#ucla animation workshop

[arrowmi]

My second year film, On My Mind, is now live on Youtube! It’s a film very near and dear to my heart.

[marshmallowcomet]

Hey guys. Sorry I’ve been dead for a while. Just starting to get back into the groove of animating and using a new program called TVPaint. I’ll try to stay more updated in the future!

[arrowmi]

10 more days till my second year film, On My Mind, is released! Follow along on my instagram (@surelyzhou) for some behind the scenes of the film leading up to the release.

[arrowmi]

The second protagonist in my thesis film is a young girl named Evie. Her design looks the most like my regular drawing style compared to the other characters, but since she is a young child and I rarely draw children designing her was still a unique challenge. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I wanted her to look youthful and friendly, so I focused on giving her rounded features and a warm girly color palette. I looked to Lilo (from Lilo & Stitch) for design inspiration and incorporated her plump limbs to really push the feeling of youth and approachability. It was important narratively that she had distinguishing features, so vibrant blue eyes and freckles were the easiest and most readable way to accomplish that. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I haven’t figured out the details for the longer story of Bounty but I imagine it in the future when Evie is older, and much different from her younger self.

[arrowmi]

Every character in my film is a step outside of the comfort zone of what I usually draw, with the antagonist being no exception. I needed to learn how to design more than just cute young adult females, and Evelyn was my first venture into doing so. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

She has no actual dialogue compared to the other two characters, so it was important her character was immediately readable from just visuals alone. I focused on giving her design sharp angular features to push the feeling of unfriendliness and animosity, and explored ways I could design her body stature and clothing to convey a lot about her state of unhealthiness and poverty. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ While I don’t get to explore her backstory in the film, I always wanted her to seem like a character that was volatile and antagonistic on the surface, but potentially sympathetic when you understood the life she had to live and the motivations behind the choices she made.

[arrowmi]

With thesis deadline winding down (weeep 💦) I thought I’d share some of the visual development work I did for my film. Here’s character design work for one of the 2 protagonists in my film, an ex-bounty hunter named Joseph. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ For this film I wanted to try designing characters that were different from my usual style of drawing and really try to push more design language. Joseph was the first character I worked on, and settling on his style was essential because it would set the style guide for the other characters. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ What I eventually ended up with felt the most authentic to me as an artist, and the feel of the project, without forcing myself to take on a style that was different just for the sake of being different. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

For Joseph’s actual design, I originally experimented with the typical western style looking bounty hunters, but ultimately wanted to simplify it and make his design more versatile to fit the larger story this film will eventually be a part of. I loved the contrast of a huge torso with long skinny legs, and thought it made him feel strong and reliable. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I also liked the idea of designing him in a way where his character had the potential to be interpreted as both good and bad. Just because a character is a protagonist doesn’t mean they are always inherently “good”.

[arrowmi]

sketches for my friend Hailey’s birthday! these are her thesis film characters. her film is based on the true story of how her dad found their childhood dog ;v;

[orekamenpe]

Eggplant - 2d shortfilm