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Time for an update!
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Working for a year and a half on one project can be an exhausting process with many many ups and downs, challenges and triumphs along the way. It was a good moment when I finally sat back in my chair in the edit suite with the final edit of our degree show film 'Krokodi' done!

Here's  a link to the work I did for 'Krokodi': http://krokodi.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Lilly

And here is our short film 'Krokodi':

I learnt so much working on this film and felt I was leaving the Undergraduate course with many 3D Generalist skills, and valuable Director & Production Management experience.

The Degree Show came and went by very quickly! Joanna put together a great website for our class:

http://animation2013.co.uk/

I also did some themed baking for the opening night to celebrate the premiere of our film:

"Burger" cupcakes and "Krokodi" biscuits

A highlight of Degree Show week was going along to a screening of everyone’s films at the local cinema DCA – and all of the films looked and sounded amazing on the big screen!

Something new was tried this year. A few of us took our Degree Show down to London where we showcased our films in the screening room of MPC – Moving Picture Company, and invited local VFX and Animation companies along. We were also grateful to visit The Mill whilst we were in London and get some good feedback on our work.

Back home I finally stopped, read a book or two (that have been waiting patiently on my shelf for a while), watched films and caught up on lack of sleep from over the past few months!

It was great to see everyone again at Graduation :)

During the first part of my Summer I worked with a group of MSc Animation and Visualisation students on their film ‘Roses & Dust’.

Watch 'Roses & Dust' on Vimeo

My role was Character Animator and it was a good opportunity to get back into animating, after not having much chance to do any on ‘Krokodi’. It also gave me a good insight into the Master’s course... which is where I am now! Back at uni, starting the academic year as a MSc Animation and Visualisation student. My goal – to have an animation showreel by the end of the course :D

Summer observational drawing

Summer... where did it go?! I'll be back to uni on Monday as a fourth year - this is a scary yet exciting thing! And just in this last week, before uni has even started, there have already been significant new developments in our 4th year project. To follow what's happening with our final year film, this is our blog here: http://krokodi.blogspot.co.uk/
As a way to get this art blog back up and running, here's some of my observational drawings from the summer holidays:

 

P.S. My uncle's chickens have the best names ever! 'Flight Sergeant Agatha', 'Squadron Leader Masala' and 'Wing Commander Erica Brown' - they were a lot of fun to chase round the garden trying to draw them!

Museum idea for pitch

So I have survived the first week back at uni as a 3rd year, and now that I have pitched my idea for the semester 1 project 'World of the Story' (a project which must feature an environment and a character or characters, to create a convincing and consistent world), that I developed over the summer, I can now show you what it was... meet Jess:

I drew her near the start of summer and thought she was interesting and had an instant likeablity. I wondered where was she going and saw her fitting in well within a museum environment. How did she get to the museum and why did she go in? I answered this by introducing another character, Grandma:

They enter the museum together to escape the rain. Jess helps her gran into a seat to rest and goes off to explore the museum. And the rest of the story was following Jess as she went around different departments. Peering into glass cabinets, running away from the Egyptian department in fright, coming across a giant T-rex skeleton and not being afraid of it, instead she imitates it, and then goes back to her gran to explain her grand adventure. I soon realised this story was way too long, and there was too much that would need to be modelled if this was to be a 3D project.

So the story I pitched was this one:

The Museum (Title not final)

Museum – DAY

A young girl and her Grandma enter a museum looking wet and dishevelled. The view outside is raining and dismal. The girl helps her grandma into a seat. Girl turns and wrings water from her T-Rex jumper, then looks up. She sees a sign at the other end of the hall for Dinosaurs. Excited she turns round to check her grandma, who has fallen asleep. Girl runs in direction of Dinosaurs.

Girl gets to a doorway and stops in her tracks, mouth opens in surprise. Camera zooms out to reveal a giant T-Rex skeleton. She walks slowly to the front of the T-Rex. Girl stretches out her jumper, looks down at T-Rex motif, and looks up, looks down, looks up and smiles in delight at seeing a real T-Rex.

The cold colours cast by the rain gradually change to warmer colours as the rain stops and the sun comes out. The sun’s rays from the window in the room dance and twinkle over the T-Rex skeleton, giving the effect the skeleton is moving slightly. Girl squints her eyes at T-Rex.

T-Rex then slowly appears to come alive. Girl puts her hand up, palm facing T-Rex as if reaching up to touch it. T-Rex timidly and gently moves head forwards. T-Rex nose and girl’s hand are almost touching.

MUSEUM SECURITY GUARD

Cough, cough.

Girl swirls head round to see a museum security guard, pointing to a sign saying ‘Please Do Not Touch Fossils’. Girl looks back at T-Rex skeleton to see it has returned to its original position. Girl is surprised, her disbelief then turns to awe and mouths ‘WOW’. Girl turns and runs back to her Grandma, who is waiting in the entrance in the sun. Girl jumps up and down with excited explaining her encounter to her Grandma as they turn to leave. Girl turns back around one last time. The T-Rex skeleton is waving at her from the doorway, girl smiles and waves back happily.

The End.

The story is about the power of imagination and is quite a simple, sweet story. With lots of character performance, which is what I like!
Here is a very rough thumbnail storyboard I drew out:

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Here's a sketch of Jess with her T-Rex dinosaur jumper (she is quite geeky and tomboy-ish and has a passion for dinosaurs and fossils) and also a very quick concept painting done in Adobe Flash of the moment Jess is looking from her jumper to the T-Rex in recognition:

Well That’s Not a Light box!

No, it’s not. It’s a sewing machine. A thing that I’ not normally acquainted with but have become not too bad at due to the long hours I spent on it. What was I, a trainee animator, doing you may wonder? Well my friend is part of a local Church that wanted to commission an artist to make these fabric falls for their Church and me being the “arty friend”, they came to me. And so that is what I have been doing a lot of this summer.

Some of the finished designs (mixed media including dye sticks, fabric paint and felt):

Not just that though! I did have 2 weeks down in England visiting family, camping out in the middle of Trafalgar Square, going to York... wait wait wait – camping in Trafalgar Square!?! Yes – it was the craziest thing I have ever done! But it was for the World Premiere of the last ever Harry Potter film ever, so I figured it was worth it!

I've also been working on my idea for the 3rd year animation film, which I'll be pitching to the rest of my year when uni starts back again. I'm looking forward to going back even though I know it's going to be busy and stressful this year! I'll be uploading all the concept artwork, designs and idea for the 3rd year project after the pitch in September so stay tuned...

For now, here is some of my observational drawing: