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.