Oliver Castle - BA(Hons) Computer Animation Arts

Invisible Cities: Zenobia Presentation by Oliver Castle on Scribd Additional Work Reflective Statement The Art of Zenobia Image Research Build Up Gifs

I would be lying to say that I think this project went well. Now that is not to say I think it went badly, only that I feel it could have been much better. In terms of the final 3 pieces I feel most proud of the Low Angle Exterior shot, even if it's not exactly what one would call 'Exterior', but I think that emphasises my problems on the project. I think I tried to push the brief, and the description of Zenobia, a little too far and ended straying off course. The idea of a city on stilts doesn't really show in the way I designed the buildings and structures of my  Zenobia and at first glance the 'cone-roofed belvederes' are barely there. I think I got a little caught up in my idea for Zenobia that I forgot what Zenobia is . The only way I can stop this from happening next time is to truly define my ideas early on and be clear with myself on how they follow the source material. Obviously this will entail a far greater emphasis on planning than I'm used to...

Zenobia: Research by Oliver Castle on Scribd

Zenobia: Art Of by Oliver Castle on Scribd

Here's my three final shots for the Invisible Cities Crit, along with their build up gifs. First, the Low Angle Exterior Shot: Then the Interior Shot: And finally the Exterior Establishing Shot:

Spending today working on the final 3 shots. But here is a few colour tests I did after digitizing one of my post-ogr thumbnails. Not sure I'll use this one for the final interior shot, but I like it anyway.  The first three just 'realistic' daytime/morning colours (well, close enough) and the third is my sunset pallette from last year. Top two are (I guess) a sunset variation, much brighter than the last with a lot less depth. Not a fan of them but some of the colour works in some places I think. 3rd one is my 'glowing interior' pallette from last year, I feel it works as a kind of 'moonlight reflecting off the green bamboo' idea. 4th is a variation on the previous one, as it's a yellower/dry bamboo-like colour instead of green/blue. Anyway, probably more to come today as I'll be trying out some of the exterior shots too.

Here's the playblast for the our vehicle moving then skidding. Nothing fancy, but cool nevertheless. Here is a far fancier version of basically  the same thing except not really. Possibly slightly less cool, I'm genuinely not sure. I like it though. In somewhat relevant news, I have made a twitter account . Since apparently that is a thing people on the course do and as I am on the course I guess I should do it also.

Today's session was adding little effects to our bouncy balls. I started with a fox tail, then tried some frog/flea legs and finally a very terrible at flying bird.

Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger, born 2nd June 1899, was a German animator and pioneer of silhoutte animation, a style born from her fascination with Chinese paper cutting at a young age. Reiniger took great inspiration from the works of Georges Méliés and Paul Wegener to the point where she would attend a lecture by Wegener at the age of 16 and enrolled in the former acting group of Wegener, working backstage on props and costume, eventually leading her to returning to sillouettes as she made portraits of the actors in her spare time. Unlike most art of the 1920s, which used expression to portray emotion, Reiniger took her silhouette style to heart, creating characters that used intricate movements to express themselves. One of Reiniger's most famous works and one of the oldest surviving full-length animated films, The Adventures of Prince Achmed  (1926), displays one of the defining traits of her work, her tenency to work on fairy tale adapations. From her first film ...

Here's some more thumbnails I did on the train for Zenobia. I'm mostly exploring ideas for the low angle shot, thinking about having the actual building part of the city be these massive clusters of bamboo buildings, all arranged like cones or maybe bamboo shoots. Obviously I still have to get the connecting walkways, bridges and stairs in there. There's also an attempt at thinking about the interior shot on the bottom left. It's supposed to be one of the tunnels that connects the many 'growth chambers', the water filled ex-mine pits that grow the bamboo. I like it quite a bit actually, since the light would be filtering through the bamboo poles and leaves down into the tunnel but because of the angle most of the tunnel would be rather dark. It might contrast well with the much brighter above ground shots.

Today was 6 hours of digital drawing. We had a little bit of infomation on composition, and how to use leading lines to draw the viewer in, so I sketched out a redo of one of my thumbnails. Once we were done with that I spent the rest of the day doing thumbnails/sketches for the final 3 shots. I'm trying to focus on the idea of where the bamboo comes from, how it's grown, farmed, etc.  So far I'm working under the idea that the people reuse the old zinc mines and grow the bamboo in the pooled water at the bottom. Like how many quarries are turned into lakes once they're used up.

Today was spent doing more on our lego vehicles, specifically focusing on texturing them with different materials. Here's the three 'vehicles' I made up for the session, a car, a van and an wheeled elephant. Since I had time I went a little bit into the next lession and started rigging my van. Obviously it's not done yet (since the video has a problem and I didn't have enought time anyway) but it's a nice start for next time.

Today we had a session on different weights, how differently weighted objects will react differently when hitting the ground.  First a ball bouncing along in a cartoonish style, stretching and squashing. Then a heavy bowling ball, a light ping pong ball and finally a tennis ball. Here is the onion skins from the above animation, it's a little messy since I tried to have them overlapping.

King Kong and Laura Mulvey by on Scribd

Zenobia OGR by on Scribd Additional Work Links Animation and Character Work Contextual Studies Digital Drawing Film Reviews Life Drawing Maya Studies

Here's a few more thumbnails I just finished off. All digital this time, since I've actually remembered how to use photoshop. I'd say more but it's actually now the 3rd of October so I'm going to bed. These were done before the digital drawing session about custom brushes and such. Whereas these were after. Custom brushes make everything so much easier. Holy moly.

Oops, completely forgot about these. We went through perspective drawing in today's digital drawing class. So I figure I should upload these too. Here's a one, two and two three point perspective shots. Not a fan of the last one but oh well. Here's the above shots without the guidelines.

Can't say I'll ever enjoy life drawing, but these things must be done. Here's the stuff I produced during the session, not quite sure on the timings for each one, but if it looks scratchy and frantic, it's probably a one minute one. They're in the order I did them so if there is any progression maybe it'll stand out. This was a group collaboration, featuring drawings from everyone in the first and second year groups, how nice. Mine is the massive behemoth that takes up the whole page.

Digital Painting was spent learning how to use brushes, as well as how to make our own. I'm almost glad I haven't finished all my thumbnails yet, because now I get to use the things I learned for the next few! Almost. Not actually glad, but it's close. Anyway, here's the stuff I produced in the session. Might end up using them for my thumbnails, but they probably need a little adjusting.