Hello everyone,
What an exciting week! I almost feel busier with this
project than I did when I was in school, but I am really happy with how
everything is turning out so far.
I was a little slower than I would have liked to have been
this week as far the illustrations go. My computer actually crashed twice
during both of my projects, causing me to lose a lot of my progress each time.
I have learned the invaluable to lesson of hitting Ctrl-S for every five
minutes of work I do.
A lot of the work I did this week also involved me going
back over illustrations I had completed, and making sure that they were
formatted in such a way that they could be animated easily. Since I am
beginning to work with elements like clothing, facial expressions, hair, and so
on, the illustrations are going to start requiring a lot more layers, and they
are going to require a lot more detail as far the animations go. I am
essentially learning how to re-paint everything right now.
Currently, the next animations are set to be complete by
Sunday if I can get all of my layers worked out in time. So there’s a lot of
exciting work still to come. With that being said, it’s going to be a very busy
weekend for me.
What I am also working on right now is reworking all of the
page layouts. Thankfully, it’s still early on enough in the project for me to still
do this. What my goal is here is to try and create a slightly more dynamic flow
of the artwork. Right now, my concern is that there are too many illustrations
planned, and the same effect can be achieved if certain ones are cut, mainly
the ones I feel to be repetitive, or the ones that won’t do the text any
justice.
I promised last week that I would talk a little about what
this scene is going to be about, so here it goes…
Basically, my plan for this scene is that it is the dream of
the main character in my novel. The scene is in that sense perfect for this
project, because not only is it extremely visual, but also because it can stand
alone without any context.
The scene is going to take place during a harsh, and stormy
night. It follows the story of woman riding through a dark forest on horseback.
She is mortally wounded, and she is being hunted throughout the passage. On the
verge of death, she races to bring her last, unknown possession to safety.
This is part of one of the illustrations I’ve been working
on this week. It’s not finished just yet, but I figure it would be nice to include a
glimpse of the mysterious heroine.
Talk to you next week!
~Keanan~
I love the aesthetic you've chosen to adopt. Will you publish the animations with the novel online or elsewhere. I guess that could be addressed later. Also, are you going to animate using frame-by-frame animation, or are you going to liberally use tweening (if that's the right term for it).
ReplyDeleteAlso, don't get worried about the project not being on schedule. Literally every artist and writer I know that tried to maintain a consistent schedule could not do so (myself included). Just go at your own pace. This is supposed to be fun after all, don't work yourself out.
Luke.
Hi Luke,
DeleteFor right now, my plan is publish the novel, complete with illustrations and animations, online. Hopefully, once I have finished the book, I would release it as an Ebook.
I love that you are able to spend this trimester pursuing your passion to an extent that your schedule would not have previously allowed. What a meaningful undertaking. Huge milestones, Keanan!
ReplyDeleteI can completely relate to lost work - twice now, I have lost EVERYTHING on my computer! It's a good thing that you're learning these lessons early. :)Since your work is quite intensive, does it also freeze up the computer more often? Are you actually using the "paint" program? Also, when you refer to "layers", is the idea that each layer require additional attention to detail?
Keep up the great work - you are such a talented artist!
Hello Ms. Mitrovich! Thank you for your support! I'm really glad that you like my artwork!
DeleteThe speed and functionality of my program is pretty much determined by how many layers I have up at once, and the number of layers depends entirely on what the illustration is.
Basically how I layer the painting to be animated is I visualize the entire painting like it is 3-dimensional, and I work from the bottom up.
In the painting above, the sky is the very bottom layer. Then the next layer on top of it is the stars, then the moon, then the clouds, then the moonlight, then the grass, then the trees, etc.
This is just one kind of layering technique that I chosen to use though. Some artists use layers (much like in the way you describe), to help with coloring objects. The bottom layer would be solid, basic colors, kind of like what you would see in a cartoon. Then they add layers of highlights, and layers of shadows to create realistic values for the objects when they blend all of the layers together.
Keanan this looks really cool! It reminds me a lot of the Belgariad!
ReplyDeleteWoah Keana, I love how your personal style is really shining through your artwork. Keep up the amazing work!
ReplyDeleteHi Keanan, the picture definitely brings a thrilling sense to the heroine! I love it! Do you have any plans on how you'll make the animations more dynamic, like you wanted?
ReplyDelete