Animation MDX Year 2

[mdxyr2liz]

After forgetting to log some hours in I did for Debbie, I reworked on my time sheet and got both Debbie and Freya to sign my grad assist paper.

250 word reflection:

For this grad assist, I was assigned to Fatma and Debbie. I didn’t help much with Fatma and Cagla because I didn’t have any experience with making sets, even though my role in her film is to help out with post-production, I didn’t attempt to help with the pre-production stage unfortunately. I thought I’m doing well because I was working on 2 scenes with Debbie and Tim as my group partner for the Cinema 4D work. Although I could have been more giving to the 3rd year around the end of March, I became more selfish for my 2 minute film because I didn’t see a lot of progress in the weeks and April 21 was the crit presentation for my film, so I had to rush it. After my crit, I needed to get more hours for the brief because I didn’t have the required hours, which was 30. I only had about 17 hours for Debbie after double-checking my hours with her. So I helped out Freya with her film, I helped out colouring one of her scenes which has 3 characters in it and it took me 17 hours in 3 days. I wasn’t sure if I was slow or fast but Freya loved the results of the scene, so I sent it to her and got both Debbie and Freya to sign my paper. In the end, I think I did an okay job for my grad assist but I think I would have filled in more of my hours if I was more daring with exploring new mediums and stages.

[mdxyr2liz]

As I didn’t have enough hours for my grad assist, I decided to help Freya with her film and I helped colour one of her scenes which took me to 34 hours in total. Freya was happy with the results of the shot! 

[mdxyr2liz]

Here is a scrapped thumbnails storyboard I’ve made for my 2 minute pre-production brief which I didn’t upload for the duration of the project. I scrapped it because it was too long but it featured the girl’s backstory where she was bullied with the bugs poured onto her. 

This scene was supposed to take place after the monster vomits on the girl and then she wakes up from the flashback. 

[mdxyr2liz]

Some behind the scenes for my two minute film, my papers for the third part of my film and a mind-map on what medication will be used for my film. I ended up with Melatonin for the medication because the rest are normally considered as hard drugs and are highly lethal, so I went for the most neutral drug with minimal side effects.

[mdxyr2liz]

Here is my updated 2 minute film. I changed the timing on the film in 1:32-1:38 to make it longer, to make my sound producer pleased with the audio track syncing with the animation. I also fixed some parts of the animation where it was just a still frame and added title cards and credits. 

The major feedback that was given to me in the crit was that there are some scenes unfinished and that is what this updated version fixed upon. 

[mdxyr2liz]

Internship 250w reflection

For the internship brief, I thought I did a good job looking for people. I got a group of people who I looked up to in the freelance animation and people in the industry. I also contacted people who I meant in their industry talks, like Karla Ortiz. I was proud of the selection of people I contacted but I didn’t get much response. When I sent out my first few messages to people, who were Slaven Reese, Tina Nawrocki and Amanda J. Holm, they all responded within 3 days and I got a lot of good advice from it and was ecstatic to send the rest of the messages to the other people I chose to talk to. I didn’t get any other responses from the other people and I also asked one more person for my internship work where they didn’t answer too. I have about 3 answers and 7 unanswered. I should have asked more people but I didn’t want to make it feel forced to ask people who I’m not interested in because everyone who I chose to contact are inspirations to my previous animations or long-time inspirations I always look on the sidelines. So even though it's a small group of people I contacted and I only got 30% of it answered, I am content with the progress I made for this brief.

[mdxyr2liz]

Here are some progress images of the model in Cinema 4D and the UV map for the spaceship.  I mainly worked on the texturing of the ship, so I used the UV edit workspace in C4D a lot and I added the details in the texture file by using Photoshop as they are both compatible. 

[mdxyr2liz]

Here is the intro spaceship animation that both me and Tim did. Tim did the animation and I did the textures for both the spaceship and the satellite. We used motion blur in this scene.

[mdxyr2liz]

Here is the crash landing scene I worked on with Tim Baker for Debbie’s Frogs In Space film. Tim did the animation and I did the textures for the ship. 

[mdxyr2liz]

Practicing with perspective and lighting here, using only limited amount of colours.

[mdxyr2liz]

I used digital gouache paint to colour this in and practice my rendering on digital illustrations.

[mdxyr2liz]

Create a new presentation and edit with others at the same time. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Slides to edit PowerPoint files. Free from Google.

Here is my internship presentation for the crit. 

[mdxyr2liz]

Here are all of my failed attempts at asking the rest of my contacts for advice. I asked Ewen Stenhouse (Creative Director of Golden Wolf), Steve Small (Character Designer), Shiyoon Kim (Concept Art for SpiderVerse), Robert Valley (Character Designer for Zima Blue and Motorcity), Mahmoud (freelance animator) and Karla Ortiz (Concept Artist for Doctor Strange). 

I used Karla’s, Robert’s and Steve’s websites’ contact form, I didn’t screenshot Steve’s form post but I have the transcript here: 

“Hi Steve, my name is Elizabeth Scott and I'm in my second year in Middlesex University, majoring in Animation. I would like to ask what do studios look for in a graduate's portfolio? I'm interested in the animation and pre-production (concept art and storyboards) side of the studio. Are there any creative skillsets would you recommend highlighting in an animation portfolio? I also just like to mention that I like your work with TSB a lot and please take your time answering my questions! Thanks in advance!”

I messaged all of them before we broke off for Easter holiday, so it’s been 3 weeks since. So I think these are failed attempts to contact them. 

[mdxyr2liz]

Here are all of the successful attempts I got from my group of people who I messaged. I asked them what would studios look for in a graduate’s portfolio and what skillsets would they like to see in it and I got some responses from it. 

I asked Tina Nawrocki (2D animator for Cuphead), Amanda J. Holm (Animator in Line Animation) and Slaven Reese (Animator for Klaus, Song of the Sea). They are all freelance animators who worked for studios and other medias. 

They all answered my questions and they replied with:

- excel in construction drawing (learning how to get around a structure) - really good drawing practice/skill - understanding of the animation principles - be true to your own style - showing walk cycles are always a good thing Tina also gave me some good advice, which is to ask some creative directors as recruiting graduates is their job. In that case, I will ask some studios’ directors and some of my inspirations like Robery Valley. 

[mdxyr2liz]

Here is my internship database of the people I've looked and contacted. I looked into the staffs that worked for popular studios and mainly look for animators and directors as I think they are the best way to look for information on the job I'm looking for in a studio.

[mdxyr2liz]

This is my 2 "minute" film production, I rushed 2 all nighters to finish this because I wanted to see how the animation would work with my sound producer's audio. I will have the fully finished animation with revised sfx and new beginning audio for it as they think that the beginning song isn't that tranquil enough. I'm really proud of my friend and aspiring sound producer, here is his bandcamp!

[mdxyr2liz]

March 31 2022

I used pastels to match the sherlock detective theme we had today.