Enlighten Festival - Blooming Jungle

ENLIGHTEN 2014 from Eye Candy Animation on Vimeo.

Here is a short clip created by Eye Candy Animation just to give you a little bit of an idea as to what the Enlighten Festival is all about. 

For those of you who don't know anything about the Enlighten Festival; it's this really amazing festival held in Canberra every year where huge projectors light up the buildings with amazing artworks, and this year they decided to try some animation as well.

This footage was taken by Mark Jekabsons

I was involved with a community project where I created Blooming Jungle with the help of Sarah Robertson, Tom Magill and Jack Hampton.

This footage was taken by the AIE

The video above is footage taken of the other animations also created by people from the AIE; together with the Blooming Jungle animation which I was a part of creating. 

Blooming jungle is a short little animation that transforms the National Portrait Gallery into an artwork, as the ancient ruins becomes consumed by wild plants, deep in the heart of the jungle. 

White Wednesday - Short Film

White Wednesday from AIE on Vimeo.

In my second year at the AIE of the Advanced Diploma of the Screen and  Media, our last project was a short film assignment where we had to create a short film through using the skills that we have learned through our time at the AIE where we were specialising in 3D Animation and VFX and much more.

I worked with the 6 other students in my class to create White Wednesday. In the beginning of the project we all had to come up with ideas for the short film. The script used for White Wednesday was created by one of our group members, Rebecca Lyons Wright. Seeing as this was her script, she became our director for the film.

White Wednesday is about a pigeon pooping on several statues until he reaches a statue of a woman holding a dove. The pigeon falls in love with the dove not knowing that this is a statue and not a real bird. He flies down to her where he tries everything to impress her, to win her love and affection. When everything else fails, he figures out that she is in fact a statue. He's whole world comes crashing down and he falls asleep on the statues hand next to the dove statue. In the late afternoon a real female pigeon flies in and captures his attention where he immediately falls in love with her.

The style of the short film was set out to be cartoon like and unrealistic; something that would appear within a children's television program. The style for the environment, was initially meant to be very simple, such as blocks with sharp edges for the buildings and the textures were meant to look slightly grungy. Where the pigeon was initially going to look as if has been made out of clay.

The film turned out to look a little different to what we thought it would be at the start of the production, but it has turned out to be quite a production piece. We've all had a great deal of fun creating this film; I know I have. I worked with an amazing team as we created something extraordinary, especially when you consider the time frame that we were working within. I've learned a lot through this short film and had great fun working with the team.  I just want to thank the team and everyone involved in creating this film for all their efforts. This film just wouldn't have been the same without all of you.

Robo_Crane

Robo_Crane, Anzel Rossouw, 2013

Robo_Crane is a 2D artwork consisting of a crane bird that has been integrated with mechanical pieces, that lives within the tree tops where the sunlight breaks through the leaves. This artwork was created using Adobe Photoshop. Robo_Crane was meant to be just an inspirational wallpaper for my desktop computer. So that every time I would look at it, it would give me inspiration and hope. I wanted to create a artwork that would bring across my personality, something that would be me in a sense; my style. This artwork turned out to be exactly what I was looking for; it is creating the exact effect that I wanted to create; inspiration.

Robo_Crane, Initial sketch

The image, Robo_Crane, Initial sketch, on the left is the base for the artwork; so the concept sketch for the idea that I had. The sketch was originally done on a plain grey background, but I decided to add a frame and some shading to the background to make it look more interesting.

This one just started off with this line that I drew out of frustration and so my imagination ran off with this idea of creating a mechanical bird; it kind of just started flowing into something amazing.
Once I had a really good solid base I needed to get some details right, such as how the mechanical parts would look like or whether the bird's proportions were correct.

So I started looking at reference images of the different types of cranes that you get as well as their anatomy, in order to gain a really good perspective on how they work and how sections fit together. I looked at how their beaks looked in particular, how it would fit together with his head and I had to consider how I would incorporate those mechanical pieces. For that I looked at machinery with similar capabilities and functionality. Getting ideas about what kind of hinges and other metal pieces would work as well as how wires would fit in. On the neck of the bird I have incorporated some sort of armoury and the feathers on the head turned out to be more metal like than organic.

Robo_Crane, Colour block out 

So once I've fully created the base of the image and I was sure that I was happy with it, I had to start looking at the colour scheme that I would be using. So far through my artworks I haven't really been very versatile when it came to the use of colour. Choosing the colour was quite difficult. The first colour scheme that I considered using was one where I would use very vibrant colours that would be bright and colourful and this meant the use of colours such as reds, yellows, greens, blues; the usual tropical bird colours. The other colour scheme that I had in mind was the one shown in the image, Robo_Crane, Colour block out; the one I eventually used. Pinks, peach colours, purples, a orangey reddish colour that would work quite well with the peachy colours as well as blues to fit into those purples. I had to be careful as to where I would use the colours so that the image would have a good flow throughout the whole canvas. Through using the orange colour next to the blues; I was creating some contrast where I added this warm and cold colour together.

The next step was to add shading to the very flat block out colours that I have used in, Robo_Crane, Colour block out; where it illustrates the colour scheme. On the left I have included an image to illustrate the artwork once I have finished all the shading.

Robo_Crane, Shading

When it comes to shading, you have to know where the source of your light is in order to determine where you would make use of lighter shading as well as the darker shading. Consider what the fall off of the light would look like on your image. You also have to think about what shape you are using. The light would look very different on a flat surface as opposed to a rounded shape. These are the types of things I never use to consider. Once you think about these things shading becomes  so much easier and you have a much better result, this could also help with creating a more realistic artwork or you are just simply able to create the effect that you are aiming at.

For most shading work that I did, I just took a lighter shade of the colour that I was using, for where the light was shining on the section that I was shading, and the darker shade of my colour for the places where I would find shadows; where the light is does not really shine as bright as well as the places where there was a fall off of the light. I also had to consider the colour of my light as well and how that would affect the colour of my lighter shading. The colour of my environment also effected my shading as well as how the base colour would appear as the leaves around the bird would also contribute some light and would therefore effect the colour.

Robo_Crane, Effects

Looking at Robo_Crane, Shading, I decided that the colours looked way too washed out, so I then added some effects that would make the colour brighter and stand out more. I added some levels in Photoshop to bring those colours out more so that the colours wouldn't look as washed out and almost pale in a sense. Looking at the image on the left, Robo_Crane, Effects, you can see how this have made a huge impact. Especially when I considered on what effect that the bright sun light would have on the whole image. How the leaves around the bird would be more illuminated and how everything should be brighter. The image just looks so much more beautiful and way more vibrant. It feels so much more inspiring and uplifting than what it looked like before in the image Robo_Crane, Shading.

I wanted the background to reflect on the bird itself; a place where he would belong. Above in the tree tops of the forest just seemed so fitting. Even though the bird is integrated with mechanical parts, he is more organic than mechanical. The tree tops is a place where he belongs and where he feels inspired. This is his home.

So far this is my absolute favourite piece of 2D digital art. This artwork reminds me that I am capable of so much more; looking at previous art works and comparing it to this artwork shows me progress. To me this artwork symbolizes strength, peace and beauty. Every time I look at this image, I feel inspired and that is what I wanted to create; that feeling of inspiration. When I look at this artwork I want it to reflect my style of painting. It needed to be something that is truly mine.