*D* Toby Shelton is totally boss

Oh hey look another random link to an awe-inspiring blog!

http://tobyshelton.blogspot.com/

Again, looky and likey! He is such a prodigy, when it comes to storyboarding!

Dissertation Research class today!

Right, I had an epic discussion with my tutor (Ian, I believe his name is) about my dissertation question, and how I can continue with it. Man, let me just say that Ian is like one of the most intelligent, knowledgeable guys I've ever met. I thought my Aunt knew a lot, but apparently she has a rival when it comes to brain functionality.

I digress. I'll put all the info in bullet points and expand on what I noted down if I can. I had to take a lot in from that discussion, so I might not remember everything as clearly as I like.

• Tuppy Owens (sp?) - Ian knows this lady very well. Helps support charity called "Outsiders club". Helps people with special needs match-make. Exhibitions in connection with this
• "See Hear" - to do with blind and deafness
• Mick (Nick?) Scarlet - Wheelchair bound individual
• Thalidomide birth defects (sp?) - People born with hunched arms and legs, due to drug of same name effecting growth during pregnancy
• Maybe stick to view of Britain because looking worldwide will be a little too broad.
• Talk to Leonard in LRC.

All a bit vague, I know, but this is stuff i can look into more, absopositively!

*D* Don Juanova Rehearsals!

And now on to drawing the knight in shining armour! Here is the original ref sheet that Matt drew up.

... And here are my sketches!

I'm pretty happy with them, to be honest. I even had a try at some dynamic poses. I've tried hard to make him look like a handsome chap in love, though I'm worried some of the shots look a bit gay haha!

He's a joy to draw though. He reminds me of Linguini from Ratatouille, gorky and lanky. I can see great potential for some really fun animation with this guy!

EDIT: Feedback from Matt:-


Great stuff Emma, really nice poses and expressions! All i'd say is that he won't have his eyes open until the very last scene when he becomes disillusioned, so he's not going to have a very readable face, maybe an eyebrow raise here and there or a self-content half smile, but apart from that his character will come across through his movement rather than face. Maybe not as goofy. That's just knit picking so apart from that you're doing a good job of fleshing this guy out. Keep it up.

Thanks

Matt

---

*D* *M* More Finished Penguin Ref Sheets

Here we go! Ed is coming together rather nicely I think!

I've done two versions, because I remember Andy Kinnear saying that he wanted to see a version with a dark coloured coat with a blue shimmer. There isn't a huge difference, but it does change his look a bit. I think the one above looks cuter and more childish. The one below looks a little more serious, for some reason. After talking to him about these two concepts, he said he preferred the darker skinned penguin. So I will do a ref sheet with the colour change

I will probs do some more detailed reference sheets for this guy, but yeh this is how I think he'll look. I even did a little picture of the little dude over the top of an environment picture Andy picked out and put on his blog. I had a lot of fun working on this, and I hope Andy and the rest of the team think he looks okay. I'm sure there's things that will need editing, but this is still good progress.

In terms of turning this penguin into a 3D animated model, I tried to make the design as easy to cope with as possible. No hair or feathers to worry about. His feet have slight leg bits, so they can be rigged to bend and stuff, which will help when it comes to walk cycles. His face is fairly straight forward. His beak will be "rubbery" so you can change the size and shape to match his mood. He has a little tail too, for added character and flow. His flippers have no hands, so no tampering with rigging fingers. Oh and his mouth opens and closes, and has a tongue.

Here's some livestream footage of me drawing the penguin critters!

*D* Studying Lou Romano.

http://louromano.blogspot.com/2009/06/up-color-script.html

Will write about this more, but for now, CLICK THE LINK

Amazing work!

*IPP* Work experience opportunity - continued

I got a response from Lorna Hamilton-Brown about the storyboarding position. Here's my correspondence with her:

Hi Emma,

I've heard back from the company their feedback was they liked your work. However they are looking a different style. They are looking for a more realistic charcoal sketched storyboard.

I'll keep you informed of any other opportunities.

------

Hey Lorna!

Thank you very much for letting me know the situation. It's a shame that they haven't taken me up, but I'm glad they liked my work all the same. If you could you let me know if you find any other work experience opportunities in the future, I would greatly appreciate it. I am keen to meet and work for some talented industry people. I am a very strong 2D artist, and can do concept, 2D + 3D animation, storyboarding and animatics, so if you find anything in that area of the animation industry, that would be fantastic!

If ever you want to meet up and talk more, let me know

------

Hi Emma,

Yes it is a shame, but there will be other opportunities. Let's meet up sometime. It
would be good to go over your CV.

Have a good weekend.



All in all, fairly positive


It's a shame it didn't work out for me, but maybe that shows that I should try and provide more of a variety of work. This experience makes me want to work with a variety of media, so that if another opportunity like that arises, I will have more to show for myself to cater for any situation.

I'm glad that Lorna wants to go over my CV, because I think it needs some improvement. It can so much better. I'll try and arrange a day to do this shortly

*D* *M* The Deep concept

I have been lucky enough to be asked by Andy Kinnear to do some work for his project "The Deep". I have warned him that I may not be able to do huge amounts of work for him because of the other work I am doing, but I have been able to find some spare time to do some concept work of his penguin character.

Here's some concept work he presented me as a basis to work from.

So once I had an idea of what he wanted, I got to work. I am under the impression that this little dude is a rather cheeky penguin. He has been accidently transported by a stray iceburg to unknown waters. He has decided to make his home there, since he likes it more then the cold wintery lands he came from. He comes across the hero of the story, and aggravates him because of their rivalling need to catch fish.

I know for a fact that "The Deep" is undergoing some story repairing, so this brief bio of the penguin may change.

Here are some drawings I did to start my exploration of the character. Most of these are just me practising drawing penguins, since they are an animal I haven't drawn a lot of in the past. I looked at a lot of different penguin pictures, so I could go for a variety of different shapes, sizes and markings.  The ones with blue arrows are the ones Andy greenlit for me to continue developing.

Here are some more designs, based more on the greenlit ones I did above.

Lol smiley face for filler!

I'm currently working on some more finished concepts of the final penguin design. I'd upload them now, but I want to do some more drawings to really complete the penguin.


But yeh I almost forgot, here's a little character design brainstorm I did for both the raven and penguin designs

Please take some time to read this, it contains a lot of my deliberations about the designs, including colour, shape, and personality.

I plan to animate the finished 3D model of the penguin when it is done. I will do some little tests of him swimming soon, though I'll probs be doing stuff for Smitten first.