 3D Studio Max.
This is work from an animation about a man and his dog.
This is a stop frame animation test inspired by 'Flatworld' by 'Daniel Greaves'
In my third year I will work on a few projects. The main project is a music video for 'The Plight' which is a collaboration with Jon. I will also continue working on an animation from my second year about a man and his dog.
We started the Plight project throwing ideas at each other. At first we thought of doing live action. Shots of the band playing but that would be a bit shit. Here's an idea we had using just photos for each word in the song. We did this just to ease into the project and to help us get to know the song.
Other ideas
We then started to design characters based on the band. This is what the band look like.
Here's some I came up with.
The band really like Jon's characters so we decided to use them.
So what is going to happen in the music video? Well we didn't want to do something run-of-the-mill. We looked at a lot of music videos from various genres.
This is Goodnight by Hot Hot Heat
This is Sunny Road by Emiliana Torrini. This has a nice narrative.
This is Strict Machine by Goldfrapp. There's some nice bits in this video.
From the character designs we came up with a few ideas and went with a pirate theme, because it suits the band really well.
The outline of the story.
Band are playing in a basement (which is based on Lewis's basement)
A squid gone bad watches them from outside
The monster floods the house
The basement is flooded and the band are transformed into pirates on a ship in the sea
A fight breaks out between the plight and the squid
The plight make friends with the squid and they have a tea party
Lewis and the squid get it on!
Here's the animatic
I guess this is where I take over. I've been thinking about the work flow of how to animate this ambitious project.
How do the band move when they play?
What about lip sync as well as syncing the instruments with the song?
Editing? How do you edit this video once the animation has been done with out going out of sync? To overcome this problem we have 2 choices.
1. All of the editing would have to be done at storyboarding/animatic stage and then animate from that. So any changes we want to make after animating will be very limited if we want everything to stay in sync with the music.
2. I will have to animate each member of the band playing the song (well the first 30secs or so since the band will be pirates about 30secs into the song). The characters are put into the 3D environment and then we can film any shot we wish using a virtual camera. This may seem like a lot more work but it allows us the freedom of editing after the animation stage.
I've split the animation into 3 main parts
Part 1 - Band playing in the basement
Part 2 - Band are pirates
Part 3 - Band and squid are friends
This is my work flow plan.
1. Ideas and character design
2. Storyboard/animatic. From this I can make notes on what expression/movement each character will be doing
3. Create 3D environemnt
4. Rig each character with the ability to animate him based on my notes from above.
5. Animate characters together then export each one separately
6. Bring each character into the 3D environment
7. Render the shots needed and edit final thing
If I want to alter any of the character animation, I can simply alter it and re-export it and the linked file will update automatically in the 3D environment.
This is stoz rigged up. I can animate him facing any direction, lip sync, expressions using a mixture of switch layers and bone systems. It takes a while to set the character up but it makes animating a lot quicker and I am not limited to what actions he can do.
Here we are in the 3D environment with the characters in it. I can see the characters move when I move the timeline. From here I can animate water, lights, cameras and the environment as well as move the positions of the characters. So if i wanted to make a character walk across, I would animate a walk cycle, bring him into the 3D program and animate his position in there.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Learning Agreement [Version 2]
Animation has been a passion of mine. The works of ‘Hayao Miyazaki’ have really inspired me. Other animations that have really motivated me are ‘Belleville Rendezvous’, ‘Flatworld’ and ‘The Old Lady and the Pigeons’. I have asked myself, ‘What is animation?’ and this is something I will try and answer through my project. I aim to design and animate a short film. I want to develop new skills, using CGI and mixing it with 2D animation techniques, by exploring possibilities using 3D Studio Max and vector programs. Stop frame animation would be my choice for an alternative route. But it is such a time consuming process that I would attempt developing this skill during my third year. I have done a tiny bit this year, just to get a feel for it and I did find it fun to do. It does however have its limitations which I need to fully understand if I’m to master this technique.
The film, ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ is an amazing collaboration of animation meets live action. But what are the differences between animation and live action? Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually whether generated as CGI, photography or a drawn image or by repeatedly making small changes and then photographing the result. Film is a simulation of movement created by displaying a series of images through frames. So at a fundamental level there is very little difference between live action and animation. Although as processes there are differences. Film is a record of life i.e. something that has happened. Animation merely invokes a feeling of life. In animation the motion only exists when it is played. The real signature of animation is the fact that it takes the art of illusion one step further than any other visual media. All forms of animation not only produce an illusion of a reality, but an illusion of physical existence. In film or video, a false reality is portrayed using items and actors that do (or did), physically exist during the film’s creation, whether or not they existed in the way in which they are portrayed. Animation, however, goes beyond this and creates (through its illusions) items, actors, and entire worlds that have never existed and never will, in any physical reality at all, except within the depths of our own imaginations. I love watching animation as it really appeals to me. There are so many different techniques of animation and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. It’s such a challenging art form to experiment with and I really appreciate that fact. I enjoy the challenge, and making my characters come alive.
Sound and animation should work together. This is what makes animation successful, which can mean sound is more important than the animation itself. The viewer probably won’t remember or notice correct sounds used in animation but they will instantly notice if you use no sound or bad sounds. The effect of sound is subconscious and that is what makes it so powerful. I feel sound is going to be very important to the success of this project. I have a friend who is on a sound engineering course and has done the sound on some of my older animations. He will be able to help me with this aspect of the project although it won’t be implemented till my third year.
While experimenting with 3D Studio Max, I have found it very challenging and satisfying. Mainly I have just been learning how to use the program to see what I can achieve with it. Through using tutorials and experimentation I have been exploring ways to animate vector based characters in a three dimensional world.
When I started this project, the final outcome was going to be a short animated story. The story for my animation had stemmed from the experience of living with my housemates. It is about what happens if the washing up is left too long. There has been a lot of conflict in the house over the year and this is where most of my ideas have come from. The story is based around what actually lives in the washing up. A surreal new world starts to evolve. Through recent research I have decided to shift the focus from narrative driven work to develop my animation skills. By doing more abstract experiments, I think my work will become less stagnant. There will still be an under lining narrative but this will be less obvious. The beauty of animation is that you can do anything with it and I am beginning to understand that more and more as I progress through this journey.
All my work is kept on my blogger account. I’ve found this extremely useful because it makes it so easy to just look back on things and to show my progression. The address is http://lukeweatherill.blogspot.com/.
The film, ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ is an amazing collaboration of animation meets live action. But what are the differences between animation and live action? Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually whether generated as CGI, photography or a drawn image or by repeatedly making small changes and then photographing the result. Film is a simulation of movement created by displaying a series of images through frames. So at a fundamental level there is very little difference between live action and animation. Although as processes there are differences. Film is a record of life i.e. something that has happened. Animation merely invokes a feeling of life. In animation the motion only exists when it is played. The real signature of animation is the fact that it takes the art of illusion one step further than any other visual media. All forms of animation not only produce an illusion of a reality, but an illusion of physical existence. In film or video, a false reality is portrayed using items and actors that do (or did), physically exist during the film’s creation, whether or not they existed in the way in which they are portrayed. Animation, however, goes beyond this and creates (through its illusions) items, actors, and entire worlds that have never existed and never will, in any physical reality at all, except within the depths of our own imaginations. I love watching animation as it really appeals to me. There are so many different techniques of animation and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. It’s such a challenging art form to experiment with and I really appreciate that fact. I enjoy the challenge, and making my characters come alive.
Sound and animation should work together. This is what makes animation successful, which can mean sound is more important than the animation itself. The viewer probably won’t remember or notice correct sounds used in animation but they will instantly notice if you use no sound or bad sounds. The effect of sound is subconscious and that is what makes it so powerful. I feel sound is going to be very important to the success of this project. I have a friend who is on a sound engineering course and has done the sound on some of my older animations. He will be able to help me with this aspect of the project although it won’t be implemented till my third year.
While experimenting with 3D Studio Max, I have found it very challenging and satisfying. Mainly I have just been learning how to use the program to see what I can achieve with it. Through using tutorials and experimentation I have been exploring ways to animate vector based characters in a three dimensional world.
When I started this project, the final outcome was going to be a short animated story. The story for my animation had stemmed from the experience of living with my housemates. It is about what happens if the washing up is left too long. There has been a lot of conflict in the house over the year and this is where most of my ideas have come from. The story is based around what actually lives in the washing up. A surreal new world starts to evolve. Through recent research I have decided to shift the focus from narrative driven work to develop my animation skills. By doing more abstract experiments, I think my work will become less stagnant. There will still be an under lining narrative but this will be less obvious. The beauty of animation is that you can do anything with it and I am beginning to understand that more and more as I progress through this journey.
All my work is kept on my blogger account. I’ve found this extremely useful because it makes it so easy to just look back on things and to show my progression. The address is http://lukeweatherill.blogspot.com/.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Learning Agreement
Proposal
I have been experimenting/learning animation skills. I have mainly focussed on vector and 3D animation. I have found the 3D CG aspect of animation very challenging yet satisfying. I have been learning to use 3D Studio Max. Here are some images that I have created using a mixture of vector art and 3D.
The final outcome will be a short animated story. This project has started to become quite overwhelming to produce this animation by the end of year two. I don’t want to rush this project so I plan to carry this on through into my third year.
The story for my animation has stemmed from the experience of living with my housemates. It is about what happens if the washing up is left too long. There has been a lot of conflict in the house between us all over this year and this is where most of my ideas have come from. The story is based around what actually lives in the washing up. A surreal new world starts to evolve.
I need to look back and reflect on my current character designs because I feel they aren’t solid enough.
I feel sound is going to be very important to the success of this project. I have a friend who is on a sound engineering course and has done the sound on some of my older animations. He will be able to help me with this aspect of the project although it won’t be implemented till my third year.
Why have I chosen animation?
I love watching animation as it really appeals to me. There are so many different types of animation and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. It’s such a challenging art form to use and I really appreciate that fact. I enjoy the challenge, and making my characters come alive.
What makes a character successful?
I am focussing a lot on character design at the moment. I have found that
A good story should have
Sound and animation should work together. This is what makes animation successful, which can mean sound is more important than the animation itself. The viewer probably won’t remember or notice sounds used in animation but they will instantly notice if you use no sound or bad sounds. The effect of sound is subconscious and that what makes it so powerful.
What alternatives do I have to CG?
Stop frame animation would be my choice for an alternative route. But it is such a time consuming process that I would attempt developing this skill during my third year. I have done a tiny bit this year, just to get a feel for it and I did find it fun to do. It does however have its limitations which I will need to fully understand if I’m to master this technique.
I have been experimenting/learning animation skills. I have mainly focussed on vector and 3D animation. I have found the 3D CG aspect of animation very challenging yet satisfying. I have been learning to use 3D Studio Max. Here are some images that I have created using a mixture of vector art and 3D.
The final outcome will be a short animated story. This project has started to become quite overwhelming to produce this animation by the end of year two. I don’t want to rush this project so I plan to carry this on through into my third year.The story for my animation has stemmed from the experience of living with my housemates. It is about what happens if the washing up is left too long. There has been a lot of conflict in the house between us all over this year and this is where most of my ideas have come from. The story is based around what actually lives in the washing up. A surreal new world starts to evolve.
I need to look back and reflect on my current character designs because I feel they aren’t solid enough.
I feel sound is going to be very important to the success of this project. I have a friend who is on a sound engineering course and has done the sound on some of my older animations. He will be able to help me with this aspect of the project although it won’t be implemented till my third year.Why have I chosen animation?
I love watching animation as it really appeals to me. There are so many different types of animation and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. It’s such a challenging art form to use and I really appreciate that fact. I enjoy the challenge, and making my characters come alive.
What makes a character successful?
I am focussing a lot on character design at the moment. I have found that
- Creating characters with a durable personality is important.
- The design needs to be strong and interesting to get peoples attention.
- Building back stories will help make a more solid character.
- The main character should have something that the viewer can relate to.
- Characters with at least one flaw or weakness are more interesting that a perfect character.
- Colour can help communicate a characters personality.
- Exaggeration is the key in cartoon caricatures and helps emphasise certain personality traits.
- Since I am working with 3D, I should work out what the character will look like from all angles on paper first or make a model.
- Interesting looks + strong personality = good character design.
A good story should have
- A well chosen setting.
- A good plot (conflict or struggle).
- Something to tell the reader.
- A strong theme.
- Unforgettable characters.
- Fitting structure.
Sound and animation should work together. This is what makes animation successful, which can mean sound is more important than the animation itself. The viewer probably won’t remember or notice sounds used in animation but they will instantly notice if you use no sound or bad sounds. The effect of sound is subconscious and that what makes it so powerful.
What alternatives do I have to CG?
Stop frame animation would be my choice for an alternative route. But it is such a time consuming process that I would attempt developing this skill during my third year. I have done a tiny bit this year, just to get a feel for it and I did find it fun to do. It does however have its limitations which I will need to fully understand if I’m to master this technique.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Animated character in 3DS Max with shadows
3DS Max test with working shadows using a vector animation sequence.
Friday, March 02, 2007
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