Facial expressions 2, 27 February Principles of Animation homework

This is a continuation of the face work from yesterday.  This time, I'm TRYING to change expression by tilting or showing a side view of the head.  I say trying because I'm not convinced.  It comes down to repetition: if I draw 20 of these, 5 of them will be bang on the money.  I did enjoy fleshing out the character by giving it a body and clothes, and I can already imagine what this mad composer might get up to in his free time.  THAT's progress!

BDM103 Who Owns It- The Fans or the Copyright Holders? 10 August

(I posted this earlier this year and now I can use it for class!  I love my blog.)

                   Power Rangers Fan Video Yanked From YouTube; Filmmakers Vow To Fight

As a Costume Designer and Artist, I come from a tradition of mining images and creative works for inspiration.  The ideas and images get re-worked and a variation of them then goes into a different theatrical or filmed piece.  Sometimes it's obvious, and sometimes it's not.  Call it referencing, homaging, stealing: it makes the creative world go round.  The fashion world alone would collapse if every design, colour, accessory, or hairstyle was bound up in legal tape.

So the current legal stoush over this Power Rangers fan video is fascinating.  Joseph Kahn, a music video director, used his own money and brought in different actors to make a 14-minute dark and gritty Power Rangers short film.  (I can't review the film itself because Power Rangers owner Saban Brands has asked You Tube to take it down.  It had already clocked up 12 million views by the time it was yanked, so it may be out there somewhere.)  I've never liked the Power Rangers but the participation of Katee Sackhoff, Starbuck from the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, makes me want to give this a go.  Joseph Kahn had this to say about the take down order:

“I hope they (Saban Brands) come to an awareness of how modern pop culture works. The audience will pay for the franchise, but they want to play with it as well. You can’t just dictate that these are the things you are going to watch in the way we want you to watch it. That’s not the way society works anymore. If you want the support of the modern fandom, you need to let them participate.”  

Kahn and his crew are interacting with the Power Rangers as an idea that is flexible and open to reinterpretation.  Saban Brands considers and wants us all to approach the Power Rangers as a product which is fixed, finite and to be consumed how and when they see fit to distribute it. 

But to play Devil's Advocate, here we have the exact opposite thing happening: Fans who do not want you to touch their stuff: EVER.  George Lucas re-interpreted, re-imagined and played with his Star Wars universe.   He was happy, toy makers were happy, the fans were not happy. Nobody sued George Lucas for defamation of the character of a film franchise, so maybe that's the difference between this and the Power Rangers short film:  hurt feelings fade but a good lawsuit is epic.

Hey, hey, HEY! New career path and old career path could totally intersect!

This article came up on my Facebook feed today, and I am INSPIRED.  

For me, this means I don't have to give up or sideline my experience as a costume designer and technician.   I could bring all of my skills to a job, or create one that brings the best elements of everything I love together.   

 

By Joe Kucharski - February 23, 2015
"Danny Flynn is a fashion stylist who has worked extensively in music videos, commercials, and editorials. Flynn owns a high-end fashion shop, Replika Vintage, in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo that specializes in Japanese and avant-garde designer clothing from the 1960s to present. His stock is a go-to for costume designers and stylists looking for unique or unusual pieces. So, when Disney Animation began work on Big Hero 6, which takes place in San Fransokyo (a futuristic highbred of San Francisco and Tokyo), Danny seemed like the most logical fit for costume designer.
As computer animation technology has grown in the last five years, the industry has seen the need for more detailed and realistically portrayed clothing and costume design for lead characters. Disney has worked with character designers that have specialties in costume research and construction, most notably on Brave and Frozen, but until now they have been buried in the Art Department credits with titles such as “Visual Development Artist.” Big Hero 6 marks the first animated film to list a “Costume Designer” in their credits, an exciting leap for the field!"

 Big Hero 6 Costume Design: High Fashion meets Animation

BMA 142, 26 February, Ball Work

 Day 2: Balls, balls.  I should probably not call them balls, I should call them spheres so I don't make inappropriate remarks.  I've been handling spheres this morning and it's harder than it looks.  (No, still sounds nasty...)
Using the elliptical tool, I was able to give the sphere a cleaner edge than yesterday.  Both inner and outer shadows are crisper and the colour is more dynamic.  It's not a smooth colour change, which can be achieved by using the gradient tool.  The gradient tool, however, lacks character, so I'm going to stick with a sphere that is starting to look like Jupiter the more I play with it.  The class had a chance to walk around and look at everybody's work.  I particularly liked the work of the classmate who had a giant with visible guts holding a glowing sphere.  Very cool.

For the last ten minutes, a very quick and dirty mirror sphere.  After quickly picking colours and painting with a rough brush, the dodge and burn tools were used to darken and lighten areas to create the illusion of roundness.  Too much burn to make the colours darker, but the right amount of dodge to make the highlight at the top lighter.

BDM126, 25 February, Facial Expressions

Wednesdays are my longest day.  My first class begins at 9 am and the last ends at 5 pm.  At the end of the day, I get to see how much I've done.  In a few weeks, it will all pull together, I think, and the whole day will be spent developing different aspects of one character or story.  In Principles of Animation, we pushed forward with the development of our characters by practicing changing facial expressions.  I chose one of the faces from yesterday's practice session.  Until next class period, I will practice rotating the head so the expressions can be seen from different angles.  I still don't know what character I will concentrate on for my character study assignment.  I suppose that I have time to figure that out.

BMA142, 25 February, Building layers and a big Ball

With the Cintiq tablet, I can draw directly on my digital painting, like I would a physical one.   Today I used a flat Wacom tablet which means I drew on the tablet and looked up at the results on the screen.  I don't find it as precise as the Cintiq, but it's good to learn how to use all the tools that are available.  We used the snip tool to select a portion of the screen to be our background.  This is a very  handy tool!  I chose a selection of paintings by the Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum.  He blends the swirling darks and lights of Rembrandt with a warm post-apocalyptic landscape.

Then we played with transforming multiple layers and their opacities to create a big, messy image to build on.  When the Wacom tablet is set to "Brush", pressing the Alt key activates the eyedropper tool.  It makes it fast and easy to select colours to paint or draw with.

The beginning of something?  Marco Bucci has a Painting Fundamentals video that we've been watching in class.  I can see the Ball taking shape, but the background isn't doing it any favours.  I need to watch and paint along with the video.

BDM126, Principles of Animation, Developing Characters, 24 February

Side by side, it looks like I had a very big busy day in Principles of Animation.  Which I did.  Our first project is to create a character, so today we messed around with creating faces.  Wacom Cintiq tablet in Photoshop CC 64bit.   On the first page I tried bean-based head shapes and a variety                                         of  character eyes. 

On the second page, I kept to a more human face shape and experimented with the anime eyes and noses.  I sketched in light blue on the first layer, than refined the shape on the second layer with black.  The third layer, which I didn't get very far with, added colour. I don't know if I will create a new character or if I will expand on an old favourite of mine, the Armadillo.