It's Post With The Most time again and a bumper crop of blog-based R&D awaits, beginning with the continuing pre-production of CGAA final year students hard-at-work prepping production drawings for their respective projects. Bob Spark's The Tale Of Yuki-Onna is a character-design project taking an old Japanese story about a wraith-like female spirit and giving it a neo-noir make-over. Below are some speculative thumbnails generated via the pull-shapes in Alchemy, in which silhouettes derived from various insects were used in combination to generate semblances of Yuki-Onna's possible appearance. Bob gives instructions on using Alchemy in conjunction with a pre-existing silhouettes here.
Meanwhile, Leo & JJ are fine-tuning the visual language of their forthcoming animated short, The Wolves Within, with some speculative thumbnails and concept art, multiple character revisions and a new animatic, this time featuring a professionally recorded voice-over and score-in-development by CGAA alumnus, Dave Keefe.
Elsewhere, Ethan Clements' Robert Wiene-inspired Hamelin (of Pied Piper fame) is taking shape, crooked house by crooked house...
...Green Octopus's east-meets-west frontier town emerges, sun-bleached plank by sun-bleached plank, from the heat and dust of the American desert...
... and in his continuing hunt for innovative robot designs, Simon Watts gets busy extracting shapes from the curves and contours of classic cars and even takes a moment to share his workflow with the rest of us.
Character design looms large for CGAA year 2, with both their 'all new' cartoon shows and Retrofest trailers to populate with memorable inhabitants. Here, Andi's cowgirl-come-karate-kid gets the photofit treatment in an ongoing quest to balance feisty with feminine...
...while Nikulas, Lyn-Dae's viking character, is given a multitude of make-overs in the search for suitably 'heroic hair' and an outfit to match!
Described as 'medieval dragonslayer', this early concept by Dayle for his hero archetype is bold and powerful, that simple flourish of gallant ribbon evocative of battlefields vast and glories seized.
Less 'glories seized' and more 'donuts eaten' Jono's detective designs for Centrifugal Studio's The Woman on Los Feliz are delightfully down-at-heel and shambolic...
...while on an alien planet far, far away, Chris Rogers experiences a light-bulb moment and it's out with 'six-legged horses' and in with 'spiky, staff-carrying turtle spider monster'!
While we're on the subject of improbable fusions, CGAA year 1 are but a few short days from their very first crit, as Anatomy 2011/12 winds up on Friday 21st October (to which 2nd and 3rd years are welcome to attend). There are nerves and trepidation, no doubt, but the following selection of developmental drawing and painting (and there was an abundance to choose from!) suggests we're in for an extraordinary pageant of hybrids, mutants, chimeras and monsters - (and suddenly spiky, staff carrying turtle spider monsters don't seem so improbable after all!).
Chrissie + Mantis
Tom + Seahorse
Kadeem + Bird of Paradise
Josh + Lobster
Ami + Snail
Alice + Sloth
Mei + Toucan
Lydia + Hyena
In addition to visualising the consequences of their respective telepod misadventures, CGAA year one have also been watching - and reviewing - a series of films dealing with themes of metamorphosis, hybridisation and therianthropy. Many of the reviews have impressed, and I feature one here by Emma Foster - just one of the many articulate and insightful critiques published by the CGAA community - years 1 and 2 - in the short time since term began. (I'll be putting together a special Postmodernism-specific anthology of your best Year 2 reviews in coming weeks - so keep them coming and the quality of discussion high).
The UCA Spectacular Science Collaboration with the University of Kent gathers momentum, as the deadline for the completion of the four commissioned animations draws close. Sebastian's 'Haribo' world of pathogens and phagocytes is but a few further tweaks from the finish line...
... while Tom continues to marry his plethora of influence and art style into an increasingly satisfying whole, with bopping basidia and a whiff of Salome!
Some of you may have caught this already, but CGAA sessional lecturer and After Effects wiz, Pete Wallace posted Butch Auntie's latest showreel on the group blog, and expressed his thanks to Charlotte, Jordan, Ethan Shilling, Ethan Clements and Alex Newman, all of whom interned at Butch Auntie as part of their work placement unit and whose animations can be glimpsed in-situ in the reel. Tom also provided original bespoke content. Enjoy the reel - fantastic atmosphere - so congratulations to all involved. Pete is looking for help for some new up-and-coming events - drop him a line at pete@butchauntie.com for another adventure in sight and sound.
And finally - what better way to conclude this week's PWTM but to round off with the finished digital paintings started by Photoshop Phill during his live demonstration of concept art technique at this year's Canterbury Anifest. CGAA year one students can look forward to learning a whole lot more about digital painting with Phill when Unit 2: Space kicks off next week - pens and tablets at the ready, ladies and gents...
The final word...
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