This is a personal journal started from the 7th of November: 

Character Design WORKSHOP (7th Nov):

Following last week’s class, it turned out that I shouldn’t have finished my character design sheet within that class period. Hence, to be more efficient, I thought of a witch character that is related to the character from last week.

I started off with several silhouettes based on the knowledge of shapes that the teacher taught us.

I then chose four of my favourite silhouettes to do some rough designs then eliminated two to choose the best and most interesting-looking one.

After choosing my favourite grey scale character, I started playing with colours and formed a character design sheet along with the story of the character.

We were also asked to do the character turnaround and the additional pose sheet. I didn’t want my character to have any kind of obvious emotions through their eyes or hands, so I decided to do a pile of books pose for the character’s pose instead.

Reflection from class:

Since the class is pretty much the same for me as last week, I had a lot of fun pushing my design in a style that I’m not quite familiar with myself and enjoyed the process a lot.

Stop motion TECHNICAL WORKSHOP (8th Nov):

During the weekend, we were asked to design a human character and a creature so that we can start making the characters using clay in class.

I decided to design a Christmas carol singer turning into a half leeches half record monster to welcome the upcoming holiday.

In class, we were ask to sketch the key moments when the human character starts to morph into the creature and presented it in front of the class.

I spent most of my time making the designs and needed to drop the background and the intended in-between since I couldn’t make them in time.

Password: ilikeicecream

When I was done with making the characters, there was no place to shoot. Hence, the result below is rather disappointing since I shot it within 10 minutes.

I didn’t want to end the assignment with work that I’m not proud of so I used After effects to add sound for greater effects of the monster down below.

Password: ilikeicecream

Reflection from class:

We had five hours to make our characters, make the background, shoot and add the sound to the animation, but due to the unavailability of the shooting area, I felt like my process was delayed by a lot.

I feel frustrated because I know I could have done better and could have tried to simplify the design more.

However, I understand that the process of stop-motion is still somewhat new for me and I should be able to improve more in the future knowing it more now.

Acting for animation WORKSHOP (9th Nov):

We were asked to do the same walking exercise from last week but this time, we focused on the movements of certain parts of the body eg. feet, knees and pelvis.

Sketching out the movements, I realised that the class is somewhat life-drawing with way fewer details and require me to move around, being my own life-drawing model.

Reflection from class:

The class is more enjoyable compared to last week because we got to draw more and observe the movements of other groups.

I still dislike the class since I found it to be quite ineffective but I look forward to seeing if I can apply anything I learn from this class to my upcoming exercises next week.

Overall reflection week 7:

It was the most stressful week I have ever gone through and I almost have a mental breakdown.

I have always wanted to present the best version of myself and my work but I found it hard to do it lately due to the pressure in class and the race against the time that we are given.

I’m not sure if I have become more creative this week compared to the previous weeks. Still, I look forward to what next week has in store for me.