A small start on my free life Drawing classes. Unfortunately most people were lying down but I got some interesting angles.
Friday, 17 June 2011
A trip to my near Beach
As I mentioned I will be focusing on the sea for this project. A great start could be to use reference from what’s around me at the moment. So I went for a tip to the sea and discovered a lot of hidden ‘treasures’ for my project. Apart from underwater vegetation and colourful pebbles I found sea creatures with great textures and shapes.
First ideas on Summer Project
My soundscape has a sharp change in mood. At first it's calm, almost tranquil as the sea but it suddenly turns into chaos as if the peaceful sea becomes an uncontrolled storm which creates aggressive waves that could destroy anything. I don't know why I thought of the sea when I first heard it. Probably because I've been very close to the sea lately? :P Anyway, I somehow linked those two almost opposite moods with two different creatures. The calm creature reminded me as I said of the calm sea during summer, so it could be a spirit, a creature that sustains the balance of the sea world and makes sure that all creatures and plants of the underwater world live in harmony. I could picture this creature as being which has lived underwater for the whole of its life so the salt water and of course time have began to show their impact on its appearance. It could be covered in sea weeds and moss, corals could be growing out of its skin and sea creatures like shells and muscles have inhabited on its body like parasites. It could be a mixture of different sea creatures so it could consist of tentacles, scales colourful shells. In other words this creature has become part of the sea- it was born out of it. On the other hand, the other Creature could be an enemy of the sea, like pollution for instance. This one could be made out all the different rubbish that end up in the sea due to man's ignorance towards nature. It could be dirty, covered in materials that take thousands of years to decompose in the sea like glass bottles, tin cans and plastic. It could be emitting an unbearable smell and squirt out oil left from oil spills all around the globe.
I would like to hear your opinions please :)
Monday, 13 June 2011
Evaluation of Year One and Plans for this Summer :)
I’ve already completed my first year as a CG Student which is hard to believe. I remember a year ago working on my summer project and feeling terrified with the idea of presenting my crappy 101 thumbnail drawings in front of a class full of strangers. But soon enough I got really attached to my coursemates and tutors and managed build up great relationships with them which I think will last for a lifetime. I am loving the small CG community ‘hiding’ in the base room J. Everyone’s happy to help one another and all second years and third years have been a great support throughout the year (and I am hoping to build up the same relationship with the first years in September). I’ve had good and bad moments in that area but one thing’s for sure: I am willing to take those experiences with me and make my Second Year better.
Going back home after 5 months since Christmas has been a major change for me. Catching up with friends and family again has helped me clear my mind about the past year in the UK. Everything is more relaxing here considering that I live on a tiny island, packed with tourists from all around Europe accompanied with glorious weather. I’ve been a lot more physically active here compared to a few months ago. I am trying to be in front of the computer screen a lot less so I can prepare myself for the Hard Second Year. The course is mainly computer based so what I am going to try and do for this summer is use reference from real life instead. I am aiming to go back to basics with ‘real’ art materials and sketch my surroundings a lot. I will be carrying my sketchbook with me as you never know when inspiration may strike. I have discovered a method for free life drawing classes on the beach. I hope no one notices I am drawing people is swimsuits :P. Photoshop and Maya will also be included in my daily activities as I am not very confident with them and I feel like I should improve a lot more. During the course there were a few Maya Exercises I left out as I ran out of time and some I found harder than others. I am hoping to complete most of them and repeat the ones I found hard. I’ve learnt that if you keep repeating something it will surely take a lot less time than the first time and you do learn more.
Thinking of what I have accomplished in just 30 weeks has made my jaw drop. I came across so many different kinds of software that I’ve never used in my life and have produced work that I would never have thought I could achieve. My professional skills have improved a lot, including my time management (if you don’t include the last project which was disappointing). My writing skills have showed a big improvement thanks to the endless film reviews and the constant essays which were a bit of a pain but a great help for my writing. And most of all I got to go back to Art again which I missed so much while being at school here in Corfu. This course has taught me a lot about how art works, how art can improve people’s lives and how art can bring out so many messages to the world. This is a quote I made up while on this course: “Art is no imagery, but images that take place within you and being brought out in their greatest way.”
So good Art is not something which is done because it has to be done but is something that is bound to happen if you work on it hard enough. Art is not easy which is what makes our course so hard. Satisfying the audience visually requires a lot of work and is a combination of a lot of components together. Great animation is not just the visual outcome which makes it attractive, it’s also the storyline, the music, the characters, the style, the editing and the messages it brings out. If any of those components are left out then an Animation cannot be successful and this can be proven by looking back to some Animated stories (hand drawn and 3D) which are known worldwide for their success like Pixar’s Toy Story or Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. I grew up obsessed with animated stories and have been looking back to them and try to find out what was it that made them so appealing to myself . Going back to my childhood stories and animated films has helped me understand about their chemistry.
So this Summer I will have a walk through my childhood and do what I mostly like: making my own characters. But to avoid concentrating on my comfort zone I will be doing what I am not very confident with which is texturing, Maya exercises, environment concepts and maybe some animation. Oh and of course try and finish my Commission Project-if my computer is friendly with me and decides to work with rendering. I am planning to improve this summer but simultaneously I will enjoy myself and get ready for the next round. For the mean time I am off for a relaxing swim J
Bring on Summer Whoo hoo!
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
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