Developmental background Art - Degree show animation.

Hi everybody, its been a long while.

For the past few months, ive been developing a final degree show animation which marks the end of my three year education, at Anglia Ruskin University. WHOO!!!

Although i would like to admit the past couple of days trying to compile a storyline and develop a visual style took the longest time. What i submitted for the degree show was unfinished but it was a great achievement in my books. I was happy to be apart of such a great event among other creatives who will be starting out in the industry this year.

The animation is titled 'The Great Doughnut Robbery' and im pleased to say its development is still underway.  Its a mix of noir filtered comedy, set in the evening 70's sun. Two officers, Tea and Cosco, {a bear and human} as they track down and try to apprehend the notorious doughnut bandit. (did i mention one was a bear?)

Ive enjoyed this experience and im still finding new ways to make it more and more interesting.

Ive also piqued interest from a few games designers who were looking for some background art on a potential 2D/3D indie game.

  So to mark this occasion, i have compiled some of my background shots that have currently been completed for the Degree show animation. There is a lot of material still being developed or wasn't good enough yet to make the cut. 

Also ill be at New Designers this July in London. A show for creatives to meet new businesses in hopes to make new contacts.

T and Cosco, Final Major Project Test.

This is the first keyframe animation test for my Final Major Animation, T and Cosco.

For four hours, I'm happy with it.
Anglia Ruskin University. 2015.

FANTASTIC MR BOWLER IS OPERATIONAL; plus some important news about Project Lilith, Tumblr Migration and Some Animation. OHHHH!!!!

I finally designed and coded my website at Fantastic Mr Bowler.
It took a long while but its finally done. Now that I look back at it, I really want to implement a lot of Css, Javascript and HTML everywhere. I like to say, its in its BETA STAGE.

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I've set up shop on tumblr, for the more popular culture drawings, gifs and animations… Like this OBK  'Nichijou' gif i spent two hours making in TVPaint with a badly calibrated tablet.
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l have to learn to manage all my online profiles now that i'm everywhere.
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As for animation work these past couple of weeks, my additional moving illustration for Project Lilith is uploaded and can be viewed on Vimeo/link below;

I spent a good three weeks drawing, painting and animating such a large file size, that it almost killed my computer rendering it.

Project Lilith; A chance meeting with death - Animation

While I'm on the topic of Project Lilith, I have some news. I won't be producing it as a final project for uni.  It won't be something that i can put forward for my final project. My imagination is too big for this to be a final project. So I'm aiming for something simple instead next semester. Possibly hand-drawn frame by frame, in TV paint. When i have time, i will upload my short animatic for the first opening scenes of the trailer, but project Lilith looks to be something that might have to be developed overtime as a long-term investment, unless i decide one day I want to make something from it.

IM MAKING A WEBSITE!!! AND LILITH IS BECOMING A PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR UNI!!!

For anybody wondering if i just fell off the radar, i haven't. Well i have, but I haven't been twiddling my thumbs.

NO! For i have been making a super cool website.  But whats even better is, project Lilith has been shifted as part of my university time. THATS RIGHT!!! Its gonna have its own interactive web-page, dedicated project proposal video and a ton of concept artwork. is in store in the near future and I'm aiming to get it active over christmas. 

Hopefully if all pans out well, Lilith will potentially become my final major project for university. 

Its an exciting time for me, but i might be off the radar to prepare for all of this.

Check back after the 5th January to see the website operational and stuff.

THE NEXT FEW WEEKS ARE GOING TO BE EPIC!!!

{Matte painting gif.} Mid Point Bonus!!!!

Thought i'd add this here, as a mid-point time breaker, 

The colours and coat for this have been reverted back to a simpler design choice, inspired by one of the first images of Lilith, made a year ago.

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Taffy Hair Lilith
"Im imagining like flowing hair, coat movement, and possible breathing, similiar to a test i did a while ago."
Check out the Vimeo Video thats attached below;

The technique is called matte painting, but I've simplified the process here using simple geometric shapes for the design choice. 
An in-depth description can be found on the Vimeo page

Children's E-book's of a Experimental HTML Calibre. {2 of 3}

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An Overview of the story-so-far…

A boy investigates the different discoveries that man has found… And ends up him asking his father one of the most important questions of his young life.

The storyline is 65% finished.

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Thinking about its content, the age range is towards something higher that of a three year old. I was inspired by the children's books I saw in France, that held a deep meaning or narrative considering their age.

This book will be very experimental, considering its for research purposes into the capabilities of HTML-EPUB Scripts.

Im hoping to make my illustrations as animated sequences using gifs and video clips; containing some elements of interactivity {not too much} and possible camera/tilt controls.

Heres a cool example here;

Css 3D Clouds Project

Works on iPad, so its entirely possible.

First colour drawing i did for the book. Transition might go inside the boys face, to different body parts;

The possibility of swinging lightbulbs using tilt sensors within the iPad would be a nice touch. Enabling them with scripts is the hard part.

"Man has touched the stars and walked on the moon"

Below is a video test I compiled recently. Having a Colourful Paper style with painted elements is what I'm trying to achieve for style for its simplistic appeal to the children's story genre.

Fan painting for paper animation and photoshop character design. {1 of 3}

The basis behind this character design was to produce a shapely figure that was both appealing and easy to duplicate in different poses for animation design. Possible gif loop after seeing this piece.

While producing character design for some fan artwork,
 RubberRoss AKA Ross, manages to make my design look like him!!!
All jokes aside, its not him. Its based on the design for  Pooch Proposal, a nice little animation project happening in Manchester.
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When i painted this, it reminded me very much of my dog, Holly. I changed the dogs design since then to fit what my friend wanted, for her fan artwork. The artwork was finished a while back, but i'd rather wait for them to post it before me on their Facebook page, because Spoilers.

Solo eyes, could be nice for a book cover, about love or something. 

I had a rule when painting this. Trust your eyes and not the canvas. So i painted this looking mostly at the reference material. Surprisingly, it gave a much greater sense of accuracy then trying to replicate it looking from picture to canvas very early on.