Primary Research...CLOUDS

Because i'm going to have the shapes of clouds in my animation, I looked at different cloud shapes photographed by others. I wanted to come to a decision on what shape(s) i should use in my final piece.
I found these images on the internet when i was research initially for my project, I chose a select few to put on to my blog. These images were the ones which caught my eye, some I'd say are pretty amazing considering they formed naturally...take a look for yourself.

Maybe after all pigs can fly...

After Effect...learning curve

I have never used After Effects before, so it was all very new and scary at first. From the workshops I was able to begin to understand the basics that i would need to produce my 20-30 second animation. It may not sound like much, but I know its going to be a lot of work, especially seeing as I haven't use the software before. But thats life, so I gave it a bash anyway. 

Above I have done a simple 5 second video, using a range of tools to move the two skeleton. I have also used the 'parenting' tool which will definitely come in handy for my final piece.

Infinity GIRL...character design

I began by over complicating my design, but then when I was listening to my piece of music over and over again i came to the decision to simplify it back down. I went back to basics and drew out my ideas in my sketchbook. I was then able to choose my favourite design and began to develop my character. Below  have scanned in my hand drawn work and you can see how I have began to add colour to my character by using coloured pencils and also felt tips. I wanted to explore a number of ways of adding colour to my character.

Using the scanned image which was not already coloured in I added colour to it, however this time I used photoshop. I much prefer how this one below has turned out as I think it looks much more professional. 

1st workshop....Narative and cell

In this session we began to think about characters in our animations, and designing characters. I firstly started looking at a frog form as a character but I was over complication my designs. I then simplified the character as ways of experimenting.

Going back to basics....Using simple shapes to begin with then developing the characters around the shapes. I really enjoyed this workshop and I was excited to start really considering what my character(s) will be.

THen in the session I chose one character to further develop. I chose the fish and began to look at what other facial expressions it could have?!

Thinking about how to go about working on animation using after effects, and having a set of frames. If i was to use 24 frames a sec, this basically mean I would have to draw 24 separate images for 1second worth of animation.

3 Words...brainstorm

Photography...

I began looking at the sky at different times of the day to see how it changes in colour. I captured a few planes flighting high at roughly 7 in the evening. I love the colours but I also think the silhouettes of the trees work really well.

Further research...

I took advantage of the amazing weather today and took some photos of what I'll be looking at in my animation. But because it was such a nice day there were hardly any clouds in the sky, but the sun was perfectly shining so i took this opportunity.

I wanted to capture how the girl would be lay, with her arm behind her head looking up at the sky. I took a few photos to get an idea of the positioning of her arms and hand. Also I wanted to try and get the camera to get both her and what she was looking at in the shot. This was my first attempt... and to be honest I was quite pleased with the out come.