Thursday 21 August 2014
Fresh!
I was watching TV with dinner and this great little ad popped up into my eyes. Does anyone know who is responsible for the animation? I'd like to credit them. Fun concept, and nicely executed for an ad!
Wednesday 20 August 2014
Mistakes
Drawing is a great outlet, I find it therapeutic and mesmerising, it's a gigantic time sink hidden in a sketch book.
Whether you enjoy drawing or just use it for practical purposes, it's an essential tool into the world of observation. It's helped me see things that I didn't even know existed.
I read somewhere, and I regret that I can't remember where, but I live by "No line is a bad line". Meaning, that even when you draw a line you are unhappy with you can learn from it, and to be honest, you can use this and apply it to everything in life. When I've made a choice in animation that doesn't work, I've learnt from one of my tutors to log it, so you can use it when it is appropriate in the future. For example, this part of the animation looks creepy and it should feel relaxed, rather then stiff. So we can use that comment, okay, so this is how something creepy looks, I know now when I get a creepy character to animate, I can use it! There's no such thing as a wasted effort. Which makes all these creative endeavors even better!
Also, I just wanted to point you guys to Aaron Blaise's YouTube channel, the drawing and painting tips he is giving away for free are insan. I'm currently working my way through them and they are so informative, anything from colour theory to painting fur. He tries to angle everything towards all kinds of artists, drawers, painters, photographers, animators and more. Check him out here. He also has a great website full of his paintings and tutorials here.
So be sure to explore, play, have fun and don't be afraid to make mistakes, they are the most important bit!
Monday 18 August 2014
Twit-Twoo
Thanks to someone on bookface, I was reminded of this advert that I saw on TV the other day. Brilliant!
Friday 15 August 2014
One for the Showreel
Friday's are meant for experimenting, right?!
A successful attempt (I think) at transferring animation from a generic woman rig to a generic man rig. I didn't realise we walked so differently...or maybe this is just what we do to men?
One for the showreel from India Barnardo on Vimeo.
Thursday 14 August 2014
Comments and flowerings
Okay so after 8 years (8 YEARS?!?!) and over 15,000 visits, I've finally noticed that I can change the comments so anybody can write something! Haha whoops!
I welcome your comments, and waffles and questions :)
Through my other blog I have also recently discovered this great site, where you can follow all your regular blogs! It's so easy, it's like making your very own custom newspaper! I'd definitely recommend signing up if you have a whole heap of blogs burried in your bookmarks that you like to follow. It makes it so easy. Also, if you are on there, I'm on there too, let's be friends....
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
I welcome your comments, and waffles and questions :)
Through my other blog I have also recently discovered this great site, where you can follow all your regular blogs! It's so easy, it's like making your very own custom newspaper! I'd definitely recommend signing up if you have a whole heap of blogs burried in your bookmarks that you like to follow. It makes it so easy. Also, if you are on there, I'm on there too, let's be friends....
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Wednesday 13 August 2014
Apologies and Sadness
First of all apologies
I want to apologies how quiet I've been in the last few months. It all got a bit mental really.
I had a lot on my plate, and I had to prioritise my time, which meant iAnimate came first.
However...I've decided to take a block break from iAnimate, meaning I'll start Workshop 4 in their winter term in January (as who wants to go outside in January!?). Which gives me roughly 4-5 months of playtime, hurrah! Although, for the first few days, I've felt like a bit of a lost cause. Not knowing how to embrace the silence that is a late summers evening. Fear not, of course, I've come up with a horrible amount of weird and wacky things to keep me occupied, and I will try and exhibit my doings up here for you to keep an eye on me.
Planning achievements for the next 4-5 months has been tricky, because right this second it feels slightly overwhelming. Are you as addicted to to-do lists as me?! Please tell me, so I don't feel so alone.
So my main aims are:
- To be update my iAnimate page, with all the work I've produced up until now, as it's looking a little skeletal.
- explore some creative crafty arty projects, wire sculpture, more drawing, improv class, making things and ideas!
- finish the fancy animatic I've been working on for Cat and Moth, and get the site up and running so I can show you guys what's in the works
- Go outside and explore, take photos, get texture rubbings, be a kid
- Spend lots of time with my wonderful fella, who's been putting up with having an animating robot as a girlfriend for the past 8 months
- Probably some kind of updated showreel would probably be good too!
So yeah, a few biggy's, but all these things are fun, so that's grand! Can't wait to inundate you with exploration and creativity. It's all about keeping inspired right?
Now for sadness
Robin Williams left our planet yesterday, but only in a physical form. I've never been pushed to tears at a celebrity death, but this one got me. As my friend pointed out, for our generation he was such a big part of our childhood, we almost felt like we knew him. But I don't think we will ever truly know how he felt. Depression is an awful killer, and awareness of this illness needs to be much much bigger. I hear people saying he was selfish, why didn't he think of his family, everybody loved him, he was always laughing and looked happy, but it just doesn't work like that. Those are thoughts of a logical person unaffected and outside of depression, but within it, it's a whole other way of thinking, that an outsider could never really comprehend.
But, we are fortunate to have so many wonderful recordings and memories of his pure and utter genius, and I'm thankful, that despite his demons and depression, he shared his wonderful self with us all. He affected us all in some way, it's quite incredible for one being to have that impression. He's one of the few celebrities that I would actually like to have met, I wouldn't know what to ask first. What a superb person, and a tragic loss. I hope he knows how much everyone loved him, and I hope he is at peace now. If you're into stand up comedy, check out his stuff on Spotify, and check Inside the Actors Studio too, truly inspirational...now that's something to get inspired by!
On that note, I'm outta here x
I want to apologies how quiet I've been in the last few months. It all got a bit mental really.
I had a lot on my plate, and I had to prioritise my time, which meant iAnimate came first.
However...I've decided to take a block break from iAnimate, meaning I'll start Workshop 4 in their winter term in January (as who wants to go outside in January!?). Which gives me roughly 4-5 months of playtime, hurrah! Although, for the first few days, I've felt like a bit of a lost cause. Not knowing how to embrace the silence that is a late summers evening. Fear not, of course, I've come up with a horrible amount of weird and wacky things to keep me occupied, and I will try and exhibit my doings up here for you to keep an eye on me.
Planning achievements for the next 4-5 months has been tricky, because right this second it feels slightly overwhelming. Are you as addicted to to-do lists as me?! Please tell me, so I don't feel so alone.
So my main aims are:
- To be update my iAnimate page, with all the work I've produced up until now, as it's looking a little skeletal.
- explore some creative crafty arty projects, wire sculpture, more drawing, improv class, making things and ideas!
- finish the fancy animatic I've been working on for Cat and Moth, and get the site up and running so I can show you guys what's in the works
- Go outside and explore, take photos, get texture rubbings, be a kid
- Spend lots of time with my wonderful fella, who's been putting up with having an animating robot as a girlfriend for the past 8 months
- Probably some kind of updated showreel would probably be good too!
So yeah, a few biggy's, but all these things are fun, so that's grand! Can't wait to inundate you with exploration and creativity. It's all about keeping inspired right?
Now for sadness
Robin Williams left our planet yesterday, but only in a physical form. I've never been pushed to tears at a celebrity death, but this one got me. As my friend pointed out, for our generation he was such a big part of our childhood, we almost felt like we knew him. But I don't think we will ever truly know how he felt. Depression is an awful killer, and awareness of this illness needs to be much much bigger. I hear people saying he was selfish, why didn't he think of his family, everybody loved him, he was always laughing and looked happy, but it just doesn't work like that. Those are thoughts of a logical person unaffected and outside of depression, but within it, it's a whole other way of thinking, that an outsider could never really comprehend.
But, we are fortunate to have so many wonderful recordings and memories of his pure and utter genius, and I'm thankful, that despite his demons and depression, he shared his wonderful self with us all. He affected us all in some way, it's quite incredible for one being to have that impression. He's one of the few celebrities that I would actually like to have met, I wouldn't know what to ask first. What a superb person, and a tragic loss. I hope he knows how much everyone loved him, and I hope he is at peace now. If you're into stand up comedy, check out his stuff on Spotify, and check Inside the Actors Studio too, truly inspirational...now that's something to get inspired by!
On that note, I'm outta here x
Monday 11 August 2014
Joe Weatherly Drawing Workshop
A log over-due post indeed.
About a month or so ago I attended Joe Weatherly's drawing workshop. It was fantastic, I can't describe the awesomeness, and how much I learnt during the 4 days. If you ever get the chance to attend his classes around the world, I highly recommend it.
The first day was spent in a lecture room, talking about anatomy and artistic styles. It was great to be introduced to a whole heap of new artists and going over some of the classics. Joe drew out how we should focus on structure underneath the animal. As once you know what is going on in the inside, you know why stuff is protruding on the outside. Structurally, it also helps a ton with animating animals. He advised us for our future to studies to spend allotted times on studying certain aspects of anatomy, i.e studying hands or paws for a month.
The second day was spent at the Natural History Museum (NHM), where we could spend time studying the structure of the animal from the inside, and not worrying about it wandering off :P. I find your mind's eye likes to summaries and soften your impression of construction, you start to assume you know how it works, mainly because, well, we have bodies! But drawing skeletons and really studying them illustrates how many things you miss, or assume are there or not there. These studies are purely that, for studying, the pieces from the full four days are there for learning, not to put on the wall. I also found out a lot of structural information that I hadn't really seen before, it was truly eye-opening.
The third and fourth day was spent at the London Zoo. We mainly studied the giraffes, as they reflected a lot of what we had studied at the previous destinations, i.e. horses and stags. We also got to spend a little time with one of the Tiger's, the Lions, and a bunch of reptiles.
As we walked around the Zoo spending a lot of time at each animal, I took a few photos for reference studies later on (see below) and we also got a lot of attention from the public, at both the Zoo and the NHM. It's funny how different people react to us studying, and the difference between very intrigued children and very naughty ones!
One of the things we were asked to practice and think about was to start to learn and remember how the animals looked, because as they are always moving, we were going to have to start drawing from our imagination and memory to get the poses we wanted want. It was a really interesting way to train ones brain.
Anyway, so I've collected a few of my sketch book pages and a few of the reference photographs I've taken, all posted below. If you want more information on Joe Weatherly or want to start looking at animal anatomy more closely, I'll send you to two places, Joe's website here, and Joe's book. His book goes over a lot of what we studied in person, and it's a great place to start, I highly recommend, and I'll be adding this firmly onto the reading list page. Definitely keep an eye out for his next workshop, I'm going to try my hardest to attend!
Natural History Museum
Sleepy Tiger and a very happy Lama
Reptile House
Camel's and Okapi's
The Camel on the top right looks a little like Ian Hislop
At the end of the Last day, there was a guy with a Giraffe's skull, so I managed to get in some scrappy studies to help construct the head a little better in later observational studies.
Thanks to Joe for coming to England and braving our cold Summer (compared to California!) and thanks to Gillian for organising it all!
Over and Out
About a month or so ago I attended Joe Weatherly's drawing workshop. It was fantastic, I can't describe the awesomeness, and how much I learnt during the 4 days. If you ever get the chance to attend his classes around the world, I highly recommend it.
The first day was spent in a lecture room, talking about anatomy and artistic styles. It was great to be introduced to a whole heap of new artists and going over some of the classics. Joe drew out how we should focus on structure underneath the animal. As once you know what is going on in the inside, you know why stuff is protruding on the outside. Structurally, it also helps a ton with animating animals. He advised us for our future to studies to spend allotted times on studying certain aspects of anatomy, i.e studying hands or paws for a month.
The second day was spent at the Natural History Museum (NHM), where we could spend time studying the structure of the animal from the inside, and not worrying about it wandering off :P. I find your mind's eye likes to summaries and soften your impression of construction, you start to assume you know how it works, mainly because, well, we have bodies! But drawing skeletons and really studying them illustrates how many things you miss, or assume are there or not there. These studies are purely that, for studying, the pieces from the full four days are there for learning, not to put on the wall. I also found out a lot of structural information that I hadn't really seen before, it was truly eye-opening.
The third and fourth day was spent at the London Zoo. We mainly studied the giraffes, as they reflected a lot of what we had studied at the previous destinations, i.e. horses and stags. We also got to spend a little time with one of the Tiger's, the Lions, and a bunch of reptiles.
As we walked around the Zoo spending a lot of time at each animal, I took a few photos for reference studies later on (see below) and we also got a lot of attention from the public, at both the Zoo and the NHM. It's funny how different people react to us studying, and the difference between very intrigued children and very naughty ones!
One of the things we were asked to practice and think about was to start to learn and remember how the animals looked, because as they are always moving, we were going to have to start drawing from our imagination and memory to get the poses we wanted want. It was a really interesting way to train ones brain.
Anyway, so I've collected a few of my sketch book pages and a few of the reference photographs I've taken, all posted below. If you want more information on Joe Weatherly or want to start looking at animal anatomy more closely, I'll send you to two places, Joe's website here, and Joe's book. His book goes over a lot of what we studied in person, and it's a great place to start, I highly recommend, and I'll be adding this firmly onto the reading list page. Definitely keep an eye out for his next workshop, I'm going to try my hardest to attend!
Natural History Museum
Leg doodle and notes by Joe to help me construct my Mammoth better.
London Zoo
From Memory, after some studying
Sleepy Tiger and a very happy Lama
Reptile House
The Camel on the top right looks a little like Ian Hislop
Okapi Butt
Thanks to Joe for coming to England and braving our cold Summer (compared to California!) and thanks to Gillian for organising it all!
Over and Out
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