Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
This semester was fantastic – honestly, I really enjoyed every moment of it. I’m privileged to be counted among all the fine folk in my year and it has been a pleasure getting to know everyone. I’d like to thank both my classmates and teachers for all the generous time and advice you have afforded me over the past 12 weeks – it was truly appreciated. There has been so many highlights this semester – immersing myself in storytelling, CSS Bear with Kyle, the London Trip – the list could go on and on (and so could I!). Succinctly put, I am very pleased with my development as an artist and I can’t wait to see what the next semester brings.
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Saturday, December 17th, 2011
Last week I posted my script for ‘Waldo-Joe & Old Man Crow’. I produced a piece of concept art this week to compliment the story. I’m trying to achieve a ‘painterly’ feel for this animation – a look very individual to my style. I hope to blur the lines between what the audience perceives to be 2d and what is really 3d. It should make for an interesting viewing experience.
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Monday, December 12th, 2011
I have given more consideration to my original Bear CSS illustration. Kyle Gawley, a web developer in my class recently created a tool that automates a task that all web designers encounter when they begin to build a website. It automatically provides a designer with a ready-to-go stylesheet in which they can build their web site. In lieu of this theme ‘build’, we wanted the character to carry forward this metaphor. Read more…
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
1812, Tennessee, on a crisp and windy Autumn evening. The story begins with ‘Waldo-Joe’, only 11 years old but what he lacks in experience he more than makes up for in his mischief. He peers over the fence of ‘the creepy house’ in the village – eyes fixed intently on the brooding structure. As we all know, every village has a ‘creepy house’…but this one in particular is quite special. ‘Old Man Crow’ lives in there. Yes…him. Some say he can talk to the birds…some say he isn’t even human, that he turns into a black crow who steals things from the rest of the villagers. Yes, ‘Old Man Crow’ is what they call him, his real name (if ever he owned such a thing) was long forgotten.
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Monday, December 5th, 2011
The story begins with snow falling gently, resting upon grass perched on the side of the cliff. A still Winters night, high above the twinkling lights of the village far below. An old man and woman hold a Chinese lantern, it’s warm glow lighting up expressions of joy and jubilation upon their youthful faces. This will be one of the most memorable moments they will ever share together – time is still. They are deeply in love and this lantern represents that love. Each holding an end they close their eyes, making a wish. The lantern is released and slowly ascends, parting flakes of snow as it makes its way into the starlit sky. Its light spills down onto the couple, representing warmth, positivity and hope for the future – their lives together have just begun. Immersed in a warm glow they embrace, looking into each others eyes. The camera circles around them, alluding to unity, wholeness – together they are complete. As the camera circles, it slows to a halt on the woman’s face, her expression halts too. Slowly the colours drain from her face turning it sepia. Scratches appear and the camera pans out to reveal a thumb . We realise this is an old photograph. A memory which has long since passed and so to has the woman.
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Thursday, December 1st, 2011
I recently created a walk cycle in Greg and Connán’s animation class. We were tasked with creating a walk cycle for a character. Following my animation of ‘The Bouncing Ball’, I now faced a more challenging task – the animation of a biped character. I learned a great amount by participating in this class.
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Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
To set the scene…it was a windy October evening and the rain fell from the darkened sky, gently brushing against the glass of my living room window. My family and I sat watching television, engrossed with the theatrics unravelling before our eyes. It was a Sunday night, of course we were watching ‘X Factor’. I looked around me, curiously surveying my family and friends’ gaze fixed enthusiastically on the screen – I couldn’t help but be impressed with the sheer power this program has over its audience. It is seemingly entirely engaging and entertaining. In an effort to understand this phenomenon, I have tried to place X Factor into the context of mythic storytelling structure. Starting with ‘The Archetypes’ and afterwards moving on to ‘The Stages’. I aim to shed some light as to why The X Factor is so engaging by viewing it through the gaze of ‘The Writer’s Journey’.
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Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
Class reflections: Thinking Big
If I have learn’t just one single thing this semester, it is this…TO THINK BIG. I came into this degree with an open mind. I wanted to be changed, improved and moulded into an artist who is adaptable to a wide range of scenarios and opportunities. Knowing what I know now, it is honestly painful to make my fingers type this, but before I joined this degree I just didn’t think big enough. I can’t explain why I settled for mediocrity in my last job…the fact that I joined this degree perhaps demonstrates that I did not settle. Either way, there was definitely some confusion there, and most certainly a lack of direction.
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Saturday, November 19th, 2011
Over the past several weeks I have balanced my research at University along with with freelancing for several clients, the foremost being Billygoat Entertainment. “The goat” (as it is known) is a small Belfast outfit specializing in creating video games for mobile devices.
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Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
An interesting concept and an insight into how consumerism has begun to shift due to the rise of the world wide web. “The Long Tail” in essence, is a demonstration that the way in which we buy and sell is forever changing, it is no longer a ‘one size fits all’ market. As Chris pointed out in class, businesses are no longer bound by the confines of a buildings bricks and mortar. If we wish to sell something , the Internet provides unlimited shelf space for retail. This provides niche markets with a fantastic opportunity for not only survival, but for unprecedented growth – they now have access to a pool of interested customers.
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Thursday, November 10th, 2011
On the 7th and 8th of November, Mr. Ciaran Gallagher and myself boarded the 5am bus to Dublin. We took advantage of an invitation to attend part of a week-long workshop headed up by successful Hollywood movie producer Max Howard. Mr. Howard has worked on some of the most memorable films of our time – ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Aladdin’ and ‘The Lion King’. Among many of his accolades, he was President of Warner Bros Feature Animation. It was a privilege to hear him speak – well worth the journey.
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Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
I have been working on a collaborative project this semester with Kyle Gawley, a web developer in the same year as me. Kyle has created a tool which automates a task that all web designers encounter when they begin to build a website – the layout of the stylesheet. A very handy tool indeed. Kyle asked me to come up with a ‘mascot’ and brand for the service. I tried to boil Kyle’s creation down into it’s main function. I determined that it provided the bare CSS a web designer needs to begin to build a web site. The clue for naming the product was in its function – bare css…‘Bear CSS’ was born. This has several layers – it is a play on the word ‘bare’, hinting at the function of the service – which is always a good idea. Secondly, it provided us with our mascot – a bear.
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Thursday, October 27th, 2011
I have grouped these 2 seminars together due to the fact that they feed into one another, fantastic design of service will surely generate ‘lovemarks’ with customers. These 2 things are best explored together rather than separately.
What makes a brand transcend that void between being simply a supplier of a product, and being something that you can really connect and invest emotion in? The answer to this question lies in the employment of a meticulously considered approach to operating a business. Everything must be considered, and nothing must be left up to chance. I’d like to relate this concept of service design (and the rewarding ‘lovemark’) by looking at how I can use these techniques to engage with my audience within the animation industry. The question is, who in this industry utilizes these methodologies most effectively?
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Sunday, October 23rd, 2011
I finished an illustration recently – ‘Mr. Clantern & The Lanterns’. In my earlier blog post A Road Map For Improvement, taking Chris’s advice I identified 3 artists who I admire. Doing so provided me with a direction and this illustration an attempt to put what I have learned into practice.
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Friday, October 21st, 2011
A substantial part of understanding the concepts and methodologies within ‘The Writer’s Journey’ lies in understanding ‘The Archetypes’ and how they find their place within a story. The term ‘archetype’ was coined by famed Swiss Psychologist Carl G. Jung who Vogler exclaims, “…wrote about the archetypes: constantly repeating characters or energies which occur in the dreams of all people and the myths of all cultures”. Jung goes on to mention that The Archetypes are the product of taking a well-rounded human personality and breaking it down into several slices, these slices make up each Archetype. Collectively, these Archetypes form what Carl Jung refers to as ‘The Self’, or rather – the complete personality.
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Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
I recently created an animation of bouncing balls – homework for Greg and Connán’s class. Using ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit’ by famed animator Richard Williams, I was able to apply concepts such as ‘Squash and Stretch” and “anticipation” in order to communicate the idea of weight to the audience. Of course, the idea of ‘weight’ does not exist in the 3d world, such things have to be told through movement and illusuion. Watch the video and try to guess what type of ball each one is.
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Monday, October 17th, 2011
In a previous blog post The Solution To Most Things That Are Difficult, I discussed how practice and hard work are the driving force behind my work ethic and development as an artist. That being said, practice and hard work account for very little if they are not focused in the correct areas. At the beginning of the semester I had a tutorial with Chris, we talked about ‘finding my style’. Chris advised me to take a look at 3 artists who inspire me the most – people who I look up to. This is not in an attempt to replicate their style, but rather to try and understand why I like their work, and consequentially identify the direction that I would like to take my own art.
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Thursday, October 13th, 2011
I have always looked at illustration as ‘problem solving’ and this may be surprising to some as the two do not seem to be intrinsically linked. However, for me illustration has always been about conquering one problem and then moving onto the next. I do not truly believe any problem can ever be conquered conclusively as there is always room for improvement. The process of tackling one problem at a time is how I learn and grow best as an artist. The goal is to bridge that gap between something which looks poor and something which looks perfect. This gap becomes smaller and smaller with focused effort. That indeed is the remedy – practice, plain and simple hard work. I believe that we tend to ignore good old fashioned advice simply because it is repeated almost thoughtlessly, little nuggets of wisdom such as “practice makes perfect” fall upon deaf ears for most people.
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Saturday, October 8th, 2011
I found this seminar genuinely intriguing – marketing is something very new to me. The more experience that I gain working within the design industry, the more I understand the importance of having a solid grasp of marketing, self-promotion and how to make a brand ‘special’. Chris recommended that we read ‘The Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell and ‘The Purple Cow’ by Seth Godin. I am familiar with ‘The Tipping Point’, having read it during the time of ‘The London Riots’ – I couldn’t help but draw parallels with the concept of a quickly spreading epidemic in action.
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Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
As part of my desire to understand what it means to tell stories, I have based a large portion of of my research around ‘The Writer’s Journey’ by Christopher Vogler. This journal post documents the strategy that I have put in place for my research into storytelling.
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Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
During this seminar we looked at a number of designers who take a multidisciplinary approach to their careers. This is a concept that I honestly did not put much thought into before this degree and it might possibly be one of the most important concepts I take away with me. I have realised that I have been very short sighted in how I foresee my development as a professional. I joined this degree with the goal in mind of working as an animator upon graduating. However, this seminar has led me to reassess this goal. Why should I force myself down just 1 single career path? By taking a multidisciplinary approach I will expose myself to more opportunities and have increased flexibility in my lifestyle.
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Friday, September 30th, 2011
My name is Jordan, I am Masters degree student studying Multidisciplinary Design at the University of Ulster, Belfast. My focus is illustration and animation and this is where you can follow my journey as I progress through each semester.
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