Major Project: Reflective Statement

My Final Project has been quite a journey for me! I feel as though my Tutors Phil, Alan and I came to a thoughtful mutual desicion to steer my Final Project Plan idea towards that of creating a film around the way I feel when I draw illustrations and my lifetime's influences and events which shaped my creativity and passion for Illustration and unique Character formations. I also decided to focus on some of the causes that I wish to champion within the Character /Art Industry , such as the objectification of Women and the non- representation of people with protected charactristics such as the disabled and LBGTQ Community. Finally, I wanted to depict people suffering  from Mental Health issues using my own experiences to provide an Artisitc angle on the Conditon and its persuasive nature. I passionatly believe that there needs to be much more postitve depictions of all of humanity, who are not represented in a positive dynamic way throughout today's Media and Art as the hetreosexual Male Gaze dominates Society throughout the Zeitgiest. I also used my animation to showcase some of the Unique Characters I can create and the fact that Drawing and Illustration has been a fundemental part of my life.

I felt that I improved and advanced in my drawing / illustration skills and was able to accelerate my paint using Photoshop pace, with positive results and execute successful images.
My After Effects skills also improved dramatically throughout this Project and the Degree as a whole.

I do acknowledge that with regards to Animation I would need to practice and refine my skills further. However I also realise that my niche and specialisation for the future and the Career route I am most suited to, is in the Illustrative/ Character and  Drawing fields relating to Games Character Designs for example. I also realised that I have secondary interest in the 3D and the technical side of
Animation such as stage direction/ Camera Movement. That is why I focused my Final Project on Drawing and illustration.

This entire Degree Course has been the journey of a lifetime! and one I will never forget, as it has helped shape me into a Professional Artist and it will continue to guide my life and Career thoroughout my lifetime. I also hope to depict and create unique Characters to represent all of humanity within the Game Characters Sector and the World of Art as a whole.

Finally I would like to say a big Thank you!! to my tutors Phil, Alan and everyone at UCA who championed, supported and developed my Artistic Skills to Degree level and guided me towards passing my Computer Animation Arts Degree!!

Major Project: Submission Post 24/05/2018

                 

Major: Scene 13 re-done

The last scene is now done, and I can put the film together now. 

         

Major: Scene 23 [Final scene]

          

Major: Scene 12 re-done

Taking on board Phil's advice about not having the scene too static, scene 12 is a table based inside a swirling galaxy that represents my mind.

Modelling the book

Setting up the scene

           

Major: Scene 22

 

Creating a simple gallery scene in Maya

            

Major: Scene 6.2 re-done

           

 Original video

            

I used this tutorial originally to make the flame. The base is the CC Particle Word node along with 5 other effects stacked on top, such as blur and adding more glow.

New video, that reveals the character through the fire:

      

Major: Scene 21

Some painting process

 Some sketches of how the "sexualised man" should look...

Adding water in After Effects

Discarded drawings for the final part of the scene, i'm not happy with them at all...

            
             
            

             

Major: Scene 20

       

Major: Scene 19

     

Major: Scene 18

          

@Phil Major: Scene 6 (re-done)

         

         
       

Looking at Phil's feedback, it's clear that the scenes need more dynamic movement, rather than a static camera, sitting still each scene. I've made changes to scene 6; i took out the dummy as it didn't really serve a purpose. This scene goes with this quote in the script
"When I became older, I drew new characters to feel less lonely. They were my friends on paper.  They were the friends I could see." 

Creating the fire: using CC world particle II node and motion blur in After Effects.

 

Old scene 6:  

        

Major: Scene 17

        

 

 To make this scene, I used a glitch - type video as the base and changed the layer setting to Screen,  added an adjustment layer and blended everything together.

        

Major: Scene 16

Modelling and cutting UVs

 

Painting UVs in Photoshop

 

 Some joints inside and bound to the lungs to squash and stretch them a little, showing the tension

 

          

@Phil @Alan Major: First cut

I sorted the video size out. What i'm struggling with here are the transitions to the next scene:


       

Major: Rough cut (no sound; error)

So this video spent the whole night uploading onto YouTube, and i find this morning that somehow the sounds aren't with the video; but the video i uploaded had the sound, music and sound effects. I will see how i can fix the problem.

The video file is for some reason 34GB!

            

Major: Scene 15

        

Major: Scene 14

 Unsuccessful planet attempts

                

Major: Scene 13 build up and final

During this scene, the narration talks about the brain's neurons firing off, and having a light bulb moment. This is the modelling process:

 Using a lattice deformer to make squashy "pulsating" movement; however in the end, i didn't like how it looked and used After effects to animate the brain.

UV textures

            

Major: Scene 12

        
            

Major: Scene 11 build up and final

  Modelling and UVing the desert. 

Test render

Using particle world effects in After Effects

         

Major Scene 11 (first test)

A test render of the desert model (very basic yet)

Major: Scene 10 (Speed drawing)

                      

I'm not sure why the quality isn't good, so this is a placeholder for now.  

Major: Scene 9 (Yuurichi speed drawing)

I recorded myself drawing Yuurichi for scene 9.

        

Major: Scene 8 Final

Using the tutorial below, i created glowing stars effect.