Ronnie Leah, BA (Hons) Computer Animation Arts, UCA Rochester.

 After learning about the importance of composition, I wanted to go back through my storyboard and recreate the shots in a way which followed the rules of composition.  I watched loads of animated fight scenes in order to see how composition is used between the characters. Below are some of my favourites which I referenced for my own compositions.  This is the first shot I created after researching composition and depicts the two characters meeting for the first time. Just like how we have been doing in class, I decided to pick a keyframe for my first composition. This is a very important moment within the animation as it is before the action between the two characters begins.  The idea of this shot is that it is a face off between two characters who have been brought up to be enemies by their environment. Both sides are highly trained and believe their method is the only one which can work. The shot is framed around the main character as he looks off to the other si...

Art Of Below is my Premise project "art of", showing the progression of my project through my artwork and influences. The document can be downloaded for closer inspection.  Final Reflection On Premise Project  I started the premise project with the knowledge that I wanted to create an animation which would push my skills. My goal was to produce a product which I was proud of to show off to possible employers. From previous projects I had been able to measure my skills, allowing me to identify my strengths and weaknesses. I wanted to take the opportunity the premise project allows to fully hone in on my weaker areas in order to give me the best possible outcome when it comes to the end of major. For this reason I decided to extend my project across all three units, premise, minor and major.  From my last project titled 'Collaborations', I managed to produce a final animation I was proud of. However I felt as though the animation wasn't as fluid as it could be. Th...

 Today I decided to return to the city concept art. I decided to draw more basic buildings which could be duplicated across the scene. I liked the pattern of the bottom right drawing I drew and so decided to refer back to my previous drawing to see what it would look like on a cityscape. I tried a different arrangement in order to do a perspective which the building might look like if view from the mountain. However I did not like how this looked and felt like it was missing the charm of the cities which inspired my project in the first place.  I decided to look at additional refrennces, particularly from Akira, in order to see how the city is presented. I really like the overwhelming look of Akira's world, one which displays the full personality of the world form a single glance. It also solidifies the overpopulation crisis by not leaving any breathing room for the buildings.  With this in mind I decided to draw a much more extreme version of my city which was a combinat...

 Today I drew a character expression sheet for my main character. I drew different emotions I felt my character would go through throughout the animation. This will be useful when it comes to constructing the final storyboard as well as modelling my character later on.  I have only completed an expression sheet for this character as the other one does not show any emotion as they have become more machine than man. This idea is meant to contrast against the human character. 

 From my orthographs I managed to construct the area leading up to the Japanese palace. In the animation the characters will start lower down on the mountain and gradually make their way to the top to reveal the palace as the backdrop for their final fight.  I drew a very basic floorplan which then allowed me to pinpoint where everything is in the environment. I could then draw the different parts of the environment at different angles to show how they would look in the animation. 

 Today I completed the orthographs of objects  which will be in the environment the characters will traverse.  I was struggling to visualize the environment in full and so decided to break up all the important elements which I knew existed from my concept art. I could then use these drawings to help build up additional drawings for my environment and use the orthographs later when it comes to modelling in 3D Below is the side profile of the area leading up to the entrance of the Japanese palace. 

 I like the dynamic between Spike and Vicious, which is something I want to incorporate into my fight scene. By having both fighters follow a code of honour, it allows their fight to flow with this idea in mind. I need to identify the moral code my characters follow in order to create a foundation for the fight. I will then be able to determine the actions they would take, given a situation. The idea of my project is traditional vs technology, which is a theme that I want to be prominent in the world building and character design. In order to depict mans fall to machinery, I want my two characters to be fighting over some sort of object which is the key to granting the user immortality. This is mans last stand against machine and so I want this desperation to be depicted in the action of the Samurai. Is he willing to break his moral code in order to win? At the same time the cyberpunk side is also desperate to win however this will be depicted in a very different light as the chara...

 I managed to complete an initial version of my character which will represent the traditional Japanese side. I really like how I managed to translate the slender body type look to this character, which resembles that of the cyberpunk character. My goal was to ensure they looked as if they are apart of the same world, even if they lead very different lives.  I did however feel that there was something off about this drawing. I wasn't sure how I felt about the top half in particular. I decided to start with the head from scratch in order to reimaging the characters look in a more stylized way, starting with the eyes.  I spent a long time focusing on drawing stylised eyes as I feel they are a key aspect to translate the characters emotions to the audience. I wanted to ensure that I had experimented with a variety of different eye colours to see how I could improve upon my initial drawing. 

 Now that I had begun developing the world around the mountain, I now wanted to look at the possibilities which could be the traditional side of Japan. I gathered research of all the possibilities which could influence my design.  Once big influence which pushed me to look more at Japanese palaces is a game called Sekiro. Sekiro is set in an alternate reality 17th century Japan and has the player assume the role of Wolf, a shinobi. There is a conflict between the Ashikaga and Tokugawa shogunates and the player must navigate through the battlegrounds in order to carry out their mission of protecting the divine heir.  The architecture used throughout the game is the same sort of look I want for my own animation. It was useful to get a 360 view of all objects and see how they were implemented and interacted with the world. I took some screen shots of gameplay as reference for my work.  This was a quick sketch which I completed in order to get out my initial ideas for th...

As suggested by my tutor, In order to establish what my characters look like I should gather reference images from art station and the interested in order to gather a greater idea. Firstly grab pictures I like and then picture which seem doable for the project. This way I can establish and art style.  I decided that I wanted to focus on the cyberpunk world first in order to get a better understanding of what this world could look like. By researching Akira it taught me the importance of making believable characters which are products of their environment. Once I realise how I want to portray the character, I will then be able to use their design in order to influence the environment.  Above are images I found which focus on a character who comes from a cyberpunk Japan. As the cyberpunk side is the villain in the story, I tried to find designs which reflect this idea. I also looked at ninjas as I like the sort of fighting style they have when portrayed in media and want to inve...

 When designing the layout of the house, I took great inspiration from the images below. I wanted the characters house to stand out as being unique to them, whilst also being practical for them to live in and for our team to animate in. I tried to think of what the character needs to be able to do in his house, in order to play out the events of the story.  Below shows the layout of the house's bottom floor, with the bed covering the kitchen and fully furnished. I will now send this design to Emily so that she can begin making it in 3D.                                                                      

Now that I had created a story outline for our animation, I then wanted to focus on the world in which the events would take place. I decided to make a street view of what could appear in the background for the final animation.  Below is a mood board of images which inspired my towns design. At the moment my scene feels a bit empty compared to the images which inspired it, which look lived in. There are many elements in the images below which I still want to add to my version as they make the scene feel more stylized and real.  I focused on the more low poly, cartoony art style, as I wanted to create a world which suited the character of Moom. Its important that the style matches his character in order for the animation to seem believable so that he does not look out of place.  I  then completed a 3D concept of what the street view could look like outside of the characters house. The scene is still in its blocking out stage in order for me to explore different ideas....