Pin the Limb

I decided to create a little character that could be cut out and used to create a simple stop motion animation. So it's an interactive illustration. It was a quick idea that I had, so I quickly whipped together a version of Pete in illustrator with some text which I'm not particular happy with, but it contains simple instructions on how to cut out and put together Pete and his limbs. 

I wanted it to look quite fun and the main audience is for children. I got it printed on quite thick card, and if I was to recreate this I would have it on thinner card to make the whole process easier, I even found it hard to cut out the limbs and because some bits are a bit more detailed cutting out with sissors was almost impossible. I needed an adult supervising! And I'd printed my test on a4 but the actually print I would sell is on a5 which would make peters limbs even harder to cut out by a child, it would have to be an older more confident child.

Sometimes  I had to use a scalpel! Especially when making holes to pin he pins in the limbs. So next time I would print it on thinner card and maybe put a back board behind he print when I put it in hue plastic cover so it keeps the print straight. And I would print it a4 AND I would re do the lettering and maybe re think the wording.

Over all pretty happy with this chappy!

Animations in Advertising

Just recently pay pal have released these adverts which are part animated and part video, the one I've link to this post is quite fun! It's got dinosaurs floating around! Yey! Just watching one ad break inbetweeners watching Greys Anatomy, the adverts which were animated where Rennes, Yakut, even at the end of a Johnsons ad and the flora advert! And a lot of adverts at the moment seem to be going for the 'hand drawn' look!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ihaHKKx5wfQ

The Queens Monastery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndNJGlBNRUY

I wanted to go back to traditional animation, creating my frames outside of flash using a traditional technique, and my strong traditional technique would be watercolour, so I researched this, and the animation came up, in this animation I learnt again how important sound is to creating emotion and aiding movement.
The Queen's Monastery (Water Colour Animation)
Conceived, animated and directed by Emma Calder. Music by Leos Janacek.
I loved the movement that was created by the use of the watercolour, it was beautiful. So I took the frames that I had  created in flash for my walk cycle which helped me plan out my traditional frames, and basically worked the same way on a lightbox as I did in flash. Layering up the roughs until I reached the final frame. I quite liked the result, but I found that it was not the quickest, nor easiest way to animate, you had no control over the frames once they had been scanned in. so if they were slightly wrong you couldn't change it.

Help tutorials I've watched along the way

Converting Art to Vector with Image Trace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO-eteeo544

Convert a drawing into vector artwork in Adobe Illustrator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXGY9Q7VmU8

This tutorial taught me about using the pencil tool in Adobe Illustrator,  it show me how to convert a scanned drawing into vector artwork in adobe illustrator, using curves and anchor points.

Vector Line Art Tutorial in Flash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rrjmNtOQDY

This tutorial taught me how to construct an image in flash, an extremely handy skill to learn as later on instead of importing sketches into illustrator to draw and then transport to flash, I would just draw directly into flash, sketching my way up on different layers like I would sketching on to of a lightbox. This tutorial taught me how to lock layers, which tools to use, how to change the colour.

Hand-Drawn Animation in Adobe Flash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQjOynnr7AI


This tutorial helped me understand how to use flash to create a more traditional approach to animation. It pushed me into drawing straight into flash which really quickened up the animation process. It also taught me about 'key frames' the key movements of a movement and 'inbetweens' which is frame which help the key frames flow. To stop it being jumpy. When using a pressure sensitive tablet you can enable 'use pressure' and 'use tilt' which really helps the image look like has been drawn. You can changing the 'smoothing' of the line which can either make it look really vectorized or really hand drawn.

F7- Key frame
Shift-F5 remove frame
F5 copy of the previous frame
F6 coverts a F5 copy into a key frame

How To Animate - Walk Cycle (Tweened)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdhuDGOyAXc

This tutorial I wanted to watch to understand about 'tweening' which in flash means that flash can help you move you animation without hand drawing every frame, but you need to learn how to code and I found it a little complicated and I really wanted to keep my animation looking traditional. Tweening would require a lot of work but would end up making your animation look very smooth. But I don't think I would want that, I quite like the look of hand drawn.

Adobe Flash CC: Basic Actions and Code Snippets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxQKUayab2M

I really wanted to look into coding, I've done abit of coding before which really helped me understand what they were talking about! But I still felt abit unsure about coding and needed to decide whether I wanted to dive into coding, or to step back and focus my energy on something else. This tutorial was basic coding for a website.

Animating a Head Turning - Adobe Flash CC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7JKpUJv1xo

I felt like instead of diving into coding I wanted to rewind back and practice animating, making movement better, learning to convert what we see in real life into basic lines, and how we move. I did alot of people watch, seeing how they moved conveyed their character. Extremely interesting!

Matthew Robins

 http://www.sadlucy.com/matthewrobins.html


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5x93LMHhDI

This isn't an animation but it is kind of. I remember Matthew Robins coming to give a talk in our first year of illustration. I was completely captured by his traditional hand made feel about his work.He created movement and it was so fun to watch and experience. He reminds me that traditional take on things can be refreshing. I had to research him because his videos are so entertaining. It almost reminds me that I need to loosen up not worry about it having to perfect and movement needs to suggest movement but it may not necessary completely represent it. 

Jump!

Love this jump cycle, I wanna animate it, may get Mary on of my pirates who hasn't had the pleasure of being animated yet to get a jump going on! It just looks fun and entertaining :)

Cameo necklaces

I would love to see my little skull boy on a cameo necklace like this as it really fits in with the day of the dead theme. Of course something I would love to create if I had the time! I could sell it on Etsy, or at a fair such as the stuff fair, or at the summer show. Or in the shops that pca sometimes own. Or I could approach a shop selling similar stuff, like there is a jewellery shop close to live on Hyde park road which I have already spoken too who would be happy to take work to sell. I'm. It sure if the theme would quite fit in with the style of the shop.

Day of the dead

Now this is something that I would love to create, if I had time and money! I will look into it, I've already badgered a company asking if they would make and deliver by Friday! I obviously could make it myself, but I'd much rather pay someone to make it cos I actually don't have the time, my god if I did I would be in the laser cut room doing it myself.... But I've got 7 days that I can't be messing around with laser cutting etc. 

Day of the dead make and sell

I could print my day of the dead skull boy on to a t shirt, that would look epic! I wonder if I could print t shirts by Friday....... That would be a challenge! But it's an option, I would seriously love to laser cut my skull boy on to something buut I have so much to do, and so little money. Boo. I would actually buy this top, it's a great colour and the pattern printed in white looks lush. I found this t shirt/ vest of Etsy a great place to find and sell so beautiful and unique stuffs. 

Interactive App Research

My original inspiration come from Christoph Niemann's 'Petting Zoo' and I had an ambitious idea that I would love to create something similar! But heres another app which is super cute, would keep me entertained for hours! Ive always wanted my illustrations to be interactive but this definitely takes it to a new level! Made by Tatatoy.com, called Drawnimal

http://vimeo.com/63636954


Theres also Oliver Jeffers interactive app, which is like an interactive picture book, read by Helena Bonham Carter! How cool is that!

Tatiana Alisova

My email interview from Tatiana Alisova,

Wow, thanks for asking, nice illustrations, like your Day of the Dead one :)

I’m on the same route - being illustrator myself fell in love to animation and hopefully continue in this way.

My inspiration for that was Bill Plympton and his book "Make Toons That Sell” - he’s writing about the industry, options, etc, check it out, would I’ve some practical advice.

And of course, the Bible for any animator is "The Animator's Survival Kit” - if you can find video version that would be the best.

Choosing software is quite tricky - all depends what do you want to achieve. For frame by frame animation usually I’m choosing Photoshop & Flash and  After Effects and Premier Pro for compositing. Overall, if you need to choose one software to learn first i would say go to After Effects. 

For the usual workflow take a look at this process, i’m doing something simular: http://caleatkinson.blogspot.ca/2012/06/lil-red-making-of.html

I’m afraid i’m not the best person to describe the whole process, and it’s already in 'The Animator's Survival Kit’(again, the best book to learn all the principles). The logic is more or less the same for every software. But the important part here is to focus at one thing at the time - get the movement first, anything else only after you happy with the timing. It is the hardest part, a lot of hard work and absolutely different state of mind then for creating an illustration. At this stage you have to have some ugly drawings, but have to have a convincing movement.

Usually i’m starting from thumbnails for the action (to clarify and visualise  the movement), then i put them in Flash and draw the shapes quickly, adjusting the timing, testing the flow and overall movement. Then i draw the first rough frame by frame, clean some lines, finalising the movement. And only after that i jump into adding metallisation, colour, shades, etc

Music. It’s always a headache for me to find proper sound - because of copyrights you can’t use anything you want, that’s why usually i spend ages to find something suitable. Search for copyright free music or use any of those resources: http://socialtimes.com/royalty-free-music_b37470  

Also I’m using Garage Band samples quite a lot and some SFX libraries from our uni.

In future I don’t think i gonna work on any feature film or anything like that - I love to include animation into something, to create interactive narratives or to involve viewers into the process. So, I guess I could join (or build my own) creative team\company, maybe in advertising, or game industry or something like that. I don’t know yet, and of course i can change my mind many times before i get into industry :) And there is a demand and quite a lot of opportunities  for freelance animators\illustrators - i’m using that as well

That’s always hard to answer where the ideas coming from - comics, films, my mates’ work (yeah, got some from Aidan as well). And there’s  the reason why i love collaborative process - when you’r explaining and idea to somebody else, telling the story and asking for an opinion there’s always something to improve, make it more clear to people, make the whole thing funnier and so on. Random ideas, sketchbooks (i love sketchbooks!), brainstorming, mood boards (Pinterest especially) - i’m using everything. But the key is to talk with people (haha, at least for me)

Take a look at my other blog, it’s my version of digital  sketchbook, that might give you an idea about where’s everything coming from. It’s our course requirements to keep it, and i’m trying to keep it up to date.  But to be fair, i hate the writing process soooooo much, and it might be a bit messy  - please feel free to ask about anything in particular : http://tatianaalisova.myblog.arts.ac.uk/

Best wishes and good luck with animation journey!

Best regards, 

Tatiana Alisova

tnalisova@gmail.com

+44(7)401 734488

tatianaalisova.com

Business Cards

I was searching through the collection of business cards at college and I came across this one by nina arctabder, it's super lush, the back over is definitely a design I would have on my work, and I love the shape of the card, it's slightly longer than an average business card so would stick out, and it has curved and straight edges!! Classic combo! Love it! 

Animation Creation 3, walk cycle

I really felt like I was getting somewhere with this animation. All that I had learnt so far I used in this animation. I wanted to create a simple animation movement so that I could concentrate on detail. And I much preferred walking in blue. I research how to animate a walk cycle, learning where the bounce up and down were, where the feet land and are together on the floor at the same time, and even learning that we walk with opposite arm, opposite leg! Simple but useful information. So I started by sketching out the walk direct on to flash, then building up my sketches on different layers, till I finally had a final finished layer which I was happy with. And I didn't' need to create any in-between frames, just prolonged certain movements to help create the walk. I then decided to try and add sound to my walk, as when research animation sound was key to creating a fully interactive animation for eyes and ears.  I remember Thomas Knowler saying that you could get free sounds/music off line as long as you credit the creator. So I search a little and found 'footstep' sounds and a chirpy tune that I could add with it. So I managed to add footstep walks which help with the movement immediately and then introduced sound later on, which just made the pirate look super happy!
Which then made me super happy, and made me feel like all the learning and watching tutorials and continuous drawing was completely worth it!