Nick MitchellGraphic Design Year 3

Independent Practice

EGRD 3014

For this brief we were asked to produce a 3 minute max video with the contents representing ourselves and showing us in a way we feel displays our interests and strengths. With me I see my strong attributes being illustrating and video making, so with that decided to create an A0 illustration and film it, speeding the finished film up so that it fits the 3 minute presentation.There is no story behind the contents of the picture, only that I really enjoy drawing meaningful looking women and for some reason nearly always involve them smoking. I added a song that I thought suited the content well over the 3 minutes as silent videos rarely succeed in keeping peoples attention or having the desired effect.with the end result I felt pleased with how I’d represented myself and my favoured skills, its simple and bold, clearly stating what my main interests are. The only thing that could of been slightly improved was possibly adding some narration or text to clarify what the content was expressing.

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We were shown various videos that had been produced using the Dogme95 rules in which limitations and obstructions are put in place when filming. Such as equipment including studio lighting and camera tri pods were not allowed to be used, and the sound on the video should be the sound that was there when filming, not edited.we however were given the option of breaking certain rules if we felt it was neccessary as long as we explained what rules we broke and the reason behind breaking it.The content of the video was to be the expression of our method of working and how we are inspired. I chose to show a way in which my ideas are processed or when things come to me that I want to do, in this case while driving. So to represent an idea coming to me while driving I filmed myself driving around and approaching a blank piece of paper, putting an illustration idea down on it, then driving away.The difficulty when filming this was not being able to safely draw in the road so to edit it to look like I was I only shot close ups when illustrating, resulting in some of the desired effect being missing.

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The created illustration again being of a woman smoking, with a look that is hopefully capturing to the viewer. In this drawing I chose to further than the previous one and include a further illustration within the smoke from the ciggarette. A darker, evil looking woman possibly representing the dark side of smoking, the pain of an addiction, and even maybe as death looking down on her.

For our third brief we were to see it as a practice for our final major project next year, to give us the information we need to prepare ourselves for the variable problems and obstacles we will come across.I started off with a group meeting discussing our favoured skills and interests, mine being illustration and video making I came out the meeting with the feedback and advice of the possibility of creating an animation, and to experiment with stop motion and methods of drawing.My first experiment was a quite simple stop motion of my bed making itself, to give me a rough idea on how many frames are needed and at how many frames per second it needs to be run in order to have a smooth continuous outcome.The end result is smooth enough with nice placement of the objects contained, however it just looks a bit too easy and not challenging enough, but fine enough for just an experiment.

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Brief 3

Stop Motion Experiments

Inspiration

When looking at stop motion I referred to an artist called Blu, whose french work involving illustrated and graffitti animation really interests me. He creates large scale painted pictures on natural surroundings including buildings and pavements and produces animations with these pictures traveling around the public area. to produce such a large scale stop motion must take so long and need so much patience. You get a feel of the length of time involved in some of his work as it is time lapsed and u can see the day turn into night.His method is so highly rated it has been used a number of times, more popularly int the recent Vauxhall Corsa advert where animations follow the car through the spublic streets.To experiment with something like this id like to try smaller scale versions and develop from there.

Inspiration

The most creative stop motion artist at the moment I feel is Noah Harris with his work for E4 and Ford. His ideas and set up scenes are so bizarre and unique he stands out from the rest. I attended the speak he gave here at the uni and really appreciated every bit of work he has done. No illustration is used in his stop motions but while looking at doing something similar for my FMP I couldnt not use him as a reference .

Noah Harris

Animation ExperimentTo experiment with animation I created a piece that I wanted to include a person doing an action involving a lot of body movement to make it more of a challenge. To differ from my usual illustrating I didnt make it a woman smoking, but a man spinning around to aim a gun.So each image drawn with what I felt was the next movement in the action, cropped to the same size and proportion in photoshop, placed into imovie, edited together in sequence with effect and sound, resulting in what I felt a short but smooth action. Each image leads into the next quite well, no jerks or jumps. The only thing I would of like was if it were slightly longer, but thats the difficulty when doing this, you feel like you have done so many stills for a long enough animation but the outcome is a lot shorter than would of liked. But there lies the reason in which these experiments are being done, so I have this knowledge and reference and can prepare better for when using the same method in my FMP.

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Animation Experiment

For my main animation experiment I wanted to transfer my second brief, the Dogme95 video into an illustrated animation. For this I would need to take every paused frame of the video and draw it, with the video being 3 minutes long thats a lot of frames and a lot of paper so I decided the easiest and most logical solution was to do it on a white board. The only problem with white voard is that the illustrations then cant be as detailed with using marker, but with this animation simplified frames wouldnt be too much of a disaster.

Animation ExperimentWith the camera, setup on a tripod, white board in position and each frame being paused in my video, its a long, tiresome processof drawing, rubbing out, drawing slightly different then rubbing out. But the most difficult thing I found and my main dissapointment in the final outcome was keeping the camera and whiteboard in exactly the same position to avoid any jerks in the animation. To avoid this I could of closed in on the white board to cut out any of the surroundings of the white board but I really wantes to capture the mix of the 2D with the 3D surround. These are obstacles I can remember when doing it on a longer, larger scale. And to possibly include materials and stop motion 3D objects becoming active in the screen.

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FMP Preparation Work

When considering my work for my Final Major Project I thought about time management for when it comes to the animation. If I’m going to be doing large scale illustrations in a set time period I feel it would benefit me to do practice runs of timed sketches. To gather an understanding of what outcome I have and what level of quality I can produce in certain time periods. It should enable me to have a rough idea of what I can aim for and prevent an incomplete or low quality animation.The nature of the practice illustrations will be similar to the style which will be included in the animation, images that appear to have a story behind, that create thoughts, to whatever purpose I go on to decide for the FMP.

1 Hour 30 Limit...My first practice run I gave myself an hour 30 minute limit to see what outcome I would have, as it shows I didnt complete the illustration, it was an A3 sketch using pencil and charcoal, but even with this result it helps me understand what kind of quality and size I can aim for.

15 Minutes...This illustration, an A4 pencil sketch, was given a short 15 minute limit. When knowing I have little time, parts of detail will be left out, but this is quite often a good thing as its making the illustrator create a peice of work they usually wouldnt produce.

30 Minutes...With this one, I used ink on A4, gave myself a 30 minute time limit and im pleased with the outcome, with more and more timed practices it gets easier to get the highest quality of image produced in the time given. Tthis was one of the images I did when considering an outside project involving a book cover for One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest.

45 Minutes...With the illustration below I gave myself 45 minutes using pencil and charcoal. The sketch is complete to a standard im pleased with, and it’s another one produced for a possible book cover idea.With the practice stop motions and time lapse videos I’ve done, together with the time limited illustrating, I feel its been strong research for my FMP and once the purpose and idea of the final animation is complete I will already have an idea of to what quality I can do it and roughly how long it will take.

The 2 timed illustrations I did as possible book covers, especially the ink one, I felt came out well and to a different style to my usual, most likely due to the time limit, so I did include them in 2 of my ideas for the brief. With the lower ink one recieving high praise.

I was given a small project from an independent printing company operating in Wembley. It was to come up with an initial logo design that I could then develop in the new year when I have more time.The company, SJM print finishing recieves documents such as brochures, packaging and promotional pieces, then carry out the neccessary die cutting, folding and finishing required.For the logo design I was only given one requirement, that the SJM be one connected type and not 3 seperate letters.I put an idea together that I felt could be used succesfully on documents and business cards, and that I can work on and develop to improve in the new year. The owner then emailed me a copy of a delivery note with the created logo in place.

Logo Design

Independent Work

Independent WorkI was given a small project by the Childrens Trust to produce a small events poster for this years Christmas fair. It was to be held in the Cheam Social Club, and the poster would be displayed in 3 of the Childrens Trust shops including the North Cheam Childrens Trust outlet, in the social club itself and delivered in every door down Churchill Rd Cheam which has the 2 locations either end. I was given the requirements of the contents of the poster, date, time, location, whats there etc. And given the requirements of the logo placement, registery number and website. With these I put together with a Christmas theme and a Santa illustration. For the layout I created an enlarged version of the tag the Childrens Trust use on their clothes.I produced four A4 posters for display and 100 A5 for delivery. The fair was aparently a success and the feedback I recieved was that they want to use the enlarged tag layout idea on future event posters.

Independent Creation

Animal HeadsFor external positioning I collaberated with Chris Davis to create a series of prints for Handmade and Bound. Our idea was the combination of animal heads dressed in human clothing, a concept that we think is just really capturing to see. we first wanted to produce them onto gift cards to be sold. But once created and printed we chose to further them into large prints and possible clothing.We each illustrated the initial ideas and took them into screen printing.

Initial Sketches

Here are the illustrations, edited in illustrator and photoshop, printed on acetate and ready to be exposed onto the sreen to be printed..For me the two that are most succesful and appealing are the fox and the deer, these would be the two I would take into further creation.

Ready to expose..

Methods and processes..Coating and decoating the screen preparing to ink, and the after effects of the leftover ink.

I didnt really come across any problems while screen printing, it was the first time I’d done all aspects of it rather than just assisting, and I was pleased with the way it went, I felt I’d learnt a new skill in a way.

Finished PrintsThe prints I feel came out really well, there were no mess ups, none that needed redoing, they all cmae out neatly and how we wanted them to. We chose quite pale colour card for them to be printed to enable the detail and the contrast of the black to be clearer.To develop further we will print with alternate coloured ink and produce on a larger scale and think about a clothes brand.

Clothes Brand Idea

Here are printed tshirts with our themed animals on to give an idea of what the clothes brand would look like. My chosen name for the brand would be ‘Forest’, with the obvious theme of forest animals in human clothing. These are just 5 basic white tshirt prints but it could always be developed further, different style of clothes, colours, womens wear, and further illustrated animals. I feel the deer, fox and rabbit work really well as clothing and in the future will work on getting further developments and prints of these.

Throughout this first semester I have found the workload heavy, but fortunately its all been assignments that are of my interests so I havn’t struggled too much pushing myself to stay interested in the work. The briefs have had a flexibility to them in which weve been able to be quite open, and take them in a direction we feel would suit our skills. Usually I prefer it when briefs have limits, and push you in a chosen direction but recently I havnt. Its enabled me to include my 2 main interests of illustration and video making in almost every assignment set.With my time management I have still let myself down, putting everything off until the last minute, even if the brief has interested me. With a job outside of uni I have struggled to put in the hours needed but I have attended nearly all the classes, and some extra sign ups and meetings.Creativity wise I have really hit blanks on some assignments, mostly external positioning ones, but with ones where I’ve been able to plan it and include my main interests and skills I’ve found I’ve been able to run away with the ideas and develop them throughout, and look forward to taking some even further next year and getting some work included in more created exhibitions.

Evaluation

FMP Proposal

For my final major project I plan to create a large scale illustrated animation, 2D, including 3D stop motion. Through looking at the artists I have, and the experiments ive done, I feel I generaaly have the knowledge on the side of how long it will take depending on what size and what im including. Ive found it takes alot longer than originally thought so I will be better prepared for it when I come to it. Along with the animation that I hope to last 2 to 3 minutes I plan to include a series of still prints in connection with the stop motion, possibly large scale screen printing.

Bibliography

http://www.raeart.page.tl/RAEART.htm

http://www.noahharris.co.uk/

http://blublu.org/sito/video/video2.htm

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/31/50-incredible-stop-mo-tion-videos/

http://sweetspotstrategy.com/whiteboard-animations-great-method-to-explain-concepts