Innovative Animation Presentation

Week One Surface Animation

https://vimeo.com/145825355

For the first week, I was grouped with Dan, Curt, Gin, and Julia. I took the pictures for this piece.

We each tried to come up with and idea for the piece, from there we would decide what we wanted our piece to be. Ultimately we ended on the planet. I feel like we could have done more with what we had in ways in which it transitions and what not it could have easily been substantially more.

Week 2

https://vimeo.com/145825335

The group this week was the same a previous minus Julia. I helped with the cutouts while Curt and Gin did the animation.

This was better than the previous attempt we had but once again it could have used some work the soundtrack didn't fit. This was partly down to a miscommunication between me and Dan Where I had a certain point of the music in mind.

Week 3

https://vimeo.com/145825339

The group once again remained the same, I mainly painted but helped out a little with the animation itself.

The idea changed a bit from what it started out as but we had a bit of fun though the technique itself was rather fiddly and when we moved a piece it would take others with it etc. There was also the problem of the material we painted on showing up in the images we took.

Week 4

https://vimeo.com/145825329

This weeks group was me, Emily and Ric. We used my cut outs for this piece.

Though I like the idea we had for this piece and the fun we had in post production. I feel like we could have improved it and made it much better with more going on it was very basic and rather rushed in some ways. We did discuss ideas at the time but they didn't fit that well with what we were going for.

Week 5

https://vimeo.com/145825328

I was with Remel and Dan this time. I some of the animation and camera work this time.

I liked the idea we had for this piece with a monster or something storming around a city but due to time restraints I couldn't achieve what I wanted so we scaled it back to have a spider 'explore' the city which we had taken pictures of. This was a lot of fun especially just talking about it. I wish we could have spent more time on it to clean it up and improve it.

Advanced 2D Idea

For this I am using the song Dusk and Summer by Dashboard Confessional.

I will be using the first 30 seconds for my animation. where I'm going to tell the start of a love story. Or from 3:10 to 3:40 to show the relation ship breaking apart. The second idea is a lot more interesting to me but I do like the first idea I will decide which through thumbnail sketches by monday.

Character Development - Character Designs

'Will often makes brash decisions to help others without thinking about consequences to himself. While he is always up for fun he can be serious if needed. He spends some time in the gym just to keep fit, since he gets into a fair few fights he tries to stay agile and strong. He will do his best to never let anyone down no matter what.'

Will made his way home from his regular gym session, on his way he saw a mugging and jumped in to help the guy without thinking. With no care for himself he scared the mugger off, and turned to help the man up. 'You're my hero.' The man thanked. Will smiled and carried on his way home 'hero. I like the sound of that' he thought aloud.

        

'Emma is trying to find her voice, a relatively shy girl who was always picked on for wearing the wrong clothes or for being sat alone at lunch. She often speaks through her hands or her hair. She can be found daydreaming of a place where she has the courage to stand up for herself. Until then she'll hide away in her hoodie or out of the way so no one can bother her until she can muster up the guts to speak for herself, so long as she doesn't stutter through her hands.'

Emma stammered through her hands 'l-l-listen to me.' It was barely louder than a whisper. She wished someone would listen and grew more frustrated. She walked off, no one would notice if she was gone. She lay against a wall as someone walked by she turned her head as not to make eye contact. 'Why cant I just be louder?' She whispered to herself becoming more annoyed and hiding in her hoodie, daydreaming to get over her anxiety.

Advanced 2D Ideas

I have two main ideas at the moment the first being a choreographed fight as such I have been looking into choreographed fights, especially ones that are simple to follow like Star Wars. The lightsabers lend themselves quite well as the colour of the blades keeps people informed of who is fighting and is very visible at all times. If I proceed down this route I think it's worth taking something like a lightsaber into account.

My other idea is doing a piece to some music. I have asked my friend if he can make a music clip for me and he says he can, as soon as he has the time. In the mean time I have been looking at music videos to get some ideas.

One idea that I want to look further into is animating to a piece of writing, possibly similar to Edgar Allen Poe's style. I will write the piece myself, of course. in the mean time I am currently looking up writing styles.

Character Development Week 2

We presented our favourite 3 characters. I didn't do very well at presenting 2 of mine so I will go back and redo them maybe changing them to make sense. Emily pointed out main traits of characters that were linked between them or stood out. I forgot what she said for mine and will check back with her as soon as I can.

We then looked at a character description and how it let us know everything about the character without having to be shown the character at all. This showed how being able to make a good character is more than just how they look it's about how you get the feel for them, and how that's done.

Innovative Animation Week 2

We looked at the work of Lotte Reineger and how it was a variation of sorts on shadow puppets called silhouette animation. She uses cutouts and moves them in a similar way to stop motion animation. It's a crude style but a rather interesting one there's a lot of freedom within it in how characters are cut out and shaped in a way they can move and flow which is certainly interesting, but seems very fiddly. 

We were then given the script to the play Peter the Wolf, which we read and were then tasked with making it in the style of Lotte Reineger.

Advanced 2D 3 Different Animation Styles

Narrative

I like this piece of animation as it has a nice weight to the fighting. It feels fluid and impactful where needed. As well as just pleasing to the eye. I enjoy the choreography behind the fight, how it's almost like a dance. It's easy to follow,  while being quick and feeling true to a fight. I also like the designs behind the characters so they stick in your mind, people may not recognise the characters for who they actually are but there's something memorable about each of them.

Abstract

https://vimeo.com/25181651

I like this animation it's easy to follow yet feels like there's a lot of depth in it. There's subtlety as well as big moments in such a small piece which is just enjoyable to watch.

Experimental

https://vimeo.com/85852923

With this I was initially drawn in by the name thinking it may be  a bit humourous yet I was pleasantly surprised. The voice over goes over key points while the animation while somewhat reflecting what is being said strays away from that and shows it's own story of sorts. The styles and techniques are quite interesting and how it swaps between multiple of each.

Innovative Animation scrapped project

These are the original pictures we took for our first piece of innovative animation. I never got around to putting them into an animation I may do that at some point. These were taken on my phone so they have a shakey quality to them which I liked and thought it fit the style more than just putting a camera on a tripod.

Character Development Homework 3 Favourite Characters

This task was a bit difficult for me I don't have a huge range of favourite characters. There's a lot that I'm fond of but not many that really stand out, while I was thinking about my favourites it also occurred to me that a lot of them have similar traits.

Dick Grayson (Nightwing)

Dick Grayson has always been my favourite character, he has a strong sense of justice. He's cocky, quick thinking and at some point brash, but it helps him come to life. He is arguable one of the most relatable heroes ever created. He has no powers, he relys on his wit and his strong bond with friends and family. Often described as Batman lite as he is never as dark but is almost as good as Batman. He uses his humour to ease tension where he can but is not afraid to stand up for anything that he or his friends believe in, this makes him one of the most reliable of all characters I know.

Guan Yu (Romance of the Three Kingdoms)

Guan Yu has only really become a favourite of mine recently. He has become a Chinese Saint of War, though he was a real person during the Han Dynasty where he was a general. Most information and character basis for him now comes from the book 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'. He is a strong and loyal general. Often portrayed as one of if not the strongest of fighters, until his untimely demise comes. He is often looked to for leadership during battle as well as not letting anyone allies fall. A very skilled man with a weapon and a glorious beard to match. One of his greatest feats was charging through an army just to get at the leader, and living afterwards.

Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo (Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo)

Bobobo is arguable a character that has influenced me the most. He is very out there, for lack of a better term. While remaining the key figure of good in his story, he is prone to going off course. He lacks a boundary often resorting to throwing friends as attacks instead of doing it himself. People still look to him for what to do but it makes sense in his wacky land. He uses humour as a weapon, all of it seemingly pulled out of thin air just for the sake of it being funny. Ultimately it still leads him to his goal while he still somehow has friends that put up with him. I always found him to break the norm of a lot of Anime that became popular over here, in some ways he openly parodies and mocks them. I found it to him to be a breath of fresh air, in an arguably stale style.

Character Development Week 1

In this module we will be covering how to create believable characters and the processes that go with it. We started by listening to 'A Well Respected Man' by The Kinks and discussed what image the lyrics made us think of. 

I thought the character would be something like a 1960's suited gangster that was very smug and full of himself. Though as we heard other people's versions of the character and how they were different it showed that everyone gets a different idea from the same piece.

We then split into groups and designed a character based on an image. We cam up with the Idea of a Bear who was a Mafia boss, and wanted to be a chef. It all got convoluted and was hard to follow the feedback we got was there was some good ideas but ultimately it just didn't mesh we needed to be more streamlined in our ideas and not so out there.

Another Idea we had but we didn't present was a trans gendered girl that struggles with who they are and seeks recognition for who they are. I felt like the idea made sense there was conflict it wasn't to far out there it meshed together but the group wasn't as sure on it as me so we didn't use it.

Character Development - Original Character idea

I started by drawing random people in public and trying to get some mannerisms. I saw someone who his a lot behind their fringe and seemed to be quite shy. So I got a couple of quick sketches. Also I need to work on quick sketches, and be less precious about my lines I take way to long and it loses energy and commitment. I will stick to using pens in my sketchbook when I'm out and about so I can't just erase lines I don't like and hopefully that will capture the energy I need.

After I got those sketches I started to combine it with how I imagined shy girls to dress. Wrapped up not showing much, possibly quite baggy clothes. I used a friend back home who is quite shy as a basis for the clothes worn. most extremities would be covered unless absolutely necessary, I tried to stick as close to that as I could.

The character I created is called Kim. She is fairly shy and rather introverted. She would prefer to speak through her hand and avoid eye contact over anything else. most of her hands are cover by her sleeves as she is fairly short. She has brightly coloured hair, but it's mainly covered up as she has her hood up most of the time. Almost always wears a hoody if she can so she can hide it in if she gets embarrassed, which happens a lot. She also covers her face often, which generally results in her pushing her glasses into her face. She speaks softly almost to a point of a whisper so no one picks up on what she says so she doesn't have to worry about an outcome. 

Innovative Animation Week 1

This week we looked at Blu, a graffiti artist, who turns his graffiti into animation. He incorporates not just his art into the animation but the area in which it is done as well. He doesn't limit himself to one location either and can change area as he sees fit. His work seems energetic in how it is done as you can see some of the previous line work while the animation plays. Below is a link to his website which shows his work.

http://blublu.org/

After we looked at Blu's work we were then split into groups, we were the largest group with 5 people as such we had a few plans, we stuck to the one of doing a circle. We felt that this was the best way to capture Blu's style and his way of morphing one thing into another.

We ended up elaborating on our circle idea turning into the world being hit by a comet. I feel like there is a bit of humour to the piece which isn't far fetched for the style we were going for. I think it would have been fairly easy to expand upon our work if we wanted, as the hardest part was making sure the group could gather to all play a part in the making of the piece. I found this type of animation interesting because it's not typical. I had never even thought of surface animation until I saw Blu's work, I will have to look into it more in the future.

Finished piece

Animation Essentials Projects

Walk Cycle

This is my walk cycle the hardest bit for this was putting the arm and leg movements. I had a habit of match up everything on the same side so the right arm with the right leg, I corrected it so it was opposite arms and legs in motion. It wasn't a major change but it helped to make the piece believable.

Reaction Piece

Here is my reaction piece to a fly buzzing around and landing. I added in the sigh at the end because it felt a bit stiff. I feel that all of this was a bit stiff to be honest, something I will be doing my best to work on.

Lip sync

With my lip sync I kept the initial head movement similar to the original, but I wanted to add something to make it seems  a bit more cartoon like so I added in a bit of extra head movement in towards the end. The head also gets smaller as if moving away, this wasn't intentional but I like the idea that it feels like a the head movement is a bit greater than it seems. The drawing itself isn't my best work though I'm still getting used to the graphics tablet, and I will continue to use it so I can improve.

Show Reel

This is the final show reel for animation essentials. I picked the least offensive music I could find, Kakariko Village, and put it all together hopefully to show what I've learned doing these projects. I'm happy with this, I enjoy simple editing and collecting everything together. It just feels nice to have everything condensed.

Animation reference Material

Walk Cycle Reference

Walk Cycle Reference 2

Walk Cycle Reference 3

These are references to a happy walk as performed by my sister. I took it from different angles to make sure I could understand what needed to be drawn and how it should be done. With the lack of room where I live it was hard to get everything I needed at once. i also directed her to have different movements, if only slightly, every time I recorded her.

Reaction Reference

This is a reaction to a mosquito flying around, landing, and being squashed. This was a spur of the moment decision by me, from my original idea to do a reaction to a family death. I feel I can get a lot more out of this reaction than my previous idea. 

Lip Sync Reference

This is me mouthing and acting along the lines of how I want the lip sync to go. I used the first idea that came into my head to do it focusing solely on head movement. I felt as though this was the best course of action for the sound clip I chose. I don't feel like it needs a lot of body movement to convey what the character is feeling. i think It can all be portrayed by the eye and head movements.

Creative Edit Resit

Creative Edit

Here is my redone creative edit. I edited the soundtrack myself to make it fit roughly together with the original edits of the trailer. I then edited the film segment to make sure that the voice over would fit into the footage and cuts made there. I tried to incorporate a few different types of edits where I could but I stuck mainly to the basic cut to black to make it still seem like a modern trailer. I think this project has gone a lot better than my last one it all fits in much better.

Essay Assignment Resit

Does Bruce Timm's work Influence Animation?

This is my take on whether Burce Timm's work influences animation or not. I grew up with Timm's work and I developed a love for his particular style, and what characters he worked with. This is what drew me to do my essay on his work. Researching about his origins of how he got to where he is was fascinating. I had no idea where he started out or how he got to where he is.

I'm not good at writing, I have the ideas and know what to say but how to say it is a lot harder. Condensing thoughts into readable sentences is not a strong point of mine, but I feel I have made this piece understandable and, hopefully, interesting. I do have a passion for Timm's work and have followed it for a while, so researching more into it was really interesting for me and I'm glad I did it. It's a shame I can't find some of the older interviews, I saw years ago, with him to support some of the points I raised.

Words without bibliography 1756

With 1972

Essay Assignment

Does Bruce Timm’s Work Influence Animation?

Bruce Timm was a character designer and producer for Batman the Animated Series (1992). The designs he created for the show have since become some of the most well recognised in animation. He has a blocky, angular, sharp and, jagged style for male characters, but has a curved, delicate style for the female characters. He tends to exaggerate certain parts of characters such as Batman’s chin and, The Jokers overly jagged facial features. It seems that only the male characters get majorly defining features like squared off jaws and massive pecs, almost like a walking Dorito.  Women on the other hand tend to have an ‘ideal’ and ‘sexist’ way of being drawn where they have big hips, and small waists. On the other hand his illustrations of women have been described as “cute and coquettish, curvy and charming.” (Jim Steranko, 2013 p.11) Like with most comic book related women, his work is somewhat controversial.  His style, while heavily influenced by comics, is a culmination of what he has worked on over the years. Starting out with the company Filmation, he moved to work for Don Bluth for a small period as well as other companies before ending up at Warner Bros. During this time he learnt what worked well for animation, especially when creating entire series’ ready for release later that year. He was taught how to exaggerate and simplify, learning these techniques among others is what allowed him to truly develop his style into what it is today.

Bruce Timm has been quite influential over that last couple of decades especially in the world of superheroes. This starts with his work on Batman the Animated series, where he was a character creator. He has shaped how Batman has been seen in the last couple of decades, especially compared to other intellectual properties. The easiest comparison would be Batman the Animated Series to Spiderman the Animated Series (1994) where Batman the Animated Series has, arguably, stood the test of time much better than Spiderman the Animated series released at a similar time. Obviously all of these are based on comic books, mainly DC at that, this is because most of Timm’s influences are comic book artists themselves “from Ditko to Mike Mignola to Kevin Nowlan to Marc Hampel” (Bruce Timm, 2012 p.12). With influences like these it’s easy to see why Timm’s work lends itself to comics so well, it helps that he also did few bits of inking here and there for various comic book artists. He has a deep understanding of what effort goes into the comic book process from writing to the art, and by by comparing to his knowledge from his work on He-man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), you can undoubtedly acknowledge he has grown as an artist and an animator. He evidently loves his work and even goes as far as to joke about him being payed for doing something he loves so much as a crime. (Jim Steranko, 2013)

An obvious example in how Bruce Timm is still relevant is seen in Beware the Batman (2013). This newest series of Batman is done in CGI but still maintains the style of Bruce Timm from the original animated series that started back in the 1992. It falls into the same category of the other Batman designs shown over the years by mimicking designs previous but still adding it’s own flair to feel new. Obviously because this is Batman and the 1992 show was such a huge success it’s easy to see why DC would want this style for all of their future superhero animations to keep their work recognisable. The work however doesn't have to be superhero in nature it can have any background but it is most visible in the superhero genre. Most obviously in the continuing Batman series' that followed like Batman Beyond (1999), which was Bruce Timm’s work, The Batman (2004) and Batman the Brave and the Bold (2008) both of these shows were not worked on by Bruce Timm but still show essence of his work. This doesn't mean that his influence is just limited to Batman, but it is mostly visible within the DC animated universe, with shows like Teen Titans (2003), Young Justice (2010), and Green Lantern the animated series (2011). Timm has also had a hand in overseeing some of DC’s animated features but not a very heavy hand in it.

Influence isn’t just limited to the DC inspired series’. Bruce Timm’s angular style can be seen in cartoons like Gargoyles (1994),Hellboy: Sword of Storms (2006), and The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2010). Gargoyles is a heavily gothic inspired series, which helps in relating to Bruce Timm’s style which, in itself, was set in a Gothic styled city. The similarities are most strong in comparing the main characters, Batman and Goliath. These characters have the same body shape, being big, bulky and, angular. They also have very similar jaw lines in how squared off they are. If we look at the lead female character Demona they have an extremely similar body type to Bruce Timm’s stencil like design of women, like Poison Ivy or Batgirl. Greg Weisman, the creator of Gargoyles, says that Batman the Animated Series was one of his influences for the show so much so that he employed some of the crew that worked on Batman to work on Gargoyles (Christopher Erickson, 2007). The grounds for this is because they have a similar setting of a dark city, as well as translating very easily over to comic books, this style assists with gaining momentum of fans since it was already made popular by Bruce Timm it’s easily recognisable. The idea of it also translating well into comics, while making sense with Batman the Animated Series, seems like it would be more of a marketing ploy with Gargoyles though Weisman has proceeded to create comics of the show. It is unknown whether this is because of Bruce Timm’s background or for other reasons. Bruce Timm has also stated that he dislikes Gargoyles “Yeah, that whole premise of Gargoyles was kind of namby-pamby anyway, with all that Celtic fantasy crap” (Emru Townsend, 1999). This demonstrates that even though someone has been influenced by your work they aren’t necessarily going to like it.

Not all animation is the same though it doesn’t just have to be a traditional 2D style, it can be 3D, it doesn’t even have to be on the television it can be in a game. This is what a couple of relatively new game developers have said. They have drawn influences from a number of artists including Bruce Timm (Andrew Clouther, 2013). This is stated in an interview for their kickstarter campaign, a website where the public can fund your idea, for their game Comic Conquest (no date). While the game doesn’t look like it will ever see the light of day it’s quite easy to see the inspiration they’ve drawn from Bruce Timm’s work, mainly in the female character designs. While the facial features may not be replicas of Timm’s work the line art in itself certainly seems to mirror that of his work, and definitely draws something from his work. The way it’s done seems to be to draw in a wave of nostalgia from those that know and recognise his work.

On the other side of the spectrum this could also show that Bruce Timm could have possibly put the style of superheroes into a rut, as many of the designs can be seen as being very similar to Bruce Timm’s original concepts. This can be seen in, at the very least, DC’s immobility to design very little outside of this on the animated side of things. Even when the animation and design is based on another artist's work it still page this homage to Timm’s work as seen in Justice League War (2014). Overall though I feel Timm has certainly given more to the medium with his style than broken it. A quick google search would show many new, budding artists trying their hand at his style while combining it with their favourite show or game. As for mainstream media outside of DC’s main animation, Timm has come back a couple of times to do work for the anniversaries of Batman and Superman in the form of shorts. Elsewhere his influence can at least be seen, mainly in superhero works, but it’s assuredly there. Not even necessarily in the realm of traditional animation it can be seen in games and 3D works. His work is always one that draws a crowd and echoes through the medium of animation, maybe not as loudly as it originally did but undoubtedly audible, which is sure to be heard for years to come.

Bibliography

Books

Nolan-Weathington, E. (ed.) (2012) Modern Masters Volume Three: Bruce Timm. 5th ed. Canada: Twomorrows Publishing.

Steranko, J. (2013) Naughty and Nice the Good Girl Art of Bruce Timm Big Pocket Edition. 2nd ed. Santa Cruz: Flesk Publications.

Websites

Clouther, A. (2013) Kickstarter Interview: Comic ConQuest: Rise of the Hoarder will have you step in the role you’ve always fantasized about [Online]. [Accessed 17 May 2015]. Available at: <http://www.gamezone.com/originals/kickstarter-interview-comic-conquest-rise-of-the-hoarder-will-have-you-step-in-the-role-you-ve-always-fantasized-about>

Erickson, C. (2007) A Fanboy's First Visit to a Con [Online]. [Accessed 17 May 2015]. Available at: <http://www.comics101.com/guestlecturer/?mode=project&action=view&project=Guest%20Lecturer&chapter=51>

Townsend, E. (1999) Bruce Timm & Glen Murakami [Online]. [Accessed 17 May 2015]. Available at: <http://5x5media.com/eye/inte/btimm.php>




With this work I wanted to explore one of my favourite animators, Bruce Timm. I learned more than I thought I would about his process and how he ended up where he did

Assignment for Editing and Post Production

https://vimeo.com/128307811

This is my Fairly legal piece I used straight cuts in this as it carried the emotions of the scene as apposed to breaking it.


https://vimeo.com/128317537

This is my Delicious Peace task. I tried to match the images to the voice over work, with a bit of a montage in the middle. I feel it would have worked better with more dialogue but it just didn't fit. I also tried to experiment with a couple of techniques to help everything flow better.


https://vimeo.com/128424100

This is my Creative Piece. I put sound from Gordon Ramsey to the trailer for Batman vs Superman. I wanted it to mimic the trailers previous dialogue and sound, while being able to interpret what's being said by certain characters. I think I got mostly what I wanted out of it but the timing and talking doesn't fit into certain scenes after I watched it back.

5 Theories of Montage

Metric - Cuts based on the length of the shot or frame. Can be timed with beats or bars in music. Commonly used in music videos.

Rhythmic - Cuts based on shot content, used to create visual continuity.

Tonal - Edits based on the mood of the shot. Used to create a reaction from the audience.

Over-tonal - A combination of the previous three editing techniques.

Intellectual - Where one image is juxtaposed with another to create a new meaning.

Soviet Theory of Montage

The soviet theory of montage is the idea that depending where clips of film are placed can change how an audience perceives the series of events. One of the examples is an actor being shown before a few clips, depending on the clip would determine how the audience saw the emotion of the actor.

Grammar and Rhythm of Editing

We looked at the editing of two films to compare how effective it can be, as well as comparing the editing of a professional to a students.

In this film it seemed like there were many cuts that weren't needed, they seemed to drag. The some cuts and camera positioning also made it so that the audience couldn't understand how the room was positioned which makes it hard to follow. There was a lack of continuity as the light changes in subsequent shots, and the ability to hear the camera adjusting also doesn't help. This draws people out of the film as it isn't natural and stops the audience becoming engrossed within the film and it's own world it creates.

This clip is a continuous shot, this get's rid of any continuity problem. It also helps build up suspense as we see and understand everything that's happening. It's very easy to follow because of these choices. We can take in a lot of information very easily in a way that draws the audience in without stopping to take a breath. It entrances viewers because there is no edits, so they can't look away building drama and tension.

The rhythm of the edit is how the film flows this will change depending on the film.

The editing in this scene shows the progress of the conversation, as well as making us a part of it. The editing is used so we can understand what's going on, even through the protagonists eyes as he looks around. This helps the viewer become engrossed in the film and it's surroundings. This also helps us know what the character is thinking and taking in when they are talking, giving the viewer more information and helping them understand, without having to explain and possibly over explaining what is happening.

Image and Sound Assignment

This is my finished piece of the assignment. this first one was making a soundtrack to go along with a silent piece of animation.

https://vimeo.com/127455357

With this piece I used various sources for my sounds, mainly freesound.org, a website to get most of them. I also wanted to use the sounds that we gathered ourselves so I kept the ones I had already put it as I liked them, even though they are a bit rough. If I could I would imrpove this by making the sounds smoother or even experimenting more with sounds.

This video is my animation to a given soundtrack.

https://vimeo.com/127562178

For this I used soundtrack 1, of the three soundtracks we were given. At first I thought it had a very industrial feel, but as I listened to it more I started to think of sword clashes. So I decided to base it on one of my favourite Gods, that being Guan Yu. This allowed me to experiment more. I got to practice more with my graphics tablet, which I'm still getting used to, hence the sketchy drawings. I used a black background and empty spaces to isolate the sword clashes, that way it reminded me of the limited animations of a saturday morning cartoon. I would improve this by adding colour, clearing up the lines, extending it to tell more of a story, and making sure it didn't move as quickly as it does at times. This is because I didn't stick to the rules of two, I have learned from this and will make sure to not do it in the future.

Ideas for Animation

This is a very basic design for Guan Yu's horse he is often depicted as riding a horse into battle, one of his main claims to fame is when he rode through thousands of warriors to kill one man. As such I thought it would be key for him to have one.

This is a basic concept for Guan Yu himself. He is shown wearing green robes and having a pole arm a tall as himself. As well as an impressive beard, the one drawn here is not impressive.

A very very basic set of thumbnail sketches showing roughly were I want to take my animation.

A more detailed drawing of Guan Yu. This is what I will base my main character on.

These thumbnail sketches show the start of my animation where I just wanted to have clashes as apposed to swords straight away.

These are some more thumbnail sketches where I went back and made the start make more sense to me.

This is where I was looking at Han dynasty warriors and seeing how they would look in the animation (Guan Yu is from the Han dynasty).