Goro Fujita

Back when I was in school when I started becoming more interested in the behind the scenes of the animation world I came across Fujita's work.

He has been a visual development artist for DreamWorks and worked on well known feature films such as Megamind.

I have always been a fan of his digital designs and drawings he creates in his spare time.

The backgrounds are stunning and I love his use of colour to bring magic into his enviroments. 

I like how he has a naturalistic way of painting yet the trees and creatures in his backgrounds are imaginative and alien looking. 

I can see how referencing from life and seeing how colour/lights work in the real world can really help make your fictional world believable.

Experimenting with cells and acrylic

Background project

Finally finished off my background project work.

Found it strange at first to go back and improve some of my old art work.

However, learning about the basic design principles and actually applying them felt really good.

Normally when I draw I just start and see where the line takes me.

but

I saw how using little tricks and choosing the right colour pallet can take a drawing/painting to a whole different level.

Learning to really think about what your center of focus is and what you are trying to bring forwards or hide before drawing something out.

Halfway through Background designs!

Only 13 more to go!

Everyone in the group seems happy with the designs so far and I am pretty happy with them too.

Seeing them all together is a big relief. 

The one tricky thing about layered/textured backgrounds has to be keeping it the design consistent.

I am glad the images flow well together. 

Never thought I would enjoy background design but I am really getting absorbed in the whole process.

Go team Fire Horses! Soon the animation can begin!!

Old life drawings

I miss using colours in life drawing.

Will need to try it again next session.

Also found out that trying to digitally paint from life is also very good practice for observing light and natural tones.

More background work for groupproject

Lots and lots of layers.

The puppets will eventually be animated in aftereffects.

I need to make sure the backgrounds aren't extremely contrasted as the puppets will need to be the sharpest. 

Extreme black and white characters with layered/textured backgrounds.

Shadows and light

Observing light and how it structures and curves.

Animation vs. Life drawing

The joy of lipsync

First go at lipsync and I love it!

Normally we would be given a sound clip to animate to but this time we were given the freedom to choose a phrase

AND

we also have to animate the correct British sign language to it.

Genius idea.

During the process of animating I also found out that a girl in my class who is deaf actually found she could understand more of what was going in old exaggerated animations than the simplistic animation we tend to see today.

It made me think, why don't we have animated cartoons (not just for kids) that sign while talking.

Its not like the actions will be distracting from the plot or anything in fact it could even make the emotions more exciting.

If more animations like this exist, it could make it easier for everyone to enjoy films or series 

together without feeling isolated or different.

Just a thought.

Understanding the rhythm

 We had the wonderful opportunity to sketch contemporary dancers at the university.

I've always wanted to do this but never got the chance to.

We've also been told we can come back when we want to sketch more!

It was hard to capture the fast movements but trying to capture the energy through gesture drawing was really exciting.

Sketching with my new ink brush pen was also perfect for it.

Was a bit messy but I think the heavy strokes emphasized the weight and shadows nicely.

Concept art/Background designs

I love my group.

Our Penryn project is coming along really well.

We've got our final storyboard and have begun our next step.

For me that is background designs and layouts.

Feeling confident on my backgrounds but will have see out my layouts turn out.

Movement and cloth observations

Life drawings from a previous session

Atmospheric backgrounds

Worked on Photoshop but wanted to achieve a sort of watercolour texture to the drawing.

Also red trees are beautiful attention grabbers.

Love how the red leaves seem to bleed into the sunlight.

Working on my depth of field and colour palette. 

Trees and light and...stuff

Experimenting with cool and warm tones.

Probably not the best background for animation but I'm having fun anyways.