Another year started!! Wow these past 2 months have been wild! It was very exciting because for the first time my mom got to come to Bournemouth to see where me and my brother live! We had such a good time, from taking a Hop on Hop off Bus in London and seeing everything there is to see, moving into our new place which is lovely and pretty, going to Stonehenge (my brother couldnāt make it so we will have to go again!) and going to BathĀ (the Abbey was my favorite!) It was an incredible two weeks and made for the best start I could have asked for for my second year in the course!Ā
Our first week started off really fast, we had the year brief, talking about what the goal is for this year, which is choosing a Medium and then later choosing a specialization. We got into groups that weāre going to have all year (yay! friends this time!) and with that group we were given our first project. We have to adapt an Aesopās Fable to a genre in a 2 minute animatic with sound. We gotĀ āThe Nurse and the Wolfā and Horror, Iām super excited for it! The latter part of that week was all 3rd year Pitches. They pitched their developed final projects from last year to the whole 2nd and 3rd year classes and at the end of the week the 3rd years voted, and the 12 that won are the Productions this year! Iām very happy that my favorites made it through and Iām really excited to have the chance to work on them later on! Also, surprisingly I was elected as one of the class reps this year. Last year there were 4 but I was sick for the voting so couldnāt try out. But this year there were only 2 and I was very surprised that they picked me!! I hope I can do a good job at it, so far Iāve been doing my best.Ā
This last week was BFX, which is a great animation and VFX festival held in Bournemouth every year. This year was really great and interesting, it had some amazing industry speakers like Epic Games, Juan Hernandez (a Disney layout artist, he was so cool!) and Ed Hooks, who had a fantastic masterclass about acting for animation. This year one of my all-time art idols (and probably my biggest inspiration) Lois Van Baarle was presenting a Masterclass all about her creative digital process and how she works as efficiently as possible. It was so incredible to meet her! I couldnāt decide on which of her artbooks I wanted to get more so I bought both ;u; when would I get another chance with her being able to sign them? Theyāre beautiful and the class was amazing, I feel so inspired and motivated, and she had some amazing insights into the industry.
Throughout these past few weeks our group has been meeting regularly to develop our story. Iām the only person in the group that watches, or can even handle horror, so it was a bit of a struggle at first. But little by little through our discussions and questions and work, we developed an idea that I think will come out really well! I feel the pressure though because itās my idea and Iām directing it, so I really want it to go well! Iām very excited to see how this will go, and what the next projects will bring. I can already see myself improving, and I just hope and am going to work to keep this train moving!
This has been a very long and rather tumultuous year for me, and I definitely canāt say that all the work I produced was my best, but Iām very proud that I was able to finish strong and hopefully be able to start the next year off right!
There was a lot going on this year, from my health that is unstable and constantly flipflopping, to all the new people in my class, the house next door burning down (and the resulting weeks of leftover panic), and all the different work that we had to put our mind to it was definitely not easy. I struggled probably more than most just due to my health alone. Luckily, I have very kind and understanding teachers that helped me through it and were able to make adjustments when I was struggling. Iām forever grateful for that, without their help I likely would have had to intermit and go home to sort out my health. But I was able to do a bit of both and (mildly) succeed on both fronts. Iām incredibly proud that I made it through, even if Iām not happy with all of my work. I learned a whole lot, and Iām very excited for next year when we can work more in groups and start to discover the paths we would like to take in this industry. I very much like animating and key framing, but Iām also quite fond of character design. I also fell a bit in love with 3D modeling, so next year is going to be about a lot of decisions!
This summer I hope to work more on digital art as well as trying to get myself in the best health I can manage to help the transition into next year! Iām really hoping that I can start drawing on a more regular basis and try some new things and expand my avenues. It will be an interesting summer, that is for sure!
Iāve completely forgotten to update this blog so it has been months since Iāve last done it. Iāve been incredibly busy with school work due to getting frequently ill. But! My work is done and it is time to go home for the winter holidays. Iām very happy that I finished my work on time, because the last few deadlines I have had all had to be extended and I felt as if I could never keep up.Ā
Iāve loved all of the animation we have had the chance to do, it has been a really great learning experience. My favorite of the fundamental projects was the sack drop, I felt like I was creating a character even though it is just a canvas sack. I feel like I did the best on this one.Ā
The end of our last project, the flag wave as well as the hand-in for our term paper was incredibly stressful. I had a week extra due to being sick, but I was still down to the wire. I ended up writing the entire essay (including the research) in a single day just before hand-in and it was a mess. The flag wave also caused the most trouble out of the fundamental animation projects because of the way it worked. I did get it done in time, but it was very stressful.
Overall Iām happy with how the term has gone. I wish my health hadnāt been so flip-floppy, but I got my work done and now I an relax for a few weeks. Iām going to post my projects following this post, just so I have them here.
Wow itās already October! As always my updates are astoundingly late and the first few weeks of uni have already gone by without even a peep! This year has been very difficult, or rather, the summer leading up to it was. My health being as it was at the end of the year I had to do a lot of work trying to get healthy over the summer and it was very taxing. I was able to get the go-ahead to come back to school (at times it didnāt seem like it would be possible) and Iām extremely happy with what I was able to do over the summer. Above is a picture of me at Rose City Comic Con. I had a blast (and spent way too much money) and got to meet some of my favorite artists. Iām holding a print that I won from an amazing artist named Mike through his Instagram. It was a really great way to end my summer and was right before I left to come back to school.
Over the summer I had the heartbreaking moment when I tried to turn on my computer to play Terraria with my friend and it wouldnāt turn on. My beautiful new baby seems to have a factory defect and as such Iāve been without it for about a month. Contacting the system support online I made the plan to take it back to school with me and then send it to the EU store to get it fixed. Iām still in the process of doing that (IāM SO CLOSE). I was able to get my data restored at a local computer place and at least have a backup of the past yearās worth of work, so at least all is not lost. I hope I can send it out in the next few days so I can have it back as soon as possible.
I left for my long journey across the world (without my iPad ;n;) and arrived the first day of my international orientation. I was able to thankfully just stay home that day (I was WIPED) and go the next day. Though I ended up skipping a few days because it was very similar to the year before and I had a lot of errands I had to run.Ā
I did go for the sandcastle competition because it was a BA orientation thing that I wasnāt able to do last year, so that was incredibly fun. My group (including some of my friends from last year!) made an angel cat (Iām incredibly proud of my wings) and ended up winning for the sculpture prize!Ā
We started our course in Animation, the whole first week being Induction, so lots of talking about syllabus and course structure. But we did do quite a bit of observational drawing and even some life drawing which I really liked. We also are going to be going on a lot of off-campus trips this year which sounds very exciting. Weāve already gone on two, the first of which was at the Rex Theatre in Wareham. Itās one of the oldest cinemas in the world and it was amazing to go inside of it. Wareham is a very cute town.
Inside the theatre was beautifully plush and vivid red. We watched quite a few shorts including some from Annecy as well as old Tom and Jerry cartoons. We were mainly there to go over the official syllabus for the year, but after we were awarded with ice cream and watching Lilo and Stitch! It was a very fun adventure.
Our other off-campus trip was to Christchurch which is a lovely little town with a centuries old church called the Priory. It was gorgeous and we went there for observational drawings with an emphasis on perspective. I found drawing the Church very difficult but a necessary challenge.Ā
As we were exploring I was delighted to find a river with boats as well as lots of swans! I adore birds, and swans are some of my favorite because they remind me of home. I have also taken an interest in drawing birds because I love their shapes and curving lines and they come naturally to me. We spent a long time drawing the swans, and around 4 of them surrounded me and my friends and I am pretty sure they were protecting us from any pigeon that got too close!
We were finally given our very first project, the classic ball bounce. We are going to hand animate 3 ball bounces: a football (which I got confused by because to me a football is very different), a bowling ball, and a beach ball. We were given a week to do some preliminary planning for it before we start animating (sadly I havenāt started but I will definitely get on it!) An interesting part of this week was the BFX festival, which takes place right in Bournemouth. As students we got the 90Ā£ tickets for only 10Ā£ and were able to attend 4 days of the visual effects festival. It was very interesting but I will admit that almost all of it went way over my head. It was also mostly aimed towards visual effects and game design, so not really down my alley very much. There was a particularly amazing talk by a Disney Character Designer, so that really made it worth it and was very interesting.
And as it is October that also means it is Inktober. Sadly Iām already a few days behind due to my health taking a bit of a dip. Iām definitely going to catch up because it was amazing to finish it last year and I want to add to my collection of adorable witch girls!
Overall, Iām very excited for this coming year, even though I know it will be difficult! I have a feeling I am going to learn a whole lot, but this year I have my friends (and my brother!) to help me if things get a little rough!
I meant to do this like 2 months ago after I finished my project but lo and behold I didnāt and now thereās a lot of stuff that I did that I wonāt really be able to cover. Long story short, I was able to finish my project and see it on a big screen, it came out beautifully! Iām very proud with the work I was able to finish. My entire project is on @margaret-fmp including the final outcome! I finished it just in time (literally 9am on exhibition day) and then had about 2 weeks before going home!Ā
This was our last group polaroid together (Dan had already left). I had such an amazing year with this lovely group of people and I canāt wait to see (most of them) next year! Theyāre amazing and Iām so happy to have all of them as friends. Iām going to miss the ones that arenāt returning next year, but weāre gonna stay in touch :D.
And so on May 30 Nicole and I headed out with our huge suitcases back home for the summer, all of my flights went well and I became a master at Bejeweled (which has a WEIRD credits animation featuring a creepy face) shown below.
And I finally got to see my family again! I was soo happy to cuddle my dog and see my friends and family, I really missed them so much. I was incredibly hyper upon getting home because there was so much to say and I was just giddy to be with them all again (even though I couldnāt speak because right after I finished my project I got laryngitis and it killed my voice).Ā
Iām excited for what next year has to hold and for what I can hopefully do this summer! But for now until the next school year starts up this blog is gonna be on hiatus! Iām so happy to be home and finally relax, itās been a long time coming.
One of the most DIFFICULT parts of this entire project was this hallway scene. I was running tests of it from the beginning because I KNEW just how difficult it would be. Week 10 and I FINALLY figured it out and Iām super happy with it!
I got to animate Obama!! This is the first piece of animation Iāve finished completely! All of the other bits are in various stages of WIP but this one is all good to go!!Ā
I had to forego animating on 2s because of time constraints, but it still doesnāt look too bad animated on 4s!
I havenāt been completely useless this past month, along with the rough animations, I have been hard at work trying to make the layouts look how I want them to. Itās been difficult, but Iām happy I have some more layouts to put in my portfolio.
It has been (regrettably) yet again over a month since Iāve done a life update. In the time that Iāve been away, spring break started and ended and weāre getting into the nitty-gritty of our final projects. Well. Some of us are. Before I get into it, I want to point your attention to my cute-ass DOGGO. We had an illustration fair for the BA Illustration students and I bought loads of lovely prints and buttons, but my favorite of ALL is a 1Ā£ commission of my dog Maya from one of the lovely artists. A few of them were waiting at a table taking commissions and I found her other work of her own dog that I just adored and so I wanted her to sign that one. Apparently she was really touched because she wanted to talk to me about it. I just really like to know who the artists of my favorite pieces are. Anyways, she did this lovely illustration in about 10-20 minutes and I nearly cried I was so happy. I couldnāt in my heart give her only 1Ā£ for it so I gave her 5 because she deserves that and much more. She was really shocked when I told her to keep the change, I donāt think Iāll ever forget the look on her face. I canāt wait to find a frame for it, because this illustration is one of my favorite things and I will treasure it forever.Ā
And now, onto the less nice stuff...
Over spring break I tried my best to get work done, but I fell into a relapse of my undiagnosed chronic illness. With headaches, fatigue, and joint pain, it made it pretty much impossible to work longer than 10 minutes at a time. My concentration was absolutely stunted and it was really distressing knowing how much work I needed to get done. I had a headache so bad that I had to wear sunglasses indoors because the light bothered my eyes so much. And some days I had trouble even getting out of bed. It was definitely lonely, after everyone left to go home there were only really 3 of us in the flat and I spent most of my time in my room asleep. I definitely think I work better when I am around people, but itās difficult to be around people when I have visible signs that I am ill.
A week in and still barely able to work I decided to go to the doctor again about it. I get nervous going to the doctor anyways, always worried that they will consider me a hypochondriac or dismiss my symptoms. But the GP I went to was incredibly kind and looked very worried. Sadly, Iām not registered with the NHS for a GP so I had to go to a private doctor, meaning I had to pay out of pocket. I donāt spend much extra money, so I donāt mind using the leftovers of my loan on my health. I had 6 blood tests done, the results of which Iām still waiting for, and my doctor referred me to a rheumatologist, which Iām going to tomorrow morning. My GP thinks I may have an autoimmune condition, which would make sense, but I would like to be sure that whatever it is, itās not degenerative, because it would be heartbreaking to find out that I have a disease in my joints thatās just going to get worse, because that would make my dream of being an animator that much more difficult. Only time will tell, but hopefully I will get an answer soon.Ā
Iām trying to take my health problems in good stride, but it really is difficult sometimes, being a young person with so many problems, I would really like a break. Not only for me, but for my family. I hate to see my mom upset because she canāt be there for me, but just being able to talk to her about it is really helpful. Same with Nicole, the few times we do hang out when our schedules align, itās magical and lifting for both of our spirits to just vent about whatever is eating away at us and support each other.Ā
Iām happy with what I have been able to produce so far (this is one of my layouts), but I really hope that I will be able to finish in the time that I am given. Our deadline is May 3rd, but because of my circumstances with my illness, I was approved for my mitigation claim and have until the 24th to finish, though personally I am going to shoot for the 18th. Iām glad that I get the extra time, I just hope I can put it to good use! Iām feeling slightly better than before but thereās still a lot of stuff to do, but I canāt wait to see what it turns out to be!
Ooh boy, I was hoping I would do this sooner but now Iām about a month behind on my update!! Okay, so a lot has happened, February was a busy month. Following my trip up to London for my birthday, I went on a day trip to Oxford with other Tier 4 Visa students. We spent the day wandering around the gorgeous city of Oxford, my friends and I spent quite a while in the Ashmolean Museum. We also found a quaint little bookshop that sold new and used books, where I came across 6 Japanese volumes of Berserk, one of my favorite manga series. Theyāre really hard to find normally so I instantly took all of them home with me.Ā
For the rest of the Tier 4 week where most of my friends were off galavanting in Budapest, I spent almost all of my time with the 2nd Year Animation students on their film. I worked on cleanup, so I was given a rough animation and I would go over it with smooth lines, then a color artist goes in and colors between them. I did both of these, but I was mostly cleanup. I got really good at it on this project, the directors called me theĀ āAbdul Masterā (the character above, he was the only one I drew). It was very fun but very long work. I would spend around 10 hours in the studio with all of them, holed up on an absolutely gorgeous Cintiq that is larger than my torso. Working on a new Cintiq was an absolute dream, and while I can create the same kind of work with my tablet, I will wistfully dream about how nice it was to work straight onto my digital work. It was an incredible learning experience, and itās going to be the first animation Iām in with my name in it! Iām excited to see how it comes out when itās finally finished!
Working with the second years did make me realize a few things, and one was that if I wanted to do digital animation, I needed a new computer. My Macbook air is already elderly and suffering problems and has nowhere near the amount of RAM that I would like it to have, especially when I was working on Photoshop files up to 3GB. A while ago I was prepared to buy a Macbook Pro as an upgrade, but at the price I know I can get a much more powerful PC. So I decided to make an investment for the coming years and put my student loan to use. I consulted many PC-user friends on what to get, I was looking for a high-end gaming laptop (with a high GPU and RAM and a lot of storage) that could handle a lot of different programs for whatever I may need. I also needed it to be lightweight, being physically weak with tendonitis in my elbows. We ended up finding the Razer Blade, a beautiful gaming laptop, almost as slim as a Macbook Pro, and better in every way hardware-wise. When it finally came I was ecstatic and I still touch it reverently. It has a really pretty glowing keyboard that I can configure the colors on and Iām pleasantly happy with Windows 10, so far itās been a really easy switch. It can handle multiple programs at once and even worked well with a monster of a Photoshop file that was 4.5GB. I canāt wait to use it for my final project (which is puttering along slowly, but coming together!)
Though I was ecstatic for my new computer, it was quickly overwhelmed when I had to be taken to A&E. The night before I had started convulsing and it hadnāt stop the next day, it was making it hard to breathe and it looked like my body was having a fit, shaking uncontrollably. It was not a fun experience. Rhi, my savior once again, took me to the hospital, even piggybacked me to the taxi when I couldnāt walk. The doctors took me in immediately, they gave me Valium to control the spasms, and they settled down quite a lot but not completely. Around 7 hours later I was finally released with the doctor saying they would have a follow up appointment the next day. I went to that, but never really did find out the cause of it. My doctors assumed it was an anxiety attack, but it was different from any that I have ever experienced and was quite scary. It lasted around 2 or 3 more days after that, and now itās thankfully gone, but I have a lingering paranoia that itāll happen again. If it does, Iāll be sure to press for more answers than anxiety. But I donāt want to bog this down with health talk, I could go on forever and itās really not all that interesting and this is long enough as it is.
It did take me a while to recover physically, I was exhausted and the medication I was on for it made me sleep a little too well and I ended up oversleeping quite a bit and I was really physically weak for a few days. It put me out of commission for about a week, so that was a week of no work on my project which only added to some of the stress. But luckily Iām still on track because I was ahead to begin with and am getting closer to the Production stage of my project with each day! On the tail-end of still feeling ill my animation class went (back) to Oxford, but this time I got to see the Pitts River Museum, which was extremely interesting. I hadnāt seen dinosaur fossils in a very long time and it was really exciting! We were supposed to be gathering some primary research for our projects, but sadly nothing in the museum actually pertained to what I am doing. I also donāt like drawing in museums for some reason. But it was enjoyable nonetheless, even though it left me wiped out afterward.
For Rhiās birthday we went to the Cat Cafe, which is probably the most heavenly place in this entire city, maybe even the country. I bonded with an adorable 11 year old kitty named Auntie Anne who looked just like a kitten and had the biggest sweetest eyes Iāve ever seen. I want to go back and see her again, it was such a calming place and the business is so smart and well-run and ethical, it makes me incredibly happy.Ā
Continuing to trudge away at my final project, the first storyboard is done so hopefully an animatic should come soon. Iāve taken on a lot for this, but Iām excited for the challenge and hope I can bring my best!
This terrifying monstrosity is my time plan that Iām going to be submitting with my proposal next Friday. The light green cells are days that have already passed and the rest is color coded based on Pre-Production, Production and Post Production, with darker colors indicating due-dates.Ā
Hopefully I can stick to this, I definitely already feel pressed for time being in the 4th week and not even having a script yet, but hopefully it will pick up once I get more settled on my idea for the look!!!
A first-go at a character sheet for the main character for my Final Major Project! Still got a few things to work out, but this is most likely what I will be going for!
It has been about a month since Iāve done a life update so itās about high-time I do one!!! Obviously Iāve been very busy this past month, I finished off my portrait project to an acceptable level and worked really hard to do a good job on my three little pigs project!! So most of my time has either been spent working, going to school, or sleeping (my favorite pastime). With the completion of our fairy tale animatic projects came the beginning of the last project for the year the Final Major Project (or FMP). So the next 12ish weeks will be dedicated to one project! Not sure what I will do yet, but Iām getting some interesting ideas!
This past weekend Rhi took me to London for my birthday!! We stayed at her auntieās adorable house in Walthamstow (which I still canāt really pronounce). I rode on my second train ever as well as my first underground train (which we took a LOT). Since we took the night train up we went home and went to sleep but on my birthday we went to the Tower of London!
Even though Iāve been through London three times now, Iāve never actually been TO London, just the airport, so this was really exciting for me! We took the underground into London (lots of detours because of strikes and whatnot but we eventually got to Tower Hill. My tourist side flourished and I took a ridiculous amount of pictures.
My main reason for wanting to go to the tower was to see the Tower of London ravens! Iām a avid corvid fan and Iāve seen amazing videos of the Ravenmaster interacting with them and they just make the coolest noises! Needless to say, when we finally got to the ravens I took so many videos and pictures that I immediately filled up my phoneās storage. Rhi had to tear me away from them otherwise I would spend the whole day cooing at them. Only two of them were walking around because of a recent outbreak of avian flu, but they were all very lively and adorable. I also may have bought an inordinate amount of raven merchandise in the store.
We then went to a cafe for some lunch and I had a very nice potato and lentil soup. Unfortunately though I also happened to knock over my 7-UP and it proceeded to spray literally all over me and soaked my pants. I was so dumbfounded that I just let it happen to me and it was such a mess and both of us couldnāt stop laughing. But it wasnāt great to walk around sticky for half the day (I also got very cold because of it). After securing a sweatshirt around my waist to hide most of the spill we went through the White Tower and saw the amazing armory. There were wooden horse sculptures that were older than the United States! It was really incredible. We wandered around and saw the crown jewels (no pictures allowed), as well as some of the other interesting sights and then finished with looking at the ravens one more time. I never got to meet the ravenmaster, but that will have to be a goal for another visit! The next day we went to Camdentown and shopped in the absolutely incredible market. It literally goes on forever and there were some really interesting little shops. I had some really good Mexican food (even though they wrapped the burrito wrong but the chicken was good so Iām not complaining too much. We spent a few hours there until it got unbearably cold and we went home. We took the night train back to Bournemouth and I instantly fell asleep when I got home.
It was a really incredible birthday and Iām so happy to have an amazing person like Rhi in my life <3. Next year is going to be amazing living with her and Jimmy and Dan in a house together (we just signed the lease and itās pretty darn cute!) I really canāt wait, itāll be awesome.
For this week and next week I have Tier 4 required classes, but I donāt really mind because that gives me time to work on my assessment as well as an amazing opportunity I decided to take; helping some 2nd year BA Animation students with their film. They came to our classroom looking for volunteers and I was the only one that expressed interest but Iām so glad I got over my nervousness and contacted them because I just got the shot that Iām going to cleanup and Iām so excited to work on a film of this level this early on. Itās really an amazing opportunity for me. I hope I can give them some quality results! I would post some of the exercises Iāve drawn for it, but I donāt know how they would feel about me posting their character designs, so Iām just gonna keep it a secret ;).
Hopefully my next update wonāt be as far between, this week is going to be really interesting! (Not to mention we have a trip up to Oxford for a day so that will be fun too!!)
Pretty happy with how it came out, but I did have some timing/audio difficulties that I wasnāt able to entirely make smooth. But overall it gets the point across and thatās what itās all about!
still probably going to be working on this! but hereās a first try at the ending card for the little wolf!!, pretty happy with the background actually, really enjoyed playing with some of the vegetation brushes and objects!!