Media Tonic - Creative Intern

Games company Media tonic are looking for college students and recent graduates for their creative Intern and student placement schemes.

This creative team are partners with entertainment companies across the world working to bring mobile and cross platform original games to the global market. This would is a fantastic opportunity for animators and illustrators alike to break into the games industry through gaining real world experience.

These roles are hugely popular, with Media Tonic receiving lots of applicants.

Think about how you can make your application stand out from the rest.

For more information check out the Creative Intern and Student Placement - Artist sections at

http://www.mediatonicgames.com/careers

And good luck!

PIXELovely - Tools for self-educating artists

Not every one has the ability or the funds to attend life drawing sessions, here is a solution for you.

http://artists.pixelovely.com/

Is a figure and gesture drawing website, there to help self educated artists, and the best thing is their resources are 100% free to use. There is a selection of full body humans, hands & feet, facial expression and animal images for you to practice with. Also available are pages of lessons and helpful tips and if you register with their forum you can also get critique on your work.

We Love Fine - For fans by fans

We Love Fine is an online pop culture clothing shop that connects fans on a more personal level to the shows they love with their officially licenced fan created merchandise. As well as having a selection of mighty fine artists creating work for you they also host frequent competitions for designing t-shirt art for different comic, animation and film companies.

So if you passionate about creating fan art of your favourite characters from popular media then We Love Fine is the place for you.

Check out their currents contests here and job opportunities here .

No Hommers Club Exhibtion Proposals Wanted.

 Coming to Liverpool March 2015, 'No Homers Club' is an up coming exhibition bringing together artists to celebrate everything Simpsons. They are looking for submission to contribute in creating a multi-discipline art exhibition inspired by the world and characters created by Matt Groening.


Contact Michael Fowler sonofastonecutter@gmail.com for a Proposal form. Deadline for entry is Sunday 14th December.

RSA Student Design Awards Competition

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce are hosting their annual animation award competition. The brief is to create an animation to accompany one of the two selected one minute audio files.  With just under 12 weeks to the early birds deadline and 16 weeks for the main deadline this would be a fantastic project to take on with great prizes that colour help with your future career. Have a listen to the tracks and check out the full brief at the link below.

http://sda.thersa.org/en/challenge/rsa-student-design-awards-2015-2/phase/ideation-phase-2/track/moving-pictures-en

Key Dates:

1st September 2014

 Brief launches and pre-registration opens, 

5th January 2015 

registration and submissions opens 

4 February 2015

Deadline for 'Early Bird' submission 

4th March 2015

Deadline for online registration and submissions

Spirit of wind - submissions

Are you a fan of Studio Ghibli? I have some great news for you, coming summer 2015, there is a tribute show taking place in Southern California hosted by 3tArts , and there looking for submissions!

Art work by Le Tea Leaf

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Information from 3tArts facebook

• You DO NOT have to submit a brand new piece. We would just like to see a portfolio of things you have done. If you can include some previous Studio Ghibli art, that would be great!
• That being said, you DO NOT have to have Studio Ghibli fan art in your portfolio! We would much prefer a quality artist with no Studio Ghibli art rather than a mediocre artist with tons of Studio Ghibli art!
• You DO NOT have to be from California.
• You MUST be 18+ years of age to participate. We know there are a lot of great younger artists out there but this is to protect us and any legal issues we may run in to.
• Once you submit, the curators will go over your portfolio and will consider you. ALL 3 curators must agree in order for you to be in the show.
• We will accept submissions until the end of this year or until the slots fill up. We will remind everyone and let you know the status of the slots.
• You MUST email your portfolio with [SUBMISSIONS] in the subject line and your artist name
• PLEASE do send us what BEST represents YOU as an artist

Now that you've read everything through, email us your submission at spiritofthewind2015@gmail.com!

If you have any other questions in regards to this and it's not answered here, please feel free to ask! Thank you!

3tarts

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Comica comiket

London's  the place to be this autumn thanks to the organizers of Comica, the UK's longest running international comic festival,  Through out October and November they are hosting a wide variety of comic and illustrative events.

On November 1st there is a free Independent comics market hosted at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design. Along with tables upon tables of people selling their work, on the main stage there will be a drawing parade, different artists during the day will get up  and draw original art on the big screen,

 If comics and attending  conventions with an artist table might be something you feel you would like to do in the future, you should definitely check out this event and maybe next year we will see you there.

for more information on Comiket .

http://www.comicafestival.com/index.php/comiket

for more information on what else happening through Comica festival.

http://www.comicafestival.com/

  

Short Bites - A Tale of Momentum & Inertia and Aqua Profonda

This week, there's no pleasing some people and a classy 2D cutout piece looking at the fear of water.

The Bézier Game

Once you know how to use it, be it Photoshop or in Illustrator, the pen tool is a fantastic means for any artist to create any shape with perfect lines.

http://bezier.method.ac/

Learning on a different level, I present you The Bézier Game, it's a fast and fun way to help you on the road to mastering the Pen tool. The game created by designer Mark MacKay for educational site Method of Action, starts you off through easy tutorials onto creating all different kinds of shapes and beyond.

Give it a try, how far can you get?

Theatre Watch - Feral

Something a little different this week. For one night only at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool, there will be a puppet, film, animation and physical performance production taking place.

I highly recommend going to see it live on Wednesday 29th October at 8pm.

Combining puppetry, immersive sound and multimedia technology, multi award-winning Tortoise in a Nutshell build an entire world in front of the audience’s eyes. With barely a word spoken, Joe looks back at his childhood home and traces its journey from idyllic town to a community gripped by anarchy.

Inktober

 

Autumn is here and to kick start this festive month I present you the Inktober Initiative. Started back in October 2009 by Jake Parker, this drawing challenge is going strong into it's sixth year, with artist all over the world taking part.

You can all do it, just pick up a pen and start drawing.

.:InkTober rules:.

1.  Make a drawing in ink (you can do a pencil under-drawing if you want).
2.  Post it on your blog (or tumblr, instagram, twitter, facebook, flickr, Pinterest or just pin it on your wall.)
3. Hashtag it with #inktober
4. Repeat

 Check the Inktober website for more information and resources.

 

.:Gerties Tip:.

 Starting your course blog and not sure what to post, this challenge is perfect for you to hone your skills and fill your blog with interesting posts.  I would suggest investing in a Tumblr, Instagram or twitter to also hashtag there and bring traffic to your blog, good luck!

Calling All Artist

… here is a perfect opportunity to promote and sell your artwork to a wide audience. The London Illustration fair are looking for submissions from a broad range of Illustrators and Artists for their event taking place Dec 5th-7th. Their last event saw over 2000 visitors attend with a huge amount of work being sold.

Submission date is Monday October 13th.

Head over to http://www.thelondonillustrationfair.co.uk/artist-guide

to check out their submission guide.

 

Artist tip: Don’t let the stall and commission prices scare you. It can be a bit daunting applying for events like these when you come across all the costs.  Try tackling the problem by approaching the event organizers about booking a stall as group. For example £200 split between five of you is a lot less scary then covering it on your own. Check out their previous events on their website and see if it appeals to you.

So Long for the Summer

India here, in what will likely be my last post on the Draw the Dinosaur blog. As you'll know from Nick, I've been given the exciting opportunity to work with SEGA Hardlight! As a massive Sonic nut, there is no way that I can resist the call of the blue blur, so I'm sad to say that I'll be leaving you all - albeit in the extremely capable hands of Nick and Matthew.

I will truly miss working here at Wirral Met, and I really wish all of the graduating Level 6s success with their futures, and the new Level 6s a great year. I've just attending a meeting in which Nick and Matthew have decided what they'll be teaching next year, and I can tell you that there are some really great, creative projects planned. The new Level 5s in particular will have a lot to get their teeth into.

 

I'll be relying on Matt to keep me updated on how you react to what they have planned.
For now, you should all feel free to contact me via email if there is ever anything that you want to ask. I'll leave you with a brilliant little video of an animator inserting animations into reality using clear frames. Worth a watch! Enjoy! 

 

 

- India

 

Ready, Set, Go!

On the 17th and 18th of June, Aintree racecourse was bustling with excitement. This was no horse race, but a race for the future as students from across Merseyside descended on the site for The Skills Show @ The International Festival of Business to see what opportunities were available from their local institutions.

Wirral Metropolitan’s 'Have a go' workshop raced over to demonstrate that animation isn't a niche area of study, but instead exciting, engaging and not just for kids. We worked with over seventy groups of student (and some curious adults too) to create two short pieces of stop motion animation. The attraction of animation was enough to draw not just students but fellow exhibitors to give the workshop a go.

On Tuesday we set the students off with a toy car race. Matthew and I took turns steering them in the right direction, showing them timing and spacing, as we joined in racing cars around the track. No matter what age you are, give a person a toy car and you can bet ten-to-one that by the end of the day there is going to be a few car pile-ups. It was wheely fun for everyone involved.

Wednesday started with a bang as we swapped high speed for a sweet fireworks display. The colourful candy offered great creative freedom and people became more adventurous as the day went on. One participant completely discarded fireworks and the sweets were transformed into a spaceship invasion that was held off by a heavy chocolate defence.
Now there’s an animator in the making!

You can check out the results below.



The Skills Show at Aintree Racecourse - Tuesday from WMC Illustration with Animation on Vimeo.



The Skills Show at Aintree Racecourse - Wednesday from WMC Illustration with Animation on Vimeo.

Specials thanks to everyone thank took part from:

Birkenhead Sixth Form College
Bluebell Park School
Broadgreen International School
Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School
Deyes High School
Enterprise South Liverpool Academy (ESLA)
Greenbank High School
Hilbre High School
Holy Family Catholic High School
Life Science UTC
Lord Derby Academy
Newfield School
Oldershaw Academy
Rainhill Sixth Form
Range High School
Ridgeway High School
St Edmund Arrowsmith School
St Hilda's CE High School
St. Julie's Catholic High School
South Sefton Sixth Form College
South Wirral High School
The City Of Liverpool College
Wallasey School
Weatherhead High School
West Derby School

and

Aspire, Achieve, Advance

Connexions

NAC Group

The Chartered Institute of Marketing

Worldskills Uk / Here To Help Team

-Jennifer

Listen to this....

Change that distracting habit of watching Youtube videos while you work!
It always ends the same way - half way through that brilliant piece of art you've been creating, you realize that it's become secondary to the squawking 'Let's Play'-er who you've been watching, and that you haven't made any progress in the last ten minutes.

We're all guilty of it sometimes.
Richard Williams' mantra is 'Unplug'.

And he is of course right. However, if you have to listen to something (and I have to admit that I do more often than I don't), then treat your brain and ears to something motivational, fun, informative.

I give you the Animation Podcasts.

 

 

There are a lot of Podcasts worth listening to. These are the ones which to my knowledge are still running and being updated, and the ones I myself enjoy most. Click the titles to go to the sites.

 

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Speaking of Animation

 

 

 

Funny, charming, and I-cannot-even-stress-this-enough USEFUL interviews with incredibly skilled industry animators. They go in-depth on techniques and their approaches to a scene. I just wish that this particular podcast was more frequently updated!

 

 

Animation Fascination

 

 

This is more just like listening to a couple of your friends discussing recent animation news. It's a good way to keep up to date with the ins and outs of the industry, and it's strength lies in the humorous delivery of the presenters who are zany and relatable.

 

 

iAnimate

 



 

 

Just a really well done and professional podcast. A collection of interviews with a good range of industry veterans spanning a mix of disciplines. 2D, 3D, Visual Effects, etc.

 

 







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I would love to recommend to you 'The Animation Podcast' - no doubt the King of the batch but, unfortunately, it hasn't been operational in a while. Their back catalogue deserves your attention, though.

'The Pixar Podcast' is as good as you'd imagine it to be, but has recently been closed down. Again, the back catalogue is interesting although actually, I tend to find some of the other choices more accessible and fun.

 

-India

Inspiration

Let me inspire you with some images from the greats.



Absolutely magnificent drawing! Bold, but that expression is SO SUBTLE. But oh so very readable! The misalignment of the eyelids along with the unfocused gaze.... That skewed mouth.... The lean of the body. The silhouette is readable, too, and the graphic shapes that the body cuts while maintaining believability. Truly masterful draftsmanship!

Speaking of masterful draftsmanship....



Entirely different feel, right?

Enormously courageous yet explorative strokes of a brush here. Note how he feels out the form of the horse. The exaggerations, the depictions of movement, the manipulation of the form while keeping the unmistakable proportions of the animal! Look how those back legs peter to nothing - and yet, what weight it has! I could rant about this all day. You don't have to be one to one realistic to be an accomplished artist. On the contrary, the drawing out of the dormant or underpinning nature of a figure or object - the exaggeration - can make your pictures seem REALER than real. Yes! Realer than real life!

For the same reason that pure rotoscoping will lead to floatey animation, yet rotoscoping with exaggerated weight, up and down, squash and stretch, seem convincing and realistic, distilling the essence of your subject is the purest form of drawing that I believe you can do.

Lastly, here are some Animation tips from Patrick Giusiano:

Animation Tips

- India

The Zone : Bidston Moss Pixilation

The Level 5 Animation Students recently completed a short pixilation project centered around Close and Remote's 'The Zone'.

'The Zone' revolves around fictional occurrences around the area of Bidston Moss, centering on the discovery and effects of various otherworldly artifacts that are discovered, often by accident, by unsuspecting wanderers.

Well, good news -- all of the stundents' animations are now up for viewing on 'The Zone's' website!

You can view them all by clicking here!

You can also view them through the FACT website here!

Sucess Against the Odds Animation Competition!

Hello Animators!

If you were looking for a fantastic animation opportunity to sink your teeth into over the Easter Holidays or beyond, then I have good news!

We have recently been contacted by the National Accident Helpline in association with Aardman Animations, (responsible for the National Accident Helpline claymation 'Underdog' TV ads), who have teamed up to run an animation competition called 'Success against the odds'.

The brief is to produce, in a media of your choosing, a 10sec-or-under animation that centers around the theme of 'Success against the odds'. It doesn't need to include the underdog character or have any reference to the National Accident Helpline - you can do your own thing, completely and utterly.

The animations will be judged by Aardman animators, and the winner will not only get feedback on their work from Aardman, but also be invited for a tour of the animation studios, with travel and accommodation inclusive in the prize. That's not all they'll get, either! For full info, check out the entry pack, which you can have emailed direct to you here:

click me! > Success Against the Odds Entry Pack < click me!

The deadline for this competition is the 18th of May 2014, so flip those frames, shoot that armature, and render that shot! This is an amazing chance to get your animation seen by the best in the business.

-India

Inspiration and Motivation

Here is your inspiration for the day!

The strong, striking shapes and spotlight draw your eye immediately to the jaguar. But look how else your eye is led around the image - from the dark red lower left corner, your eye moves in waves around the composition until you see the giant reptile rising up behind its prey. This is an absolutely stunning image.



These three backgrounds. Oh my goodness. They were designed for a typical RPG, and are by three different students.

The first, a pirate storage room is, by the room's strange shape, in the bowels of a ship. The immediate eye-catcher is the lizard in the center. We can see why this ship belongs to a dragon hunter! Just looking around this room, it tells you so much about the world! Firstly, that dragons are more realism based than fantasy based here (and therefore the world itself probably operates on the same rules). The one they have (I assume) captured is more like a Komodo Dragon than a giant winged fire-breather from the realms of high fantasy. Such dragons may well still exist in this world, but this ship most certainly doesn't seem to be equipped to deal with such monsters, so I assume that at least where these guys sail, the monster in the middle is their standard fare. This is supported by the weaponry and supplies. We can see harpoons against the wall, which would be effective against small prey, but useless against giant foes. Also, there seem to be a lot of loose valuables such as vases and such that would be knocked around were it the kind of world where a leviathan may rise from the deep and seize this hip at any moment. Therefore, we can see that this must be quite a steady, smooth-sailing vessel. They have ample space, and though the storage room is full, the walkways are kept clear and traversable, so most likely, the ship is quite large and may even have multiple storage rooms. my favourite element to this is the eastern influence prevalent in the small architectural detailing and the decorative props. The characters on the wall hanging, the wardrobes, the shape and the door and its style all show eastern influences.

The second has all of the hallmarks of Steampunk. Elegant Victorian design combined with mechanical contraptions mix the old and new, the familiar and the unfamiliar in an extremely skilled manner. The steam elements are really just bare furnishings. If the contraptions, levers, and the boiler were removed it would be a fairly conventional study. However, details like the painting behind the chair and the skeleton beneath the floor (such a fantastic idea) introduce a fresh spin and a new combination that brightens and lifts the entire concept. They are seamlessly integrated, understated, and yet are without a doubt the focuses of the room. The thought of a Steampunk Victorian world in which dragons and by association other mythical creatures exist and are hunted either for study or glory is one I would long wish to linger in and learn about.

The third environment I chose for the fact that it is such a loveletter to famous RPGs like Diablo. It is absolutely classic, in terms of the rough stone dungeon setting, the crates and barrels that inhabit it, an abundance of chains and prison bars. And then there is the lava spewing skull. It's so over the top, that it's almost a pastiche of the genre. But it looks absolutely great - what a forge! I can imagine the kind of gruff, tough Dwarf or Highlander who would stand sweating by the bellows in a place like this. The low lighting contrasting with the red hot glow of the lava, underlighting everyone and everything in the room, and making even more of a feature of the skull. Colour wise, a dull teal or blue stone would contrast nicely with the hot ocre ambience that would bounce from the lava around the room, hinting of the cold dankness of the rest of the dungeon. Indeed, think how much of a feature this room would be were the rest of the dungeon rooms cold and blue, quiet and ominous. To walk into a room and be confronted with this.... Such a simple, but stunning and memorable, design!

- India

DepicT! 2014 Competition

DepicT! 2014

Can you do it in 90 seconds?

Filmmakers worldwide – cameras at the ready! Accept the DepicT! 90 second film challenge and prepare to get creative in just a minute and a half to be in with a chance of winning up to £2500 prize money, invaluable industry exposure, and a host of other exclusive prizes.

The Challenge

We want to see great films – it doesn’t matter what your budget is or what genre you’re working in. The competition is open to anyone from anywhere in the world, and entry is absolutely free – but there is ONE caveat:
Your film MUST be 90 seconds or less in duration.

Depict Competition 2014

Poster Examples

Attention, Year fives!

In the spirit of your gallery practice, here are some posters that I think are successful, succinct, and striking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-India

 

Resources: Life Drawing

--> Life Drawing Online <--

 

Just click the link above to get started!

 

Lifedrawing is the number one discipline to practice for ANY illustrator or animator. It teaches you observation, perspective, weight, lighting.... The benefits are plenty. I really urge all of you to attempt lifedrawing at least a couple of times every week.

 

The link above takes you to a site which will give you a full lifedrawing class in the form of an image slideshow in which you are given a limited time to sketch each figure before a new one is show. You can customise the length and content of the class before you start, and tailor it to you.

 

 



 

 

Joanna Quinn is an animator who gets actors/actresses to act out her stories, and makes her keyframes from the lifedrawings she does of them.

 

 

Get going!

-India

Pixilation

An animation technique that utilises real world people, locations, and objects, using a camera to capture action frame by frame.

The most physical way to animate, there is so much that you can do with Pixilation. It's a great thing to play with!

Because all you need is yourself and a camera, it's frequently practiced by students and indie film makers who don't have the affordances of a massive budget.

Here's a fun example!



And here is another, much more refined example.



Note how the animator/actors have used exaggerated, cartoony poses, expressions, and timing. Why not? I think it works extremely well in this medium, as capturing very realistic movement like this is difficult, and begs the question 'why not just film it then?'.

What kind of timing will you use in your animation?

Animation Charts

Gorgeous design work here from Rokosketch.blogspot.com! Checkout the values and the textural contrast between the sharp cliff edges and the soft clouds and interior snow brushwork.

Also, for those animators (and indeed illustrators!) who STILL aren't following Andreas Deja's blog over at andreasdeja.blogspot.com, you're doing yourself a disservice.

He recently posted up some more of Milt Kahl's work from the Aristocats:
Check out his animation chart on the 'hand with cigar' that he has left for his inbetweener. I believe that the other chart is for his head. We can all read this now, though - we know that his hand will have a nice slow in and slow out on it.

Milt used charts all the time. His draftsmanship really is something to behold.

-India

Sound in Animation & Film

Image from www.gotfoley.com

As we move towards considering the influence sound has on our animation work here are some great resource articles and videos from sound designers in the film industry:

www.filmsound.org/animation

In particular some great reading on 'Foley' the art of creating sound effects:

www.filmsound.org/foley

Also remember there is a plentiful supply of creative commons sound effects available to mix into your projects from FreeSound.org and music from the infamous Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.

www.freesound.org

www.incompetech.com