Studio Practice Weekly Production Diary: 3/10/2016-9/10/2016

This week we were briefed on our first Studio Practice Module; Character and Narrative. For this we were tasked with producing a short 30-60 second animation revolving around a focal character, a short narrative and character performance. We were also given the opportunity to work with a partner in order to develop an animation as a part of a joint effort. I chose to work with fellow classmate Vladimir Voinovski because I feel our skill-sets compliment one another and we share a lot of the same ideas creatively. We are both open to experimenting with different mediums and software in order to broaden our creative horizons, evidenced by the fact we have chosen to create our animation partially in Maya. Neither of us are particularly accustomed to the inner workings and intricacies of the programme, however we both feel it is important to boldly try new things at Level 5 in order to prevent simply treading water creatively, using the same techniques we used at Level 4 and not making any progress professionally.

I spent the majority of this week planning out the logistics of how we are going to structure our narrative, the events that transpire and the overall feel of the world, both visually and in terms of audio. Audio is very much Vlad's specialty, but we worked closely from the every beginning to ensure that everything from the audio and the visuals complimented the themes and aesthetics of the world our animation is supposed to take place in. The core ideas for our animation emerged from brainstorming sessions which focused heavily on atmospherics and connecting previously disconnected ideas in a coherent fashion. We took inspiration from songs we liked to listen to which inspired us creatively and conjured up imagery we found appropriate, connecting these ideas and forming them into a narrative context. What we settled on was a dreamlike narrative centuring around a main character adrift in a sea of consciousness of his own creation. This played to both of our strengths, as I am very much interested in the technical aspects of generating surrealistic imagery, working in a 3D space and combining dissonant styles, while Vlad's work in the past is more transgressive, experimental and, to put it bluntly, 'a bit out there'. 

Character Illustration

From there we went our separate ways to generate ideas for our characters. I took inspiration from a drawing I did over the summer of a sort of darkly-angelic character which I felt had a lot of narrative potential as a symbollic figure in a dreamlike narrative from another character's perspective. The design comes from a deeply male gaze, so it would make sense to have them in our narrative as a psychological projection. Later in the week we met up and exchanged ideas on each-other's characters, giving eachother pointers and input as to how the final designs should be. One thing Vlad suggested with regards to my design was to include a mask for my character, which I then tested in my sketchbook. I suggested some ideas for his character too, such as the emphasis on the silhouette of the character, as I believe a strong silhouette and emphasis on basic primitive shapes is key to a strong character design, something I picked up from the Visual Language module from Level 4.

Initial Ideas Mind-map 

Initial Sketchbook Ideas

Initial Visual Ideas (Will probably be recycled for Storyboards)

Face/Mask Designs

Face/Mask Designs. (In the end we opted for our character not to wear a mask.)

I also filled  a few sketchbook pages with visual ideas for frames in the animation before we start producing storyboards, imagery which would form the basis for our narrative. I was particularly keen on the lighthouse motif which was inspired my a John Maus album cover, and we tossed back and forth a couple of ideas in regards to how we should frame the two characters in relation to one another in order to properly define their power dynamic, something which greatly interests me as an animator who places a lot of emphasis on direction, cinematography and editing.

Character and Narrative Moodboard

Moodboards usually play an important part in the pre-production of any animation, so I opted to make one in conjunction with early brainstorming sessions so the focus could be on visual research as opposed to becoming bogged down in notes. Through research for my mood-boards, we decided to opt for a low-poly 3D aesthetic for the 3D elements of our animation, drawing inspiration from painter Ryan Browning's geometric landscapes as well as various 3D artists whose work I found on Pinterest. The 2D elements of our animation, the characters as well as some of the environmental effects, will be created using the usual Adobe Software packages, Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects. Our characters are going to be rigged in After Effects using the DUIK plugin which I experimented with over the summer, in a similar style to the animated war documentary 'Waltz with Bashir'.