Starting My Final Piece

Before starting my final piece, I experimented with a few different lighting situations:

Natural light with bulb

Natural light

Bulb

Bulb with flash

After reviewing these, I decided the best one to go with was the third down, because that would be the most consistent light that I would be able to work with through the day, and I feel it gives the model a nice even glow, which will allow viewers to see all of the features clearly. 

Whereas the other pictures either flash and give a dark shadow in the background or rely on natural light which changes throughout the day, limiting my time to work on it.

Now that the camera is set up and the lighting sorted, it's time for me to start animating!

My Actual Final Storyboard...

I made a few changes to my storyboard since I started production... Because some of the ideas I was going to use didn't work out as well as I had hoped, so I generated some new/reused old ideas to create this:

I think this story flows a lot better, and tells the story that I want it to in a slightly more humorous and easier way then what I had created previously.
I had the clock zooming towards the character because I wanted the audience to get a glimpse that it's a clock, so that they know what's happening when she's pushing it away.
I decided adding in a showreel of my work over the year was appropriate to show my classmates what I have achieved, and it ends with the phrase 'animated by Alex Neild' which fits in nicely to end the presentation.

Inspiration for My Exhibition

I took part in a ceramics workshop in March, where our class got the chance to make armature models!

I found the whole process very interesting, and took pictures at each stage of the development of my character.

After seeing all of the photos next to each other in order, I realised I could create a stop motion piece of an armature model being built, and then animate a turn around of the model, doing actions with his arms (such as pulling out a gun/waving/putting on his hat?)...

It would inform the audience how a model is made, and imply that I am interested in developing my character designing/animating skills in the future; which will also give me a chance to practice using stop motion!

Pictured to the left is part of the process I blogged about for another project, which you can see in full here:
http://a-neild251171-sp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/ceramics.html

Final Idea

This is my final idea:

I decided doing a time lapse would be the best way to show that I want to develop my character designing/model making in the future, because it shows the process of making a model.

I will set up a white sheet of paper as a background for my 'studio' at home, which will allow the focus to be aimed on the model. 

This is my final character design:

Blue Lines = Wire

Black gun on left hip...

Side view

I have decided adding hints of colour (red and black) will make the piece more interesting and vibrant rather then just a white model on a white background.

Animated Self - Research

I decided for my exhibition I would explore the fact I want to develop my model making/character designing skills, for stop motion animation and generally. Recently I have been inspired by several artists who use stop motion, such as:
Mackinnon and Saunders. After watching a lot of films such as 'The Corpse Bride' and 'Frankenweenie' using the models that they created, I have been intrigued to look at how they make their work.

Aardman are also a good company that have inspired me:

Both of these companies are two of the best in the business; the facial features are simple yet describe the character so well, and their armatures are very advanced.

I will take inspiration from them to make my own work.

Animated Self

The most recent task we have been set is 'Animated Self', which is all about exploring any technique/topic that you want to develop next year.
I knew straight away that I wanted to do more stop motion, since I haven't done a lot of it this year. This doesn't mean I'm narrowed down to doing stop motion for the rest of my time on my course, but it is something I want to develop further.

After I had established this, it became about deciding what to do with stop motion...
Another area I want to improve upon in the future is character designing/animating. Because I feel if I can give a character a personality and bring it to life, I can do the same with anything and start to think about other elements that go into an animation (inanimate objects, backgrounds, audio, etc.)

Here's some ideas I sketched after coming to this conclusion:

After considering these I decided the best way to show development through my year on this course is to take a character design I have already done and refine it.
I could also take this opportunity to display the process of how a model is made, from applying the milliput to coating it in plasticine... I think this will interest audiences who don't know a lot about animation since they will get to see the process.