FMP Dad character building

NOTE!! IF ANYONE wants some concept art doing / character design etc etc; get in touch. Am willing to help.


..Equally if you're interested in working on this with me, get in touch.

(Final Major Project)

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO IDEA
I'm planning to do a short animated love story. It's about two people we all feel we know, stuck in a viscous circle we wouldn't like to know.. a mother at her tether's, and a father who's nowhere.

Its going to be set in the late 80's, and the working title is 'Wife Left Home'.

Have had the idea in my head for some while, and i'll delve into it a little more another time.

For now, here's the dad character through various stages of development.
As always comments / criticism very welcome.

This was my first page of sketches. I went for the typically brutish sorta look, I quite like the posture of the one to the right. It wasn't right though, I want the character fat.

Page 2 came out with simillar themes, however, I really like the one in the upper right, think it's pretty bang-on for the character I want - fun/fat/alpha-male/brutish/controlled. I want him gentle, but like he could explode.

So there we go. I got to a point where I was quite content with the 8th drawing above (also 5). I think he's got a nice build to him. Bit like a tubby young Marlon Brando, if that makes any sense.

However, gave it a going over the following day, and came up with a more concept-art sort of look. It's less realistic and more caricatured:

Tomorrow's plan is to get the turnarounds done. I think I prefer the first design, but we'll see.

UPDATE - turnaround

Little comic #01

This happened the other day outside Tragos. Everybody loves my dog:

Brilliant:

(source)

New York City

Lets play a game: Whoever can spot all the mistakes wins a clip round the ear.

Data Moshing

Bin learning how to 'data mosh' this morning. Essentially, it's this:



It's the purposeful creation of that effect when your computer seems to screw up when watching a video.

Although it appears like a mistake, I quite like it as a stylized cutting technique, and you can get some quite odd-occurences with it. It is reminiscent of work like Radioheads House of Cards. Altho it doesn't use the technique, its in a simillar vein with the jiggedty visulization of real things. I think there music is quite fitting to the technique too.. electronic/natural, harmonics down the wire.

Anywho, anyone who's interested, here's a good lesson in how to do it. Altho I think the method could be streamlined somewhat in After Effects, its interesting to learn a bit more about it indepth, so check it out:



Some more : One, Two

London

Eloh, ELay, Loollaaa

     

Update on flim

Song: 

Yo. Work on the films going pretty good. I've got almost 2 minutes of animation done and am quite proud of myself getting through that much in less than a month. It's not perfect, its not all lovely and smooth, but it's getting there and it's good enough for what I want, which I guess is the reality of making anything. I haven't done any of the backgrounds, am gunna do them all in one swoop when i'm home.

Am very thankful to have recruited a few helpful hands from the course. You know who you are. It feels good to be able to use those around you as aids when needed.

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Got into David Lynch films recently after happening upon Blue Velvet. Just watched Mullholland Drive, and have got a stack more to go. I really like the way he juxtaposes the 'All American' normal people with the crazy situations that are only fitting in a dream: The young couple is Blue Velvet who get lost in a whirlwind of bad-crazyness. Mullholland Drive does a simillar thing. It kinda feels like one of them films you'd happen upon on a bored wednesday afternoon, skipping school on the settee. Its got all the makings - the sappy music, the plastic dialogue - but then its like its been dipped and coated in this crazy world of David Lynch. I really love it. It goes from being this B-movie, to suddenly being blown away. Its a clever juxtaposition that exemplifies him as a director. For example, the back to back scenes of the two girls rehearsing the scene for her casting audition, then Naomi Watt's actually performing the same scene in the casting audition (warning - spoiler vid) =



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I've got a week left in America now. Arrive back on the 20th, couple of days in London and then back to good ole' Fal.

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Am gettin' really into the way the internet is being used to push things forward. It allows freedom. Check out this post from Ricky Gervais:

What do you think of this? 

A live 3 hour podcast during The Golden Globes. Me and a few chums (like Louis CK, Chris Rock, Karl Pilkington, John Stewart, Larry David popping in and out) doing our own alternative commentary. 

People at home can have the telly on with the sound down listening to us online say things that no broadcaster could get away with. 

No one could do a fucking thing.

The biggest live webcast ever? Who knows? Who cares? What's fun is the shit we might come out with. No money. No sponsor. No guide lines. Fuck me I can't wait. 

Maybe I'll do a non-broadcast practice with The Emmys to see if it works. I'll let you know. 

Yes. Genius.

It seems certain people have the right idea.. Mike Skinner (of the Streets) making music and putting it straight on the web. The South Park guys not caring that the show's been ripped illegally and put on the web - they like it, it means exposure, more people get to see the show, great. & Ricky Gervais there.
There's a whole world of it out there, but what's noticeable with this bunch, is that they're established television people who are pleased to utilize the web. And not just for gimmicky 'tentpole' blogs and webisodes, but actually for pushing it for what it and discovering everything it can be used for.

It seems to me the web & post-modernity go hand in hand. Our generations got a real chance to push things forward. The wealth of knowledge literally at your fingertips. Learn about art movements, learn about forgotten history. It's all out there. The work of this generation is going to be so layered and saturated with meaning and we're all gunna be able to get it.

The net's really gunna push things forward for our generation, and it's gunna be so interesting to watch. When people ask the old fabled question, 'If you could be born in any time period, when would it be?' The futures answer may just be the noughties. Naughty noughties.