Personal Work - Tracer Fan Art ~ Blizzard's Overwatch

It has taken me over a week a total of 8 hours to complete this and I am very happy with how it turned out. I am going to be honest and say that parts of it are outlines from a image I took from the game, this was only because I couldn't get the logo or the position of the rings in the right place - the googles were drawn normally but the eyes I had to double check they were in the right place as I needed to do extra layers to get the colours right. But honestly it started out as a sketch and ended up like a professional concept art. Couldn't be happier. 

Personal Work - Trying to draw on a Yoga Book!

Presents Are Awesome! 

Last year my partner got me a Lenovo Yoga book (picture below) it's sort of a mini android powered laptop with a holographic keyboard which turns into a surface like our awesome wacom tablets. It even has a pad of paper that when you draw on that it transcribes onto the tablet - I've yet to try that function due to the limit amount of said paper. 

An Author's & Artist Little Pocket Pal!

The tablet itself is pretty good for android, runs well and functions like it should, but it doesn't match up to the power of a wacom and a computer - I drew the short stick there as I've had to lend my own tablet & pen to my partner for his course as his pen as gone on a walk about and I don't believe that his tablet has any life left. Plans are being made to get me a upgrade so I don't have to be left with having to use Sketchbook Pro on the Yoga. I miss the functions of Photoshop, but Sketchbook offers some good tools for the doodle or the starting point for a good project. Maybe if I'd have gotten the windows version I might have been able to install Photoshop on there as this version doesn't seem to support that. 😕 But functions aside it's going to take some getting used to. I still can't type a sentence out on it without missing a couple of letters or even words. Need to get practising I guess...😏.

''Practice!'' They said....

I love to write, and I love to draw, and to game and to create something. Motivation however has yet to wash over me. I've had sparks and have created somethings but I need something to truly get me back into it. And making this blog into an actual blog.....might just work. 

I love writing, and I love drawing and I can turn both of them into something I might just get somewhere. And maybe.... just maybe it might get me back into that groove. So... to share what I have been attempting to do on this Yoga I present the cutest darn fox you'll ever see and a speedster whose profile needs a lot of work! 

The Little Fox that could.

Tracer (Blizzard's Overwatch Character) Sketch

And to top of my little article here, I just want to say that I hope that my fellow Alumni, fellow graduates or however you'd call them, (nervous laugh) are doing well in their adventures and that they are doing what they love and are happy. 😆

Personal Work: Overwatch Fan Art - Sombra & Where am I?

It was made aware to me that I've very much distanced myself from this blog, from the course and anything that's come from it. I have separated my life from my art and that saddens me. Not only that but a lot of aspects in my life have been blocking my way in terms of finding inspiration to blow the dust of my tablet and re-install Maya.

With a full time job in the mix now I have found myself doodling and sketching things when there is time and it's made me want to start to draw again. So my friends asked me to do a series of fan art from the wheel of games that we play, this being Blizzard's ever popular Overwatch. Earlier in the Summer I did a sketch of Sombra, a character who was released around the time of finals and I never actually got round to finishing her, so I did and now my friends want me to do the entire spectrum of characters. So I've set myself a goal. I have a lot of time off this month and going to blow the dust of my tablet and actually start sketching again. So be ready my old-blog, for a re-vamp and a new light. A blizzard is coming!

Major Project Submission - Big Red Hand Print - May 2017

Final Animation:

UCA Submission Post - Big Red Hand Post from Julia Mason on Vimeo.

Making of:

Reflective Statement:

Update: 3D Assets

@Phil UPDATE: Big Red Hand Print Version 3 No-Effect + Effect + Giraffe B & W

I have completed the list of alterations that were commented on the last version of my project piece. The effect makes the film look completely different, since looking at it completely in the ''nude'' I suppose that is to be expected. Is this the final one? Let us see.....

Version 3: No-Effect.

 

Version 3: Effect's Applied.

 

Visitor Scene Segment with Black & White Giraffe

This is a upload of just the visitor scene with the giraffe turned into a black and white lines image as to oppose to the previous coloured image.

@Phil Update: Apple Pie Revisit + Effects

Applied Effects to Scene

In these following videos I have taken a 30 second clip of the front part of my animation and tested out a few different effects for review.  Each has the same paper effect consistency and I will add toned down editions for the paper texture later on. 

Vin - Effect 1: 

Vin - Effect 2:

Vin - Effect 3:

Vin - Effect 4:

Apple Pie Revisit

After going over the feedback from the previous post I remade the apple pie to looked more like a pie rather than a block. Now I have a slight issue with colouration and what best matches in terms of the crust and the apples in the middle. I made a short clip with the best ones I think match. I prefer the lighter tone for the crust but unsure what compliments it for the apples.

Plate + Pie Render: 
I rendered the Pie sitting on the Plate for a sense of colour as this was probably the best combo of colours that I liked.

@Phil Update: Full Animation Version 2

UPDATE: Big Red Hand Print - Test 1 - Pre-Effect Render

Today I managed to finish complying all the footage for my animation into one composition(bar the shirt asset animation which remains a technical issue until tomorrow!) and animate it in sync with the already made sfx and voice over. There are some kinks that I need to iron out, mainly to do with scene transitions - and add in the shirts - but I love how the whole thing fits together, and the rushed/sketch-i-ness of it all adds to the idea being that it is a recollection of a group of memories.I also love how the Tree, the Plate and the Fly parts all turned out, they have to be my favourite segments!

Final Preparations (My to-do list):

- Fix the transitions between each scene, each frame, make sure they fade in out to white and smoother.

- Add the shirt animation segment in.

- Make sure the visitor scene is rendered out on White background to make the ''blinking'' effect that is occurring on the walking part null out to white and not to black.

-  Edit the exterior and interior line portions of the visitor centre scene. Redo this using flash/animate CC for a smoother connecting line and flow.

- Make sure the ''Red Line'' exists where it needs to.

- Add overlay effects (Paper texture, noise and vignetting).

- Complete Art Of Document!

After I have worked my way through this list I should be golden for the hand in!

Update: Tree

Working on the first part of my animation and I madethe tree scene and will be added effects post-edit.

UPDATE: Added the ''Memory line'' to stairs sequence!

The Infamous red line has seemed to have slipped away from my work, so I asked Alan the best possible way that I can re-introduce it and Voila. Little curves work and I have a working and moving/growing line that appears in the scene with ease. Now to apply this to the rest and we are one step closer to a final animation! It's all coming together!

@Phil UPDATE: Visitor Scene Added POV

I added some more footage to make the POV of the girl walking by the rail more like a rotoscoped video rather than a frame by frame drawing.


This second one is with the effects in place that were discussed in the previous video.

Update: Art of inclusions

I decided to make a few snaps of the newer additions to my art off and incorporate them into the document. Maya is evidently proving to be stubborn with me again, I hope to smooth out the kinks soon. But it is nice to be able to something as simple as taking a few screen shots.

Book Front Views:

Shaded

Solid

Full Toon and Control

Wire Frame

Book Top Views:

Shaded

Solid

Full Toon and Control

Wire Frame

Sauce Pan Front Views:

Full Toon

Shaded

Solid

Wire Frame

 Sauce Pan Top Views:

Full toon

Shaded

Solid

Wire Frame

Book Covering and Interior:

Hawk eyes

Hawk

Girrafe Line

Giraffe colour

@Phil @Alan - UPDATE: Fixed black background and added effects!

I have managed to fix the black background in the book section of this scene and it looks much better!



I have also had a go at adding two effects, firstly a mask that creates a paper-like effect on the whole scene itself and a vignetting effect, I think at the moment it's too much and I might have to attempt to remove some of it with the sliders. Opinion?
 

@Alan @Phil UPDATE: Visitor Sequence Test 1

Happy Easter first of all!

Secondly, I wanted to start my final movie by getting at least one scene near perfect, so I put together one scene that is the first test sequence for the Visitor section of the voice over. I'm not well versed in after effects so honestly, this wasn't a bad first try.

The composition worked really well, so what I @'ed you both for was some editing advice, in the ways of what should really go where and how they should fit together.

For example, the book; should it just ''pop'' up like that, like suddenly for dramatic effect or is there a effect that I can apply to the object to make that transition into view more easier - side note: I tried to match the book to the rotoscoped background and make it so that it appears when the door opens and the camera moved into place, make the book scale as the camera moved close but it didn't seem right as it was all ''jiggly'' when I was trying to key the positions, so I only keyed it from the point the VO says about the book and the camera is close enough to the corner.

I might need to shift the Opacity sliders a little more to make the transitioning of the giraffe/hawk combination appear better but that's honestly my favourite part - side note: Is there a way to make the giraffe follow the opening of the book so it ''sticks'' to it? I mean I know skewing the images work but I'm not sure if I can achieve that within after effects or it's something I have to achieve in Maya. Second side note - I have no clue why that the background changes from white to black as the composition's background is set to default white, is it an Alpha channel issue? Maybe I need to import it with that on/off?

Thanks and I'll be in to spend those vouchers whenever easter break is over :D

Video - Visitor Scene Test 1:

UPDATE: Panning across a shelf scene

Just a scene at the begging of my animation with the photo frames and the word baby that symbolise a growing family.

UPDATE: Stairs Scene

UPDATE: Scene of my Rotoscope footage. - Visitor Scene

Personal Work: February -> March

I have started up a Patreon as a friend suggested that I try to get my artwork out there and I have successfully gained 1 follower who's planning on paying his support which is a start! The past two months have been a rollercoaster of events happening with family and friends, balancing my work has been challenging, so during renders and breaks I've been practising my anatomy and trying to make a living from my character designs. So here are some pieces that I've worked on in the past two months!

This is Yuki or Snow an original character that I came up with. 

Here I zoomed into work on the face and took a shot of it, I am proud that I managed to even do this as I actually avoid faces, hands and feet. 

Another pose that Snow is in, this one focuses mainly on the hands and the face. 

This next one, with the blank face, was a sketch I made to get another example of a pose I wanted to work on.

A younger version of Snow in this one, I wanted to focus on clothes and her ears! 

A logo/business design I came up with, this actually got recommendation and interest on my twitter! :) 

This is pretty bad, to be honest, I haven't studied male anatomy as much recently, but I had the opportunity to sketch this quick fanart of Link in response to the release of the new Legend of Zelda; Breath of the Wild. Which I've not had the chance to play, but have seen played and it looks like a very beautiful game. I'll probably re-work this when I have time. It was just a rough sketch!

UPDATE: Shirt Pile and Single Shirt of Animation

I did believe that this was the last asset to model with toon effects but I completely forgot about the book in the care centre scene! I will model that next, and that should be it! Just need some footage sorted to rotoscope and some advice as to how I'm piecing these two together effectively would be my next step.