Self-Directed Project: "Suzie Doozy"

Remember these? Of course not because I never posted this but these characters are old and were part of my failed experiment to create an animation out of them. If anyone wants to have a read about my previous project, head to:

http://katerinacherrell.blogspot.com/2008/07/second-semester-and-my-project.html

Then I decided to make character driven animation shorts, but that task soon became too big for me and very quickly the project I set for myself became less fun.

So I went away to figure out my strengths and weaknesses. I know that I am strong visually and have a penchant for all things illustration. I also like to experiment with different media, both digital and traditional. I still have lots to learn technically and there is little time so its best to not give myself any tasks that I know that I would not be able to handle.

So, now I decided to update my previous project to better suit my strengths. The project is now fully about character development. I will use some of the existing designs from my previous project to develop a tv show title sequence and a trailer to advertise it and merchandise (a little plush toy comes to mind). The idea is to explore the strength of a character and its readability in different forms and mediums. The main character I am focusing on is "Little Girl". I am very happy with her design and I think that the character has a lot of potential, in terms of application in different media. As of now she will be known as "Suzie Doozy". The reason "Doozy" is Suzie's last name is because she always gets herself into trouble when she expects it least and it becomes a "doozy" of a problem for her!

For those that don't know what "doozy"means, here is a definition: 

Doozy (plural doozies)

1. (US) something that is extraordinary. Often used in the context of troublesome, difficult or problematic, but can be used positively as well.

2. Most of the test was easy, but the last question was a doozy.

I feel the name "Suzie Doozy" has a nice ring to it and it will be the title of my hypothetical animation series made for tv. 

Next we have the antagonist. "Bad Tyke Jake" is the neighborhood bully and everyone fears him and he always seems to pick Suzie as his victim. At times of crisis, Suzie seeks help from her mum, "Mother Doozy", who is part 50s housewife, part superhero who's job is to save and aid  Suzie in her moments of trouble. I will outline the characters in greater detail in later posts.

So, what will I be submitting:

1. Folio of concept art.

 - character development (characters in rotation, poses, etc)

 - style guides

 - color script

 - animatics (one for trailer, one for opening credits)

2. TV show advertising spot/s (trailer)

 - 2D animation produced in After Effects.

 - This piece will show the characters as they would normally appear in the animated tv series.

3. Opening Titles

-Aesthetic style reminiscent of legendary title designers Saul Bass and Maurice Binder

- The characters will be very stylised and stripped back to its most basic geometric form made out of cut out paper pieces. This piece will be a test of strength of the character design.

4. Merchandising

- a plush toy of "Suzie Doozy" to explore the character in 3d form, which is also tangible.

-a printed piece such as postcards or a poster.

More details later.

 

Installation Art: "Curious Murder"

We finally finished the video with our installation art concept. 

Our hypothetical exhibition runs for 5 days. There is a body outline on the floor on the first day and on each new day a new outline/s appear. The objective is to study human behaviour, that is, how do passers-by react to the installation. Are they curious? puzzled? camera shy? or just ignore the whole thing. It was interesting to see how people began to use the space with the new elements installed. 

"Crime" Outlines

Today we shot our footage for our Installation Art project. Technically we were supposed to do that tomorrow but another group has chosen the same location as us so we couldn't film.

Our chosen location is the Black corridor in the Architecture building. There were several reasons for our choice:

1. It is black and our subject/s contrast well against the background.
2. There is a constant flow of people travelling between buildings.
   
3. The corridor can be easily accessed, which allows us greater freedom whereas filming is         concerned.

Now to the concept. The installation is a mixture of social experiment and art. The objection is to explore human behaviour and in particular, the nature of curiosity. Members of our group lay down on the ground in a specific pose, which was outlined in masking tape. In the final piece we explain that the installation was exhibited for 5 days and on each day a new outline would appear. By the end of the week, the whole corridor is covered in body outlines. There is no specific order that the outlines need to appear on the ground - the more random the better. And we encourage them to overlap as that creates an interesting visual effect.

At first, we were planning to film the people's reactions to outlines only, but we quickly realised as we were setting up, that people seemed interested in what we were doing so we documented that as well.

As a result, our installation now has 2 experimental conditions: during set-up and post set-up.

Above are some photos of the outlines.

Installation Art

Now that we have finished with modular experimentation, it is time to move to part 2 of the project, which has nothing to do with part1! 

Our team (and the other teams) have to come up with an intallation art concept that uses a specific location (of our choice) anywhere on campus. Due to the lack of materials, funding, building permits, etc we are not suppose to actually build it but to make it just look real. 

As soon as we were given the brief, our group seperated for the weekend for brainstorming and came back on Monday to discuss ideas. It was easier to see what each individual in the group wanted to see in the final concept and to ultimately come to a final decision.

Notably, the gameshow that is known in Australia as "The Hole" came up and the whole idea of silhoettes or holes through which, people can climb through and this way people could use the space as a type of playground. The issue of practicality arose and we had to expand on the idea. Then the silhouettes got us thinking about crime scenes, for some reason, and how body outlines can look cool!! Weird. 

...And we settled on that. Our installation concept became art/social experiment. More on that later. :)

Modular Madness Completed!!

I wrote in my previous post that our team was working on producing a stop motion animation piece with our modular system as our key subject. The narrative aims to explore the system's maximum construction potential.

I am pleased to announce that we finished and here is our final result:

Making Cardboard Prototypes/Alchemy Studio

This semester the Multimedia students are collaborating with the Architecture students. We learn how to make models and they learn how to use software like After Effects. So we both learn something new. On Thursday we had to  create 3 modular structures out of boxboard. We weren't allowed to use glue or any other adhesive to connect the pieces together so we had to come up with a seperate technique for each of the structures. I used the slot, the tab and the groove techniques and I also used scoring and that helped me to bend the thick cardboard into a more desirable shape. Unfortunately, I misunderstood that we were actually supposed to post pictures of our experiments on the blogs, so I actually threw mine out, thinking that I won't need them anymore. 

Later in the day we were formed into groups to work on the first part of our assessable assignment, which is going to be a stop motion animation. This is what one of my group member's modular system looked like:

The group decided to use the prototype that was already made in class. The prototype pictured directly above, offers many manipulation possibilities. It is simple on its own, but is capable of being constructed into complicated shapes. Each piece joins to another via slot system, in other words, each piece is fitted with multiple slots for greater shape possibilities.

The 30 seconds of animation that we are required to shoot, is to explore the potential of the modular system through a visual narrative that our group has to come up with.

Shooting day - Saturday

Update: ...And a bit on Sunday due to horrific weather today in the second half of the day!! :(

 

Special message for the blog! :)

Hi Blog. I didn't write in you for a while. Been neglecting you (not good). But I will rectify the situation starting from today. I went through some ups and downs and bumpy rides and a long pause (the process kind of aged me in the process too, lol!) Now it feels good to start the year from a clean slate and with the mind in the right place. Here's to a good year! :)