Week 8 (10th-14th November)

Been doing a lot of scriptwriting research over the week (see the separate blog post). I'm going to have to redo my script from the ground up. I'm putting too much pressure on myself to make this a perfect script and I don't have the time to do that 

Picked up a lot of poster designing tips during the Wednesday morning class. There's a review session the week before submission, I should really aim to get the poster complete by then


Thursday 13th November

Learned about Texturing today, it was actually quite fun. Even though Substance Painter is SO slow at saving; every time I made one change and saved it would take at least two minutes. Model is by Phil. Tried to stick to a confectionary theme with frosting and chocolate and found the closest thing to a sprinkle brush I could.



Friday 14th November

Scotland Loves Anime event at ECA. Picked up some good visdev tips from Henry Wong
Attended the Scotland Loves Anime event at ECA. Talks included:

Character Design: Behind the Scenes of Housenka/The Last Blossom with Baku Kinoshita 
  • Previous project Odd Taxi was his first original IP 
  • Emphasised the use of silhouette and shape language in character design, and encouraged observational studies of different age groups
Producing an Anime: Q&A session with Ryo Ohyama 
  • Producer of Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
  • Had no idea that anime often catches up to the manga publications and has to start writing their own continuation, which is why Brotherhood was a remake following the completed manga this time
  • Producing gives you the freedom to initiate projects and say "this is what I want to see". Avenue for creatives to explore a wider creative role
  • Producers are in charge of coming up with project ideas, planning, assigning the best studio/director and putting the team together, overseeing the project. Financial too; finding funding, recruiting company's investment and ensuring the project is successful enough for reinvestment
Visual Development: A Talk with Henry Wong
  • Worked in animation for over 11 years: Across the Spider-Verse, K-Pop Demon Hunters, Blue Eye Samurai, Mech Cadets, City of Ghosts, Destiny 2, Runescape, The Division, and Bastille and K/DA music videos
  • He was getting frustrated at the type of work he was being asked to do (lots of 3D renders of designs), so for an hour or two a day he would do studies of visdev artists he wished to emulate for five years. Eventually he started getting job offers for specifically his style, so he quit to go freelance. Now he's in a position where people approach him for work rather than him having to seek it
  • Visdev/concept art sets the ton and look of the whole animation. Establishing the visual identity and personality of characters, while storyboards map out their movements
  • Study colour theory! Was offered a job working on colour keys for Across the Spider-Verse through his use of colour in his daily studies
  • The colour script encompasses the mood and lighting of the whole movie, and colour keys are more about specific sequences closest to the final look. Work can be loose, as long as the 3D team can still understand it. Map out plot rising/falling action to help plan the colour moments and flow between scenes
  • Most of the time in visdev you're doing quick sketches instead of huge illustrations. Be EFFICIENT, can copy/paste and use reference images. Graphic and LOOSE
  • Go to networking events or build a social media following. You don't necessarily have to relocate but you need to be SEEN. It's hard to build online traction, some people film themselves working for the reels/tiktok market, but be authentic and eventually people wil follow you for your art
  • Tailor your portfolio around the studios/type of work you want to do!
  • Most people start out at small studios. Big studios usually only have about 20 visdev artists max, so you will be competing against industry veterans
  • Ideas are like currency; if you only have one precious idea you are more or less bankrupt
  • Remember: if your art gets rejected it is not personal, it is a job and it just might not align with the project


Sunday 16th November

Working on initial character designs finally, want to at least get the inventor sorted first (in theory the easiest design as he's just a human so naturally has design constraints; the robots can be ANYTHING). Starting to get an idea of direction finally. Just starting with head as I don't feel there is as much to explore with body shape. I need to do more cleaned up concepts for portfolio's sake, but perhaps that can wait until after this presentation. Planning to do clay sculpts too to help with speedy idea generation

Also been working on the slightest bit of script development. I'm still running into problems though and it's very slow going. I don't know whether to still try and aim for a 3-5 minute film, or whether to expand the time to around 10 minutes since I'll likely only be doing a trailer anyway. 10 minutes would give me more time to flesh out plot points and character arcs and pacing that I need to. I suppose I should just work on the script and not worry about the length, 10 minutes max for my own sanity though. Post-graduation I can use the trailer and other online content to do fundraising to continue producing the rest of the film (eg purchasing equipment since I will lose DJCAD access)

I discovered House of Automata in Forres, really close to my hometown! It's a huge collection of around 600 automata, ranging from 1800's to famous film pieces. Which is already cool in itself, BUT it could be a really fun and informative source of research if they have any automata with exposed mechanics! I plan to visit when I'm home for Christmas and do some studies of the mechanics (perhaps I can build The Machine to be like an automaton with how the moving parts function, get help from the metalworking department), I can either just wander around the exhibition for £8 or I can book a private talk and tour including the workshops for £45. Maybe I should email them and see


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