Tuesday 19 October 2010
I think I'll sleep now..
Ever have one of those moments when you realise just how little free time you really have. Lately I've been having a lot of these. Looking through my 3rd year Univeristy timetable, I have a total of 12 hours in lectures and semesters each week, which really doesn't sound like a lot but I can assure you it's exhausting. They say that you are meant to do two hours of work outside of Uni for every hour in so that's 36 hours in total. Yeah, a lot, but i'm probably (well definitey) not doing this much and I really should be.
I don't mean to say this isn't fun in any way because I'm enjoying every minute of it but honestly, with my leap into the industry only two years away and my level of knowledge in Animation still so limited, it's a little daunting.
Alongside this, I'm currently studying French, which is going great. I'm starting to be able to understand whole chunks of writing and listen to tv shows and films and good grip on what's happening. I've honestly been slacking a bit when it comes to this though, with my inteded amount being an hour of French exercises a day, but lately i've been too swamped to do this. So I make do with listening to Smallville or a movie in French language in the background or with English subtitles when I'm having a break. It's a really fun way to do it and has helped the speed of my comprehension, to say I can understand things that before were much too fast to follow.
This blog seems really rushed and I'll probably hate how it sounds in the morning but it's gone midnight and I'm tired, been to see The Social Network (which by the way is a great movie) with my friends after class and I just want to sleep. Another thing I've been going crazy for lately is the Animation Podcast, which everyone who's a fan of aniamtion should check out. Animators for Disney and other great studios talking about their experiences in some of the best animated films of all time. Great listen. Ok, I'm going to listen to some more of these and go to sleep, up early for more work (on my day off) wooo!
I don't mean to say this isn't fun in any way because I'm enjoying every minute of it but honestly, with my leap into the industry only two years away and my level of knowledge in Animation still so limited, it's a little daunting.
Alongside this, I'm currently studying French, which is going great. I'm starting to be able to understand whole chunks of writing and listen to tv shows and films and good grip on what's happening. I've honestly been slacking a bit when it comes to this though, with my inteded amount being an hour of French exercises a day, but lately i've been too swamped to do this. So I make do with listening to Smallville or a movie in French language in the background or with English subtitles when I'm having a break. It's a really fun way to do it and has helped the speed of my comprehension, to say I can understand things that before were much too fast to follow.
This blog seems really rushed and I'll probably hate how it sounds in the morning but it's gone midnight and I'm tired, been to see The Social Network (which by the way is a great movie) with my friends after class and I just want to sleep. Another thing I've been going crazy for lately is the Animation Podcast, which everyone who's a fan of aniamtion should check out. Animators for Disney and other great studios talking about their experiences in some of the best animated films of all time. Great listen. Ok, I'm going to listen to some more of these and go to sleep, up early for more work (on my day off) wooo!
Friday 15 October 2010
The Final Project
This past couple of weeks I've been swamped with work at Uni and looking for a job to get some extra money in, but no luck at the moment. My final University project has begun and it's pretty great if I do say so myself.
The basic idea behind it is that a man is sitting in a coffee shop looking around him. He spots a guy sitting across from him who it staring at the waitress working in the shop. He is besotted and can't take his eyes off her. But she barely notices him. Taking out a sketchpad, he draws the two, the guy first, signing the picture at the bottom. Then the girl, also signing this picture. As he does, the girl looks up, finally noticing the guy and their eyes meet.
He goes home and takes the pictures, pinning them side by side on a wall. The camera begins to zoom out, revealing many drawings of couples on a huge wall. Back at the coffee shop, the couple are holding hands. He smiles and walks off past the
shop.
My main character, I decided, would be based off Joseph Gordon-Levitt, mainly due to the similarities in character and look. Without being blatant, I hope it's clear that he is Eros, or Cupid, bringing people together with his drawings.
My second character, the waitress, will be based on one of my favourite actresses, Felicia Day. The character is beautiful but unaware of it, here's a few more drawings..
I haven't got the third character designed yet but as soon as I do, I'll upload to here.
Another part of this project that I did simply for myself, to try to get my head around the characters and who they really are was to write a short narrative about them. It's not finished but this is what I have so far. Enjoy, and I'll post another blog soon:
Sitting alone at a table in the most typical of coffee shops in the most ordinary town was a man. This man waited for nothing but knew something would eventually turn up, not for him but for someone else. Everywhere stood elements of the classic Italian coffee house; canvases with picturesque little shops with old Italian men buying their daily espresso, beautiful young women riding Vespas down the winding cobble-stone streets of Rome or Milan. All in black and white of course, it wouldn’t look nostalgic in the normal vivid colours of these places, despite the fact most of the customers were business men and women driving through or the locals who had never left the country. Contemporary glass ornaments sat in shelving units, filled with coffee beans that gave off such a rich aroma he could not help but take a moment to enjoy it. The deep brown wooden chairs and tables, along with the soft oversized armchairs that sunk almost to the floor when even the lightest person sat on them, gave the place a warm welcome feel. The clean, shining coffee maker resembled something you would find in a diner of the nineteen-fifties and although it should have seemed out of place it only added to the character of this quaint little coffee shop. Despite all the manufactured elements that made up this wonderful place, a place he could have stayed all day, there was one thing that caused not a break but a minor crack in the illusion. The coffee. Ever since his first visit to Italy, quite a few years back now, a cup of freshly brewed coffee never tasted quite the same. He was quite the connoisseur when it came to good coffee and had always found there was no better bean than the Columbian, straight from the plant and made as fresh as any coffee could be. Nonetheless, this cup of coffee was absolutely fine. It was the best in this part of the world in fact and so he found any chance to work in the area. Working was what he was doing today, but as it often was, work was scarce so he did what he always did, waited. He often got compliments from the women he met and twice already had been approached by women, both beautiful, who wanted his phone number. He had politely declined. They were attracted to his boyish good looks that while young-looking were also chiselled. He had long brown hair that he brushed to one side. The words most people described him as were “classically handsome” which had always made him laugh.
Once he had finished his first coffee, he placed the cup back to the saucer gently and called over the waitress. Long red hair tied back into a ponytail and a black blouse and trousers with a green apron tied around her waist, she looked stunning. In fact, maybe stunning wasn’t quite the word he would use. She was beautiful indeed but there was something about her that made her invisible to most men who visited the coffee shop. She would spend every day exchanging pleasantries with her customers and always get a nice amount of tips, but never for her beauty. This had led to a shyness developing within the girl that was all the more endearing to him and clearly to the man sitting across from him. As she walked over to him, she smiled sweetly and took his empty cup away with her, quickly returning with another hot coffee. All the while, the man across from him followed her with his eyes, love-struck and completely enchanted. Her pale flawless skin glowed in the soft lights of the coffee shop that seemed to reflect and bounce so perfectly off the countertops. He knew very little of her other then she worked incredibly hard and on her breaks sat at a table in the corner of the cafe studying.
Rooting through the inside pocket of the coat placed across the back of his chair, he took out a black book, around the same size as the average novel. It was leather bound and held closed with a piece of well-worn elastic, a piece of ribbon sticking out of the bottom of its pages, keeping his place. He took a pencil from the same pocket and, stretching the elastic over the book he began drawing the man that sat across from him. This man, so infatuated, was the perfect subject. In the twenty minutes or so that he was drawing the man he moved only to try to catch the gaze of the young waitress. It was done. Both pride and happiness escaped the man in the form of a small grin and once he had finished up some last bits of detail, he signed the drawing.
The basic idea behind it is that a man is sitting in a coffee shop looking around him. He spots a guy sitting across from him who it staring at the waitress working in the shop. He is besotted and can't take his eyes off her. But she barely notices him. Taking out a sketchpad, he draws the two, the guy first, signing the picture at the bottom. Then the girl, also signing this picture. As he does, the girl looks up, finally noticing the guy and their eyes meet.
He goes home and takes the pictures, pinning them side by side on a wall. The camera begins to zoom out, revealing many drawings of couples on a huge wall. Back at the coffee shop, the couple are holding hands. He smiles and walks off past the
shop.
My main character, I decided, would be based off Joseph Gordon-Levitt, mainly due to the similarities in character and look. Without being blatant, I hope it's clear that he is Eros, or Cupid, bringing people together with his drawings.
My second character, the waitress, will be based on one of my favourite actresses, Felicia Day. The character is beautiful but unaware of it, here's a few more drawings..
I haven't got the third character designed yet but as soon as I do, I'll upload to here.
Another part of this project that I did simply for myself, to try to get my head around the characters and who they really are was to write a short narrative about them. It's not finished but this is what I have so far. Enjoy, and I'll post another blog soon:
Sitting alone at a table in the most typical of coffee shops in the most ordinary town was a man. This man waited for nothing but knew something would eventually turn up, not for him but for someone else. Everywhere stood elements of the classic Italian coffee house; canvases with picturesque little shops with old Italian men buying their daily espresso, beautiful young women riding Vespas down the winding cobble-stone streets of Rome or Milan. All in black and white of course, it wouldn’t look nostalgic in the normal vivid colours of these places, despite the fact most of the customers were business men and women driving through or the locals who had never left the country. Contemporary glass ornaments sat in shelving units, filled with coffee beans that gave off such a rich aroma he could not help but take a moment to enjoy it. The deep brown wooden chairs and tables, along with the soft oversized armchairs that sunk almost to the floor when even the lightest person sat on them, gave the place a warm welcome feel. The clean, shining coffee maker resembled something you would find in a diner of the nineteen-fifties and although it should have seemed out of place it only added to the character of this quaint little coffee shop. Despite all the manufactured elements that made up this wonderful place, a place he could have stayed all day, there was one thing that caused not a break but a minor crack in the illusion. The coffee. Ever since his first visit to Italy, quite a few years back now, a cup of freshly brewed coffee never tasted quite the same. He was quite the connoisseur when it came to good coffee and had always found there was no better bean than the Columbian, straight from the plant and made as fresh as any coffee could be. Nonetheless, this cup of coffee was absolutely fine. It was the best in this part of the world in fact and so he found any chance to work in the area. Working was what he was doing today, but as it often was, work was scarce so he did what he always did, waited. He often got compliments from the women he met and twice already had been approached by women, both beautiful, who wanted his phone number. He had politely declined. They were attracted to his boyish good looks that while young-looking were also chiselled. He had long brown hair that he brushed to one side. The words most people described him as were “classically handsome” which had always made him laugh.
Once he had finished his first coffee, he placed the cup back to the saucer gently and called over the waitress. Long red hair tied back into a ponytail and a black blouse and trousers with a green apron tied around her waist, she looked stunning. In fact, maybe stunning wasn’t quite the word he would use. She was beautiful indeed but there was something about her that made her invisible to most men who visited the coffee shop. She would spend every day exchanging pleasantries with her customers and always get a nice amount of tips, but never for her beauty. This had led to a shyness developing within the girl that was all the more endearing to him and clearly to the man sitting across from him. As she walked over to him, she smiled sweetly and took his empty cup away with her, quickly returning with another hot coffee. All the while, the man across from him followed her with his eyes, love-struck and completely enchanted. Her pale flawless skin glowed in the soft lights of the coffee shop that seemed to reflect and bounce so perfectly off the countertops. He knew very little of her other then she worked incredibly hard and on her breaks sat at a table in the corner of the cafe studying.
Rooting through the inside pocket of the coat placed across the back of his chair, he took out a black book, around the same size as the average novel. It was leather bound and held closed with a piece of well-worn elastic, a piece of ribbon sticking out of the bottom of its pages, keeping his place. He took a pencil from the same pocket and, stretching the elastic over the book he began drawing the man that sat across from him. This man, so infatuated, was the perfect subject. In the twenty minutes or so that he was drawing the man he moved only to try to catch the gaze of the young waitress. It was done. Both pride and happiness escaped the man in the form of a small grin and once he had finished up some last bits of detail, he signed the drawing.
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