Environment thumbnails 3

                        I tried taking in Alan's feedback and followed the rule of third and make the environment look suitable.

Chirper Character- Expression Sheet

Drawing from the clay model allowed me to sketch out an expression sheet easily for our main character. This is to show what kind of expressions the character may be making in the animation. When it comes to rigging our character, we may need to use blend shapes to create these expressions. I don't think we will use all of these expressions in the final piece, I just think it's a good idea to establish how the face moves. For example the eyebrows could be raised or rotated to convey different emotions, also the mouth could be made to do the same.

Character Body Thumbnails

After making a clay model of our main characters head, I thought that his body didn't match in quite the same style. Since this character (Chirper) is based on the twitter logo, I looked to real birds for references. I've come up with a few rough sketches that could be used for Chirper's final character design. Some feedback would be appreciated for this.

Environment design thumbnails

Environment Thumbnails 

For the start I was thinking of keeping it simple for the environment and give more importance to the character but then I felt that it might look too empty and not very "real world" like so I decided to add some features in the next thumbnails.

Narrative- Character Sketches of Twit

I've taken one of my characters from my last thumbnails and did a little more work on him. I think he should look more human yet have some bird features, as he is meant to symbolize the Twitter icon. I also thought that a suitable knick name for him could be 'Twit,' short for Twitter and also means foolish person.

Narrative - Character - thumbnail

I tried to create some characters inspired by social network but also find a way to express his shy,innocent personality.

Narrative Story- Character Thumbnails

In our story there is a character who expresses himself through social media. He is the living embodiment of a social network site, so this was an interesting motive for character design. I have done a few rough sketches of characters based on social media sites and their logos.

1. Facebook- I felt he would have a long, straight figure, and every part of him has angles. I also based the shape of his head on the Facebook logo.

2. Twitter- The icon for twitter is a blue bird, and so I based this character's design on that idea. I particularly like this sketch as he looks like a human slowly transforming into a bird.

3. Emoji- The third character was based on an emoji, but when I finished the sketch it reminded me a bit of a fried egg. I'm very fond of this design as the emoji theme is far to obvious and I think something discrete will work better for this character.

4. Facebook- Another character based on the Facebook logo. This one is shorter and in my opinion, looks a little cutesy.

5. Tinder- Nothing screams good social skills like Tinder. This character may work if the theme for our animation was 'love,' but I don't think it'll work in the context of friendship. Still it was good to get ideas down.

6. Instagram- This one may be my favourite, as I like his face. The logo for Instagram is a camera and that perfectly represents what social media is now. People taking photographs and looking at other photographs. This character is one that likes to watch and observe other people.

7. Tumblr- The logo for Tumblr heavily influenced the design of this character, as I tried my best effort to make his face in the shape of a 't'.

8. You Tube- His face is based on the logo of You Tube and a widescreen television. This character was a quick sketch and I'm not particularly fond of it.

Feedback from anyone would be much appreciated as I think some opinions are needed. I don't want any of these characters to be the final design, as each one of them is based on one social media site. I would like the character in our story to represent social media in general, with out singling any websites out. 

Narrative Story Idea- Behind the Screens

A story idea I came up with follows the activities of two characters. One spends a lot of time alone on his phone and computer whilst the other seems to have a perfect life, going out, dating and socializing. The animation follows their lives, showing them in a parallel split screen. At the end it is revealed that they are the same person, living a virtual life on the internet. The last shot is of him on his death bed, alone with just his laptop. This story is to point out how much time people spend on the internet, putting together their ideal lifestyle through social networks. I think that this story fits in with the theme of friendship as this is a person with virtual friends instead of real ones. It also fits in with the theme of behind the scenes, as it show two sides to how this character is living his life.    

Animation- First Thoughts

Our group brief is to make a short animation about something that goes on 'behind the scenes' with the central theme about friendship. The short video is also to include a split shot view, showing two different scenes happening along side each other. So the first idea I've come up with is following two friends who have an argument and storm off away from each other. Then each character goes about their day in the absence of their friend. They soon realize how unhappy they are and the next time they meet, they make up. I know that this story sounds simple and a bit boring, but we only have around two minutes to create something based on the themes given  to us. I reckon this animation could work well with strong, atmospheric shots of the characters and the environments they're in. This may work well with the main characters being 3D animated with the backgrounds to be 2D animated. Doing this could make it easier to compose the animation, as the backgrounds wouldn't have to be modelled and rendered in Maya. 

Ideas for our Studio Name

                                               
                                      
Ideas for our Studio Name



Lofty Studios


Crescent Moon

Radiant Cube     }    Our Final Group Name

Golden Apple Studios   

Frostbite Entertainment  

Glass Prism Productions   

Obelisk Pictures   

Eclipse Animation



We also did some thumbnails for some of the names above and tried to see if any seem to stand out or if any seem too dull.

The top image above is a quick thumbnail I did for the Radiant Cube Studio. We will be uploading more thumbnails soon.