Week 4

Ok!

First of all, here's the homework we were supposed to do. Storyboards/shots for a small section of the movie 'Deep Rising'. Haha, I look at these now after spending a couple of weeks on my animatic assignment and realise i have actually learnt a fair bit since this :P

This is the script for reference - http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Deep-Rising.html

I laugh at my seemless transition between stickmen and fully shaded characters :P

On to this week's Lecture. Today we learnt a few more specifics about successful industry-standard layouts and storyboards. Firstly Mark went over the different colours used in the layout department and what they represent.

Purple - Used for specifically designed shadows.

Green - Signifies 'same as'

Blue - Used for rough working and all general shadows

Red - Anything that is re-used (for example, a background my be used several times in a particlar scene)

Yellow - Special Effects

It was then discussed how a layout/shot is actually physically put together. It consists of different layers for the characters, backgrounds etc. This includes a character layout, and then either an overlay (where the 'background' or surroundings are on top of the character layout) or underlay (where the 'background' is layered underneath the character/s).

In the tutorial we had a look at animatics and pre-production methods for the movies King Kong and Hellboy, which were rather inspiring. For the rest of the lesson we started on our script breakdowns/thumbnails for the upcoming assignment. Mark was helpful and gave us a refresher on certain things we had forgotten from last year, such as how to re-peg (repositioning the peg holes on your layout etc.)

End. :D

Week 3

In week three's lecture we went over storyboard techniques and composition. We had a look at some very educational slides on the subject, created by director Brad Bird (yay!). Although I had seen these slides before, seeing them again refreshed my memory somewhat, as I'm quite rusty on composition and the like. No, rusty is the wrong word.... more like, completely inexperienced and having no clue hahaha. I found the way Brad Bird sets out and explains things to be really clear and concise. Helpful hints such as remembering to check for a nice silhouette and not allowing lines in your shot to be directly parallel to the edge of the frame too often, really stood out to me. It was interesting how by just lowering the angle of a shot can make the whole composition feel a lot more balanced and stronger. Bird put emphasis on making the composition as dynamic as possible and being aware of what you want the eye to be drawn to.

The storyboard slides were just as informative. The refresh on camera angles was fantastic for me as I had forgotten a lot about them. Some things I hadn't even heard of, like the 'drift in', where the cut to the next shot comes before the camera stops - you simply draw arrows pointing in the direction of the move (there's no box to represent the frame). Other important points included the importance of creating smooth transitions between scenes, focusing on what is really critical in the scene, steering away from jump cuts and continuity of moving directions.
We also discussed how the 'rule of three' can help balance a scene.

In our tute this week, Mark demonstrated how to thumbnail out shots from a script into a storyboard-like structure. It was interesting to see how he interpreted the script in his own way - all of our own ones should turn out different. Our homework for this week is to read the script ourselves and do a rough storyboard-type sequence. I will post mine next week!

Bye bye!

Week 2

The second week's lecture was based on script breakdown and the processes invovled in taking a script and preparing it for concept design. We had a brief look at two scripts, one for 'Strangers on a Train' and the other from 'Slither'. High quality.

Sarcasm inteneded.

We were shown how to use different coloured pencils/pens to mark out certain aspects of the film that need attending to. For example, you might mark out a motorbike in the script - then you know that at some point a motorbike needs to be designed. It was also explained to us how to do shot breakdowns, by thoroughly reading the script and getting a feel for the action and movement within the story, so that the best shots/camera angles etc can be assigned.

For our homework this week, we are to read these scripts and then do shot break downs for the first 5 pages.

The first half of the tutorial this week was spent looking at each other's homework - concept art based on a grimms fairy tale. A summary of the story can be read here - http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=465

The piece was supposed to be based on the inn's main hall. I decided to do a full colour version for mine, as I wanted to create a real mood/atmosphere. I set the main floor on a slightly twisted, off-putting angle. I think the story's horror theme gives off a dark, disturbing and organic quality. I tried to keep all of my lines very round and organic to match to this. The wooden pillars curving in on the walls were made to look like a ribcage, to match with the story's organ-theme. I kept to a very orangey-brown colour scheme, as when I think of old inns, i think of shades of brown. I didnt want to make it too homely though, so I added a fair bit of black.















If I had more time I would have actually added in some furniture HAHA!!!. It could do with a table and chairs and a few beers here and there. What I was really focusing on at the time was the composition and mood of the piece. I also just realised that the fireplace connects directly to a wooden floor HAHAHAHA! This inn won't last for long.

Anyway, apart from the lack of furniture I am fairly happy with how this turned out.
I must go eat dinner now.
Bye!

Week 1

We had our first lecture and tute for the semester. The main focus was on concept design, and to begin the class had a look through a myriad of inspiring books. These books contained concept art from an assortment of feature films and such. It was explained to us just how important research is in coming up with concept art, an example was the artwork done for 'The Dark Crystal' in which mathematical equations were studied and used to create different creatures and objects in the film. Woa! I was freaking out that an artist would actually consider doing maths. Ew.

It was stressed to us that the concept art we create must support the story we wish to tell. It's not just about drawing a pretty picture, in other words. For example a certain style or colour palette can evoke a specific emotion that the artist might want to exploit in the film.

In our tutorial we were shown a dvd called "Drawing Dinosaurs: Anatomy and Sketching with David Krentz". It was a fascinating video in which the artist drew (in double-speed) dinosaurs, with a fair amount of realism. There was emphasis on research once again - he even has little dinosaur toys to use for reference!. He stressed how it was important to get some life and emotion into the dinosaurs rather than just producing a flat drawing suitable for a scientific textbook.

Our homework for this week is to produce thumbnail sketches and concept art for a brothers grimm fairytale, more specifically of an inn's main hall in the story. I will post that soon!! yipee.

Testing!!!

Yup, testing 123 and all that.
lalalalala
END.