The work I have submitted here is a collection of pieces from my two previous years of study at Newcastle College. During my time on the FD Animation course here I have covered a wide variety of techniques and the work I have chosen to submit here reflects very different procedures.
The first piece I have submitted here is part of a live brief for BluTack, the objective of which is to produce a 30 second animation encouraging the viewer to buy their product. Since BluTack is such a malleable material I decided to use stop motion in my response, and it has worked brilliantly so far. This is a work in progress at the moment, so I included a short video of how it looks so far.
The next three images document a brief from my first year in which I designed, modeled, rigged and animated a character based around the British steam engineer and inventor Richard Trevithick. It was my first attempt at any real digital modeling, but a great way to learn a lot about character design in general, and expanded my digital proficiencies dramatically. I hope to re-visit this character at some point and develop both the model and animation.
The third part of my online portfolio is dedicated to another work-in-progress, this time a music video for local Newcastle band Ryoga. The finished project will be split into four scenes through out the course of the song, each represented by a different form of animation or film documenting the voyage of a paper boat. The wolf puppet and screenshot I have shown here are taken from the second scene of the film, in which the paper boat passes into an eerie forest, animated in the style of a shadow puppet show, reproduced using a layered set built within 3D animation software.
The final two images submitted are part of a series of screen prints i produced for an exhibition and launch party for a local arts and culture magazine. It had been a long time since I had attempted this kind of work but found it thoroughly enjoyable to try something a little new. I plan to produce several more prints during my summer, and perhaps explore etching as a illustration process as well.
Over my past years of study I have found a great passion in animation and illustration, one which has driven me to develop my own skills dramatically, and has reinforced my interest in a career within the industry. In particular I feel drawn to more traditional techniques of production, especially working in three dimensions, building and animating stop motion puppets, set design and rotoscoping. The opportunity to explore illustration is also very attractive to me, as it is an avenue I am very passionate about but have found little chance to incorporate into my current course.
The course at Manchester Metropolitan University appeals to me because of its broad area of study and excellent reputation. I feel it would cater for my own personal development in the fields I am most interested in, and being in a city with such an expansive art and culture scene would fuel my inspiration enormously.
