Clarences Background!

This is a screen shot of my background for the animation, it isn't finished yet it still has tress a sun and a few more features to be added in yet, but this is what i have so far. All the waves are separate so they move separately more in the style of cut out animation.

Clarence In Motion!2

This is another screenshot of Clarence moving in this part he's moving his arms and claws as he walks.

Clarence In Motion!

This is a screen shot of clarence the crab moving in the animation, his eyes move along with the body as if he was moving so fast his eyes get dragged behind him. The arms move and the claws snap also, when i moved the arms i had to move them separately from the claws otherwise the animation wouldn't of worked correctly, i had to do the same thing with the eyes when i animated them, i had to move the eyes separately to to the individual eyes.

So many activities!

This is a screen shot of the beginning of my animation. 2 weeks ago was the first time i had ever used adobe after effects before. However last week i had started to finalize the animation for the crab 'Clarence'. I used him as the first character to start to try and animate on adobe after effects. And now he's pretty much complete, with a small walk cycle, blink sequences and arms and leg movement. I used the puppet tool to animate the character it was a lot simpler and quicker than i thought it would be, however i did hit a few snags when it came to saving and reopening the project.

Clarence The Crab!

This week i have focused mainly on getting used to adobe after effects, because i have never used it. However, before i did that i had to have a character to use in after effects, and i did have another 3 characters but i decided i wanted to change my crab design. So i changed my crab design first in illustrator, adding a mustache and giving him smaller legs and better looking eyes. I kept a similar colour composition. Once i had done this i got into after effects and began to animate it.

This is my finished model sheet for my character design, i changed the positioning of the writing and the fish to make more room for the actual bear poses. Because originally the bear poses were not the centre of attention so i had to make them bigger and make it more centred.

Mode Sheet Background

This is the current background i made for my model sheet. I created it on illustrator, all colour no outlines. I am not sure as of yet whether to keep this for my animation background or to change it but if i do there isnt that much i would change about it.

Kettle The Over Friendly Seal

This is my seal design for the animation, again in illustrator, i used the same technique for designing this character as i did for the rest. I am not 100% about this design as of yet i think i like it but i am going to get a second opinion first before i settle on Kettle.

George The Retarded Pelican

This is my Pelican design for my animation, its made again in illustrator using simple shapes and no outlines for the cut out animation effect. I am happy with this design so i wont be changeing it, this was the first design of this character.

Barry The Crab

This is my crab design for the animation, i did this again on illustrator using simple shapes with no outline and just colour. I havent finalised this design as of yet, this was the first design i did of it and it was straight onto illustrator so when i get some spare time i will have another tweak at it.

Jeramia Jizz Bear

This is my blue bear character design for my animation. I designed the first design on paper as rough sketches to get an initial idea of what i wanted the character to look like, however from there i went onto illustrator to make the character look more like cut out animation style and ended up with this result. Its all made from basic shapes with all colour and no out line.

	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
MORNING	Completely finish my script and rough versions of storyboards at least. If I have time do my net version aswell.	Finalise concept art, most of it is complete, but do the stages of were I changed the actual character.	Complete assets for animatic so I can make a start on the animatic by Thursday.	Tie up any loose ends from previous work in the week.	Tie up any loose ends from previous work in the week.
AFTERNOON	Make a start on finishing off the assets for the animatic and do the alpha channels. Also right on blog about progress during the day and upload pictures of progress.	Evaluate the days progress on my blog with uploaded images to show progress.	Evaluate the days progress on my blog with uploaded images to show progress.	Evaluate the days progress on my blog with uploaded images to show progress.	Evaluate the days progress on my blog with uploaded images to show progress.

Last week i developed my character design into a more cut out animation style. I created it all on illustrator, without any line work, just the colour. From there i developed them further to give it a range of different facial expressions and put it all onto model sheets. I then designed the basis of my background for the animation, but i think i may add some more things too it as i go along. Then i created the rest of the characters making each body part that i plan on moving individual. I had to find a suitable font for my model sheets, i went onto Da Font to find several before i chose one that i liked the best. I had some problems trying to design the dolphin, i couldn't get a character that i liked using illustrator, so i am thinking about changing the dolphin characters to clams or an octopus maybe.

This animation is called Stare into the sun by Ian Stevenson from the Pictoplasma book. Its in the style of cut out animation, and is about a little scarecrow looking man who has two pet balloons, he pops one of them, and the other floats out the window. As he chases it, he discovers a world that he has never seen before because he has never left his home.

This was another cut out animation i looked at from the Pictoplasma book. It was designed by Fantasia Utamaro for a band called the Black Ghosts. It features a skeleton like character walking along to the beat of the music with a hoover and sucking up all the different characters. The randomness of the characters and the general animation itself is why i like it.

The Black Ghosts - I Want Nothing from Southern Fried Records on Vimeo.

This is another cut out animation i looked at called 'My First Crush' by Julia Pott. The story is about actual people telling stories about the first person they fancied or fell in love with, and their stories are portrayed and shown through the animation of different animals. Its done frame by frame and a bit of cut out animation, I especially like the humour of the animation.

My First Crush from Picasso Pictures on Vimeo.

Mr Wobbles Nightmare

This is an animation i looked at called 'Mr Wobbles Nightmare' from the Pictoplasma book. Another animation that i loved, it was done using fruit as the characters bodies, and a live background, the only thing that was animated was the characters body parts which were all done in the style of cut out animation, possibly using adobe after effects. The animation is about a police officer ringing up a man named Mr Wobble, to inform him that his son Robert wobble, had been killed at an under ground party, a rave! "Some how they all got locked inside and couldnt get out until we arrived, they ran out of drinks, and had no food. The other party goers must have been desperate, they started eating him alive!"

'The Colouring' by Joseph Pelling

This is one of my favourite animations, it is called 'The colouring' by Joseph Pelling and features a little girl crying for a doctor as her friend is dying on the floor, a sinister squirrel appears from the tree and argues the point with her. It is all edited with a sound bite from the shining with the squirrel as Jack Nicholson and the little girl as Jack Nicholsons wife in the shining. Its done frame by frame, and every image was coloured with pencil individually. I mainly like the simplicity of the characters and creepiness of the animation itself.

The Colouring from joseph Pelling on Vimeo.