Fox's house

For my animatic i wanted to create some very clear layout designs, to set the scene and plan for my animation. I did them in black and white and designing them made me think about some of the features within my animation which i havent thought about yet, for example the Fox's dwelling, which i designed in Google SketchUp, because i just thought it would give me the freedom of choosing various angles. I had never worked in that programme before, but i found it easy to use and got the hang of it pretty soon. What took me longer was the fact that i hadn't finalized my designs before starting to work in the programme, which led to a lot of changes being made, whilst i was already creating the model.  Here are a few shots of the fox's dwelling roughly designed in SketchUp:

Georgian Inspiration

As my story is an adaptation of a Georgian folk tale that i loved in my childhood, i wanted to express through design, the origins of the story and share some of my inspiration. Firstly i looked at postcards of Georgia, that i have from my holidays, photographs that I've taken myself, to get inspired and create some landscapes that echo Georgia, and secondly i have been absolutely in awe of a jewelery style called - Minan'qari (pronounced Mee-nun-kha-ree) which is a very old traditional method of jewelery making in Georgia. It is a mixture of enamel colour, with gold or silver, i believe. But i just love how stylized and beautiful it is. Colour palettes are always so colorful but tasteful, and i just want to incorporate that into my designs. 

Here are the postcards and some examples of Minanqari.

Kaleidocycle

I have a habit of getting sidetracked and starting to do random crafty things, when I'm not supposed to. This isn't quite as random as some other things, as it's actually For my project, but maybe i don't need it quite yet. I started making these for the pitch, because i had an idea to Give them out to all the judges as a memento, but it took it a decade to figure out how to position everything, and eventually i couldn't get it done on time for the pitch. I then spend another hundred hours and failed attempts but finally got something that wasn't perfect but still i'm happy that my time wasn't completely wasted. I plan to give them out , as little promotional things, when the film is actually complete, as i think they are soo hypnotizing. Here are some of my failed attempts and the final result: 

More hand-made textures

I have been making more and more textures , and this time i have been a lot more creative. I've made textures with clingfilm, tissue paper, inks, acrylic sprays and even salt!

It was so much fun to make, and a result of watching tonnes of Youtube videos on the subject. It reminded me of doing A level art, and all the mark making we were encouraged to try. Which at the time i didn't quite understand , or even like, as i've mentioned before my ambition was always realism. It is only now that i start to appreciate the beauty and purpose of such things. I will be using these textures in my animation backgrounds, i will be posting some concepts quite soon. But firstly , here they are: