James Annandale MSc Animation

  Although I'd suffered a little hiccup in the progress of designing Briar I was really excited to start adding colour to the line design. The first thing I did was select a basic colour palette and fill in the main large areas... I then changed the layer type to 'Luminosity' to check the values worked well with each other... I was happy with the above, so duplicated the layer and converted the layer type back to 'Normal' then went onto to select a base colour for all the other parts of the design. Then I chose one tint and one shade for each base colour and displayed them to the right of my design for easy access, then used each on a separate layer. I also used the same technique I discovered last semester when creating a glow for my sword design (selecting Guassian Blur, then duplicating the layer twice and changing the layer type to 'Add') to create a crimson glow around the bow staff. I was really happy with how this developed... Lastly, I've recentl

 Next up I re-watched part of Randy Bishop's online Character Design course on '21 Draw' to see what he said about creating an expression sheet and I referenced some of his work on facial expressions when creating them for Briar. This was one of the most challenging but also enjoyable pieces of drawing I've done for quite a while! I found myself making the expressions as I tried to draw them which took me back to drawing as a child, it was tough trying to keep the facial feature recognizable and on key but very satisfying when I'd finished one that I felt expressed the correct emotion. Here is what I came up with...  Then I went on to use the initial front-on head-design to create a sheet of varying mouth shapes incase this character ever needed to be animated talking. Again this was something I haven't drawn probably since I was last in University 15 years ago and was very enjoyable because of this. I Google searched some mouth shapes then incorporated them int

Eve sent me a link to a YouTube video about using a bow staff (because that is Briar's weapon of choice) which was really good, I also thought I'd use the face of the instructor as a starting point for my design of Briar's head. Below is a picture of the instructor and above my first sheet of head designs. Starting top left I worked my way right trying to iterate as much as I could while keeping the same style of hair... I continued to play around with the design changing the shape and height of the forehead and hairline as well as the angle of the nose and mouth.. I then asked Eve for feedback and she chose the design to the far right on the top line of the first sheet but asked if I could make the forehead smaller... Eve then chose the head four along from the left and I went on to design another hair do for one of the other outfits for the character.  

  Last semester I started collaborating with my fellow student Eve on a personal fantasy project of hers. She asked me to design one of her main characters, Briar. I drew the rough sketches below midway through last semester then due to time running out, didn't get chance to develop them... But using the reference material Eve gave me and having several discussions about the design I went on to draw the following designs (shown at the top of the page) the one to the left shows an extra belt which Eve asked to be removed... Happy with the above design I went on to design an expression sheet, hair variation and lip-sync sheet which I'll share next...

Next up I took the following sketch and imported it into Procreate... I chose to use green as the skin colour, with one tint and one shade to define the anatomy... I then added highlights to the hair, blue jeans and a shadow in the background, it's not finished yet but I'm happy with the progress.

 First thing I did was draw up a turnaround of a sumo character then outline it in Procreate... I then selected a small colour palette dropping in a base colour, one tint and one shade as well as sflat black for the belt and pants. I then used a grey on another layer and changed the setting to 'multiply', added more highlights and a textured background. I went on to share this design in a Facebook group for Concept Artists and Illustrators which led to a lot of very good if not slightly brutal feedback. The crux of this was: ALWAYS use reference material when creating artwork practice drawing shape and forms really work on my knowledge of anatomy, proportion and balance A number of people did comment that they could see this was meant to be a character with exaggerated proportions however it would be good to brush up on the fundamentals. This was similar advice to that which Kieran gave me for my video so will take it on board and practice, practice, practice the fundamentals a

 Part of the feedback I received from Kieran for my Semester 2 video was to create a clear road map for the remaining time on the course. Taking this into consideration and attempting to reverse engineer my goals by working backwards I started to look again at finding employment in the Animation industry and what steps to take to help achieve this goal. I came across a really good video by Jake Parker who splits the this task into 3 sections:  1) Ability 2) Familiarity 3) Timing Although the full video was very helpful, the first section on 'Ability' really gave me a good idea of what to aim for which led to me making some key decisions about how to structure the time I have left.  As you can see above the first thing Jake recommends is that you get a very good grasp of the fundamentals of art (Kieran had also said something similar to me in my feedback) and also practice like mad till you've mastered your craft (so that your work can be on par with the work shown in 'A

First task I decided to take on since starting the 3rd Semester was a turnaround sheet of my Robo Samurai design. I only drew a front and profile view to add to the three-quarter I did last Semester as any more wouldn't have fit comfortably on the same screen. I do intend to design a back view but right now it's more important to me to move on to new designs. I've started to build a website which will have a combination of old work and new to start with. I want to have this finished as soon as possible as I'd like to start reaching out to Industry professionals as well as my peers to get feedback. I plan to update the website when I finish the MSc in August.

 After the birth of my son Joe I took some time away from work and spent it with family, I'd managed to finish my assessment video early and had no other work to complete. Yesterday was the first day of the 3rd Semester and I'm raring to get busy again, iPad at the ready!  Considering my new ambition to work as a Character Designer and Concept Artist, last semester my lecturer Kieran suggested I buy some 'Art of...' books so that I can see what the Pro's are creating and how they're presenting their artwork. This was a great idea so I searched through a long list on Amazon and selected a handful of books from Games and productions that I was most drawn to. The first three of these beauties arrived yesterday! Sticking with my Samurai theme I ordered The Art... 'Ghost of Tsushima', 'Raya and the Last Dragon' and also 'Assassin's Creed - Valhalla'. I also want to buy 'The Art of Overwatch' which is next on my list! :D