Update

So,
I'm currently working on or rather just finished my first Concept art for the 3D environment that our ships are suppose to land on / take off from etc.
We're doing the hardest one first so that we can do the easier ones by ourselves (in terms of building it in 3D)
So i thought I'd share -

The first is what the camera would see (the one i drew in the shot board) -

The Second one is a bit more, so that i have room to move around with the camera =D

In other news ~ rather than starting this in 3D i'll be continuing the other drawings because my hard drive scared me to death this morning by refusing to work ~ after half an hour it started working and i'm currently doing a back up xD so I can't and don't want to use my computer for something as intensive as 3D 

"save the hard drive~! Don't touch anything near it incase it stops working~!"

hehe =P

Until later 

~ Ariane

Speech, Life Sketching & End of Sketch Book No.11

So, comments/feedback for my speech today ~ I'd really like to know how it went, how i could do better etc. ~ would be greatly appreciate ~ as well as any comments/suggestions or ideas that pop into mind about my short story (the exact script is two posts earlier in the 'short story' post =P)

Last Monday (25.3.13) was my second time at Life Sketching and I feel like I've already improved.
Although I still have a long way to go and
the short time ones are still not as good as the ones I spend more time on.
Having said that ~ this week we did one single drawing that went for 30 min... and about 20 min in i starting thinking... now what? It felt like it was too long ~ i started seating for things to add to the drawing, and i find that goes bad very quickly because i start adding unnecessary things and destroying things that were fine before xD

Anyway heres a few (in order of time) -

And lastly I've just about finished sketch book number 11 ~ 2 pages left

So i thought I'd put some sketches up that are in that book (although i've already got some up, and a lot of the rest consists of still life sketches) ~ so between the still life sketches, the sketches i've already posted and the ones i don't want to post ~ there aren't that many left haha (the guardian in the 'short story' post is also from this sketch book) ~ but i hope you like them 

Until Next time ~

~ Ariane

Frogs and Inspiration

So, i made and animated two toy frogs jumping around and thought I'd share ~ haha (yes i like my two toy frogs xD)

It's for the nuke assignment we're doing currently in class ~ but because i don't have access to nuke at home, I couldn't bring the frogs into the footage.
And when i added the matte render, it just looked like the frogs where sliding around xD so i decided to leave the matte render out of this render.

As for the "inspiration" part of the title,
I've been looking around a bit for inspiration as to what sort of style I should do for my short story ~

 The ...different and colourful ~

 The classic ~

The re-invented  ~

The water colour ~ I love this style ~

The stunningly inventive and creative ~

And this one was just funny ~ 

And i realised something, no matter how much i look, i always come back to three people / studio's

1. Tim Burton
2. Studio Ghibli / Hayao Miyazaki
3. Walt Disney  - although there are quite a few newer ones that I don't like as much as the older ones.

What I realised is
I'm attracted to the different and weird like a moth to light haha
and I feel like when i watch the movies you can see, hear and feel the hard work put into the films ~ their hearts i guess xD

When you think about Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, the nightmare before christmas and Alice in wonderland all by Tim Burton
or
Spirited Away, Howl's moving castle, The cat returns, Arrietty, Whispers of the heart all by Studio Ghibli
and
Fantasia (both 1940 and 2000), dumbo, Mary Poppins, Pinocchio, Alice in wonderland by Walt disney

and it makes me think, If i had the chance... and a lot of time and a lot of people helping me, i would rather do this short story as an amazing 2D animation ~ but i want this short story to turn out as professional as possible and because of that i can't afford to do 2D - there's just not enough time for it.

So in conclusion ~ i think i will simply hand-paint all my textures for my 3D models and BG.

Thats all for now ~
If you have the time, please read through my last post ~ i would like some feedback on my script/idea.
Thanks
~Ariane

Short Story Concept

So I thought I'd (finally) post my short story idea and get some feedback.

I'm going to make it SUPER long for you guys cause i'm so lazy with updating this blog....(I'm kidding ~ but it will be long cause of the script xP) ~ but if you hang on long enough, there will be drawings and art at the end of this blog entry xD

I've showen a few of the lecturer's and the only comment i've gotten back so far is :

"The girl's character seems underdeveloped. Her speech is un-natural"

And Because that's the only real feedback i've gotten at the moment, i thought i would post the story and get more feedback before going back and changing the script.

Its part of a bigger animation - i've decided I want to do a small part of something that could be bigger.
Also, I'm not really sure how to end it ~ so any ideas would be greatly appreciated =D

So here it is ~

"

Original Spark of Inspiration:

“crashes through time”

-----------------

Setting - A cathedral hallway. 

The hallway has a red carpet running down the middle of it 

and a cupboard/table half way down the hallway, on the left.
On top of the cupboard/table there is a pile of paper and on top of the paper is a cup of tea. 

The wall that she is laying against is covered in vines and moss.

And at the end of the hallway we see a tree trunk, indicating a large tree. 

In the background we hear a slight sound of a waterfall but we only see mist.

(Image 1 - cathedral inspiration) 








(Image 2 - tea onto of paper)    

(Image 3 - Lighting example)

       

1. INT. Cathedral Hallway. Morning                                                                                         1.

Fade in from black

C/U of the girl re-gaining consciousness, laying against the cathedral hallway covered in vines. 

Main Light source (God rays) is coming from the windows on the left, behind the girl, lining her in a ring of light.

Secondary light is in front of her, so her face is not just a silhouette (see Image 3 for lighting example).

As the girl regains consciousness we see her expression as she reacts to the world around her, she clutches at a locket around her neck 

Cut to 

Image 3 - Lighting example (ring of light behind the character)

The girl gets up (while not in focus) --> (now in focus) reacts in confusion and astonishment before she starts walking towards the tree at the end of the hallway – letting go of the locket. 

As she walks away from the camera, towards the tree, the camera goes diagonally (to the right) down but the girl remains the center point (therefore we are now looking up towards her, but we still see the cupboard) 

2. INT. Cathedral Hallway. Morning                                                                                                               2.

When she comes to a halt, looking up at the tree, 

Cut to

M/S of the girl, again using rule of thirds, so we can focus pull to see the cupboard door open. 

We see the head of the Guardian come out and look around – realizing someone is there he tries to climb out quietly  - he falls over with his hands stretch out in front of him (half in the cupboard and half out) 

Due to the noise the girl turns around to look. 

Figure 4 - cupboard example

‘Guardian’ is standing facing the cupboard, picks up the tea in his left hand and a few pieces of paper in the other hand. All the while taking quick side glances to see if she’s still looking or if she’s gone. 

He takes a sip of tea,  

Guardian 

In an awkward tone (as if to break the silence)

bleh – it’s cold

As he puts down the tea, the girl steps forward 

Girl

Also in a awkward, shy tone

Uhm, Excuse me..

The Guardian, glances at her quickly before grabbing the remaining papers and walking away in haste (as to avoid confrontation with the girl). She gives chase.

Girl

Wait! Please wait! I’m search for the eye of Gyron!

The Guardian comes to a sudden stop. 

Cut to 

A XCU of the Guardian’s mouth – as he grins

Cut to 

OTS as we watch the Guardian turns around to meet the girl.

Guardian

In a overly-friendly way (suggesting he’s up to something)

Oh my, 

I’m terribly sorry my dear,

I didn’t notice you were there. 

Cut to W/S side (see both actors)

Girl

Confused, suspicious and a bit insecure(hesitant)

But when you fell over you saw me…

She’s cut off by the sound of the cupboard door closing, she jumps in surprise of the unexpected noise.

Cuts to OTS to see the guardian looking past the girl 

Zooms out so that the cupboard is also in view, we see new pieces of paper have been placed there. 

Guardian

Overly exaggerated and waving the old pieces of paper in his hands up and down

I only JUST got the old ones.
How is it even possible that there’s more?! 

He by-passes the girl and walks towards the cupboard

Guardian

Still exaggerating – and flopping over the cupboard

And they forgot my tea! First a cold one and now none! 
~ ahh I can tell today is going to be a bad day

Confused the girl slowly walks towards the guardian and notices the badge on the shoulder of his sleeve (a flaming sword) 

Girl

Say, are you by any chance ‘the Guardian’?

Guardian

Stands up and Starts looking through the paper’s with seemingly No particular reaction to the question

Maybe. Maybe not. 

Girl

Dissatisfied with the reply

Hmm…They say that the Guardian doesn’t want to be found.

Guardian

Still not interested

Is that so?

reacting to what’s on the paper;

WHAT?! Do I look like your personal messenger?! 

Do it yourself!

Scrunches’ up the piece of paper and throws in away.

Girl

Ignoring his tantrum

So what’s your reason?

Guardian

Reason?

Girl

For not wanting to be found?

Guardian

Sighs out of irritation (from all the accumulated incidents … + no tea) 

Gather’s his composure, opens the doors to the cupboard

Turns to look at her while climbing into the cupboard. Just before shutting the doors;

My dear, whatever made you think,

that I don’t want to be found. 

Now, if you don’t mind, I have things to do.

He shuts the door, she rushes to re-open the door but when she does he’s gone??

Or

Cut to a shot inside the cupboard (OTS) and the doors shut??

Or

P.O.V shot (of the girl) as we watch the cupboard doors close??

"

The end =D ~!

Well, sort of =P

I originally wanted to do Live action with CGI, 

but I think now, I'll do 3D animation

as for characters, i haven't got a definite idea yet, but I've been playing around with some silhouette's and drawings i did earlier in the year. 

I don't really like any of them yet, because I feel like I don't have a 'style' in my head, for the characters. So their coming out a bit hazy ~ I need to find inspiration first for what sort of style I should do this animation in ~ 

But here is what I've done so far :

These are both drawings that I did before starting this year's study ~ 

I feel like, I want the Guardian to be a Gaudy, seemingly self-centred character (Like the classic archetype of the trickster) so i felt like these are good starting points. 

These are some silhouette's that came out of the two sketches. But I'm still not very happy with any of them - 

Anyway, thats all for now ~ 

Until next time,

~ Ariane

Multiple Classes & Webpage Update

Hey everyone,

Today I'm going to jump between a few classes (because i've finished some new things and i've realised i forgot some other things)

But before that, I've updated my webpage (for those who know what it looked like before - i think it looks a lot better) ~!
If you go to my Gallery, and pick either 2D, 3D or Pre-Production you will see the images laid out like photo's spread on a table. You can click on them and it will zoom in and out. However if, once you've zoomed in on one photo, you can use your arrow keys to move around the individual images.

~ I recommend having a look - it's fun to play with if nothing else haha
link -> www.apicsstudio.com

Onto the class work ~

So first is the further development of the whale ship I talked about earlier :

I have yet to receive any feedback from the teacher so I'm not really sure where it stands (if its ok to use or if I have to change something) 

The textures, and colours were all brought about through wings and individual feathers blown up to cover the entire ship. 

I quite like it, but knowing our lecturer he will come up with some really good points and I will wonder why i was happy with it now haha xD

and as i'm writing this i've received an email, 

it says i should work on the rigging/sail attachment with the mast.

So that's what i'll be doing

~

Next is one i forgot to put up when i started this blog, 

it's also a piece of concept art, and it's also a ship. 

But for this class we're required to make a 'sleek' form of transport that, despite the natural laws, LOOKS like it could be made and work successfully in the real world. 

We're using Maya to make this ship, which is quite interesting. The controls are different from 3Ds Max so I often find myself changing the shape of the ship by accident, when i'm actually trying to rotate the view port (or something like that) haha =P 

This one was also inspired by a whale, which you can hopefully see

and its meant to be a single person flying ship. Similar to a motor cycle, except for the sky. The idea is that the two 'feet' of the fins rotate down to make straight...-ish fins that help with steering. The round thing at the back is the Jet that propels the ship forward, its slitted into the body of the ship, so it can rotate. That allows it to come down slowly and move forward quickly. 

~

Lastly is something i'm a bit proud of haha

For our 3D class, we have to make a realistic interior and I decided that for my interior, I was going to make my own stairs rather than using 3Ds Max's own, preset stairs....

I had no idea making stairs would be so incredibly hard haha

so because I finally did it ~ i'm kind of proud so I wanted to show you haha

Anyway, 

thats all for now ~ 

Until later =P

~ Ariane

Gnomon and CGHUB =D .... and life sketching

So, this morning i received an email from CGHUB saying that their main sponsor this year is Gnomon School in Hollywood....

~ on a quick side note,
those who don't know CGHUB -> cghub.com
those who don't know Gnomon school -> http://www.gnomonschool.com/
Go look ~! xD

There are some awesome courses being offered, having said that i haven't had a chance to look at prices.
I would love to go to the on-campus ones but...well, hollywood's a bit too far to travel to every night after tafe, and the summer camp course looks cool ~ except that you can't be over 18 to do it haha xD

~~~~~~

Anyway, onto other news,
Yesterday was my first day of life sketching,
It didn't go to well because i had quite a bad headache and by the last sketch i couldn't concentrate and focus without feeling nauseous, so i only have one 20 min sketch to show =P

I think you can definitely see that 'time' is a weakness of mine
( meaning they get better the further down you scroll xD )
We started of with a few 3 min sketches and ended off with two 20 min sketches ~

These are 3 min sketches -

This is a 5 min sketch -

these are 10 min sketches -

and this is the only 20 min sketch i did -

Opinions and comments always welcome
~ until next time
Ariane

Shot Concept ...

So one of our assignments is to create a short landing or take off sequence.
I've decided to go with a flying ship with a asian influence but still fantasy ~ so today i thought i'd upload some concepts/ideas so later on you can see my process and where i begun ~

These are some VFX shot concepts that focus more on lighting, scale and composition than the boat it self -

*I recommend clicking the image to see the bigger version*

These are some thumbnails and design ideas (that came from the thumbnails) that i've done but i have yet to do a proper concept sketch - 

*I recommend clicking the image to see the bigger version*

The comments to this was:

1. Very Organic feel

2. Very "Hayao Miyazaki" 

3. Simplify the design

4. draw a front on version to get a better idea of how the shape works

5. Perhaps look at the Art Nouveau style - would look cool in the Art Nouveau style 

I'm not really sure about how I will go about bringing in the art nouveau style but thats something i will look at more in our next class.

Let me know what you think so far 

~ Ariane

Welcome !

Hey everyone ~

My name is Ariane Torelli and AriMotion is a blog I want to dedicate to my creative journey in my final years of study, where ever they may be.

My overall goal is to become a Director of feature length film with a combination of live action and CGI/animation.
To introduce worlds, objects and people that have never been seen before, while taking the audience on a journey that normally wouldn't be imagined - this is what i dream to do.
But this will become more clear as my short film project starts to come through onto this blog.

Currently I am finishing my final year in the Central Institute of Technology studying an Advanced Diploma of Animation (which i would definitely recommend to any future animators) so AriMotion will most likely be focused around my animation projects, as well as, exploring the history of animation, and hopefully discussing their techniques and how they've impacted and influenced me and my style.
However it will probably have a spill over from live action films (or at least towards the end).

Anyway that's all for now ~ until we meet again

All the best
 ~ Ariane