Dynamic Pose

I have coloured the dynamic pose. This could be a cover page for my comic.

I like this pose. It's a good pose to illustrate some personality aspects of both characters. I was also able to practice the shading. To improve this drawing, I will go back and redraw Oliver's arms and hand. I'm certain that I can do much better than this attempt.

Presentation feedback

I have given my presentation. This is some of the feedback I recall receiving

During the presentation;
One classmate, as soon as he saw the artist model Yuri on Ice, bashed his hand onto his head multiple times in frustration in a (from my own view point and interpretation) 'are you kidding me?' moment. This action did not help my stage-fright and possibly made it worse.

A few classmates kept looking at each other as if to imply (from my own view point and interpretation) 'what on earth?' 'is she serious?' and also 'oh my god....'. This didn't help me much either.

I could be wrong about what they were thinking and why they exhibited those actions, but the faces they made appeared to be valid indicators of their reactions/feelings.

After the presentation
Yuri on Ice aimed comments:

Did two men kiss in Yuri on Ice?...because if they did they would be in a romantic relationship.

Are you drawing two characters in a relationship?
Friends kissing would suggest that they are involved with each other on a different level to romance.

Are you focusing on the romantic side of the relationships like in Yuri on Ice?

Constructive comments:
So have you looked into different ways to show communication? Or is it just your own thoughts and opinions on relationships in general?
How is your end project going to be presented?
Are you looking at different kinds of relationships in real life and real people understandings? Or more at a fictional characters' understanding?
With your drawings, I suggest that you look more to the director and writer from Yuri on Ice, as it would be a really strong aspect to achieve, with all this discussion already being brought up from this little presentation. I say, with all this debate, you have already done your job with challenging the audience.

With all these actions, comments and advice, I will upgrade and improve my research along with any further progress that will take place from now onward.

My presentation

I have my power-point ready at set for my public presentation. I'm nervous but I will get though this.

This is my power-point presentation I'll be presenting tomorrow at 11:35

I have some extra notes I'll also be sharing at my presentation. Here is my notes

Presentation Information/Notes

I want to examine the visual cues and clues between people who are intimately related.

How can I draw my characters to expose these social cues and clues in a way that tests the rules about how people relate intimately?

Yuri On Ice Information

In the beginning, Victor had a loud and confident personality

Whereas Yuuri had low self-esteem and timid personality

·         The original TV series of Yuri on Ice aired on TV Asahi from October 6 to December 22, 2016.

·         The anime was produced by MAPPA

·         Directed by Sayo Yamamoto

·         Written by Mitsurō Kubo

·         Character design by Tadashi Hiramatsu

·         Music by Taro Umebayashi and Taku Matsushiba

·         Figure-skating choreography by Kenji Miyamoto.

An interview with the Director, Writer, and Character design artist of Yuri!!! On Ice

“ANN: When you first decided you wanted to make an anime about ice skating, did you also know that you wanted to tell a love story? At what point in imagining Yuri!!! on Ice did you discover that element?

SAYO YAMAMOTO: My intent with Yuri!!! on Ice was not to be a "love story" in the narrow sense of a "love affair," or "carnal love." At least when you say "rabu sutorii" in Japanese, that would be the context of those English words. The whole answer to this question is answered by Yuuri in his speech at the end of episode 5, leading into the Grand Prix Series.

MITSUROU KUBO: Our idea about love in the context of Yuri!!! on Ice, as expressed by Yuuri Katsuki in episode 5, was already written before production began. So the theme has always been there in terms of what love means to the context of Yuri!!! on Ice as a whole.

TADASHI HIRAMATSU: This theme would not be in the context of coupling specific characters together, but the very general concept of what love is for each character.”

Bridges, B. & Chapman, J. (2017, September 28th) Interview: The staff behind Yuri on Ice. Retrieved from https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2017-09-27/interview-the-staff-behind-yuri-on-ice/.120717

Frozen Information

·         Released on April 30^th in 2015

·         Directed by Chris Buck, head animator

·         Directed by Jennifer Lee

·         Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale ‘The Snow Queen’.

·         Written by Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Shane Morris

·         Produced by Peter Del Vecho

·         Production company Walt Disney Animation Studios

An interview with the two directors of Frozen

What were the biggest differences in the story, from when you first conceived this to what you see now?

LEE:  It’s totally different, in many ways.  It’s easier to say what stayed, which was the end.  Chris pitched a very special ending that no one has ever seen before.  When I came on, they said, “If you can earn that ending, this will be something special.  If you can’t, it’s gonna suck.”  And to earn that ending was a huge undertaking that changed everything, really, including Elsa.  She was a villain, and she’s much more complex than that now.  In a good way, things have to evolve.  You expect the complexity of that.                

BUCK:  The theme didn’t change.  It gelled more, and then Jen articulated it so well later.  But, there was the love versus fear thing. 

LEE:  It shifted from romantic love, as a throughline, to fear versus love.  That was the biggest shift in it.  So, we had that ending, but everything else changed.  But, all the qualities of what Chris pitched initially that resonated are there.  I wasn’t there when he pitched it in 2008 or 2009, but we just re-read it. 

BY CHRISTINA RADISH      OCTOBER 7, 2013

Radish, C. (2013, October 7th) Co-Directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee Talks Disney’s FROZEN, Dividing the Workload, Creating a Grounded Princess, Changes to the Film, and More. Retrieved from  http://collider.com/chris-buck-jennifer-lee-frozen-interview/

Dates;

Drawing concepts done

Questionnaire completed

Questionnaire handed out and recollected

Final art planning done

Final work is completed and cleaned up

Check with tutor

Done and handed in

Stop-motion pratice

Stop-Motion Practice

Today Rebekka and I were practicing some lip-syncing. The program we will use for stop-motion is called 'Dragonframe'. After collecting all our pictures we need in Dragonframe, we will put the work though 'AfterEffects' to produce the best quality. We both made a lot of different mouth shapes and then got to work. We found that we need to be more aware of what is happening with the background and if any objects are interfering with the setting. We managed to edit out our mistakes but we have learnt our lesson for next time. I used some audio from a past project to animate too. 

Here is the lip-syncing practice we created together.

Film review

La Jetée

Directed by Chris Maker, in 1962 (France). La Jetée, as stated by director Maker, was largely influenced by 'A trip to the moon' made by George Melies in 1902. La Jetée has had a large influence on the films '12 Monkeys' and 'Terminator'

There were many themes explored within the film, including time travel into both the future and past, and a post-nuclear war experiment. The film was made of just pictures (except one scene when the female character looks up in her bed), juxtaposed into a story about a man and his time travel adventures. This film is a perfect example of the 'Kuleshov experiment'. I will use this film as an artist model.

I liked the film. It provoked and allowed me to think harder about the story line and wonder if there could have been a happier or different ending. Due to him being a temporary time traveler, maybe a different version of himself is alive out there. Or maybe it is as the film showed us, a man who was always haunted by his very clear memory of a traumatic event as a child. I would suggest this film to get a new and fresh point of view upon film making and how a story can be told.

Setting a Background

I needed to create and draw a living room background setting really fast and with prospective

With me needing the background fast, I thought of using a program called Minecraft to create a very basic block layout for my setting. With Minecraft, I had the basic blocks of shape, sizing and prospective all in one take. I could also get lots of different camera angles with everything in all the correct sizes.

I will draw a cleaner and better living room setting with Minecraft as a base. Now I do not need to worry about the objects being kept constant as I draw them over and over.

Here are the settings I have on Minecraft. I will post the finished settings after I draw them.

(Sorry for the long post)

Planning

Brain-Storming

Techniques

Question: Can the relationship between two characters be defined by the viewer's own experiences?

Rewording the question:

• ·         Can I manipulate the viewer's understanding of the current relationship between the characters?
• ·         Can the relationship between two characters be defined by the viewer's own experiences/influences?
• ·         Could I change how the viewer views the relationship between the characters?
• ·         Why did the viewer view the relationship between the characters the way they did?
• ·         Does the viewer's own understanding influence how they view the relationship between the characters?
• ·         Use questionnaire with concept art to find out reactions of two different audiences.
• ·         Figuring out the cues and clues about personal relationships and what taboos or social rules there exist about how people relate intimately.
• ·         What are the physical attributes and facial expressions that determine gender, relationship status, etc.

Medium:

Finished concept art for a presentation to be determined.  Could be comic, short animation. Want to engage an audience.  Testing concept drawing with different audiences in mind.

Concept:

 How can people assume a relationship without asking? Body language vs verbal language.

Influences:

• ·         Yuri on Ice - TV show
• ·         My own friendships
• ·         SIT student’s opinions on relationships
• ·         Church family’s opinions
• ·         My own understanding

Context:

Church environment vs SIT environment.

Technique:

Drawing, digital and paper-based (Photoshop or ToonBoom). Questionnaires (Survey Monkey).

Deeper Information

Theoretical Framework:

Social engagement.  Gender identity

Methodology:

Heuristic

Aesthetics:

Cartoon like. Blue/orange.

To get Information

Resources: How

Drawing and asking.

Audience: Who

Church and SIT fellow students

Site: Where

To Be Advised.

Proposal

This is the proposal that Rebekka and I created

Thumbnails completed

I have set up my Toonboom Storyboard Pro

Now, all I have to do is get my tutor to assess what I have done so far, redraw, clean up and colour my work.

This is good.

I have a total of 80 drawings to have done be next week... Yay. A lot of the different scenes are just the same panel but with different facial expressions so this is still possible to complete. I will ask my tutor what I should cut out for now so the storyboard is completed and not too over complicated.

First trial

The first test with the Kuleshov effect with character's expressions.

With this test, there are multiple images in the center box in between the characters. You can pick/use any image you like to see a different result for the characters emotion or personality. Also, you do not have to use the last image with the character smiling, you can look back to the first image to give a new meaning.

This is the whole page. I will now cut or move images to see if they create different meanings.

Character. Silver Jewel

Background

The smile Silver gives after looking at the beautiful scene gives Silver personality. Silver seems to be happy to see the lovely scene. It makes him seem like a calm person, appreciating the scenery.

The constant blank stare Silver has towards the beautiful scene make us wonder if there is a reason he seems so blunt towards the scenery. Did something happen to Silver? Does he wish to be elsewhere?

Food

The smile Silver gives after looking at the food makes him not only seem a lot hungrier in the first image but also makes him seem pleased to see food that he will eat.

The constant blank stare Silver has towards the food does make him seem very desperate to eat the food. Silver could also be longing to eat the food but was told to wait and this is the face he gives.

Kitten

The smile Silver gives after looking at the kitten makes him seem like a kind animal lover. He likes kittens and as kittens are innocent, this makes him seem more innocent also.

The constant blank stare Silver has towards the kitten leads us to think about if is he waiting for the cat to do something cute so he can video it. He might also be thinking of his own cat longingly.

Lovers

The smile Silver gives after looking at the lovers make Silver seem like a helpless romantic, fantasying about his own possible romance he dreams to have. He seems pure looking at their love.

The constant blank stare Silver has towards the lovers makes us wonder if Silver has ever fallen in love or been heart broken. Maybe his stare is him remembering the joy he felt before the heart break. 

Character. Oliver Moore

Bookshelves

The smile Oliver gives after looking at the bookshelves makes Oliver a man of knowledge. He now seems a lot smarter and more like a bookworm. Oliver seems excited to learn more.

The constant blank stare Oliver has towards the bookshelves does make Oliver seem like a man who is about to get down to business. He also seems like a man who is about so have a long boring night.

Email

The smile Oliver gives after looking at his email gives Oliver a more kind or tolerant personality. With 15000 words due in 4 hours, it would be hard. Oliver also seem to really love his job or writing.

The constant blank stare Oliver has towards his email makes Oliver seem more human, and unimpressed. He stares blankly at the ridiculous request from his boss. It looks kinda funny to us.

Picture frame

The smile Oliver gives after looking at the picture frame has us seeing Oliver is a much softer light. It reminds us that he has a family he loves and works to support. Oliver seems a lot more loving due to his smile.

The constant blank stare Oliver has towards the picture frame has us thinking about his family. Why are they not around? Oliver seems to look sad at the picture frame, even though it's a neutral face.

Work-space

The smile Oliver gives after looking at his work-space shows us that he loves his job. He seems more eager and excited to work in his amazing job.

The constant blank stare Oliver has towards his work-space makes Oliver seem restless and tired of his job. Oliver seems like he wishes to be elsewhere or to have a change in his life.

Character. Gabranth

Child

The smile Gabranth gives after looking at the crying child makes Gabranth seem to be a very cruel and twisted man. He seems to be a very dark-natured man with evil intent, smiling at the child's tears.

The constant blank stare Gabranth has towards the crying child still makes him all that was just stated above, but, he also has a coldness to him with his icy glare. He is fed up with the child.

Grave

The smile Gabranth gives after looking at the grave gives Gabranth a morbid sort of personality. He seems to be smugly smiling at his possible opponent or victim, satisfied with their death.

The constant blank stare Gabranth has towards the grave makes Gabranth seem to be very depressed because of their death, or lost. He seems very spaced out and uncertain because of the grave he sees.
Crown

The smile Gabranth gives after looking at the crown gives Gabranth a selfish or greedy personality. He wants the crown, the crown is power. He wants to be in charge or be rich because of the crown.

The constant blank stare Gabranth gives the crown makes us wonder why he is dismayed by it. He could long to be king instead of another. Maybe he's overwhelmed by the responsibility of the crown.
Knife

The smile Gabranth gives after looking at the knife in the picture makes Gabranth seem like a man fueled by revenge. He seems very sinister with his cold glare and smug smirk. 

The constant blank stare Gabranth has towards the knife in the picture has made Gabranth seem to either look unsatisfied with the result of the knife, or to be plotting his next move to attack the victim.

I can place all these images into either Toonboom-Storyboard Pro, Toonboom-Harmony or AfterEffects to create a short film to present my work.