James Annandale MSc Animation

 This MSc has been filled with ups and downs with regards to both the work and in my personal life - having become a Dad for the first time, losing my best friend to cancer and now getting married. There have been some pivotal changes in direction work wise - from wanting to learn CGI and Z brush to Motion Graphics combined with Futurist painting to Illustration and finally the desire to become a Character Designer and Concept Artist. When I decided the latter was now my main aim things started to fall into place and I was overcome not only with excitement and new found ambition but also the feeling I've made the right decision and I'm now on a lifelong journey of learning, self-improvement and discovery. I've consciously tried to listen to the feedback I've received and make the most of the professional insights from Kieran and the other lecturers throughout the course. Each time I've been given a piece of advice it has led to the development of new work or clarity...

For the final version of my portfolio I had a very in-depth critique with Kieran, he suggested I change the format from portrait to landscape so it would be more appealing on laptops and desktop. The font was also changed and the title pages removed to make it more concise and streamlined.  We also talked about the presentation and layout of the pages and reduced the number of characters initially shown. Overall I'm very pleased, you can view it below...

Looking back through my work from the MSc, I would have liked to complete more coloured artwork as well as having touched on some simple animation however the time just didn't allow for it. I did find just enough time though to watch this tutorial on animation assist in Procreate... I then started work on the design at the top of the page, which is a still image taken from a sequence. I plan to finish a full colour version of this animated clip once the course is finished.

After I reworked the facial features in the Briar turnaround Kieran suggested I also look into different types of lighting and try to improve the coloured Briar pose by creating a scene and adding some directional light.  This led me to watch another online course by 21 Draw... This was fantastic and gave me a whole new workflow to learn. I also researched some characters from Star Wars for reference... ...then went on to design the illustration at the top of the page.