Back in the animation block. Can’t lie. It feels nice.
I started a bouncing ball animation, but ran out of paper.
Then I made a bouncing Triangle in TVPaint, But couldn’t figure out how to upload it to youtube.
So right now I’m just getting to grips with the stuff I used to do here.
Wish me luck
Also
Medieve Music is just the best
It’s been hard living without structure. I’m clearly not much of an artist. But it would be a lie to say I’ve done nothing. I have some character sheets (Which I will hopefully upload photos of soon) And I now have a finished script. One I could make a storyboard with. And hopefully I will.
But I’m having trouble organizing my sleep pattern. Hopefully. That too will be fixed soon.
Back at university. Not super happy about it. Not gonna lie.
Summer felt longer than two years. I don’t remember what I was doing when Lockdown started. I feel like I’ve forgotten everything I once knew. My passion for making art has dried up.
But like a bicycle with a rusty chain, I am slowly getting into motion. Even with eaks and creaking.
I have tried to do something over the summer. I had know idea was wanted for Constellation (A huge waste of time) and didn’t even know if something was expected for Field. So I focused in entirely on my Subject project.
It didn’t take me long to pick what I wanted to do. Even if it scared the hell out of me.
I would make an animation based on the 12 glass paintings that got me onto this course. An ambitious project even by my standards. But it seemed appropriate to go back to the pieces that got me here to begin with. it meant I wouldn’t have to spend large amounts of time deciding what to do (Or so I thought), and sadly I had reconnected with the hard emotions that had inspired it to begin with.
I started out by turning the narrative behind the paintings into a short story. Some may call this a decadent choice. But I feel this was very useful for blocking out the emotions I was dealing with and seeing how all the pieces fit together. Plus it meant I had a short story to show.
It was a long process. It would have been shorter. But I often found I could only write a few words a day given how painful the subject matter was. But in the end, it was done it helps a lot that I was able to dictate it to my mother. She claims it’s a good story. I think it maybe the worst ever written.
I was lucky enough over the summer to make a friend in a man called Andy. A veteran of filmmaking who’s worked on several documentaries. He helped me storyboard another project (On I’m not sure in hindsight is actually going to be relevant this year. I hate my life) And when I had the story ready Andy was nice enough to translate the story into script form (Something I will always be grateful for) and all I had to do was tweak it to my liking and make the narrative fit the medium of film more.
Well. Turns out that easier said than done. My story idea needed a lot of tweaking to work as a film. The dialogue was unnatural. Some scenes didn’t need to be there. and some things needed to be clearer. I’m still working on it. But I am making some progress.
In between that. I’ve been working on character designs. Something from all that drawing (and painting) I did last year must have stuck, as I have basic character designs for every character in the film! Even the ones of don’t move. I even have some character sheets. Bad sadly, rather than working on those. I’m writing this.
I’ve had a lot of trouble settling back into my old rhythem. But I hope I’ll manage. Wish me luck.
This week has been odd. When the week started I didn’t think I’d be able to draw anything. But strangely, it started getting a little easier. On one day I went into a manic phase and did five pages! From this I can conclude two things. Firstly, the stop-start nature of comics is not so disconcerting that I can’t get into a flow. And secondly I do better in with comics when I find the story exciting. I guess that makes sense.
I wish I knew how to get into this creative grove on demand. I think it has something to do with setting myself goals. If I say I work until so much time has passed or I’ve done a certain amount of work. Clearly just letting myself do whatever until quitting time is not the optimal method for me.
But yes I have made progress. 19 pages are done and I will do page 20 soon. Sadly I probably won’t have time to colour it. Certainly not all of it that’s for sure.
Right now I’m doing the lettering. And oh God I had no idea how hard this would be. I’d forgotten how slow I am at writing. And I’ve written so much text! If I ever write another comic I will be more sparse with the dialogue. But at least if I get all the lettering done I will have a readable comic. It will have hit the minimum it needs. But I want to do more. I want to add colour. Clean up the borders and gutters. And maybe do a front and back cover. I’ll just have to see what happens.
For research this week I’ve been reading The Wolverton Bible. A beautifully drawn Bible done in dark black and white drawings. It’s not impacted what I’ve made. I’m a bit to deep in for new ideas. But it has been a joy to read and It’s helped keep me inspired.
As of today. I have all the lettering done! It was amazing. I had five pages to letter and one to draw and letter and I did it all with barely any breaks. I even did a cover for the comic.
I’m amazed. While I didn’t do all I wanted to I have done all I HAVE to do. And again, that feels good. I have a readable comic. Not a great comic. Or a comic with good art. But it is a 20 page comic that is perfectly readable. More than I was afraid I could do. It’s not the victory I wanted. But it is a victory of sorts.
Here are three of my favourite pages
So I can use my remaining days to try to improve comic where I can. I might even get a few pages coloured.
I think the reason I had this breakthrough was to do with the near deadline. But not because of pressure. I didn’t feel under pressure today. I knew I had time to do the work I needed.
I think it’s because I had a defined time to get the work in. That’s what helps. Today just flew by.
There are things I’d like to do and there are things I should be doing. Granted that’s a given in life. Last night I played Silent Hill 2 when I could have been studying drawing techniques. But there are things I want to do that I know would be good for me, even if they get in the way of things that I should be doing.
Like going to the gym for instance. I’ve been going to the gym at my apartment complex. And for once I don’t feel awful after doing that. I want to keep doing it, and keep doing it until I’m healthy again. But I don’t just want to do it at home either. There is gym here on campus and I want to use it here two. I’ve signed up and had an induction. And one thing that is very clear to me is I don’t have time for the massive work out that has been suggested for me. At most I can do it once week, IF it’s a lighter week. I may be able to cram in some shorter sessions. But again, once, maybe twice a week at most. Time is precious.
There are other things I could do to get healthier. My diet could be better. I could eat less junk food and drink less awful drinks, that’s a given. But I could also eat healthier meals too. There is a salad bar here in campus. I know in theory salad is better for you than Pizza and popcorn chicken, though I’m not sure how much I trust any of the food on this campus, let alone after I’ve covered the salad in oils and vinegars. But if nothing else it might help me gain a taste for salads and figure out what I do and don’t like. On this note. I should also look into what might make a healthier diet as a whole. I’m wondering if it might be a good idea to have one day a week where I am vegetarian and another where I am vegan. It would certainly be good for the planet and my karma if I eat less meat. And if it helps my health so much the better. I’m even wondering if it would be good to fast one day a week? My bank account would certainly appreciate it. Again. I should probably talk to a professional about this. And I really should spend more time chewing when eating. Obviously changes to my food intake aren’t going to change my use of time, much. But it’s all part of the bigger picture.
I should now bring up that really you shouldn’t sit in one place for hours at an time. It’s very bad for your health, or so I’ve heard. Really if you want to be healthier you should get a standing desk. But That’s not going to be easy here, certainly at short notice. But one way to deal with the issue of sitting is to get up at least once an hour, do some stretches and some exercises, maybe some jumping jacks. That’s apparently the right thing to do.
I should also take the stairs rather than the lift when going to art block. Not that that’s easy. But that’s the job.
Now lets talk about the things that if I pursue them will cut into my time quite a bit.
Firstly there are some stretches and neck exercises I need to do for my neck. My neck posture is frankly awful. I’ve been trying to not let it slop forwards for the past few weeks and on the first few days my neck was so weak I couldn’t work at all. I’ve found a useful video with stretches and exercises for my neck. To make the muscles in it stronger and to give it better posture. But all together they take at least ten minutes. And the video says I really should do them every day. Three times a day to be precise. Trying to improve my neck posture has also led to me try to improve my back and sitting posture. I’m sure there are exercises I could do to improve those too. But I want to see a professional first. For now I’m happy just actually sitting in chairs the way they are meant to be sat in. And sadly even that takes it out of me. I’d like if possible to get in some sitting just sitting correctly without a chair now and then. I I can get my back muscles stronger then that’s much better.
I don’t want to get horrendous back pain when I’m older. And probably the best thing I can do is try to prevent it now while I’m young-ish. I certainly don’t want to be only able to use a standing desk like morgan. So I must see a physiotherapist when I can.
Speaking of stretches. My last therapist gave me a pair of exercises that I’ve been neglecting pretty much since I got them. One is a breathing exercise and the other is a muscle exercise. Both are meant to relieve tension and I’m meant do both twice a day. In a garden if possible. Speaking of which, I really should go out doors more often. I’ve heard (Yes I know there’s a lot of hearsay in this. I’m not a health expert.) That a few hours in nature can do wonders for your physical and emotional health for weeks. And I’d like to feel the grass beneath my feet and breath cleaner air every now and then.
The book of silence recommends going for regular walks. Where I’d go I don’t know. Maybe Cardiff Castle park.
I’d also like to get back into the habit of life drawing. My best teacher insisted you should get in at least an hour’s life drawing everyday. And it is like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it is. And I really should be going to life drawing classes as well. i now know there are night classes here, but you have to sign up for them at the start of term unfortunately. I guess I’ll have to look for them elsewhere.
Keeping on the theme of artistry. I haven’t given up on trying to learn have to do digital hand drawn animation. In fact I’ve been working a little at it almost every day. I’ve made a bouncing ball and a walk cycle already. And oh god it feels good to be animating again. It feels fun. Specially as I’m not putting much pressure on myself. Just animarting for the sake of it. It’s nice. And I will get better at this.
To try to learn more about digital drawing I’ve also been fiddling with DevaintART’s Muro tool. It’s a program a bit like Microsoft Paint, bit a bit more advanced. It has has things like layers and opacity filters. I hope doing this will not only help me get better at digial drawing, but act as a stepping stone to making real digital art that I could make money off some day. If i get the hang of Muro I may finally get the hang of things like Photoshop in time. So far I’ve just been making abstracts, just trying to get the hand of tools, like what I did with MS paint in my Tween years. And oh god has it felt wonderful to be doing it again. I haven’t enjoyed making art like this in years. Maybe I should make on abstract every day?
My artist ambitions don’t end there though! I want to write more. I recently wrote a short story and brought it to completion. Something I’d never done for myself before. If I can do it once. I can do it again. Plus there are some stories I started but never finished, and I want to finish them now.
And I want to develop my spiritual side more. I’d like to get some silent prayer in my day. Apparently whether prayerful or not you should try to get some silence in every day.
But not just that. I want to read and meditate on the scriptures. I want to say the liturgies. I want to really learn to be a Christian.
So. In brief I want to
Go to the gym more. On and off of campus
Eat more healthy foods. Maybe going vegetarian, vegan, and fasting for one day a week respectively
Chew my food more.
Walk using the stairs when in the art block.
Do neck stretches (daily)
Do back exercises at some point
Do the exercises set for me by my therapist (daily)
Do exercises to break up the monotony of sitting
Practice proper sitting without a chair
See a physiotherapist when I can
Go outside into nature every now and then and breath in the better air
Feel the grass beneath my feet.
Go on walks when I can
Get in one hour of life drawing a day
Go to life drawing classes when I can.#
Make digital animation when I can and learn how to use TV paint
Make digital art in Muro (Daily?)
Really start writing (Daily?)
Silent prayer (Daily)
Reading scripture (Daily)
Other religious practises (Daily?)
How am I going to find time to do all this in one week? Let alone in one day? Well it’s tempting to just say “I don’t have time” and only do the work I have to do. That’s what I have been doing for the past year and half. But strange as this sounds, I want to live in the future less. I want to learn things that I need to now. I want to start making art rather than just studying to make art. And I want to become a better and more accomplished person.
If anyone can help me with these ambitions, please do.
Last week I was feeling pretty depressed. I didn’t want to draw at all. In fact I spent a good amount of time trying to think of things I could do that weren’t drawing. It doesn’t help that I’m going through a phase were I’m thinking a lot about all the other things I could be doing. Like going to the gym and such.
But by Wednesday I was able to at least start drawing again. It was very strange. My emotions would sawy all over the place. Feeling awful and useless one second and feeling on top of the world the next. Then the next moment I’d feel to tired to do anything. All I can say is I there are clearly things I like about making comics. It does give a feeling of accomplishment. And when I did a panel that was meant to be scary or disturbing I have a great deal of fun. I doubt any of it is actually scary or disturbing. i just really enjoy drawing it.
My speed does seem to have picked up a little. But still not enough. Strangely, on Friday I brought in a large number of of snacks with me while I worked. And it increased the amount I worked to a frightening degree. As long as I felt compelled to stay in my chair because I was eating as well as drawing the amount of work I did went through the roof. This tells me two things. Firstly, even though I have trouble with the stop and start nature of comic drawing it is a barrier I can get past. And I can still work for longer periods, I just need to figure out how. I’m fairly sure that while the food helped make this breakthrough it is not indispensable (For the sake of my weight I hope not). It is most likely a magic feather of sorts. Something that helped me tap into something that is already in me. I just need to figure out how to tap into it on it’s own.
For research this week i read the new volume of Beasts of Burden. One of my favourite comic book series and a pretty big influence on the project I’m making now. It’s a horror comic about town dogs fighting supernatural evil. I decided to look at the animals expressions to see how the artists convey human emotion on animals faces. It seems not that much needs to change. Just some tweaks to the eyes and mouths do it (Though I’m having trouble identifying what those tweaks are). Another thing I noticed is even thought most of these animals had no eyebrows the artists would often use little tricks to imply eyebrows even when there weren’t any, because Eyebrows add a lot to how we humans see expression,
I also looked at the backgrounds to get some ideas on how to do nature scenes. To my surprise I found the backgrounds in Beasts of Burden where very simple. Often made of just one or two shades of green with a tiny number extra splashes or lines of other shades of green to indicate texture or change. And maybe some extra gradients of light or dark to draw our attention to the main thing in the panel. Where there was grass and trees the artists would use two totally separate shade of green so there was no mistaking them. Ans Skies would often have as much white as blue. Even if the sky was clear. To keep the sky from being oppressive and taking to much attention I think. I’ll try to put all of this to use when colouring this comic.
Another thing I did that has already helped is I printed out several pictures of rabbit is different poses. Rabbit heads. and even rabbit skeletons and skulls. And now my rabbits are actually starting to look like rabbits. I’m building an idea in my head of what a rabbit should look like. It’s amazing how much visual reference helps.
And I don’t want to jinx it. But I think I’m getting better at drawing expressions.
What used to be the worst part about drawing for me, something I hated so much I made my first animation with faceless characters to save heartache, is kinda starting to come naturally to me. As often as not I find the expression I’ve drawn conveys the right emotion I want it to, and looks good enough that I don’t want to change it. At least in this early stage of the comic.
If I can get good, or at least ok at drawing expressions, something I thought would never happen. What else can I improve?
Another thing I realise I enjoy, much to my suprise, is posing. I find rabbits are really good for dramatic action and fighting. And it feels great getting a across the emotions and ideas of the scene with just how the characters are moving, posed, and positioned. Here also is something I think can be nurtured into something that might make me a better and more engaged artist.
Let’s hope this stuff helps.
Things aren’t going as well as I’d like. It’s not awful but it’s not good.
On Tuesday I got to work making my pages as instructed. I then read through my script and started figuring out the panel layouts. It was surprisingly hard. Thankfully I’d recently ordered a large collection of “Tales from the Crypt” to take inspiration from. I noticed EC’s comics tended to use a three-by-three layout as opposed to the three-by-two layout James suggested. Given I had a lot of story the more panels the better right? Well yes and no. More panels gives you more frames to put story and images into, but it gives you less space to but them in, and drawing small is hard. And you need more space for text, and counter intuitively the more story have the more panels you need the less space you have for text tat you need for the extra story.
For whatever reason we like our pictures landscape. For a landscape format you need something like three-by-two or four-by-three at the least, which isn’t always optimal. Sometimes portrait style panels are easier to make. But they are good for standing humans and tall buildings and not much else. Thankfully EC had the answer. Their panels tended towards the portrait style, but they use the extra space for the text. Letting the pictures have something closer to a landscape format. Buying that “Tales From the Crypt” collection proved to be a very smart move.
I’ve come to think of panel arrangements on a comic page like notes on sheet music. Three-by-three is your “Doe, Ray, Me” Three-by-two is like a slow piece of music. Four-by-four is more like complex but fast music like heavy metal. And just like real music you mix-up these combinations to give your work pace, variety, tone, and emphasis.
I think I’ve done a good job
I would not have thought just selecting and arranging the panels would be that hard. To think there are people who do this every month.
That done I started drawing. I want for the simplest drawings I could. Very cartoony, very simple. No or very little backgrounds. i can’t say I like it. But it keeps me moving forward.
I will hopefully redraw all of this with drawings that don’t suck. No idea how I’m going to add in the dialogue.
There are moments when I when I feel I could really get to like making comics. it feels very rewarding. Then there are other moments where I can’t stand it. I’m having a lot of trouble getting into a flow. Barely working for more than two minutes. I think the problem is I’m constantly moving onto new images, having to jump back into the pure creative part of the brain. Drawing new poses, new angles, and new effects each time. I don’t get the feeling of continuum and building that I do with animation or painting. Whether I can get over that remains to be seen
Once again this journal is late. It can’t be helped. Most of last week gave me precious little to do and I was not feeling very well anyway. I came in for the minimum about of time and no longer.
Orientation was fun. It’s hard not to enjoy hearing James talk about comics for three hours. Though I can’t say I enjoyed the comics he himself made. Too gross for me. And given it’s me that’s saying a lot. I am looking forward to reading more stuff in this medium as research though.
Our first exercise was to cut and paste things out of books and stick them onto sheet of A1 paper to make an impromptu, college comic.
For reasons I can’t explain, possibly relating to some forgotten childhood trauma, I hate even the thought of cutting pasting. Part of me wanted to duck out and runaway. Say that I was ill. I certainly didn’t feel all that well. But i resolved to go ahead and at least do what was asked of me.
When I had ten random pieces I looked through them to see what story I could tell with them. I settled on a story about a man who is no longer happy in his family and leaves them to try and find happiness with others. After years of fruitless searching Jesus comes to him in a vision and tells him to visit a mysterious house. There he meets a beautiful woman who shows him that he was meant to be a musician. and he finds contentment.
I did the bare minimum that was needed. After cutting and pasting all the images in order I added in some text and drew some panel borders. I could have added in my own drawings. But I did not feel invested enough. And I don’t even know what I would have put there anyway.
Anyhow. Here’s the comic
Not great. But James seemed to like it well enough.
After that I had to come up with an idea for a real comic. Written and drawn by yours truly.
Having been feeling deep sense of loss recently my mind turned to a line from Watership Down The Animated Series, “Kehaar not sure he can fly. Heart so heavy”. In this line Kehaar the gull is morning a long dead love before taking off on a mission. I felt a lot like Kehaar. So my mind returned, as it so often does, to Watership Down. That was where I would take my inspiration from. Watership Down, home.
I started drawing rabbits and writing bits of text. And soon I had three heroes. Strype, White Tail, and Ghost.
I knew I had made a choice I could get invested in.
It was clear from my crude, ugly drawings and my mind wondering to creating the three rabbits staring into a black void that apparently leads to the centre of the earth that this would be fantasy horror. My favourite genre.
I drew some more and soon I had a story. This would be about my three rabbits fighting three demon rabbits in forms of dead loved ones.
I had my premise. So I then wrote down a story. I think it’s good one. All my love of horror, fantasy, and animal stories deeply present in it.
For my research I looked through my Marvel collections to see how long a good done-in-one story is. While the results varied they averaged out to 20 pages. Considering the page number for this project has to be a multiple of 4 twenty seems like a good number.
On Friday I started writing a script. Given I’d never written a script before James is still forcing me to push boundaries. How ever I did genuinely become ill and had to leave early.
I tried writing a bit more over the weekend. But I still wasn’t able to get much done.
As of this I have two versions of the script done. One that breaks down what happens on each page and one for the dialogue on each page. I’d like to go through it one more time to figure out the panel arrangements. It’s a task that scares me. But I’m just going have to start winging it and figure out the panel arrangement as I draw. If I don’t get started now I’m not going to until it’s too late. There’s a lot I’d like to do. Finalise the character designs. Do some thumbnails. Study real world rabbits. But there’s no time.
My plan is to draw the comic twice. Once with simple pencil drawings. That way if I choke I’ll still have something to show. Then draw over the existing comic with either coloured pencils or better, stronger black and white pencil drawings. Hopefully this will give me a little time to improve the drawings and designs of the rabbits.
Wish me luck
This week’s been a little kinder to me that last week.
I did get the undercoat done by the end of Monday. It was very basic. James (our painting tutor) gives us a lot of good advice and guidance in how to paint with acrylics. But I never retain any of it. I should maybe reconsider taking notes? The problem I’ve had with that in the past is when note taking it takes me so much time to write anything and it takes so much concentration on my part that I miss 95% of what is said. Maybe I should swallow my pride and have a note taker again?
Well for now I’m going to try to compensate for this problem by reading and studying in my spare time. I’ve always struggled learning in a class or even on-to-one. But when teaching myself, like when I wanted to learn the history of Religion or how to play Brutal Doom on the highest difficulty, I do surprisingly well. I’m going to start reading more. Books on general art, and on whatever type of art I’m studying at the time in particular. I would like to thank James for inspiring me with this. He did suggest we look up ideas in the library (though I think he was more suggesting we go there to find unconventional artists to take inspiration from). I have borrowed a book on acrylic painting and a another one on drawings. Maybe this can be a first step to learning how to work with my third pool of energy I mentioned in my journal “Why am I so bad at this?” https://johnhawk.art.blog/2019/11/04/why-am-i-so-bad-at-this/ I’ve said in the past that I work best when I have to use all of my brain as well as my body all at the same time and being able to think about it when not working instead of just doing a purely physical task or problem solving in the moment. Or at least I might learn a little.
My undercoat was apparently good enough for James. I don’t remember Tuesday in much detail. But something was clear to me by that point. I didn’t have the skills I needed to make this the way it needed to look just using the basic acrylics and colour mixing. I would have to bring in my oils from home. Complete with the turpentine and liquin, it was a heavy bag.
So I had to make a whole oil painting in one day. That’s not an easy thing to do, even for pro. And even after all the years I’ve spent painting (And using painting in two of my final pieces) I have no more idea how to paint than a newcomer.
I regret having no pictures of the underpainting.
I started by adding washes and highlights to the piece. I think this prototype has the best contrast on the woman. And maybe the clearer brush lines on the background added something that has lost.
I like the pale blue for the shadow here. I tried to recapture the effect here but never could.
By now I had the background with the colour scheme I was after. It centralises the perpcitve more. Wish i’d kept more white though/
And I also tried photographing it in Sepia. Just for fun. I think it looks good.
I got some of the contrast back here. She has lost some of her curves though.
I tried altering her expression. But this one looks like she’s sleepy.
i altered it again. She now kinda looks like she’s pouting. But it’s the best expression I was able to get (And by this point the canvas was covered in paint and altering it more could have ruined it). I’d also made the background a little better by this point. It’s not great. But it’s okay for four hours frenzied work (With some breaks).
Sadly, as always when painting. most attempts at planning and logic devolved into a frenzy of just throwing more and more paint onto the canvas. I couldn’t remember any of the techniques or ideas James had told us about. I could only paint. I’m not sure the techniques he suggested for acrylic paintings would have been of much use for an oil painting anyway. But I need to learn how to really paint. With my brain and not just my heart.
Anyhow. Here it is at a higher resolution
When I showed it to James he actually seemed to like it. And he even felt the underpainting was still working. So maybe I did something right.
On Thursday we were given a new task entirely. I’ll give this module this. It’s not giving me too little to do.
We had to try out using hot wax techniques on acrylics. Similar to batique work.
We had to first make some simple paintings. No pressure. At least we were given pieces of wood and card that were smaller than A4. Keeping with the theme I’m working with, I painted them yellow.
I made one abstract with tick paints. One painting with heavily watered down paints and one with my watersolouable crayons. Thinking they’d blend well with acrylics.
Here’s how they looked.
And here’s how thay look after adding some wax techniques to them.
My crayon work had a hard, sketchy look, even using water. I liked how it looked. It could be great using the paint for backgrounds.
I tried using identical wax colours where possible. Only keeping the eyes free of wax. Honestly. I hate it.
My wash painting was fine. Not much to say.
This one actually really looked better with the wax. I added colours that either could have been in the original (Green on the human, Blue on the clouds) or colours that were similar but different to the originals, like orange over the yellow. I like this one. It reminds mr of Rembrandt’s ink and brush work (If I may be so bold).
This abstract was lovely. Why’d I have to ruin it?
But there are bits of the second version I like. I tried putting opposing colours on top of each other. I like the yellow wax on the red paint or the black on the pink. But other bits smudge together.
I think this is good for pieces that have a lot of texture on them. Not so much flat bits.
I did try all the techniques we were meant to try like adding sand or painting into the groves. But they didn’t seem to have any real effect on the pieces I made. And even though it was yesterday I’ve forgotten what a lot of those techniques were.
Still. Not bad for a days work. At least I experimented and tried.
Today I went for the life drawing class here for the first time… ever really. Even brought my huge A2 sketchbook. And despite being so rusty I felt like i could draw at all I somehow lasted about 2 hours. Not bad.
I’ve spent the rest of the day writing this journal.
By next Tuesday I need to have some designs and I ideas I can turn into cutout paintings. I should have been working on that today. So I’m still behind in my work. But not as bad as last week. And at least I still have Monday.
Let’s hope for the best.
I came in today thinking Field would start today. Turns out it starts tomorrow. So I decided rather than just going home to try to act the part of a dedicated student and continue with my project as if I meant to continue it. I wanted to continue my various projects after deadline last year but never did. But If I’m going to because a real animator I’m going to have to try to up my dedication and keep trying even when people aren’t telling me to do things. I’ve only recently begun to realise how co-depeant I am.
The next piece of work I had to do was the pond ripples scene. It’s one of the longest parts of the animation and the raindrops are timed to the music. I timed them in Premiere myself.
I opened up the program and looked at the timeline. Now this next bit is important. I cut off all the animation before the pond ripples so the timer on the ripples and would be set to zero. Making the maths simpler. Neil had don’t the same thing for me when I was doing the daylight raindrops.
I cut the extra bits off. Pulled out an X sheet and started working out the timing. Hoping to get to grips with this all important part of the animation process.
I worked at this all day. Doing the timing. Seeing where the keys overlapped with each-other. And trying to keep it consistent.
I filled out four X sheets. But just when it was over I decided to listen to the animatic again. And the visuals and music were out of sync! I’d somehow shifted the visuals and music markers so they were misaligned! I’d spent the whole day writing the wrong information. The X Sheets I’d spent all day makinging were worthless!
This really hurt. I hope I can learn something from it at least. From now on I will keep this mantra as part of my notes
“When timing to sound always check and recheck the sound and images are in sync. Always! Always!!! ALWAYS!!!!!!!”
Hopefully something can be done about this.
John's Learning Journal 