Bit of Presentation


Here are some of the concepts we're presenting to D&AD for the character brief. The character is called Maxine Madison and she's an introspective, cynical girl with a big dirty chip on her shoulder about the way in which society operates.
In the drawings here you see two kinds of the character in 'different from everyone else' scenarios which she percieves herself to be. The first shows a real focus on her from the surrounding almost feature-less ghosty types so.. maybe she feels like everyone is watching her or maybe I had some weirdy 'ghost whisperer' thing going on at the time, whereas the second has a more isolate mood as all the 'zombies' (people who arn't Maxine) stumble about meaninglessly and in complete self focus; taking no notice of her as she's left to contemplate how much greater she is than all of them on a moral level. Or some similar higher ethical ground crap. The irony of that is the probability that a few people around her probably feel the exact same way about her but... this is from Maxine's perspective.

My Internet connection = ?

This is my first post of February due to the fact that my housing provider, Kexgill has had some .. disagreements with BT over the flat's internet connection and we've not had online access for nearly a month now, making blogging just that bit more of a slog as I have to come to college for access.

Anyway, I'm busy trying to sort out a character sheet and a storyboard for D&AD at the moment so I will just throw in some links to some artists I've been looking at today. They all pretty much focus around character development and character sheets and some are good examples of a certain portfolio I'm meant to be constructing at the moment.. cof cof. I really need to get some of my own work up!!! Bah.

http://picasaweb.google.com/RyanGatts/PortfolioAnimationSequentialArtAndCharacters

http://www.gilestimms.com/tag/bird

http://www.anime.com/Godannar/
http://www.artoki.co.uk/artwork/oriFleet_sheet.jpg


http://armorblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/coffeeshop_final_character_sheet.jpg


http://picasaweb.google.com/RyanGatts/PortfolioAnimationSequentialArtAndCharacters/photo#5114112273041515138

http://picasaweb.google.com/JasonArt/Artwork/photo#5110857578827030354

John K telling you what you needs to know

Learn and practice. nuff said.

Character creation blog

I've just spotted this really neat blog that everyone, including me now, will know about in which the creators of characters are interviewed and their work is shown. The blog stretches over all kinds of character creation, for all kinds of animation, for concepts and for straight up illustrative means so there is plenty there to be interested in if you have any kind of incline towards character development.

I'm currently working on two briefs that might as well revolve around the same character so this blog is going to be a heavy inspiration to me and I can't wait to share it's delights.

http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/

OTT comics and Online Presence

I recently signed up to the forums of OTT comics.

The site hosts a small 'community' of amateur comic makers who collaborate on projects with different people taking care of writing, cover making, pencilling and inking. I need to introduce myself here and show some work I've already done, linking to my deviant art page which also needs updating.

Work Experience

Kaloo kalay! I have managed to organise some work experience with production company Masspro Productions in Hartlepool. Now, I have to sort out a gap in my timetable that I can work in, preferably for a couple of intense weeks.

My hope, is to create a show reel using the content I generate working for them and then couple that with the work I'm already accumulating and then try for some kind of placement at Quiros Entertainment who do alot of animation production and who are also based in Hartlepool.

Progress #2: The story continues!

- I've contacted 'Katy' from illustrator's collaborative 'Peepshow' after getting a callout request from her concerning a want for illustrators in Yorkshire to form a collaborative group but.. like a good few of fellow students, I've heard nothing back from her so far. Hmm.. I'll keep posted on this one. This was the mail I sent her:

Hi there Katy, My name is Will, a visual communication student at leeds art college and I recieved your call for illustrators in Yorkshire who are interested in forming a collective. After visiting the peepshow website and being impressed by the work there, I'm keen to get a bit of information on your project and am I right in assuming that you were asking for members for an entirely new group? Thanks for your time Katy, Yours, Will Campbell x

I think the mail was short, friendly and to the point.

UPDATE: As of the 27th of April I've still not heard anything so I think I can say that communication process didn't turn out well.

- I missed 'Best Joined Up', not realising what it was despite apparantly being told lots of times and probably subsequently missed out on any job opportunities stemming from meeting illustrators or those seeking illustrators there. Didn't help that I had this really rubbed in my face but.. still my own fault. What an idiot I am.. I whine for help with finding work then I miss things like that.

UPDATE: To clarify, Best Joined Up is a regular event (occuring fortnightly) through which illustrators meet and draw all over some giant boards. I did attend one a few weeks ago as shown here
and here


As you can see I had a jolly good laugh when it got going but I didn't get any job ops or anything. This is for a couple of reasons I think. 1, I didn't plan what I was going to draw and basically made a bit of a sporadic mess using CHARCOAL PENCILS for some reason ?? 2. I didn't push hard enough to talk to many others when I was there apart from pretty much everyone in this photoraph and the photographer. Tsk tsk, need to bring something I've done from one of my sketch books like I saw a fair many people doing so that I can get a bit of confidence going.

- I storyboarded and created characters for a friend's animation about her time in thailand. We came up with the idea of a dog she saw telling the narrative by walking about Bangkok and eating pretty much everything that got in its way. Here are a few of the manequins I made that she used in the animation which is still in the process of making:

UPDATE: The animation which we had storyboarded has still not been made so unless I knock some of it together for my showreel it probably won't ever see the light of day which is sad.
Here is the story board that we made and that I worked off for the puppets.


In this board we see an introduction to the city, the emergence of the dog who then begs for food from a fat child and then proceeds to devour him before grinning, satisfied with the feast and then belching a stinking cloud which acts as a transition to some smokers Jess saw in a cafe in Bangkok. There isn't an inciting incident to the 'narrative'; its more of a progression of events. This is pretty typical of what I do; maybe I need to work on this so that an actual storyline can be traced and followed by the audience rather than a maybe pointless set of actions on screen. For this instance though, I believe this form works well.