Hyde park drawings -- OUAN404

Some drawings from Hyde Park. Using charcoal I attempted to do really quick drawings and get the essence of the scene in as short a time as possible. This had nothing to do with the cold weather or my numb fingers.

For my final environmental drawings I want to use another medium. Maybe colour it digitally or use some form of collage.

Note to self: buy some fixative spray to stop all the smudging.

Sequential Imagery 4. -- OUAN404

Illustrated instruction manuals can be seen as a smart use of sequential imagery to get around language barriers. Ikea is an international company, but by using cleverly designed instructions they can hand out the same manuals in every different country they operate in, safe in the knowledge that they will be equally incomprehensible to whoever reads them, regardless of the language they speak. But the concept of text-free instructions is interesting because it points out once again human's ability to understand complex instructions or concepts just through a visual stimulus, and our unique ability to recognise a 2D visual representation of real life physical objects such as the tools and moving parts represented in the imges below. Similarly, in the case of Ikea's instructions the images themselves are fairly basic line drawings, sort of halfway between a cartoon depiction and a technical drawing, but they successfully communicate difficult actions involving many separate pieces, which is a testament also to the shared visual literacy of society, that we understand automatically what an arrow symbol means or a rotating arrow means.

My Drawing Practice -- OUAN404

I have been attending life drawing sessions to improve my understanding of anatomy and just as general good practice for my drawing skills. I like to use a variety of pencils, but my preferred media is charcoal, as a I tend to use quite broad strokes and there is a certain liveliness in the charcoal which seems to suit the style that I draw.

I like to use lots of different exercises during the class as well, like drawing with my weaker hand, using one continuous line, and drawing without looking at my paper. These exercises are meant to build up the relationship between my hand and eye.

Dragonframe Induction

My baboon turnaround in Dragonframe and After Effects.

Sequential Drawing 3. -- OUAN404

William Hogarth's A Rakes Progress (1732-33) is an example of sequential imagery from a time when reproduction of visual work was just becoming widespread. It tells the story of Tom Rakewell, who inherits his fathers wealth and immediately goes out drinking, gambling and visiting brothels. It is a morality tale meant to show how immoral living leads to rack and ruin. Over 8 images Rakewell is shown living the high life, until he eventually finds himself broke and insane in a debtors prison, and each image contains visual cues to explain in more depth what is happening in the scene. For example, we can see that Rakewell's dead father was a miser as a portrait on the wall in the first image shows him counting money. In the 7th scene, when Rakewell is in a lunatic asylum we can see a pair of mechanical wings, an alchemy set, and a telescope pointing at the moon - all of which embellish the idea that he has lost the plot.

It can be considered a precursor to the comic book, as over the next century magazines and journals like Punch would continue to publish satirical illustrated stories, although the focus moved more to humour than morality.

Rakewell in the Lunatic Asylum

Sequential Drawing 2. -- OUAN404

The Bayeux tapestry was completed in the 1070s, and is a 70 metre long embroidered piece of fabric depicting the events leading up to the Norman invasion of Britain and the death of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. The tapestry is considered by many to be the first true graphic novel or comic. Read from left to right the piece depicts 50 separate scenes, including subtitles in Latin explaining the events shown in each image. It is one of the earliest European historical accounts which used images alongside text to tell the story, it is thought that this is because common people could not read or write (or speak Latin) - and the images were a way that anybody who viewed the tapestry could understand the story of William's victory.

A scene from the tapestry depicting Harold's death

Sequential Drawing 1. -- OUAN404

Maybe the earliest form of sequential drawing that humans engaged in are cave paintings. The stick figures of people and animals in places like the caves at Lascaux show short narratives of hunts and what are thought to be religious or spiritual practices. The images show their characters hunting from start to finish and some, like the paintings in the Magura caves in Bulgaria show detailed narratives. these drawings are surprisingly similar to modern comic books - the obvious differences being the lack of speech bubbles or other descriptive text, and the fact that images aren't seperated into different frames or cells. Still it is interesting to see that even very early humans had the capacity to understand images in a chronological sense, and the ability to follow a timeline through the drawings.

Drawings in the Magura cave depicting people and animals

Hatstand, storyboard -- OUAN404

For my storyboards I have come up with a short narrative in which a person is deciding which hat to pick from his stand. It will cycle through a variety of hats, and the outfit of the man will change depending on the hat he picks.

Visual Language, 12 Hats -- OUAN404

I decided to base my 12 images on the drawing of a bowler hat on a stand. I have always liked the image of a hat-stand - they are sort of archaic and obsolete these days as people don't wear formal hats as often as they used to, but they are still nice objects. For my images I drew a very rudimentary and basic hatstand with charcoal, and the hats were drawn on with different pens, pencils and paints that were used in the original 24 sketches. I like the image of a single hat on a stand, but also, by drawing the same stand in each image, the suggestion that there are a variety of hats for different occasions, perhaps belonging to the same person. I am also reminded of a sort of "customise your character" screen from video-games like the Sims in which you could cycle through multiple items of clothing.

Turnaround -- OUAN404

8 Frames:

12 Frames:

Character Turnaround -- OUAN404

Finally happy with the volume of the character on this turnaround, although it still looks jerky at this point. I will add inbetweens for every frame to make a more smooth movement.

Watched this video on more advanced animating in Photoshop:

https://vimeo.com/80851591

and these are my first practises in using the Video Layers tool.

E4 Ident Concept, Animals -- OUAN406

Another idea for the E4 ident involves finding copyright free or creative commons footage of animals (preferrably beginning with the letter E) and using motion tracking or some other technique to make them look like they have the E4 logo painted on their bodies.

I have never used 3D software or motion tracking before so this is maybe a bit unrealistic to try and get the logo to look like it is realistically painted on, and to move and scale properly in relation to the animal's body.

Researching E4 -- OUAN406

In order to get a better idea of the tone of voice and style of E4's broadcasting, I looked at the previous stings and idents that have been used. This site http://estings.e4.com/ shows all the finalists of the 2015 sting competition. It actually shows a wide range of techniques and visual styles, so I understand there is quite a lot of freedom in terms of the visual direction I choose to go in.

In particular I looked at the People's Choice winner, voted for by the public, and the Judge's Choice winner. Both were very different visually and thematically.

I like the style of both clips, but actually my favourite from 2015's entries was either the shadow puppets one or the breakdancing one. I think these two are also closer to the visual style I would like to achieve.

E4 Comet concept, Animatic -- OUAN406

Final Character design and expressions -- OUAN404

I settled on a costume for the pirate character, and aadded a few expressions and action poses.
I imagine him in a retro-futuristic age, not quite steampunk or dieselpunk, but maybe more like the setting of Waterworld (the rubbish Kevin Costner film). In the future, when the ice caps are completely gone, the Himalayas have become a tropical archipelago, and there is a new golden age of piracy.

Character Designs, Pirate -- OUAN404

I wanted to design a sort of pirate/sailor character, so began by sketching various different sailors in different costumes.

Then I chose the two I liked best - the naval looking guy on the top left, and the Blackbeard type next to him, and played around with their faces a bit more.

I finally decided on the pirate character, and decided to develop his costume and headgear more.

Character designing -- OUAN404

Playing with primitives to create a characters head, and placing it on different bodies.

Character Brainstorming

E4 Ident Concept -- OUAN406

My first set of storyboards for potential E4 idents.
A comet hurtles towards Earth, causing panic in the streets. When it collides a mushroom cloud engulfs the planet, and as the dust clears the E4 logo is revealed. It then splits open and a chameleon style sticky tongue grabs the moon.

Set, Series, Sequence; 24 Hats -- OUAN404