Aesop Fable: My Inspiration 11:06 am

Like a large percentage of my personal work and my inspirations for it, and in this case! My Aesops Fable project. It all revolves around one man, and his outstanding ability of never failing to impress me.

Alex Pardee:



The unmistakable styling of pardee, with his black ink and brown paper is by a long shot one of the most influential creative styles in my design career to date. Not to sound really obsessed but this is the style I am aiming for in the animation of the Aesop Fable : The Chicken that Lays the Golden Eggs

Interactive Media: Flash Websites 10:17 am

Aardman Studios: Founded in 1976 as a low-budget project by animators Peter Lord and David Sproxton. Famous for the animated sequences in Vision On, for which they created Morph, a clay character. Aardman, together with Nick Park are also responsible for the infamous Wallace & Gromit and the Creature Comforts shorts.

The Aardman Studio has a very advanced interactive flash website: Take a look



Almost all the websites surface is interactive, this makes the website engaging and non repetitive. I have been on the website numerous times, and still find something new on each visit. The design of the animations and layout is also something to be appreciated for its exceptional quality. I only wish i could produce something like this for the Aesop's Fables Brief.

Applying Video Filter Layers: Photoshop 3:48 pm

With the animation that was posted earlier, with a feeling of in-contention, it was eating away at me to play with it further. Doing just that, i have applied a vintage look to my animation by applying a new adjustment layer in photoshop. By doing so, it has allowed me to do multiple things in editing the look and feel of the film.

Here are some examples:


I have noticed previously that this technique can either destroy or make a video. Its something of an art from. with the AESOP'S FABLES being hundreds of years old, i have gone for a destroyed vintage feel to give the animation some flavour!!

Here it is again!



Looks better already!

Flash Tutorial: Walk Cycle 2:05 pm

Right.... Finally with a little blood and sweat, I have taken a design form my ABLE'S FABLE design. Imported it into Flash and animated a walk cycle. Similar to the photoshop animation previously, I have cut it up into "limbs" and animated it using the techniques I have learned earlier today. Problems in a technical view were aspects such as the motion tweening separate layers in conjunction with each other.

Below is the animation of a simple walk cycle across the stage:



Any good? I would say so, its for definite a good technical working start, next time i want to try getting more limb movement into the character.

More to come soon dudes and dudets

Chickens and Golden Eggs? 3:15 pm

Upon my recent decision to progress into the Aesop's fable: Chicken That Laid Golden Eggs, I have been submerging myself into the wonderful world of drawing. By drawing repetitive images of the same characters, considering slight variety tweaks still to be made, I have managed to development some rough characters for my fable design.



I am aiming for my own personal style, and warping the real form of a chicken into an abstract and disturbing version of my own:



The eyes look lifeless, this is an effect I will be aiming to achieve when it comes to animating the chicken/s. The long over exaggerated legs look obscure and quite frightening. Of course, with nice rendered textures, my visual will become more clear than in these liner sketches.

Below: I present to you all, something what is looking like a good final visual! Not set in stone but am liking the look so far.



To Come Soon:
Designs of the cottage people
Some first animation tests
Rendered Character Designs