I figured since it's been so long since I've written an update on my blog, I'd make a quick post on this final day of 2018. It's certainly been a crazy year, and I don't tend to enjoy writing cheesy 'reflection' posts (especially on social media where it feels very show-offy sometimes). But, seeing as this is my blog, I've written reflection posts involving animation projects, and most of my year revolves around academics and careers I thought it'd be a good opportunity to talk a little bit about it even if it's just for myself. But I'm going to try to keep it as brief as possible.
R&J - Dream/Queen Mab Texturing Test #5
R&J - Dream/Queen Mab Texturing Test #4
R&J - Dream/Queen Mab Texturing Test #2
R&J - Dream/Queen Mab Texturing Test #3
So this year I've obviously managed to graduate from the CAA course at UCA, and I am very grateful to all of the staff on the course for helping me through it as well as my peers. It was an amazing experience and I honestly missed it before it was even over. It is really great to see the current third years working their way through their final projects and I can't wait to see the results. I continue to be proud of how successful my year has been in regards to film festivals and it is very exciting to see. I'm again very grateful for the continued support and interest When has received this last year. I honestly never expected it but it makes me happy that all of that hard work was worth it. New Designers now feels like it was so far away, but I look forward to attending ND 2019 to support the course, its staff and students.
ND 2018
CAA 2018
CAA 2018
Factual Animation Film Festival 2018
I'm also very grateful that I have been able to continue working on projects with the course such as Romeo & Juliet. I admit I am somewhat disappointed with myself that I have been so busy and unable to work on it as much as I'd like to. Whenever I do get to sit down and work on it, it's like a whirlwind to get as much done as possible in the small space of free time I have, and I don't feel I absorb the visuals as much as I'd like. But, thanks to Phil and Ethan we have been making good progress and have created some interesting results. I cannot wait till I can see the final renders and what it looks like after VFX and compositing. Hopefully everything goes smoothly.
R&J - Love Scene // Scene 04 (Alive)
R&J - Love Scene // Scene 02 (Alive)
R&J - Love Scene //Scene 03 (Dead)
R&J - Love Scene // Scene 05 (Dead)
R&J - Love Scene // Scene 07 (Alive)
R&J - Love Scene // Scene 07 (Alive)
I was also lucky enough to go and see my family in America over the summer. During this time I also had the privilege of going to volunteer at the SIGGRAPH conference in Vancouver. Despite travelling to America on my own, I consider this trip to Vancouver the first time I properly travelled alone since it was an unfamiliar place and I didn't have a home and family to greet me. It was honestly an amazing experience. I had so much fun, met many amazing people (some of which I keep in contact and occasionally meet up with), and overall it opened my eyes and taught me a lot.
In addition to everything else, I recently started to get back into some traditional artwork which has been very fun and liberating. I've found it relaxing to just pick up some old paints and paintbrushes and create whatever I feel like that particular day. They may not be amazing, but I've had a lot of fun creating this series that I've for now dubbed 'Left Over'.
(Left to Right) One, Two, Three
(Left to Right) Four, Five, Six
Seven
Eight (Left) & Nine (Right)
(Left to Right) Ten, Eleven, Twelve
(Left to Right) Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen
Sixteen (Left) & Seventeen (Right)
(Left to Right) - Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty
And of course, I've managed to secure a job at The Flying Colour Company in London! I've now been working there for about four months and I feel I've settled in a bit more. It's very exciting being able to work on real shows...although I cannot talk about them just yet. Once I can reveal what I've been working on, I plan to! I've been lucky to have some amazing artists teach me how to use Autodesk Flame while I also work on some 3D work in Maya.
It's been scary taking the leap from education into a career and commuting into/out of central London every day is tiring and time consuming...but I'm excited to see where it goes, what I learn, and who I meet. Once again I'm grateful for all of the support I've had over the last few years and I look forward to working on more amazing projects.
Over this week I've been working for the Animation Summer School for UCA. Today I assisted with life drawing, so I had the opportunity to sneak in some sketches of my own while I was helping out as well.
This week has been very busy, but I managed to do some life drawing and my Sunday Speedpainting. I decided to do a speedpainting of a photo I took while visiting my family in New York. I spent about 20-30 minutes on this painting and I struggle with landscapes and colour sometimes, so I'm quite happy with how this turned out.
Since I haven't drawn as much as I normally like to over the last few months, I decided I'm going to try to do about 30 minutes of life drawing a day. I've been using a few different websites such as Line of Action to get back into practice without consuming my entire day since I'm also helping out with YPGTTO.
I also wanted to try doing 'Sunday Speedpaintings' every week. I'm sure I'll end up being too busy at times to do life drawing every single day and I'll probably miss a few Sunday Speedpaintings, but I'm going to try my best to keep up with it over the summer. This first speedpainting is of my dog. I spent about 30-40 minutes on it and I may work on it some more later on.
A few days ago I visited Tate Modern to visit the Giacometti exhibition. I was very excited to see this exhibition because Alberto Giacometti is my favourite artist. It's been quite a while since I drew, so I took the opportunity to sketch some of his work I got to see. I enjoyed being able to be really rough and loose with the sketches (partially due to the lack of seating and because I had family with me so I didn't want to take too long) and I'm happy how a few of them came out. It was nice to get back into drawing since I feel a bit rusty with it.
