Character Design

With the idea of these two london wide boys in place, I set about the design. The painting certainly has a somewhat simian quality, and as had two London geezers commentating the only choice for me was two "Cheeky Monkeys".

Character sketch



Dimension Sketches For 3D Modelling

And here's the models I rigged up in Maya in their bind poses ready to go.



A second shot, here you still see the tail joint which in the end I didn't skin, as I thought animating the tail for 2 minutes would be a further pain in the arse, and I'd probably have only used it in one shot anyhow.



A transparency to give a greater idea of the skeletal structure.



Side view overlaid on initial dimensions sketch

Final Project Character Concept

After picking the painting, I needed to get an idea of the two characters who would talk about her. With the idea of her being in a suburban nightclub, I thought the characters would be two dodgy, south london wideboys.

Here's a few examples of the kind of characters I had in mind:-

1) Gary Hobbs and Minty from Eastenders



2) Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse
Lee and Lance on Youtube

3) Danny Dyer


So basically one character is slightly savvy, but not too much more so than his mate.

Final Project with the National Gallery

So for our final project we've been briefed to produce a one minute animation based on a picture at the national gallery.

The picture I've chosen is A Grotesque Old Woman by Quinten MASSYS (1465 - 1530).



It really jumped out at me, and is apparently based on an old cartoon by Leonardo da Vinci. For me this painting could come staight from the cover of a Terry Pratchett novel, and this style of cartooning is even more savage than some stuff around today.

The picture itself is a satire (my kind of humour) of women who dress far younger than their years. Quite appropriate as most of the nighclubs in the UK seem awash with this kind of divorcee nowadays. Apologies, went a bit Daily Mail there. Anyhow basically this painting is mutton dressed up as lamb.

Or maybe Tony Blair in a wimple?

Other paintings that made it close to the list were:-

Madame La La at the Cirque Fernando - DEGAS, Hilaire-Germain-Degas


The Fighting Temeraire - TURNER, Joseph Mallord William


Allegory of Love II (scorn) - VERONESE, Paolo


Anyhow if you get time, go to the gallery, it's free, and there's some paintings there that are worth way more than Cristiano Ronaldo's transfer fee, which is quite impressive really.

Week 21 - Lip Synch

Hi, another piece of animation, in case you're wondering why there's a big space to the right, this was for a pairs project called 'The things they say'. This was based on parents talking about their kids, so I lip synched the mum, and to the right another student Franceso has done a 2D animation of the kid which has been put together in after effects.

For the moment though here's my stuff:-






Lip Synch - Week 21 on Vimeo

First Film From Last Term

Well, here's my first film - Jenga Man. Looking back there's a few pieces of animation I still like in this and a couple that I really dislike, but nothings perfect first time round. Things I've learnt? That I nearly always end up with something too long, really get poses sorted out in your head beforehand, and storyboard properly!






First Film - Jenga Man on Vimeo

Avatar

Hi folks, just drew up an avatar.

Application sketches for my Postgrad

Short Course
Some of the first figure drawing I ever did on a Summer short course. Some of it I painted up in acrylics after, but i've left a couple with the original sketches alongside.








Other Sketchbook work
A few other odds and ends from my sketchbook that I submitted for the course.