FINAL FOUR CITIES

I've decided on my ultimate four. I wasn't happy with cheese OR architecture, so I went right back to my research and did some more scouring online for a different type of market that was interesting and different.

Solution: A Flea Market. I'd considered flea markets earlier but had centred my focus on produce markets, but flea markets are (for me) the most interesting and still call under this theme.

DESTINATION 1:

Arkonaplatz Flea Market, Berlin

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Berlin_Arkonaplatz_Flohmarkt.jpg

This market is all about treasure, bartering and scavenging. I want the postcard to highlight the junk and magic of flea markets.

It's going to be difficult to distinguish the location of this flea market since there's little architecture surrounding it and the wares being sold won't really give away the city's identity. I'm going to have to do a bit of research into the city and find out what type of trees those are in the image, if the cobbled streets are specific to the city and whether there are any more signature clues I can include. I don't need it to be blatantly obvious, but I think it would be great to make a postcard that actually communicates something about Flea Markets in Berlin.

(Update: They're chestnut trees)

http://farandwideblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Berlin_arkonaplatz_market_Far_and_Wide_Blog-9.jpg

Lovely junk! It feels like my project lacks authenticity when I've not been to most of these places and I don't actually know what the markets smell, look and sound like. I have been to Berlin though and it was hectic, very visual (coloured buildings and art EVERYWHERE) and very loud. I hope that this little bit of experience helps me with this postcard and feeds into some Berlinzzzzy vectors. Also, I'm a sucker for carboot sales and the photos online look just like the table top adventures I have every Sunday, so I could find some similarly strange objects there to touch and study.

DESTINATION 2:

Kansat Mango Market, Bangladesh

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhELsbPxT0spHIuipu_gl23rYQzHb8TzDiUMPL0ZREEKwRuvh5rFzf9wfLvSmFEOlQXW29YmUHoOwh8GULNVD66-W0QBwRR4pX-RgxExXQbje1X2tcEBmdGooKQWVQleir5VWBBhEGfba0/s640/_wsb_487x327_mango+to+market.jpg

This is a produce market and I want the postcard to celebrate the farmers and locality of produce.

Mango, mango men! These chaps just make me smile. Look how proud they are of their mango haul. 

There are two parties involved: growers and buyers. I need to find out how the mangoes are grown, how they are brought to the market and how the vendors sell their produce. I'll also have to learn about the customers - why they shop at the market, what they are looking for in this mass of mangoes and why they love mangoes so much???

I'm totally going to have to eat some mango to get a TASTE for this postcard.

DESTINATION 3:

The Vevey Market, Switzerland

http://d3ev8gv3qkgraz.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/market-at-veveys-grande-place_rs.JPG

This is a traditional Swiss Old City and a scenic market. The postcard should communicate the reputation and age of the tradition.

Atmospheric, perfumed, colourful and traditional. I've also just discovered that in the Summer months, Vevey hosts a Folklore market. 

http://static.mycity.travel/manage/uploads/6/24/13013/5c70ef2f295338ffe57ebd40240f48bd977c5978_800.jpg

Completely juxtaposed to Leeds' attempts at a traditional German Market for Christmas, the summer Marches Folkloriques de Vevey throws the spotlight on its own heritage. Complete with wine, costume and music, this summer spectacle is exactly what I was looking for: market tradition with authenticity, not just for commercial gain.

DESTINATION 4:

Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market, Thailand

The concept of floating markets is culturally unique to Thailand, a completely different process of shopping and selling. This postcard should portray the unusual and beautiful local custom.

http://img.allw.mn/content/travel/2013/08/1_see-the-floating-market.jpg

Although this tradition has become somewhat commercialised and targeted to toursits, the floating markets still retain their true Thai way of living.

Cargo Bikes

Looking for other vendors who use carts and bikes to sell their produce to contrast against the canal boat floating markets, but located in cities that are further from Thailand to give a broader expanse of cities.

Fruit Seller. Valladolid, Mexico

bike+cart.jpg

Flower vendor in Hanoi

Kansat Mango Market, Bangladesh

d8da16886ee4fb2ed2ae042d88515fbe.jpg

Produce Pedaler, Portland

pfmproducepedaler.jpg

Lovely little thing, trying to mimic the traditions of mobile vending on bike.

Research

Spoke to Bronte, she's really enjoying her project and her topic is so interesting. Her research is really fuelling her interest and drawings. Feel as though mine is dull in comparison.

Keep researching and find something that intrigues you.

I'm being really picky and throwing away lots of markets because they are 'tacky' or 'dirty'

but that is often the atmosphere of the place/the grounding of flea markets!

More Markets:

The Street of Tentmakers, Cairo

http://www.phy.duke.edu/~dtl/89S/restrict/marketsandfairs.html

I love the name of this little Egyptian market. Clothmakers sell their wares along this street and display mock-up tents to demonstrate what they can achieve with these materials.

They make mini tents to advertise their materials and craftsmanship.

The Vaults, Scarborough

maxresdefault.jpg

Scarborough - not many people know about the Valuts but we always visited the Vaults when we went to Scarborough on our family holidays. It's an underground chamber of rooms, tunnels of shops and stalls. Little treasures.

This is what I want to make postcards for: markets that people don't know about. Markets that should be celebrated but are hidden away. Markets that once thrived and are now struggling.

Some history about Scarborough Vaults:

https://scarboroughmarkethall.wordpress.com/about/

Thailand (floating markets) and Vietnam (cargo bikes) were two of my favourite markets, but are they too close together? Should I get more variation in culture and pick places that are farther apart?

Lexington Market, Baltimore

http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/2014/5/22/then-and-now-public-markets

Old photo of Lexington Market! It's incredible to see how the market has changed over time. Lexington Market is the longest-running market in the USA.

Market_14_Baltimore_LexingtonMarketInterior_1960s.jpg

People still value fresh produce and meeting the farmers and vendors.

Istanbul Bazaar

This result kept coming up during my research, but I avoided it because it seemed too obvious and famous.

grand-bazaar1.jpg

Reading about the History of Medieval Marketplaces

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/city-of-york/pp481-491

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DlaM3SrlrsUC&pg=PA390&lpg=PA390&dq=market+covered+medieval&source=bl&ots=K4f7T0Dxud&sig=cfSHIW7EwkztnKXgdjqAk3tuzTc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOyd7-0JjLAhVBbxQKHQ7oBUwQ6AEIWTAM#v=onepage&q=market%20covered%20medieval&f=false

Cattle markets were called beast markets - bonkers name!

Markets were overlooked by keepers (who collected the tolls?)

Fan Poster Designing

HOW DO I DRAW A CRYSTAL BALL? I'm still quite a perspective noob. I don't understand it and just can't work out how to make Sarah look as though she is INSIDE the bubble and also IN FRONT of Jareth's face.

Roughing it out and just drawing variations until it's right. Hm.

Studio dudes are probably sick of me asking for their opinions. HOW DOES THAT LOOK? IS THAT BETTER? I need to have my own opinions and make decisions on my own, but it's also great to get an outsider's view when I've been sat staring at these roughs all day and can't tell what's good/bad.

https://ladygeekgirl.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/labyrinth-bubble.jpg

The above image is what I'm aiming for. Sarah in her bubble... but a little more difficult in TWO colours (and in SHAPES). In screen printing we're using just two coloured inks BUT I can also use the white of the paper stock as a third colour and even overlap the two colours to create a fourth colour! This would work well for the iridescent shiny spots of the bubble itself.

Fan Art Poster Positives

Chosen a composition! There's depth in the image in that Sarah is in front of Bowie's face, but she is also a lot smaller and I've tried to demonstrate that she is actually inside the crystal. Not sure if that's so clear because I'm rubbish at representational drawings but hopefully it kinda shows that.

Split the drawing into two layers - dark colours with the background and facial features - and light colours with his hair and the bubble.

Discussed colour with Swan - we're not too sure just yet… Swan is doing yoga and maybe wants something a bit brighter but I need moody colours hm.

Really excited to get these printed but I am SO NERVOUS about doing the actual screen print.

Got some pre-orders already m8.

Depth - Miroslav Sasek

SLASEK. I've heard the man's a legend.

WHY have I never looked at his work before today?

I always get his name mixed up with Sendak. Maurice Sasek. Miroslav Sendak. Wot.

Anyway. Not Sendak, he's a top dog too, but today I'm talking Miroslav.

In this week's session of Visual Language we explored the concept of DEPTH within illustration. Depth is the illusion of distance and space within an image. There are several techniques that illustrators can use to achieve a sense of depth, such as overlapping. Overlapping is the process of placing one object in front of another, thus making the object in front closer to the viewer and the object behind farther away. Another technique use to create depth is the size of elements in the image. As a simple rule of perspective, the closer something is to the viewer, the bigger it will be, and the farther away an object, the smaller it becomes. Illustrators may make elements in the foreground larger in proportion to the smaller details in the distance, nearer the vanishing point.

Back to Slasek.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/e0/cc/79/e0cc790715a8fecd0c8cf202e5974c59.jpg

The image above is one of the ones we analysed in session. Sasek has created a sense of depth by drawing a crowd of people whose figures overlap, demonstrating that these figures are stood behind one another, so the platform has depth in that it has space to accommodate for this crowd.

The figures get smaller as they reach further to the back of the platform and towards the tunnel (the furthest point from the viewer and the vanishing point of the image). The largest figure in the foreground (the man in the bottom left) is the closest subject to the viewer, so his face is larger in proportion to any of the other figures. Illustrators also use size to place importance on elements that they want to highlight, so this man could also be of significance to Sasek.

This image has several lines of sight, though I am not sure which one (if any) Sasek intended. The viewer is directed instinctively to the facial features of the largest figure, and then we follow the direction of his gaze across to the right, where there is a train track but no train. The line of sight could follow the dark train track up to the vanishing point in the tunnel, but the way I see it it moves straight to the wall and bounces across to the other coloured wall. The walls concave and confuse the eye with their bright colours. Perhaps the intention of this was to create a chaotic tone to suit the commotion of the busy scene.

I think that this image is really poking fun at the ridiculousness of our human behaviour. Of waiting and watching, and not interacting. We stand at stations and stare at walls of adverts.

Sasek's illustrations are sophisticated, commenting on real life situations and people. This makes his work relate-able for the audience. I think his illustrations are timeless. Even though the outfits suggest a little about the time of production, the intense colours he uses and the style of his characters are still appealing and trendy today.

FAN ART

What am I a fan of?

THIS HAS TO BE

THE MOST FUN TASK YET???

Everyone knew I was going to do Labyrinth JEEZE GUYS YOU KNOW ME TOO WELL

Yea I love Labyrinth.

Not sure which characters to focus on! Who is the most important?

Protagonists: Jareth, Sarah
Other Characters (in order of appearance): Toby, Goblins, Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus

Typeface: Do I need text to title it? LABYRINTH. Or should I include a quote?
"Should you need us"
"How you turn my world, you precious thing"
"I move the stars for no one"
"Give me the child"
"You have no power over me"

Composition:

Using real frames. What is the most crucial scene?

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/84/4d/c9/844dc9b1ffc49bf197355a5c4d3e8f43.jpg

A bold and ambitious scene showing the entirety of the labyrinth and the castle beyond the Goblin City. This very important in relation to the narrative, and it already has depth.
It is too obvious? The title of the film is LABYRINTH so maybe we don't need to see that.

Market Towns

The definition of a market town:

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city.

Market towns seem to be an exclusively English term. I'm not sure whether to stick to England and compare these traditional market towns or to broaden my search and look at International markets.

Searching for 'World Markets' or 'City Market' kept returning results about the stock market... no thanks! Changed my search to 'Street Markets', much better.

There are different types of markets:

Food Markets

Flea Markets

Farmer's Markets

Flower Markets

Spice Markets

Night Markets

Covered Markets

Street Markets

Animal Markets

I think it'd be nice to have a selection of these different markets, so each postcard is still about a MARKET TOWN, but in its own rights and traditions very unique to that place.

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Do I go for the most popular ones or the most interesting ones?

What makes them INTERESTING?

Keep finding links to the '10 Most AMAZING' or 'THE WORLD'S BEST' and I don't know whether to listen to them or to decide for myself? These ones are probably cities that people already know about. I want to find something I don't know.

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List for future reference:

http://10mosttoday.com/10-most-famous-street-markets-in-the-world/

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/oct/26/best-food-market-stalls-around-the-world

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I know that I definitely don't want to do Camden. EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT CAMDEN! I don't need to promote that.

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Although I love markets because they are full of treasure and independent trade, I hate seeing tacky rubbish. Fake designer handbags and phone cases, no way son. You're not making it onto my postcards.

Maybe stick to food or more quaint, traditional  markets.

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Market SQUARE:

The market square (or sometimes, the market place) is a feature of many European and colonial towns.^[1] It is an open area where market stalls are traditionally set out for trading, commonly on one particular day of the week known as market day.

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Rialto Market, Venice, Italy

Too popular and obvious. Decided not to look at this one anymore. I don't want to do a 'Tourist Attraction'. When I searched it, it came up with Trip Advisor links and I don't want to get into anything commercial. I sound so hipster, but I don't want to follow what's TRENDY.

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Poznan Old Market, Poznan, Poland

http://holeinthedonut.smugmug.com/DailyPhotos/HITD-Daily-Photos/i-GDWm7SC/0/L/Poland-Poznan-Old-Market-Square5-L.jpg

What a funky place! Cobbled streets, groovy architecture and little market stalls. No crowds and tourists. It's a traditional market square too with an obelisk. How long has it been trading? Is it still trading? I can't tell... Why is it not so busy?!

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Cargo Bikes, Vietnam

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/f1/05/88/f1058896dad731dd0c1657dfc80f467f.jpg

A solution to carrying cargo, being mobile and trading on wheels. Genius. Who had the idea? Where was the first one made?

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Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market, Thailand

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/8f/49/65/8f496512542af8255c267c2dec0f3f52.jpg

(also the Damnoen Floating Market, Taling Chan Floating Market and Amphawa Floating Market)

I've never heard of a floating market before but what a neat idea! Where did this tradition come from? How does it work? How often are they? What do they sell?

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The Vevey Market, Switzerland

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5185/5596783551_5e5e692db1_o.jpg

Lovely blog post about this one: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2011/04/the-vevey-market/

A beautiful location next to Lake Geneva and MOUNTAINS! What's the temperature? What do they sell? It it mostly locals who visit? How many stalls are there? What's it like throughout the year?

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Outdoor Cheese Market, Holland

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/a0/48/0d/a0480dab6343a486d980087616d63335.jpg

It's a cheese market. Just looks so funny! So different to the other markets, yet it's the same principle.

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The more I look at these interesting markets, the more I think our English ones are corny and a little boring. Sorry guys.

We have a canal in Ripon and Leeds, wouldn't it be awesome to have a floating river market?!

Greetings from the Market Town

MARKET TOWNS

FLEA MARKETS

CARBOOT SALES

VAULTS

- this is a THING and a HAPPENING

that is WORLDWIDE AND UNIVERSAL

I can compare the different cultural approaches

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/3a/7d/a2/3a7da28f98250dbc83c6f08ab07e2e73.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/94/dd/03/94dd03fe57a2142494d79afaa504400a.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/1c/d9/7c/1cd97cd704e0361b22e7c2fe9a7984f9.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ae/2c/a4/ae2ca4adeeb1b9ba93d041b040cc2cb6.jpg

City Ideas

WORKING ON A THEME

GOAL FOR TODAY: TO HAVE AN AWESOME THEME.

I want a cool theme that excites me and leads me down some funky areas of discovery.

I've seen a lot of my peers looking at abandoned places/spooky-weird happenings. NOT GON' GO DOWN THAT ROUTE. I'm going to stick to bright, tasteful tackiness and hunky dory retro holiday postcard goodness... or at least that's the vision for now.

(other less-successful candidates for the list of potench ideas are in my sketchbook. Just exploring some of the ones I've got a bit more feeling for)

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Idea One of Not-so-Many Not-so-Awesome Ideas:

Cities in Films

Fargo, Montauk, Kansas, Budapest.
Re-interpreting the cities that hosted some of the most bodacious scenes of cinematography.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/48/08/cd/4808cde63ff708572be687970f979cfe.jpg

Yus! Would look swish in vectors. But I'd just be mimicking another creative's creation.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/08/ac/36/08ac36fa902a4bfe1881ca2263205665.jpg

Also, someone else got there first. Pfft. Okay. Scrap Budapest. But could still be nice to reference pop culture and film sets? Although is that too cliche?

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Idea Two of Not-so-Many Not-so-Awesome Ideas:

Cities in Scandinavia
I LOVE FINLAND/SWEDEN AND THEIR TRADITIONS AND THEIR GROOVY CULTURE.

Could also look at other introverted cities that share a value for being alone.


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/b5/15/46/b5154643ba3c4645c6f39a0f99e25780.jpg

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Idea Three of Not-so-Many Not-so-Awesome Ideas:

City and Colour
So I said that I want to use this brief to really get playing with colour.
I could make my theme colour focused so that I have that as a specific focus point for this project.
Found some cities that are painted groovy colours.


http://weburbanist.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/blue-city-chefchaouen-5.jpg

I NEED SOMETHING FOR A THEME THAT ISN'T A NOUN. Something that is A VERB. An activity or an event or a happening that has more elements that I can interpret rather than just boring BUILDINGS (even though they could look funky, they wouldn't be exciting or representative of the culture and lifestyle)

GREETINGS FROM...

Greetings from... I instantly thought of Greetings from Tim Buckley and Greetings from Darktown (Johnny Hannah). But this is about CITIES. Real places.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/b0/c7/1e/b0c71eab76702055f3a46f3e35798019.jpg

Check out the above poster for Ripon railways. Beaut. Simple, but so colourful and inviting. The tone suits Ripon's ancient charm and the quiet, understated poster is just exactly what Ripon is all about. We don't have a railway anymore, but this poster makes me want one.

Bought a Harrogate QUICKER BY RAIL poster print for my boyfriend who is a graphic designer because he loves the design of the posters. Drawn in shapes and bringing light to all the little gems of Yorkshire. Nice one, Rail.

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I DON'T HAVE A DESIGN HEAD. I found the introduction task - in which we made reductions of shapes describing objects (mine was Sushi) - really tricky. I don't do simple, I do funky. I'm going to have to get my brain around this one and it might take some time, so I want to get into my sketchbook and spend a good amount of time working on the roughs by thinking about SHAPE and REDUCTIVE interpretations.

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Would love to build a 3D model city, but this task specifically asks for VECTORS.
VECTORS ARGH! I've never made anything using vectors before. I know what they are but I've never really seen one that I've liked. (great start)

It's a totally different aesthetic to hand-drawn or digital drawing, but maybe I just haven't given it a chance.
I value CRAFT and DETAIL, which I don't think digital vectors have much of. They're perfect and lack the imperfections and energy of the human hand.


Anyway, feeling a bit lost at the moment. Not sure, not sure. Just want an awesome idea that isn't the same as everyone else's and that could look cool. IS THAT TO MUCH TO ASK, JAYBRAIN?

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EXPOSING MYSELF TO VECTORS. Not getting naked in front of them, just forcing myself to look at their naked bodies.
And they're actually bootiful! Dem curves! I just hadn't looked properly before and I think some things I HAD seen, I hadn't realised that they were in fact vectors. But now I know what I'm looking for, I can see it. These mathematically PERFECT lines CAN BE incredibly dramatic and so pleasing to the eye.

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/188236459403744740/

Where else to find bold shapes but in architecture? There's no colour restrictions for this brief, so I'd love to go pretty wild with my palette as I don't think I've really explored colour that much yet. We had lectures on colour theory in the last two weeks and colour is INCREDIBLE. Propaaaa want to do some Wes Anderson colours. Using Illustrator means I'd have access to ALL OF THOSE MAGICAL COLOURS IN THE UNIVERSE.


https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/188236459403742832/

Another lovely image using shapes and repeating shapes (to confuse the hell outta ma brain). Just a weird but enticing composition? The perfect lines created by the rooftops is so clean and crisp, just couldn't be achieved in any other media.

GIF to the End

Making GIFs is loads of fun. I've learned a new way of working, and a really modern and useful application of illustration. Taking these skills forward, I'd like to continue applying my illustrations and characters to GIFs. They're really quite easy to create, but they're so exciting and revolutionary that they really grab attention.

I'm super proud of what I've made. Mostly, I love my Fibres and I think that they're successful original characters. They're believable as living organisms and it's incredibly exciting to see them actually moving and coming to life.

This brief has shown me that it is possible for illustration to exist beyond static images and that there is a demand for these from the industry. Illustrations can move and say a lot more than one single frame.

What people thought of my GIFs:

'he is so disgusting but I can't help but love him'
'they work really well as a series'

How I feel about it:

I'd agree that my characters have consistency and you can tell that they are a family, they come from the same world. I hope that this doesn't mean they are same-y or boring, that I have stuck to a 'style', but that by choosing to use the same family of characters, you can see the translation between the formats.
The comment about them being disgusting but appealing made me very happy - my characters achieved their intentions of being gross, but also somewhat endearing. They communicated the words they evolved from clearly, e.g. SNORE made people yawn. It was obvious that SNOT was picking his nose and eating it, much the disgust of many viewers, and that Mite was itchy (although I think Mite was the least obvious and gross of the bunch so he was the least successful).

I definitely solved the brief of creating three GIFs from my character designs, using each process (3D, Digital and Handdrawn). I think some people forgot about character, or moved away from their initial character designs. Briefs can lead you down different roads and off on tangents; in Visual Narratives, my book evolved away from a story and became a more abstract journey, meaning that I didn't quite solve the brief. This time, I've tried to stick to the challenge at hand and use my characters to COMMUNICATE.

What else I saw:
Emma's puppet was awesome and it was great to see other people enjoying the magic of 3D illustration (even though it scares me that they will take over the world and leave me behind).
Some awesome collage and textures in hand-drawn GIFs - where most people are comfortable working and produced some groovy things. Keep it goin'.

Beth Marsh's series worked really well together and had consistency to it. A fluid movement transcribed across the media. Breathtakingly beautiful. GIFs can be simple and slow.
Kat's eye and teeth - weird but cool as hell.

I don't want to let my lil' guys go and it seems a shame to have spent so long creating these beasts only to leave it at this. I'd love to revisit the Fibres, even if it is in my personal work.
I prefer longer independent projects where I have time to explore areas and really get into the research... it was great to have a week of self-directed studio time but I would've liked to have EVEN LONGER!

FINAL 3D GIF

Been fiddling with this for so long and I was worried that it was just a waste of time.

It looks pretty much the same and my parents couldn't see the difference…

but to me, it's MILES better. I feel much happier about handing this in as opposed to the previous version, even though there is only a few slight differences.

I added a scratched, grunge texture to make the image sit better with the series, matching the textures of the other two GIFs.

The eye blinks look more natural and less superimposed.

The lighting doesn't look so stark and accidental anymore, I've made it look intentionally darker and with a higher contrast and saturation, a warmer, musty atmosphere.

The white patches of plasticine have been covered up so that he doesn't look so blotchy.

DIGITAL GIF

He's still kinda jittery and doesn't move as smoothly as I would have liked.

I really like the FLASH but it's not as flickery and dodgy as I wanted.

Lines are sketchy, attempting to mimic the hand-drawn energy but just looks to lack confidence?

The flies were a last minute touch and their movements don't make any sense but they do add another element of motion to the static background.

Disappointed with my background but that wasn't the focus, it was the character I was focusing on.
Uh. He could be so much better but this is only one of the three GIFs I have to make so I'm going to have to leave him at that! Digital isn't really what I'm interested in so I haven't spent as much time on this as the other two processes, but I have learned how to use a Wacom and how to make a digital gif so I guess it was beneficial to me.

Alternative 3D

I tried to fix Snot.

I repainted him and fixed his limbs and sorted him out after he fell apart post-GIF (must have been all that nose-picking). I wanted to re-shoot the 3D GIF because 3D is what I'm really passionate about and I'm worried that what I have made doesn't show enough skill. 

I want to show that I can make cool things.

As the photographer, I AM IN CHARGE OF EVERYTHING WITHIN THE FRAME.

I am in charge of the lighting, the backdrop, the angle. So I'm controlling all these variables.

The new backdrop is much better and more controlled. Using cameras, looking dusty and old. I used a sheet of black card for the floor and white card for the wall behind him. I collected dust and sprinkled it over the 'floor' but does it just look messy?

The new paint coat isn't right, just not the right green.

You can see the white-tac under his feet.

His hair lost all its bounce and looks like a really rubbish clown wig.

I'm finding it really hard to tell whether I'm being silly and picking out flaws that aren't apparent to most viewers, or whether I am doing the right thing and trying to improve.

So I gave up part-way through because this is even worse than the previous version.

I'd spent so long on that one and I don't have time with such a short brief to re-do a whole 3D GIF right now just because I'm being a perfectionist. I've already wasted time attempting to, but I'm stopping now.

I'm using what I've got. I know it's good. I know it's not as good as it could be, but everything could ALWAYS be better. It's about knowing when to stop. It's more important to hand in everything that was asked for than the spend the whole three weeks making ONE PERFECT GIF.

3D GIF

I thought he was finished but now I'm not too sure.

Maybe I've been looking at it too long, but I'm seeing so many flaws. His legs move around so much and the set moves and the set just looks silly. Why did I choose Watership Down? It just looked nice but I didn't realise you'd be able to read it and now it looks unrelated, random and like I didn't even think about it. Once the image had been cropped to 500x500 you could't see the other cameras either so there's just that one on the left that looks so out of place and odd. Hmph.

His outfit looks kinda cool and even though one legfold is higher than the other, he looks like a scruff so that's okay.

I don't know whether to remake him or the set or to completely scrap everything.

Hair

Made him some gross-ass hair using wool roving.

He's so disgusting and I love him.

He's definitely going to need clothes though, haha. Although it looks especially gross that he's naked, I want him to be a character and not just a filthy animal. He needs to be a functional Fibre so he's going to need some overalls or dungarees.
I'm going to make some using some old jeans yeee.

Painting

I was starting to have a bit of trouble with painting the skin because it wasn't reacting well with the Plasticine.
I ALWAYS DO THIS.
I get an idea and even though I know it won't work (technically, that paint will NOT fix to the Plasticine, and if it does, it will crack when you move it)

Mixed my acrylic paint with a little PVA and liquid FIMO, made the paint much more fluid and a little more transparent.

Model Research

https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx/news/hires/2013/brownunivers.jpg&imgrefurl=http://phys.org/news/2013-02-robotic-wing-video.html&h=1661&w=2280&tbnid=g51gqSgHrT5nDM:&docid=t0OgKhqT3n7ShM&ei=AQq-VqLqMouwa4LCv_AP&tbm=isch


Saw this online and was just really impressed with the model! SCIENCE.
Researchers using model-making to build a robotic bat that could help scientists to understand how bats live and move is aiding technological advancements such as building aircrafts.
Who would have thought that model-making could be so beneficial to the human race?

Also, just look at those wings and mechanics. I need to learn how to work those things. Get some wires and don't electrocute yo'self, buddy.

Dust Textures

In search of a textured background to put behind my characters, I went around the studio collecting dust.
Everyone in the studio is like EW JAY WOT, but that's what they usually say anyway so my street cred ain't too damaged.

BIG LUMPS OF DUST

Scanned them so that I can digitally combine them with my GIFS, but don't worry I cleaned the scanner afterwards.

It's still just going to be a white background though? Should I find even more dust to fill the entire 500x500 frame?

Or get some old carpet or material to cover in grossness and scan that?