Thursday, 5 May 2016

Process - Dragonframe - 2nd test

This was my second test shot using oil paints. I used the image of the as mask to link with the main character called "the gas mask man".

I wanted the image to be simple, but effective with the colours. I was aiming for this session to be the start of my final animation, however the oil paints still proved extremely difficult to work with, even though I created a thick layer of black acrylic paint for the background so the colours would not become mucky when painted over the top of the background. I feel like this decision was a good one because it intensified the colours. However, the actual image itself turned out bad. I attempted several versions of colours and compositions in an attempt to find the perfect images to use.


Here are a few of my experimentations. I eventually decided that the colour combinations were too dark because the oil paints I was using weren't the best quality, and the colour pay off was low.


Here, is a perfect example of the lack of colour pay off the oil paints have. Even though I would layer it on thick, the colours would lack vibrancy. The lighting was also a difficulty at this moment, even though my lighting set up was relatively okay.



This is me at the start of painting one of my frames. I ended up creating a cardboard stencil that I would draw around in white chalk in order to keep a consistent shape. I liked how the yellow looked against the black, but I couldn't get the camera to focus to take a picture. I was also aiming for the texture of the paints to be picked up a lot better. This is probably because of the lack of good equipment that I have.



Because the yellow seemed to pick up really well on camera, I decided to use the colour more. The purple I mixed didn't stand out as well, but this colour combination is something that I really like, and I feel like it would fit with my animation and colour scheme.


Here is where I attempted to swiftly create the images in hopes that when I played back the images in sequence, they would have a jagged, and messy look to them. However, the blue lacked vibrancy yet again.


I did not like the colour combination of this, and I feel like the lines are extremely sloppy. This is probably because at this point I was discouraged about how the images were turning out.


Here, I attempted to use acrylic paints in order to create vibrant lines. I feel like this worked a little better, however the paint was shinier than the oil paints which caused the light to reflect off the paint. At this point, I was contemplating switching mediums again and using something that didn't involve lighting as a main attribute to the process.

Overall, I feel like painting the mask as an outline looked childish and ineffective to the aim I wanted to achieve. I wanted to create an expressive and messy look to my animation, with simplistic lines, but the result was disappointing. I feel like I need to re-evaluate not only the medium, but the images themselves. 

I feel like I'm comfortable using paint to paint images, but I got extremely frustrated with the messiness of the oil paints and the lack of brightness with them. The background is also an issue, I wanted it to look more textured, but the lighting wasn't so great, so the texture didn't get picked up. I also found the camera frustrating. Because I've never used a camera like this, I found it hard to find the perfect focus on it. Eventually I got the hang of it, but the camera itself seemed battered and had a lot of technical issues in general.

I think that if I had more time, I would have created a more detailed version of the mask to animated for the few seconds it would be on the screen. I would have chosen higher quality oil paints, and also reconsidered the background colour.

I feel like it was a nice idea to use the technique of painting on glass, but because of the lack of funds for decent oil paints, the lack of good lighting and also an old and unfocusing camera, this idea failed.

I'm happy that I managed to experiment and figure out that this process is unsuccessful personally. I feel like I can create more detail in the drawings and also create better looking images for me to animate for my title sequence. Even though I want my images to be simple, I still want them to look effective, and I want them to have a gritty texture.

I feel like I want to be okay at painting animations, because I enjoy using paints like acrylic. I feel like oil paint at this moment in my academic years is too difficult to animate with because of how messy and time consuming it is. 

My next step is to reconsider my medium. I feel like either ink or oil pastel would be my best bet because it's slightly cleaner, and I feel that the images would be easier to edit in Photoshop than images that I've painted. I also think that using either ink or oil pastel will give me the opportunity to create gritty and scratchy textures.



No comments:

Post a Comment