❁ Bethany ❁

This project has been great for learning new skills in movement - something I’m not the best at! In terms of my animation, I like to avoid walking or jumping or any kind of part that involves seeing a full body moving. So this project really was helpful in furthering my skills in that department. I particularly enjoyed the obstacle course part of the project, it really helped me get a swift movement while tackling different areas of movement. I also enjoyed the animal walk cycle section, it was interesting to look into the bones & inner workings of a cat and how it differs from people walking and to me it’s much easier, I don’t know why, there are 4 legs! Maybe it’s because they are crouched down, who knows. Either way I have learnt a LOT and would like to say it really has improved my walking and moving, although there is still room for improvement. In terms of work, I still need to update some of the box pushing but with other things piling up with finishing up on my 2 minute film & grad assist etc - I haven’t done so yet although short hopefully the gist of it is there. I have updated it ever so slightly but it isn’t finished. I will do it over the weekend. Overall I had lots of fun and I’ll keep practising my walking, jumping and animal movement, hopefully I can stop hiding from using those things in my films!!! :-)

This project has been amazing! And after the crit I have had more replies from people who inspire me, and it’s even ongoing! Firstly it’s really nice to receive the messages in the first place especially to receive first hand advice from people you look up to and aspire to be like, and most of the replies shocked me as most said they liked my work, so it was also great for them to see my stuff! The main thing I learnt is to always just go for it. I never thought the people I messaged would ever reply but I was surprised. That's the best part of this project in my opinion is it pushes you to get yourself out there. In terms of what I learnt from people, I learnt to keep to yourself, practise drawing & stick to it even if it doesn’t go right the first time. Social media is a big part of growing your brand and therefore gaining work. Someone who has worked for so many brands started off by emailing companies and eventually getting work, building it up, that it’s a slow process but it’s worth it. And I have been told It’s a long job to get into and you just have to persevere and go for it. I have gained lots of contacts from these people including from an independent studio, which is really cool. It’s all really inspiring and gives me motivation on which direction to go after uni!

This project was super fun and really pushed me to use only a small selection of colours, and surprisingly it really worked! Even if I didn't think they would go at all it worked well and was really fun. I think one thing to work on is a simple idea for the project, I think our idea was very out there and maybe could have made it simpler but it still worked. Even though it was for colour, this was the first project I tried animating with more whole body movement instead of just moving certain body parts and I think it works so much better than my old technique. One thing to work on is my time scheduling but also my equipment, learning what equipment is available and timing it out to use, for example I use my iPad on procreate but wanted to use different softwares, but because of time i didn’t get to do that, so the quality wasn’t great but it’s not a big deal. I definitely experimented a lot with taking away my style using no black lines, as black was not a colour we were assigned! It really changed my style and it was good to experiment, I really enjoyed using just a darker version of that colour, it looked smoother. I also did quite a few backgrounds, I gave myself too much of a workload leading to unfinished work but overall I learnt a lot and really enjoyed the fluidity of the project!

This project was super fun and really fluid in terms of the brief, I really enjoyed the fun crit, throughout the project there wasn’t a lot of stress leading up the deadlines! It was my first time using Toon Boom, as videos didn’t work as well on other software for me, and it was really nice to try something new, it definitely helped to go to the toon boom workshops and it showed I learnt a lot when I got round to animating. One thing I would change is the amount of characters I decided to draw, and also to link them more to the clip, although they were in the clip, i wish i had used something moving in the video then animated them onto it, if that makes sense! Like a moving train and a creature clinging onto the side or something, I can always try it again. I used to do animation on moving video so it was nice to come back to that and remember the fun of it and how it can help with practicing your animation! Coming up with characters was so fun as I love character design and I like how they had to have descriptions. I think I’ll use that technique again in my work - coming up with traits about the characters I create as it really helped with the acting. Overall I had lots of fun and really loved the no brief brief, I also really liked the outcome of our group video and will probably do it again in my spare time!

Draft cover

Email from Andy baker studios!! I need to reply

Part 2 of convo with alex gamsu Jenkins :)

Convo with alex gamsu Jenkins, (part 1)

Update on internship project, ongoing convo with Joe Taylor a freelance animator/illustrator

Either way, I’m proud of how far I’ve come this year in drawing even if it has been a confusing mess & hopefully will have it 100% finished & coloured for the end of year show!

ok so most of it is patchy, and unfinished and i know the text goes too fast, there’s not a lot of sound but i have made big improvements this past week. (That male voice over at the end not my finest acting - it’s just a place holder lol)

From recent V&A museum trip

31/03/22 working with colour… didn’t go so well but going to practice in the summer

Some ink 10/2/22

Ink, quite like the second one even though not full body

Museum trip

Quick poses in water colour