Butterfly Test In Scene

Here are some tests that I have been working on over the last few days. After our tutorials earlier this week I was happy with the feedback I got and found the advice really helpful. It was suggested that I produce a very small section as close to finished as I see it all the way through.

I decided that I would take the butterfly, which appears more that once within the sequence and work on this section, as I felt that it includes similar processes to those that I will have to work on for the other sections. 

It includes re branding aspects of the packaging:

Original:

Reworked:

Camouflage:

Buried (2010)

We watched Buried on Saturday. At first I thought this was a litle bit of a strange reference for my work, however I decided to include it as I think it is a great example of how to light a small confined space well. The shots below show different shots of the film in which interesting lighting choices have been made:

Bug Glow Test

 

This is a quick test looking at how the bugs that are going to glow within the scene might do it. The back section of their tail glows, as some do in nature. 

Here are a few examples of glow bugs within nature as reference to the sort of thing that I'm trying to achieve.

Camouflage Test: Animated

After playing with having the butterfly camouflaged to the dishwasher tablet box, I had a play with animating the way it flies on to it.

Camouflage Test

This is an example of the butterfly camouflaged against the washing tablet box. I have played with the symmetry of the wings and I have removed the text from the texture so that it is made up purely of shapes, in order to create a pattern. I have added a little dirt and grunge to it so that it is obvious that there is a butterfly on top, however subtle in terms of expressing the idea of camouflage.

Portfolio Visit: Blue Zoo

I arranged to go an see London based company BLUE ZOO when down in London recently. The type of work that Blue Zoo create is primarily work for children's TV with their own animated series. Although character animation isn't something that I personally see myself going into, with my major project in mind, I felt that it would be helpful to see a company that could give me feedback in relation to my major project.

All of the portfolio crits that I have had up until this point of the course have been great in terms of looking at all of my work and getting feedback on how to improve aspects, things they liked and helpful in terms of promoting myself. I decided that whilst in London it would be great to utilise the opportunity and get in touch with BLUE ZOO in order to help progress my project.

When I arrived at the studios it was a little daunting at first as I wasn't sure that I'd found the right place or not. However fortunately it was the right place and they buzzed me up. The studio itself was a really nice/modern feel to it. When I got up to the studio I was met by Ollie one of the companies directors, who I had arranged the visit with, however he appologised as he had been called into a meeting last minute. However, he had arranged for two of their senior designers to sit down with me which I felt was a great opportunity.

First off all Damian and Mike showed me around their studio, before taking me into their meeting room to take a look at my work. I showed them my showreel and they said that they liked how it included a variety of work. However, they suggested that it was possibly a little too long, as generally you are able to tell within the first 20 secs whether the content of the work is going to be of a high standard.  This was good to hear, as I definitely agree that having a concise showreel would be appropriate and something that I should consider.

This was the first portfolio crit in which I was able to take my Flipbook for my Discovery channel ident. They loved it and said that they wish that more people took something that they could hold. I was really happy with this as I've wanted to get a flipbook made for a while now and I think that it is something different that when visiting companies, they could remember me over someone else. I think that it is important to stand out when there are a lot of people within this competitive industry, however I think that it is important to do this for the right reasons.

I showed them the work that I have done up to this point for the major project. I liked the fact that I am currently working on my project and able to show my ideas an initial tests. They liked my ideas and felt that it was a strong idea. I was pleased with the fact that they liked my idea, as I think that its important to have a strong idea behind my work.

They gave me some great advice about getting into the industry and how to approach this and were more than happy to answer questions that I had. One thing that stood out to me was that they said if possible its good to personally get into studios and if possible sit down with designers and show them your work. They felt that being able to physically sit down and actually being able to speak in person about the work is much better if this is possible, so this is definitely something to keep in mind.

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