Character & Environment Design
Characters and environments from the first week exercise.
Based off of the script that was written during the lesson.
I am pleased with how the environments have turned out, in particular the 'Lab Storage' (Top left). As I feel it conveys the idea I had when writing the script, however the perspective looks a little off.
I'm relatively happy with how the characters look, however if I were to draw them again I would try to give them more depth as they look very flat.
Perspective
Some artwork from the lesson on perspective.
Overall I am pleased with how these drawings turned out and found the exercises in the lesson very helpful, giving me a greater understanding of perspective drawing.
Need to work on shading technique
Need to work on proportion
Idea Generation and Proportion
Left: Hover speeder inspired by USB stick.
Below: Futuristic Motorcycle foot peg inspired by random hexagonal fixing.
I am happy with how these ideas have turned out, and found the exercise particularly helpful. Being able to turn everyday objects into something vastly different and interesting is a skill that I think will definitely benefit me throughout the course.
Below Left: Rough Human Proportion.
Below Right: Two attempts at portraits.
I found the recap of human proportion very useful and will probably keep referring to this diagram whenever drawing human figures. I am pleased with the top most portrait as I feel that I have accurately captured the subject, I have previously struggled with faces so am pleased to see an improvement.
Should've been a lot bigger
Composition
Left: Original Composition.
Below Right: Composition Turned into various camera shots.
I found this lesson particularly useful and am looking forward to incorporating the skills I learnt into my digital work.
Concept Task
Left: Environment 1 - Bedroom
Overall I am pleased with how the environment concpeting went in this task. It was good to use all of the techniques we have learnt previously together to form and communicate an idea.
Right: Environment 2 - Tunnel
I am pleased with the sense of depth that is in this environment, and also like the use of a first person camera view.
Left: Storyboard Panels - Environment 3
I like the variation of this environment compared to the previous two that are quite claustrophobic in comparison.
Top Left: Skeleton 1 - silhouette
Top Right: Skeleton 2 - silhouette
Left: Child - silhouette
I am pleased with the character creation aspect of this task, especially with the skeleton characters, as I feel they have distinct and recognizable outlines.
The child character would need additional development if the idea were to be taken forward.
Left: Collection of inspirational material
Individual interpretation brief
Treatment & Weekly Plan
Individual Interpretation Brief – Treatment
Brief 1 – The Highwayman
Concept: Short animated film based upon Alfred Noyes’s poem ‘The Highwayman’. No dialogue, music with SFX as only audio. Cartoon – semi-realistic style.
Shot List:
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Establishing shot – Wide shot w/slow pan of moorland/woodland, with road seen carving through.
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J-cut (w/ horses hooves) – Into static VLS of highwayman riding along road towards the ‘camera. Shot holds until the horse can no longer be heard.
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Cut to closeup of the sign on the Inn, zoom out to wide-shot of the Inn courtyard, with the stables visible. Highwayman can be seen going towards the Inn building (left to right).
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Cut to medium closeup of the highwayman, pan and tilt up to upper floor window as the highwayman whistles. End pan and tilt on midshot of the landlord’s daughter.
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Cut to medium longshot of the highwayman and landlord’s daughter. The highwayman stands up in his stirrups.
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Cut to ECU of Tim the ostler in the stables, zoom out slowly into a closeup.
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Cut to MCU of the back of the ostler with the highwayman and daughter visible in the background. (Pull focus from ostler to bg?).
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Cut to Mid shot of highwayman and daughter, daughter unties her hair for highwayman to kiss.
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Cut back to MCU of the back of the ostler with the highwayman seen riding away from the Inn.
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Back to Shot 1 – Time lapse of midnight to sunset the following day.
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Cut to woodland road – LS of red-coat troop coming down the road.
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Cut to Midshot pan tracking red-coat captain towards the door of the Inn.
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Cut LS of red-coat troop at the bar drinking.
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Series of montage shots of the daughter being gagged and bound by red-coats.
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CU of daughter, camera rotates 180° to look through window with the road visible.
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EXU of the daughters hands with her attempting to get free. (Slow zoom in). Church bell rings as she reaches the trigger of the musket.
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Cut to midshot of her standing up (looking towards the window with the moon now visible).
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VLS of road with horse hooves heard in distance.
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Quick cut to CU of girl (her eyes widen and she takes a breath).
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Quick cut to ECU of girl pulling the trigger of the musket.
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Quick cut to ECU of Highwayman eyes widening.
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Static shot of empty road, highwayman speed past on horse.
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VLS of road towards Inn, red-coats in the foreground. (Highwayman can be heard screaming as he charges towards them). (Pull focus from highwayman to red-coats). (Muskets heard firing).
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Cut to black screen.
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Freeze frame Midshot of highwayman as he is shot. (Slow zoom out).
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Slow fade to black. (Narration of the final part of the poem).
Moodboard for highwayman character
Moodboard for heath/woodland environment
The following images were taken in Hurst Park in Molesey. I took these to use as inspiration for the heat/open area environments. I took a variety of wide shots that can be used as inspiration for backgrounds and some closeup shots that could be inspiration for transitional shots e.t.c.
Early Highwayman Sketch
Initial clothing ideas for Highwayman character
Character Thumbnails - color experimentation
Inn courtyard sketch
I am particularly pleased with the initial clothing ideas, as these are strong start points to be able to build up an identity for the character. I found the color experimentation interesting and useful as a lot of my development had been in black white only.
Woodland road sketches
Shot/composition concept
Shot/composition sketch
Highwayman design page. I'm pleased with how the design has developed on from the early sketches, I feel that the character has become more discernible from the redcoat characters. I'm also pleased with how the clothing of the character has developed.
outline collage experiments
I found the collage experiments useful, creating low detail outlines really helped me develop a recognisable identity for the various characters.
Redcoat soldier design pages. I found this exercise useful as it allowed me to develop designs for the redcoat captain and also experiment with what the other soldiers could look like. I experimented with different face shapes, features and also differing uniforms.
Similar to the redcoat exercise I found that this page for the Inn keepers daughter was very useful in developing an identity for the character and experimenting with different looks.
I am very pleased with how these initial horse sketches came out. Particularly with the bottom two pieces.
I found the above color experiments useful in developing a potential style for the final piece. I found getting the level of shading detail that I can achieve in black and white a lot harder using color, because of this I am airing towards having black and white pieces as final designs.
Picture of the 'Bell' in Molesey. A pub originally built in the 1400s.
I am pleased with the outcomes of the experimentation using black paper and white pencil. I tried a range of different techniques to help me think about the designs in different ways. With the first image I wanted to only draw the parts of the building that were white, while still having the image be discernible as a building. The silhouette image was a useful exercise as I found it helped me cement an recognisible outline for the highwayman. I attempted to draw the stools using negative space, in which you draw the spaces between an object rather than the object itself. I feel that the results are effective and challenged me.
The left image uses the same picture of the Bell pub as reference. I created the image using photoshop and a wacom tablet. I found this useful as approaching the designs with a new media was refreshing and helped me develop a look for the Inn that I was happy with as a final design.
The image on the right is the final design for the Inn keepers daughters' bedroom. The image below is the final design for the stable building in which the Ostler is hidden. For the bedroom I included the bay window that is included in the final design for the Inn, the view from the window plays a key part in the story so I included the path that the daughter sees the highway man down.
I am pleased with the final design of the Highwayman. I feel that the previous developments of clothing has led to a recognisible profile for the character.
As the redcoat soldiers will all share the same uniform I decided to add a recognisible feature to the Redcoat captain in the form of a mustache. This is to help differentiate the captain from the rest of the soldiers how play a lesser role in the story.
Final design for the Inn Keepers daughter.
Final design for the Ostler.
