Michael Hedderman

This is the latest picture of my groups wall before the presentation. We have produced more work than I ever expected.

We have so much work produced, that there are layers of pages. Newer drawings on top of the older versions.

In preparation for the presentation I reorganised the wall. I reapplied the tape and gave each page space, instead of them all being offset. I incorporated the Mastershots into the layout. For example having the mastershot of the crocodile next to the crocodile designs.

Combining Mini me with both a background and mouth drawings created the animation above. I initially planned on making the lips physically, but as the deadline approached I opted to work digitally. I still wanted to have cohesion with the lips and the head.

To make the lips match I used a paper texture for the white of the teeth. I’m happy with this effect.

With the head completed, it was very easy to finish the body. I based it off one of my outfits.

When I was working, Vex made a paper boat. Since my line is “whatever boats your float” I thought it was fitting to add it to mini me.

I made the hair as well as the glasses from strips of coloured card. It was fun to look at myself and compare the features to mini me.

I initially tried to airbrush but it died, so I just painted the face. After this I made some finishing touches. I added brushstrokes to the hair and I nearly forgot the nose.

Taking what I learned from Monday I wanted to focus more on shape and form. I began by cutting out some paper creating a face and a nose.

Taking this basic idea, I took inspiration from paper puppets I used to make. Cutting out a net I was rather happy with the result.

Once folded the card had both soft and sharp edges. I tried to make the face longer to match my own.

At the start of the brief I began by building a frame. This is to serve as the structure that I’ll build a clay mini me out of. I used an old pen as the “skeleton”. I used paper and tape.

With the shape decided on, I began to add the clay. The material wasn’t like the clay I’ve previously worked with. It didn’t stick together as nicely and was a lot more course. Eventually I got the shape I needed.

Once I finished the face I wanted to experiment. Taking inspiration from how a lot of 3d animation “cheats”. Using a 3d model to make a 2 dimensional character.

Adventure Time has served as a massive inspiration for our show. Adventure Time has absurd, dreamlike storytelling (the lyrics life is like a dream 🎶 led us to this realisation) while still grounding it in emotional truth. We realised that we don’t have to stick to strict logic. As long as the emotions and characters felt real, the world can be as strange as we want. Shows that I have watched that remind me of this are Over the garden wall and Midnight Gospel. These shows similarly follow this principle mixing sincerity with strangeness.

The boat is a pivotal part of our story, it deserves as much love for deign as the characters. Our nursery rhyme is “Row Row Your Boat”. I began by looking at old ideas.

For a character in the past I designed a hedge ship, made from scraps, twigs and branches (pictured above). I took inspiration from this for Fiachra the crow’s ship.

I redesigned the nest rowboat (pictured above) I wanted it to be wild and untamed, matching the uncertainty that the crow travels through. The three planks serving as the seats balances the wildness with purpose.

The idea of the crow Iron Age has been very fun to experiment with. Culture and art inspired by woodland creatures habitats and traits. Occasionally human “artifacts” would be repurposed. Such as a button for an eyepatch or a toothpick for a staff. Part of me wishes we had more than three weeks, so I could explore this idea more.

I took notes from the library and home. One thing I became aware of in the presentation was I needed a better knowledge of the Iron Age. So I began by briefly looking at the stone and Bronze Age. Our project also focused on myths around death, the interest in cycles backed up our plan for the crow character. A lot of the monuments from the Iron Age, such as Newgrange and Stone Henge, tie to astronomical events. The use of curves and circles all lead into the idea of cycles. The Merchant our main character is stuck in a loop, repeating his mistakes. Breaking the cycle the end goal of his character arc.

Teghan digitally painted these two Mastershots. One of the crow drifting to sleep and another of the crocodile looking down on Fiachra. The use of colour is very balanced and the shots are visually appealing.

Ada finished this frame from the animatic, it’s a very interesting shot. I like the pose of the background characters and the subtle blur of the backgrounds guides your eyes to what is important.

From the beginning of the project we had planned there to be a crocodile character. The initial idea was to have everyone develop their own design. Since I was told to use Roman culture I based my design off of Scylla’s myth. We as a group decided quickly my design was too intense for our demographic. Amira did utilise the design for the chase scene in out animatic.

Teghan was the main person to take over the crocodile design. She brought an Egyptian influence to the design, inspired by the Egyptian god Ammit. Known as the "Devourer of the Dead".

When we relocated our setting to a Celtic setting, we also changed the crocodile design. We took the Dobhar -Chú. The Dobhar-chú, or King Otter, is from irish folklore. It resembles both an otter and a dog, although we reimagined it as a mix of an otter and a crocodile.

When Teghan finished the Character designs, Amira began the character turnarounds. These helped Jamie with her animation.

Jamie using one of the backgrounds I made, created an animated section of the crow. It was based off of the storyboards and the motion was very fluid.

Jamie designed these background characters, they are from one of the crowd shots in one of the crowd scenes. Looking back 5 at it these characters could also make great pictures.

These are all native Irish animals, except for the grey squirrel, but this was intended (the grey squirrel came from England). All of the outfits are based off of period accurate Iron Age outfits.

While developing our pitch, the question of merchandising came up. The style we chose, meant that the characters are drawn very cute. I thought this would translate well to stickers. Being new to digital I was nervous but I am happy with the results.

I tried to translate art I had previously made into a more digital and cartoony style.

A friend Mike had the materials and equipment to make the stickers. As we spoke I was shown how to get more out of each sticker page. I moved the designs around to make them fit.

Reflecting on today’s presentation I wanted to do some extra research for the Iron Age. Group 2 had really well informed research. Starting by going through my Art history notes and making simple sketches.

Wanting to get a better idea of what a finished product would look like. I set out to draw another background.

Most of our previous locations were based off other Iron Age locations, that we moved away from. Currently the group and I are taking the project in a more Celtic direction.

I planned my sketch off of a frame from out animatic. Drawing the scene out fully would help us inform a master shot later.

After yesterday I knew that I could draw the merchant posed. The next step was expressions. I’m already not the greatest at making human characters express, so it took me a while to figure things out with the crow.

I worked quickly with marker. It was really enjoyable to look at existing characters from root. Then translating it to my design.

I am glad I generated ideas this way, as I came to a realisation. The crows beak doesn’t move that much, making the crow rather stoic. To combat this I began drawing the arrow in ways to compliment the eyes expressions.