Client Studies Blog

[dylanchattoeclientstudiesblog]

Sixth blog post

I have received the feedback from Cloth Cat Animation, regarding my second hand-in.

To begin, despite altering the designs of some of the characters, Cloth Cat still critiqued that they did not look unified as a group of characters. I can understand this criticism, and, in hindsight, I would have attempted further ways to uniform these four characters. One idea would be to create a crest, symbol, or logo to be present on each of their designs; this would also play into the idea of a company.

Cloth cat also commented that they liked my use of textured backgrounds in the designs and key images. They said that it allows the characters to stand out, as their bright and textured colours pop, and that it conveys information. I am assuming that the latter comments suggest that the textures help the landscape look dusty and desert-like and the stone walls to look grainy and rough. If they did not have this texture, there would be no clear indication for what is sand, dust, rock, metal, et cetera. I am glad I thought to add textures to the background of my key image, for this reason.

Cloth Cat also suggested that I improve the layout of the PDF that I gave: I should have put everything (e.g. the expressions, the line-up, etc.) onto their own pages, so as to not clutter the layout; also, they recommended that I create individual pages for each character and place the character-specific description there. If I could do this project again, I would like to have included character pages for each character, for I did not feel as though they had been well described.

Cloth Cat described my idea as “overall good”, but they did also say that they would like to see the concept expanded, which I think was an important aim of the brief.

The largest problem with at the designs needed to be unified. For future projects such as this, I will consider ways in which I can do this. Similarities in clothing, unifying symbols, or logos, to draw all the characters together to begin with as opposed to drawing them individually first: these are three examples of what I would do differently for a future project that involves character creation.

I also would have utilised more time to plan for this project, if I had to do this project again. Cloth Cat commented that my layout needed to be worked on further, by decluttering the pages and adding additional design pages. I would have taken time over the Christmas period to plan my final PDF and what it includes. I also would then properly schedule myself, as opposed to completing the majority of the work in a short two week window, which I did not initially set out to do.

[dylanchattoeclientstudiesblog]

Fifth blog post

I had received feedback on my first handing just in time for the Christmas break, allowing me to see what I could improve upon. I did a minimal amount of work over Christmas but I did draw out some ideas to enact those improvements. For example, it was critiqued that Mr Monkey Paw, in terms of aesthetic design, did not match the other characters. For this reason, I reworked his design; I maintained the triangular head and frumpy triangular body but chose a more cartoon design, by making him shorter and making his rabbit feet simple circles as opposed to trying to add genuine legs.

I am incredibly pleased with how the design has turned out. It is both easier to draw and nice to look at, in comparison to how he looked before. It also adds a certain ineptness as, with exception to his long mammalian arms, is entire design looks dumpy and useless.

Mr Monkey Paw has maintained most of the elements of his design: he of course has monkey arms, matching the tale of the monkey paw; he has the head and body of a chicken, in reference to the wishbone; he has the feet of a rabbit, in reference luck; I even added the tale of a goldfish, in reference to the tale of the Fisher man and his wife in which a Fisher man a fish and the fish grants wishes.

I also was not happy, Cloth cat, as they stated in the feedback that the interior was not clear enough. The reason why was I envisioned the characters would be moving from place to place. In my first handing, I included rough designs for a vehicle that they may use to travel. Something that was large. Over Christmas I added to these by drawing similar designs for large vehicular forms of travel that may have been interior that would be a consistent environment for these characters to be in. The design seemed reminiscent of lorries, trucks and tanks I continued these designs as I went.

In preparation, I made thumbnail designs for the graphic novel on the 3rd of January. There are other options, like posters or comic strips or action shots. However I thought making a graphic novel page would be the best option as I have a small amount of experience in creating those and it would allow me to experiment not just with story but with characterisation, as they would be allowed to speak and convey information and personality that way.

I kept the designs relatively basic. No real action or anything. I mainly wanted the characters to talk to one another stop

I would be utilising these thumbnails the next day on 4th January, as I would begin production of my graphic novel page.

From these thumbnails, I formulated a script and created a rough digitally. There were certain changes that I made: the framing may be resized and instead of Bryn setting off a bomb intentionally, I instead at him step on a pressure plate and setting up a booby trap. This change was brought about, because I did not have a clear explanation as to why Bryn would set off a bomb that would block the exit, if it were to be assumed that the exit was already clear. I’m not overly fond of the change, it seems a bit random for their just to be a pressure plate that would set off an explosive in an ancient tomb. However, it was the best alteration I could make without having to change the entire script.

From the rough, I worked from Monday, 4 January until Thursday, 7 January creating the graphic novel page. Every day, with the exception of Wednesday, I spent two hours inside the green pod at the University’s library, so as to have an appropriate workplace environment to work intensively. Having that workplace was incredibly helpful, as I discovered that I need a distinct homeplace environment and workplace environment to operate.

I made some alterations to the first handing as well. I altered Pax Toil’s design into a final version that I was happy with. Additionally, Mr Monkey Paw now has his new design and I believe that he now looks part of the world.

I added the text and place the speech bubbles in appropriate places. However, I was unsure about the font choice. I wanted a font that would be clear, easy to read, and looked fitting for a graphic novel. For this reason, I tried a list of fonts to see which would be most fitting. I even put it to peer review with a friend of mine. It came down to four font choices: Ariel, which I thought would be the safest choice as it is standard and clear to read; Comic Sans, as I thought that would be appropriate for a graphic novel in terms of font; Segoe UI Black, as that was thick, bold and visible; the last was the original font choice, which was Segoe Print.

After viewing all of them, it was unanimous that Segoe UI Black was the best choice. It added a vibrant stylised blocky aesthetic to the text, which matched well with the aesthetic of the graphic novel itself.

The key image was complete. However, I wanted to add additional information and designs so as to increase the understanding of these characters and the world they inhabit. Part of the feedback that Cloth cat provided stated that the narrative and the world were unclear. So, I spent Friday, 8 January creating a line-up of the characters and I also added some information about the characters and the story above said line-up.

I could have added in more text but I believe it should have been brief. I am also satisfied with this line-up, as it shows a good sense of scale for each character and shows off their final designs well.

On the next Saturday, 9 January, I decided to illustrate all the additional designs that I had wanted. This included the design of the interior HQ. It is worth noting that I was warned not to add additional elements but I thought this was too important not to add and I already alluded to it with the rough designs in my first hand in.

I also designed different versions of Bryn’s explosives, so as to add a concept of technological know-how. Additionally, I also designed items in which the characters possess. I thought it would be good for them to have special items, considering that the concept of this story would be them collecting magical items and artefacts and, in some cases, backwards engineering that technology. Hence, Bryn’s hat acts as a bag of holding and is, for all extensive purposes, bottomless, Toil possesses a coin that can either bring good or bad fortune on a coin flip and mallow just possesses a book.

Finally, I added a small array of expressions for each character. It became clear that some characters were better at emoting than others. In this case, Pax Toil and Madam Malo are designed with very static faces. This is partly due to design, as Toil is supposed to be unnatural and weird looking. Additionally, Malo is slow, methodical, and oppositional to Bryn’s energetic nature, so it would make sense that her expressions would be dulled, as well. I assume this would be all right as they would either have gestural or verbal ways of promoting, even with relatively unchanging facial expressions.

As I finished all of this, I was worried that the page would appear too cluttered, so I separated the interior image onto its own page and reordered the rest. I was also warned not to make the pages crowded, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

All that was left was constructing the title page. I was a bit unsure what to put, so I put the name of the concept (Toil’s Collector Company) as well as “Cloth Cat Animation project” and then my name. I could have added social media addresses too, but I did not remember to do that at the time.

The name of the concept (Toil’s Collector Company) was one that I thought up on the spot. I am not necessarily fond nor attached to the name. It still does describe the narrative best in a simple way: a company of people (not the best of friends, yet) work to collect things (not save or discover; not even to have for any particular purpose; just to have) and it is owned by someone named Toil. It is descriptive, I hope.

[dylanchattoeclientstudiesblog]

Fourth blog post

With difficulty, I was able to complete both my dissertation and the first deliverable of the Cloth cat project. The first deliverable involved a multipage series of rough designs for both the ensemble cast as well in this the environment. As seen from the images below, I was due to the idea that I had first conceived. There are four distinguishable characters, with different personalities and motivations. Certain characters seem more concrete than others: Britain’s design does not alter as drastically as Mr Monkey Paw, who goes through multiple versions, as he was an original concept and I was not happy with the first few designs.

I worry that I have not delved far enough into the designs or the concept. The world and environment still seem to undefined to me. Similarly, I wish I had been more drastic with the alternate rough designs. A certain amount of experimenting would I have been good, as Cloth Cat may not like my favoured designs in particular. However, once I receive feedback and clear criticism from Cloth Cat, I cannot make any drastic changes to these roughs.

Ultimately, I’m fairly happy with these designs. I like the use of colour that they all share; I made sure to give them all a high saturation to suggest a vivid and lively adventurous world. I think it’s also nice that they have a particular colour that dominates their designs; however, I may want to work on those colour pallets in future.

[dylanchattoeclientstudiesblog]

Third blog post

Q&A with Adam Bailey

After the session with Adam Bailey, in which in which he illustrates the process of designing characters and environments, I feel as though I can begin my designing process.

The question is what idea to go with on the Q&A, Adam mentions that it is not against the rules of the brief to add your own pre-existing characters or environments, if they are still original. Because of this, I thought of the character of my own creation that I have not been able to utilise for any project: Bryn Underhill. I imagined his character as a useful and modern smuggler of magical items or artefacts. Additionally, I imagined him as a demolition list, who would construct their own explosives, and would have a demonstrable technical intelligence. Those details gave me a good idea of a general plot and environment.

To begin with, I’m picturing an urban fantasy environment that would both allow magical artefacts to exist as well as a magical history, while still allowing certain modern elements to exist naturally and not seem to abnormal or out of place. I am picturing a desert environment, but not necessarily earth as we know it. I can try experimenting with changing the colour of the sky or certain celestial elements perhaps adding two moons. And the cast of characters will be involved in one way or another with smuggling.

Bryn Underhill the de-facto leader; Malo would be the counter to Bryn’s youthful character and a useful tool of exposition; the client of the team; finally, the particular magical artefact that the client wants, who would be a living being.

[dylanchattoeclientstudiesblog]

Second blog post

In this blog post, I intend to come up with a minimum of one idea for the Cloth Cat Animation project, in preparation for the Q&A section with Adam Bailey.

As the last blog post suggests, the project is about making an innovative group of characters and/or objects (vehicles, for example) living within a defined environment with both an interior and an exterior.

The concept reminded me of examples, such as the Portal series (specifically Portal 2) that contains three characters – including the character Chell, GLaDOS and Wheatley, within the Aperture facility. I think this is a good example, because these characters have a demonstrable personality and chemistry with each other. Plus, they all have a particular goal, like escaping the facility or controlling it, so the environment is an important attribute to all these characters, as well.

The group that I create do not need to be friends with each other, nor do they need to be paragons of virtue. So long as they have a form of chemistry with each other, that can work.

This is also what I should aim to achieve. I should try to make characters that have undeniable personality that also has good chemistry with each other. They shouldn’t be solus characters and it has to seem natural that these characters would exist together and interact, unless the point was that these characters seem so different.

For example, an astronaut or space Marine character, with a robotic arm, crash lands on an alien world in which there is no technology and he now lives with some sort of shaman or hermit. Looking at them side-by-side, they would not only seem juxtaposed but also as if they were designed separately and mash together in an awkward pairing. However, if that was the point and it allowed for chemistry between the two characters, it may be an idea to pursue.

[dylanchattoeclientstudiesblog]

First blog

Our Client Studies is a brief that will allow us to have experience within the working environment of illustration. Thus, I will brief says we must spend 70 hours performing either placement or project as illustrators.

Over the past week, I have been searching for possible placements and projects, which had been suggested by Lauren Dutton. Eventually I found that Cloth Cat Animation was the best option for me, because it involved designing characters and environments for narrative purposes, which is where my passions also lay. There was a risk that they wouldn’t be available, but on the 19th of October they were confirmed and I received the brief.

Cloth Cat Animation wants a set of characters and an environment in which they live in, with no set theme and no real restrictions. If I remember correctly, it is to create 2 to 6 characters (beings: not necessarily human or living) and one environment that they live in (both in exterior and interior design). For example, a family of lies – all unique – within a toad’s mouth. These will be in the form of two deliverables: the first deliverable will be a set of images showing initial designs and ideas that haven’t been fully fleshed out, in the form of a mood board consisting of 1 A3 PDF (300 DPI); the second deliverable will be a key image of your fleshed out idea, which can be in the form of a poster, a comic, an action shot, et cetera. The first deliverable will be due on the 30th of November at 2 PM, whilst the second deliverable will be due on 11th of January at 2 PM.

As of now, I must make sure to research Cloth Cat Animation’s website and brand, so as to make sure that any ideas I do create will coincide with what they stand for and what they want. I will also make sure to re-read through the brief, so that I am clear on exactly what I must do, what they want, what possible restrictions they may have, et cetera.

This blog post will be consisting of my understanding of the brief and Cloth Cat as an organisation.

Firstly, I have looked on Cloth Cat‘s website and looked at some of the works and projects that they have had a pardon. I can determine that they have focused mainly on the demographics of young children and young adults

After going through the brief, I can understand that this project is focused on people being confined in their homes and needing another environment in which to escape to. Because of this, I could incorporate a similar feeling of isolation and/or confinement in where the small collection of characters and beings are stuck or being held somewhere. It is also important that I consider their personalities, their hobbies and, most importantly, their dynamic and relationship between each other. I’m not entirely certain whether this needs to be explained in deliverable one, as perhaps an annotation. I will perhaps ask about this later, as I will be having a Q&A with Adam Bailey.

Another thing to consider is the actual audience that I will be aiming towards. As previously stated, Cloth Cat Animation is a preference towards children:

Olobob Top caters to children between 2 – 5;

The series follows a group of young creative creatures called the Olobobs. Tib, Lalloo and Bobble live in a big forest and have fun playing, exploring and solving everyday problems. In each episode, they work together combining shapes, colours and patterns to create a new character, who joins in with the Olobobs’ fun, while a friendly narrator encourages them to think for themselves.

Luo Bao Bei has an audience for 4 - 8 year olds;

The series centres on spirited, fun-loving 7 year old Luo Bao Bei as she explores everyday life with her friends, family and animal companions, having adventures and learning that even though we seem different on the outside, the emotions we all feel make us fundamentally the same.

The Rubbish World of Dave Spud is for 6 - 11 year olds.

The Rubbish World of Dave Spud follows the misadventures of underdog Dave Spud (voiced by Johnny Vegas) and his family, as they embark on some extraordinary expeditions along with the likes of Gareth the Starfish and one eyed flea ridden Fuzzypeg the dog!

With that in mind, I imagine any ideas I do come up with must have an element of fun, positivity. I should avoid concepts of doom and gloom and likely should avoid violence or gore. I made sure to mention this in the Q&A as well just in case they have un-specified “do not.”

Another important thing to remember from the brief is that they also want us to think about brand – like logos, fonts and general patterns that would be considered unique to the idea. Consider Charlie and Lola, for example, and how that art style of Lauren Child is so unique to her books. I need to come up with ideas like that as well, with a very unique look. I may find this to be a bit difficult, as it will be hard to be both innovative and original while also being true to myself and my own style. By this I mean that I do not want to be absurdly original for originality sake. It should be me and my style, front and foremost.

Cloth Cat Animation has implied leniency over the software that we would use to create the work. However, they also mention that Photoshop and Illustrator would be options most in line with their artists. I am not sure whether I will use Manga Studio 5.0 or try to get used to using Photoshop and Illustrator in preparation for the future. I may use new software altogether, depending on how interested I am in learning about new software.

I will start to think of possible ideas and will discuss them in the next blog, with the understanding that I have gained from this one. I will try to come up with 2 to 3 initial ideas or concepts and use one of those to develop.