Show Reel of Work

I have put together a small show reel of my work which I feel is quite an eclectic mix of media, I have not added sound as I wanted to take time to look at this constructively and did not have sufficient time prior to assessment.

I still wanted to show my development since last year, mixing and cutting animation, using transitions and movement, making choices about what to include or not.  At this stage it only going to be used as a development tool and not self promotion.

Showreel of work 260416

Updated Animations 140416

UPDATED ANIMATIONS


As I feel I have developed my editing skills substantially during the last year, I took time to review and update the animations I had produced for earlier projects including '10 x 10' Project and 'World in a room'.  I added music to those without, shortened some and changed some formats.  I have place the updated and final versions of these animations on my own vimeo account see link below.  (If the music has been added from a particular musician then they have been named in the titles)

James McLeod on Vimeo

2 character development

During the process of developing the short film for 2 characters, I have been testing the types of media I like to work with and have found some easier than others, I am testing these to identify the type of media which works well for me.  I have been identifying more artists that I found interesting during this process and may develop further. (see below)

(Chalk Animation) "Paper Satellites" - Sunsoma


"The pursuit of a dream" oil painting and animation painting

Oil Paint on Glass

The little red plane

Insperational Painting

Jewelry Team Blog

During the collaboration we used the team blog collectively for research and development. the link for this is below.


Jewelry Team BLog

2 character Development

I had some difficulty with transitions between scenes and should have thought about this more during the development stages, the difficulty was that because I was using lots of different styles of media they would not blend coherently from one to the next, for example using the above stop motion armature shot, I wanted to move to either a real hand or a sketch and found that during the test shots it was looking a bit out of place, I resolved this by mixing the two shots with 'After effects', 

Inspiration for collage pieces of animation

Monty Pythons flying circus titles

Images from storyboard for Animated reality

2 character mix

Character sketch for 10 x 10 animations

Character sketch for 10 x10 animations

Looking at images of grand canyon for development of 2 characters 1 place.

2 character development

Test shots for hand animation, looking at characters lifeline.

2 character development

I used the project 10 x 10 to test the set and armiture I had made for two character project, this gave me the opportunity to look at any areas for development and to gain an insight into the overall look and feel of the set.

10 x 10 (10 Animations, 10 Days)

Below is a list of my Animation for 10 x 10 (10 Animations in 10 Days) links to my films, however these have now been updated (Please see "Completed Animations" Tab for new versions).



Day 010 Stop motion test

Day 009 Oil Painting

Day 008 Cat day

Day 007 Rhythm is the dancer

Day 006 Purple Balloon Part 2

Day 005 Purple Balloon Part 1

Day 004 Stop Motion

Day 003 two characters test

Day 002 Grated Carrott with Collaboration Music

Day 001 Tank with collaboration music.

2 characters research for sand Animation

Whilst using sand as a medium I wanted to research a few artists to develop my skills. I felt that there would be a certain amount of having to be flexible enough to work with a material that is not structured or solid,however I wanted to look at methods and tools to enable me to produce a coherent piece of work.  I started with some test shots and also looked at artists from the web.

Artist Research 001
Working with sand research artists

2 character Development

Developing set and character, during this process, I had to make choices about colours and textures for example I had planned to use the wallpaper shown in the image above, however this did not show the armature in the best way.  I then did some colour testers which I found to make the armature to stand out more clearly.

2 Character Development

whilst  developing my collage skills further and have been researching other artists to identify styles I can relate to and admire.  Bellow is the link for the collage artist Takahiro Kimura who I found to be very interesting.


https://vimeo.com/28013994


Bellow is another artist whom I enjoyed, and would like to investiage further.

https://vimeo.com/5219801

GIUSEPPE RAGAZZINI

2 character Development

Using three layers created some difficulies when it came to finding the correct light and problems with reflections, I resolved this by adjusting the lighting, however I found that during the filming process that I may have only required two layers.

Setting up this way of filming took longer than expected as I had to adjust the lighting and found it difficult to find the correct amount of light for the film whilst not creating shadows or reflections from the glass.  I used a mixture of lighting  and plastic coloured sheets//filters to cover the amount of light going on to work space.

Using the Rostrum and glass sheets to produce layers of animation

Trialing textures and colours to see which works best, using different types of media

I attented a workshop to develop my skills in carpentary, to enable me to produce a set and pieces for my stop motion.

2 Characters testing and Developing

During the 'Fantasy World/Life line' part of my animation, I want to use various types of media to give a depth and distinctively different feel, I have completed some testing out a shot test on Take 5 to help me identify the correct colors to use to help enhance the feel, (see link below), this also enables me to try out this particular media, which I have not used before, prior to using it for filming.

When using Take 5, I used a piece of tracing paper to help to decrease the amount of shadows showing during the shots.  I also intend to film this using the Rostrum and wanted to test how many different layers of glass I may want to use.

I used Yellow Paper (or could be green) in the background to enable me to introduce a still background shot within Adobe After Effects.

https://youtu.be/u7wZeplPTVY

Two Characters, one place - Armature Building,

I have taken time to develop my skills into building an armature, this is something that I have not done previously and used the  internet, workshops and books to develop my skills.

using Balsa wood, K & S copper pipe, and aluminium wire to build up the frame of the armature.I also tested out Poly-morph for possible shoes and hands and white beads for eyes.

2 characters, 1 Place Project Continued

Charcoal, character Development, Using animals as characters to represent life may be an Idea to use.

Two Characters, One Place Character Development

Developing Characters in Creative Workshop

World in a Room

 The concept was a simple one that Norman (The 3D Character) is getting a thrill from the noises next door, however he is unaware that that Bob (The armature) in the other room is actual having a heart attack.

I found in practice this project a great project to work on, however in practical terms it was not so easy, although I have developed numerous skills whilst working on the project.  I felt that I had to compromise my vision to some degree to 'make life a bit easier' for myself when working with the 3D character.

I have shown some of the development work previously whilst working in Maya in the form of screenshot and did at some points feel confident working with the application, however when things went wrong I felt it was not always easy to resolve and that I found that I was changing my storyboard to suit the application instead of using the tools to enhance my ideas.

When it came to the stop motion part of things I felt that I had fun, it was very useful to have a fully developed storyboard to work on when it came to taking the images.  Initially I was keen to take the film into after effects to look at lighting (for a t.v screen), however I did not have enough time at the end of the project to do this and will look to spend some time developing my skills in this.

I felt that finding audio for this sensitive subject a difficult one to approach, even with my piers as it is quite a sensitive subject matter and where I would have normally approach others to record their voices, I felt unable to do this and was left with my own audio and could not get a range of different voices.  This led me to think about how to manipulate voices to sound like other people.

Overall I enjoyed this project but do not feel it reflects my best work, but as a tool for development it has helped me tremendously.