Onedotzero

Onedotzero is an organization that helps organize events for experimental animation. Experimental animation is animation which is not supported by a narrative in any way, instead focusing entirely on the visuals. Personally, I am not a fan of experimental animation, I prefer working with narrative, and the visuals themselves are often not my personal taste, but I do respect those who create and enjoy such things.

Onedotzero also often create their own animations, usually for brands and advertisements.

The particular video in the screenshot is one I actually did like. I thought it was quite interesting how the three screens interacted and I quite liked the animation itself as well.

Weekly review - 13/12/2013

This week, I had some computer trouble at home which prevented me from doing much work on the backgrounds I wanted to work on. However, I have confidence that the problem isn't big, and I'm fairly certain that I know how to fix it, thanks to the help of a friend of mine.

In spite of this problem, I managed to finish the bookcases for the Grand Abbess' study. I used a wood texture for the framework, and I planned to use leather textures on the books, but I couldn't due to the problem with my computer. Instead, I just colored them, flatly, in Photoshop. I also used a photo of a real skull as an interesting decoration in the bookcase.

I very slightly edited the linework of the first bookcase to create an alternate version, which did not have a skull. I did this because I wanted some slight difference in the bookcases, so that it was less obvious that they were actually just copied and pasted.

Once these were completed, I used them in the background of the Grand Abbess' study. I would like to point out that this is rudimentary, and I am definitely planning on making a better one when I can rely on my computer. I tried to make the room seem dark, but welcoming, by using dark browns, as if it were paneled with darker woods.

While doing this background work at home, at college, I worked on my walk cycles for Red and the wolf (whom has gained the name Dwolf, as a portmanteau of dwarf and wolf). I feel very confident about both of these walk cycles, especially Dwolf's, even though Dwolf's cycle was supposed to be much harder. I did research into how wolves and dogs move, partially online and partially from watching how my aunt's husky moves. With the walk cycles, I have first started with pencil mannequin-style sketches. I plan on tracing the full characters on separate pieces of paper using the lightbox. I'm rather proud of myself that I noticed an interesting quirk of how various quadrupeds move. When a quadropedal animal is walking, their front and back legs are slightly out of synch with each other. Their feet hit the ground at different times, which people seem to find difficult to achieve.

This weekend, I must remember to put my qualifications onto UCAS, as that's the only part of my UCAS application that is still unfinished. I would like to have more backgrounds finished by the time I come back from Christmas holidays, namely the backgrounds of Red's nunnery, and more forest backgrounds. Also, I would like to finally get to editing the transition forest background, to make it less jarring when it reaches the creepy woods.

Reflection over time I haven't posted

Apologies for the time of silence, I am not very good at remembering to make posts on here by myself.

Over the last few weeks, I have began making assets for my Little Red Riding Hood animation. Firstly I started by listing everything I would need to make the scenes, using the script. Then I started by beginning to make the backgrounds. I twisted up some paper I had lying around, and took photos of it to cut out and use in the creepy forest.

I cut out the twisted up paper from the photo, then overlaid them to create the trunk and branches of a tree, which I added leaves to with the paint tool. I used the twisted up paper because, when I was a child, and trees were described to me as 'twisted' I used to imagine them looking this way, and I felt that would give an interesting Arts and Crafts effect. I chose to make the leaves purple as a stylized indicator of the night's darkness.

After that, I drew a background and overlaid the trees, to make a full backdrop for a scene.

While I was doing this, I also went onto the internet and found a bunch of textures and images which I felt I could use, and would be interesting to use. I collected them all into a Word document.

Some of the things I had collected in this Word document were silhouettes of trees, which I used to define the outline of the tree trunk and branches of my lighter trees. I cut out a brown paper texture I'd found with these outlines, then I used the same brush in the Paint tool to create the leaves.

I created three trees this way, then used them to construct another tree background.

The third tree background I constructed was made in much the same way, using the same trees as the second, but I adjusted the hue and saturation on them to make them darker and less cheerful. However, I do feel that I have not done so enough, causing the transition between the green trees and the purple to feel too sudden.

When I was finished with the trees, I started creating other assets, mostly the Grand Abbess' hall. I first drew the lineart for it in Adobe Illustrator, then coloured and textured it in Photoshop, using a texture from the Word Document. I decided to use a mostly red and gold theme for the nuns, Abbess, and Grand Abbess, as those colours are both warm and regal.

Once this asset was completed, I arranged it into a background, prepared to be an establishing shot of the Grand Abbess' hall. I used photos of the sky in all my outdoor backgrounds, because I felt that gave and interesting effect. Along with the different textures, they give something of a crafty feel, almost like a collage, but not overpoweringly so.

As I was creating the backgrounds, I started to animate the characters themselves. Namely, the walking loop of Red that will be reused in the animation. I scanned the frames I had done, to animate them in Photoshop and test that they worked. I realised that I needed to add more frames to the cycle, it was too clunky otherwise.

Over the next few weeks, until the Christmas holidays, I'd like to complete a few more backgrounds, and add more frames to the loop of Red. I'd also like to get started on the loop of Wolf walking, which is very likely to involve looking up how actual wolves walk.

By the 10th, I definitely want to complete some assets of the Grand Abbess' study, namely the bookcases I've started working on. By the end of the 11th, I want to have Red's walk cycle working better, as well as starting some work on the forests that will appear after Red and Wolf have encountered the hunter. By the 18th, I want to have done some research into Wolf's walk cycle, as well have started animating it. I also plan to work on more background assets at home.

Review - 25/10/2013

Sorry, I've somewhat neglected this blog. I got something of a slap in the face from two modules needing to be handed in at the same time, and having a holiday on the hand in day.

Over the time I haven't been updating the blog, I did research into different techniques of animation and how they effect the final product. Then, I chose a technique which I wanted to use on my own animation. I chose to use Photoshop animation, as it allowed me to use interesting textures, such as the one on Red's cape. This was such a large factor because I very much want the background trees in the creepy part of the forest to be twisted paper, because when I was a child, when trees were described as "twisted" in a storybook, that was what I imagined. Another reason I chose Photoshop was because I have it at home, and this means I can work on it at all times.

After I had made my decision, I started working on the assets for my animation. Firstly, I drew a pencil sketch of a walk cycle, and traced it up to become a loop of Red walking. An interesting thing happened when I line tested the sketch version in that Red's walk cycle had a little kick in it that I hadn't planned on, but I felt it suited her, so I let it stand. I used Dragon Stop Motion to create an animation of Red's looped walk cycle. Since Dragon creates a folder with the taken frames, I could create a Photoshop animation of the frames.

The first job, when I was animating in Photoshop, was simply dragging the frames into the file, turning them into separate layers, then resizing and arranging them properly so that, when going through them, they made the animation.

Once all the frames were there, I opened the Motion window, which appeared across the bottom. I made all the layers except for the first frame's layer invisible. Then, I took the frame, which created the second one. I changed the visible layer to the second frame, took the frame, and continued much the same for the rest of the frames. Once I had taken them all, I set how long they would last while the animation was playing, testing how the changes effected it, until I was happy with it.

Since I was coloring in Photoshop, I decided, to make my life easier, to put each of the layers in a folder in Photoshop, along with their coloring and the cape texture. I did the usual method of actually coloring the image, turning the line-art layer into a multiply layer, then using the magic wand tool and expand to make sure that the color, carefully kept on the color layer, wouldn't bleed over the edges of the line-art.

The last job is to add the cape textures, through a similar method, which I think I may have already documented, but better safe than sorry. First, I copy the texture and paste it onto the photoshop file. This will put it on it's own "Smart" layer. Then, I make it invisible, select the line-art's layer, and use the Magic Wand tool to select the inside of the cape. I choose the texture's layer again, and make it visible, before copying the part that is still selected. Then I delete the texture layer, and paste the selected outline. Finally, I arrange it so that it is below the frame's line-art layer and rename it so that it's easily identifiable.

Interesting Character Design

The Other Mother, from "Coraline".

This is possibly the creepiest damn thing I've ever seen. Too long, too thin, with eyes that tell you that everything is wrong with this character. In "Coraline", the titular Coraline travels to a strange world, which contains parallel versions of her parents. Now, both of them are pretty creepy, but the Other Mother simply takes the cake, with her physical frame, the spiderlike way she moves, and those horrible eyes. Human beings, I have found, universally have a problem with eyes when they don't look right. Be they missing, or, like the Other Mother, not quite right, it's a quick and efficient way to make things seem just... Off. And this is long before the Other Mother starts becoming truly monstrous.

Jack Skellington, from "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

(As a side note, this is now my desktop image, in honour of Halloween) Jack is on here partially as an interesting comparison. With his long, thin frame, and spiderlike limbs, he is very similar to the Other Mother. Yet, where the Other Mother is terrifying, Jack is charming. I think this may be because, in the case of the Other Mother, her height and thinness are exaggerated, making her look more and more wrong. On Jack, he is tall and thin, but not exaggeratedly so. He is also far less sharp. The Other Mother's more monstrous forms are full of points and sharp edges, whereas Jack is much more rounded. A good look at his torso and head make this clear. While his limbs are long, his heart (or ribcage, rather) is a much softer shape. He also has large, round eyes, and a very expressive face (or skull, as the case may be). These make him look friendly and trusting, almost childlike in a way.

"Slayer", by Tim Biskup

This is another case of taking a creature that could be frightening, and making it charming. Again, this creature is rounded and softened, with it's single eye taking up the majority of it's face, making it look childlike. These simple techniques make it seem like an innocent, even when it has sharp teeth and a bloody axe. I'm not 100% sure, but I also think the same character is in the Pictarot, or at least one very similar. Perhaps it is a container character, used for many things with minimal changing?

Weekly Review - 11/10/2013

This week, I mostly did research into things to do with my animation, and how different professional companies do model sheets. I've also been brainstorming different techniques.

I've looked into various professional model sheets, and how they are constructed. I've realised that, usually, the colours, turnarounds, expressions etc are on separate sheets, instead of all on one the way I did so on my model sheet. It likely may have helped with fitting things on. There were quite a few expressions that were originally on, but I instead left it with just my own personal favourites. However, I feel this hasn't weakened my sheet at all, because the two I used were fairly indicative of the rest, and I got across enough of Red's character in other things, her posture in the turnarounds, her background, any way I felt I could get across Red's heart, I got it across.

I also started looking into different animators, and their techniques. This has been informative in a lot of different ways, but it doesn't get any more explanation, because it's going to be another post on here!

I also took part in an exercise where me and the others in the class at the time, between us, created a 7 frame animation, drawing a frame then passing it on. We each drew a first frame for this, so that none of us would be left twiddling our thumbs. This ended up... Very interesting. If not for the teamwork, or animations themselves, then certainly for the glimpse into the participants' psyches.

Yes, I know I'm a day late again.

Weekly review - 5/10/2013

Yes, it's a day late, hush.

Right, well, this week was mostly spent working on the character. Mainly Red, since she's the main character. It was suggested that we work through a sort of questionnaire on the character, to help us better understand them. I also had to type it up, due to poor handwriting.

I may have gotten snarky with it at some points.

This week, I also traced up and coloured my character turnarounds, expressions, and saved the colours in some flowers, for when I made the character sheet, which I did on friday. I put the colours in flowers because I felt like simple dots looked a little boring, and I wanted something that would fit in with the illuminated manuscript theme. Looking up some illuminated manuscripts, I noticed that floral patterns would sometimes decorate the sides, so I went with some flowers to put the colours in. On the character turnarounds, I put a texture on the cape, to add visual interest, but I kept the rest of Red flat because I didn't want to make her look too busy. While colouring the expressions, I came to the decision that the cape's original pattern was too heavy, and changed that by lessening the opacity and putting the lining's colour beneath it, after some experimentation. I added two freckles to Red's face, to add a more distinctive look to her. This was brought about from looking through some of my old sketchbooks, and realising that, aside from being 3ft tall, I had about ten characters that looked awfully similar to Red.

And here is the finished sheet.

Weekly Review - 27 September

Over the summer, I drew a storyboard for my animation, which is going to be a version of Little Red Riding (original, I know). I did this so that, when it came time to do character design, I knew what I needed and what they needed to be. I did not finalise he character designs until after.

However, I realized that the story spent too long setting up, and would need to be changed. I have not yet finalized these changes, but I have decided to combine two of the characters, the wizard and the abbess, into one amalgamation. This is the only change to the cast made, so, this week, I started designing the characters.

My original character designs used a style that I realized it would be too hard to draw consistently, so I changed the style, into one that I felt, interestingly, mimicked the Bayeux Tapestry. I chose to do this because the main stylistic choice was to make the images look like they are on an illuminated manuscript, so mimicking the Bayeux Tapestry made them gel into the frames I chose better. However, since this style was unfamiliar to me, and I'd have to draw it consistently, I did some... Practice. (Disregard the Ellie on the side.)

I also, on the image above, did some practice in preparation for drawing the expressions sheet. I didn't feel the need to practice drawing the body, as the body did not change much at all between styles. This is easily visible in the expression sheet, as the expressions are all partially shown by body language, through medium shots.

I am rather proud of the body language on the expression sheet, but I kind of feel like the head changed sizes slightly. After the expression sheet, I drew the character turnarounds, using pencil lines drawn with a ruler to keep Red's head and various parts in proportion.

This week, I noticed that I had a frame of the storyboard badly measured, making it so the abbess had to put her hand on Red's shoulder instead of handing Red the basket. To remedy this, I took a photo to try to better measure it. However, I am not sure this quite worked, as the teacher kneeling to help me still had fully sized arms, which I feel likely threw off the pose slightly. I drew Red and the abbess over the photo so that I could properly see how it would translate.

Over the next week, I aim to finish the character sheet, developing my lacking skills with Illustrator, and strengthening my slight skill in Photoshop. You can see in my previous post, titled "Adventures In Photoshop", my earlier practice in Photoshop, especially textures.

Adventures in Photoshop

I may have slightly forgotten this blog existed, but hey-ho, the wind and the rain. Anyway, I've been practicing with using Photoshop. Last year had more of a focus on Illustrator, and before last year, I've never had access to actual Photoshop that I can use however I want.

These are the products of my experimentation.

This first one is inspired by the fact that, for college, I'm doing an animation based on Little Red Riding Hood, and also the fact that I read an awful lot of ghost stories last night. The parts I am most proud of are the Grandmother's dress, which is a combination of two textures which I feel came together to get the perfect feel for the kind of creepiness I was aiming to give her, and Red's face, which I feel turned out very cute. Some things I have a problem with are, firstly, the wolf, because he was supposed to be looking up at the Grandmother and that didn't work, and Red's cape, which I feel I could have used a different fabric texture.

This is art of a character from a poem called "The Highwayman". In the poem, the titular Highwayman is in love with the landlord's black-eyed daughter, Bess. This is a drawing of my interpretation of Bess, whom I'm realising now looks somewhat like Katara from Avatar: The Legend of Aang. Things I think went well in this piece would be Bess's hair, for how the shine turned out, her dress, because I'm very happy with how the texture worked out, and that I got shading under there, and lastly the background, because I like the way the diamond works with the background (Both of them are actually the same image!)

However, what I don't think worked in the picture of Bess is her makeup, especially the blush. It stands out too much, and I'm not sure blush could even achieve that colour on a complexion like Bess'. I also feel I may have made the whites of her eyes a touch too blue, by mistake.

The Year's Treatment

I believe my academic year went well, overall. I did have some issues with managing my time beforehand, generating more ideas than my first one, and with trying to do more than I am capable of. I felt a few things worked well, I enjoyed 3D work much more than I thought I would. I’d have preferred if I could have performed more coherently, though. I have learned an awful lot, especially about the theory of animation. I’d already had some knowledge about the methods of making animation, as I’m sure most did, but I had very little understanding of animation outside of as an industry. I discovered more about experimental animation, and the more artistic side of animation. I think the thing I found most enjoyable will have been the work on a 3D character, whom I took to calling “Thomas”, surprisingly. I greatly enjoyed developing his character, and designing him. Creating him in Cinema 4D was enjoyable too, modeling and rigging him. I feel my final animations went well enough, though my 2.5D animation didn’t end up being as long as I would have liked, and was more of a collection of shots than a coherent animation. I also had some trouble with Thomas, in that some of the techniques, such as the method of making a foot roll, simply did not work.

My animations tended not to look quite how I imagined them. Sequential imaging had a slight change in that the fly only landed once instead of the original twice, and the dragon did not awaken. This was because I found I’d simply left the animating itself too late, and didn’t have time to draw all the frames. I either had or learnt most of the skills I would need for my vision. When I was creating Thomas, I learned how to model in 3D and how to make a character board, but I was already aware of things like the importance of backstory when creating a character. I believe a skill I’d like to work some more on is rigging and modeling in 3D, as I did have some trouble with them. I’d also like to take a harder look at post-production, and learn more about putting sound to clips. I’d also like to learn more about animation in advertising and shorts, how people condense a story down to things like ten seconds. I think I had some trouble creating a visual style, because I’d been set in a certain style for a long time, and I also didn’t find much interest in creating characters that looked outlandish. I prefer drawing things I can recognize easily as human, and therefore show emotions. Mind you, on that front, I’ve been encouraged not to stick to humans too much, and have taken to using other things as characters, such as shoes.

I think my ideas held up quite well during production, though they often needed to be changed to accommodate for different things. Such as when I was making Triskele and ended up unable to create the whole animation I had storyboarded. I feel my animations’ narratives are extremely clear, as I have a good deal of experience in narrative and story structuring, as I dabble in writing my own original stories, and have drawn comics for a school magazine called “Kenton Komix”. I think my peers find my work fairly good, though I have been told that I need to be more adventurous in my work. I can be very set in my ways, I’ll admit.

One module I enjoyed greatly was the character design, because that is something I am greatly interested in. I find it fascinating to look at how to communicate a character’s past, personality and purpose in their appearance. I also really liked it because part of it was writing a character’s history out, which is something I like to do, in roleplaying. Another thing I really enjoyed was researching into the history of animation. Like I said, I didn’t really know about animation beyond companies, such as Disney and Blue-Zoo. It was interesting to have my first introduction to animation as a true art form be the earliest animations, where it was an art form because people were still learning how to do it. I think this year has gone well overall, with surprisingly few hiccups. I enjoyed most of the modules, and the problems did not feel pressing.

Something I had a lot of trouble with this year was a difficulty in getting feedback on modules after the hand in. I am not sure if David never gave them, or if I was just unaware of how to access them, but it has left me very unsure about how well I have actually done this year. I think I’ve done alright, but I’m not sure, which I think may have caused my mother a few headaches. Personally, I’ve tried not to agonise over it, if I pass, I pass. I am also somewhat unsure of how my final marks are meant to get to me, but I suppose that will reveal itself in time.

This year studying animation has alerted me to many things outside of just work, as well. I was completely unaware of things like Pictoplasma, which is specifically for character design. I had a vague knowledge that animation competitions existed, but I had never seen how one was really entered, or looked at them properly. I was never really aware of the larger animation world, beyond corporate.

Numeracy.

Today, we did some work on timing, by taking a little character and changing its walk cycle to a run cycle. The walk cycle looked like this.

My first instinct was to delete the frames, and recreate them to make the run cycle. This did not work.

I tried again, trying to simply shorten the times between, and copy and paste it from there. This worked even less.

Finally, I was taught a different method. It was much more simple to take a half and half approach. Firstly, I selected all of the keyframes in the timeline, then brought up a move/scale window and changed the scale from 1 to a 0.5.

This shortened the loop itself, making it faster. Then, I took the loop, copied and pasted it so that it looped twice.

Finally, I went back over the animation itself, added and changed keyframes as would be needed to turn the walk cycle into a run cycle.

27/04/2013 - E Stings Progress

Yesterday, I finished filming the E Sting itself. Next, I'm going to add sound, and edit what parts may need it.

I had some trouble with the cameras running out of power, and some things in the video, I feel, move too fast. I also had trouble with holding the shoes in place, as the wires and tape system I was using stripped the lining out of the floral shoe. There was also trouble when one shoe had to be in the air, and I had to keep my hand out of shot. It probably would have been easier, in these shots, to have used some thin string to hold it up, but I hadn't thought to do that. The final zoom feels too quick as well.

E stings past competition winners

The E Stings competition is a competition to create a 10 second long sting, for the channel E4. They have to be energetic and fun, aimed at an audience of teenagers, but it also has to be able to be shown on daytime television. This means they are often using common themes in teenage culture, like cityscapes, music and postmodernism.

2009's winner: http://www.e4.com/video/jdFJb53RAuJ6UNgNTZcKdd/play.e4

2008's winner: http://www.e4.com/video/258xmMyRs8QAx3KlE5y8O8/play.e4

My Kingdom For a Horse (I can't stop watching it): http://www.e4.com/video/mkRyNWPf1Uwe2Xd7vSzotF/play.e4

Our next module in College is to pitch an idea for an entry to this competition to the rest of the class. My first idea is to use stopmotion to animate a shoe moving, then add on huge sparkly eyes. The second is to have some huge, arcane summoning ritual, which ends with E4's logo floating with rocks flying around it. My third idea is a modern dragonslayer, with earbuds and an E4 shirt underneath their armour.

Older works and works out of college.

I made an animation of a dragon for the first module of my Animation course. It is four seconds long, and was made with a pencil and paper. It is 96 frames long, and we used Dragon stopmotion to capture it. Sadly, when it came time to capture the final animation, the Dragon Stopmotion software stopped working, so, at the least currently, only the rough "mannequin" style animation exists.

I have done some work around my home as well, for my own entertainment, and the entertainment of my friends. Be quiet, I don't actually have a scanner as of yet. I could not have moved house at a worse time.

Queen Anne Veroneshka was supposed to be a character in a fantasy setting, a self-disowned daughter of the ruling family. When that family was killed off, of course, she inherited the title of queen but never came to claim it.

A better photograph of the drawing. In the first picture, I had noticed the writing on the picture was showing up mirrored, so I tried to hold it backwards and shine daylight through it, to combat this problem. As it turns out, Photoshop is a much simpler solution. I originally did this art when I first got my good pens, as a practice exercise, with a character I'd drawn before and knew was very simple.

This was done to illustrate a point I was making to a friend who is making a game. That he didn't need to think too hard on backstory for the characters, or give them any kind of real identity. The players would do that for him. This was drawn to illustrate how he could even avoid making his characters physically recognisable as any kind of person.

This is a design for a demonic monster for the horror video game of my dreams. Oddly, I'm not actually a fan of the horror genre overall, I'm something of a wimp. I do, however, like to watch other people playing them.

I remain quite proud of this picture. The proportions may be somewhat out, and it's quite blunt, but I like it. I am especially pleased with the cat's stripes, which were created with the smudge tool on GIMP, which was all I had at the time. I also like the idea of having a character who rides a giant cat rather than a horse.

This is my first attempt at drawing with a tablet. As you can see, no one is exempt from being terrible at something the first time they do it.

Octocat, Logorama, Gluko and Lennon, Tale of How and Tyger

Today, we watched a bunch of animated films, shorts, pilots and other animations like them.

Octocat: http://vimeo.com/1690174

Octocat was created entirely in Flash, by copying and pasting the frames, then rubbing out the pasted frame to create the next frame. It's style is very scribbly and childlike, with a seeming lack of understanding of angles and very little control of the "pen", until nearer the end, during the climax.

Logorama: http://vimeo.com/10149605

Logorama is set in a world where everything and everyone is the logo of a company of some sort, with police officers all being the Michilin Man, driving various car shaped logos. The zoo is populated by the MGM Lion, and Ronald McDonald is evidently the equivalent of the Joker. Right down to his apparent immunity to death.

Gluko and Lennon: http://vimeo.com/12339198

Gluko and Lennon is the pilot for a television show that never came to fruition. It follows a small purple creature called Jennon and a large pink shapeshifting creature called Gluko. It seems to set up a running gag about Lennon falling into Gluko's mouth, into the liquid inside of him, visible through his semi-transparent epidermus.

Tale of How: http://vimeo.com/1516019

Tale of How is a fanciful animation made by the Blackheart Gang, as a sort of set up into a larger world createdby the Blackheart Gang to set other animations in. It uses a somewhat weathered look to strengthen the feel of an old book of fairytales.

Tyger: http://vimeo.com/6787244

Tyger is an animation made with a multitude of different methods. First of all, there is the tiger itself, the focus of the whole animation, which is a puppet operated by three hardly concealed men. The city appears to either be a model, or, what I feel is more likely, photographs of a real city with the animated portions overlayed on top. The humans, who turn into animals, are two dimensional traditional animation, creating pseudo 3D. Finally, there are glowing plants that grow around the city that are clearly digital.

Competitions That Look Interesting

Illustration Friday
http://illustrationfriday.com/topic/imagination/

I like this one, because I find it's premise both familiar and interesting. In amateur art circles I've been in do a similar thing, where certain groups would have a week, annually, and would create art for a different prompt each day. I had never taken part in one myself, except for a large one themed towards cats, so I think I'd like to give this one a go.

Cheltenham Illustration Awards
http://www.cheltenham-illustration-awards.com/info_13.htm

This is also interesting. I have been told that it has much more focus on narrative, telling a story through the drawing, which is something that I am very interested in. I love narratives, wherever and whatever medium they may have came from. Stories are my thing. The problem with this competition, though, is that it involves sending things in the post, which I have a lot of trouble with.

Macmillan Prize
http://www.panmacmillan.com/macmillanprize

I'm sure I remember someone around me taking part in this, a science teacher or someone. I am interested in this also because I have a habit of making up full stories to go behind my drawings, and this encourages that. I also find it interesting because it seems more geared towards a real thing, illustrating children's book. I've said in the past that I really don't mind what career path I take, as long as I can tell stories, I even write stories as a hobby.

Student Awards
http://www.dandad.org/awards/student/2013

This is a competition with much more specific briefs, pertaining to actual companies. This is another one that takes a less artistic approach, with realistic briefs that a freelance illustrator, designer or animator would be likely to get more than once.

Rigging Thomas

We are going to pretend like I was not sick for a couple of days, and busy or forgetful the rest.

I finished Thomas' character model, and then I set about rigging him.

This is a picture of Thomas with his completed skeleton, achieved by creating his arms, legs and spine. Then, I placed the structure of his legs and arms within the appropriate hierarchy of his spine.

Then, I made some controllers, by creating a spline and pinning the joints to them. I used circular splines for most of them, though I used a star shaped spline for the controller to move the whole puppet.

I also tried to create a foot roll, but that didn't quite work out. For one thing, it simply didn't work on my model, for another, when I tried to work out what was wrong at home, I discovered that I couldn't right click in the Xpresso tag on my own Macbook.