5 min sketch of a woman from a magazine... I liked the angles and different textures of the material.

Rose in water

Not the most perfect thing I've ever painted... but I decided, since I'm trying to be more experimental with things and keep drawing/painting as a regular habit, I'd put up everything I do so I can see where I'm going wrong! Hmmm.

Extra material for Integrated Project level 4

These are some other images used in our project. The instructions leaflet and CD cover were designed by me using my own original imagery (and the waiter image from another member) after our group decided it would aid our project. It was well received by critics as no other groups had considered the idea.

  

Kitchen scene finished game element

This is the finished game element of the candle snuffer section of the project. The user must first navigate the kitchen to find the candle snuffer. Once found the user is led to a page which will contain in depth factual information and a 360' rotating photographic image.

French kitchen scene

Based loosely around the French style of animation (e.g. Les Triplettes de Belleville) this is a messy, fun, kitchen scene which forms the basis of an interactive searching game being created in Flash as part of our Intergrated Project, aimed at a younger audience.
Created using Photoshop.

All things closed

Everything open

French restaurant background concept

Movie C

Stylised Walk Cycle with character overlay - Sneak

Here I tried to demonstrate someone sneaking, as if they were trying to avoid being seen and doing something mischievious. I used the basic puppet and After Effects to create an initial cycle and then when I was happy I did a character overlay on top using Photoshop. I then imported the .jpeg sequence back into After Effects and rendered it out with a table. I used videos from youtube for inspiration.
I included pauses in the cycle to slow down the movement and stretched one cycle to just over 2 seconds rather than the 1 second in the other cycles. This was to make the movement seem more calculated and careful.
Basic puppet sneak cycle which I drew over:

 

Sneak walk cycle

59 individual layers used as the basis for the sneak cycle

Finished sneak cycle with simple background





Muybridge animal rotoscope

Part of assignment was to rotoscope some Muybridge images to create an animation.
It was really interesting to see how much the cat stretched and squashed during the leaps so I tried to use the colours to emphasise this.

Run cycle using puppet

This is the run cycle I submitted using the same puppet and After Effects again.

The majority of frames were hand-created, there is very little AE in-betweening as I feel this makes for a  more realistic movement.

Walk cycle using puppet

Walk cycle using a puppet in After Effects. This was a lot easier than hand drawing each frame but did not allow as much freedom and flexibility of the limbs - neck and foot movement especially. Overall I'm very pleased with the movement though perhaps the strides are quite wide.

Rendered out as Quicktime movie.

Hand-drawn walk cycle test 1

First version of walk cycle which I completed over the weekend. Its made up of 25 individual frames with frame 1 and 25 being identical copies so that it can be looped when finished. Needs some sorting out in the crossover stage as the frames are a bit jumpy I feel.

This cycle along with three other interpretations is due on 28th Feb eek. Must keep going.

UPDATE:

The walk cycle when I 'finished' it. In the end I decided to submit the puppeted walk cycle over this hand-drawn one (only one was allowed) as though I spent a lot (a lot) of time on this I just couldn't get it to look smooth enough and jitter-free for my liking. For a first attempt I am sort of proud of it but it shows how much more practice I need...

Black Swan

A friend of mine kindly gave me some photoshop tips about blending and using varying transparencies of brushes, and introduced me to the idea of drawing in black and white and then adding colour on top. This really inspired me and was very helpful and I have tried to use these techniques in this painting of Natalie Portman.
Again, I drew it from scratch using a photo reference and I like how it looks much more evenly blended and realistic than the previous.

DIY necklace

Pale grey H&M cardigan

Turquoise blue Topshop vest

Black cut off Levi's shorts

Brick red thrifted belt

Gold 'love' Accessorize necklace

Light pink flower handmade necklace

Light pink flower handmade necklace

Made this necklace with a long narrow rectangle of folded fabric and a bead, using a few folds and stitches. Came out a lot better than I was expecting!

Digital painting no.2

I drew this from a photo reference of Alexa Chung - model, presenter and general fashion icon. This was an experiment with the hard brush on PSE8 to see how I could get blocky strong areas of light and dark but make it look realistic still and not too cartoon-y. Think it came out okay...

The hair hasn't worked at all with this technique, it looks pretty much like straw. Definitely going to experiment more with blending, transparency and softer brushes.

First time for everything

I was very super-extra-happy to receive a graphics tablet over Christmas :) Looking forward to getting used to it as I'm sure it will make computer drawing a lot easier. This is me doodling about for the first time:

Not quite sure what expression I was trying to create here, it seems to have turned into a mixture of fed-up and displeasure. Hmm...

Storyboard

Using the characters I created below I have made a storyboard. Its set entirely in the location of a small rural forest where Freddie lives, with a farm on the edge where Clemence and friends are housed. The characters are personified versions of animals that cannot speak particularly but converse with each other through noises and gesticulations.

Plot
The story starts with Freddie frolicking in the autumnal leaves and playing about but gradually he grows bored of this. An apple dropping from a tree provides another means of entertainment but he soon realises it would be more fun with another player. He sees Clemence and a friend in their pen and decides to see if they will play. After some encouraging they agree and play happily for a while. As Freddie grows hungry he begins to contemplate his options and Clemence could be one of them!

Possible plot extensions
Freddie's actions in the story are almost a surprise to him and perhaps this could lead to a feeling of shame. The impression is given that Freddie and Clemence know each other previously and get along well. The other chickens might gang up on Freddie after this 'horiffic' act he has done.

Splash of colour

First outfit post. Exciting.

Re-discovered my blog over at Chictopia in the hope that this will encourage me to keep updating so please check that out :) My main reason for posting photos is to force me to experiment more and so I remember when an outfit does/doesn't work. Plus its always nice when someone says something nice about an item of clothing you adore :)

Burnt orange peter pan collar Topshop dress

Gold Dorothy Perkins ball and chain necklace

You lovely people can follow me on

Chictopia

http://www.chictopia.com/racheeey

Lookbook

http://lookbook.nu/dessertplease

Character development

So I had a go at some character development after we did a few classes on storyboarding and creating characters in uni...Quite like the angular fox and how it still manages to look somewhat friendly yet mischievious despite all the triangle shapes!?

I don't feel the chicken works as well as its not as quirky/original as the fox perhaps but I think it fits well the shape-wise. I tried out some front-views for the fox but decided these wouldn't fit with the style I wanted so the fox will essentially have the same head profile side-on and front-on... if that makes sense. I'll put it into the storyboard so its more obvious.

The Characters

Freddie is a young male fox approximately 3 years old. Freddie does not actively hunt other animals for fun, instead enjoying swimming in nearby rivers. He has no real home but lives comfortably.

Clemence is an older male chicken/rooster approximately 4 years old.
Clemence tries to resist doing things that are dangerous or not perfectly right but he is easily persuaded. He lives in a very pleasant coop with many other chickens and is quite popular.

3Ds Max

Basic bedroom scene created and animated using 3ds Max. Video quality is hideous as the original file was too big to upload so I had  to convert a copy to wmv :(

Stop motion

I was pretty bored so tried some DIY stop motion using my bog-standard webcam and the free HeliumFrog. Here is the (v. basic) end result:

Life drawing female

Life drawing male

First Post

Hello Everyone!

I am Rachel, an Animation student and clothes-lover currently living in Sheffield. This blog is a new years project that I hope to update regularly with drawings, digital paintings, animations, outfit photos, doodles and other interesting things.

Hopefully you will find something to inspire and intrigue you :)

Rachel.