Niamh's Blog

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Vanessa Morales

I really like this illustrators and how she uses colours and simple characters. She adds loads of different textures.

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Nicolas Rix

I really liked his character design and could see myself creating something similar for my short film. Again I really like the textures used and the background designs fit so well to create a world of its own.

https://www.behance.net/nicolasrix

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Manu Montoya

I wanted to find some more illustrators that used a lot of textures and simple shapes. I really like the fish that she made as they are simple but the textures add a lot to them. She also incorporates different patterns onto things making them more unique.

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Kew Gardens Project

I really like the character design for this project and the colours that contrast to make different elements pop out. The added line work makes the environment and the characters more realistic and helps to guide the eye.

https://vimeo.com/727088869

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Doug John Miller

I found this artist on Instagram that I would really like to try and recreate this style, its simple but still detailed and kind of reminds me of Where’s Wally books which I find endearing. He is an illustrator based in London. I really like the little details he adds and the lighting of his drawings to create atmosphere.

I really want to use this style as inspiration for my short film, it is very detailed and will be time consuming but I think it will make the environment feel like its own universe.

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Ana Duna

This illustrator really inspired me to create my TV series in this style. Moving on from third year I would really like to create work similar to this but in an animated form. I love the textures and child like characters she has created.

https://www.behance.net/anaduna

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Inspiration for the Vegetable Patch Short Film

The first image is what inspired this idea, the artist has made the different vegetables into fully animatable characters but they do not look out of the ordinary. I am excited to come up with my own ideas for how to make them look and to consider different placements of facial features.

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Inspiration for the Sea Short Film

With this short film I think I could be really creative with the character designs on how they can breath under water and the creatures they come across.

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Inspiration for my TV Series

These photos help to show the environment I would like to create for this TV series, I want it to feel magical and out of this world.

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Inspiration for Train Love Story

These are some of the things I came across that inspired me for my short film. I really liked the point of view shots and the focus on one particular person which I think would be really good for this short film to emphasise the impact the two characters have on each other. I want my characters to realistic but simple enough for me to be able to animate easily and to be able to focus more on the gestures. I added in the reflection photo as I think it is very sweet and a smart shot that could be used when waiting on the trains.

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Animation in 2D: Hair and Clothing - Dermot O’Connor

I choose this tutorial in hopes that it will ease my fears on animating more realistic characters. Dermot said it is smart to spilt up the hair into shapes which helps to simplify it. With hair you should always consider overshooting and dragging the hair. You must consider the weight of the different sections and to make sure they do not look like they have been glued in place. Use s/c curves, irregular spacing, have a point of origin. On holding poses delay on element so that not everything comes to a dead stop. You need to consider the weight and texture of the clothing to know how they fall back into place.

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Learning Character Animation with George Maestri

This tutorial is good at explaining the dynamics of how the weight of the body is important and how to create balance throughout the body and how you must consider how the character will look from all angels, this will help to make realistic poses. Considering the direction of the feet as well is important to create fluid poses. Silhouetting the characters help to eliminate issues as you can tell what they are doing straight away and any issues you need to fix and the negative space that you need to consider. Taking momentum into consideration is very important and helps to add energy to the character. When animating a walk cycle, I liked how he did it in stages, starting at the legs moving up to the head, this allows him to focus on the structure and how to make the walk cycle realistic. Considering the timings for blinking is interesting to show different reactions or emotions, moving the head subtly adds so much more to the face too. Asymmetry is a good way to make the facial expression more natural. This tutorial is good and making you consider what every element of the body does even if the eye is focused on the mouth, you must consider the head movement how they breath and how they blink. This tutorial was really informative and a good resource to reference back to , I never considered how the throat opens when speaking and what angle the head is in.

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Story and Character Development for Animation with Andrew Gordon

This one was a short tutorial but was nice to see how different animators work on how to create different characters personalities and really bring them to life. The imagination that they have when they go to visit places for reference is inspiring to think outside the box and to consider how the environment can’t become part of the film.

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LOUISE - Animation Short Film 2021 - GOBELINS

Louise, ballerina at the Garnier Opera in 1895, rushes home after a show but is stopped by a friend asking for money. Louise knows what to do in order to rep...

This is a good short film to show movement in the body as one girl is very fidgety. The lighting helps to guide the eye as she moves through the crowds. The facial features are simple when you look at them but have been done to make it look realistic, again I think the lighting helps this. The lighting shows good and bad in this as well and sets the horrid tone of the film.

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Animation Foundations: Storyboarding with Dermot O’Connor

With this tutorial it was a good recap on the basics shots and how to do transitions well. Showing the different perspectives and how to work with them is interesting and helps to make the shots more interesting. Considering different lighting styles too, by changing the different contrasts and emphasising them too to accelerate the scene. Considering your line of action and the different shot types is essential when staging your scenes and creating poses.

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SILVER - CalArts First Year Film

My film for my first year at CalArts! Learned so much, and I'm so grateful for everyone who helped me get here and finish this :)Music + Sound design by Gran...

I liked this short film because of its transitions, it is very detailed and slightly hard to see perfectly but this helps to show what the character needs, this is a good example of how to use light and dark and how contrast can be so powerful in short films.

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Animation Foundations: Gestures with Andrew Gordon

When watching this tutorial, I found it interesting how you should consider your gestures and how often you use them, and how to convey gestures differently so they do not become cliches. Illustrative gestures are another element I would not have thought about, without sound you can tell exactly what is happening, this would be a good idea to determine how clear your animation is and to make the story more impactful. Adding in small hand gestures can really improve the scene and say a lot about how the character is thinking. Even having to consider moving different limbs while focusing on one to make everything more fluid and natural is another thing I would not have considered. Breaking up a twin gesture is a good way to at variation to your movements. It is also a good idea to think outside of the box and use different parts of the body to gesture, the example in this tutorial was from the jungle book, using the feet to point at himself. Considering the contrast between no gestures and a lot, can emphasise superiority or create a comedic style. Eye fix is a term I did not know, where you focus on a vocal point say the hand then cut to the next scene, but the hand is still at the same point which would help a lot with continuity and flow.