Friday 29 January 2016

'Anatomy for the Artist'

Two years ago I picked up this book for a bargain, since it demonstrates a complete guide to human anatomy which I thought could become useful one day.

It's clear to see the structure of the human figure through this book, the illustrations of the bones, muscles and different aspects of the body are very informative and educational. Having an understanding of how the human body is structured is important to improving my drawing skills, since it should give me more knowledge into how my drawings should look, and what to improve in them.

I can continue referencing this book throughout the project, whenever I'm struggling to figure out how to improve my drawings I can flick through different sections of this book to learn how they should look.



Life Drawing Online

In order to develop my skills in drawing, I believe that doing life drawing exercises will be the best way to spend my time, since this looks specifically at the human body in different positions.

I recently found a website specifically designed to replicate a life drawing class <http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/> ; the image below shows the page of the site which allows you to pick the gender of your model and if you want them to be clothed or not. Then it asks if you'd like it to be set up to replicate a real class (starting with quick poses, easing you into longer poses at the end), or if you want to take your time with each drawing.

Obviously this isn't the same as attending a real-life class, but it's still a decent alternative to allow me to practice drawing random poses.

The Life Drawing Website

After testing it out, I can safely say this is a reliable website; I tried the 'class mode' setting to last for 30 minutes - 10 poses in 30 seconds each, 4 poses lasting for 1 minute each, 2 poses for 5 minutes and 43 seconds and 1 pose for 11 minutes. Since I haven't practiced drawing for a while, this proved to be a good set up, since the 30 second poses warm you up to the next stages.

It felt a little easier to replicate the right positions once I got used to drawing again, here's my results:



The first 10 poses only lasted for 30 seconds; I'm not completely happy with them, on some the limbs are too wide or too thin in proportion to the rest of the body, but I think on most of them the line of action is at least slightly obvious.



I had a minute each to draw the next 4 poses; I tried to think about the line of action first and then work around that, which I think worked for some of them, but I have a habit of drawing a rough shape for the head first. This gives me an idea of where the rest of the body is going to sit, but unfortunately it stops me from focusing on the proportions as much. However this was only my first day in a while and I still mapped out the rough shapes I saw.


I ended up doing 4 poses for 5 minutes and 45 seconds because whilst in the process, there is an option to skip a pose, so once I had done a rough sketch of each I skipped them instead of waiting for the full 5 minutes. I am most pleased with the drawing on the bottom right of this page, because I got the line of action in place and correctly lined the feet with the rest of her body, since she is on the floor - at first I made the legs too long and the feet went off the edge of the page but I had time to correct this - it helped me to realise that the proportions in my drawings are very important. The drawing on the left didn't turn out as well, since one leg is supposed to be bent forwards while she leans on the other.


The last two 5 minute poses didn't turn out as well as I had hoped; poses with lying down and perspective are the most challenging for me, so I need to practice them a lot more. The bottom right was particularly difficult to draw, but looking back the perspective doesn't look too bad.


The final 11 minute pose proved to be difficult to draw, the cloth covering half of her body made working out the proportions confusing. However I think I got the body shape right, an improvement I would make is her right arm, I should have tried harder to make the forearm and hand smaller in size.

This has proven to be a good experience in establishing what I need to improve in my drawing skills; working on perspective and loosening up my drawings will be my priorities - for quick sketches I need to focus on the line of action rather than making the figure look particularly realistic. I have decided to try and do a 30 minute regularly throughout the project, to try and gradually improve my drawing and get used to doing it often, ready for when I animate my final piece.


Thursday 28 January 2016

New Photoshop Brushes

Since I will be animating my final piece in Photoshop, I need to consider what type of brush textures I want to use. One of my classmates introduced me to these new brush textures available to download for free:







The one that seems the most appropriate to animate with for my idea is the 'Animators Pencil', since it looks sketchy and good for quick, expressive drawings.

I would like to download them all and experiment with each, and based on which theme I choose to build the routine with I can establish which brushes will be most appropriate to portray the right style.


Contacting Dance Schools...

In order to be able to bring my idea to life, I need an expert to choreograph a routine for me to reference from.

I started by researching what schools are located in leeds; I decided that collaborating with a student will be best, since they are learning and developing as well as me (which will hopefully mean they are more willing to volunteer for a variety of tasks), and this collaboration could even help them reach their curriculum. Here's a list of dance schools I could contact and their locations:


The ones that stand out to me the most are The Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Dance Studio Leeds, and Phoenix Dance Theatre.

I then drafted an email to work out what I want to say to the dance schools; initially I wanted to email each school, but I realise I will more likely get a direct answer from them if I call them over the phone instead. This will hopefully get the process moving faster so that I can be ready to fill out the final statement of intent ready for next week.




Saturday 23 January 2016

Strictly Come Dancing

The TV show Strictly Come Dancing is famous for publicly displaying celebrities learning how to dance continuously every week for 3 months every year.

They usually learn a variety of ballroom and latin dances; I have considered using one of these routines to reference from for my animation if I don't manage to find a dancer willing to participate in my project, since most of the routines that have featured on the show are on youtube and the choreographers usually make the routines flashy and entertaining, which will make for a better performance.

A problem I might have if referencing from one of these videos is the changing camera angles - a lot of the shots don't capture the whole body, so I would have to either improvise or copy the moves frame by frame, or rotoscope my animation.

One dance couple in particular that could be good to use as reference are Caroline Flack and Pasha Kovalev, since this couple won the competition in 2014 and scored high marks nearly every week, meaning the standard of their dance routines should be high. They have done a mixture of dances. but these two stand out to me the most:






Both are very different from each other, but depending on what concept I want to go for in my animation, either of these routines could be a good place to start in using a reference.


Tuesday 19 January 2016

Different Materials

Whilst researching the various types of dancing I could explore further, I noticed a few animators have use different materials to express their characters dance moves. Though I am animating my film digitally, it's still possible to recreate the textures of different drawing tools, which could give my final piece a traditional, expressive look.

I would want it to still be easy to watch and be able to draw the audience into the story of the dance routine, however giving the film a rough sketchy look with realistic textures will hopefully bring the animation to life, making it more believable from the audiences perspective.

The two main examples I found are very different from each other; the first demonstrates a charcoal style that uses a loose animating style. It's a good example of how a sketchy animation can be used to ones advantage, by adding texture to the shading to really bring the movements to life.




My second example is a Disney classic; Pocahontas's 'Colours of the Wind'. This particular musical number describes how there's more to nature then what it seems. The way Disney used different textures (at 1:23-1:29 in the video below) to portray this is interesting, since it's different to their iconic "Disney style"; the combination of the brush strokes and the use of colour create a very expressive movement that allows the viewer to believe that it's wind based on the distorted lines.



A screenshot from Pocahontas

In watching these examples I have established that the use of texture to express the emotions of the characters is important, since the visual image can explain so much more than just dialogue.


Animals Concept

My initial thoughts and ideas a few months ago involved a dance routine for humans, but including animals into the sequence.

A way that I could combine them smoothly is by looking at 'Harry Potter' as an example. One of the magic spells cast allows the user to produce a 'patronus' in the form of an animal. In this sequence, the animation of this spell has been done very smoothly and gives only the essence of each animal, giving the impression that it's a spirit; I feel I could combine this into a dance routine well, especially if I animate it in a sketchy style.

However I would have to give the concept meaning if I want to pull it off, for example choosing a specific animal such as a swan to represent the dancer wanting to fly away and have freedom, or two animals falling in love? I will think about this further as I develop the routine, and hopefully have some input from a potential collaboration dance partner.





Sketchy Style Animation

These three animations are the ones that inspired me to go through with my idea of animating a dance routine. They all share a similar sketchy, smoothly animated style that stretch the limits of the human body, while still portraying a sense of believability that draws the audience into the story.

'Thought of You' is the first example I saw of this style. Back in my first year of this course, I was introduced to this film by my classmate, and I have admired this form of animation ever since. This particular film demonstrates how a finished animation doesn't have to be completely detailed or colourful to look good; for example the sketching marks that Woodward used to structure the figures are kept in.
He's good at giving the impression of different materials - at going from a human body to a wing for example. The dragged out body parts emphasise the exaggeration in the movements.
It's a single camera shot throughout with no background, which lets the audience focus on the dance routine.
The music here is very important to the storytelling process, since there are lyrics, which in a way makes it easier to decipher what the story should be. In my work, I could either use a song with lyrics or without, and either collaborate with a musician to compose a piece for me or refer to a song that's already released. Before this I need to meet with a choreographer to figure out what the dancer(s) want to do as well.



The second example I admire is 'Duet' by Glen Keane. He is a famous Disney animator, which is visible in the style of the characters and body proportions. The use of a lighter pencil to illustrate the animation over a dark background stand out to me as something different from most other films of its kind.
Though this isn't purely a dance routine, there are elements of dancing as well as a well illustrated story running throughout the sequence, representing the life of two people who fall in love. The body language of the characters demonstrate the emotions of the characters really well.
I like how there's no obvious background, yet you can tell where the characters are in the space with the hints of trees and the perspective of the humans.
The music played in the background is very theatrical and assists with the portrayal of emotions.
This film demonstrates my need to refine my drawing skills; if I'm going to draw the human body then I need  to get it right, so practice is required on my part.



The third example, 'Nephtali', is a perfect demonstration of an animator collaborating with a dancer. The first half of the video is a film of them working together to develop the dance moves and ideas that Glen Keane wants to do. Animated in a similar style to 'Duet', Keane shows off his skills in drawing the human body form in a traditional style, working from his references and creating an emotional story out of sketches.



All of these films work particularly well using an unusual colour scheme, and animating in a sketchy style smoothly. While going forth with my ideas, I really want to consider all aspects of the animation, to discover what will make it a good film; so considering colour, lighting, backgrounds (or no backgrounds), and music, as well as my quality of animation, should all come together to make one beautifully animated sequence.

My next step in the process is to decide if I want my sequence to be recorded at one camera angle, have the characters move around in a space, or have the camera pan across the screen as the characters move, as well as getting in touch with a dance school to see if anyone would be interested in collaborating with me.