Major project - Submission animation

Major project - Coloring

Due to the amount of work we have to do as it is frame by frame and frames need to be coloured individually, we decided to focus on one shot aiming to get it fully finished, which is where she enters the piano room and sit down. Therefore I focused on colouring while Guy was focusing on doing the white back of the character so that the watercolour is not transparent. I used the exact same colour and the same TV paint brush I did the final character design with, which ended up with a nice boiling effect, that fits the style of the animation.

We tested out the lighting effect in After Effect, which worked with the background on its own, but did not fit with the character on it. Therefore I decided to add the shading instead of adding extra lighting effect, with water colour brush as well, which blends the character into the background as well.

Major Project - Artbook

Major project - Perspective shot

This shot is a challenging shot, so we decided that I should do the keys and inbetweens for this one, as it was the only shot which was not done. I did it in a short amount of time as I want to finish it for the submission to show the animation as complete as possible, so there are still frames that need fixing.

Character Design Challenge - April 2018

I decided to participate with this months character design challenge with the theme space pirate, which is actually the story we had in mind for the major project this year right from the start. Based on the research I did regarding to relative elements, I decided to make a character who is not a human, which end up with a rabbit who use his advantage of speed in the space. The design was made on paper, sketched with pencil first and cleanup with with a illustration brush pen. The colour and background was painted digitally eventually.

As conclusion, what I could do to improve the design is to put extra details onto the character's suit as it feels empty, as it was drawn by brush pen, and the texture/outcome is suitable for small details.

Major project - Animation demo

This is the animation we have so far to put together for the crit.

Major project - Cleanup

Regarding to the biggest challenge during animating and the feedback we got from peers, what we should consider is finding a way of keeping the consistency of the animation. The way we did the face and body of the character was different as I produce the character designs. What we decided to do was switching shots between me and Guy, so I will be doing the clean up for Guy's inbetweens, while he does the clean up for mine, which turns out to be the perfect solution, as I will be able to correct the lines of the rough animation. The followings are examples of clean up I have done.

Major project - Aesthetical development

After the meeting discussing the art direction, and the basic aesthetic of the animation which was discussed before Luca started the colour test of the backgrounds. Personally I was strongly inspired by the feature film Ethel and Ernest, and the Big Bad Fox in the MAF 2017. As it is a narrative animation, the story is smooth and calm, we decided that water colour fits the best. 

Also based on the final refined design of the characters, I started to test out the colours on chosen frames of the animation.

D&AD BEANO - Final Submmission

Here is our final submission. The animation and supporting design boards.

The Heart Jam - Submission

To summarize the participation of the game jam, I found it was beneficial to problem-solving and experiencing of working in extremely limited time. From the on going self-evaluation, I develop the way of adapting my art, composition and narrative skill into a complete game, as well as efficiently working as a team together for 72 hours.

The Heart Jam - Development

For a part of the extended brief, Luca, Dan and me decided to participate with a game jam together as a team. On one of the biggest game website that held numerous different game jams all the time, itch.io, we discovered our shared interest in a 72 hours game challenge called the Heart Jam. We decided that as a limited time jam, we should arrange a working space to work together where we eventually chose Dan's house.

As we established our ideas based on the theme announced at the start of the challenge, which was scarcity, we decided to make a game about a journey travelling through space avoiding obstacles/aliens while collecting batteries for the player to make it to the space station.

Dan did the designs for the aliens and the space station. Me and Luca both worked on making the objects for the game, while I did the scene compositing and coding. We went through a few problems during different stages which we eventually overcame, therefore we finished the game and submitted it in time. I especially enjoyed the process of problem solving and keeping everything organized.

The following are the gifs of all the objects we made for the game, including the aliens and the planets that are floating in the background, and demonstration stills from the game.

Luckily we were featured on the front page of itch.io for a amount of time, in the fresh games section, which brought several downloads and comments on our game. We were happy about the outcome and decided to establish us as LYD studio, which is the first letters of our names, and to participate with more game jams in the future.

Major project - Inbetweening

At this stage for me and Guy is finishing of all the inbetweens based on the animatic for cleaning up. To keep the consistency we had my final design of the character aside when we are working, and to aim to reduce the complexity of cleaning up, I used single and clear lines for all the rough animation. The following are the demos of my parts of the inbetweens.

My favourite part was the panorama shot as it was the idea came up to my mind when we were taking reference in Leeds College of Music. The most challenging part of this shot is to sync the arm and body movement of the characters to the music while the camera pans, which I have not finished yet.

Major project - Animatic+Key frames

In order to figure out the timing of the animation, we made a quick animatic using Guy's storyboards, which is as follows.

While refining the animatic, we decided to use the final animatic as the key frames to base our animation/inbetweens on. Me and Guy divided the keys between as while Luca is working on the concept of the backgrounds. So the part I did was the beginning till she enters the piano room, and the airport scene to the end of the panorama shot.

Major project - Final turnarounds

Based on the initial idea and the character development, I designed the final version of the characters for our final story based in China, which is about the connection between the character and her grandfather through their memory of piano. Based on the feedback, the final design has the autumn outfit.

The young woman's name is Yun Wang, she is 25 who lives far away from home in another province in China.  Her grandfather raised her up until she went to university, and taught her to play piano when she was a kid. She is an ordinary woman who goes to work everyday, where in the story, missed the flight back home because of work. The grandfather's design is from her memory from the past, as he only appears during the flashback scene of the animation, so as the kid. Grandpa was based on the research and knowledge I have on the outfit and appearance of Chinese elderly.To establish the connection between the grandpa and the young Yun, I used similar colour to their outfit, as she was raised up by him, therefore the grandpa used to dress her up as the colour he likes.

Final coloured design, turn around and GIFs.

D&AD BEANO - Animatic&Rough animation

My role within the team is keys, inbetweens for the rough animation, and part of the clean up. So I started with making the keys as the animatic based on Natalia's storyboards, and added in the inbetweens to the animatic. The following are the animatic and the finished rough animation for the brief.

Major project - Character development

As the narrative of the animation changed, I altered my designs of the characters. It tells a story of a young woman seeking connection with her and her grandfather through the shared love of piano. According to the plot, we are going to demonstrate her as a kid as well in the flashback scenes, so I also did the design of her as a child around 5 years old. I decided that as she was raised up by his grandpa, the colour of her outfit would be similar to her grandpa's.

For the second crit, I did a few iteration of the outfit, and regarding to the feedback we got, people like the autumn outfit the most, which is more mature than the other designs, that fits her age. I then progress the design into the turn around stage, as a character guide for us to animate as well.

D&AD BEANO - Story

Within a weekly regular group meeting, we constructed the story together with inspiration from comics produced previously for Ivy. Basically I suggested that her story would be a unexpectedly achieved goal with a series of mischievous. Inspiration from old cartoons of characters with similar characteristic helped generating the story as well. What we decided on at last, is she wanting to take the cookie from the top of the fridge, after a fail, manages to get it at the end of the story. We wanted her to be using all kinds of massive tools contrasting to herself.

As for her mom, we decided not to show her face, but like the maid in Tom&Jerry, limiting the view to the lower part of her body, as we want the camera to focus on Ivy herself.

D&AD BEANO - Character

We decide the roles as me doing the draft animation, Rey will be doing the clean up of the animation, while Natalia does the storyboards and backgrounds that will be used in the animation. We all take part in designing the character and putting together the story.

The method we are using in order to keep the project on track is to do a meeting every Tuesday， which worked perfectly for our regular updating on other people within the group. In the meantime, we inform each other on works with messenger as well.

We all came up with a character in the second meeting, we all liked Natalia's version of Ivy as shown above. Her body and expressions can be flexible, and compare to the older version, her body is more stretched and the braids are actually detached to the head. From the turnaround that Rey have made, I did a  few experiments on character poses, furthermore, into expressions as well. When she is ready for some mischief, her eyeballs become smaller while there is a lower eyelid.

Major project - Reference

As part of the reference on grand piano, we booked a grand piano room in Leeds College of Music to take photographs and videos for both the perspective and the proportion of a grand piano compare to human. It was very helpful especially for me and Guy doing the key frames to get the size right. In additional, helps animating the shots of close-up on hands playing the piano.

Another highlight was that during the filming of reference, I came up with a dramatic shot where the camera pans around the character for 360 degrees, playing with the position of characters, where will be visualised in the rough animation stage.

A reference video I asked people to filmed myself for the shot where the character is calling her grandma.