Making Connections - Granny Bacon

Granny Bacon, is a man who I've been talking to recently about the video games industry and how I could improve my chances of getting my foot in the door. My recent talk with Tom Evans and Lawrence Mann has given me a bit of a boost in confidence to try and talk to more people that are already in the industry.

Granny Bacon isn't actually a concept artist his skills lay in Maya work and games level development but even so its good to get in contact with other people in different reaches of the industry.
Bacon suggested that I try to make my portfolio as good ad it possibly can be and after a while  I asked him about his company and any paid internships that they might have to offer.

Recently he got back to me saying that he would be more than happy to send a few emails my way for the people who might be able to help me out in asking around the company about details on how to get more involved in company activities in order to meet new contacts so once he sends me emails including the contacts I'll be able to get started on emailing people and hopefully making a good impression for myself.

Making Connections - Lawrence Mann

Shortly after our latest guest speaker, Tom Evans, came to the college to talk to us about being freelance and working in the creative industry I managed to talk to him for a while and we began emailing one another. After speaking to him on various occasions about trying to get connections with other artists he offered to send me the email of a professional illustrator called Lawrence Mann.

I emailed Lawrence and shortly after he responded, we spoke about a few various things, mainly about the difficulty of what its like to get into the creative industry and to get a foot in the door in companies. I explained that I really just needed someone to give me a chance and to help me to become a better artist and to reach my goal of becoming a master concept artist in my own field.
Mister Mann was a lot more helpful than I first expected he would be considering how busy he constantly is working on various projects, he told me that if it would help, I should forward him some standard JPEG images of the work that i've been doing.

When I heard that he was interested in looking at my work I was quite taken back, he seemed to be very enthusiastic and wanted to see what my work was like, I decided to muster up the courage and send him a few tester images to see what he thought about them.
Shortly after I got a reply and he commented that he really liked my style and thought that it was very unique, something that he hadn't seen in his work which is also what Tom Evans had said previously about my work also. Hearing two professionals compliment my work in such a way really was wonderful to me, it gave me an enormous boost of confidence and made me feel that I could really develop my wacky style of artwork into my signature art form.

I've been continuing to send mister Mann various bits of my work on a regular basis to keep him up to date with the work that I've been doing and hope to get a lot more feedback in the future from him as it really is extremely useful for me to hear everything he has to say about my work.
I'm also considering asking him if he would forward on some contacts to me that he knows that could give me a further insight into what they think about my work which will not only improve the standard of the art that I produce but will also help me to network and build up contacts for the future also.

Hazardous Concepts - Website In The Making

Because my facebook page seems to have become quite popular, certainly more so than I expected, I've taken it upon myself to start designing my professional website.
This website will be the place where people can properly get in contact with me, view my portfolio work, email me and discuss commission prices and general art work related topics that I might be able to help in.

I have been talking about my website design to my friend, Kyle Prior, who knows how to design professional websites and wants to do web design as a full time career.
We have both decided to help each other in making this website for my artwork as in return for his designing of the website and actually getting it up on the web, I'll be promoting his web designing abilities and allowing him to use my website as a part of his portfolio work to help him along in future jobs, because we are trying to network and get as far ahead as we can I feel that its important that we both help each other in order to achieve our goals.

The web page isn't nearly complete yet, it is still in its most basic html stages and needs to be completely fleshed out before it can even be considered to be used for the world wide web. In the mean time I'm going around various websites and writing down notes on the presentation that each website has, which elements I like from each site and how I feel they might improve my website should they be included. Some sites that I've looked at include Kekai Kotaki's art, Daarken, Nicholas Kay and Lawrence Mann. I'm going to sit down and really think about what could be unique and eye catching on my web page that would attract more people into visiting the page and hopefully getting in touch with me.
I need to have my own stand alone attraction that makes my website stand out above all the rest while creating a professional outlook on my work. I know that it's going to take time but I'm extremely looking forward to it and really can't wait until the site is all up and running for public display at last.

Hazardous Concepts - My Facebook Page

Over the past few months I have been considering various ways to attract outside audiences and network with other people both locally and globally. Generally a place where people can admire my work and build up a steady fan base over time. Because I don't currently have the funds to run my own website I have instead made my own FaceBook page where people can 'Like' both my art work and the page in general.

This is the front cover of my profile on facebook. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to get anywhere with it, people would have no real way of finding my artwork and even through promoting it there are still many other well established artists pages on facebook that quite easily overshadow mine.
I was actually quite nervous of making this page, my confidence isn't at all up to scratch so having to publicly display my artwork not only to friends and family but also to complete and utter strangers everywhere seemed very daunting even if I wasn't showing my work to the people face to face.

It surprised me that over the past few weeks my page has gained a steady flow of people visiting and liking my work, some even commenting on pieces which gives me some extra confidence as it has shown me that people have taken enough interest into my art to actually write something about it. Its a plus for me as any feedback I get on my work is good and will help me improve immensely.

I've also noticed that now that I have my facebook page I can take notice of what it is that people enjoy seeing out of my work. recently I've been uploading a lot of dinosaur concepts, I've noticed that the carnivores in particular have attracted a lot of likes so in the future I'll be sure to focus on more meat-eating and scary concepts. It really does help me to know just what people like and what they don't like as it means I can make more of what they do like and less of what they don't.

I'll continue to update my profile and make sure that I network with the people who talk to me on there, even if they just want artwork from me I think it would be a good opportunity to keep in touch in the hopes that my work not only spreads through friends of friends liking it but also word of mouth and eventually other mediums too.

First Hand Field Research - Environments

In order to improve the amount of first hand research and referencing for my project I decided to take myself out for the day and do some exploring around the local area. I ended up at the local quarry which I knew would be full of life and would provide me with some awesome references that I could use. 

The quarry itself is abandoned as all the major rocks and minerals had already been mined out of it, whats been left now is a one mile crater in the middle of the forest that woodland life has slowly begun creeping its way into. Due to the mix of weather, hollowed out explosives craters and general secrecy of the area there has become several forms of habitat for a wide variety of wild animals in the area. Ponds, long grasses, damp mosses, caverns and hollowed out rocky areas, all of these have become host to foxes, wild rabbits, squirrels, bats, moles, birds of prey, amphibians, fish and water birds such as Mallards and Swans. 

I spent the whole day exploring every nook and cranny, not so much looking for wildlife but more fitting scenery, textures and objects that i could involve in my world of Golgotha. I managed to take a number of different pictures showing the examples of how varied the quarry was and how I could incorporate such scenes into my work:

In the centre of the quarry is a hollowed out pond with a marsh surrounding it, this mashy swamp is full of toads, frogs and tadpoles from the recent mating season.

A shot of how the grass has begun to grow and shape itself over the scarred landscape left by dynamite, bulldozers and various other digging vehicles. The numerous lumps and hills in the ground make a good home for rabbits and an equally good spot for foxes on the hunt.

A closer look at the small pond in the centre of the quarry, Mallards and their mated pairs have been swimming here. The combination of pond grass, boulders and general landscaping makes this a beautiful photo for reference.

This is the only standing structure in the quarry, I'm not entirely sure what it actually is but the majority of it is under the soil which gave me the idea for referencing it as ancient ruins of some kind.

I took a picture of this Moss because as soon as I saw it I fell in love with its lush spongey texture and its various shades of green and lime. I could use this as reference for animal fur or perhaps some sort of moss / plant / tree hybrid.

This picture shows a clearing in the forest edge away from the quarry itself where a large pond has formed. I like how the trees have cleared and moulded around the pond, if I were to create a landscape for my world I would want a pond clearing like this only more green and lush, this could also be where I reference the Moss picture above.

First Hand Field Research - Animals

As part of my research into various animal concepts I went to a place called None Go Bye farm over in the countryside. The purpose of coming here was to take snapshots that would give me suitable first hand referencing of animals that I could use to create monsters for my world.

Even though this time on my visit there weren't any exotic animals like there normally is I still managed to take some nice photos of various farm animals and various breeds of bird.

The posture that this duck was displaying could be useful for referencing carnivorous reptiles or other birds of prey. His red fleshy mask is also very interesting as is the dimorphism between the male and female.

I took a photo of this rooster because of its various colours and the muscular shape of its body.

I was quite disappointed with my trip to None Go Bye farm as all the animals that are normally there weren't on that trip. I did enjoy getting the snaps of the animals that I did see and was able to get a lot of suitable references for possible creations.

Finalised Transmedia Decision

After thinking more about how my project could be reflected through the transmedia process I have decided to create a bestiary or creature compendium.
It is my aim to create a small book that looks as if it has been discovered in my world of Golgotha and was written by a scientist / natural biologist who has adventured around the world documenting various species of mammal, insect, sea creature, avian and plant life that he has encountered on his journey.

The book itself is going to look tattered and worn, as if it has been lost in the mud and dirt for a long time prior to its owner documenting their findings in it.
I'm using my little sketchbook, staining each page with tea to give it a worn look and may burn some of the edges to make it look even more tatty. Each page will have various drawings and sketches of the fauna and flora of Golgotha as well as first person descriptions from the view of the scientist writing about each new discovery. The book and form of documentation is very similar to that of how Darwin documented his natural findings when he was exploring.

Even though we aren't obliged to create our transmedia artefacts I will be making mine as its given me a good reason to use mediums of artwork outside of just using the computer and thumbnail sketches as I usually do. I've begun staining a lot of my pages of the notebook and will start to document various 'discoveries' that are found throughout my world. Even after this module is complete I think I'll continue to create thsi creature compendium and various other ones in order to better myself in different mediums of work.

A Change of Plans and my new Pro forma

Over the course of this most recent module I've had high hopes of making my very own opening game cinematic using After Effects and my own concept art. For this initial idea I had already designed and planned out a lot of work, including character plans, scripts, narrative casting, music and various pieces of concept art. Originally I thought that everything was going to go well timed and organised. What I didn't count on, however, was that I got Measles.

Because of getting Measles I was bed ridden and under quarantine for over a week which as to be expected threw my timetable completely off course. Being unable to do hardly any work at home sent me into a bit of a panic as I knew that I wasn't going to be able to get anywhere near to my animating stage in After Effects as I still needed to do the rest of my concept art first. Instead of panicking anymore about it I decided to change my proforma criteria.

Rather than trying to animate my concept art I decided that instead I would design more concept art of more creatures that would live in the world that my animatic is set in. Even though this means having to draw up A LOT more work I now feel very much more calm and happy with the result that I'm going to produce without the weight of having to rush an animation.

As well as drawing up a lot of concepts I'm also going to do various size charts for the concepts I create, character sheets, descriptions, backstories and food chains. I hope to make each character as detailed as I possibly can with their own unique feel and personality that reflects upon the world of Golgotha.
The transmedia side I think will be more based around a watercolour book of some kind that translates the creatures in a different light.

Crit Notes

Today was our crit day so I took some notes of each persons projects, what I liked and what I think could be improved or followed up on.

Joel - Nice layering on the pictures, make more moving layers rather than just stationary images, consider using a piece of music to accompany the animatic, maybe some sound effects over the fire ect. Try avoid completely static shots if possible. Maybe look into some form of narration throughout the story to make it clear of whats happening in the animatic (make it easier to understand for the audience). Vary the ways that each shot is opened and closed (not just constant fade ins and outs). In general try to make it a bit more fluid. Nice little animatic so far.

Siobhan - Beautifully animated, wonderful lip synching on both the fox and the humans. Lovely walk cycles for both the bipedal and quadrupeds. Trees seemed to be overlapping one another and 'flickering'?  Try fix this if possible. Adding music or sound effects for walking through the forest, tweeting of birds and try to keep all voice acting roughly the same volume as some bits came across more quiet than other parts. Don't push yourself so hard! The work you do in animating is always beautiful and in my opinion its always better to have a shorter animation look awesome than try to push yourself into making a longer animation that isn't as good as it could be, what I'm saying is don't worry if you don't get it all fully rendered and looking complete, if anything decide which scenes you want to fully render and then do that and leave the other parts blocked out, that way you can afford to be able to take it a bit more easy and at a steady pace. When you get round to adding the rest of the environment in maybe consider adding a few extra assets such as little fallen logs, flowers, bushes, mushrooms and other woodland things. So far beautifully made, I very much look forward to seeing the finished result.

Ryan - Awesome music, very fitting to the animation. It still seems like there is quite a lot to be done though. Going on the first little bit of animation it looks like the finished result will be very fluid. Although the rest of it was an animatic its nice to see how its coming along and its clear to see what is going on in the story despite it not being properly animated yet. Not sure if its just going to be the music that is already in the animatic or not but maybe it could be an idea to look into using cartoon sound effects for running / mummies groaning ect (The old Scooby Doo sound effects for example) I'm not sure what your transmedia work will be in this project but maybe think about designing a retro movie poster for your animation? Study the old Indiana Jones film posters / Star Wars ect.
So far it looks lovely, I really like the style of the animation (nice simplicity) and the story has a nice twist and is well thought through. Just try to get more of it animated fully if possible!

Andy - Nice colour try experiments with your character. Lovely sketches of different emotions, comes across as quite a professional comic book concept look. Perspective is very good, its lovely to see you working from different facial angles. Lovely landscape of the construction site, good rule of thirds and lovely warm colour scheme. Very nicely rendered in the picture looking up at the Ram mans face, makes him seem empowered and strong. You've improved on perspective and the whole final rendering process in general. Perhaps try experimenting with different styles of art, Ram man seems to be somewhat of a super hero so maybe try experimenting with heavy cell shading art, traditional retro comic book art ect to get different feels of the character. Maybe grab a lunchbox picture off of Google stock images and make your own 'super hero merchandise' like the old Spiderman lunch boxes/ t-shirts and other memorabilia. Try to step out of the box and challenge yourself with other mediums of work.
Lovely artwork in general and I'm looking forward to seeing more turn outs of the Ram character.

Scoff - Beautiful concept art, you've really developed your style over the past few months. It's getting hard to tell what is your artwork and what is Kekai Kotaki's work. Lovely little character designs, its nice to see that you are using references and improving on drawing faces. On the other hand, DON'T push yourself too much! I think you maybe asked for too many characters from people which at times handicapped your talents as an artist and forced you to rush at times. Also don't be afraid to go outside of your comfort zone! You have your style down to a T, but don't neglect the other art forms that you have previously touched upon before, challenge yourself. Also when animating in AE try to think about layers and what is going to move where rather than just focusing on the artwork itself, remember to try and plan ahead to the final result so that you can prepare yourself for it through your art as well as furthering your own artistic skill.

Myself - Really nice styled character designs, keep up with your most recent works as you have really come into your style and are getting so good at making your artwork look 3D and really pop out of the page. Dont be afraid to be brave with brushstrokes and keep experimenting with things you have not tried before as everything is relevant and informative to fully rounding your own style. Be more proud of your work! Try and make colouring a part of what you love to do as much as the line art, maybe try taking colour reference from other similar images to get a more realistic colour. Very detailed character / race biography for the Saurians. Try documenting plantlife as well as wildlife to really bring out the type of world the animals live in, the wild dangerous plants could compliment the aggression and survivalist instincts that the animals have. Eric Ryan - Animal creation explaination

Guild Wars 2 - Opening Cinematics

This guild wars 2 cinematic is my main source of inspiration for my own animatic.
The reason why I love these cutscenes so much is that I adore how beautifully animated the cinematic is and I especially love the colour theory.

Some parts of the animatic itself are animated incredibly simply, using After Effects to move each piece slightly. Even with some scenes that include minor movement the other combinations of particle effects and transitions between scenes makes for a truly stunning introduction to the character as well as insight into the backstory and history of the race that the player has picked.

Its this style of concept art that I am most interested in trying to produce and I will continue to use this video as reference for my work and inspiration in the future to one day hopefully create similar concept art and cinematics such as this one.

Character Concepts - Demmi Sparrowstone

Demmi Sparrowstone is a character that I created for the purpose of being the face behind the narration of my animatic. When i originally designed the character it was an old woman but I decided to redesign the character to be a young and more relatable teenage character. 

This is the original design that i sketched out before fleshing the design out, I wanted him to look like a jungle boy or tribal character that had generally scruffy nature clothing and messy hair.

This is the finalised refined design that I made for him, he has less scruffy clothing though it is more nature related with a chain made of twig and cherry branches, also leafy clothing and jewellery.

I've now scrapped the idea of using this character as my criteria has changed for the module and a narration character is no longer required. I'm still happy that I designed the character though and im relatively happy with the final outcome of this character.

Character Concepts - Saurians

The Saurians are an ancient tribe of dinosaur-like humanoids who inhabit the majority of my world, Golgotha. They are one of the oldest races of the world and can thrive in almost every part of Golgotha.
I have depicted them to have a combination of both carnivorous and herbivorous characteristics as they are omnivores and eat both meat and vegetation.

This first image is of the initial design that I made of the Saurians. This representation of them is slightly more carnivorous looking than the secondary version that I have made, the colour scheme of the left Saurian is based on that of a Long-tailed lizard, the Saurian in the middle is a more desaturated and mottled earthy tones that I imagine some Saurians would need in order to blend in more.

This other image is a more fleshed out and finalised version of the Saurian species, or at least one species of them. I plan on creating more kinds of Saurian depending on where in Golgotha they live.
Unlike the previous sketch, this version of the Saurian is more based around herbivorous dinosaurs and present day reptiles. I also decided that the previous designs were too bare and lacked proper tribal outfit so kitted them out with shoes, bone wraps and a prehistoric sword to give it a more detailed feel.

Overall I'm extremely happy with the results of this design and I'll continue to create further designs for the Saurian race to hopefully get a true feel for the different sub species of this creature that inhabit Golgotha.

Character Concepts - Sirens

Character Concepts - Forest Matron

The Forest Matron (shown on the left) is one of my first characters that I have designed for my world of Golgotha. I have used various references such as Spriggans (Elder Scrolls, Skyrim), Sylvari (Guild Wars) and various female aliens from Mass Effect.
The Forest Matron is made up of wood, bark, moss and various other things that grow on trees. At the moment although she lacks colour I believe the race would primarily be green or varying shades of.

Forest Matrons are tall, elegant and slender in body shape, they have two stilt-like toes that help them to balance when on the ground, the race generally hovers above the earth however.
I have drawn this matrons hair as defying gravity and floating above, I imaging it moves very similar to how hair does when under water, flowing in a beautiful elegant and smooth motion.

I've yet to really add any true detail to the Forest Matron, this sketch is only the very first sketch so she needs a lot of fleshing out, right now I'm not entirely happy with her design or back story so I will continue to create more of a history of her and the race to try and give her a clearer understanding for the viewer. I think that if I do flesh her out in the future I will make her more full bodied, giving her much more detail and varying her appearance such as adding thorny vines, flowery crowns and other woodland aesthetics.

Guest Speaker - Tom Evans

Top tips for getting into the digital industry:

8 years experience. - Freelance creative.
- No experience is bad experience.
- Be able to sell yourself in a sentence.
- Be diverse, don't put eggs in one basket.
- Don't expect to get a job instantly, be prepared to put in a lot of effort.

WORK EXPERIENCE!!!
- Email plenty of companies, work on projects, new portfolio stuff, ask for unpaid work experience -> good to put on CV to show that your not sitting around.
- Work experience gives you the chance to decide what sort of company you want to work for e.g: Huge with big projects or small with dedicated projects.

MAKE AN EFFORT!!!
- Meet people
- Ask for extra briefs
- Go to the pub when they do
- Start up conversations
- Make an impression
- Bond with people, go out of your way to make relationships

DONT EXPECT YOUR FIRST JOB TO BE GLAMOROUS!!!
- Odds are you'll work as a junior member of a much larger team
- People will tell you how to do things, suck it up and put up with it
- Show people you can do everything to a high standard and you can do what you are told
- Its your chance to be seen as a professional
- You will climb the ladder and get promoted

PRACTICE BEING FAST!!!
- The more you push yourself the more you will learn
- Be a sponge
- Keep learning all the time
- People love talking about their passion, exploit that
- Keep asking about the things your interested in and you will move closer to it

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT!!!
- Don't be afraid to take a step back and think about what it is you truly want to do
- Do your research and find about the choices you have
- There are more roles than you know

LEARN TO TALK!!!
- Being able to talk about your work and explain it professionally is a key skill
- Listen to people talk, learn from it
- Learn to write and know your audience
- Do your research on the agency that you want to apply for
- Tailor your portfolio to fit each agency

BE PROACTIVE!!!
- Don't sit around waiting for people to come to you
- Anything off of your own back looks good on your portfolio
- Join competitions, win or lose it looks good on your portfolio
- Meet interesting people
- Go to networking events, talk to people in industry, show an interest in what they represent
- Don't talk about yourself too much, listen to everything they have to say
- Print business cards off to take to events