BSA303, Spoon internship- learning to use Illustrator, 19 July, 2017

Quentin took me downstairs at Spoon (they rent out a suite to other companies) to chat with Sam from Onepost Media. They're a video production and animation service.  Sam says they job out their animation to an illustrator in Wanaka who uses Illustrator and recently a guy in the Phillipines.  They then edit the images they produce and finish them up for the client.  He's very excited about Puffin Rock, a show that is in my Netflix queue, and wants to learn their software: Moho.  Here's a webinar of how they structure their pipeline around Moho to make the show.  This company also made Song of the Sea and The Book of Kells.  Ha ha!  They use Shotgun and not pieces of paper tacked up onto a wall with check marks on them.  Who would have thought?  (That's sarcasm, in case it's not coming through.)

Cartoon Saloon's pipeline.  More of this in their webinar.

Now Quentin has me on a side computer learning Illustrator.  Another piece of software I can practice on in anticipation of getting out into the job market.  Natalye and Christian said I can help make a logo for Spoon's latest showreel tomorrow!  Whoo hoo!  So this could be very timely.  They make new showreels once a year, when it's quiet, of their most recent stuff.  Every time I asked for specifics, like how or what they choose, Quentin would whip off his glasses and say, "that's an excellent question."  No answers today, maybe tomorrow. Ha ha! 

What I made using one of Adobe Illustrator's online tutorials:  Side Slice logo. In spite of their step by step instructions, I couldn't get the cheese drip shapes to go from rectangles to curve edged shapes and had to join rounded rectangles with a rectangle at the beginning.  I learned how to set up colour library (very helpful) and how to take the finished logo and save it into that same library so I can throw it around whenever I like.  VERY helpful.

What I made for myself trying to use techniques from the tutorial.  I found a reference pic of a cute unicorn and a fighting leprechaun mascot for the arm positions.  Horses can't really clench their hooves into fists and there had to be a compromise.  This is the first thing I've drawn without a cintiq tablet is years!  Just used shapes and a very nice pen tool that smooths out when you finish the line.  The anchor pen points work really well sometimes, and other times I can't figure out how to make them smooth out.  This was made using layers, and the anchor point pen tool and the blend objects? function.  The unicorn is supposed to look like it has got it's fists up but sort of looks like it's about to use it's hooves as mouth puppets.  I may have to settle for a "knees up" leg look instead.  When I moved it over to Photoshop to do some more shading, all of my layers got packed down into one blob.  Lots more to figure out.


https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-retro-fox-illustration-in-adobe-illustrator--cms-20733

 Here's a tutorial in progress.  It's teaching me how to the effect- warp-bulge functions to create beautifully curved shapes out of triangles.  Which are made by selecting the polygon tool and choosing how many sides and how big the object should be from the screen that pops up!  VERY VERY helpful.

Hours:  10.30 to 5.30 with half hour lunch.