2D animation

Bot,Kurt and Lamp Experiment

Breakfast at Tiffany's; analysing Mise en Scene from the opening

Anaylsing the Mis en Scene from the opening sequence, an establishment shot is shown of a classy, city street. The use of props includes subtle foliage, softly glowing street lights and regal, white buildings suggesting this is a city of luxury. The colours are pale; mainly white connoting a dreamy and innocent atmosphere. Light colours are used to highlight the fine details in the setting and props, emphasizing the beauty within the frame and establishing the films appeal.

Within this shot a yellow cab enters the scene, iconic at connoting this is New York City. An elegantly dressed women leaves the taxi and walks towards a stylishly sophisticated building, Tiffany’s. The use in costume emphasizes the woman’s status as her glamorous attire shows her wearing a lavish pearl necklace and a long black formal gown, this implies to the audience that she is wealthy and takes pride in her appearance. This is a successful use in mise-en-scene because it establishes to the audience this character’s noble status and subtle gracious personality.

The establishment shot it also successful at creating this romanticised presence, it is here that the audience can see where the film is set as an iconic yellow cab enters the scene it automatically connotes to New York, more mise-en-scene is reinforced with the urban location having concrete streets, lamp posts and lack of foliage; with these conventions however the scene looks stylish, the street-lights are on but the sky is getting light this allows the audience to assume that its morning, this is a strong use of mise-en-scene as it emphasizes the beauty within the frame connecting back to the films appeal with its use of lighting.  

The woman begins to open a white paper bag, connecting back to the white pearls and white street; this reinforces the ideas of innocence and purity. She begins to eat her breakfast outside the shop which is shown to be a jewelry shop. The imagery is similar to the idea of a child eating sweets outside a toyshop, this is effective again at linking into the sweet innocent characteristics of the character as well as the glamorous and idealistic visual appearance she wishes to present herself as.

The mise-en-scene used within the opening sequence is very successful as delivering the films context, using visual codes to create the charming atmosphere the films is ready to deliver. The entire mise-en-scene foreshadows the films focus on image, wealth and naivety.

Assignment 1

Character shapes, forms and proportions

When starting this assignment I drew some rough character figures, drawing out my ideas I had for the different shapes and form my characters would have.

Choosing a female character for the owner I wanted her to be lean with long legs so I sketched out some long, narrowed ovals for her limbs. A slight curvaceous torso; leaning towards pear shaped, I drew a small-medium circle for the bust and a medium-large circle for the booty, connecting them together drawing thin curved lines to emulate a slender waist. Finally I wanted fairly big cartoon head to take further advantage of messing with usual human proportions and adding a long pony tail trail to follow.

For the pet I chose to animate an overgrown duckling because ducklings are adorable and I wanted the duckling’s cute connotations to contrast the grumpy personality I was thinking up for him. I wanted my duckling to be very big and cushion like in comparison to my skinny doll like character, making it easy for her to sink comfortably amongst his big feathers.

Preliminary Character Design- Female Owner

With my characters I wanted them to have contrasting personalities, the owner being very optimistic, energetic and nimble- the pet however is grumpy, lazy and sloth like. Wanting to incorporate their personalities within their designs I listed features I wanted to include, listing the characters age range to be between 17-21 to embody the energetic and optimistic approach to life youth has. I wanted my character to have black features and so sketched out different lips using for reference celebrities like Halle Berry, Beyoncé, Rihanna and Rita Ora.

I also looked at concept art of Tiana and Moanna from Disney's 'The Princess and the Frog' 'Moanna', getting a basic line technique to how they drew black features like noses and lips, and how to make it look realistic from different angles. Also focusing on hairlines and brows from both influences.

I drew out five different face moulds to experiment illustrating different facial features, this works well because it gives me a wide range of different options I can choose from for my final design. To finalise my decision I listed which eyes, nose, lips, brows, face shape and hairline I liked most; for me Version 3 was my favourite but found it odd I only chose two of her characteristics for my final outcome. 

Temple

When creating my first model in Maya I was completely clueless on how to create anything, having not ever done any digital 3D modelling before it was really daunting to attempt creating one solo.

When learning how to create a 3D temple in class I felt like I was on the right track modelling one but unfortunately had to leave mid lesson to have my meningitis jab, upon returning to class I was surprised to find I had missed a lot and not knowing the system at all found I couldn't catch up during that session. 

Above is my first solo attempt at creating a 3D temple, I watched an online Youtube tutorial that same weekend following it step by step; taking me just under 3 hours to create it. It's not anything spectacular and lacks any fine details I could draw to paper but I am very proud of it - as it is my first 3D model.

Wanting to learn how I can further improve my Temple I attempted it again with some guidance from one of my course mates who taught me how to use extrude and bevel to create a more diverse range of shapes the effect being to create a more stylised temple by adding more detail. I was also taught how to add a spot light and a filter. Although I am proud of my first temple I am ecstatic with my second one because it looks really pretty and I learned a wider range of effects with my second temple- also how to render a 3D model.