So, my original plan for this blog to keep maintained and updated every few weeks went fully out of the window. But then, all of normal life has been thrown out of the window, hasn't it?
Needless to say, the fun-filled final term I had hoped for was drastically cut short and many films I had been working on have unfortunately had to be abandoned... It's been a really heartbreaking time for us all in the midst of madness, but I am glad to say that some of us have been able to soldier on, and there are a few films that have been finished in time for the end of University!
But it's not over yet - I still have a few things to finish off before I hand in and say goodbye to my education, so I'll do a quick round-up of what's been going down over the last few months!
I'll start with GameKid.
Unfortunately, this is one of the projects that has had to be put on pause. Primarily due to the team's lack of 3D experts and the difficulty they'd been finding in communication, it was decided that it would be too difficult for the film to go on during lockdown. Much of the 2D side of the film was complete, however that alone wasn't enough to keep the film going.
Over the term, I wasn't able to do to too much for the team. But I had started off with continuing some expression sheets / action poses for the troll and ogre characters, as they were the ones I was to be animating the most.
This really helped when it came to doing some animation tests. My first being a simple troll test:
These little animations came out really well. I was really quite proud of the speed, timing and action of the movement. I still need to work on my clean animation and design, but overall I think the test worked.
After this, I was able to take on a shot. The shot that was given to me was of the lead ogre character. It was certainly challenging to animate from start to finish, but was definitely a great experience and tested my skills in animating and pixel art.
After all the hard work of getting this piece done, I'm super proud of the outcome, and it's a real shame that the final product isn't likely to see be seen any time soon. It was a joyous team to be a part of, and such a fun little project to see develop.
For more about GameKid, see my project page about it HERE.
Case Closed was one of the films that were lucky enough to keep moving, and it's been making great strides towards completion. My time as crew for this film has been fantastic and I'm so thankful for all I've learned in the process.
This term I was able to continue with a little bit of character design and development, despite the film heading into production. This included some last background characters and some shot design.
It has continued to be a great experience working with this team and I'm so excited for it's eventual release! For more about the project, head over to the Case Closed page, HERE.
That's it in terms of where the films are at. Uni continues on, and as situations change, so have hand-ins. We've been fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to adapt our submissions to lean more into what we want to do in our careers and so I have completed just a few pieces of promotional material for TV shows and a band single. I have a great interest in illustration and as this is the area I would love to go into, here is just a snippet of what I've been getting up to:
A Day To Remember have long been one of my all-time favourite bands, and as their newest single was released not too long ago, I jumped at the chance to create some artwork inspired by them.
It was a brilliant piece that really tested out the style I've been trying out. I'm still not certain whether it's my style yet, but it's exciting to watch the process develop.
I do really love how this all came out. Using the colours from the band's existing single design and music video, I didn't have to worry too much about finding colours that fit, which really turned my attention to the process, the texturing and the lighting.
I still don't think it's perfect yet, but I do think it's getting there and I'm excited to see what comes from it next.
To see some more of the promo work I've been doing, head HERE!
Finally, I want to just catch you all up on what I've been doing in my free time.
I've currently taken on a mini project to document what I've been getting up to whilst in lock down. It's small but it's a fun little thing to do that is a nice way to practise drawing, develop my style, and keep track of what's been going on in my little bubble.
Here are a few tasters of the project so far:
To see the 'Quarantine' project in full, head HERE.
And that's all I've got time for today!
I'm actually right in the process of handing in all my last pieces of Uni work right now, so after this post I'll be free of education...
It's been an incredible process and I truly wish it wasn't ending. However, maybe it'll mean I put more time into making blog posts???
I hope so. I'm aiming to get myself into updating fortnightly so now I've got all this extra free time, we'll see how it goes!
Thanks for reading,
Sam Keye @ Anarkeye_Arts