Visual Communication Brief 2 - ' Greetings From...'

After being set the newest task, to produce 4 postcards based on famous cities (real or fictitious) and knowing it would have to be vector based,i set about researching into existing practitioners and examples of shape-based or vector work. In a way i've started at the end.I'm already considering carefully how the final images may be constructed,possible issues and layout before i've even had an idea about what to produce from what city.Probably not very orthodox i know? 

As vectors and working in Adobe Illustrator are very familiar to me and often the core part of my heavy linework-based productions i wanted to look into other,simpler ways of conveying the same message that a complex image would, as Noma Bar and Stan Chow do.If i could manage this then it would also speed up my output time, providing that my concepts were strong enough - which at this point hasn't always been the case.

Drew Roper

This one (above) by Alan Fletcher is amazing! Something i'd actually pay money for a print for and i rarely buy art. It's the sexiest thing I've come across in a while and there's almost nothing to it. Super graphic but I imagine there must be a fair bit of sketch/development work behind this, but the final result cant've taken longer than 10mins (2mins if it was done on a computer) I can only dream of being able to take 2mins to produce a final piece and then move on with my life.

Stan Chow

Noma Bar

Michael Nÿkamp

This was followed by a good old research & list making session to try and form some initial ideas & concepts, which i'll try and avoid the most obvious countries, landmarks or subject matters.Though granted, not everyone knows the landmarks or national dish of countries  like Afghanistan or the Democratic Republic of Congo? I say "not everyone" - i mean, NO-ONE.

But by christ i'll teach them!

INITIAL THEMES

I have a fondness for old action films ( an some not so so old and of varying quality) so thought'd be fun to make a few of them my subject matter. Quickly had doubts about this as i felt id only be drawing pictures similar to how they were depicted on screen and wouldn't really be bringing anything defferent to it.Plus I'm not a comic book artist of any sort so felt id dragged into those realms. A quick veto i realise.

World street foods & snacks

I had researched into some of the quirky snacks from around the world, to see if there was enough visually interesting products to work with?! Also looked into the various street food that the globe has to offer.Was find that the darwable stuff from all from the U.S though. I for some reason i was already set on drawing hot dogs.

National Animals

After looking into Chinese food, i though about pandas, which lead me to investigate the national animals of the world. Didn't realise so many random countries A: existed and B: had a national beastie. Admittedly the more interesting animals were representing more unfamiliar nations, really unfamiliar, but i though that might make things interesting, and a bit educational- and really didn't want to just draw british bulldogs or bald eagles.

These pics don't really show it but i spend FOREVER looking into this subject, probably too long - as i was looking up the animal, then looking into the related country, then the capital city of that country, and then the motos, and the flags and then recognisable landmarks it goes on… as i said probably too long reading and not enough drawing.

Visual Communication - 'I See Faces' pt4

Further tweaking was needed for my 1st gif character. Based on a real person 'Squeaks', and her real cat Tiffin, and his favourite pink foot/storage cube - based on real events  in Brighton,where her flat flooded last year. Needed to shorten Tiffins body so it fitted inside a square frame, plus it looked a bit long & weird anyways.

"TIFF-TIFF & SQUEAKS"

Character development sketches 

Finalised line work

Finalised Backdrop line work

Re-drawn & separated body parts and background
elements ready for scanning & animating

Rather than draw lots of the same image but in slightly re-positioned poses i opted to separately draw only the parts that would be moving, so the body wouldn't be shuffling about due to the linework not perfectly matching up. It would also give the gif a 'cut-out', story-book feel to it. I'd planned to make lots of little,subtle movements (leg wiggles,tail waggles etc) within the image, rather than one 'main' feature move.

TEST VERSION

After roughly cutting around the shapes,painting them in Photoshop and composing them on top of each other, duplicating and repositioning where necessary i set about creating the transitions in their little water world. I used the PS guide lines to mark where id moved various objects to ensure the motions would appear to fast or 'jolty'. I got so into it i forgot that this was only a test, and spent a fair bit of time ironing out any problems and thinking of new things to add, so this couldve been my final Gif more-or-less. I do like a rehearsal!

I was torn between leaving the art work scruffy and crudely cut-out and polishing it up, doing full colour more like a cartoon. The test version matched the tone of the story, but i couldn't help wonder what it'd look like if i cleaned it up an repainted it all.So i did it anyway - re-drew all the elements, added a new cats eyes, and pier bit of texture and repeated the methods from the practice run. 

Guideline markers

DELUXE VERSION

At the time, i thought the 1st draft gif was better, but after completing the makeover I'm glad i made the deluxe version. I'm happier with the movement of all the elements, and with look of it in general. Don't get me wrong, its mushy as hell i know! Didn't know i had it in me!?

"PAPA WRONG"

Face building in Illustrator

I stuck to using just the shape and pathfinder tools (to slice the shapes in pieces with clean edges)to construct the pizza shapes rather than using the pen tool. This gave everything a 

symmetry and equal thickness with no wobbly edges or corners.

As i'd done a lot of development sketches for this guy i pretty knew how i wanted him to look without referring to them, so i created him 'on the fly' in illustrator, adding new details and features as i went along, gradually making him more detailed that i originally intended, but he looks better for it i feel. Adding a big ol' body was quite a late decision as he'd started to take more human form as aposed to being just a floating slice of pizza.

Currently everything had been made soley in 

illustrator, but i thought it was looking a bit flat...

I felt it needed a bit of depth and texture so i added the 'inferno' 

backdrop, that i d made whilst experimenting with Brusho paints

My homagé to the Ren & Stimpy backdrops,finally!

"CUMULO-NIMBARSE"

WIth the final gif i wanted to keep the look of it quite sketchy, and concentrate on the movement side of things. Also time was a factor and i was running out of it!

It certainly had the most emotion out of the 3 i'd say. It took a fair bit longer than anticipated as i kept thinking of new little expressions or wiggles his his eyes arm or indeed his ballbag could do to make it more amusing and added them to it which meant constant rejigging. I'm particularly happy with the stop-and-scowl and he returns to the underground.

The brief in whole has been a good experience. I probably should maybe have tried a different way of animating my characters, perhaps using a walk cycle - but i know with that technique i would get shaky or wobbly results which i something i was trying to avoid.Its a good lesson in photoshop layer management and good for your patience testing.

Visual Communication - 'I See Faces' pt3

I'm still not decided on the final 3 themes for my 3 gifs, so I'm considering 4 or 5 still and seeing how much life i can get out of them, and how practical its going to be to animate them, as I'm getting carried away with what visions i have in my mind compared to what i can actually produce in real life. Also have to consider weather I'm going to produce a detailed drawing with minimal animation or simple bold graphics with lots of time spent on the animation and bringing it to life. Though having said that, ill probably end up doing detailed drawings and complicated animation..!

Something involving Pizza is definitely going to make the final 3,in anyway i can! I love every aspect of pizza, and also looking at other peoples versions of illustrated pizza. It's one of the simpler things to draw, but it fun to bring your own voice to how it looks. Well, i have fun looking at them anyway- and eating them. I've done a lot of 'research' this past few weeks.

Simple blob drip test, just to see if i was doing it right 

and if it looked like it was dripping smoothly. 

I have a new found respect to the olden-times animators, the Disney Snow White guys! 

This thing took a fair amount of time, and it's looong repetitive tracing work, for fairly minimal results. Being new to this, I'm realising that going down the route of drawing 20/25 separate,slightly different drawings is going to result in wobbly/shakey final images, as its near on impossible to produce identical linework. Which can work to your advantages in some cases, depending on the tone of your subject/imagery.But for the amount of movement i'd ideally like to produce i think I'm going to have to go a different way about it. 

The sketchy shakey look makes me think of a cartoon section of late90's comedy series Big Train, The 43rd World Stare-Out Championship…combined with the commentary, makes it a winner!

Another character I'm fairly sure will be part of my final submission is my little 'Squeaker'.

Based on a real-life,tiny Chinese friend of mine. She has a lot of child-like characteristics and mannerisms that make her a perfect subject for a cutsie cartoon. 

Another great love of my mine are the level worlds and scenery of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros 3 (and later Super Mario World and on a higher level Mario 3D on Wii) Sunny circle and box trees and hills! So i wanted to have a gif set in a weird quirky, 8-bit style land, as a nod to the N.E.S times. Always takes me to a happy place.

Bobby Charlton Comb-over character, carried on from 

my random paint experiments earlier on in the project.

(Above) 80's hero/idol the WWFs Ultimate Warrior,sadly no longer with us. Was thinking of a detailed but simply animated gif design for him, but am having second thoughts as he is/was already a real person, and not a character designed by myself. Will still consider 'characterising the character' further though.

Visual Communication - 'I See Faces' pt2

Having made a list of things that Amuse, Frustrate & Interest me i set about making a whole bunch of quick sketches of those items, but somehow involving a character. I kept to the list initially, but found that they looked a bit regimented and weren't really generating many 'characters' as such, so i went on to make random shapes and create characters and little people out of the accidental shapes and brush strokes that i'd slapped down.

Stoopid Haircuts

Lists of subject matters

Pizza

Farts

Dead Wrestlers

The 'Burgerman Approach'

I tried out the paint blob techniques above after watching some Jon Burgerman interviews in which he suggested that rather than taking ages thinking up lots of characters - paint/pen random shapes and make characters out of what you've got. I found it encouraged me to be a bit more spontaneous and fearless when making weird, child-like little people and creatures. weather i'll take any of them through to further develop them for my gif remains to be seen?

After a class crit, involving illustrator Jon Boame (who'd been with us all day sharing career experiences and examples of his work) i'd had some positive feedback regarding the paint blob experiments,when i wasn't feeling particularly upbeat about my current ideas in general.

I'll pick 4 or 5 concepts from the initial sketches to develop further and get some storyboards and possible movements mapped out and also do some animation tests.