17th February- 5th March
For my collaboration I worked with 2nd year Yuchen Wang also known as Red, and their project idea, called Hunting night. The project is about a father and daughter who go hunting in the night for rabbits and the father teaches the daughter how to use and shoot a gun, which at first the girl is hesitant to kill rabbits, but eventually she kills a fox.
We spoke about what roles we wanted to take, along with Jude, another 1st year in the project. The communication between the 3 of us was clear through the group chat we created on WhatsApp as well as through email. I was assigned the roles of environment and background concept art, Red was very open to any style and ideas as well.
Red provided us with a storyboard and animatic, as well as the pitch of the whole idea through a shared OneDrive folder, so that we could understand everything clearly. I used some of the screenshots from both the storyboard and animatic for the base ideas of the environments.
Images by Yuchen Wang(Red):
I created a mood board for references on different landscapes and ideas on grassy nights, since the setting takes place at night, so I needed to see what shades would work well and colours.
My Mood Board:
I used both Photoshop and Procreate for the concepts and started by sketching out the layouts and horizon lines. I definitely applied skills that I learn in the lectures of Perspective drawing with Vanessa Luther- Smith when creating the concept pieces
Then on different layers I used various brushes and tones, experimenting with colours and light/ shadows to create the desired atmosphere and also used brush textures for the grass, houses and the sky. Taking reference from other concept artists such as Vangelis Soul on instagram, and work by Studio Ghibli.
I really enjoyed the role I was given as it is an area in the animation industry which I love and wish to work in Professionally. I enjoy Concept art design in general both environments and characters and this gave me a little experience into meeting tight deadlines.
I think that I need can improve my art skills further, by trying out different Softwares such as blender and see different art styles outside of my comfort zone to allow me to grow more as an artist. What I found challenging was making the environment feel 3D even though it was created purely in 2d. I wanted to make the backgrounds feel as though you could walk in them and I tried my best within the limited time I was given to complete the projects.The feedback that I received was quite positive from Red, as I had shown previous examples of work that I had created, which they really liked and everything ran smoothly between both parties.
I found it useful to see what the expectations will be from me and the skills required to create my own project in the 2nd year. Through this simulated work experience I gained a little more insight into the quality of work and what will be needed at the pre production stage of an animation project.
Shots used as reference from Red’s Animatic vs Concept interpretations:
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