Animation backgrounds and bosses getting smacked with fishes.

I've been working on this animation little by little.  I'm mostly confident that I can do the linework, but the backgrounds and color are what I feel like I will really struggle on.  I ended up going from values to colors slowly.. and mostly at random.

Here was a little animation that I did for fun over the weekend.

The Boss. 33.3% Hitler, 33.3% Wario, 33.3% Robotnik.

Trying to flesh out this character because, honestly, I have no idea what he really looks like from multiple angles.  And frankly, I suck at drawing anything from multiple angles.  Like this hair.

I was doing gesture drawings and looking at various animations while doing these.  At one point I got frustrated cause I couldn't find fat models to draw from so I found an elephant sitting.. and it seems to be one of the best I drew. lol

Staring at Le Royaume also helped a ton.  The hair of the King character changes with his mood.. and I thought that was amazing.

I'm still slightly unsure about this character.. Sometimes he looks like Hitler, sometimes Wario, and when I try to make him look angry by moving his mustache, he looks like Robotnik.  I like that his expression comes from his mustache.. but I'm failing at giving him emotion with just that.  I don't like showing his mouth, like the middle right face, but I'm lacking ways to move his mustache to give it real emotion.

Also worked on some backgrounds.

Color tests and gesture drawings.

Doing some color tests for the boss's office.  Also some gesture drawings and an attempt at more dynamic poses.

Homeless man rips his business suit off and jumps out a window.

I'm too slow when it comes to finishing things.  I've got two animations to finish.. this month?  Can I make that promise?  Who knows.

I've kind of fleshed this idea out, finally.  It's not perfect.  From here on I could fix everything like shrinkage of characters and nonconsistent faces.  Make some awesome backgrounds.. figure out the colors, probably taking a page from the people that made Le Royaume or The Reward.

I've also got some sound design classes at coursera.org starting tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll make some music and sounds that'll be moderately okay.

Week 2: Cars.. and, buses that turn into trains to fix perspective?

Struggled.  Now I know what I need to work on.  Reflections, perspective, and outside lighting.

Lighting Week 1: Batties, deckers, and methuselah syndrome.

I find myself bouncing back and forth between moderately good and horribly bad paintings.  After the previous painting I moved onto the hobbit one, and I struggled with the color until I dropped that to black and white and worked from there.. and then that too I gave up on.

Then I started working on this bladerunner shot after reading James Gurney's Color and Light half-way through and taking notes.  By the end I was pleasantly surprised with what I had, but oh boy.. I found it kind of troublesome managing and keeping track of all the cool grays.

After that one I moved onto the next reference fairly quickly.  I chose a simple one because I wasted a bit of time and needed to finish these 5. lol.. This one turned out less than awesome.  It feels so flat.. and it's definitely unfinished.. but I don't know where to go next with it.

Week 1: Lighting

Here's my third lighting study and an unfinished fourth that I'm struggling on.  

I'm pleased with the first one from Inglourious Basterds.  The scene in general is extremely interesting with the big circle window and the red dress.  Got a little lazy toward the end and decided not to do the desk or the mirror frame. lol

This second, unfinished, one is from the Hobbit.. aaand I started it in color but was struggling so much that I decided to just drop it to black and white and work on it that way.  And I know it's just a lighting study, but I also don't like that I lost all of the angles and flattened the image. lol  Will he get frustrated and throw his painting into the recycling bin or push forward and finish it like a man?  Tune in next time to learn the answers to these questions and more!

Effin' Light.

Sara Gross on Google+ posted an awesome list of suggested weekly art assignments and I'm extremely excited to do them.

Week 1 is to study lighting by doing 5 paintings from movies or shows with good lighting.  Frankly, I need this.. I'm not very good with  light, form, or color.. and even though I bought both James Gurney books, Color and Light and Imaginative Realism, I haven't taken the time to really go over them and practice what it teaches.

Here are the first two.. both of them are from Inglourious Basterds.

Narcissistic bosses require your attention!

Storyboard(ish):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XFQJU98lFtA

I haven't thought about sound design yet.  I have no dialogue planned.  What should I do?  Bad sound design would probably destroy even the best animation.  Should I just do some wah-wah charlie brown noises for when characters talk?  Elephant noises when they yell?  Should I record my own sounds with my DSLR and sticks of celery?  Piano?

The only part of this animation I hadn't really blocked out was the end.. partly cause I've been jumping around trying to figure out what to do. lol  I've decided that he'll snap out of his laborious day dream and come face to face with the furious narcissistic boss who clearly doesn't have his attention.  He'll try to get him to sign the contract again, and while remembering his day dream.. the protagonist will stand up, cause a ruckus, climb on to the desk, rip his interview suit off, push the statue out the window, and jump out into the wilderness in his underwear.  Freeze frame of him jumping out the window.  End.

I had fun just drawing the background for this guys office. lol  I imagined he just had statues of himself everywhere.

Any critiques of how this animation is done would be welcome.  I'm aware of certain things.. like the timing could be better, the character is definitely not the same shape the whole way through, yatta yatta.. but I figured getting a critique now would be beneficial.

Heres a slightly adjusted scene that I've already posted.  I tried to get the timing better and decided not to make any more block cycles (laziness?).  

Any bloody idea how I should do the sound for this? I have no dialogue in mind. Will it be just grunts and groans, wah wah charlie brown noises? The trumpet noise an elephant makes when a character yells? 

Weight, Push, Pull, and Flying.

Working on one of the previously mentioned projects.  I swear, the amount of time i spend being productive is extremely embarrassing.  I need deadlines. 

This is a segment from the animation.  I need to work on timing and.. figure out ways to blend the little block pushing segments together.  I'm glad I'm finally getting some weight practice in.