aisyah

Self Assessment

🌸 Learning Outcome 1: Aptitude & Ability in Elected Areas: What skills or strengths do you think you demonstrated in these electives? What did you learn that confirmed your choices? Where did you struggle, and how did you improve?

I most definitely demonstrated my digital skills which confirmed my choices of graphic design and animation. I struggled in painting because I was too used to doing things digitally and the imperfectionist style of acrylic paints wasn’t what I was used to. Additionally, I improved in animation because I felt really passionate about my work, and I learned how to use Premier Pro which is quite a good life skill.

🌸 Learning Outcome 2: Creative Use of Materials, Media, Processes: Which materials or processes did you explore? What creative risks did you take? How did your material choices support your ideas?

I explored my theme of dance through media such as traditional paper and Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, Canva, Autodesk Sketchbook, acrylic paint, graphite as well as Adobe Premier Pro. Creative risks I took included taking a step outside of my comfort by using acrylic paint during the Painting elective, and attempting to use a super large sheet of paper as a canvas. Graphite gesture drawings also helped me trust my instincts as well. I think these materials support my ideas as most animations are done digitally and they make the work a lot less tedious while also letting me organise my plethora of ideas.

🌸 Learning Outcome 3: Research & Contextual Understanding: What research did you carry out? Which artists, designers, or movements influenced your work? How did your research appear in your final outcomes or Tumblr?

I carried out a bunch of artist research on some of my favourite artists, including April Greiman, Sam Yang, Kyoto Studios, Studio Ghibli and more, described on my Tumblr. My research appeared through the character design, story plot and artistic styles of my animation.

🌸 Learning Outcome 4: Creative & Conceptual Development: What ideas were you trying to communicate? How did your concepts change as the project developed? What parts of the project show your conceptual thinking best?

I tried to communicate the idea of movement and dance as a way to have fun and relax, as well as a method of self expression. The concept changed towards the end becoming a bit deeper with the animation. I think the parts of my project that show my conceptual thinking best was in animation, through my super detailed Canva mind map.

🌸 Learning Outcome 5: Commitment, Motivation, Self‑Reliance: How consistently did you work throughout the electives? How did you manage your time or overcome challenges? What evidence shows independent thinking or initiative?

I worked super consistently, much more so than last semester, as I was able to do things I was comfortable and passionate about. I made a Tumblr post almost every day and overcame my resistance to doing so through adding stars to make it pretty. In fact, I may be too invested in this project's work because I long to work on it for more than the 6 weeks.

⭐ How did you bridge your three elective areas? We had 5 intended learning outcomes for you but did you discover any unintended learning outcomes?

I bridged the three electives through my final animation, combining ideas of dance and playfulness with graphic design and illustration. I think the unintended learning outcome was to additionally confirm your choices for the final selected discipline, which I believe I've completed. If I were a Common Entry, I would choose Graphic Design, as I can combine my skills of illustration with animation.

A Quick Visual Overview: Week 5 + 6 : Animation

Over all I believe I accomplished the most during my two weeks of animation, as I there is a lot involved in the work process, and it is something I haven't fully tried before.

Week 3 + 4 : Painting

I think that my time in painting was where I got the least done, as I had lost my momentum with acrylic paints. I did find the life drawing highly useful to improve my anatomy which is a must for my theme of dance.

Week 1 + 2 : Graphic Design

I found graphic design very productive and there was always things to do, and I was relieved to find out that Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator were quite intuitive to me.

Animation x Painting

✨ As a means of linking previous electives even further, I used the digital drawing I made during the two weeks of painting as a base for this piece featuring the character from my animatic.

✨ This way, more motion is depicted from the animation workshops, as I have been unable to animate the actual dance scenes themselves.

✨ If I had Clip Studio Paint on my laptop, I'd be able to animate the hair and clothes as flowy using keystones and effects. In a way, this also ties back to Graphic Design, though composition and shapes.

Animation : Character Design Pt 1

🐰 This is the main character of my animation, named Aiko for now.

🐰 Something I learned from an earlier workshop was to use guidelines when drawing the character sheet, so that ratios and proportions of the character's specifications aren't inconsistent.

🐰 I have yet to draw her alternative outfits or include a size comparison next to her fluffy friend. Ideally I'd also have more facial expressions or poses.

Animation : Layer Experiment Pt. 2

👓 This is the previous post's development after some adjustments. I realised that another factor that may be affecting smoothness may be the amount of layers in the master shot file, as well as the speed of my computer.

👓 I also think that I need to increase the contrast for the bright art style, as it is maybe harder to make out what is what in comparison to the pen-style part.

Animation : Rough experiment with layers

🌈 Using the saturation mode on the lenses layer with semi-transparent black as the filling, I can drag it across my artwork to create a fun and interactive activity.

🌈 It is somewhat off track, but I was tempted to do it for fun, similar to what I did in reverse a few years ago. Looking back on my old work makes me feel as though my art skills have decreased, but I must remember that I have improved in watercolour instead, and that the master shot is still unfinished.

🌈 I also believe that it's a lot easier to do on Clip Studio Paint, the drawing program I used for the second piece shown above. This is due to the more advanced layer programming, and also more familiarity with the interface.

Animation : Updated Animatic with the frames I've done so far

🪻 I think with clearer lines the animatic looks a lot better than the initial draft. I especially like the master shot scene, which adds a really big pop to the animatic.

🪻 I think the scenes where more things happen would be my next best thing to focus on, as currently it's just a single frame with not much action.

🪻 I wish that I could make it a finished animatic, as I think it could be quite cool.

Animation : End of Day 7

🪻 This is how much I've progressed on my master shot since lunch, where I focused mainly on lighting and the black and white in the glasses. I added a grain texture inside the circular frames as well, to create a rougher feel.

🪻 I really like the contrast in art styles visible in the same frame, however I feel like the bright style needs more interesting components. Hopefully a more aesthetically pleasing style will form naturally as I continue to work on it.

🪻 One of the planned stylistic choices that I am currently struggling with is the use of no line art, which I find makes it look too modern in a way, like a video game with anti-aliasing turned on. Such a look could work, especially when animated, but currently as a still picture I think it lacks uniqueness. If it doesn't seem to work, even rendered, I may keep the line art but have it coloured instead of plain black.

Animation : Day 7 - Process

💻 This is a collection of images of my set up physically and on Autodesk Sketchbook, as well as several reference photos I used to level up the master shot.

💻 I really like using my Wacom tablet for creative processes, as it quickens the pace and makes cleaner pieces to post on Tumblr. A crucial function that I use for my works is the layer feature. It allows me to rearrange the art layers which means I can edit a certain item without accidentally spilling over to the background.

💻 However, I feel as though I am too dependant on computers and electronics, yet it seems like putting myself in unnecessary hardship if I were to use watercolour for every frame.

Animation : Day 7

🐰 Before lunch, I worked on refining my final piece, starting with the line art which I eventually hope to remove, and basic colour, which I plan on making more cohesive later on.

🐰 I used Autodesk Sketchbook as usual, with my Wacom S tablet which is a lot easier than watercolour at my current skill set.

🐰 A concern I have is that the saturation of the colours differ from device to device, and I'd like to find a nice balance so that it looks the way I want it to on as many devices as possible.

Artist Research : Where Winds Meet

☁️ A game I love to play is Where Winds Meet by NetEase Games. It is a mix of action and adventure role playing piece, with many different ways to enjoy it.

☁️ This landscape is the reference shot for the first scene of my animation as it depicts a peaceful landscape with almost no sign of humanity.

☁️ Ironically, this game is not peaceful very often, so it ties in with the start of the animatic. Where Winds Meet also contains dancing features, which I may reference in future for the end of my animation.

Painting : Update on Digital Work

🌸 This is a piece that I created from life drawing as mentioned earlier, which is now coloured and simply rendered.

🌸 I plan on using a similar art style for the animatic of my animation, though if I had the time to create a fully finished work, I'd use go the traditional route with watercolour and frame by frame paper pieces as a means of challenging myself.

Animation : Initial Animatic

🕑 This is my first draft of my animatic simply putting sequence and timings into the timeline.

🕑 I used Adobe Premier Pro which I learned how to use in class, though I don't believe my animatic reads quite well as sketches. Without animating the actual scene, the plot is a lot harder to understand, so you'll have to refer to the previous post of the storyboard to understand the vision completely.

🕑 Next up, I hope to add slight camera movement and refine the lines digitally. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to add sound today as I was gone to UL for my BEd lecture.

Animation : Day 5

Adobe Premiere Pro Things to Note :

The first image I bring in will set the file dimensions / aspect ratio; This is changeable later, in the export menu.

It gives each image in your media window a duration by default; You can bulk change the speed duration before putting them on the timeline.

Some windows to turn on : - Effect controls - Effects

For ease of access, it is recommended to change the workspace into the editing preset, through the window menu.

Artist Research : Link Click

👾 Link Click is a donghua I really like, by Bilibili, a Chinese animation and entertainment company that also created 'Heaven Official's Blessing' and 'God Troubles Me'.

👾 One of my favourite parts of the animation style is how they use a textured blue pencil brush for the line art, which adds a bit of uniqueness and pop. This would be hard to recreate without digital touch ups, especially as there are a lot of straight yet broken lines needed.

👾 What caught my eye as something I could reference was the opening, which includes a first person view of the main character falling. This is a crucial part of the lore, which also relates back to movement a lot.

Artist Research : Clannad

⭐ An anime I'm currently watching is Clannad by Kyoto Animation, which I heavily vibe with. It gives off the same energy as Kingdom Hearts, and makes you laugh and cry at the same time. It's name stems from the Irish word for family, and it incorporates Irish mythology as easter eggs and foreshadowing.

⭐ If I had more time to develop the story, I could introduce a similar plot, with alternate dimensions and a mix of comedy and tragedy with a mix of hidden details that make more sense upon a second watch.

⭐ I really like the compositions of its opening, as linked above. Ideally I'll achieve a similar look for the end credits of the short animatic.

✨ Some of the things I noted that make me really like about this anime are listed below :

💫 In episode 1, it starts off quite faded and dull coloured to depict Tomoya's depression. However, sunny colour enters his life the moment he meets Nagisa for the first time. This was a coincidence that I wasn't expecting since I chose to do a similar thing before even watching this.

💫 The openings overlay a background with a character which I find really aesthetically pleasing, especially with the landscape having different dimensions to the overall video.

💫 It gives off the same vibes as Kingdom Hearts in terms of alternate dimensions.

💫 They provide a lot of hints and show us what happens without telling us, and there are many easter eggs that make the watcher want to know the full lore.

💫 The contrasted writing of both tragedy and unexpected comedy makes the series a unique one.

💫 Additionally, they summarise to their own story in an allegory, describing it as "50% comedy, 50% tears". This is a reoccurring little easter egg as they also foreshadow character arcs before the audience even has a clue. These hidden references that seem weird. insignificant or funny at first end up being highly important later on, which I believe to be a sign of genius writing. An example of this is when the line "it's like we don't even live in the same world" is used to describe two peoples' differences while hinting to the underlying theme as well.

💫 They use slight pink ombres in areas such as the hair closest to the face, as well as saturated yellow gradients in between shadow and light, which adds a slightly glowing effect that I admire.

💫 Each character has an animal designated to them discretely, which is seen on their aprons when they're baking.

💫 Characters are introduced as unusual at first, but when you get to know them their behaviour becomes a lot clearer and it gives them a lot of depth.

💫 They animate fluid and fast dynamic movement quite unusually and unexpectedly, to illustrate a sense of humour and comedy. An example is when Tomoya falls off of a bench in a flowy manner, or when he suddenly gets googly eyes and speed walks.

💫 They have a saturated green overlay on black hair, with ombre light blue.

💫 They also reference Nintendo games and RPGs such as Final Fantasy, changing the style of animation at times to simulate them.

💫 A lot of the characters are personally relatable to me, making them a lot easier to emphasise with, heightening the emotional damage...

💫 They use simple facial features to express very emotive emotions effectively.

💫 I noticed that after an emotional scene the tone quickly switches back to humourous, before the audience's emotions are fully processed. I think this builds up tension and suspense in a clever way using comedy.

💫 The title of the anime is based on the Irish word "clan" meaning family. They also use Irish myths such as black butterflies depicting dead souls.

💭 The only thing I wasn't keen on :

It makes starting from a visual novel, but the fact that there's so many female characters that likes the main character at first makes it seem quite shallow.

Secondary Research : Colour Pt. 2

🌈 An update of how I'm using my colour playlists to aid my animation :

🌈 I'm using colour co-ordination in my mind map to visualise the sequence of events at a glance.

🌈 I mainly listen to the following as inspiration for the type of scene I want to convey :

🫐 Blue Grey Vibes - for the beginning, with a lack of ambition/hope

🍃 Turquoise - for the nature shots, often interrupted by sudden industrial noise

🍹 Orange Vibes + 🍋 Yellow Vibes Vibes - for when life begins to change, a spark emerges