Tuesday has been a long day, and not much to show for it. Phil suggested last week that a finalised concept of the buildings in Splay should be done, and today I have attempted to work on this, as well as develop my initial texture concepts for Polished Off.

Fraser MacLean, author of an upcoming book on the history of layout in animation, visited Ravensbourne today to present a lecture on colour theory, as well as provide critique on our own projects. He has had many years of experience in the animation industry, working in prestigious companies such as Walt Disney Studios, and among many more. He made a visit to the college last year and I was fortunate to attend his lecture then. I found what knowledge he had to share to be incredibly useful and inspiring, as was the same for this morning. He used example clips from a couple of animation feature films (The Emperor's New Groove and The Incredibles) and then broke these down piece by piece, analysing in detail the meaning or symbolism of the mise-en-scene, colour and composition.

It opened my eyes to just how much attention is paid to every single shot of a movie. No detail is taken for granted, and everything is put there for a reason, however subtle or striking it may be. MacLean's points are not to be ignored, as they are very much relevant to our projects. In previous years, students have made their short films without considering elements such as composition and colour carefully and this has been very noticeable. We don't want to make the same mistake, but for now I think we are going along the right track.

MacLean spoke to our group about our projects and gave some really helpful advice as to where we should develop style and colour - we will take on board what he said, it was only a shame that we didn't have more time to talk to him. He will be returning on Friday to do another lecture on layout - I don't think anyone in the team should miss this.

Apart from MacLean's visit, Monday hasn't been a very productive day for me, but definitely not as bad as last Friday! I hope to get back into the rhythm tomorrow.

After a search on google as well as www.mayang.com/textures (I recommend this website for any texturing enthusiast) here are a few examples of gritty/rock surfaces. I will experiment with these textures as well as make my own ones or take photographs of different surfaces. Texturing for Splay is in its very early stages but its important that we give it enough time to develop the look we are aiming for.

When leaving college late, you are very lucky be given the most fantastic of views from the top of the hill. Because of the almost panoramic view of the city in the distance, the sky always looks so powerful and epic, and I managed to take these couple of photos on Thursday:

(Yet, these look no way epic!)

I will attempt to take a few more in the next few days. And here are more photos of clouds I captured this afternoon at the football ground just over the road from where I live:



These will be very useful sources of reference for adding texture and form to the clouds in the sky in Splay.

The end of a very productive week for the team. We are beginning to settle into our projects more comfortably, and although we haven't been going at the same frenzied rate as we were last week, we have made an enormous amount of progress in pre-production. After consulting with Mike Smith and Dave Bull earlier in the week, Dan and Phil were made to step back and re-consider some elements in their stories - I think this is a good thing to some extent, as it will push us to better our work and get the most out of it. We should always be open to advice from tutors and lecturers but be also aware of our own creative instincts. Some revisions may need to be done with the story of both films, but now is the time to do so.

As for my own personal development, I may have not achieved as many pieces of concept artwork as I would've liked, but I think however much I had done I would've still felt the same way! However, I feel this week has allowed me to gain more confidence in using Adobe Photoshop; something that benefit me greatly in the future.

It's taken me three days to complete these concepts, but I'm pleased with how they're looking. Since consulting with Dan Dalli the other day, the team have agreed the layout of the Intensive Care room will have to be altered slightly to fit the story better and lower the amount of animation. Most of the props have not been finalised as of yet, but this is to demonstrate colour and lighting in a 3D context. I have also softened the shadowing to achieve that 'Lost and Found' look:

Once I had completed the layout with the lights turned on, Edgley asked me to make another concept of the room with the lights turned off, just before the janitor, Jed makes his entrance:


You may notice in the first image, the lights outside aren't switched on...oops my mistake

Moodboards/visual research collected for both S P L A Y and Polished Off :