University Offers

I am pleased to say all my University interviews went really well and have been offered conditional places on all three, now it's just a case of passing :D.

Animation Trials

After some debate and consideration, I've decided that instead of a comic book final project, I will instead present my final project in the form of an animation that will be projected onto a pre-drawn and created display / background that matches the animation and creatively have the animations interact with said background.

This animation will take form of stop motion drawn animation as I lack the know how and time to digitally animate the piece, plus the fact that the animation will be drawn will help it integrate with the drawn background.

I've previously attempted drawn stop motion animation in my previous AS level studies drawing a commercial, so this media isn't completely new to me. This time however I made use of a light-box which eases tracing images which I found very useful when keeping my drawings accurate to one another. The top animation was my first trial. I originally planned on it being a simple stick figure animation, however along the way I decided to make the animation more interesting g and daring, and I would like to admit that it turned out better than I had hoped.

The 2nd animation is more linked towards my major project in the fact it features my main character Thod. With this animation, the main difference is the use of background. This was helped by me watching a documentary on the creation of the second 'Snowman' animation, called 'How the Snowman came back to life'. One of the things I realised thanks to this is in 2D animation, the background, unless interacted with, remains solitary and not changing at all, and I could use this to my advantage with me drawing my animation with the use of the photocopier.

So to intergrate a solid background with my stop motion animated piece, I drew a background for the Shack shot, making sure to leave blank areas for variables such as the smoke, clouds and the door which eventually opens. This made my job a lot easier, as otherwise I would of had to of traced the background for every frame, and at 5fps, it wouldn't of been an enjoyable endeavour. 

I enjoyed animating these 2 pieces and look forward to working more with animation, however now I will begin to look into integration of projected animation and backgrounds to see if this final project idea is feasible, or even possible.

Mono printing

To add more variety to my palette and portfolio, I've decided to use mono printing to add another layer and image to my sketches.
I find this media gives a great print which looks highly weathered and gives the image a sense of history almost, and due to the nature of the print, it has a great effect when printed onto rough surfaces and textures.
However I also find that alot of the time the sketch underneath the print is close to completely un-recognisable and lost, aswell as the print itself being very temperamental and unpredictable in its clarity after printing, and it's due to its risky factors that its not a media / technique I'd keep returning to.

Norse Research

Within the world of Skyrim, my graphic novel character 'Thod' is a 'Nord', clearly influenced and based on the Norse Vikings, on the visual aspects and ideologies the Nords share within the game, so I've decided to do background research on the Norse Vikings to link towards the 'Nords' and get background research to bring my character even closer to reality than the game alone would allow.
To begin my research, my tutor kindly let me borrow a DVD by the BBC, presented by Neil Oliver, on his journey across Scandinavia to discover the truth on who the Vikings really were, and I can honestly admit that this small insight to the Vikings beliefs and lifestyle has me truly intrigued and fascinated at their way of life and what various factors moulded them into these amazing beings. I've also managed to get my hands on the book of the series which I will soon begin to get even more information on the Vikings from the familiar source Neil Oliver.