Neale

I know watching a film barely counts as research but I wanted to talk about Belle a little bit because I had a real good time watching it and it was just one of those nice inspiring films that I’d like to see again.

It’s cool that films like this are even being given theatrical distribution here in the UK, and I know that it’s only a limited release but seeing it on a big screen does make for a bigger, more engaging experience. There’s nothing wrong with watching films at home mind you – most of my movie watching is at home – it’s just nice to be in a space designed specifically to keep you engaged.

I want to try and avoid treating this like a review or a synopsis but I guess I just want to talk about elements of the film that I really liked – I’m not sure there’s enough in this film to warrant it being something like essential viewing for everyone but Mamoru Hosoda (in my opinion) has a fairly good track record at directing good movies for everyone. Belle is basically a modern retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story, with some twists here and there.

There’s combined use of 3D and 2D elements in this film, and I’m a bit of a skeptic when it comes to 3D animation in anime movies. Often the final product is cheap and a bit lacking in life but I was kind of surprised at how nice the 3D moments looked! They help signify the change in what worlds we’re viewing – the traditional animation is for the ‘real world’ stuff, and the 3D CGI stuff is (more or less) only used for the digital world story.

Hosoda’s always had a really great visual style and there’s something about the way line art of his characters that makes them pop. I might have to do some research into who does the character design for his films because Summer Wars has great examples of this, with characters being outlined in red I think as opposed to a typical black line, though it’s been a while since I’ve seen it.

There’s some real flashy moments early in the film with just huge crazy things happening during musical sequences, which comes into great contrast with the main characters real life personality. Speaker Whale is a really fun and whacky concept! I like it a lot.

And there’s a bunch of great music in there, I’ve had one of the first tracks in the film on repeat for the last few days because it’s just a great earworm.

It was better than I was expecting, but I did go in not knowing anything so I had pretty tempered expectations. The writing is a little weak, but I think that’s down to it’s reliance on being based on some other story. I’d have had a great time if this film was just about the main characters struggle to live a dual life, balancing her newfound digital singing career with her regular life (anime Hannah Montana I guess (note to self: this is a good idea)), but I can’t really fault it for what it’s not in this instance. With all that said, it’s really given me an itch to go and rewatch some of Hosoda’s old work.

I’ve finally picked up a license for TVPaint for my home desktop, which has made doing work between lessons significantly easier, and I’m actually starting to feel like I can manage the workload while I’m at home without having to jump through hoops using various different software to fit the bill. Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying having to use different software, even ones that I’ve used before (its actually been really fun learning new little things about software I’ve been using for years that I just didn’t know about (Flash and Photoshop, I’m looking at you)), but I have been really enjoying TVPaint specifically the last few months and I’m glad I can finally use it in some functional capacity while I’m not in the studio.

I think as a direct result of that, I’ve felt like I’ve finally got at least a bit back on the horse with my art, my direction, my style and stuff. It seems like it’s really easy to compare yourself to others, whether thats other peers work, or just the work of others online, and just feel a bit lost with what your own work is supposed to be. I might not have produced a finished piece or anything this week but I’ve felt more inspired to keep working.

I’ve been trying to learn some 3D software too, and I know Blender isn’t industry standard but it feels more appropriate for what I want to learn right now on that front. I’ve been told it’s one of those things where the skills you learn in one program are fairly transferable, so learning Blender when I have the spare time isn’t going to set me back all that much I hope. I followed a small 8 video long tutorial series (it was about 90 minutes of content) and ended up with this.

It was a really simple tutorial with some really simple geometry but it’s helped me familarise myself with Blenders layout, shortcuts and just how things work generally.

I think next week I’d like to focus on TVPaint and the facial animation assignment so with any luck I’ll have something to post about then!

The title of this post sounds really sad but what I actually mean is, I don’t know anything about painting but I tried anyway. I got a really nice set of gouache paints for Christmas and just wanted to try them out 🙂

This was a lot of fun! I don’t know anything about backgrounds (as is probably evident from how flat these are) but I liked the colours, and learning to try and pick and mix my own to get what I wanted. It’s something I’ll keep trying at, maybe exploring some more complicated stuff next. It’s definitely a lot more involved than what I’m used to digitally!

I managed some character design stuff, or at least roughly speaking, in the last couple of months. It’s definitely something I’m interested in and want to get better at. I don’t want to be too harsh on myself but I think I’ve got a long way to go!

This guy I’ve had in my roster for a while of go-to-designs (in some variation or another). They’re just a wizard type character with some simple shapes. In a lot of respects it’s very heavily inspired by Abigail from the comic Back (art by Anthony Clark), though I’m not sure that was my intent when I came up with it. I’ll probably make a separate post at some point about my influences, but Anthony Clark and KC Green are definitely up there as some of my favourites for sure.

This was part of the physical theatre workshop we did this week (12/1), which was a lot of fun! Not entirely character design based but I just wanted to include it here.

I haven’t got a name for this character yet but I really had fun putting her together! My idea is that she’s an archaeologist (in her winter outfit here), and she streams herself making discoveries and poring through research material. I need to find a way to make it more exciting than that really, and some of the other ideas for this can be seen in my previous post, with the stuff about SETI being another idea for where I could take it.

I just wanted to put together some sort of mech pilot design here, nothing particularly complicated, I just really like mech show designs –

After I gave my presentation I had a major brainfart and forgot to make some regular updates here over the christmas break – in my defence I was struggling for a while between work and trying to push through some major artblock! It really sucked! There’s not much else to say! I think I’m mostly past it now. Here’s some of the stuff I did manage to do in that period.

I like making loose and fast doodles that are really rough, I tend not to think too much ahead about what I want to draw or what kind of line I want when I’m doing this kind of thing (it’s not easy to get the line you want when you’re on a train).

This isn’t all of it but I’ll make some separate posts about other stuff I did manage to get through.

If anyone reading would like a copy of the pptx file itself so you can observe the Gifs in motion feel free to drop me an email:
n.upton0620211@arts.ac.uk

I contacted Alan Resnick a little while back with some questions because I was curious about his work; what kind of things drive him, why he makes the things he does, things like that. I was very fortunate to hear back from him with some insight into his process.

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On Johnny Bubble, what was the inspiration behind the short?

Alan: I made Johnny Bubble because I simply wanted to explore the medium and try doing some character animation. I also was given the opportunity to pitch some animations to super deluxe, and they gave me a small budget. For that one I tried to work very intuitively, trying not to overthink things. I made those storyboards the same way I make comics. No real plan, just one panel after another, then I tried to animate them. I also tried to keep the scenes super simple since I’m not the best animator and 3D animations take me forever. I also tried to embrace my limited skills, for example the walking animations are intentionally silly because I wouldn’t know how to do it properly.

Generally speaking, do you think there’s a driving motivation behind your work?

A: The only motivation is the motivation to make things. I’m not trying to communicate some specific thing to people, I’m just trying to make art. I must naturally be drawn to scary things and funny things because those elements are usually always there in varying degrees.

What goes through your mind when you’re designing a character? Do you feel the contrast between innocent characters and dark characteristics makes for interesting material?

A: When drawing a character? Not really sure, again I’m trying to work intuitively and satisfy myself. I don’t really know what I’m looking for, but I always know what I don’t like. If I’m drawing something and it looks too cute, or not cute enough, or wrong in some way I’ll erase it and keep trying. I just keep fiddling till it feels right. Occasionally I’ll look to old animations or illustrations for aesthetic inspiration. Also I try to embrace my limitations and make things amateurish in a way that I find pleasing.

Are there any cool artists making stuff that inspires you right now?

A: There are so many insanely talented artists making amazing work overwhelming. I can’t really keep track. I should keep a list going. This short my friend made really cracks me up:

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I was incredibly grateful to have heard from Alan because I really think he’s making some of the most unique visual art out there right now, and it was quite a relief to hear not everything he makes comes from some profound position other than the desire to make art, and furthermore to make it for himself. I think there can be a lot of pressure to inscribe meaning into your work even if you don’t explicitly mean to author any intent into it, but I guess that’s what makes art art. Regardless of whether you intend meaning in your work, an observer might interpret their own version of what they thought you meant.

It’s been an interesting day working on character design – it’s not something I’ve ever spent much time on (though I probably should’ve by now) and I definitely feel like I’ve come away with a bunch of new knowledge regarding the practice. Hopefully I’ll be able to actually put it to use, and it’s definitely an area I’d like to look into, but I’m a little apprehensive that my skills might not be up to the task right now.

Regardless, it’s definitely broadened my understanding of what exactly goes into character design and the honest truth that there’s perhaps a certain element of tedium that maybe makes it enjoyable? I’ve played a lot of repetitive time sink video games (pray for me) so I guess that’s not something that will devalue it in my mind.

I think it’s also completely cemented the idea in my head that my analogue work is fine for loose stuff but I have absolutely no idea how to make a clean drawing unless it’s on digital. Typically all my paper stuff is doodles so I need to make a habit of trying to fill pages better!

BONUS: very cool turnaround/expression follow ups by other people in Steve’s session (I was very impressed) –

Something jogged my memory and reminded me of this short – I’ve been a big fan of Alan Resnick’s stuff for quite a while, and I always forget about this film over his other more prominent work (like This House Has People In It and Unedited Footage of a Bear).

I think there’s something very visually simplistic about it – flat colour backgrounds, simple character design, and minimalist props and sets, are all really visually engaging. The story told is also challenging and I think you need to watch it a few times to wrap your mind around what you think is happening here.

All the while it still retains Alan Resnick’s (and generally speaking Wham City Comedy’s) sense of humour. It seems like one of those films where you could have a million different interpretations and they could all be right. I think what I like about it most is the non-traditional structure and storytelling, while still remaining darkly funny throughout!

I wasn’t really planning on uploading too much of my life drawing work here, mainly to avoid clutter, but I was fairly happy with some of the sketches I managed to produce in this weeks session!

I’m not really convinced they’re really all up to scratch, and perhaps I do worry about it a little too much, but I did feel like there was a marked improvement over my sketches from week one which was nice.

It’s definitely been challenging! I appreciate that at some point I’ll plateau, but it’s nice to have this feeling while it’s there.