Ghost blog

Hello! It's been forever but I didn't realise I had any follower! However, if you didn't know, I have another blog on my website at rachintaplatts.com. I update that one regularly. More than here anyway. :S

Blast from the past

I've uploaded a music video I did during art foundation. Just a random fun thing to do to avoid actual work. Starring Lars Wijers, Claire Pattison and Jonathan Palmer (aka Awesome Wells). Music: Me Gustas Tu by Manu Chao. Enjoy!

Eyes that follow you

I've finally figured out a bit of Flash. The script was made by a guy who I've never met called Leigh Swift. He's Jane's friend. BUT I figured the eyelids all by myself!! Hurrah! I would also like to thank Niall. If it weren't for a forced one to one tutorial, I still wouldn't have figured it out. Thank you for putting up with me. I give you...

MOONFACE

The blinking might be a bit fast but I'll tweak later.
Now I'll have to do the rest of the website :-<
Oh but i can sleep peacefully tonight.

Seeing red

After watching The Addams family the other night, I wanted to draw a red hair girl with some gothic outfit. I pictured her to have a big wavy/frizzy hair with cream dress and some kind of pose but she ended up looking like this. I'll improve next time. Also I need a model! Where is life drawing class when I needed one!?

I love pink cheeks...

Just an update to show I'm doing something, even if it's a little.

The joy of air drying clay...

So I can create things like this! It's a gift for my friend, Miriam's 21st birthday which was two years ago but I finished it only a few months ago. It only took three days in total... It had a silk black ribbon around it but I think Miriam decided it was rubbish and ditched it. Though, I can't take the credit for the plinth. That was made by Niall, who is very handy in that department. It'll be Miriam's birthday in a few days, I was hoping that since I gave this one recently, it'll count as a 23rd birthday present but I think that is pretty cheeky.




Apparently, she is in the process of making my birthday present which was last month. I have no idea what it is, obviously but hope I don't have to wait for two years...

Oh yeah, this is what she looks like. I've sculpted her prom hairstyle because it was easier.

dolls, dolls...

Since graduating, I've had a creative blockage on animating so I thought I would like to go back to making things. During the summer, I became a fan of reading the blog of Black Apple who makes lovely dolls with simple template so I thought I'll give it a go. Also it was a chance for me to take out my old sewing machine that I haven't used since A-level Art.


These were my first attempts. I've altered some bits to it and added beads as eyes. The doll on the left meant to have a brown skin colour. I've tried different ways of dyeing the canvas with paint and coffee but the result isn't as successful as I wanted to be. Still, I'm happy with how they've turned out. Oh yeah, I didn't get to use the sewing machine as it was too tricky and I get impatient with any form of machine.


Below is an unofficial Edward Cullen doll. A vampire character from Twilight. I like the golden beads I've sewn for eyes but I should have done it by paint. However, I think Steff is pleased to have him.

Then there's Hannah's present. She likes frogs...and I thought I'll make a mini Hannah with a frog suit. Ta-da. Mini frog Hannah is meant to be brown but I didn't want to ruin the canvas with other attempts to dye it. In the photo, she is sitting nicely next to an adorable pin cushion from the Oxfam charity shop. I like it very much.

Final Attraction animation

Hello, I'm back. I forgot to add a link to my final animation, "Attraction" from last year. I didn't get to do the autumn scene but enjoy! Oh yeah, it says music is done by Jonathan Palmer but he'd rather be known as Awesome Wells. Please check him out :)

cabbage doll

A doll I made for Ana who doesn't like to eat green vegetables.

rough animation

I can't sleep so this is what I have done so far that I have put together. I've got a lot to do... Tonight, I've tried to use masking on AFX but then it crashed and I realised I haven't saved it so I'm going to try again tomorrow. And...just looking at my animation on youtube...not really sure why it's going so fast :S

Yay animatic!

After a lot of fiddling about in trying to make the film smaller, I can now show my storyboard animatic at last. There are a few scenes that I'm not happy about such as some shots, timing etc but this is just to give you an idea of what's the story about. Hope it's clear. Also, forget about the title. I'm still not sure what to call it.

Update

I've done the animatic. Not 100% happy with it and it'll take forever to upload on youtube and I'll have to half it (need to figure out how to make it super small to be able to upload it as a whole animatic. I mean I've rendered it as a draft and half the resolution. Then on Final Cut, changed it into the format suitable for the internet...nada nada nada). So tonight, I give you the background sky. It's a test, but I will use it for the final film after I've jazzed them up in photoshop. The object at the bottom is is a trunkless tree. The top is the summer sky and below it is the spring sky and where the credit is going to roll. I've used the knowledge from the two day animation workshop at Chiddingly Festival to make this. Basically, easy peasy, coloured tissue paper stuck on tracing paper and then shone a light from the back, *click* et voila. Next step is to upload the animatic...

Hairy decisions...

I was going to ask other people's opinion of which hair she should have but then after pondering and a few votes, I think it's best when her hair isn't so big.  

Also suggestions on title without giving away too much?  Row suggested "Hair of Mystery", o ho!

Not much. Doodles of character.

Unfair...she still looks hot with a beard!

Ok, no animatic yet but LOOK! Niall sent me a pic of a bearded Salma Hayek.  Very well photoshopped.  Martin pointed out that she looks like his dad, but he is looking at her from the other side of the studio. Apparently, she's going to star as Madame Truska in Cirque du Freak, which I really want to see when it comes out.  I wonder if beards on ladies will be in fashion after this film and my soon to be amazing masterpiece animation...ha ha haaaa...SIGH.

Bearded ladies revolution!

Mim's present

Made a Rod Stewart cushion.
It's our in-joke.
No one gets it.

In Mim's crib, innit.

This is Miriam. She does design for publishing. I steal her cookies and milk and distract her from working. That is my job. Also I'm leeching her internet.

Animatic is rather delayed but still aiming to finish by tomorrow. Some time in the evening though...
Things to do:
1. line test
2. scan character design & style of animation

I really don't feel like spending the rest of the day staring at the computer on AFX...nor do I feel like walking back home in the horrible wet Norwich. Someone should hurry up in inventing the teleport machine or maybe I just have to pass my driving test.

Boo to yellow Post-it notes!!! Just the yellow ones.

Coming soon...

...hopefully by Monday, an animatic of my storyboard.  Badly drawn but it'll be done.  Having trouble with some of the rescuing actions and the interior of the bearded lady's house.  Anyway, need opinion once I've put up the animatic.  Currently in studio, getting my storyboard roughly done for animatic.  It's Miriam's birthday bash tonight so I'm not sure how much I'll get done.  So I better log out and get on with it.  Ciao :D

Still no internet at home. 

It's 19:05...

...chocolate overload, alone and waiting to watch Jesus Camp.

Had a one to one tutorial with Lloyd Burr today. He's an ex-NSAD animator student. It was helpful but, it sort of confirmed that my animation does look like it'll be over the maximum time. However, I still need to make a timed animatic of it just to be sure. Also he suggested that the bearded lady doesn't reveal herself until the rescue scene. I wasn't sure at first because the bathroom scene was the first thing I thought about in the storyboard and I always play it again and again in my head but yeah, it makes perfect sense. That also means it has shortened the film by a few seconds. Yay! I'm nearly happy with the storyboard so far. Aiming to get it done before Suzie's tutorial tomorrow.

Besides updating the blog, I am currently sketching character design and looking for images of newspaper stalls. The studio will be closing soon, so I'm migrating to the SUbar with the possibility of tea overload, alone and waiting to watch Jesus Camp.

No internet.

Our house isn't a happy house without the internet. I curse Tiscali. I'm currently on Chris' so I can't write much. Also nothing much to say. Boring daaaaaaaaaaaay. Chris is so tidy and clean. Everything is neatly stacked. Neeeeerd, which is the subject of my dissertation! Geek rather... Chris has just informed me of this

No one told me there is a book on it. Anyway, got to go home. It's late.