OUIL504- Moving Pictures- Test Video 1

William Burroughs Test 1 from Matthew Mercer on Vimeo.

This is my initial test for one of my drafts. I made this using the puppet tool and I do quite like the effect it gives. I still need to work on sound though. I like the simplicity of the video, I think it creates quite a gloomy mood especially given the imagery is quite positive.

OUIL503- In Cold Blood Cover- Cover 3 Development

Moving on from my initial ideas for my final cover, I decided to look into weather there was any actual fingerprints or footprints from the real crime scene, which was a bit grim but I thought it would add a sense of authenticity to my cover if I referenced the actual event.



I first came across the fingerprints taken at the police station after the event. Although it is an interesting image, I thought it was much too complex to be turned into a book cover, and because of the quality of the image and the layout of their fingerprints, I couldn't really see a way of incorporating them into any imagery for the cover.



The next image I came across was the bloody bootprint from the crimescene. It's definitely worthy of being made into a really cool floating image for a cover, I just need to work out how I'm going to do it. I will make some mock ups now and investigate further.

OUIL504- Study Task 6 PT2

http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Twin_Guns/Live_on_WFMUs_Three_Chord_Monte_with_Joe_Belock_-_May_30_2016/Twin_Guns_-_08_-_Now_I_Understand

For this track, I invisioned a surfing character moving across a wave, just from the general feel of the track. With the gritty intro i thought it would be apropriate to introduce the character a few frames in, having him move into the frame when the song starts to kick in.

OUIL504- Study Task 6 PT1

Stuck from Doug Hindson on Vimeo.

I really like the really subtle use of sound in this first short, the immediate silence enforces the obvious feeling of isolation and despair, with the blustering wind adding to the feeling of height. One of my favourite parts about the sound used is the bottle tipping over and rolling off the edge, I was instantly waiting to hear a 'smash' sound, which obviously never came, again enforcing that feeling of height. Does the sound I use in my short necessarily have to be a musical track? probably not, but I don't think I will be using enough moving elements to justify using sound effects.


Soho Beach House from Animade on Vimeo.


This next skit uses music in a much more typical way. The animator uses music to portray mood directly, moving from a slow, dreary song in the first part, straight into a more uplifting track. Coupled with the brighter imagery, I is instantly aparent what the skit is trying to project. 

OUIL504- Printed Pictures- Regrets

I wholeheartedly think I have completely tossed this brief up. Reasons why: I feel I have completely overlooked what I should have been getting from the brief. Towards the end especially, I have spent all of this time printing and experimenting and trying to allow it to change my practice, but I think my final prints do not reflect that work and I don't necessarily think I have used the printed elements to their fullest.

I feel my final prints are conceptually very weak. I seemed to have forgotten that I should have been trying to portray a message or mood within my prints, however, I feel they are t a certain extent lifeless and boring. I really don't like them. Although I think they do work as decorative prints, I feel I may have damaged how well I could have done within this brief by simply ignoring the idea generation process.

I totally flapped my attendance for this brief. And my work has 100% suffered because of it. Shit.

I think I should have stuck with my initial idea, as I think it was definitely a much much better concept for an illustration, and it used the printing process in a much more effective and definitive way.

OUIL504- Moving Pictures- Sound

My next consideration for the brief is the soundtrack, I have thought carefully about the choice of music in the skit and really wanted to find something that fitted the mood of the animation. Whilst producing the animation, I always had in the back of my mind a simple piano based soundtrack, which would hopefully create a creepy and mysterious mood, which will contrast with the imagery but hopefully fit how the animations move.

I didn't want to mess around with finding permission for the music I chose, so I searched for royalty and permission free soundtracks, which were surprisingly easy to find, and I easily found the perfect one relatively quickly.

OUIL504- Moving Pictures- Storyboarding

Below are a couple of examples of my initial storyboard ideas for the moving pictures brief. After Fred's seminar on storyboarding, I decided to keep them relatively simple, so have chosen to eject the more complex 'animation' style ones.



These first ones are probably the simplest of the lot, with the simple imagery of a plant growing with the camera panning up, followed by a plain black screen at the end. These ones I feel may be a little too simple, however it would fit to somber mood I am aiming for.


This next one is somewhat more complex in terms of animation. However I dont think it would be too difficult to achieve. My only concern with this one is that it may be too fast paced for the music/ mood.



I think this one may be the one I will be moving towards. I thought a lot more about Fred's seminar and how we talked about using space outside the frame. I wanted to focus more on the actual mood of the skit and move the images slowly and simply, with simeple imagery of plants moving across the frame and small features altered within them, this is the one I will continue to explore, I think.

OUIL504- Moving Pictures Propsal

I feel like I started to move away from my author in the previous brief, and was starting to enjoy what I've made. However, I do feel like I've been shafted a bit by doing so as now we need to create a short advert for the author. Oh well.

My proposed idea for the sting is to produce 3x 10 second clips, very simple and quiet, and not using much sound. I feel like this would best respond to my author, as the imagery I have created does not necessarily relate to my author directly.

OUIL503- In Cold Blood Cover- Cover 1 Development

After working through the initial roughs, I went on to develop the cover digitally. With a rough layout and design in mind, I set about working out how the image would sit on a cover and how best to utilise the space I had.

Because the imagery on the page was very simple and pretty much already sorted, I decided to focus on what type I would use on the cover. I realised the type on a book cover is incredibly important, and because type is never something I have looked into before I was a bit of amiss as to where to start as I had no clue of the 'rules' and what would generally work well.

I decided to look at different types that would have been around at the time of the crime, if there was any lettering used specifically with the investigation or and handwriting I could have used. This lead me onto the actual article of the crime as published at the time and the fonts used in that.



I thought about what fonts would work well on a cover, and the headline text I thought would look great. As well as looking good, I thought the type perfectly reflects the investigative arc of the story and how much it was looked into by the media.



Here is my now current use of type on the cover, I decided to use a mixture of upper and lower case lettering to try and reflect the criminal nature of the book, as well as to enforce the multiple articles produced about the crime.

OUIL504- Study Task 3

Thomas Danthony
Thomas' work isn't nesessarily directly print based, however I love the way in which he uses screen printing methods to create incredibly clean looking work. His process strats off in a similar way to the rest of my favourite illustrators, hand drawn roughs, developed digitally. The image below is a good example of this, digitally produced work, prepped and screenprinted, the instagram link below shows the process. I really like his process. Most of his work is sold online and marketed on instagram.


https://www.instagram.com/p/BGEe7JIpEYY/?taken-by=thomas_danthony&hl=en

Rarepress

Rarepress is quite a small intependant illustrator, but her work is heavily influenced by lino. Literally every one of her images is lino printed, and you can tell her drawings that she posts are really influenced by the process. She sells a lot of her work through merchendise and prints, merch such as bags and clothing seem to be her most popular commodity.

OUIL503- In Cold Blood Cover- Cover 3 Initial Ideas

For my final cover design, I wanted to focus much more on the concept behind the image. Father than using general imagery of murders and detective stories, I decided to create a cover based directly on a part of the scene or content of the story.

I researched a lot of things about the crime scene; the type of cameras the CSI would have used, the murder weapon, the type of clothing they would have been wearing and trued to work that into a working book cover.

I liked the idea of using a footprint or fingerprint, as I think it immediately suggests the idea of a crime and more importantly a crime that is being investigated, which fits in perfectly with the content of the book.

I will continue to research and develop my ideas.

OUIL503- Illustration Friday (Spiral)

With the topic 'spiral', I wanted to tackle my practice which is usually very geometric, and include some smooth shape into it. My initial thought went to using shadow to create the spiral, rather than making the spiral the direct image of the illustration.

I thought about things that would cast a spiral shadow, and though about Chinese lanterns and their wooden structure. I started out with the image as i do with all of the others, roughing in the sketchbook or iPad then developing digitally. I wanted to keep quite true to my practice so the general aesthetic is pretty similar, however I wanted to add the subtle element of the spiral to add some interest. 
I am quite happy with the final outcome of the image. If anything it helped me understand how to incorporate smooth shape into my square heavy practice. I like the general aesthetic of the image, but I do think it lacks the spiral message a bit. I definitely focused more on process that the actual product, which is kind of why I wanted to take part in illustration Friday, the develop my practice further.

OUIL503- Brush Design- Brief 4

Start Date: 28/11/2016

Deadline : 5/12/2016

Brief

'Create a set of 3 digital inking brushes with no opacity functionality and that bypass flaws in Photoshop's current pressure system. The three brushes should fit cohesively in a set but differ in texture and shape.'

Research

Again, another in-depth brief which is mainly based around functionality. I wasn't really aware of a flaw in Photoshop's system, so my first job was to find out what it was and try and figure a way out a way around it. This turned out to be surprisingly easy and only took a couple of hours to figure a way around the issue.

I then went on to research inking brushes, as I've not really had much experience with them in the past I needed to find out how they work and what different kinds there are. I made a few marks on paper and went abut replicating them.

Development

Once I had found out about the pens and brushes, I went on to figure out the three different types and textures I would use in the final three. This was relatively easy as I only had to figure out how to get the different textures into the brush whilst only making it a subtle change.

Outcome

The outcome of the brushes were really good. I got a lot of information out of trying to work around problems that were presented by the software. The client was really happy with two of the brushes, however once I had sent of the final drafts, there were a few tweaks which needed to be made to one of them, I actually was pleased that they picked me up on this small mistake as because I am able to sell the brushes afterwards, I'd rather them be perfect. Final outcomes below.

OUIL503- In Cold Blood- Final Cover

I am fairly happy with my final design for the cover. I think overall it achieves what I set out to do, create a bold, graphic cover that explains the story well.

The imagery I used is really simple, with the repeated blood drops being the main focus, however looking past them I think one of the strongest elements in the cover is the use of type. I think using that old-school newspaper print definitely helped to demonstrate that the book is a murder mystery story.

I am quite disappointed that I wasn't able to develop the shotgun cover, as I think that could have been really interesting, however the time I set myself to complete the cover was up and I wanted to be realistic about completing the cover in a time which would have been allowed of me had it been a real live commission for penguin.

OUIL504- Study Task 5

Today's seminar with Fred was really useful. I feel like I was struggling with storyboarding and how to properly portray movement and mood through moving pictures, probably because I haven't really had any experience with animation whatsoever.

The first task we were set was to create a 6 frame storyboard based around the word 'pop', all without any prior explanation.



Fred then discussed how animation can be used really subtly to portray a word or theme, without huge amounts of motion. KEEP IT SIMPLE.

We were then asked to produce another storyboard around the word float; this time considering our use of frame and movement withing the frame, with Fred explaining the possibilities of using all of the space within and outside the frame.



Our third and final task was another storyboard around 'plummet and splat', this time using all of the information we have talked about.



I think the biggest thing I am going to take away from these tasks is about using space outside of the frame and using subtle movement. I will look to utilise these in my own skit.

OUIL504- Printed Pictures- Subtlety is Key

So throughout the christmas break, I have been investigating what I can do with my work to make it look less flat and less clinical. I have been playing in the past with complex textures with bold contrasts, however, recently I have been experimenting with really subtle textures and changes in tone. Which I think has worked out really well.


This example shows a simple pink block. The one on the left without any texture and the one on the right with a subtle texture and a slight colour gradient to show the difference it can make. I will look to start using this technique in my future practice to give a bit more depth to it.

OUIL503- Brush Design- Brief 3

Start Date: 14/11/2016

Deadline: 01/12/2016
Brief

'Create a fully functioning replica pencil brush, focusing on functionality (pen pressure, tilt for shading etc) to be used by an animator for roughing characters etc'.

Research

This brief was really interesting, but really daunting as well, this was the first time I had an actual client (animation studio based in Ohio, US). I started by making loads of pencil markings, and really trying to understand how and why the pencil works in the way that it does. Because this brief was so heavily focused on the functionality of the brush, I couldn't just get away with making it look good.

Development

I then went on to begin working on the brush. Because this brief had a longer deadline than most, I was much more relaxed and felt I had more time to really impress. I was in much more frequent with the client on this one, which was great as I had a lot more feedback to work with, but also made things much more difficult as sometimes the client could be a bit unclear on what they actually wanted out of the brush.

Because I had more time to play with, I was able to properly investigate functionality properly and start off using a hand made brush preset to work with (see below).


Outcome
Personally I'm really impressed with the outcome, this was the first time I had to make a brush focused on functionality above all and I feel like I've learned a lot throughout this brief. The client was really happy and has actually commissioned me to make another brush for them, which I should have the details for in the coming weeks, they also paid a lot more than I had expected which is always nice! Final outcome is below.

OIL503- In Cold Blood- Contenders for Finals

Moving on from the quick roughs I produced I decided to proceed with working out some of the digitally and trying to get an idea of design and type. With this brief I specifically wanted to move straight onto working digitally quite quickly as it is generally easier to move elements around and play with type once all of the basic elements have been decided upon.



The first rough is really simplistic, which is the way I wanted to go with this brief. It is a bold, textured blood drop to help the cover stand out, overlaid with 'in cold blood'.

I wanted to use a mix of capitals and lower case in the cover to reflect the widespread news coverage that the story gathered, as well as the investigative element in the back story of why the book was written.

I am still deliberating weather to keep the back page blank or weather to add another small motif into a corner just to tie it in a bit more with the front and spine.



The second one I think is my favourite concept. I have tried to keep the cover quite dark and simple, and it almost looks like a title sequence for a murder mystery TV show.



The cover shows two shotgun barrels, with the ends of the shotgun coontrasted to the rest in which being used as the 'O's in the title, and the sight on the top of the gun being used for the 'I'. I think this is the strongest conceptually and is a little more interesting, however I still think the design and layout still needs some work. These are still just working roughs.

OUIL504- Printed Picture- Doubts

I have started having doubts about the work I am producing in the brief and weather it actually fits what the brief is asking. I was wondering weather using textures within a digitally produced method is really enough of a printed kind of thing.

The pot that I have as a running element through my prints could also be classed as using 'printed elements' as the brief requires, as it works with overlayed colours, albeit digital (though the same outcome could be produced with screen printing).



By using the green and pink colours, they can be overlayed to create a more purple colour (I think) so I guess this could be classed as a printed element.

Having talked to other students, they are doing pretty much the same as me (only using texture and digital) so I guess I'm sound. 

OUIL504- Printed Pictures- Shape and Texture

Having worked on developing my ideas and refining which plants I want to work on, I began to introduce some of my scanned textures into the shapes, and even added hand drawn elements to certain ones instead of just using the pen tool.




I really like the way this has turned out. I think the contrast between 'rough' and 'clean' works really well. I definitely want to begin using these more in my practice.

OUIL504- Printed Pictures- Developing Roughs

From the roughs I have developed a few of the images digitally and am now trying to work out composition and how the images will look best on print.



The idea for these ones was always to have them start out really flat, which they do. I will now look to develop the images further and add in the printed textures to add depth.

I decided to go with quite bold colours, not something I usually do, but I wanted to play with overlayed colours. I chose green, for obvious reasons, and the second colour I chose was pink. I thought the pink would represent Burroughs' flamboyant personality, and I really liked how the green and pink work together to create a deep purple colour.

OUIL504- Printed Pictures- Idea Generation

After experimenting with different processes, I have decided that I want to produce my prints digitally. I really want to work more with digital elements but with a lot more handmade textures and elements within. This process is the most enjoyable for me and I believe goes hand in hand with the work I want to produce.

So with the idea generation, I wanted to move as far away from my author as possible without completely losing the link. If I'm perfectly honest, I am bored to tears with my author, and with the brief in general in many ways. I feel almost limited with where I can go with this brief working directly with the author so have decided to move away from that.

So I decided to do more research into my author, about his hobbies, interests and just normal things he liked, farther that the things he was typically known for. One of the things I was intrigued by was that William Burroughs was a real lover of plants and flower arranging, and in an interview said it was one of his biggest passions.

I was interested in this especially because I like the idea of taking something natural and working with it in quite a structured 'digital' way. I thought about what plants Burroughs would have come across on his travels in the different countries he went to. And made a short list of plants he would have encountered. I then went on to produce initial sketches and developed versions.

I want the images initially to be quite flat and graphical, and then used the scanned printed textures to enhance how the images look.

OUIL504- Printed Pictures- Screenprinting

I didn't think it was possible to be generally quite terrible at something very simple, until I tried screenprinting. I really cant seem to get it right, each time I try it something goes wrong, The colours bleed, the screen is too small, the image is backwards, always something.

I do actually quite like how screenprints look. I think the aesthetic is something that can easily be recreated digitally but I think for physical prints, there's just something about a screenprint that has the edge over digital, I think it might be how tactile they can be compared to digital prints, there's just something special about them.

However for this brief, this is as far as my screenprinting will go, glad I tried it, I will look towards using the screenprinted images and manipulating them digitally.

Laughably, the two images above were the best ones that came out of my brief relationship with screenprinting. I exposed the images onto screens that were too small so could properly push the colour through. I kind of like the almost shadow like mistakes behind however.

Also I'm told the colour I used is blue and not green. 

OUIL504- Printed Pictures- Experimentation- Mono

I have continued to work with mono, as I think it can achieve the same textural qualities as lino, but the process is much more immediate. I think texture is what I am missing within my work, and I think mixing digital elements with texture is something I definitely should look into, if not to just give it a more natural look. I have begun to collect textures, which I have scanned in and begun to use withing my digital work.

 

The process has been really beneficial, and I have started to expand on the 'typical' process by using other materials and blocking the image in certain ways, which has lead me to start achieving some really interesting results. 

OUIL503- Responsive- Best Cover Design

I roanomly stumbled across a book in the library today called 'Best Book Design'. he book is great and will definitely be useful for the Penguin Book briefs. It explains a lot about layout and graphic design and ypography, as well as just showing off some really cool book covers which were actually quite inspiring.

I'll definitely be referencing this book a lot whilst starting to design the covers. 

OUIL504- Moving Pictures Proposal

BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 05

OUIL504 Illustration: Process & Production

STUDIO BRIEF 3 PROJECT PROPOSAL: Production & Presentation of my Moving Pictures

I intend to produce ……

I would love to be able to produce the 30 second short, however, the clips will be broken up into different sections so I may just have to create three 10 second stings if I don’t have the time.

The content will focus on (identify 3 specific themes, texts or concepts)

1.     Burroughs interests and sporadic attitude towards them 2.     Loneliness, one single solitary figure 3.     Burroughs’ non-stop lifestyle

I will be aiming to communicate (identify 3 specific messages, ideas, moods etc.)

1.     Burroughs’ loneliness 2.     Both dark and light-hearted at certain points. 3.     Burroughs’ gentle but harsh personality

To an audience of ….. (name 3 characteristics)

1.     Interested in Burroughs/ his work 2.     Teens/adults (some drug use) 3.     Have an interest in literature

OUIL504- Printed Pictures- Experimentation- Lino

I have been playing around with lino recently, and I have really enjoyed doing it. I thought I would find the process tedious, given that we are at a particular time constraint with the brief, and lino does take quite a while to produce a single image. I like the aesthetic it creates, the process is still quite clean and clinical but definitely keeps a handmade touch, which is definitely what my process needed. I will hopefully try and pull some of these elements into my work for this brief.

I think the main thing I like about lino printing is the textures it can create. It's really easy to create thick,bold shapes with little texture, and by leaving the print dry you can get some really interesting textures. 

OUIL503- In Cold Blood- Cover 1 Initial Ideas

I wanted to make my first cover for In Cold Blood really simple and graphic, as I think for book designs this generally works quite well. For me, the biggest part of the book is the mystery side of it, so I thought it important that I be quite ambiguous in the design and the concept behind it.

I wanted to focus on the blood, as this forensic side of the story is an integral part of it. My initial, and favourite idea was to have a few bold blood drops falling on the cover, I think this pretty much explains what the book is all about and would fit in with the bold and graphic aesthetic I was going for.

A simple blood drip icon is immediately recognisable to everyone in the world, and I wanted to play on that immediacy, which works well especially for a book cover.

I began by roughing out general layouts of the cover, focusing on where the symbols would sit and where the text would work around it. I though one large symbol in the centre of the cover would work better than lots of smaller blood spots as that could look quite messy and not clear.

OUIL504- ST4- Animated Shorts

Eliot Lim
Eliot Lim is an illustrator, graphic designer, animator and art director who produces some incredible shorts both as personal projects and as paid work. His work is incredible and I especially love his transitions from frame to frame. Obviously this kind of thing may  be impossible for me to recreate as my minimal knowledge of AE would probably limit me. We'll see. He also exclusively used AE.

https://vimeo.com/150635087

Andre Da Loba
Andre uses a lot of pint in his animated shorts. Which really ties in with the current brief, especially the following link which almost resembles an animated screenprint. Good Stuff.

https://vimeo.com/78389117