Animated documentary: Week 4

As we wrote a rough script for the story we decided that the first half part of the documentary would be about the silk goddess who discovered the silk worms and made silk cloth from the silk they produced. So I did a mood board for the production of the silk in the past for further references when animating the woven machine and producing the backgrounds.

I did a few sketches with and without colors, with different materials such as marker pens and water colors, to test out the most suitable method that we should use for the character. We all agreed on water color as it create the texture of a informative historical story, and delicately shows the oriental style at the same time. So below are the sketches I did and a character guide of the 3 side views for the final design of the character that we are going to use in the animation.

I was looking at references and inspirations from animation short films that was done by other people, I came across Happy Time and The Traveler, where the first one was a pure inspiration of watercolor animation, that I found very suitable for a documentary that involves history. The Traveler is obvious an animated short of a combination of watercolor and After Effect animation, the composition of the assets especially.

Character Design Challenge: Maori Worrier

The theme of the month for this Character Design challenge is Maori Worrier. So I decided to join the challenge. I sketched out the initial idea on paper firstly, using a light blue pencil, and HB pencil on top of it to make the correct lines to stand out. I then scanned it onto Photoshop for further processes.

Here is where I started to color the character. After some research into the Maori culture and decided the color panel for this character, which are mostly pastel colors such as grey green and light brown. I redo the lines with a brown pen in order to make the image look in harmony. I added details after I complete most of the basic colors on her, such as the tattoo and the texture on her waist band.

Finally I posted the character design onto the Facebook group of the challenge where all the entries will be reviewed at the end of the challenge, this was a quick challenge which took me about 7 hours to complete in total.

Animated documentary: Week 3

We focused on the generation of ideas by producing mood boards. We narrowed our research down to the history of the Silk Road, and the traders who traveled on the route to trade silk alone the Silk Road. 

We listened to the bbc programme that introduced the Silk road to us, which provided inspiration and references as well, here is the link to the programme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p315t

Animated documentary: Week 2

Here is a few thumbnails after we decided on the theme, trading of silk, travelers on the silk road, Marco Polo, and the camels. We had some discussion about the story of whether it would be based around the silk, the Silk road or the journey of Marco Polo. We discussed roughly what we want to include in the documentary,  which is demonstrating the journey of silk from the very beginning where it was made to where it is traded to the western countries.

The presentation I delivered for the study task: for Argument Sake, was that non-violent direct action works. What I decided to research on was Gandhi, who led most of the Indian non-violent direct actions, and the women right action took place in 1970 as the case studies to present the argument. During the research I gained knowledge as well, which I think is helpful as well as it demonstrates the secondary presentation of historical events, because the topic I chose for the brief was history.

Animated documentary: Week 1

This is a collaborative project with four themes to chose from, in order to produce a 1-2 minutes documentary. Three of us decided to form a team and collaborate, Bash, Rey and me.

We started a mind map with the theme we chose at first, which is History, and more specifically, the history of trading. We spread our thoughts to many historical events, first person trading, black market, the silk road, and the modern tradings. As reference we sat and watched Lord of War together, the movie narrates a story where the character was selling gun fires to all parts of the world, giving inspiration of a rough idea about a documentary showcasing the culture and history of trading. After our discussion and research, we decided on a rough area of the silk road, to introduce a brief history or to showcase a few specific events.

Hasbro Development

We formed our group of four students cross the programs, of two graphic design students and two animation students including me, who are all interested in responding to the Hasbro party game brief on D&AD new blood reward. 

We started with a meeting session to discuss the initial ideas. The target audience are teenagers between 16 and 26, so that we considered a party game that suits us, as we all lies in the range of target audience. Our initial thoughts was an engaging board game that can increase the communication between friends who are playing this game. So the first idea was to make a chess board game with role play element in it. But at the end we decided to develop a concept for a card game based on contemporary memes, especially of internet memes that increase the interaction between teenagers and young adults who have been more influenced by cultures which are spread on the internet.

There is an existing game named "What do you meme?", it has been raised on the kick starter website and successfully raised enough fund for the production of the game. It plays as one photo card revealed and the players try to make the funniest caption for the photo. Our concept is different to how this game is played, as we can make our own captions. 

As we have decided to make a meme card game, I made 9 pieces of meme drawings and put them onto a developing idea of the card, the drawings are all done straight on Photoshop on computer, and I have recorded a demo for the colors and font of the design I made for the the cards. We printed out the front and the back of the cards I designed and stick then together. The photograph above is where I composed the other student's design onto the card and printed them off for reference of the next stage of the design.

Here is a quick demonstration I did in After Effect, to try out if the concept worked. We separated our individual roles depending on our major, as the requirement of the brief is to submit a 90 seconds presentation video, and 2 of the research & development sheets, the graphic students are going to be in charge of making the final development sheets and the package design of the cards.

Collaborative

So at the beginning of the collaborative brief, we need to present our skills, interests, and the brief intending to do in order to make our group, I made these sheet demonstrating the range of skill I have and the briefs that I am interested in doing. The images I put together mostly show my skills of painting in both digital and traditional, Photoshop skill of compositing images.

After looking at nearly all of the briefs from both D&AD and YCN, I was interested in two briefs which are Mubi and Hasbro, all from the D&AD new blood rewards. Then we got into tables to discuss the collaborative groups that we might be forming. There was more students interested in the Hasbro project than the other one. At last, I chose the Hasbro project of making a concept of a new party game, as we've already got some ideas after the first meeting, and the four of us can perfectly form a collaborative group for this brief.

Considerations

'Why should I collaborate?'

Obviously having a group of people who can take individual roles in order to achieve a goal, could increase the value than doing it alone. On the other hand, it could increase my skill of communication and organization of working together.

'Who will I work with?'

I would like to work with students outside of animation students. I think it is an engaging brief of working cross courses, and I would be happy to work with either graphic students or illustration students, depending on the brief that I am going to do.

'What brief will we choose?'

I will chose a brief that I am capable of, within my skill range or the skills that I am going to develop, especially a brief that I am able to take a specific role of responding to it.

'What do I need to submit?'

The documents I need to submit with the collaborative group depends on the requirement of the brief that I am going to chose. Most likely I am going to respond to a brief that includes a digital films such as presentation films and campaigns.

'How will I be assessed?' 

Briefs would be assessed by the company who provide them, from either YCN or D&AD.