Final Pigsy piece .

After the crit we made a few changes to our Final movie. Things such as the background in scene 3, the way the characters move and the opening page have been altered. We could see where people were coming from in there criticisms to these parts, so we tweaked them. The book was critisised to as being a bit too simple and plain for the context of a oriental book. Though there wasn't enough time to alter the book itself (regrettably). I like how the last scene looks a lot more in this version, as the birds add more character to the pages.

Here's the tweaked final-



Below is my Evaluation of the project.

Evaluation


The basis off this brief is to create a music video for Pigsy in Space, a song from the theatrical production “Monkey” a theatrical production of the legendary Chinese tale, where a Monkey goes on a journey to seek immortality. Ash Bowles and myself have had a growing interest in oriental artwork, (artists such as Hiroshige and Hokusai). I myself have a good collection of books from Chinese artists already. So I knew that I had a good base, upon which to build on. It is notable that brief its self states that we shouldn’t try and replicate the art style that is already there.
The current art style for the Monkey theatrical production is by Jamie Hewlett. Jamie Hewlett has a kind of modern style influenced by modern manga. Bearing this is mind Ash and I decided that we’d have to go for a more traditional style of imagery if we were going to pay respect to the brief.
We came to a conclusion that we create an animated book that incorporated traditional oriental paint scenes, with animated features, such as water, rain sun and characters. We decided that the book would open up and every time a page was turned, a new image would appear.
Ash and I researched into quite a few different artists and examples of animated books before we started on the actual imagery itself. Though this seemed to come to be a bit of a mistake for I don’t believe we spent enough time learning or extending are knowledge on the techniques that would have to be used. I did myself play around with one scene that I painted myself before we worked on with the editing though I don’t really think that this was enough preparation for what we had to do. It seems we were a bit too arrogant in our approach and seemingly expected things to come into place as we progressed with the book.
I was pretty pleased with the way we tackled the artwork as Ash drew out the scenes and I painted them with inks (to keep it traditional) and then cut them up Photoshop. Though when it came to editing it was pretty hard going as only one of us could have the After Effects file at one time and we spent a bit of time apart during this brief. What we really should of done is cut the editing in half and been more organised in the way we tackled it so that we had certain amounts done at correct times at certain sections of the timescale we had to complete it. We could of probably done with making a an organiser which marked goals and aims by specific dates.
One thing that we wanted to do and never got chance to, was to incorporate some live action footage into our book, we were going to have one of the characters walk into a bar where and then switch to a silhouetted live action sequence where a guy sits drinking sake and a VDJ part comes in where things start to spin. We were going to use a generated backdrop for the bar with shelves of alcohol and somehow make them fit together. Though we never got chance to even make an attempt at this for time did not permit it.
I was quite pleased with the visual style of the artwork, as it did look very traditional and quite atmospheric, I enjoyed making weather enhancements too, these added real character to the pieces. The way they slowly emerged in the book was also niece as we did some ion sequence with the music itself. I’d like to think that the different scenes convey different emotions, though with a basis of tranquillity like the song.
One could argue that the some of the scenes don’t seem to add up or follow a specific path or story, but that wouldn’t of been what we intended. The music itself just seems to drift away and doesn’t really have any crescendo or climax; hence our piece was more of just a showcase of different scenes and scenarios of life in China.
The book itself wasn’t as effective as I would of liked; a big thing that was pointed out in the interim-crit was that we didn’t use a fancy authentic art book. We just used a ring bound college book. This is because we knew that we couldn’t key out the areas on the spine a book and keep it flat. Where as a ring bound book doesn’t have a spine. Maybe we or I should be a bit more adventurous in the future and ask for assistance in doing such things as keying out parts out. It would also of been niece if the pictures were already on the pages as they turned, and then animated when the page was flat. Ideas have come to my head on how to do this recently though of course it’s a bit too late. More pre-production planning should have been done to ensure this didn’t happen.
The interim crit went quite well, there was certain things that we knew needed to be amended. Such as the characters being cleaned up, the animations needed smoothing and slowing down and certain colours needed re-working in the backgrounds. It was pointed out to us that the text at the beginning was unnecessary so we changed this to a couple of images after the crit. It was also possible to redo some of the animations so that they were smoother, and to edit the some scenery’s so that they were subtler on the eye. I edited the birds into the final scene in sequence, so that there was more going on in this scene and a more tranquil feel would be apparent. A major thing that I would of liked to of done was maybe rework the animations in Flash, so that there legs moved and expressions changed. Though time didn’t allow this, maybe the next project would be a good opportunity to try incorporate Flash and after effects.
It did get mentioned at the crit that are book should have been something a bit more oriental, but by this time it was far to late to change it.
Thgis project has been a good experience as I do feel I’ve learned quite a bit. I feel my work rate has improved from the last project, but the thing I need to improve on is allocating time to different sections of production. I am quite pleased with certain elements’ of this project, though if I’d of been more organised with time, then I could of made something that I was really proud of.

Interim Crit

Today we had to present our Pigsy video. There were things we went in knowing that needed to be tweaked, such as the character movement (some were jerky, moved to quick). We also noticed that the character images needed cleaning up and making transparent (you could see this well on the big projector). There was a certain scene that looked too ultra violet on the big screen.

One thing that the are video was criticized for is the text at the start. Certain people deemed it unnecessary to have an introduction. Me and Ash could see pretty much where they were coming from .

Change.

We have decided that we are going to change the page at the beginning. The characters need to be reanimated and cleaned up. The background on the sun rise scene needs to softened possibly. The final scene needs to be more clear , the birds need be animated in sequentially .

Anyway ake a look at the video we showed today.



We shall upload the video when we have finished it.

Painted Scenes image development ,

Here are some of the scenes that Ash drew for me to paint. You can't see it too well in this piece but I've cut up some of these scans, so that backdrops will be possible to animate in After Effects.

Characters

CLICK TO ENLARGE PLEaSE,


Here's the characters which Ash has drawn up, we think that these will fit well with the scenes themselves. Ash has made the characters quite vibrant an full of expression. This is so the scenes will have a bit more to them in turns of character. Though they are quite traditional looking, they still have a modern edge in there style. There features have been enhanced to make them more visually interesting and appealing to an modern audience.

Next they need to be colored up vibrantly to give thesee scenes a bit of a boost.

Pencilled scene sketches ,

Click to ENlarge :]

Here is a double pager spread that ash has drawn up, I will be painting and inking them tonight. We have decided that it will be a good idea for Ash to initially draw the scenes and for me to ink them up as I've had ample of practise with the ink (coloring, shading and brush work), I'm confident in using them, as ash is a confident perspective drawer so were helping each other in doing it this way. It should improve productivity quite allot. This is one of the scenes which involves our main character walking along the river bank, Ash has left cedrtain details out so that we can paint the parts and animate them separately too.

Experimental scene,

Here's an experimental scene, I cut up the waves and house from one of the pictures that I made. I think the waves look niece and so does the sky. Though the foreground image looks a bit static, maybe if I'd of animated the trees moving and the house chimney smoking the scene would of looked a bit more lively. Still though it was good to play with after effects and mess around with effects. Tomorrow ash is going to start drawing out some scenes for myself to color over, these scenes should have a niece oriental perspective, they will be posted up to the blog shortly.

The Story board

Click to Enlarge

Here's the storyboard for our book. We have constructed a series of events. Though this story isn't concrete for we preferably want to find some traditional paintings that we like, and try and create animated versions of these. Me and Ash don't believe that the piece has to follow a precise story, we believe more so that it must be visually appealing. More of a journey and a presentation of tradition.

Scans from a painting सेस्सिओं.

Scans from a painting session


Unfortunately the main scan of the house and foreground of this piece isn't included up here. This because the scanner misread this image for some strange reason. This will have to be added at a later date.

I painted the above images over the last couple of days. I now hope to cut these pictures up in photoshop. So that they are ready to be pieced back together and animated in After Effects.

I put the house and the fishermen on a different page, so that I could animate them individually move along the piece. I may have to mix Flash with After Effects to create an convincing smooth effect- like the kind of smooth finish Hokusai's book has (previous post). We don't want to make are story book just the same as this for Hokusai is a Japanese artist and we want our book to have a more distinct Chinese feel to it. For the Damian Albarn song Pigsy In Space is based on an ancient Chinese novel.


More tomorrow,

Eddy.

Hokusai, animated sketchbook+ Japanese/Chinese art - the difference

The other day Ash stumbled across this Hokusai animation. I find it quite remarkable as it seems very similar to our original idea. There are definitely effects in this that we could utilize in our book. Unlike this book though our book is going to be animated in a kind of real time environment, where some one turns the pages as it goes along. The art style too will be pretty different, as this is quite blocky Japanese art work. Our art work will be more like the brushy textural feel of the Chinese art that we have looked at.

Certain elements though, have been good to see. Like the way the clouds and smoke move. In this clip you can see that not everything has to move for the imagery to be emotive and visually stimulating.

We do still plan on making more things animate though across the scenery, for if its going to be a music video, there's going to have be a lot happening to keep the viewer interested. We want to make the scenes look like they are alive.



Written and directed by Tony White.

To be honest I am glad this has been made, but it does seem something of plagiarism to edit someones work who has no consent over the matter.

Anyway back to painting, for a test scene.

Mood Board

Here are some of a few of the things that have influenced us to make the book, features such as the great wall and the terra-cotta army may not be included, its just there to give us a feel for the brief story. We have been thinking about including the farmers as there's a simple of general living in Rural China and this is something we'd like to cover. We think it would be niece to include dragons at a point in the video though not in the story, as we don't want it to be that abstract.

Moving book

Is a good representation of the style we would like to create are book. We were thinkng we would just let the book animate itself simply within itself. Though I've watched this video and decided it may be good for things to actually float out of the book and away. I think this would make the imagery more interesting to the viewer rather then the images been limited to the book itself.

a look at the terracotta army,

We have been loo0king at traditional Chinese art work, in hope that we can create an oriental atmosphere in the movie. In rural China some farmers stumbled across the army when digging for springs. Then archaeologists were encouraged to search across the rest of the area. Overall they unearthed just over 8000 statues, ranging from 6 foot to 6'5(smaller rankin soldiers being smaller and officers being taller) . I thought it would be a good idea to have a soldier modelled on one of these statues trying to find his group. I think this would work well as there's a lonely feel to the song.

Chinese and Japanese art styles

Ok , me and Ash have been looking at a lot of Western Art work. We have taken into account that you are not supposed to replicate the original Monkey style, but we have decided to use traditional Western art as a focus.

As I may of already said we've decided to create an animated traditional book, with paintings and figures that kind of movie with the music. We decided to go with this because of the tranquil feel of the music itself. We hope to create pieces with inks, gouache and maybe pencil. Then animate them in after effects or flash.

Over the past year we've gained an interest in not strictly Chinese art, but Japanese too. Though its a Chinese production, we can't really see a fault in using Japanese interests. We're just simply trying to pay homage to Western art in general. There will be an emphasis on Chinese culture itself though.

Here are a few pictures that have inspired, we think the subtle colours and dashes of detail would look picturesque animated in a smooth fashion.


Here's a piece created by Nigesha (Chinese) , I like the subtle attention to detail and spacial awareness of this piece. This is the kind of landscape we would like to use in the book. Though maybe with more colour.




This piece below is by the Japanese artist Hiroshige, who I myself have alot of admiration. Its not really reality, but yet its very graphicaly pleasing, the colours work so well together, its interesting how he's made the warter a multi with just one wash of colour by the look of it.



Now's just to get a final storyboard knocked up.

"Pigsy in space"

Pigsy in space is the second to last track in Damian Albarn's Monkey. Monkey is a theatrical musical performance that has also been turned into an album. Albarn teemed up with a team of Chinese musicians and actors to make a recreation of the classic Chinese tale "Journey to the West". Journey to the West is a rather famous piece of Chinese literature inspiring many knew stories and is still told today. The story follows a Monkey born in a an egg under the sea, he's in a search for immortality, he meets many com-padre's on the way who help him in his search. Pigsy is one of his allies, a slightly lazy character who during the song is distracted by a magical spell as the monkey enters his final duel.

We have been proposed with making a music video for this song, we are thinking about creating piece which pays homage to the Chinese culture and tradition. The brief states not to try and recreate Jami Hewett's current artwork, for the production. The song has a rather relaxing feel to it, quite mellow and sometimes maybe quite sad. We would like to convey these emotions in the music video itself.

Pigsy in Space

To create a musc video for the Monkey track Pigsy in space. Monkey is a knew theatrical production created by Damian Albarn, it follows the story of a Monkey warrior in search of immortality. Pigsy is one of his companions. The strory is an adaptation from an ancient classic called "Journey to the west" by Wú Chéng'ēn, ca. (1505–1580). This bief is part of a competition .

One of my early ideas is that me and my partner Ash Bowles, create a kind of myhtical book that slowly animates itself as time goes on. We are going to start by looking at traditonal Chinese art styles, we're thinking about making it a collaberation of styles , from pencils, to inks to crayons.

Below a picture from an early copy of Journey to the west