Computer Animation Arts

Some more inspirational stuff from Feng Zhu's blog - some expressive, loosely drawn designs for a series of alien space craft. Click on the image for a closer look - this might be of particular interest to all incoming CGAA year 1 students preparing their '101' designs for the summer project. Go here for Feng Zhu's Youtube channel - a great resource for digital painting techniques and concept art-based hints and tips etc.

A menagerie of steampunked, biomechanical critters from Michihiro Matsuoka , who uses clay and acrylic paint to create his largely rather cute animal/machine hybrids. There's no hint of Gigeresque froideur in Matsuoka's melding of machine and lifeform - more Brian Froud meets Jules Verne .

Now I know it is a little early to be planning for summer, however I felt I'd post this up sooner rather than later, so you guys and girls can have a think about it (and possibly gather some funds). Last summer I took a clay sculpting course in Brighton and it was fantastic! I learned so much about the human form in a three dimensional sense (something you just cannot get with life drawing) as well as some brilliant sculpting techniques - which will definitely come in handy, if not now, then at some point in most of our careers. http://www.medway.gov.uk/apps/coursefinder/(S(jzayxr3om2euaznoca0s4pa2))/index.aspx G09250710N Click the link above and type the code under it in the search box for the current course in Gillingham (about 10mins from UCA)although after some emails back and forth, there will be another this summer most likely in July. The class teaches sculpting the human anatomy in clay and I have also asked and been told if enough of us join then the rest of the curriculu...

Here is a general summary of my experience with the Summer Project. With my summer project, I had ' Soundscape 17 ' to respond creatively to - an evocative track beginning with soft sounds of the eerie night, continuing with an ominous drumming that escalates to a crescendo of chanting and singing. As such, my main concept was a microcosm where the remnants of mankind seemed all but lost and forgotten. With a small tribe of humans reduced to a wild and natural state, they occasionally discover artefacts and technologies of humanities past such as a cassette player or set of keys. Although with no knowledge of what they are, they simply use them as little more than objects of jewellery or attire, where larger artefacts have become symbols of worship or reverence invoking such rituals as ascribed by the soundscape. Thus, I began by creating the building blocks of this world with character and environment design as these were two areas I wanted to improve upon. Here are a...

As asked, here is the summary of  my summer project. I’ve got a dynamic piece of music which suggested a story on its own .      For…around two weeks I was just visualizing the story and with each and every time I listened to the music it shaped to its clearest. For I still wanted to have a lovely summer, I decided to work only on the character, a patchwork Bird, Ivan . So the initial sketching began. After which it was clear what kind of idea I'm going for and what  I needed to research to push my design. And it was a combination of ships (served as "bricks") , birds ( for the anatomy)  and structures ( over all balance and harmony of design). Not long after that I went to preproduction. I did Lots of shape tests, colour palette decisions  ect. to make sure I have a strong skeleton and structure on which further and  final designing was developed. At this point I had everything I needed and it felt  as if I already rehea...