Life Drawing: (Week 11)

This week in life drawing we did clay modelling.

I have done a bit of work with clay  a couple years back, but I always avoiding modelling people, that was my weak point. So this was a new challenge. We were introduced a new technique that I didn't know about, where basically you 'shave' with a tool instead of molding. I'm totally new to this technique but I still gave it a go, as the Teacher recommenced. It is a lot easier to get rid of excess clay without accidentally ruining the rest of your work.


The main focus is the leg, but since I had time, I added a bit of the body.  That small leg took me a while. I also struggled a bit with the right proportions to use, and finding out where the muscles are. I do feel like that drawing muscles in class helped a lot nonetheless.






Here we focused on the torso. I struggled with the back the most, and the muscles and bone placement. I couldn't get the shoulder blades or the spine or the muscles beside the spine to look right.

2D Animation: Blythe Transformation (Rough animation Part 1)

Rough Animation:

I used the Storyboard as my main key frames, and worked around it. The background is only the draft one, just for composition. 

Her first half of her rough animation before she is transformed. I have her fading out because the shadows will be covering her at those parts. Her outstretched hand will turn into the beasts hand. 

Here is a rough look at the movement of the shadow demons, they are moving quite fast and quickly engulf her. On the left I tried to slow down one of the demons and round off his head to show his jagged smile. But now I'm thinking that it may be too distracting and unnecessary. I want the focus to be Blythe so I might just keep them as black eel-like things. 

This them combined. I haven't yet done the actual transformation into the beast yet. I need to put more focus into her hand which shows how the transformation works. But I'm still working out how to make it disappear, because the hands don't show in the last scene when she is a beast. I thought about it maybe dropping fast, or being covered by more shadows. 

2D Animation: Blythe Transformation (Development)

Development part 1:



So here I have a draft background of what I would like Blythe's setting to be. Dark and a witchy. I have some light beams peaking through the back window, just to give it a "locked away" and "closed" vibe. The thing that will probably be colored or in the light the most will be the table with the magic box in the middle of the room.

Orange glow, beginning scene. Warm, light, toasting, non-threatening.

I think I want the the lights to be the most colored things to set the mood. For the first part of the animation I'll have the lighting be warm and orange, then as she changes it will begin to get a greenish hue as shown in the 2nd picture, till the late scene when Blythe is fully transformed and the lighting will have a greenish and purplish hue.

Fully green and purple lighting. Evil, danger, scary, witch's colour scheme.














A more final draft storyboard for Blythes transformation. I've also applied the colour hues to see how it might play on the overall feel of the animation, also to she where it will change and transform too. I might make Blythe on the darker side too, because of the room. But I do want to keep her warm looks somehow, maybe that might be possible with the warm lighting.
I quite like the last shot, I feel like it's very dramatic. Glowing eyes and threatening pose, dramatic lighting... a good dramatic exit for my animation. With the shadows clearing away, it will also add to it's already dramatic look.






First time putting storyboards through After Effects. After some feedback from my lecturers, I've decided not to follow through with my first idea of a high angle shot moving into a low angle shot. They said that I'd have to use a lot of background layers, and change perspective on many of the objects.
 Overall, it would be a lot of work, and wouldn't leave a lot of time for the actual animating. The teacher suggested a Dutch tilt camera angle. I agreed that would till be a dramatic effect, and wouldn't require as much work as my first idea.

A classmate noted that  it was a bit jumpy and it showed a lot of extra black background around the edges of the dutch tilt, they also mentioned that they liked the dutch tilt too, agreeing with the teacher's point. I agreed. So I had a little play around with the After Effects, trying to find a way to minimize the black background and make it smoother.

This is the slightly altered version. You can't tell much difference, but I'm not too confident with After Effects, and am still trying to find my way around it. I've minimized the black a bit, or as much as I can without taking much away from the Dutch Tilt camera angle.

Life Drawing: Week 10

Life Drawing: Muscles

Muscles were a challenge. I've been struggling to find out where the muscles go, if I'm defining the right muscles or just been doing the accurately. I think I'm struggling to apply the muscles to the model. I've been mainly focusing on a quick outline of the model, but mainly been looking at the muscles sheets. Therefore, making the model look a lot more buff then he is. Also since I'm focusing too much on the muscles, I forget to look at other things too like perspective and other proportions.
I feel more comfortable drawing the arms, and the legs a bit. Everything else is a bit hard to figure out.

Narrative Studies: Mingxia Storyboard Concepts

I'm not sure what the middle of MingXia's story holds. I thought about her having her first face off with Jaw-Long, or even Jianquo, her mentor. But I wanted those battles to happen at the end, like a big plot twist before the big battle. So I thought about a Monster that guards Jaw-Long's home, and refuses to let them past, giving them warnings and everything. As soon after MingXia wins against Jaw-Long, she releases Jinaquo who un-arms her and leaves. That leads up to last big battle scene. So I think a guardian monster would be a good middle-point.




For a storyboard reference, I've looked at some of Mark Andrews, Glen Keanes and Hayao Miyazaki's work. They all have a style that I would like to use for my character and her story.

For example, Mark Andrews does very detailed and clear backgrounds. His shading is very prominent. I find his angles quite creative too.




http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/33500000/Brave-brave-33573557-3050-2209.jpg


http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/33500000/Brave-brave-33573891-500-397.jpg

 
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/11/75/58/117558a8b067dfd2eba81ae2ac6990b8.jpg



Hayao Miyazaki has a different way of story-boarding, a way which gives him lots of room for notes and extra drawings. I like how he uses a totally different color for things like shading. He will use a color like yellow so you can still see the detail in the shadows.
 
 http://cdn.halcyonrealms.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/spiritedawaysb04.jpg
http://cdn.halcyonrealms.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/kikistoryboard04.jpg




Because of how I created and based my character, I'm mainly looking at Disney and some anime for a animation style. My story is action based, so I want her actions to be fluid and controlled. I also want it to be very visually appealing. MingXia is heavily based off the Disney Mulan and Hercules, so I have looked at both films and animators for references.
Mark Henn is a famous animator, renowned for his work on Mulan.

http://imagesmtv-a.akamaihd.net/uri/mgid:file:http:shared:mtv.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Mulan-swordplay-1439914300.gif

https://45.media.tumblr.com/28d5abbbb9862a90585b8ef1d97ee2d4/tumblr_mzjokfQd8H1qdny4ho3_250.gif
His animations flow very nicely. It's kind of the animation and style I would like to use for a dialogue scene, as it is very expressive. I find it a bit slow i the way of fighting action, but it's ideal for talking or a calm scene.

In Atlantis the Lost Empire, the animated Disney film, I found that Kida's transformation was quite similar to MingXia's Transformation.

https://billsmovieemporium.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/vlcsnap-2010-08-02-14h23m47s4.jpg

 The White hair is similar too my characters transformed hair, and their eyes both glow.  

Only as Kida is beginning to change, it resembles Mingxia's full transformation. As Kida looks like this once she is changed. But she has a interesting glowing effect, which is something I could do for MingXia.


https://dejareviewer.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/kida-is-possessed-by-the-gods-of-atlantis.jpg




Here, she is a lot like MingXia. The flowly clothing and hair, and how she floats, resembles her a lot. I was going for a Greek goddess look for my character, but I feel like Kida captures it here.
But MingXia is more in control and has more of a threatening presence in her new form.

















https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/e4/a9/91/e4a9915ad6c6849370f740610f171b3a.jpg




So I look towards action animes, mainly ones that had a lot of sword fighting. Also because a lot of them had what I was looking for in the way of special effects, intensity and mood setting.

Afro Samurai is a very intense anime, maybe too intense for my character as she is heavily Disney based. But I like the heavy shading in the show, and the flowing bands. It has a strong color scheme, sticking to dark colors, white, blacks and reds.
It's movements are very fast, snappy and sharp. But it would be a good reference for very intense fights.

http://www.xjaymanx.com/toyboxx/wp-content/wallpapers-anime/xjaymanx_afro_samurai_resurrection_0008_1920.jpg

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2007/01/afro.jpg

http://45.media.tumblr.com/8ba440889457e8bf2fbcaf1f7da25117/tumblr_ne0fgvua961qlh9eeo1_400.gif

I like the angles, the quick cuts, the focus on the symbol on his headband, and moment where it shows the action reflected on the sword. Also I like how everything is plainly colored except the bright red blood. This puts a lot of focus on it, but it is also a very dramatic effect. In this shot it also has the symbolism of his headband, a very important part of him and the cause of the fight.

Sword Art Online

This anime is centered on a talented sword fighter, which is why I chose it has a fighting reference. It has smooth, dramatic fight scenes with cool effects. It differs from Afro Samurai, as it is more toned down and they also face different beasts and monsters, just like MingXia.

http://img06.deviantart.net/e45d/i/2013/128/9/c/sword_art_online_theme_kirito_in_action_windows_7__by_petar_kun-d64jeqe.png

The characters are much more simplifed and are closer to a Disney look. I've found that the characters are the most expressive when in action, so I think I'll stick with Disney's Mulan and Hercules for the dialogue scenes.

https://theglorioblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sao20fight.jpg

 http://cloud-3.steamusercontent.com/ugc/34120583733999085/1D778F3A420230BAEEDBC727AAEED63C177F2701/

Instead of lots of different angles and cuts, the like to keep the action in one long shot, with the camera moving with them. Or just not as many quick snappy cuts. I think it is a cool way to capture a action scene, especially if it's a tense moment between two people. 

https://49.media.tumblr.com/c33bf05bcea9078e1c42f821fcd2aa50/tumblr_mql64kBdKa1qcsesho1_500.gif

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

What I like the most about this Anime are the action scenes. The animation is very good and fluid. Although I think the tidy animation is important, I'm mainly looking at the special effects during their fights. These are powerful magic beings, that's how their similar to MingXia. I would like to use the colored effects and the swirly wind effects to make my fighting scenes more dramatic.

They usually have a certain color allocated to each character so that they clearly clash when they face each other. I think that in itself has a lot of symbolisim, as  in my story, color has a lot of sybolisim.

https://dtdynasty.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/0740.png

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B4006FZCcAAkDTL.jpg

http://anime.astronerdboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/02-Archer-fires-Caladbolg.jpg