Convergence / Divergence @jakeillustrates-blog - Tumblr Blog

My final experiment for this project. I’ve managed to add stock sound to this animation which does add a needed layer in connecting the moving image to the viewer. While the moving image by itself can convey comedy, like the silent films of Buster Keaton, sound can be utilised as another mean to convey humour. If I had more time I would have liked to go out and record my own sounds as I had to improvise with the sounds I was able to find, and although this does bring a certain amount of chance into the project I would've liked more control. I’ve placed the animation on Vimeo as that is the platform that contemporary illustrators working on the cutting edge are using. Illustrators such as Pete Henderson, who specialises in moving image illustration, got a staff pick on one of his videos which gave him great visibility. I chose to put sound on this one as I was happiest with the composition, mixture of shots and how well the gag is revealed.

#Vimeo #humour #illustration

This animation is really close to how I wanted it, I’m really happy with the visual language of both the environment and the characters. The one thing I am unhappy with is that because the unusual character is a mime it doesn't really relate to the others that I have done as a series. If I had more time I would have tried to diversify my characters away from fantasy/monsters. I would also have liked to have added sound to add to the unusualness of the mime, working with loudness and quiet to create comedy.

This knight experiment has a good premise but I feel like has not been executed to the standard I wanted it to be, I used more key framing animation than frame by frame and it has not worked as well. I revealed the gag too early and the smearing of the sun screen doesn't really add anything else. If I was too finish this I would add a close up of the knights eyes and a gleam on the armour before the reveal of the sunscreen as well as a close up of the sun to emphasise the heat and brightness of the day as well as too create the sense of danger which would be undercut by the gag.

Alongside the project I entered two competitions for Pictoplasma and a Clothing outlet : Lucy and Yak.

Experiment in the sound workshop, We had the opportunity to either put sound on one of our own pieces of work or work with different clips of the silent film ‘Nosferatu’. I was lucky in this fact seeing as Nosferatu is a vampire and I could use sound to place him in an ordinary situation. As well as experiment with putting unusual sounds and seeing how they affect the video.

An experiment using After Effects and stock imagery with a quickly rendered flapping bird and smoke animation done in photoshop. I wanted to just mess around and produce something fun and surreal inspired by something you would see in ‘The Eric Andre Show’ which is another inspiration of mine for comedy. After Effects could have been a possible way to work on my animations after photoshop but I felt that the movement produced in it was a bit too smooth and unnatural.

The Skeleton was not as successful as my Mummy test. I personally really like the joke of the Skeleton drinking a protein shake and it just falling through its ribs but its too much of an expected joke and the protein shake doesn't really read well. If I had more time I would have shifted the composition so each shot wasn't so centralised and I would have spent more time on the background to fully set the skeleton in an ordinary environment. I dove too deep into a green palette and should have included more realistic colours. The actual rendering of the Skeleton I feel was successful. To combat the sort of expected results of the shake falling through the ribs, I would have held the end frame pose and then quickly inflated the skeletons bones so that they would be reminiscent of large muscles.

I believe this to be one of my more successful experiments, I’m really happy with the visual style, keeping it textural and colourful. I feel as if I got the pacing almost right, I feel as if maybe I could have left some more time on the close up facial expression of the mummy before revealing their surroundings and their predicament. I would also have changed the black lines that etch their face upon realisation to ones that more matched their skin tone. If I had more time I would have liked to have added sound to see what impact it would have made, but I feel like it works well enough on its own. I also added the vampire from another animation idea to promote more cohesion in my illustrated universe.

Of Cats and Men by Sam Kalda. I began to doubt myself just before starting the animations and I was unhappy with the work I was producing so I looked for more illustrators to find inspiration, and I found Sam Kalda’s work whose use of texture, shape and colour was a huge inspiration and really helped me simplify my work for 2D animation.

#sam kalda #of cats and men #illustrator #inspiration

An experiment from a workshop working on transitions using two different objects or movements. It was really fun and interesting working on transitions and I would have liked to explore them further but I was too focused on actually getting the reveal right and working in each of my animations.

After iterating several character designs and storyboarding in my sketchbook to work out comedic timing and trying to develop my reveal I began doing digital character designs to capture the textured feel from my work that I had developed from the previous unit. The Vampire and Mummy being the most successful out of the few that I did. The Skeleton didn't really have a cohesion with the visual language that I had developed from my previous characters. In regards to the Knight’s design I wanted to capture the absurdity of the shape that I came to in my Blender experiment, although I wanted to make sure they looked less frog like. I feel like I needed to refine these more.

A gif I made during a workshop using photoshop. This experiment solidified my thoughts on using digital 2D moving image as the method and material going forward in this project. Although I was unsure wether or not to do gifs as I felt like they were too restrictive in terms of setting up for a reveal. They did not leave enough time for me to do it. I was inspired by Waititi so I had begun thinking about extraordinary characters such as Mummies, Vampires, Knights, Mimes, Cowboys, Skeletons, Deep Sea Divers, Magicians and Highway-Women. And how they could be placed in everyday situations to create humour. I also looked at how silent filmmakers such as Buster Keaton were able to have such a command of comedy without sound through physicality and framing for research as at this stage I wasn't sure wether my animations were to contain sound, so I at least wanted them to convey humour effectively without it.

An upload of an unfinished experiment with traditional 2D animation. I also had an opening inky eye, and I was going to inter cut and replace some frames with different colours and marks but I didn't have time during the workshop to photograph these. After this experiment I felt like 2D animation was the way to go forward.

I'm used to working with restrictions and that's when you come up with the more creative stuff.

Taika Waititi

#taika waititi

Experimenting with blender as a lot of Illustrators working on the cutting edge of Illustration are using this software to create humorous Illustrations such as the work of Julian Glander and Jack Sachs. While the character that I produced in blender had an interesting and humorous look, the time it took for me to produce it and the learning curve required for me to fully get to grips with the software was a bit too high. I also feel like it didn't really relate to my work from the previous units. I want to push my practice but I want to push it in the right direction. I decided to focus on 2D animation after this experiment.

At the start of this project I was unclear what direction to take the actual content of my project in, I really enjoyed the narrative unit but I wanted to incorporate a more humorous element into my work as I’ve always enjoyed comedic texts. Recently I have been really inspired by the films of Taika Waititi who originally started out illustrating and producing outsider art. His approach to not limiting himself in creating artwork is by not labelling himself by the medium he is currently using such as ‘Filmmaker’ but by labelling himself as a ‘storyteller’. Which is something more and more contemporary Illustrators are doing. His comedic styling focuses on “Polite Humour” and finding comedy in putting extraordinary characters in ordinary situations like in Waititi’s films ‘What We Do In The Shadows’ and ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and vice versa in ‘Hunt For The Wilderpeople’. This idea of putting the Extraordinary with the Ordinary was a great constraint for my project and allowed me to focus my research and my idea generation.

#giphy #the orchard #hunt for the wilderpeople #julian dennison #taika waititi #ricky baker

Convergence and Divergence of Illustration Practice

In this blog I will be showing the direction and thought processes behind my project for the Con/Div Unit. Screen based illustration is something I am familiar with, as most of my artwork either originates digitally or incorporates digital elements. However successful Illustrators working on the cutting edge of Illustration experiment with various different forms of screen based Illustration involving moving image which includes traditional 2D, traditional 3D, stop motion, video collage and digital 3D. In this project I needed to align the current constraints of technology with my own illustration practice and personal interests. I needed to use this project to further my previous developments in digital image making in the previous units, I feel like the quality of my work improved in the Narrative Unit and I wanted to carry that momentum forward so before I started looking into various methods and materials my work could take , I did feel that it would most likely involve photoshop elements as a natural development of my practice. As contemporary Illustrators need to have a digital presence to garner attention which may lead to commissions and employment, I looked through Illustrators such as Jack Sachs, Joey Yu, Carlotta Notaro and Tom Haugomat on Instagram who have worked with screen based Illustration for inspiration.

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Convergence / Divergence