Major Project #2

I am leaning more towards the animation side of the project being as i want to do my own thing, although I feel i would be more at home with the Art side. It is tearing me in tow at the minute my love of art and my love of animation are equal, but the freedom of the animation route is very appealing. 

My more refined ideas for animations include: 

Inspired from my Scottish heritage, I looked up where my Clan's original homeland is, it is Loch Earn. From this I found that a creature called Each Uisage is linked to the loch (as well as others) but it could be a good starting point for a story. 

Being as the Each Uisage is a "water horse" it is very monstrous and has kelp for a mane and is often confused with a Kelpie, it lures people away and drowns them or devours them- the tales vary. the story could be perhaps one of morals for children that run too far away from their parents or misbehave. It would be very cliche.

The Wulver is a creature i have always liked as a spirit that is kind and humble, with the figure of a man and head of a wolf that leaves fish on the doorsteps of the poor and less able but is hostile/deadly when approached or antagonized. Again more of a moral story similar to "the boy who cried wolf" but more of "don't judge what you don't know" story, again rather cliche.

My strongest and favorite story would be one with my own twist and not heavily based on folklore like the other two ideas: According to folklore, a sorcerer that defies natural life by unnaturally prolonging it becomes a wraith: With this as the base of my story; a sorcerer of the forest prolongs his life unnaturally and becomes a wraith, then the forest fae Ghillie Dhu beacons the sorcerer to come to the earth and be at peace. However the wraith is too warped from nature for Ghillie Dhu to control and so strikes the peaceful fae (presumably killing it). However the fae does not die and in a "rage" Ghillie Dhu manipulates the earth into swallowing the wraith dragging back to the earth where it becomes a thistle. (Basically a story about man vs nature)

My only idea for the art route is to reinvent Yoda as a padawan, although Yoda is animated he is in a live action format so I would presume it would be allowed. His character would be basically the opposite of what is depicted in the films, thus he'd be rowdy, mischievous and perhaps fearful/hateful.

---I have drawn up my ideas for Yoda reimagining and the Ghillie Dhu which I will post at a later date ---

Preparations: Major Project

Preparations

We have not been given the brief to this module yet, but I know it is just around the corner. What I do know is that we can make a show reel or a film.

I think I would like to make a film, however I want to take the art route on this course and I don't know if the film is the art route.

My initial ideas

I would like to make a film about fantasy creatures and/or scenarios, I would love to have a forest setting with all kinds of wildlife, I would stick to British wild life for now because that currently is the wildlife I know most about and can reference better. I plan on taking a trip to a local petting zoo to study some animals as well as get reference footage.
Secondly, I have also had this image in my head that is set far in the past, perhaps quite Nordic and Pagan, again I would have to research this as currently I am too ignorant on the topic.

Another thought was a Boadicea like character charging through the woods with her animal companions, obviously very stylized as it is purely an inspiration not a representation. (You probably guessed it was kind of Miyazaki inspired, Celtic Mononoke).

I may also want to do an animation on my heritage, my family is from Scotland originally although, I am born in England. It would be about the clans of Scotland, again it will be based in the distant past and involve folklore. I have been very inspired by films such as Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, obviously Brave (which could of been better story-wise, but I am not going to write a review now).

One thing is for sure, its roots and theme will be ancient/ historic Britain. and it will have fantastical twists.

I was very inspired by the animations Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea 

Advance Animation Technique: E4 Stings & 1 second animation.

Brief

For this module we had to do 1 E4 sting or 5, 1 second animations. I opted for the 1 second animations. 

The hand in is today; 18/1/16. and recently i have been a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work i have needed to do, not just university work, just trying to juggle life in general. 

Here is my self assessment of how i dealt with this project;

"I feel i could of handled this project a lot better, once again the time organisation was an issue for me, it is a issue i really have to focus on with my next project.

For this project i really wanted to animate traditionally, however the brief states i animate in flash or TV paint, none of which i have much experience in which will be another skill i need to improve on. Unfortunately I missed the lecture on flash due to my house signing which had been arranged before Christmas. I feel this hindered me as it would of been useful, and prepared me a lot more.

Due to personal issues around the time of the brief, i feel that i have not given this project as much input as i could have done. Just a note, none of my issues were severe just that there were a lot all at the same time, mostly finance related."

I think I could of done more research, really Christmas is a killer for me because it stopped my motivation. Dead. I wasn't meant to be going back home this year because i knew i had enough work to do, but as always I gave in and went home. It was a nice break though. 

So far me "kicking" this year in the face has not gone too well, i was meant to really up my game this year, but personally I don't think i have. 

Research

I looks up some videos and made some of my own reference material for my skull and high five animations. I also looked at the shapes and colours of coffee cups that i think would work well with the colour scheme, i thought the bright purple didn't go very well. I will upload videos at a later date once my work has been marked. 

PUBLISHED : 18/01/16 @ 12:16