SS2: Only Time Can Tell Final

Final Improved Version

This is my final Improved Version. I have completely changed the colour scheme, I took off the the green colours because it is a very striking colour that kills off all the other colours and makes it look more unpleasant. I have highlighted the background with more pinks blues and whites. this gives more of a romantic feel to the audience. I have taken off the unnessessary fallen leaves, ugly loooking tree and out of place fence with gates. I have dont this because it doesnt look very romantic to me and the audience according to the feedback I got in class. So I have completely redesigned the background and imagine a modern looking city with some unusual looking trees that are shaped as hearts if seen when sat down on the bench. This will enhance the cuteness to the story and would most likely attract more young women that are in love. In this improved version, as I was compiling the 2D flash animation to the backgrounds in After Effects, I played around with the shadows on the character layers. as I was experimenting, this made my work so much more appealing, it looked more like a paper cut out which looks like couple cut out doodles, similar to South Park art style, though mine has a drawing effect on it which makes it look like a doodle. I have kept this style because most young couples doodle when in love, so this is the effect i was trying to achieve.

Examples: 

 

I have also changed the colour of the balloon in the beginning because most people confuse that the boy magically caught the balloon and gave it to the girl. I have matched the part where the buildings grow together with the girl.

Submitted version for the Clock Makers

This is the first version of my animation which I have submitted for the clockmakers competition. If you compare this to my new and improved version, you can notice big changes, like the background, colour and layout of the bench. I have taken off the unnecessary trees, and character tracking. I have kept it mostly fixed in the middle which is inspired from simon's cat. This is because I wanted to focus on the main character the girl "Lisa" this is also similar to stage acting where there are no cuts. But there are scenes that I had to have cuts to adjust for the background and close up scenes to show more emotion of the character. Having close up scenes minimises my work too from avoiding full body animation which makes my life so much easier. This saved me alot of time. I still kept the minimal colour and soft light washes to give the illusion of water colour effect which would appeal to the audience.

As for the music, I am so Thankful to Joelle Symons, she did a really great job for me, she timed every notes to every frames for me. it was awesome that she made the tune very catchy and goes well with the animation, we can feel every emotion the character is feeling.

For more improvements, I would love to correct and take away the scene where Lisa goes off to take a cup of coffee because it is not relevant, there is no need for her to go off screen. Though if I take if off, it might not match with the music well and it would sound off.

Here are some concept art that will help support my work, I have made one by experimenting on none digital media and changing its look completely. I have done this because I want to see this in a completely different perspective, different style if it were more aimed at a more mature mature audience. 

I have also Asked a few 1st years and 2nd Years to do some work for me to see how they would look if this was their own animation, almost like a fan art

My Concept Art:

Lisa

Sofia 1st year Concept

 Cat 2nd Year Concept:

Tamara 2nd Year Concept

SS2: Only Time Can Tell: Plan & Development

For my Specialist Study 2, I have decided that I will be creating a very professional looking animation that would be entered for competitions and  film events, this is to get my name out there and promote myself.

I will be applying some skills I have learnt during SS1, I will be showing some form of mixed media by mainly showing 2D animation, it will be combined with some element of 3D and hopefully get the animation done on time.

There is a competition online by the "Clockmakers" where we have to show "Picturing Time" by painting, poster, photography or animation. I have decided to join this competition and will be used in my degree show. I noticed that the deadline is quite soon, so I have to work faster and complete the animation before the deadline 1st of March. After completing this animation by March I will alot of time to work on improvements, or adding more stuff to it. I will also be working on my 2nd animation, it may be completely different story and style from my first animation, but I would still love to incorporate 2D and 3D to it.

I have a very short deadline to work on for my competition. I have started working on my story and how I would show my style of animation. I had music helped inspire me to tell a story and I have came up with a short simple, a bit cheesy animation but it would attract the audience with its romance. I have very little time to work on improvements and making an animatic and feedback from people, so I have started making a quick art style. 

*This character animation will be done by flash. Compositing the back ground in After Effects



The story of my animation is basically a simple cliché about a young girl named Lisa met Leon on a park bench. Leon gave his balloon to Lisa after she lost hers from falling on the floor. This will be showing in black and white except the balloon because it is a key element later on the story. They became friends and somehow had feelings for one another. (these sometimes happens to young children) as time passes, mother of Leon had to take him home far away in a different city. So this is impossible for Lisa and Leon to see each other, they have to be in their separate ways. I will be showing a passage of time, showing time lapse of Lisa growing sat on the bench and the surroundings changes and develops, there will be modern buildings trees, lights, showing a romantic scenery. As the Time lapse is showing, I will also show like a water colour bleed on the screen to show present, soft colours must be used to work well with the story and appeal to the audience.

As Lisa grows up, a guy sat next to her and somehow remembers the lady because of her distinctive hair and facial features, I will be showing a little interaction between the two becoming friends. As the guy knew for sure, he runs off unexpectedly and Lisa was sad being alone. Few moments later the guy returned and surprised Lisa with a balloon and she finally recognised him. The End

This is the art style I have went with, I wanted to show sketch marks in my animation to make it look like an in love couple that was doodling themselves. the other purpose is because it will be easy for me to illustrate frame by frame faster , not worried how precise I should be. I want to show time by the changing of colour in the animation, showing the past as black and white and colour for present. When adding colour, my aim is to have it appear almost like water colour washes.

These are my final look that I am trying to achieve, not too much happening in the background but enough to please the eyes and focus more in the character animation. 

I have done more Character Development in my Sketchbook 
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My inspiration mainly came from these animation, mostly from Paperman. I am a big fan of paperman because of its cheeziness and over exaggerated story especially bringing things to life. I have noticed that most animation these days dont have objects having life, this is why I think Disney has its own unique style that inspire me. Although I didnt have any objects coming to life, I went with a simple human character animation, hopefully this will appeal the audience by its acting and cutesy character animation. Having other objects animated as a character would over complicate the story and wont have any purpose to it.

The colour scheme is very important for me because it shows the timeline of my animation story. Black and white when they were young (past) colour when older (present) 
Simple watercolour washes will be shown and will appear like its in heaven in some way like in the Kung Fu water colour animation.


Paper Man


Kung Fu Water Colour Animation


Trolley Boy



I have also looked at Simon's Cat and Gertie the Dinosaur because it has almost the same art style I am going for which is black and white and a little be sketchy. I like the part where there are no transitions and camera is just in one place. This is more of a study of the character rather than telling a story. Its like observing animals in a zoo and studying it.

Simons Cat


Gertie The Dinosaur 


While I was Working in this Animation, I have contacted a music student Joelle Symons, I have met her through a friend saying that she is best at what she does and I am quite impressed by the reviews. I gave her my storyboard and line test animation and told her to compose a song for my animation.

Down Below here, I have looked at more inspirations for the story and artwork and some views that might help me for my animation





I love this image because it shows a couple on a bench which relates to my animation story, I love the colour scheme and mark making, it looks very water coloury and blends well with one another, no other colours conflict with one another.

These images below are very beautiful, I have chosen these because it shows a sense of peacefulness and quiet, they colours are very light and minimalistic and dramatic.









These 2 photos I have taken at the back of the Millenium point in their garden park. I think it is a great place that I could base my animation on.




these are some designs I have used for my final animation, I didnt have time to model buildings in 3D so I have quickly made it in photoshop, I think it works quite well with the animation although it needs a bit more tweeking with the colour and layout of the assets to make it more romantic. To be honest, I have rushed making this because I had 1 more week to complete the animation and refining lines and colours in flash is taking too much of my time. I will be improving this after the competition. 

These scenes will be shown when the main characters grew up and colour starts to show.





This is the Final animation to be submitted for the competition. It was a tough 2 months for me because I didnt expect that doing this frame by frame would be taking most of my time. I am glad it is over and I will be asking feedback from people and improvements will be made. I am very thankful for Joelle Symons with the beautiful music, it really captured the animation and works really well.


I have started to make improvements for some of the scenes already and making it more romantic and appealing to the audience.

SCULPTING and FINAL

I have attended a sculpting class for 2 days, Darren Nevin and Durran Pearse were the maker of Wolfman mask from the movie Wolfman, they have won oscars for best make up and character scuplting. I knew Darren and Durran from my Aikido club, we train together every week except when busy with work. 

I dont really know much about sculpting, but I want to create a merchandise toy for my game, kinda like the little figurines that are included in a limited edition game boxes. I am planning to model one of those to tie in my project. this shows that I have also explored other media, not just sitting down on the computer. 

I dont know much about what type of latex they are using but they are for masks. basically, it started of from making a mould of their head then a separate mould for the mask to fit in. latex liquid is then poured slowly in the mould case then pressed on with the head mould and left to dry. after dried, latex mask is ready to paint and ready to wear. the last 3 mask in these images are by darren thats why it looks so good :D

I have received alot of tips from Darren and Durran about sculpting. they gave me tips on how to do details of skin, where I need to use a cling film ontop of the clay and pick a really thin spatula and scratch lightly so no rought edges comes out. make a lot of dots for the pores to make it realistic. to add hair on the sculpt, it takes time to make, you pick a group of 4 hairs and poke it in to the pores. it is a very long process but, if i want a really outstanding work, great patience is needed. i will try apply it to a big scuplt if I got the time. it would be awesome to make a mask for my project, but I focused more on my model. I will make one when I got the time. 

I have started making my Demonio Figure, I didnt have enough super sculpey, so I have used milliput as the base on my armature to hold my character in place. this will later then be on a wooden block stand. modelling a small figure was quite a challenge and took me a while to complete but i was enjoying it. sculpting tools really helped me alot to smooth edges and go through small gaps.

SCULPTS FINAL

This is a bigger sculpt I have made first before the small figurine. I have modelled it just using my hands and a pen cover. I didnt have any sculping tools with me at first but it all worked out well. I could have used clay that hardens when left to dry, but I didnt have any, so I have used oiled based clay given to me by Darren.

I could have added textures but I didnt because, I wanted to keep it simple.

My Final Small Figurine.

the painting took a very long time to complete, I had to do 5 coatings. it was hard because, i havent painted a sculpt before, but I got used to it.

Character Animation

This is my final character animation reel.

Basically they are character animations for my game that will be later developed on a mobile game app. the idea is at these short animation clips will play once an attack is landed, basically just like the yu gi oh game. these can be used in my future game trailer to promote my game just like in my research on how they promote a toy, a little animation is layered on top and plays. 

In this reel, i have also included a live project for TL Multimedia, where I was asked to animate a short sting, and i have tied it in with this project. So i have included a minion of the water element but made it more character friendly, cute, not even considered as a demon, more like a pet. but in the future of my game, this character should be more evil looking, this shows development of my character design

Line test

1st draft in toon boom.

Game Review

RIZ AND DANNY ENJOYING MY GAME

I had my friends test out my board game and they are quite entertained by it. at first I told them the rules how to play and how to play it. I had to explain it as they go along aswell. at first, they couldnt get the controls of flicking the pen right, it goes every where, but they longer they play, the better they become. an issue about my board game is that, the pen digs in the paper and made it hard to flick. a way of solving this problem is having my board game laminated and use dry wipe pen instead, so it is easier to manuver around the board and easily rub off the marks so it can be playable again on the same board. another issue is pen mark going over other marks creating a dent which make the next shot tend to track the last shot. and using erasable pen still bleeds through the paper, ball point pen works best.

This is the result of a 2 hour gameplay with my friends :D

Here's a bit of review they gave back to me :

Riz: "'Twas a fun play! better to use felt pens on a dry wipe surface :) "

Danny: "Initially the rules complex. they were easy to grasp once you got playing. Quite entertaining. 

Lower the amount of times you have to hit each enemy."

Final Board Game & Map Design

FINAL BOARD GAME

This is my final board game. as you can see my character design and map design are all inspired from my research. In my board game, I have put all the character information needed into the same board of the game map instead of having cards to shuffle and check through the info. I have provided boxes which includes their life points so it is easy to calculate and change number in it, no need to ruin the beautiful illustrations I made, althought the gameplay itself will be messy, at least the rest looks more professional to present. I have made symbols for the weapon and health packs. they all have different purposes like some weapons damages a certain element more than the other. by default, you have the fire element which damages wind, but I dont have a wind villain, so this inflicts 10 dp to the enemy. 

I will explain the movements. you can flick as many moves as you want to travel for the main player, but the enemy just stays put. once the enemy player thinks you are in range, he must say he is going to attack and he can flick and attack your player. I you think you are also in range, you have to let the other player know that you are attacking aswell so it is a balanced match. You can also attack when you think you are in range. You can only attack the enemy's weak points, the red and orange dot. a good tip is to attack the orange dot untill you dealt 50 dp  or more, you can attack the red dot  to deal extra 10 dp to the enemy plus your weapons damage point. I have made this so it will be a challenge for the player to play the game, no point if it is too easy. If you travelling and entered the circle range of the enemy, you and the enemy can deal plus 5 damage points with your weapons dp. Try to conserve your life points, only take the health packages when necessary. There are 3 different health packages, each health packs gives you health but also gives you different perks. The main player has 3 Life points just incase the player is too reckless. I have provided  boxes underneath the characters so there is space to compute the damage dealt to the characters and player.

Map with Characters

These are other map designs I have made. some designs I am quite pleased about because it has the right contrast, proximity and alignment and repetition. I have been inspired from my map research, but mostly followed my chosen artists Foldvari and Ville, which is very simple, graphic, attract teenagers.

 I am quite happy about this design i have developed it till it became my final piece