Age UK Final Patterns

I've finished the patterns for what I presume is a book cover, it's a very graphic design type sort of thing that takes imagery from stockport architecture (a whole theme of memory of and around stockport has been the main motif throughout the module), I like think that architecture plays a big part in our memories and I'm sure french writer Victor Hugo shared that sentiment too. Below is a drawing I had to do with my favourite pattern of the two

This project which was a supplement to the animation I did for Age UK ended up taking too much of my time and being a very uncomfortable task and I think that's due to the whole graphic design mentality of its creation.

Finishing The Big Sleep

I have completed my task of getting my book cover design for this year's penguin/puffin awards done. I don't think it is portfolio worthy since what I submitted was rushed and I didn't experiment enough in emulating the effect of the stain glass look, until I create a revised version where more texture is on certain details and lighting/tone is used cohesively I won't put it in my portfolio, The use of fonts also haven't been experimented on. Overall the composition and the whole look of it in general is satisfactory and shows what I originally intended, I do hope the judges like it and instead of seeing it as a finished design they see it for the possibilities it can become.

Dissecting the elements you can see I use a typewriter font to evoke a sense of the time the book is set, Marlowe's hat is another signifier. The stain glass and the image of Marlowe catching Carmen is (to me) extremely iconic when you ignore the usual cliche's of the private eye image. I chose this image as a subject because it's one of those moments in the story where your attitude towards it changes by the end of the book. I had to make a decorative pattern but the shapes had to represent something, A chessboard is too obvious and looks repetitive so I chose orchids and made it look like a jungle, a metaphor for LA is a steamy jungle like the green house where Marlowe meets his first client. The tone of the cover the use of black spots corrupting the colours and the idea of Phillip Marlowe being this illuminated figure like the old knights on the stain glass windows was inspired by this qoute I found printed behind another Phillip Marlowe Novel.

The majority of the cover was done in photoshop, images were scanned for the purpose of texture, this included pencil shading, smudges and acrylic paint brush strokes on paper. My only regret is that I wish I had done more stuff so capture the stain glass look since I know photoshop air brushes is not the only way to go about it.

Animating an Image

It's been a hectic week as I've buried my head in my work, from the recent Age UK (Dialouge ignites Change) project I've chosen to do a continuation on that brief where this time I'm animating the image that I made for it. Because the original image was not planned to be animated at first and since I lost the work files I've had to redraw and paint the image so that the background acts as a matte painting for key frames and cel layers to go on top, in essance I've divided the original picture into layers so that they can move freely.

I recently bought myself a wacom cintiq pen tablet and display to help me work a little more precise and efficient, ideal for doing hand drawn animation and I gotta say it's comfy to work with. With this I've drawn the character and key frames quicker than if I were to scan, clean and trace.

Things that are to be animated have been redrawn and although they aren't perfect to the detail of the still image I've worked from they are more clean, bright and fluid looking. This will be my first animation so I hope to show it off before Easter and to a nice quality that reflects my skill level with the new software and techniques I'm using. The new software I'm using is Adobe After Effects which can make for some amazing results. My classmates tend to go for a puppet like animation where as they set a program to move the segments, it's a neat way of getting to grips with the software but I'm trying to avoid that. Hand drawn animation has a warmth to it and that's what I want to see, it's what I bought a cintiq for.

Starting the Big Sleep

Before I came up with a look to be reviewed by my tutors I made a catalog of what I call "thumbnails" a term for short rough sketches made to communicate ideas to work on. I did this because I wanted to avoid making the mistake of doing an illustration with a hefty amount of effort and work only to slap on text that didn't gel well with the illustration. So as you can see both the text and images are made togeather so to fit eachother. Elements such as texture and gradation are relegated to be worked in at a later time since I draw and paint very much like sculpture at times.

Each Thumbnail was voted on by those closest to me, then I uploaded the chosen few to facebook so to gather more opinions and feedback, The final thumbnail (or rough) was a response to people from facebook and made by merging the best traits of what people seemed to favour.