And we're back.

It was a good holiday with lots of ideas and sketchbook-filling doodles.

More importantly, that Dead Space competition I entered...

I WON!!!
That's right. I was so excited when I received the email.
As the winner I get my animation interpreted into the game and I get my face put onto a NPC character.

Pretty.
Awesome.

So here's my entry (again)


Right, let's move on before I explode my joy all over the inside of the monitor.

We've just been given our two projects for the term, which are as follows...

1: Make an animation using only 5 "whats" OR design and create an animated title sequence for a fly-zombie-esqe show called 'formation'. Initially I had a good flow of ideas for this, lots of bleached colours and selective pallets and pans etc. It all felt pretty original... then I heard everyone elses and they were, give or take a few details, nearly identical. We had all gone for the cliche' approach because that's how the show's concept felt and despite some really helpful words from Derek and Andy on going beyond the envelope, I still couldn't shake the cliche'd feeling.
Our alternative brief is to work in a group and make an animated short based on the word "what", using this word only 5 times throughout the entire piece, relying on visual storytelling and contextual acts and performance to drive the narrative (if there is one).
This is a group project, and I will be working with Hugh and Olly.
I was really surprised how quickly we came up with initial ideas. We started off with a character of Hugh's, a detective [PICTURE SOON] and it all conjugated from there.
We already have all of the characters mostly designed and a storyboard/animatic will be up by monday.

2: A sketchbook jobby with kathy with a twist. It's essentially letting fate decide what we discover and draw, which is a great way to do things, especially if you've got a block.
One game I used to play with a similar effect is what I called the 'three word game'. Basically, the person drawing asks 3 separate people to say a word (one must be a noun, an adjective or a verb). Because the words are from 3 different brains, the vernacular sputters will all (hopefully) be unrelated. This is good to use for comic effect. One of my favourite old ones was "Bee. Pillage. Big" and I ended up drawing a massive viking bee raiding a honeycomb.
So this sketchbook thing sounds like it'll be some fun.

I'm still very excited about the Dead Space thing. I get a photoshoot and everything.

Altman be praised!