Manchester Animation Festival Pt.3

For the final day at MAF, I got to see some really interesting stuff. I went to the Ray Harryhausen Retrospective and got to learn all about the history of one of the most famous stop motion special effects artists and directors of the 20th Century. I learned a lot about how special effects were made before the digital era, as well as some of the methods that went into the ways of making his models. Afterwards we got to see a film version of the classic film Clash of the Titans.

 The film was taken out of a vault and hadnt been used since the 1980s. You can see that it's turned pink due to it aging over 40 years.

 After the film they had some of the props and models used in the film, so I had to grab a picture with them. MAF this year was really fun, I hope that i'll be able to attend it again one day.

Manchester Animation Festival Pt.2

Today we went to go see more commissioned films, although I didn't take pictures of them. I had a few things on my to do list for this day. I got to go see the BlueZoo: HooDoo presentation and master class, as well as ask some very impertinant questions since im planning on making a VR animation for my final project of the school year. I got a good look into what I need to get done in order to make this thing, so I was very useful for me. I also went to a Foley Design Workshop, where we got to make the foley sound for a sequence from Shaun the Sheep. It was very fun and informative to see just how the methods in making foley sound.

Manchester Animation Festival Pt.1

On the first day of the manchester animation festival, I went to go see some pretty interesting things. I went to see the shorts, many of which were weird, some were very interesting as well.

This one was pretty strange. Basically it was humans acting like birds. and all of them were naked.

 I enjoyed this one a lot. I was a piece about a group of birds wanting freedom from an underground civilization. it was very conceptual as well.

 

 This was a strange one. It was a stop motion piece about the concepts of heaven and following a "supreme being". Or at least thats what i got out of it.

 

As the compilation went on it seemed to get stranger and stranger. I could get very little meaning out of this one. It was a loose animation with very random imagery against a technobass backing.

 While this picture started out cute, it ended as a metaphor for going into war and the expectations versus the reality of both historical and modern warfare.

 This one was very vague in its story telling. It was roughly about an ice breaker and her living with some kind of schizophrenia, I think. It was very graphic.

 I really enjoyed the ideas behind this one. It was about a father losing an opportunity to communicate with his daughter, and emphasizes on the stresses modern workers face when it comes to balancing family and work life.

 At first this one was both strange as it was creepy. It was about a woman and her small baby messing up her life. The twist at the end was that the 'baby' was actually her cat.

 This was a 3D piece about a robot working as a dishwasher, and breaking out of his servitude and traveling the world. pretty straightforward.

 This was a piece about a man holding a secret for his entire life about killing one of his friends.

This piece was about a Chinese woman asking her grandmother what it was like growing up under Mao in China. This was probably one of my favorite ones, just due to it having a clear message in its making.

After this we went to go see Phantom Boy, a 2D french film about a child with cancer having the ability to go out of his body when he sleeps. Afterwards, we saw My Life as a Courgette, a french stop motion film about a child going to an orphanage. I also attended the Aardman Retrospective, where I learned much about the history of Aardman Studios.

ThoughtBubble

On Saturday I went to a local comic book convention, Thought bubble. I went for only one day, and went around the artist panels. I met up with one of the owners of the Travelling Man Comic book store, who used to be my Dungeon Master. I also met some web comic artists I follow online, bought merchandise and gave them my business card. I probably passed out around 20 business cards to different artists, so it was a decent networking experience. Sadly this might be the last time I'm able to go, since this is my last year here.

Anime Midwest 2016 - Retrospective

This year I managed to get myself a ticket to an anime convention based out of Chicago. I figured this was a good enough place to try and network myself within a group of artists and creators. I went around various booths and purchased some of their work, and passed out my buisness card to each of them.
This year, they also had some guests. Back in 2015 I made a presentation on Studio Trigger, and my instructors gave me instructions on how I should reach out to them. It just so happened that this year they were guests at this convention. I managed to meet all of them and I showed my showreel to one of them. I also met the english voice actor of Hiei from Yu Yu Hakasho and he said he would voice one of my animations for free.

Soundbranch Pt.6

Today is the second to last day of my internship. Ive completely finished the animation, all there is to do now is sort out my payment and export the video in various formats. For some reason they want me to export out in full, uncompressed avi. I cant think of a reason as to why, but I'll do it anyway. It's been pretty nice working, but I wouldn't prefer to work in any more corporate settings, if nothing but because of the dress code. I don't work well in constricting clothing, and full business wear is quite tough for me to be in for 8 hours a day. Still, i'm getting paid for this, so I can't complain too much. Overall I would say this has been a fairly enlightening experience. Here's what the final piece turned out to be.

Soundbranch Pt.5

Ive so far finished 90% of the animations overall visuals. I've also gotten Tom's First draft of the script, test voiced it out and synced it with the animation. We tried recording in the office with my microphones so we wont need to outsource for voice recording, but the audio turned out tinny and with a lot of background noise. Later next week we're going to be going to the art college to record out the final script, so I can splice it into the animation and make any tweaks or changes needed in order to make the animation sync up with the audio. So far this is what the animation has turned out as.

Soundbranch Pt.4

Its a week into production now and i've been working at a steady pace. I've frequently gotten feedback from my co workers in order to guide myself in the right direction. I'm working primarily in After Effects, but later on i'll be working in audition and premiere pro in order to sync up the audio and voice acting. I'm fairly new to Motion Graphics animation, but i'm researching various methods and practices within the art sphere to help better improve the animation i'm making.

Soundbranch Pt.3

Emily has given me the go ahead with the first concept idea. In the past week i've made a storyboard for the animation in illustrator, exported and showed it to both Sean and Emily. They both have approved of the design (see bottom). I've also begun preliminary talks about the script, voice acting, and sound, just so they are aware of the processes needed in order to make this animation. They have passed the script task onto a person named Tom. He'll be working on the script while i'm doing the production of the animation. He'll notify me of any changes I would need to make to the storyboard, in order to make the animation flow better.

Soundbranch Pt.2

I've turned out three different stylistic designs in hopes one would catch the essence of soundbranch perfectly. Here's what they look like:

I wanted the first one (top-left) to be an animation following a cord, going from scene to scene and in the final scene forming into the soundbranch logo. For the second one, (bottom-left) I wanted the animation to be zooming in and out of different hexagons in a "tree" and the final scene would be going down the trunk to the "seed" which is soundbranch. And for the final concept, (top-right) I wanted it to be a mixture of the two. Sean felt like the hexagonal one would be a likely candidate whereas me and Emily felt as though the first idea was the strongest stylistically.

Soundbranch Pt.1

Ive just started my internship working with a group at a business called Webanywhere today. I had a sit down with the head of the project i'm working on, Sean Gilligan. He wants me to create an advertisement for a phone app he's creating, called Soundbranch. In the sit down we talked about the various types of demographics possible for the animation to reach. Initially he was talking about creating 3 different ads, targeted at 3 different demographics. In efforts to be able to reach the largest amount of audiences, i've convinced him to try and make a single ad less focused on a specific genre, and more try to represent what the app is about in the purest sense possible. Ive been tasked with turning out a few concept pieces in order to better understand the design stylings of the app so far. I'll be working under Emily Owen, Illustrator and one of the Heads of Marketing of Webanywhere.

Evaluation - PPP

This module has helped me with a lot of different ideas and concepts over the course of the year. It helped me figure out what my weaknesses and strengths are, as well as how I work within groups. At the start of the year I had little or no idea about how to brand myself. All I had was a logo and a banner for my artists pen name. Over the course of the year however, I figured out how to start a brand for myself, and now I have an ident for my animations as well as my own logo and business card. Even though these might be very roughly laid out I still have them. Over the course of the summer I plan to update them and get them to be a bit more personalised and artistic.
I also made several websites as well. I started a personal twitter account because my teachers told me to, but now I'm thinking I might set up another just for my brand. I also started a vimeo account and uploaded all of my animations there. I had to upload one animation there anyway, since It was required for me to do that for a responsive brief. So I figured I might as well upload my other animations there as well. I also made a tumblr account for my animations as well and I haven't done anything with that yet, but I'm planning to upload my animations there over the course of the next few weeks. I made a Facebook page for my animations and embedded all of them onto there. Then i invited a bulk group of my friends list to like that page. I hope to update it periodically over the course of the summer, but I'm still not sure what I should put on there. Lastly I made a Linkedin account and invited a few people on there. I put in all of my information like my school info and other things. I also linked with my brother who is a front end programmer and a few other people. I think that next I'm going to make an Instagram account, but I really don't enjoy Instagram. Im probably just going to make it for my brand and update it with some concept work or something.
I feel like in terms of blogging I didn't keep up very well. I managed to put PPP in the back of my brain until the ending weeks of school because I had more pressing modules to get finished with. However I did manage to get all of my work done a day early which I'm proud of. I also never managed to get to go to a Convention or Showing for this module, but I'm hoping to get to go to one later this month and network there as well as see a few friends as well. I'll be updating my business card before then so I can give out one thats unique and designed well.
Overall I feel I've done well this module in terms of what I got done. I hope that next year I'll have the same amount of success.

MCM Expo - End of May - What I hope to get out of it

I made the mistake of not going to any Conventions or Award Shows/Film Festivals this year. All of the ones that I was planning to go to this year fell through. Since I wasn't able to go to any, Im going to write about an upcoming convention that I'm going to be going to instead. MCM expo is a London convention about Comics and comic culture. Along with vendors theres going to be multiple artist booths as well as other booths involved with comic and entertainment. I plan to go around the convention and find professionals who's works I admire within the comic world and "advertise" my services to them. One of the main people I'm going to be hoping to meet is Humon from the SATW comics. I've been following her work for a while now and I want to see whether or not I could animate one of her ideas for her. I think that this will be a good way to get out and show my personal brand and hopefully get people to notice me.

An Area of Practice

I have a lot of hopes and aspirations for my future as an animator. For the most part I want to go into 2D Digital animation as well as 3D animation. My reasons for this is that I value both forms of animation equally and I want to become a varied artist when I go into the job world. I want to be able to do as much as possible and I figure I should be able to if I have multiple talents. I think that next year I'm going to be doing 2-3 major animations, each with a varying style. I think that for one I'm going to be doing solely 2D, along with a sole 3D animation, and then a mix of both in another one. I hope to see where my final year can take me.

Brand Pt.6 - Tumblr

I've just created a new blog on my tumblr for my Personal Brand. It's still really new so I don't have much on it as of yet but I'm going to try and make it reflect my brand well and help get my name out there. Right now I have about 4 other personal blogs, and I'm not sure whether or not its good to have them connected to my brand account. Still, tumblr is a good place to share art and art inspiration so I'm sure that this move will help me in the long run.

Brand Pt.5 - Facebook

I've designed a Facebook Page for my Animation Brand. I decided to go ahead and do this since I noticed a lot of my other classmates were as well and it seems like a good idea. I still have some qualms with the identity of my personal brand. So far it seems a bit bland, and it doesn't describe me very well as a person. Over time I hope to evolve this and produce a brand that I can be very proud of. I'm not completely unsatisfied with how it looks right now though. Its simple, sure, but thats because It's a very new idea and I haven't had much time to mull it over in my head and come up with a perfect idea. But over time as I work on it I'm sure it will get better.
Heres the link:
https://www.facebook.com/YSAnimation

Brand Pt.4 - Vimeo

I've created a Vimeo page for my animation brand. So far I've uploaded a few of my animations to it, including my LoopDeLoop animation, since I have to submit it via Vimeo. I think vimeo is a great platform for artists. Youtube is fine, but there are so many people uploading to it you can get lost in an endless stream of content.
So far I've uploaded all the videos I can to my account. I've kept the ones that use copyrighted music private, along with some that are just test footage not ready for the public eye. Other than that I've adequately shown the body of work I have on this website.
Heres the link
https://vimeo.com/yuushirotaka

Brand Pt.3 - Linkedin

I've recently created a Linkedin Profile for my animation presence online. I figure this website won't help me become more known as an animator, rather it will help me network with some people inside the animation industry, and most people outside. I think the most help I will get out of my linked in profile is mostly going to be business men looking to hire an animator for some work relating to that. For my career I want to be more of an artist rather than a worker. Linkedin might help me with some odd jobs here and there, but I feel like for my career path I will be more likely to find notoriety for my animations elsewhere.
Heres the link:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavin-rae-4a4813114?trk=hp-identity-name

Brand Pt.2 - CV

I have been asked to produce a CV for myself. I'm still not exactly sure what a CV is but the guides my instructors have given me have helped me understand it more. In america we don't call them CVs, we call them resumes and they're much less detailed than the ones I've seen on the guide. However I'm not sure whether or not thats because the guide is for a creative artists CV or whether its because thats just how they do things over here. Anyway, I'm going to be applying for a job in late June so I'm going to be working on a CV for that and hopefully it turns out alright.

Logo Pt.5 - Showreel Ident

I just finished an Ident using my logo and title for my brand. It's a 5 second long animated sequence in which my logo bounces onto screen and the animation. In my preference its a little lacking in personality, since its a very basic animation and the logo and titling is very stark. I might want to try something different, maybe add in a little bit of colour to it, or mask out the negative space within the logo and animate some colour into it. But for right now I would say that this is efficient and sufficient enough. What I actually enter into my showreel might look somewhat different to this, I hope, but this is a good starting position for what I'm going to make.

Brand Pt.1 - Visual Identity

For PPP I am supposed to create a Visual Identity for myself. So far in attempts of this I've created a logo design along with a business card design. The YS in my logo stands for Yuu Shirotaka, which is the meaning of my name translated into Japanese. I find that this is a nice sounding pen-name for myself so I've decided to use it just for that purpose. In addition to this I like the initials it uses as well, which is what I'm usually going to be highlighting as my "brand name", since the name can get a bit verbose as a Brand Title. YS is very short, and it helps encompass exactly what I want it to. The font I used for this is an edited version of Nordica, a free type off of Dafont. I like this font because of the style it has as well as the fact that I am also Nordic in ethnicity. I also used an edited version of the Aural type font for the Animations underneath. I like that since animation both has a visual and auditory part to them, that font using the word "Animation" sends the message across very well in my opinion.

Logo Pt.4 - Creating a Buisness Card

I've started work on making a Buisness Card for my Brand Design. I've made a few rough outlines of how I might want it to look. Im using my main logo and I'm adding some contact info. It's an interesting challenge making a business card. You have to get across as much as possible on a 3.5 inch by 2.5 inch  card. I'm thinking that if these designs don't pan out I might change it so that it has a bit more flair to it. I   have an idea where I could design it so that its a lenticular animated business card. I would put an 4-8 frame animation I've made to help advertise my skills along with the card. But until then this is sufficient enough.

Logo Pt.3 - Using Specific Fonts

Im going to be keeping in the theme of using specific fonts for my brand. I like both of the ones I found on Dafont, so I'm going to keep using them.
Ive started moving onto a more finished logo design, my classmates and teachers helped me find the one that looked the best.  My teacher told me that a good logo should fit into the shape of a square, so i'll be rolling with that and seeing where it takes me. Im going to be using Aural for the Sub Heading to my logo, to clarify the name or what I do.

Logo Pt.2 - Updating the Logo

So in the last post I noted how I had already half created a brand and logo, back in high school. But since it was spelled wrong I've decided to update it to make it look more professional and stylistic.

I put together a bunch of different basic typographical designs and put them in two different fonts. Im going to have some of my classmates help me shave down the good and bad ones until I find one to use for the final products. I'm using two free font types I found from Dafont, Aural and Nordica. 

Logo Pt.1 - My Brand

I've had this brand type for a while now. The last time I updated it was in high school when I was 17. It's pretty basic, I've got a type font I use and a colour scheme. The way I came up with the name was that I found out the meaning of my name translated into Japanese. It's Yuu Shirotaka. Before I thought it was Yubi Shirataka, which is why theres a spelling error. I'm thinking of updating my logo so that it reflects a more professional version of me.

Pitch Perfect - Green Den Animation Studio

This blog is a difficult one to write about. I joined Katy and James in a group to find out that all of the maths work for this project was already done with. I had been focusing on other projects I had to finish and I missed the lecture/brief on this so the first time I heard about it I was completely befuddled. Katy and James tasked me to create the Logo for the Studio, so I guess I'm going to focus on that and hope I can turn out the best logo I can think of. Other than that there wasn't much to figure out about this project.

Radio Show Commission

My brother has once again commissioned me for a project. This time its a bit more professional. He hosts a college radio station and was asked to put together a poster for his time slot. He wants a picture of a superhero stevie wonder hi-fiving an egg salad sandwich.  So far I've got a rough sketch of Stevie Wonder drawn out. I'm swamped with other projects at the moment so I'll be doing this project during the free time I have.

Update on the poster. I talked it over with my brother and he wants me to make this a digital flat colour poster. That seems easy enough but the timeframe I'm supposed to do it in is troubling. I have a lot of work to do and he's telling me he needs this done in a fortnight. 

I decided that due to the amount of schoolwork I have I need to cancel the project with my brother. He's asked me to send him the rough sketch so his friend can pick up where I left off. I'm sad I never got to finish this project, I would have liked my art put up around his school. 

Superbowl Commission Work

I received another commission from my brother about a Super Bowl party flyer he wants me to make. He wants it in the same technique i used for the birthday project. His theme is the term 'Dip' so i came up with a list of objects, people, and things relating to dip. I used a rap group called Dipset, or the Diplomats, they were probably the most difficult to cut out. I got a vending machine of dipping dots in the background. I then made some of the members of dip set hold dip related items, one holding a nacho, whereas another  was holding a fun dip packet.  Then we got more creative. I got a picture of a diplodocus, which is a dinosaur and made him put his head into a bowl of dip, that Diplo the DJ was doing tricep dips into. and just to make it Super Bowl related i put in a headshot of each quarterback from both teams for the 2016 Super Bowl. Here's how it turned out.

Birthday Project - Commission Work

Very recently, I worked on a personal commission for my brother. He wanted a few photoshopped pictures for his friends birthday party. The first one he wanted was me to photoshop a picture he had of Chamillionaire with him and his friends to turn two of them into Chamillionaire and Chamillionaire into Drake.
Here's how it turned out.

 The next picture is a one he wanted me to make purposefully shitty. It consists of him and his friends content scaled  and photoshopped to hold terrible brands of alcohol from America.
The third picture is a kind of trademark of mine. I tend to do this with a lot of my friends and my brother didn't have any other ideas so I recommended this. The "my first beer" part that my brother wanted to add is because of a meme they have among their friends where they take pictures of them drinking any kind of alcohol and hash tagging it my first beer. Repeatedly.

To be honest it wouldn't be smart to put this in my portfolio. Even though he wanted it to look ridiculous, many of the photos that my brother gave me to work with were low resolution, and difficult to properly cut out. I did however get roughly £20 for this project, in the form of a video game.