MARIA'S IGLOO

Handy Sketches...

2011-05-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Hey!

So I've been doing a lot of life drawing lately, I'll try and get the rest up when I have a chance. I've been practising hands here, as its something I've felt a bit weak on. I really like the way hands can be really expressive but I sometimes have trouble capturing that on paper. I think these have turned out ok but think it would be nice to try and get more practise drawing different sorts of hands; men's hands, women's hands, children, old people's etc... so I'm going to try and keep my camera handy over the weekend and ask friends etc if I can photography their hands for referrence.

Maria Xx

May Sketches...

2011-05-19T06:38:00.000-07:00

Heya!

So, I've been having a very creative period lately. I have been sketching and drawing alot as I've been working on my portfolio and I have quite a few drawings to share. The first four are old drawings I did ages ago but I decided to come back to and try out various tricks, lighting effects and brushes on them to see how they would turn out. They were originally done as part of a project back at uni, and back then I didn't really know Photoshop and so just used pencil and watercolour. But now I've gone over them in Photoshop I've been able to experiment with the lighting effects. The inspiration for these drawings came from Terry Pratchett's 'The Colour of Magic'.

Gambling Gods

I really like this one now. I found it challenging figuring out where the light would fall on the gods since they were lit from underneath and it took me about two days to figure it out and test things out but I think I managed to capture that eerie mistical atmosphere I imagined.

Death's Garden.

The World's Edge

I really liked how the world's edge drawing has turned out as before it wasn't one of my faveourite drawings but I think the rocks I added give a really give it a sense of vertigo and the foaming water and mist looks more convincing now... shame about the whale, but there was no room for it.

the old original drawings

I also went back to another piece I'd originally done as a birthday present for a friend. I really liked the sketch but looking back on it I could see all my original mistakes (mostly with her proportions and the lighting) so thought it would be fun to come back to this piece and give it a make over. I also wanted to make her much more colourful than before. I've recently joined Deviant Art and have been checking out the works of artists Loish and Benjamin who's drawings are amazingly colourful.

2011 makeover

2008 original

Finally are some random sketches I drew just for giggles. The first one is of my friend Pete who has a very manly way of keeping in shape.

the last one is of a bizzarre character that Pete and I encountered on our way to a party in Manor House...

the lego guy really exists, I kid you not. Enjoy!

Maria Xx

Adventure Time!

2011-04-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

YEAH!

My friend Rob has recently introduced me to a new cartoon series on Cartoon Network called 'Adventure Time' and let me just say... I am most definately HOOKED! Its about a 12 year old boy called Finn and his stretching, morphing, talking dog Jake who go on all sorts of crazy adventures as part of Finn's on going quest to help all those in need. Its just crazy and I love it! So thought I'd share it with you all.

Cartoon Network seems to be making some really cool shows at the moment, with shows like 'Chowder', 'Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends' and 'Adventure Time'. Not only does it really make me want to work on anyone of these shows but it also really makes me want to be a kid again! Can you imagine being a kid again and getting up at some stupid hour of the morning just to watch cartoons like this?? LUUuuUUCKY!! O.o

I particularly like Finn (especailly his high pitched girly scream ^-^), Lumpy Space Princess, Bubblegum Princess and Lady Rainicorn (I mean, shes a rainbow snake unicorn who speaks Korean! Whats not to love?). I demand you go watch it right now!! Go on... You know you want to...

Maria Xx

Animation Showreel 2011

2011-04-12T17:22:00.000-07:00

Hey peeps!
So as I mentioned before in my last post I've been riddiculously busy lately not just trying to get the Bitbots advert finished but also at the same time getting my own showreel together of all the work I've done in the past few months. So glad its finally done. To watch the video in HD head over to youtube, hope you like it... Enjoy!

Maria Xx

Bitbots the Advert!!

2011-04-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

Hey!

I've been neglecting the blog as I've just been really busy over the last few weeks. Lots of exciting things happening, one of which is that the Bitbots Advert is finally finished! I've been working with fellow animator Valentina Grasso to get the advert animated and cleaned up (so big thanks to Vale!) and I finally got it into AfterEffects (there was a lot of swearing and gnashing of teeth as I truely hate AE!!!) to edit together and render out in lovely lovely quicktime files.

I have to say I'm very pleased with the final result. Its looking pretty sweet, so I thought I'd upload it and share with you all...Yes! Theres audio but its only temporary as we're having the composer work his musical magic at the moment to compose us some kirky melodies. Once its done & complete I'll upload the final ad in all its finished glory! YES! To watch the video in HD head over to youtube.

Maria Xx

Bitbots Latest...

2011-03-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

Hi peeps!

So I'm being good and trying to keep you updated on the project's latest. Well there has been much work going on. I've been animating steadily over the past week and have managed to finish quite a few of the smaller scenes. It has been very satisfying crossing them off my long list of 'things to animate' which now looms over my workspace. This week I've moved onto some of the more tricky scenes.

Tricky in the sense that I'm animating things I've not animated since college, like birds in flight (Remember that animators? remember the pain? And the fish?) and awkward angle shots. In this particular clip I've posted I've had to do both and was tackling this particular scene just yesterday. I think its turned out ok actually as the toy is such a simple shape so it makes drawing it from various angles a lot easier. I first did him walking through the glade but then realised that continuity wise it was best if I went back and animated him running. So had to go back and change the whole lot!! But its fine though, learning alot.

In other news; I got some gossip today from a friend that apparently this advert - once its been animated, polished up and had some kickass music added to it by our composer Chris Green - will be shown on the Toybreak website. Personally I don't know much about the world of toys, (I had some lego when I was younger!?) but apparently this is a really good thing. So I guess you and I will both be watching this space...

Maria Xx

Bitbots Storyboard

2011-03-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

rough storyboard sketches

Bitbots storyboard panel

Hello there!
Quick update on whats been happening in my world. I've been working very hard these past few weeks, I still can't believe its already March! So as I mentioned before I've been asked to do this advert for the Bitbots toy company which specialises in vinyl toys, called Jinnys... If you've ever seen those collectable toys for adults that have all that crazy artwork and designs all over them (Usually found in places like Kidrobot, Forbidden Planet, Play Lounge or Magma etc...)the Jinny toys by Bitbots are very much like that.

So I've finally finshed the first part of this project... the storyboard and animatic. Its taken me about two weeks to put it all together as I wanted a certain style for the advert which would fit in with the Bitbots current style. The idea behind the advert is that the new line of toys are blank so you can create your own designs onto them. Jats and I sat down and discussed the idea and we thought it would be fun to have one of the Jinny toys running through a forest looking for his friends who are all playing hide&seek. The idea was that because the Jinny's can now have any design put onto them, they are using the forest/ jungle surroundings to camouflage themselves in their game of hide&seek.

Bitbots storyboard panel

So using the toys and the graphic design artwork that Jats sent me I've been working mostly in Photoshop creating the Bitbot forest and jungle and then adding the Jinnys in afterwards. I had already drawn out and scanned a rough storyboard into the computer to help me (see top) and after doing a rough animatic in Flash with the rough sketches so I could edit the panels down and get a sense of the timing. Once I knew exactly which panels I would be using I then brought the panels into Photoshop where I cleaned up the lines and began bringing the style of the advert together. I had alot of images stuck up all over the walls of my work space while designing the jungle to help inspire me. I have this habit of collecting images and postcards which interst me visually, so just picked out the ones from my collection which seemed to fit the Bitbots style but also made sure I used the existing artwork where I could.

Bitbots storyboard panel

Bitbots storyboard - Ending

Once all the panels were cleaned up I went back to the animatic and started bringing them in as a jpg sequence. it worked for most of the storyboard but with some I had decided to try and create layers of panning background in Flash, so I had to go back to the psd files and save the layers I wanted as pngs. It took ages and Flash was far from happy as it would try and crash on me every now and then but I finally got my 30sec animatic done after hours of fiddling aroun with tweens, layers and rendering out quicktimes in as high a quality as Flash would allow me to. I think I pushed my computer alot further than I have done before but I'm really enjoying this project so far. Its been a bit of a baptism by fire but when I met up with my mentor, Sandra, last week she said it was really good experience for me as I was finally bringing all the skills I'd learned at CN and in China together.

Lastly on Friday I had a meet up with Jats and the composer who will be doing the music for the final advert to show them the animatic and discuss any changes that should be made before animating and Jats really seems to like it! So now I just have to make a few adjustments to the animatic and start animating it! I've put up some of the storyboard for now but will post up the animatic at a later date. I will keep you posted on how it all goes. Until next time...

Maria

Bitbots Project

2011-02-25T03:31:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey!

So I've started work on a new project. I heard word through the gossipvine that an old classmate fron Uni was looking for someone to help him make an advert for his toy range. Last year he launched a company called Bitbots which specialises in vinyl toys called Jinnys; each of which had been designed by various artists, designers or animators he knew or had contacted. Quite a few my uni friends have designed toys for him and the work they've produced has been really cool and the idea of doing an advert for the website seemed like a really interesting project so I contacted him to find out more.

So far I'm in the process of putting together a 30sec animatic for the advert which is actually a lot of fun as I have some creative freedom on this project and its a really nice style. So just knuckling down to work at the moment and giving this project my very best creative juice. If you want to check out Bitbots line of Jinny toys you can find them at http://www.bitbots.co.uk/ You can also find the toys on sale in Forbidden Planet Shaftsbury Avenue in London.

I'll keep you posted on how the project is progressing...

Finally Foxy February

2011-02-15T11:47:00.000-08:00

Hey hey!

It's February and I've finally finished the animation project I set myself back in December. The task was to do a short animation from beginning to end using the skills I've learnt over the past year. So doing an animatic, doing the keyposes, blocking out the animation etc... cleaning it all up myself and finally rendering it up. So after a few months rest from being burnt out creatively I felt like there were a lot of skills I'd picked up both in China and at Cartoon Network but had never really put to use on anything of my own. So decided it was time to do a little animation for myself and experiment with what I've learnt.

First I did a rough animatic with a simple idea... a Fox walking around a box (I wanted to animated a character from different angles as its something I've been afraid to tackle in the past). Once I had my animatic and the basic timing I next back and started blocking out the key poses. This was something I did a lot of while in China as we had to animate so quickly, I just can't believe its taken so long for all the stuff I learnt at college to finally click!
After the keyposes I started animating; I chose to do handdrawn animation into Flash as its been a while since I've done any hand drawn and I've really been missing it. I went through it all step by step, adding the extremes, breakdowns, cushioning (something I struggled with in China but now I really appreciate how it adds to the movement of the animation), watching my archs and doing the followthrough on the tail etc... all the things which I'd learnt while at St Martins but never fully understood. And I just played around with it until the timming on the Fox and everything else looked and felt right.

Next was the cleanup. While at Cartoon Network, one of the freelancers showed me how to bring movie exports from Flash into Photoshop turning them into layers, and since then I've been wanting to try it out for myself and just experiment with what could be done with it. Alot of the stuff on my showreel is Flash but I really wanted to make this animation to have a different look so experimented with the brushes and colours so it would look more like a hand drawn animation.

The animation took me about three weeks(animatic to end)and the cleanup about a month and two weeks as I was teaching myself new things, so a lot of trail and error was involved as I was experimenting and learning every step of the way. When I finished the cleanup, I exported the layers from Photoshop (fearing for my laptop which looked ready to crash at any moment) and then I tried to import them as an image sequence into Flash. This didn't work, Flash was having none of it, chosing to bring the images in one by one. Snore!! ZzZz
So how I finally got over this problem was, using Windows Photo Gallery, to rename each jpg image Fox_3400, Fox_349 etc... For some reason when exporting the layers to images Photoshop had not only exported everything out backwards (so that the last frame was the first) but had mucked name of the batch so Flash couldn't recognise it as a sequence. Once sorted I was able to bring it all into Flash as a sequence and play around with the timing again. To help me I first imported a video clip of the rough animation I had exported weeks before into a symbol so I could make it smaller and move it around while I worked on the main timeline before exporting it. It's taken a long time, but it's finally finished and it seems to have turned out quite well. It's finally Foxy February! :D

January Sketches

2011-01-30T09:34:00.000-08:00

Hey! So I've been working on a little project but have still found time to do a few illustrations, just for fun. These are sketches I've done during the month so thought I'd put them up before it was over. The first is a sketch I did for a friend who wanted a cartoon style profile picture. Origianlly I thought of doing it in a really cartoony, characture style, but in the end decided to go for the style of artist Julian Opie (who famously designed the Blur album cover) as I wanted to try out a different style. I think it turned out ok actually and even did one for myself. For anyone who doesn't know of Julian Opie, you can find out more about him and his work at http://www.julianopie.com/

The next one is a sketch I started during the Christmas Holidays but only finished recently as I was playing about the colours and lighting. I was trying to create a magical, almost eerie atmosphere in this painting... I don't think I got the eerie vibe quite right but I'm still really pleased with the way this one has turned out.

And the last one is just a quick sketch I drew of myself dancing in the 1920s costume I made for a New Years party... This was just one of those fun sketches I did while talking to a friend about the party. But I really liked the energy of it so decided to put it up.

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years. I certainly did which is why this is my first post of the year for 2011. Yes so new starts, new beginnings, new resolutions and new projects. I know some people don't believe in making resolutions as they think its cheesy or because they set themselves impossible goals which they end up breaking, but I believe in making them. I think it's a good way to focus the mind to the year ahead and clearly thinking about where you want to be in 12 months time. So I've made mine... well its more like a 'to do list' but in brief I have decided to start setting myself various little projects through out the coming months so I can learn some new skills, some new software packages and of course improve upon my existing skills.

So far I've been taking baby steps as I've been finding it really hard to stay motivated in the past few months since returning from China because No.1 I'd burnt myself out creatively and just needed a break. No.2 I've been too busy partying, catching up with friends and family, and visiting Sweden. No.3 I've been trying to figure out my next move.

Anyway I've decided that for the moment, my main aims are to improve upon my existing animation skills and just do more of my own experiments and work. I've already started on a little animation which I might use for my showreel and I've also decided to learn more about storyboarding and drawing for animation as I feel that there's still alot to learn in those areas. Plus of course I've made all the regular resolutions like learn a new language (I've chosen French because French animation is awesome and it would be cool to one day work either in France or Cananda) and of course hit the gym - my mincepie diet over the Christmas Season has not been kind O_o

But all in all I'm feelin pretty positive about the year ahead. I hope to achieve and learn a lot over the coming months.

All the best

Maria Xx

Influence Map

2010-11-12T09:56:00.000-08:00

The other day my friend Amelia, told me about this little excercise called an 'Influence Map' she'd found online and done herself and during the past few weeks, whenever I've seen her, she's been encouraging me to do one too. The idea is that you put artists, films, people etc...whose work you like and have inspired your own on this map. The more influence they have had the more squares they take up. So now I've done mine and I have to say it's a really good idea!

It's really made me remember who has inspired me over the years and why I do what I do. But also I think its also helped to clarify who my influences are. For example I didn't realise just how much infulence writers, like Roald Dahl, had over my work which was surprising. Plus there were alot of other influences that I'd completely forgotten about who've infulenced me. As a result my 'Influence Map' looks more like an Influence Atlas' and though I've tried my best to keep it down theres still more than I thought. So here's my (edited) Influence Map! (click on the image to enlarge)

I recommend this to any artist who has an evening free to do this because it's good to stop and acknowledge those talented people who have helped you get where you are today! To make your own 'Influence Map' follow this link to download the blank map:

Blank Influence Map

Now if you can be bothered; below are brief descriptions in where I've tried to explain why these artists are my influences and how they have inspired me. But be warned! You WILL be here a while...

Panel 01:
ROALD DALH: This man is amazing! I grew up with his stories and because they were always slightly dark and nasty as well as fun, I think that's why I tend to steer towards films and stories that have that darker side to them. He's definately a huge part of my childhood and most definately influenced the games my brother and I dreamt up, which usually seemed to involve setting booby traps for our parents or hunting monsters in the attic...

WES ANDERSON: He's a recent influence and the director of the Fantastic Mr Fox film. I have to put him here because I love his style(Its crappy but it works!) and the colours he uses in his films. plus the fact I find his adaptation of this Roald Dalh story hilarious and the way everytime I watch it there's something new I missed before.

J.K. ROWLING: I'm not talking about the films; some of which are amzing, some of which are dreadful! I'm talking about the books! The books are amazing and I love the way J.K.Rowling's mind works and the world she creates. She was the only writer for a very long time who's books could completely silence me and keep me in one place for hours - transfixed. Whenever I have to write stories or come up with ideas for animations she and Dahl are definately the ones I refer back to for inspiration when I get stuck. My favourite book is the Prisoner of Azkerban as I liked the way she managed to turn a magical children's story into a thrilling suspense story full of horrible twists! Plus who out there doesn't want to play quidditch?!?

STAR WARS: I'm not too sure how much influence this has on me now but as a child, after I'd watched Star Wars every game was set in a universe far far away... I think it was more the set and costume design that got me really interested in possibly studying Theatre Design later when I arrived at St Martins. And for the longest time because of films like StarWars (I'm talking the old school StarWars not those new films that money grabber Lucas churned out later) I wanted to work in film designing fantasy worlds.

Panel 02
STUDIO GHIBLI: I think I was 18 and doing my foundation at uni when a girl in my class called Billie told me about 'Spirited Away'. I'd seen the posters for the film all over the underground but me being me, I'd never got around to seeing it. that is until Billie told me about it. All she said was 'you'd love it!' and left it at that. So later that year when my mum asked my brother and I what we wanted for christmas (we find it saves time and energy having to return things if you just ask) I said I wanted the DVD of 'Spirited Away' and that it was a Japanese animation. so christmas day rolled on I got my DVD, watched it and it blew my mind. I'd never seen anything like it and was hooked! I just couldn't believe that there were people out there making animated films this beautiful! and not just that one but all of them were amazing! It was the beginning of the end as they say...

Panel 03
DISNEY: Well it's only to be expected that Disney is on my map. If I'd been born in Japan I'd have grown up with Miyazaki's films but I'm from London so it was Disney which I grew up with and which sparked my love for animation. my mum's house is full of Disney films and I think we might possibly have seen them all because at one point it was all my brother and I wanted to watch. later on when I did my dissertation I chose to write about animation (much to my tutor's annoyance as they didn't consider it cultured enough!) but I stood my ground and ended up learning about the early beginnings of animation and of course the early days of Disney. But for me reading wasn't enough. I had to see it! So I hunted down DVDs and videos of the early pioneers of animation, the silly symphonies and early mickey mouse films. This was happening at the time when I was starting to seriously think about training to become an animator as by this time I was starting to realise the world of theatre wasn't for me (probably due to my undying hatred of the course and the fact I never went to see any shows unless it was really amazing - like the Lion King!

PIXAR: I saw Toy Story when I was 11 at Leicester Square Odean for my Birthday and along with the Lion King and the Little Mermaid it is definately one of the films which left a lasting impression on me. I remember going home and telling my dad he had to see this film and demanding he take me again too, it was amazing! Finally when I coming to the end of my degree and toying with the idea whether or not I should take the plunge and train to be an animator; my friend Mary told me about a Pixar exhibition that was on at the Science Museum and said I should go as it might help me make a descision. So off we went and within mintues of stepping through the door I came face to face with the concept art behind Toy Story and I fell hook line and sinker. It took Mary only five minutes to go around the enitre exhibition and when she came back I was still staring (like an idiot) at the first few drawings one of which is the sketch of Buzz Lightyear above...

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON: Another writer I grew up with here. my parents would read his or tales by the Borthers Grimm to get us to sleep. So these stories have always been around and are just part of my imagination now as I think they are for most people who grew up with fairytales and bedtime stories. And I think the fairytales are just part of the deal if you're an animator because part of your imagination has never really grown up...

Panel 04
MUCHA & AUDREY KAWAZAKI: two very different artists here but two whose work I just find really beautiful. As an animator I'm always trying to make my drawings resemble the Disney style but I don't think its wise to just copycat a style so I look to these two artists for extra inspiration, whether it be in terms or colour scheme or atmosphere, or simply trying to create the little details or paint style.

AI YAZAWA: My friend Amelia introduced me to 'Nana' the anime series which is based on the manga of the same name. I don't really know what it is about the Nana stories but I like the way Ai Yazawa brings pictures and great story telling together. Her style of drawing is amazing and the way she frames and tells the story from panel to panel I think has probably started to influence me when I'm drawing illustrations or storyboards. theres something powerful about her drawings but I also love the story which is about the friendship between the two girls named 'Nana' and their dreams, problems and romances they encounter together. It's just a beautiful story and whenever I'm down or heartbroken I always seem to find myself reading the manga and I think it definately made me think more about the emotional impact drawings and animation can have...

Panel 05
AARDMAN & NICK PARK: Another studio I become very aware of as a child. we'd always sit down and watch the Wallace and Gromit films as a family at Christmas and everytime I watch them I'm always amazed by the amount of detail and charm these films have. Also how British they are, I know its a werid thing to like but when you sit down and watch them it's nice to see something that has so much of its creator and their culture in it (like the Miyazaki films) rather than trying to emulate the American films. Plus I really like the way really silly Murder Mystery or Crime Thriller plots which run through out Nick Park's films. plus who doesn't love plastercine?

ASTERIX & OBERLIX: there were always one of the comic by Goscinny and Uderzo laying about our house (we had a lot of books!) and even though these stories where later animated I always perfer the comics. I don't know if its the jokes (theres a Roman General called Christmas Bonus!), the adventures, the senseless cartoon violence or the way these comics are drawn but whenever I drew something as a child I'd always refer to these comics or the Tintin ones on how to draw facial expressions, hands or action poses. So I think it influenced my drawing more than anything...

SATOSHI KON: This man is an amazing story teller; his films are amazing and always slightly trippy. In fact I think the first film of his I come across was Perfect Blue which is like an alfred Hitchcock style suspense thriller. It's also the only animation I had to turn off because it disturbed and sicked me so much. There's a rape scene in this film and to this day I can't bring myself to watch it, which sturck a cord as I didn't realise that drawings and animation could affect someone the way live action could. I also love his film Toyko Godfathers as its completely driven by the characters and the secrets they're trying to run from. also even though its really gritty and violent in some parts (its about three homeless people) it still manages to be funny, poinent, magical and very touching. I really like it, plus the style isn't conventional for anime.

THE MOOMINS: Strange creepy Japanese adaptation of a Finnish children's story by Tove Jansson. This cartoon was so strange, but my brother and I loved it. I loved the Moomin family and how their home was always welcome to strangers who they'd try and help. The Moomin stories always had a very humane message but they could be so dark and surreal at times, not to mention some of the characters, such as the Gorke, were really sinister. Not the stuff I do for work or the stuff I post up on my blog but I've been told by close friends that when I draw for me, my drawings and stories are really sinsiter so I think this cartoon may have been the influence behind this...

JAPAN!!!: The picture of the wave is very simple, JAPAN!! And everything creative that has come from this country; from its beautiful traditional paintings to the additive manga and it's violently imaginative anime! I love it all and am completely obessed with Japan. So yes! I am puting an entire country on my list of influences!

Panel 06
JAN SVANKMAJER: Have any of you seen the film Alice? I don't mean the cutesy Disney version I mean the alive action meets stop-motion horror fantasy created by the mind of this Cechz animator! This film terrified me as a child. The taxidery white rabbit and his little minions might been the reason I have an unhealthy fanscination for taxidery and places like the Hunterian Museum in Holborn or would much rather go to see a Body Works Exhibition (the one by Prof. Gunther Von Hagen) and look at dead people than do something 'normal' in my spare time... Anyway my love of Svankmajer and his use of film, animation and taxidery all fell into place when I started the animation course, where my fascination with dead things and atonomy came in useful... Svankmajer has a part to play in that I think. I'm sure rather than 'influencing' me he's more scarred me for life...

Panel 07
JILL BARKLEM: Not everyone will know who this is but this was another children's writer I grew up with, who wrote stories about the Mice of Bramble Hedge and their adventures throughout the year. What I liked about these books was that the authour illustrated her own stories so you saw the world she'd created exactly the way she wanted you too. I always loved how packed with detail these drawings were too. you could sit for ages just looking at the watercolour drawings and the all the objects and clutter that lay about the mice's homes for hours after you'd finished the story. I've always tried to create a lot of detail within my own drawings and I think Barklem may have been the reason why...

JAN PEINKOWSKI: Maybe another not so well known illuustrator I used to like as a child. We used to have these books my mum would only let us read at Christmas called the 'First Christmas' and the 'Night Before Christmas' (we also had Abarian Nights) all of which were iluustrated by this guy. I don't know what it was about these drawings with the colouful skies and the main foucs of the drawing in silhouette but its always stuck in my mind, especially when I have to draw something wintery or that has to have a dramatic effect. Which is why I'm adding it here...

TINTIN: like Asterix and Oberlix, the tintin comics were always laying around our house at home and when my brother and I weren't trying to destroy the place with our Star Wars games, hunting my parents or trying the staircase into a massive snow sleding wonderland we were making comics. Tintin and the Asterix comics were always the things we referred to when we got stuck for a story and I always love the way Herge drew Tintin and Snowy. Also my faveourite story was always 'Tintin in Tibet' because it was the most haunting and in my mind the best out of all the Tintin stories...

Panel 08
TOMM MOORE & THE SECRET OF KELLS: Anyone who knows me knows I love this guy's work and his style which I've probably completely stolen by now. Apparently the design for his film was based on monastary stain-glass windows and the film is just lovely and the story magical which is why I've put it here. Whenever I'm feeling disillusuioned with animation this is one of the films I put on and watch to remind myself why I love what I do so much and also where I'd like to end up some day...

PICASSO: Maybe it seems a bit odd to have a painter here since I'm an animator, but for the longest time I didn't know what I liked or wanted to do. I just liked to draw and paint and so painters like Picasso and later Frida Kahlo were big influences on me as I used to visit galleries quite alot with my dad or go to art class and try and paint and draw like they did...

Panel 09
LADY VENGENCE & SAKURAN: These two panels represent not just these two films ( a Korean film by Park Chan-Wook and a Japanese film by Mika Ninagawa) which I love for their visual storytelling but also foreign films in general which I tend to watch a lot of. This might be down to me being introduced to foreign films through friends I met while at art college or by readint about them and simply seeking them out for myself but I think it's always a good to look to other ways of film making as it helps later with storyboards and simply ideas for drawings or animation... plus the colours, art direction and patterns used in these films are just amazing!

NEIL GAIMAN: Another story teller on my list which is why I think its good I've done this map as it's making me realise what it is that really drives me and keeps me inspired and its not what I thought! Anyway I came across the Neil Gaiman books when a girl on my Theatre course leant them to me as they were 'freaking her out!' as she put it. Intrigued I took the books home as I'd really liked the illustrations and later realised what she'd meant. I was reading Gaiman's Sandman but rather than being freaked out by it I loved it and his character Morpheus and his family. I'd never read anything like it and loved the way the magical, epic, normal and mundane were blended together in such a fluid way. I've read his other books which are just as amazing as he deals with myths and ancient gods quite a lot in his stories (plus did you know he helped write the script for the english version of Princess Mononoke?) But out of his Sandman series I liked 'Endless Nights' and 'The Doll's House' which is terrifying! So Gaiman makes my map!

HENRY SELICK: the guy who directed Coraline and co directed on a few Burton films too. I really love what Henry Selick has done with 'Coraline'. I like the style and I love the detail I love the jumping mice! I don't know what it is about this film, maybe because its a Neil Gaiman story and my two heroes worked together on this film which is just amazing when two create minds like them get together...anyway people like Henry Selick are where I hope to be some day, which is why he's last but not least on my list.

Oh still here are you? If so Well Done! You must either really love me or probably completely hate me by now. I hope it's not the last one (I did warn you!!) Either way thankyou for taking the time to read this post and I encourage you to make your own 'Infulence Map' too... it might surprise you, mine did! :)

Maria X

Nanjing Lu

2010-10-13T10:33:00.001-07:00

Photos of Nanjing Lu. Shanghai's answer to Oxford Street or Piccadilly Circus. During the is when you should come see this place at it's best.

The Bund

2010-10-13T09:56:00.001-07:00

Yet more Photos of the discoveries and sights I saw while out exploring during my last weeks... This is the Bund as it slowly begins to come to life during the evening. go to the bottom of this post and scroll up.

We Love Shanghai! (the last weeks)

2010-10-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hey!

Ok, so what's been happening with me lately?

Well as some of you may know it's my last week in Shanghai. And since officially ending my contract working for Jetoon a week ago I've been busy trying to pack as much of Shanghai and its sights into these last two weeks as humanly possible. I've been working too, rigging my new characters for the blog but that's for another post. So I've been exploring The Yu Bazaar and it's underground antique and jade markets,I've been to the Yu Yuan Gardens and had traditional Chinese tea at the Huxinting Tea House with Tom, Lucy, her cousin Jackie. And on top of this I've been exploring the Bird and Antiques Markets and Xin Tiandi with my friend A.J, who's going to be living and working in Shanghai for the next 2 years (good luck!).

While this weekend I had a girly shopping spree with Ying a friend from my studio in Raffles City, which is just outside People's Square station. Six floors of girly shopping heaven and a maze of underground stalls where only the brave dare haggle with the stall owners here. The one we were dealing with was a particularly good actress. I thought she was going to cry when I offered her my price for the two pedants I wanted to buy! The lady deserved an oscar! Ying also took me to Nanjing Lu which is really amazing at night! So thats what I've been up too lately. Also, according to Ying my Chinese isn't too bad! She had no problem understanding me and I was even able to understand most of the conversations when she was helping me bargin in the stores. And I even surprised her with my 'Bu Yao!' when we were walking down Nanjing Lu and we kept getting chancers trying to sell us fake designer bags. I'm actually going to miss all that.

This week I'll probably go back and haggle for more bargins but since now I have only 5 days left I should really start wrapping up my life in Shanghai and start packing. Or at least thinking about it. I've got as far as taking my suitcase out of the wardrobe and placing it by my window so I can mentally prepare myself but that's as far as the packing has gone... I also need to go back to the studio and collect the work that I've animated over the last six-seven months. It's still hard to believe that I've been living in China for the best part of a year. Time really does fly by when you're living in Shangahai!

I've posted up the photos separately as there are quite a few. Enjoy!

M x

The Antiques Market

2010-10-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

Shanghai's Antique Market. This place is in a word 'amazing', it has some really cool stuff on sale, but you will have to haggle like a bitch as the stall owners are ALL out to rip you off. Unlike the Bird Market where no one hassled us and we were free to look and explore with out being approached, nearly every stall we passed and stopped to look at had someone wanting us to come inside so they could convince us to buy something. It's all part of the experience though.

Above: By the way if anyone is wondering what to get me for christmas look no further! I love these old fashioned gramophones, but it would be even more amazing if it actually works! If I had come across an old fashioned Zoetrope while exploring this market I think I would have died and gone straight to animator heaven!

Above: Discovering old fashioned Chinese porn.. and below 1930s posters from old time Shanghai.

The Bird Market

2010-10-10T07:03:00.001-07:00

Photos from the small, enclosed maze of stalls and sheltered streets of the Bird (pet) Market where you can buy anything from birds in bamboo cages, cats and riddiculously cute puppies, rabbits and rodents to large jewel coloured crickets, turtles, fish, snakes and lizards. It was close but not as smelly as you'd imagine but the noise from the thousands of crickets in there was just deafening! By the way if you don't like seeing cute furry animals in cages I won't advise going here when visiting Shanghai. I've chosen not to put the photos I took for these animals so it's safe to view this post for all you animal lovers.

Lady selling giant crickets. When we went there she was feeding them this paste which she was dishing out into small procelin bowls (the sort you'd get with a doll's tea set) and putting them in the jars with the insects.

Xin Tiandi

2010-10-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

Photos of Xin Tiandi or 'New World' where lots of western style shops and restaurants can be found, most of which are quite expensive but great if you're missing food from back home.

Huxinting Tea House

2010-10-10T06:18:00.003-07:00

Time for tea in the Huxinting Tea House! located in the centre of the Yu Bazaa. Here are some photos for our little tea party in this amazing place.

Our hostess, explaining about the different varities of tea and their various properties. Apparently there's a tea to cure almost anything! From skin problems to obessecity and diabetes. wonder if they have one to help fatten up the old bank account?

Tom, Lucy and Jackie browsing the menu for the different teas they'd like to try... and below, myself trying the iron buddha, jasmine or flower tea. I forget which was which, but if you love herbal teas they were all pretty good...

Our hostress preparing the teas. There seems to be a paticular way to do this, almost like the Japanese tea ceremonies...

Last of all are the soup dumplings and tufo mushroom spring rolls we had afterwards in a nearby restaurant. The queue was epic but definately worth the wait. The soup dumpling was zhen haochi le! (or 'well tasty' for those who don't speak Chinese). You actually have to use a straw to drink the soup out of the dumpling!

The Yu Gardens

2010-10-10T06:18:00.001-07:00

More Photos of my last few weeks living and workingin Shanghai. The beautiful Yu Gardens... Enjoy.

Girl with the awesome Totorro Bag. Love her & her bag!!

Yu Bazaar

2010-10-10T05:47:00.001-07:00

Some photos of the Yu Bazaar. I think it was just before the Autumn festival that we came here to have a proper look around. But its always this crowded and crazy... even on the quiet days! There's just no such thing I guess in Shanghai... But it's pretty amazing walking around these streets. Like stepping into Spirited Away for those of you who are fans of the Miyazaki films...

Above: The Yu Bazaar on a quiet day... and below the giant goldfish that can be found swimming underneath the ZigZag Bridge that leads to the Huxinting Tea House. Apparently it's Zigzag design is to confuse and ward off evil spirits - who apparently can't turn corners. Always good to know...

Above: The Yu Bazaar and the Zigzag bridge (right) from inside the Huxinting Tea House...

Lanterns

2010-09-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

There are these red lanterns everywhere in Shanghai, especially now it's the holidays. So when I found myself with time at work to experiment I decided to try doing a picture with lantern light and vivid colours. The painting isn't finished but thought I'd put it up anyway.

I started with a rough sketch of the lantern and it's surroundings, then chose some colours I to use as a pallette. I started with the lantern, painting the light first, then the lantern and the detail. I used several layers for the light and the transparency of the lantern, playing around with the brightness and opacity levels. Once I had my light source I moved on to the other parts of the room. I hid the lantern but kept the outer glow so I always knew where the light was coming from and how it would affect the colours and shadows. I then added patterns on the cabinent. I've been watching this amazing Japanese film lately called 'Sakuran'. I have no idea what the story is as its all Japanese with chinese subtitles but the colours and patterns used throughout the film for the costumes and sets are amazing! So its influenced the colours and patterns in the painting so far.
Once that was done I started on the window. I know the light from the lantern should be reflected in the glass but I also want to show that theres a world beyond outside the window. I've been trying to imagine the world on the other side of the glass - prehaps a busy street, with neon lights or more lanterns in the rain? But I haven't really decided yet, and this painting will have to wait for the moment as I'm working on other projects. I will post the finished painting up when it's finally done.

Maria x

Photoshop

2010-09-29T06:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, so made a little discovery today while mucking about in Photoshop, which I thought I'd share with those of you who don't know about this. The photoshop programmes at Jetoon have some really cool brush shapes stored in their library - ones that allow you to create the illusion of oil pastels, water colours (which I'm a fan of), crayon, coloured pencil, coloured inks and so on, without having to abuse the blur or smudge tools so much. (I hate having to use it as my computer has to think about it for half an hour before I can get anything else done). So it made me wonder if it was possible to save the brush shapes from work and open them up on my laptop at home. I discovered that you can in fact do just this.

Step 01: Open the brush tools library in Photoshop and click on the little menu button in the top righthand corner. Scroll down the menu until you find the option to 'Save Brushes' and save the file on your USB stick or where ever so you can take it home.

Step 02: Go home and turn on your computer and plug in your USB. Open Photoshop and once again go to the brush tool library, click on the menu button and then scroll down to where it says 'Load Brushes'. A box will appear and this will be the Photoshop presets folder for the brushes. Copy and paste your new brush file over from your USB stick and into this folder then click on it, Photoshop will load it up and Voila! New brushes to play with!!

Last Days at Jetoon

2010-09-29T04:47:00.000-07:00

It's the last few days working at Jetoon this week. I've still been animating Silly Bitty Bunny but generally the pace has been quite slow and relaxed in the studio. This is because from Friday 1st of October it's a national holiday here in China (the mid autumn festival I think it's called) so everyone's winding down for a weeks holiday. Since I've not had many scenes and managed to finish them early this week, I've been left with some free time at work to do some sketches of my own in Photoshop.

I've been mucking about with the brushes and experiment trying out some experiements with light. Also over the past few week during my free time, I've been working on my projects, so used this free time to also do some concept/background sketches so I could get a feel for the world I wanted to create. The first two pictures are my concept sketches and the others are me experimenting with light and brush shapes. I'm quite pleased and surprised by how these have turned out actually and I've learnt so much more about Photoshop (I Love this programme!). Hope you like them too!

Maria x

Coraline's Cave

2010-09-10T04:15:00.000-07:00

The other day I made a little discovery while at work in the studio. I was looking through the server, where we download films to watch during our studio breaktimes, (I was looking for the Alien Trilogy when I should have been animating - Oops!)when I came across the folder full of concept art from the film 'Coraline' directed by Henry Selick and based on the story by Neil Gaiman.

Finding these was like stumbling into an treasure cave, complete with chocolate waterfall! It made my day (yes I know! I'm a geek!) so after drooling all over them during my break, I promptly pinched them to stick up here and share with you. There were hundreds in the folder so here are some of my favourites. Enjoy!

Random Sketches

2010-09-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

Ok some Random sketches from the past few months for you...

The first is a rough sketch I did while animating a scene for Groove High. I had to animate this scene where one for the characters called Tom bursts into a jam on his guitar, surprising the other characters in the scene. These sketches were me trying to work out the action and key poses for the scene.

The next sketch (which I've tidied up a bit) is one I did of Tom Collie when he first arrived in China and our friend Xiao Li's reaction when he walked through the door. Xiao Li is tiny, about 5'5 maybe less and Tom is 6'2 so it made me smile seeing these two meet for the first time...

Busy Bunny

2010-09-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Again!

It's been about two weeks or so now since my last post, so here's the latest... We've been really busy at the Studio recently. The past two weeks Tom, myself and a few others have been focusing on animation practise using old scenes from previous Silly Bitty Bunny episodes to work with, while everyone else in the studio has been laying out the new scenes for the new episodes. (Among this group was our flatmate Xiao Li, who has been very grumpy lately as she's had to work late and even weekends!)

The practise was so we could get familiar with the cartoon and setout of the character rigs and scenes. And today we were finally given our scenes for espisode 56. we were given two scenes each to be finished with checks by end of tomorrow so the studio can send them back to France to be checked by 'the client'. Good thing we had the practise actually as Tom and I have really been picking up the pace with our animation and managed to get both scenes animated with only small things like follow through or lipsycning to finish off. So thats what's been happening at work.

In the mean time, during my free time I've put my story aside to concerntrate on another project I've been working on. all this animation practise has been great as I've really learnt alot and its finally starting to click to the point where I'm actually stating to enjoy animating. During this time I've been drawing up a storyboard for a short I want to make and thought it would be a good idea to redesign some old characters as well as make a rig for them. I've never made an animation rig for a character before but I'll be using the last five weeks I'm here in China to try and work it out and hopefully build one that I can start working with by the time I reach London. We'll see how it goes. in the mean time here are some stills from my storyboard that I'm working on.

M x

Silly Bitty Bunny

2010-08-28T02:12:00.000-07:00

Hey Bloggers!

It's been several weeks since my last post, so apologies. But since my last post I've been really busy. I've been doing some character design at work for this comedy series from London called 'Parklife.' Went to Beijing with my collegue Tom for a well deserved break. Beijing is amazing! if you're ever in China then go! and go to the Great Wall (though go somewhere where its not so crowded) and try, Try, TRY the pekin duck! ta shi zhen haochi le! (it's really delicious). Now, I'm back at work I've started animating a new series thats just come in from France called 'Silly Bitty Bunny.' I'm not sure if I've ever watch it before but it looks very familiar. Its about this character called Silly Bitty Bunny who is about 5 years old and each episode he experiences new things or situations for the "first time" which help him to grow up.It's really cute and brightly coloured, like its been coloured with crayons. It's really nice to animate after Groove High, as the characters aren't as complicated which means that I'm managing to animate the scenes alot quicker as there's less to deal with. I managed to animate three whole scenes this week! I was so pleased! We're doing an episode called "The First Time I did a Magic Trick" and we've just finished the practice so we get the espisode next week to layout and start animating.

The one thing I have found challenging this week was the lipsyncing. The audio dialogue the studio sent is all in French, where as before its been in English (with regional accents). I've never done lipsync in for a foreign language before so I really had to listen to catch the words, before writting them down. I've studied French a little so I could figure out what was being said but there were quite a few words I wasn't sure of or simply didn't know so I just had to take a wild guess. I'm not too sure if I got most of the mouth shapes right but I don't think it really matter though as Bitty talks really fast and as long as it was synced up I managed to get away with it!

So, as well as that I've been trying to work on my own stuff. Been storyboarding something I want to eventually animate as well as writing a short story which has been taking up most of my free time, when I'm not studying. Why is it I never seem to have enough time to anything??

Anyway, until next time!

M x

Return of the Eskimo...

2010-08-02T10:17:00.002-07:00

Double bounce from Maria Birmingham on Vimeo.

Hey again!

So have been animating a lot using symbols since I got to Shanghai, and even though I've been drawing loads in my sketch book to make up for it I've really been missing drawn animation. So this evening I decided to try out a double bounce to libber up. Have chosen to bring back my eskimo character that I animated for a project back in college for this, since he's really nice and simple to draw. Compared to how I animated him back then theres a real difference in my animation now. Its so nice to see how much I've improved...But there's still much to learn!

So this is my first attempt at a double bounce walk. Its only the keys but its seems to be working well. I also thought it would be nice to use this character as I hope to try out several new things I've picked up. And since he was one of the first real characters I animated it just seems right to bring him back to the Igloo. So hopefully you will be seeing more of him....

Sangria Saturday & Hello Kitty!

2010-07-25T06:19:00.000-07:00

This week has been super busy, as the studio finally has the Groove High project in and since wednesday we've been busy with preproduction; helping to make all the props for the episodes. We've been drawing them in Flash trying to get them all finished by this coming Monday. We all had alot of work so by the weekend we were all shattered but Tom and I were still determined to go sightseeing in central Shanghai this weekend. We went exploring in the French Concession where we saw the old 1930s Cathy Theatre, Fuxing Park, Sun Yat-Sen's house (he was one of China's most famous and popular, leaders), Taikang Lu and went wandering down Moaming Road where we found a really great tapas bar. Tom and I have been missing the food from home like crazy so it was nice to finally have some food we recognised placed in front of us. We even had a huge jug of Sangria and ate with a knife and fork, which I didn't even notice I was using until Tom pointed it out! Good times! :D

And talking good times here's a picture I did of the time Tom and I did Karaoke for our mate Xin's Birthday. This took place back in June and for those of you who know me, you know I love karaoke! Get enough drink down me and I'm likely to try and wrestle you for the microphone! And being in a pink 'Hello Kitty!' room, with a table loaded with tasty treats and yummy cakes while warbbling along to the cheesiest pop songs known to man?!? What more could a girl ask for?? As for Tom, he had a great time...

Tiny Tiger, Swooping Dragon!

2010-07-24T10:04:00.001-07:00

So back again for my next post. This is part of a little comic I did for our flatmate Xiao Li as a birthday present for her last month. I'm really rubbish at buying gifts for people as I tend to find my mind firing a complete blank when trying to work out what my friends would like. Have you ever had that? Where you find the perfect gift when its not their birthday but dont buy it and months later you either can't find it or the shop you saw it in?? constantly happens to me. Anyway because of this I usually just end up drawing something for my friends because it's easier. Anyway here are a few of the panels from the comic I drew for her, just about life at Zhidong no.109 where we live. It took ages but it was worth it to see Xiao Li's face, she really loved it! So did Tom! :)

Typhoon Mondays...

2010-07-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

Monday. God can have the other days but I am convinced that Monday is most deifnately the work of Satan! I had to animated three walk cycles today for the Groove High project, but then I had to go and open scene 3 in which, not one, not two but three characters and a guitar all spin around in surprise as the character Zoe runs on screen in a panic.

'Yeah? And what?' you say. Turns are ok when you can draw them, no problem. But when you have to work in Flash using symbols and have a gadzilllion layers of fingers, toes and other extremities it gets a bit complicated. I had some serious animator's block today, I tried three times to figure out how to make this character and his guitar pivot round on one leg and still couldn't figure it out! Everything I did looked W.R.O.N.G! Plus I couldn't annoy my fellow Brit, Tom, with endless questions on how to tackle it as he was off sick today with food poisoning. We're dropping like flies out here in China!

Before you ask, I know basic Chinese (emphasis on BASIC!), not nearly enough to explain today's problem. And the other animators, such as Feng who is like a baron/genius over lord in Flash doesn't speak a word of English. So I was well and truely screwed!... but its fine, I'll destroy it tomorrow!
Lastly my other chinese flatmate Wong Yi, has informed me that they get Typhoons out here in Shanghai! I've never experienced a Typhoon so its probably unwise to be excited by this, but I am! I love storms! Anyway, found another sketch I did back in June of this dog called 'dong dong' we have at the studio. He's absolutely gorgeous! But everytime you take him out for a walk its like running the marathon and he'll quite happily pee on you while you're not looking! As he's done to me...on a number of occassions... Grrr! You'll be getting no cake from me Dong dong!

June Sketches

2010-07-17T06:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm being good and trying to update this often. Today I've been looking through my files of all the random sketches I've done in the past few months when I found this. I did this last month at work using Photoshop. I had an afternoon where I didn't have any thing to do as I'd finished all my work and was waiting for some new scenes, so rather than watching a film or being bored I decided to try experimenting with skin tones and shading. Hope you like!

Après la pluie (After the rain)

2010-07-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you but sometimes I get disillusioned by the whole animation thing and just think, 'what's the point?!' I work really hard, breaking my back, animating all day just to have some director come along and tell me to change it - No! - do it all again! After lovingly animating something for several hours, even several weeks, I try not to let this get to me. But I'm only human and sometimes a girl just has a bad day... or week or month. Know what I mean? Nothing seems to go right! The follow through on that hair never looks right, or you have a day where everything you draw looks like crap! Or Flash suddenly decides it doesn't like you and starts crashing!

BUT! And this is a big 'but' on days like this it's important to get some perpective and remember why I decided to chose this career rather than just doing a normal, boring 9-5 office job that makes me want to kill myself. I do it simply because I love it and when I see stuff like this short film called 'Après la Pluie', which I found on the Gobelins website, it just makes me feel inspired and fall in love with animation all over again! If you haven't seen this film already please do! It's absolutely beautiful!

Maddy Von What!?

2010-07-16T11:57:00.000-07:00

Can I just say, I have spent most of today in bed recovering after my dramatic rush to hospital. After such low blood pressure and so much excitement I was absolutely exhausted! So imagine how I feel when I look on Maddy's blog and see this amazing piece of animation! Tom, my flatmate and I spent several minutes, examining and scrutinizing the bound, the anticipation, the followthrough and arcs and quite frankly, we're disgusted! Maddy did you do this awesome animation?? If so, where the hell are you getting the time to do this? I feel exhausted everytime I look at your blog, I can't keep up! What's your secret? You have a time machine don't you? Or prehaps an army of Maddy clones?? Whatever it is we need the secret and we need it now..... You're good Maddy, really good! And we salute you! :)

Blogging Fever

2010-07-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

Hey Bloggers!

Have been really bad the past few months with keeping this blog updated. But haven't been idle while here in Shanghai. Have been drawing and animating loads, but have to sort through the sketch book and files first. Promise, promise, promise I'll get them up soon! Also, maybe it just me but there seems to be a bit of bloggers fever going about. Have noticed that a few of my friends, Moo and Madde in particular have been busy, sketching and blogging and its motivating me to seriously up my game! Its nice to have friends who keep you inspired. Great work girls! Keep it up!

Speaking of which, here's a sketch I did back in March, a few weeks before leaving London. Really summed up my general excitement about China!

Rabbit Rabbit!

2010-07-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Nihao all!

Its been several months since I vanished off to China. Thought it was about time for an update. Have been sketching and drawing loads, which I will put up soon. The past few days I have been doing some character designs for the Jetoon Studio. The character is called 'Sweet Corn Rabbit', he really likes corn and is aimed at 4-5 year olds. Not sure if its for a series or a toy design but here is what I have so far...

Funny Props, Fantastic Worlds

2010-03-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

These are some props my mentor asked me to design for the 'Fantastic Worlds' promo. The idea behind it was that the viewer is guided through a universe where the are three worlds. One for 'Ben 10 Alien Force', one for 'Star Wars' and another for 'Bakugan'. Each planet has weapons from the shows orbiting it and the viewer has to choose theire weapon to continue on to watch the show. The props I designed are joke weapons for the promo.

Bakugan Ident

2010-03-04T10:27:00.000-08:00

A still from a scene of the final promo for the Big Brother themed Ident.

Team Bakugan!!

2010-03-04T09:48:00.000-08:00

So I was asked to help out on a new project. The producers idea for this one was to have the characters from the show 'Bakugan!' in the Big Brother house. This one I found quite challenging because of the tight deadline (a week, not including the weekend) and also because I was the only animator working on it; so I did the animatic, animation, and layouts. It was a good challenge though and I think the end result is quite good. My friend was also roped in to help me with layouts. Not sure if I can upload the animation yet... so for now here are the layouts. We used the patterns & clips from the show to make the house as close to the style of Bakugan as possible.

Scooby Ancester

2010-03-04T09:33:00.001-08:00

This painting of Scooby & Shaggy's Ancesters was a prop that the producer asked me to create for the Scooby Cribs Ident which was also added to the final version.

Scooby Cribs (22579)

2010-03-04T08:49:00.000-08:00

This is a project were I was helping out on cleanup and animation but where I was working mainly on layouts. In this promo Shaggy & Scooby- Doo do a spoof of MTV's 'Cribs' and show us around their mansion.

Syntex Love!

2010-02-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

So this is a follow on from the 'Ben 10 Promo' post. I've been using the brand new shiny syntex computers for this project and I have to say - I'm in love! I really want one! Its like a computer and a light box all in one! ^_^ Also because I've been animating and drawing Ben 10 alot when I got bored I started messing about with the syntex and drawing myself in the Ben 10 style. I also did Atomic Betty too...Here are my drawings.

Ben 10 Promo

2010-02-05T07:55:00.000-08:00

Hi there, more updates from November 2009.

So was animating on a Ben 10 Promo here. I did the animation for young Ben 10 and then teen Ben 10 (from the Alien Force series for those who don't know). I started the animation and was later joined by another animator called Tom who helped me with animation and cleanup.

Graphic Design Stuff

2010-02-04T18:30:00.000-08:00

Ok last post of tonight as its really late and I have work tomorrow. Since moving into my new place I've found it near impossible to get out of bed in the mornings... my bed is just so comfortable!! ^.^

Anyway from October - Dec 2009 I had to do a bit of graphic design work as there wasn't alot of animation work at CN. I did some backgrouds and arrow props for a teen promo and also designed some wedding invitations for my mentor Sandra. I didn't mind doing the graphic design work but to be honest its not really for me. I find animation so much more interesting because it usually has a narrative but I was touched that my mentor wanted me to design her wedding invites. I'm not a graphic designer but gave it my best shot... so it would be nice to get some feed back on this work.

'Chowder!' Promo

2010-02-04T17:35:00.001-08:00

November 2009...

I did two short animations with the character Chowder (from the CN show of the same name) for a promo advertising the channel's European website (at least thats what I was told). I animated one of Chowder gobbling up the CN logo and the other with him writing down the european website addresses onto a menu board. I really liked this project as I was able to not only animate a new character but also design props for it and the website in the 'Chowder' style. I've also uploaded a layout from the CN library. It really got me inspired - hope it inpires you too!

Xmas in November

2010-02-04T17:15:00.000-08:00

So during Setptember - October 2009 I wasn't doing much animation at work. But I did have a lot of graphic design and prop work given to me by my mentor who has noticed that I'm quite good at designing props and layouts. She got me to design some props for the 'Xmas in November' promos which I think were shown in the Netherlands...

Sketches & Doodles 2009

2010-02-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

These are some sketches that I did early to mid 2009. Some just doodles, others are character designs or ideas... I also did a lot of life drawing during this time down in Angel during the evenings. I don't have a scanner in my new place so when I get the chance I want to scan those and upload them.

Autumn Birthdays 2008

2010-02-04T16:07:00.000-08:00

Ok so a quick catch up with pictures on what I've been doing... this was done in autum 2008 and were drawings for friends I did as birthday presents.

Clean up stills for Cartoon Network

2008-09-04T04:27:00.000-07:00

Fingers Crossed!

2008-07-15T04:43:00.001-07:00

Wednesday 25th June 2008

Hello,

Just a quick post because I have a busy day ahead. Our graduation show came to an end last night and I'm feeling a bit sad about it all because its all now at an end. However there is some good news...for our private view on Friday we had quite a few industry people come down to the show to view our work. It was so nerve racking approach people and just trying to start a dialogue...I'm not much good at that but I tried my best (after a bit of alcohol of course). I was speaking to one guy called Dave who was from a studio named '12foot6' and he seemed to really like my animation and told me to come down to the studio. So I emailed him on Monday, after the weekend and he emailed straight back saying to come by on Thursday.

I'm really pleased but I don't want to get my hopes up just yet. It could just be that they want to see more of my work and nothing more, I don't know. Anyway today I'm going to have a look over my CV and see if it needs updating and try to tidy up my portfolio because I'm just not happy with it. Anyway keep your fingers crossed for me for tomorrow! I'm also popping into college to collect the rest of my stuff (It feels like I've been fired! Its so trumatic!).

I've been wondering how I'm going to make more showreels if I can't come back into college. I'm helping out on one of the animator incubator projects but I'm not needed right yet so not sure if I can still sneak in the make more copies of my reel. However, one of my friend Marco came last night to the show & he told me he could do loads more copies of my showreel on a 20 deck (I think thats what he said??) if I'm interested. I will definately take him up on that offer when he's less busy.

I've also asked another friend Chris (who also came by last night to the show) if he will do some music for me for my Polar Panic animation. Its got a bit of music on it but its so been stolen even though I've not used the whole track. However, I don't want t get in trouble and Chris is really musical so he said he'd be happy to do it for me. He got very excited and started telling me how cool it would be to work on something light hearted after working on music for a short live action film where an old man dies. He said it just made him so depressed. Chris has also got in on the Animation course for next year...guy's far too talented! :D

The Disgruntled Animator

2008-07-15T04:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday 22nd June

Just One Thing After Another!

Hello again,
Ok, I've spent a lot of time and effort on getting everything done for the graduation show. Not only my animations & showreel etc.. etc... but also promotional stuff. I took a still from my animation 'Polar Panic' about an eskimo (or Inuit if we want to politically correct) fleeing and very angry Polar Bear. I decide to use the still for everything from my dvd covers and labels to my business cards and when I get around to it even my headed paper for when I send out covering letters...la la la! Our tutor Steve said this would be a good thing to do, because it would help people to instantly recognise our work and remember what we'd done. Plus I thought this image was really strong.
I sent this design off to a company (which I shall not name as I have no wish to promote them as they are rubbish) and I ordered in good time so that I would get my cards for the private view. But would things run smoothly for me?? Huh! Yeah right! No, they messed about saying there were things wrong with it and then when they finally got around to saying my order had been approved they said 'Yes your order will be with you within EIGHT DAYS!' This was on wednesday, which was two days before the show And I know my luck...I won't be seeing those cards till some time next week.
HOWEVER! I decided to take the bull by the horns and make my own cards....no matter how rubbish, and since my brother got a brand new shiny printer and I had randomly bought some shiny paper for no reason ages ago we got together and started printing. I just shrank the image in Photoshop and copied it so there would be about nine per page and then took it from my computer to my bro's lap top and started printing out. So maybe if it goes tits up with animation my brother and I could at least start up some online business selling dodgy business cards!

So as you can see above, these were the designs I did for my business cards and the cover for my dvd cases. I'm so proud of them... It looks so professional! I suppose this is steering into Graphic Design which I have no training in but its not bad for a first attempt. I also happened to have lots of spray mount laying about from my old course (as we did lots of model making) so that came in very handy when I was putting the front and back of my cards together. I was spraying and mounting at 3am in the morning the day of the show while sitting on a big pile of books with the finished cards laying between so I could flatten them and get the glue to stick. Its so werid how random, rubbish I've bought over the years and which I'm always meaning to throw out or try and sell off to friends suddenly comes in handy when you least expect it.
Its a good thing I could sense trouble coming and had the sense to do something about it...It was good to at least have something on my desk for people to take away. It was so horrible at my degree show not having business cards because you couldn't tell if people liked your work or not! Anyway just thought I'd show you this and have a little rant before I go to bed. I've got some emails and research to do tomorrow so hopefully I will be around to tell you about the private view and last week.
Goodnight!

Maria

Hectic Week

2008-07-15T04:10:00.000-07:00

28 May 2008

National Gallery - Animatic Screening

I've been too busy to keep this blog up to date regularly so if I repeat stuff from before...apologies.

April 21st - April 25th:

So this week was the build up to the screening of our Animatics at the National Gallery and its been very stressful. All this week I've been working my butt off to get all my layouts finished and put my animatic together in time for the screening... So this is whats been going on...

Monday 21st:

Even though I'd drawn most of my layouts over easter I still had the layouts for the opening scenes to do. These are the shots of the streets where my Tramp is walking in the rain, but unlike the other layouts where i'd used images i'd found in books or the internet, all the images i found of streets were either american ones or really cliched ones of London (you know the really touristy ones of Picaddilly and Oxford Street, which where no good) so most of last week i had to go trecking around london just to find the perfect streets for my opening shots. luckily for me i didn't have to go too far as the photos that i did end up choosing in the end where mostly ones from around Holborn or the Strand. These are the ones i finally chose. with the top three i had to put them into photo shop as there were elements of them that i liked such as the tetlephone box, the bus stop and the front of the novelle theatre (where into the hood is currently showing, my friend is working on the show so go and see it!!)
Anyway, I printed out the photos (having to run all the way to davies street because the technicians at Southampton Row are incompetant and useless when I asked them for help. I don't know wht was up with the printer, it wouldn't print out at the size i'd set it at and i didn't have time to fiddle with it, which annoyed me. once i finally had my prints i ran back to catton street and started tracing them up on the light box. I know i could have just used the prints themselves but since I'd started drawing all my layouts i wantedto keep the style consistent, plus i think the scribbly pencil style looks really nice. I think i had about eight or seven layouts to do in all and I was a bit worried about getting them all done today, especially when Steve said that they were riddiculously detailed...i want my work to look good, leave me alone! Anyway for me the drawing was really rough and despite Steve's concerns I did managed to get them all done and still be in bed by 2am...which for me is early!

Tuesday 22nd:

Ok so today, I was in early...yes despite the late night. You'd be surprised how affective stress is at getting a girl motivated. Anyway scanned all my layouts into photo shop and started bring them into Flash so I could start doing the rough keyframes of the action scene by scene....I have about 40 scenes in all... I think . Today I tackled the most difficult scenes first, the ones with Miss lala's acrobatic act...I've been using refference from youtube for this. I wanted to upload them but i'm not sure if i can or not... so here are the youtube links instead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zty1Lql09P0&NR=1 and this one was really good... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxM2uZmDs0E&feature=related. So I spent the afternoon studying the movements and taking notes and sketching the shpae ths acrobats were making with their bodies... still have the notes and sketches somewhere so will try and scan them at a later date.

Friday 25th:

Today was nerve racking... I've never felt so nervous...ok well maybe I'm lying, there are more nerve racking situations but this one came pretty close. Its always so stressful when you're doing something creative and then you have to show it to other people who are going to judge and critise it... or rather just having to sit there wondering... will they like it? Is the story good enough, will the animatic make sense? What if I have to change the enitre thing?? I felt fairly confident about the story which i'm really happy with and I'd worked damn hard on the layouts and the animatic to make sure they were in no doubt about what i wanted to create for my final project. but I was really worried about the time...steve said to keep the animatics to about a mintue and mine was 2mins 29secs.... not good!! but there are a lot of still images which just set the scene and don't actually have any animation in them...so maybe it will be ok??The fed back for my animatic wasn't as bad as I'd expected...in fact it was better. my tutors and the National Gallery people really liked my animatic and even though i was worried about the length and having to take scenes out i was surprised when steve said 'don't change a thing, its lovely'. i was a bit confused though when he said that watching it was like going on an emotional rollercoaster...i guess its harder to look at it that way when its your work... i was too busy thinking about the technical details and how to effectively use my time to get it all done. Steve just said to get it done in time for the deadline and Lee from the Natioonal Gallery suggested maybe taking out the burp... my tramp burps when he's sitting in the auditorium and she didn't think was was necessary...which now i look back at it i suppose is true as it breaks the atmosphere and tension thats built up until then. so i think i will replace that with him wiping his mouth on his sleeve or hiccuping. Also i can't remember who but either Kevin or Steve also said that my tramp was too good looking and didn't look like a tramp.... so i will have to make him look more scuffy, haggard and filthy....but this is all easily changed and I'm so glad with the fed back... so glad this week is OVER!!will add more later...have to go animate!

Maria

Animating with Anger

2008-07-15T04:06:00.000-07:00

30 May 2008

Hate Technolobgy, Hate Tramps, Hating Animation!!!

I think I've abused my computer into submission...its slowing down and refusing to do anything. if I try to do anything in Flash at the moment it takes a thousand years to complete the simpliest task....and I'm STILL on scene 06 (thats the one where the tramp comes to the alley where he stops in the door way). This weekend just gone I was on fire, animating AND inbetweening three whole scenes...but now its taking a century to do anything and I'm so tired and just can't be bothered.

I think I've actually lost the will to animate...I'm F*****D!!Well at least what I've done so far looks good, but the rest of my animation is going to be rough animation which needs redoing in places , keyframes and part of the animatic. I think the pressure of trying to get this done in two to three weeks has finally destroyed me. I hate my tramp, he has to move slow because he's all depressed which means bitch loads of inbetweening for me. Why do you have to move so slow huh??? you b*****d!! I hate you!!! I actually hate you....Ok, this is just a small rant, a small glimpse of the hatred I'm feeling right now towards my character and my computer in particular (useless piece of junk).

Anyway whatever.... I have more stuff to put up on this thing...which I'm also starting to hate....but I will put it up when I'm in a better mood and not so tired and annoyed. why am I annoyed?? Youtube is to blame...try setting up and account with that thing and uploading animations, I tried to upload three animations and not only did they take ages to do, but my dolphin animation the one that I'm most proud of (as its actually finished) won't load. Why do we have to depend so much on technology?? Why do I have to do this stupid blog, huh??? Ok enough.....I'm going to go attack this scene...I'm all fired up now. Later!

Maria >:)

Artwork etc....

2008-07-15T03:50:00.000-07:00

04th June 2008

Hello again!
I have to admit I'm doing this Blog a bit strangely by adding late entries as well as putting the more recent ones side by side...but this one happened yesterday. Steve has reminded us that we need to have some Preproduction work to give to the National Gallery people to put on their website along with our film. He also told me that the films will be going up in september on their website so I had the whole summer to get my Final Project finished...I think once the pressure of college is out of the way I will be more motivated to do it.

The same thing happened with my Task Project, during the term I was stuck and just couldn't do it but once the Easter Break came around it was like I couldn't stop myself from animating....which is really werid. I think I work better under my own steam rather than having tutors breathing down my neck...plus I am getting really bored now of studying :( Anyway this week I've been going back over all my sketches and doodles of my first ideas and early storyboards and I've selected a few images that I think would look good on the website.

However, most of them are really rough scribbles and notes as I had to work so quickly over the Easter break to get my ideas churned out in time for the start of the new term, so I've been scanning them into Photoshop and tidying them up. I've also been setting up a Youtube account http://uk.youtube.com/MariaKyoto7 and finding some finshed animation to put up onto it as well as designing some new business cards. I didn't realise how many of my animations were unfinished or need to be a bit longer in the case of the animated cycles and some could benefit with a little sound too. Such as my dolphin animation... it would be nice if I could find some ocean sounds or dolphin calls to put on it. Anyway here are the pieces of work that I'm thinking of handing in to the National Gallery people as the preproduction for my Final Project.

Some of the images are from my storyboard while others are layouts, concept art or rough scribbles I did while trying to figure out key franes for the animation. I selected a few and cleaned them up to make them more presentable for the National Gallery website with the help of Photoshop....My god what the hell did I do before that programme came along I'll never know!
All the best!

Maria.

Presentation on Final Project

2008-07-15T03:39:00.000-07:00

08th June 2008

We have so much to do this coming week I don't know how I'm going to survive. We have to hand in a Film of our Final Proect so far on Friday along with all this promtional stuff for the National Gallery, give Kimmo animations for our show reel, continue with getting this project done and do this horrible presentation amongst other things. My presentation is tomorrow and so I've been working on what I have to talk about but thought it would be good to put it up here too as its all about how I've approached the Final Project, what problems and successes I've had so far....

1) FROM WHICH PAINTING DID YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION FOR YOUR PROJECT AND HOW DID IT INFLUENCE YOUR ANIMATION?
The painting that I chose and was inspired by was the painting ‘Miss Lala at the Cirque Fernando’ by Degas (above). I chose this particular painting because I really liked the idea that this lady’s acrobatic act had fascinated Degas so much that he had been inspired to paint her performing. The way it influenced my animation was that I made my story not so much about the performer who is the focus of the painting but more about the spectator, the unseen character in this painting and how their discovery of this performer’s act is being shared with us. My initial ideas were to have Miss Lala as the main character, only now is many years later and she is now an old woman. To begin with the story was about her returning to the old Theatre and wandering through its dusty corridors and dressing rooms reliving her memories of the time when she was a star. However, this didn’t seem as exciting as someone stumbling across and old disused theatre for the first time So with these initial ideas this is how the idea for the Tramp’s story eventually evolved from the painting into my animation.

2) DECRIBE THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR CENTRAL CHARACTER AND ANSWER THE FOLLOWING ‘SEVEN QUESTIONS’ FOR THE CHARACTER:
Once I’d settled on the Tramp being my central character, I began to ask myself the seven questions to help me establish his character…·

WHO AM I?
(good question..) Even though I knew that my main character was going to be a tramp, I still found this question the most difficult to answer. I thought that either hewas a Tramp who had been living rough on the streets for many years and had be come hardened to this way of life, or he was someone who hadrecently lost everything he owned and was still adjusting to his situation. I had great trouble with this as it was difficult to imagine how both these viewpoints would affect the character’s thoughts and behaviour but eventually I decided that it made more sense to have the Tramp be someone who’dbeen living rough for years as the other idea didn’t really add anything to the story. I also decided that he would probably be aged roughly 35 to 40 butwould be so dirty, hairy and sickly that it would be difficult to tell his exact age for sure.·

WHERE AM I?
I decided to set the story in London as it just seemed the natural thing to do since I knew the city. In particular around the Strand and Holborn areas as there are not only a lot of theatres but also a lot of murky side streets where a Tramp could disappear down to shelter from the storm and stumble across an old forgotten theatre that has been tucked away down these streets, hidden from the rest of the world. I think London is the sort of city that can still hold a lot of mysterious and forgotten places even now.·

WHEN AM I?
The story is set today, during modern times (2000s) when the Tramp discovers the Theatre but the time that Miss Lala belongs to would been around 1920s. I wanted the story to be set nowadays because once the Tramp is inside the Theatre away from the noise of the crowds and heavy traffic; I wanted it to be so eerily quiet that it is like he has been plunged into another time and place; a long forgotten world full of many secrets. In the story it’s also late evening, waning into night time. I also imagined it to be around September or October as the weather’s just starting to grow cold again as it slowly turns from autumn to winter.·

WHAT DO I WANT?
I think at first the Tramp in my animation simply wants shelter, somewhere warm and dry to wait out the storm before he moves on again but as the story progresses he becomes more curious about the Theatre itself and why it has been abandoned not that he’s keen to play detective but he is intrigued before he finds himself a comfortable spot to dry out and have a drink while he takes the weight off his feet. When he first sees Miss Lala his initial thoughts are to try and sneak out before he is discovered and thrown out. However one seeing her act he becomes intrigued, amazed by what she can do and risks being found, to stay back and watch a little bit longer.·

WHY DO I WANT IT?
At first he wants shelter so he does not have to stay out in the cold and wet and risk catching a cold or becoming sicker than he probably already is. When he comes across the Theatre he wants to explore, because he is unlikely to be able to return there again and because it’s a distraction from the hardships of his day to day life. It’s also something which sparks his curiosity as does Miss Lala’s act; its something amazing that he wouldn’t normally get the chance to see so he grabs the opportunity while he can.·

HOW AM I GOING TO GET WHAT I WANT?
His main concern is shelter. He knows he can’t just stroll into a shop or restaurant for shelter as he’d be chased out so he makes his way down the back alleys trying to find an empty doorway, somewhere out of the way where he won’t bother or be bothered by anyone. Therefore finding the Theatre itself was just a happy accident; he was never looking for it as he didn’t even know it was there… he just stumbled across it. On being able to stay to watch Miss Lala’s act, the Tramp ducks down amongst the seats, trying to make himself less noticeable as he watches the performance from his hiding place.·

WHAT GETS IN THE WAY OF WHAT I WANT?
In this case, the thing that causes the Tramp to flee the warmth and shelter of the Theatre and stops him from seeing the rest of the performance is Miss Lala herself. Her accidental fall abruptly ends the performance and her sudden and mysterious disappearance bewilders and terrifies the Tramp into fleeing the shelter of Theatre and back out into the storm.

3) WHAT ANIMATION TECHNIQUES DID YOU USE?
I used a mixture of traditional 2D animation combined with the Flash software. I drew out all my layouts by hand and scanned them into the computer, using Photoshop to colour and clean them up before bringing them into Flash. When character animating I would make the character into a symbol and then animate traditionally within that symbol, drawing each frame manually with the tablet pen, rather than using tweens to animate. The only time I did use tweens was when I had to do a pan of a layout or sometimes if I wanted to make the character’s size shrink or grow slightly because of perspective but this was something I used very rarely. I also used Photoshop to help create effects and alter the layouts I’d drawn. Not just by colouring them in but also but creating two separate parts of a layout using the programme (Eg. fore and back grounds for one scene to help create more depth) but also to help create effects such as the lightening in my animation by creating different colour versions of the same layout. I also used boils for things like the traffic or rain, created a library of basic walk cycles that I could reuse and animate over the top of, breaking the cycle of that section of animation or using the symbol as a guide to help reanimate the scene completely. I also drew a lot of thumbnail sketches, observing from either real life or video footage to help me work out the key positions for certain scenes. I also kept an eye out for real Tramps and noted down how they stood or moved to help me with my animation.

4) DID YOU USE ANY TECHNIQUES OR PROCESSES THAT WHERE NEW TO YOU?
Animating walk cycles from the front and the back, moving away or towards you was something I had not tackled before and was very challenging to get right. I referred to the Richard William’s book as well as observing people on the street or friends to help me work out how to draw the legs and body from certain angles during an oncoming walk cycle. I also watched live action footage and other animations to help me work out how to draw and animate it. Using Photoshop to adjust layouts in order to get the lightening effect was something I had not done before. Also panning a foreground and background at the same time with a character moving in between were all things that I had not done before and was extremely difficult to get right.

5) WHAT TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES DID YOU HAVE IN REALISING YOUR PROJECT?
I had a lot of difficultly with the walks as I had to completely animate them several times to get the Tramp’s movements right. I think also there was more pressure to get the walks working as my Tramp doesn’t speak at all and the animation isn’t stylised so it meant that I had to get the animation right and more believable. Also getting into the mind of my character was difficult as well as just working out what his state of mind was from scene to scene and keeping track of that and how it changes. Getting the backgrounds to pan with the character and foreground on top was also challenging. However the most technical problem I had was trying to stop Flash from crashing on me all the time.

6) HOW DID YOU SOLVE THEM AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
I solved the problem with Flash crashing by constantly saving my work and by regularly maintaining my computer and backing up all my work in case anything happened. The way I solved the other problems was either to start with a basic walk cycle, adjust it where needed and reanimate over it on another layer and keep readjusting the keys on that new layer until I got the key frames working or just start all over again from scratch. I think I learnt that it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes as they can always be fixed and not to be worried about starting over again as the mistakes I made the first time helped me to animate quicker and better the second time around because I now had the experience of how to tackle the problem. Also I learnt not to get stressed out when scenes aren’t working and just to leave it alone for a while, concentrate on something else and come back to later with a fresh mind.

7) WHAT ELSE DID YOU LEARN FROM DOING THIS PROJECT?
Not to get stressed out by the fact I didn’t get manage to finish the project as long as the scenes I had animated were animated well. How difficult it was to stay motivated and that I shouldn’t feel guilty about taking breaks or doing something else for a while when things aren’t working because if I’m less tired and stressed I can concentrate better and for longer. It better to animate during the morning rather than late at night as I found that I was more alert and able to concentrate better as well as tackle difficult technical problems. That reusing symbols and readjusting them where necessary saves a lot of time. Being realistic about what I can achieve and not beating myself up when I don't manage to get ten scenes animated a day, because thats impossible when you're one person.

8) FROM WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR INFORMATION?
I got my research online using websites like Youtube to help me with the acrobatic parts of the animation, filming walks and runs of tutors and friends helped to get the animation right, watching both live action, animated films and music videos such as Keane’s Bedshaped, and films like the Phantom of the Opera, The Prestige, Moulin Rouge etc…helped me with the animation whether it be a particular movement of certain characters or just using the films to help keep me motivated and inspired and keep my ideas and energy towards my animation fresh. Also the National Gallery painting and the website were also very useful, looking at old ground plans and photos of theatres from my old course also helped and taking photos of real places in helping to create the layouts etc…

9) WHAT WAS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PART OF YOUR PROJECT?
So far I think the reanimated scenes of the Tramp’s walk, the story itself and the layouts are the most successful parts of my project. Also my Tramps character is slowly starting to come together so my character animation has also improved while doing this project. Also the effects, such as the lightening and small details such as the alley cat and mice in the Theatre I think have been pretty successful.

10) WHAT WAS THE LEAST SUCCESSFUL PART OF YOUR PROJECT?
Not getting as much done as I’d hoped to because of technical difficulties and because I was struggling with the character’s identity. Getting things wrong in the beginning and struggling to stay motivated because things weren’t working. Not taking into account how many new challenges I’d set for myself.

11) WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY?
Nothing, the only thing I think I could have tried to change would be having better time management, allowing myself to take more short breaks and do something different rather than battling on and doing terrible animation when I was feeling tired and stressed out. Try to find different ways to stay interested and excited about the project.

12) LOOKING BACK OVER YOUR PRODUCTION PROCESS, HOW DO YOU RATE YOUR WORK IN TERMS OF THE FOLLOWING?·

TIME MANAGEMENT / PLANNING
I gave myself 5 out of 10 as I felt I could have done better and been more disciplined in this area.· PROBLEM SOLVINGI gave myself an 8 out of 10 as I managed to get there in the end and I think I managed to tackle the problems I had very well.·

CHARACTER ANIMATION
I gave myself 6 out of 10, as I’m starting to get the hang of it now even though I found it so difficult at first.·

TECHNICAL SKILLS
I gave myself 7 out of ten, because I think I managed to tackle any problems that arose successfully.·

INDUSTRY PRACTICE
I gave myself a 4 out of ten because I didn’t get the project finished and so I think that in terms of industry practice I deserve a pathetic mark! But I am definately going to get this animation done by September if it kills me!! I don't think I could live with myself if I left it unfinished. :(
Ok so if you managed to get through all that alive congratulations! I do tend to write alot so I hope you all weren't bored to tears. All the best!

Maria

Awkward Angles

2008-07-15T03:36:00.000-07:00

09th June 2008

Hello again,I was just animating this scene and thought I would upload a still from it just so everyone can see what a horrible horrible task I have set for myself!! I've been trying to animate my Tramp walking out from the Wings from this really strange angle I drew in the layout. so far i've managed to create a rough guide of his path and am now drawing over it and adjusting the view from the top so that he seems to get smaller as he walks further on stage. Even though I think this looks really strange (he's looking very disfigured at the moment) I think it will better in the long run as we are looking almost straight down at him by the end of this scene. The scene after this is working well now thanks to my quick thinking to use my mobile phone to record the right movements so that I could laod them up and rotascope the video enough to get the keyframes. Anyway with this I've animated him so far just gliding along this path i mark out and he's looking more like a box than a man at the moment as I remembered that when I spoke to Carlos about this scene weeks ago he suggested drawing the tramp out as a box so that i would get the angle right. Thanks Carlos, its helping! now i just have to draw some legs on him!

Maria :)

Presentation Relief! O_o

2008-07-15T03:32:00.000-07:00

10th June 2008

Hello, I'm in the studio at the moment and have just finished my Presentation on my final project...I stupidly not only got the day wrong, thinking it was on Monday rather than today but also got the time wrong and thought it was at 10:50am rather than 10:30am O_o. Seeems I'm so focused on getting this week over and done with I'm getting things muddled up! Anyway the Presentation went well, even though I didn't have the time to rehearse it as I normally would to get over public speaking fears...I just think I was too tired to care this morning. I was up animating until late and got up early to get in on time. Anyway I'm feeling pretty good...I kicked that Presentation's ass!!! Oh yeah, for Industry Practice mark I gave myself a pathetic 4 out of 10 because I didn't get my animation finished and reckoned that if I was working in the industry that I would have been sacked by now but my tutor pointed out that on commercials, they usually have about three animators working on one advert, where as I'm working alone on a much bigger project. Seems like I'm employable after all .Everything is good, I'm now starting to make progress with my animation, maybe seeing my mentor next week and my composer won't be abandoning me over the summer when this course is finished. I'm trying to get all the scenes roughly animated by the end of this month so that I can give him an animatic to work with to compose the music, with length and timing of the animation all sorted out. Anyway I'm going home now to work on these three scenes I want to have done by Thursday... I'm going to take stills from the video footage I filmed last night of my brother and rotascope the keyframes in Flash so that I have the basic moments and angles of the body to work with....Its going to be more late nighters from now on!

Ok, got a long trek back to the Igloo, see you soon!

Maria :(

First post from the Igloo

2008-07-15T03:30:00.000-07:00

Hi there,For those of you who who know me, I'm actually starting my blog again. I've been checking out the blogs of my fellow animators for a while and was starting to think...'Hmm...blogspot looks good, I'd better get myself on there pronto & show of my stuff!For those of you who don't know me...Hello my name's Maria, it nice to meet you! (I suppose I'd better tell you a bit about myself...if it gets boring feel free to fall asleep, I won't get offended although I may poke you to make sure you're still breathing)Anyway, I've just graduated from the London Animation Studio at Central St Martins. I actually had my graduation show last night, which I think went quite well & I'm still recovering now as i type. I've been studying 2D Flash and Traditional animation on the course and I have to say, its been a fun nine months! Everyone was really friendly and so much fun to be around, so its nice to be leaving with some great memories. Before this I was doing a degree in Theatre Design which was also at Central St Martins, and although I enjoyed the creative side of it I don't have many good things to say about that course, its tutors and some of its students, so lets just leave it there.Anyway I will be trying to keep this blog as up to date as possible but until then you can see my animation on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/MariaKyoto7

Maria :D