DragonHearts Storyboard

3rd version of my storyboard assignment of redoing a scene from 'Dragonheart'. Biggest lessons I got out of this is learning when are good moments to cut, get a point of view, close ups or not for emphasis and other things. Oh and need to learn to draw more animals. 

Dragon Riders and Ironclad

This week's assignment was making an 8 panel sequence after this image:

Dunno who made this- our teacher found it online and loved its  cinematic shot

 The original setup I had was that a mysterious something comes in and attacks the creature and which later reveals to be the dragon riders.

some unused panels

Mark fixed things up quick by simply rearranging the sequence so it reads a lot clearer.

And story impact wise, it is much much better.

We also had our discussion about the movie IRONCLAD- a medieval type backdrop for another 'Seven Samurai'-esque story. The biggest flaws to that was that while it was entertaining and all that, a lot of character goals and motivations were either very shallow (there's something there but it's all superficial) or you get situations like below. A lot of scenes could have also benefitted from a visual cue rather than a simple dialogue exposition.

  

Dem Hands

For our Animation Tutorial class- hand gesture study and animation.

Struggle

This week was doing an 8 panel sequence depicting 'Struggle'-could mean inner or outer struggle, in my case I opted for outer struggle in the cliffhanger sense.

Critiques for the sequence boiled down to 'Do Not crop the important bits of the shot'. This was applicable to panel 2 with the dude hanging on for dear life, and also with my panel 6- where I completely lost the hanging dude as I was trying to emphasize the other one pulling him up. The positive thing I got from my entry was that from the first panel- the hands holding on to each other,was a nice opening shot and an attention grabber.

13 Assassins and Bus Stop Beats

THe Horseman, BusStops and Economy of Icons

So this week we watched the 2009 australian film, The Horseman. It's a pretty raw and gorey movie about a father in a revenge rampage against men who had a hand in the death of his daughter. Andrews says it's quite a powerful movie in that as an audience we totally understand what motivates and drives this man, yet the sheer violence he dishes and receives leaves us conflicted on how deep is this man going before he's in over his head. He ain't superman and he ain't a super ex-spy like Liam Neeson was in Taken.

Assignment wise we had to do 5 different ways of drawing a dude waiting for a bus at a bus stop.
I thank the lucky stars a friend and classmate tipped me off that the key to this assignment was that one had to see a road, a person waiting and a bus stop.

The red notes basically indicate why the shot doesn't really read as 'waiting for bus' and could be

interpreted as something else entirely.

 So when story boarding, one doesn't give a lot of care on making really well rendered settings or scenes. This is storyboarding, not scene building. If we're going to be doing 300+ shots, we need to be as efficient and economic with what we draw to get a point across. The bottom half is basically a note that visually intense shots are best made when a visual pattern was established first before breaking it.




And finally, Mark's comment about Storyboarding to answer a classmate's question about the difficulty of the subject.

Comedy comes from Character

Mark Kennedy articulates something that was bugging me about my Senior Project class for awhile now: Comedy comes from Character. I've done a couple of doodles out of the croc for a bit and his whole being just boiled to the one doodle on the lower left:

Im still debating how wacky I want my story to be to have that in the short.

He's just a bit of no-nonsense, cool kind of croc who knows want he wants and frankly he 1) doesn't like the dude or his attitude and 2) is gonna make sure he can't cross the river. The girl kind of shares that same attitude which is why they sort of click with one another.

The dude on the other hand-is a mystery to me. So unless I know my opponent everything is up in the air.

For now I'm just basing my drawings on one of our Filipino Heroes Lapu-Lapu, as he is the 'maniliest' filipino dude design i've come across in terms of looks. We'll see how this plays out.

Floating Lady

So our assignment for Visual Storytelling was to make 4 panels after this image:

After a bunch of doodling, I came up with this sequence (read left to right):

8.5x11 folded twice, done with pencil hence smudgapalooza.

 The critiques I mostly got with this sequence was:
-Panel 2 had 2 things happening- the primary point I wanted was someone getting out as the second dude was making a call. The solution was to push back the secondary one and try to show the first more clearly.
-Panel 3 and 4 were redundant, in that both were showing the man about to take his glove off. Every panel should be bringing in new information and insight. So panel 3 ought to be indicating his approach to the body, and panel 4 reveals what's underneath the glove he's taking off. Also the depiction of taking the glove off was not clear and the focus (oooh shiny hand) in panel 4 was too low and ought to be in the center of the frame.

Storyboards Mark also critiqued on, my stuff are in the lower right. 

Digital do over, applying the critiques. 

Everything you need to know about Kalkie in 2 pages

These were (hastily) done comic strips on our second meeting in Graphics Novel Class. It's a little embarrassing gushing about myself-the last time I ever did so where in my Reflection papers back in High School-confidence, where did you go!? D8

But still, the class has been pretty insightful so far not only because of the technical aspects of comic making, but it just makes me excited to draw my own comics and apply everything that I learned.

Oh-and cause I'm a silly sap-comment note from teacher:
'Simply put, this may be the most technically proficient and gleefully enjoyable two-page bio comic I've come across. Can't wait to see more of your work.'


GLEEEEEEEEEEE. :D

The Adventures of Captain Conroy, Storyboard 101 and Breaking Away

So last week Mark Andrews narrated to us this sci-fi space adventure he and a friend of his was working on, and our assignment was to illustrate one scene that struck with us.

Since this was a week ago and I barely remembered most of the details, I decided to go with the beginning, when the Captain and his motley assortment of aliens were held at gunpoint by spider-men with big guns and he was coolly relaying all his achievements in his nigh-immortal lifetime.



This being my first critique encounter with Mark Andrews, the only thing that held me back from crying like a little baby (from being the second person critiqued on and the class laughing at the work) was the fact he pretty much treated everyone the same way.

That and he drew out all these awesome alternative shots. A lot of which, as someone who drew comics and knows the importance of composition, makes me wonder 'Why didn't I think of this?'

What's the point of the moment, and how best to relay that point in the simplest and clearest way possible. My shot was a mess in that the lighting and tones were everywhere and nothing really popped. Conroy looks more angry than cool in the face of weapons (which you can baaaaarely see in upper left corner).

I also jotted some thoughts on the movie of the week, Breaking Away. The movie bored me to tears about this small town kid who wanted to be an Italian bike racer. It felt shoddy being one of two people who didn't like the movie and having to articulate my why's and being told I was thinking 'Dated'- taking the movie expectations of today with it's fast pacing to back to the 1970s.

I still didn't like it- maybe cause I couldn't relate or felt little empathy for the main dude. I just saw Mr. Smith goes to Washington last Saturday with friends and that's an older film and also slow movie but I felt more for the character there than Breaking Away.

Animation at the Seniors Room

Woke up this morning with the resolution to get to school today, grab my 3d animations and script (which I left in my account desktop because of the blackout).

Woke up 10:15, bus leaves at 11.

Grabbed all my veggies and laptop and just ran to the bus.

Since Colleen is actually a senior level, she let me into the Seniors room- basically a small room of maybe 10 of these babies http://computershopper.com/shoptalk/peripherals/wacom-cintiq-at-new-york-comic-con

Gods it's awesome *w*

I finished blocking in most of tellou's hair and clothes, and sort of fizzled out after 3 or so. (Roughs ver 1) http://kalkie.deviantart.com/art/Character-Weight-Shift-263318744

I don't know where the hell the others have the energy to keep drawing. Well at the very least, I finished my obstacle course in 3d and more or less did more work on the single leg walk cycle, i think.

Dunno why, but there's nobody at the anime club at the given time, so I'm just going to wait for the 8pm shuttle. at least I can go home earlier and eat something.

Tiles and Weight shifts

Tile thing didn't turn out so well, and it was because of the lack of contrasting values in the hues- though teacher did say that the color palette had a nice, summer feel to it.

For 2D animation Ryan gives me another positive feedback on how fast I can doodle out my blocking. |D;

It's pretty easy once you know the steps on blocking out. (well these simple cycles anyhow)
Draw out the first and last poses.
Then the middle pose/passing.
Then the in-betweens (They're called squash/reach in a walk cycle)

I guess I work so fast because a lot of people already draw out their forms and outlines, I'm just more concerned about seeing the flow and will worry about the real proportions later on.

Toes

I accidentally slammed my pinky toe in the door while I was running back and forth from my room to the common kitchen to make lunch. I didn't realize I was bleeding until the aforementioned squishy feeling in my foot. I also left a small bloody print in the hallway when the slipper flew off at my shock. D8

Rest of the day was uneventful- went to a career counselor to figure out how to write cover letters and tweak my resume better, then for Interdis critique just a round table discussion on modernism, then we signed up for individual meetings next week. For 3D animation we just did more ball physics and a new exercise involving a walk and tail animation.

A happy turn of events in Color for Illustration

Holy damn- pulled a 5 hour miracle cram of printing/tracing, copying to new paper, and painting 2 tile patterns for Color for Illustration. Also good that QB gave me some of that bread we baked last night so I had some carbs through class. 

Wouldn't you know it- I spent more hours/time planning the Pacman Tile and they all preferred the Bee Tile. Kinda wanted to laugh and punch the classmate who explained the reason he preferred the Bee one was because the other one looked like 'a simple screenshot that was taken and then pasted diagonally'. 

But what got me in an overtly good mood was the fact I was doing much, much better in workshop today! Teacher said I was getting better with painting in acrylics and was more confident in my colors. HAPPY. :D

In Animation we did some more refining with our walk cycles. This was on Monday.

This was after teacher's critique- mostly about doing more ease in and out of the arm swings, and then fixing the positioning of the feet so it wouldn't make a big pop when the left foot swings across.

He also left early because he felt sick. Spent the rest of the time goofing off and listening to classmates belt out Disney songs before we all left at the usual class time. 

Good Day

Morning-crammed for Color for Illustration about our emotions around the time of 9/11. Did bleh on critique corner since my illustration pieces were far too literal (eg. drawing the burning towers), so have to think more metaphorically And send a new sketch either tomorrow or before weekend-
-as I struggle to try and finish my grayscale exercise And my painter's circle And my hue comparison exercise this weekend.

Damn you acryliiics~ D8<

I'm super super glad that I have Animation 2 on the same day, just being able to doodle and animate stuff makes me feel better.

Well that and the fact
- our teacher (Hans Brekke) brought in a friend from Tippett studios (who'll also be our sub for the next 3 weeks while Brekke's in Norway).
- Despite my cruddly squiggly flash linearts, both teachers didn't mind and I actually did fine on blocking the walk cycle. (walk cycle with teacher critiques implemented)

-He showed us this lil film he and the rest of the Tippett studios did on one of their slow production days. XD And he's the protagonist to boot.

-Then after class I helped out a sophomore who's doing walk cycles for the first time so it felt great being able to be of help.

Then on the bus ride back to Webster I got free ice cream from Colleen and listened to Cel's 'Celphiphany' on the parallels between George Lucas' career and his own movies.

Nostalgia and Pose Push

 I was still pretty bummed over my shoddy grayscale work in C.F.Illustration, so I tried doing some exercises in my ntbk. Now if I could only just do the same with freaking acryclics. The others were doodles for the illustration ideas I have in mind for the 9/11 assignment, mostly the moment when my ma woke me up in the middle of the night (Philippines) so we could watch the news on the twin tower attacks.

Afterwards, I went over to my InterDisciplinary Class wherein I had a bad case of the heebie jeebies, since I wasn't so sure if relating Fernando Amarsolo's work to my WIP of my GGKids based on Personal Nostalgia* is what the teachers were looking for. I mean, some people were going deep with their symbolisms and metaphysical interpretations (of their source or own works).

Fortunately, it worked out all right for, and some people even gave me compliments to my presentation.

*Fernand Amarsolo- Filipino painter, dude who pretty much captured the 'Idyllic Nostalgic Filipino provincial lifestyle' with his always sunny and lively colors and use of the Backlight technique. I related this to my illustration, which when I think about it, was an unconscious nostalgia for old times- that being these kids and just doing their story; back when I was in High School, just doodling comics and their adventures for the hell of it and getting praises from friends and family. Not having to worry about character design, plot, story, future, school tuitions, etc.

For 3D Animation 2 we did some more ball bounce tests (bleh, think I did worse than before) and some pose  modelling. Teacher generally said push the poses more. 

Friday shenanigans

BLeh, mostly spent the whole day just playing games as usual, and then did some little reorganizing here and there. I'm planning to make a painting workspace out of the top part of my cabinet. We'll see. I was supposed to be doing my homework/watercolor, but I ended up fiddling around with Flash and failing. OTL

I've tried my XpresRediSetGo cooking thing today, first for a veggie omelette (it did fine, though a little on the dry side for lack of oil I guess haha), and then dinner was a crispy potato recipe from the Xpress cookbook- I chose it because ma happened to give me a potato (just one) before I left home. I got to share some food with Colleen and the new webster peep Bo (industrial design) so besides potato chicken I also had black rice pudding with mangoes, then boiled black beans and a smidge of brownie cake for dessert.

I also finally got my N.Indian music book from the mail box. Kinda inconvenient that you can only pick up your packages from only 9:30-11:30pm, which sucks because most of the time I get back to the dorms just around 11:30.

Thursday

Woke up blissfully happy that I had no morning class to attend to.

Unfortunately I had to chuck away the pot of arrozcaldo that I made two days ago: I hate wasting rice but I got a bad feeling about how the rice looked and it's consistency, and that I realized I cannot stand eating the same meal for more than two days. This has been a very wasteful week of rice.

Common kitchen sink's still clogged. I wonder when is it ever going to get fixed.

At school, I spoke first with my advisor about the new class schedules just to be sure I'm doing okay. The only thing that worried me was the two of us sort of realizing with the amount of units that I already have, I'm due for a review panel. I also randomly came across Ed Gutierrez (last year's Drawing for Animation teacher and 3D anim1) and spoke to him about whole junior review thing.

I'm worried because last semester he came to us pretty disappointed because a lot of students were rather ill prepared for the review. Anyhow he said he'd be happy to take a look at anything I'd cobble together so that made me tons better.

Our 3D animation teacher wasn't in class today, but my history of animation teacher Segal was subbing. What mostly happened was that we all fiddled around Maya trying to remember our interfaces and ball bounce physics, while he played some dvds of Richard William's Animator's Survival Kit and then some commentary features on Looney Tunes dvds.

After class I ended up chatting with Segal about short cartoons then and now (like Looney Tunes vs The Looney Tunes show of today, Silly Symphonies vs Mickey Mouse Shorts of today), and ended up recommending/fangushing Adventure Time and Phineas and Ferb to him when he mentioned interest in it but haven't seen it yet. That fangushing followed through to Cel and Nicole(?) who were also waiting for the school night bus- we ended up ticking off all the 90s shows that made Nickelodeon, CN and Disney awesome before.

Later in the bus, Cel mentioned he wants to pitch his animation short to the whole lot of us, and there was a quick discussion of who might possibly do what. I sort of volunteered for cleanup since my OCD/proportional and line perfectionist tendencies might of better use there, but then Cel said he might want me in Layout, then he explained cause of how I place my settings and eye for perspective.

I have no idea how he knew that of me (since we haven't been in the same animation classes and I don't quite remember showing him anything ), but having someone acknowledge the skills that you try to work had at, oh man- I was all giggles and smiles inside.

First day of school

Rather miffed that I've had such a fun weekend but have not had the time to draw them out. Will probably back post them at a later date. 

-------

Today I woke up rather antsy and excited for the first week of school, had mini-wheats for cereal and packed my lunch, got to the bus on time,

only to realized right there and then I forgot my ID. B| great.

First Class: Art Text.

Generally the class involves taking text and whatever it's content is and creating form from it, much like meramerawolf's 3 piece art text series but for our first assignment we'll be doing something out in the environment, so we have to come up with 3 texts to use and some vague idea what to make with them.

Class ended early so I browsed through the library and looked through some Victorian Period English interior designs. From what I could glean on, 1870s were in the midst of a decor change with the earlier come about of the Morris and Co, whose aesthetics were gleaned more from Japanese decor and simplicity compared to earlier, heavily crazy ornamental French influences.

Went back to the dorm to try and get my keys, when I found out the RAs are not on duty at that hour, had to suck up my courage and take the fire exit balcony and cross over to my open window. I didn't have to hop/jump over nothing dangerous, but I really am not the type to just go out of balconies really not meant to be trudging around for shits and giggles. Took a bath and a break before I grabbed a bus back to school.

In the Oakland campus, I discovered that the writing class I signed up for does not meet my major's writing requirement. I love the look on my classmate's face when she heard that from the teacher. Apparently a lot of students have made the same mistake. Anyhoo the two of us got out quick, I dropped that and started scrambling to find another. Got Interdisciplinary Critique and ran over to add in, happily getting in and just realizing now, now, I've actually got 5 art classes under my belt.

and one sure to be writing class.

F*CK.

3D animation 2, as far as I've heard from classmates, is that the teacher is a super cool guy, but is a really tough teacher since he's all about animation physics. He spent the entire time talking about the maya interface which I'm super glad he did, but I'm horrified that I kept nodding off. I hate that I've got such an early morning class and that I have such late night classes to work with. My classmate Kevin was uber nice enough to accompany me to Safeway to get some more groceries, and it as rather sad as me and him were making jabs at each other about processed foods some lady overheard us and thought I was making jabs about her tv dinners-ugh. She was acting all nice and sweet but dang that was super awkward. 

I'm really glad my roommate's kept her promise and keeps my nightlight open at night, so when I come back I don't go tumbling around in the dark and making twice as much of a racket. 

Night before school

Mmm stuff that's happened during the month of August-

-Saw Ong Bak with my bro
-Finished FF13
-Managed to upload some comic pages on my DA
-Saw my sis again in LA
-Managed to finish one story (Terra) from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and started a new one.
-Window shopping and debating between a new laptop or a desktop.
-Gonna move back to dorm in about...*checks time*  6 hours from now. Whelp.

Flip flop of emotions. A week away from school starting, and i still feel a little-nah, a lot disappointed with my summer achievements. I think the most positive things I've gotten was just overall relaxing, just being around a lot of babies, having fun, slightly being more present in Facebook, just reconnecting with friends again, and getting a lot of love and links from my siblings. Well I'm rambling.