Initial idea and feelings on group

This was meant to be at the begging but Blogger also deleted this post ???

In our meeting today Juan told us to decide what groups we are going to be in. I asked what each person was doing, and decided that Glenns idea was closest to what I want to do, as well as when I said my thoughts on what to do he took them on board and said that we could include them.

Our initial idea is to create an app that will then have VR, AR and a video included, so that people can digitally interact with the environment of where the battle happened. We wanted to create AR as well so that people can use it without having to own a headset, as well as VR often makes people feel sick.

We each assigned roles within the project, so Glenn will be working with Jo to make the VR and AR. Emily will be doing the video. Sophie K will be creating and designing the app. And I will be drawing and animating the characters that will go into the VR experience.

This character will tell the user their story, doing this through a real person will make people feel more connected to the character.

Overall, I realty like my group and idea, as everyone is good at what they have chosen to do, and I think that our idea is interesting and going to be quite fun to create.

What is the battle of Waterloo? Research

This was meant to be the first post but Blogger deleted it ???

Since I know virtually nothing about the battle (As it was not taught at school) I decided to do some research into what the battle was and why it was initiated.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/33165476

I began by looking at a site for children to understand the battle, so that the information would be easy for me to understand and digest, as well as gain a base knowledge.

The battle happened on 18th June, 1815, in Waterloo, Belgium.

The two sides were:

-The Duke of Wellington, with his army made up of British troops and Dutch, Belgian and German soldiers.

-And Napoleon with his French Imperial Guard.

Drawing movements (eyebrows and eyes)

Today I drew some of the facial movements so that I would be able to animate him talking. I have decided that I am going to be only doing major animation with his face and only have his body slightly moving to make him look as if he is breathing and sentient. I am doing this as I do not have enough time to fully animate him this year and if I do, I will have no work to do for next year on this project. 

I began by writing down each of the movements that I want to do on some paper so that I can keep track of them as well as have a clear list of them. 

I decided to start the drawing process from head to bottom, so I began with the eyebrows and will end on the body movement.

I began by looking at some images of men raising their eyebrows from google, this helped me to visualise the way that they would look. I then looked in a mirror and looked at the wrinkles that I got when I raised my eyebrows, this helped to make it look more realistic and gave me a better idea than on images from google. 

After this I started drawing the pupils moving, I decided to take photos of my eyes looking in each of the directions that I chose to have, this helped me visualise where and how the eyes are going to look from each angle.

 

Research on waterloo paintings and artists

I decided to do research into some of the paintings from the battle of Waterloo, as this will help to draw my character.

https://www.historyhit.com/iconic-paintings-of-the-battle-of-waterloo/

I found this article on some of the most famous paintings from the battle of Waterloo, so I decided to look into the paintings on this list, so that I can have an idea on what we are wanting the character to look like.

Research on a hyper realism artist

I decided to do some research into other artists that's technique could be useful for me to learn how to improve upon my current character.

https://mymodernmet.com/leng-jun-hyperrelistic-paintings/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xy6m2bc6lg

I found this article on an artist from China that is known for his hyper realistic paintings of people, called Leng Jun. I watched a video of him live drawing one girl, he began by drawing a faint outline of her, then added the colours that he saw. From watching him work it showed me how he used colour to create different depths within her face, also I saw how he drew hair which is something that I struggle with when drawing characters. 

Early prototype of character

 2 weeks ago, during a meeting we had as a group we decided that we would create a small prototype to show how it will eventually look once it is finished. I drew a basic soldier that I then added a small animation to, to make it look closer to the final product. 

I started by drawing a guide of what the body will be like and where the joints are, this is useful for later on when I start drawing the body as it shows where I need to add extra limbs for his movements to look natural. I based this guide off of an image of a male that I found online. 

I then drew what his actual body would look like without all the joints showing. After that I drew on the uniform, this was done very basically so as I did not want to spend too much time on this prototype. 

Finally, to finish off the basic sketch I drew his face and added some extra details to make him look more realistic. 

I then began on the animation, I decided to just show a part of his body moving, as the face would have taken longer, I also did the animation on photoshop as it would’ve taken too long through character animate. For the animation I made his arm move up to look like he was waving, I am not happy with how it looks but I wanted to conserve time as I have work to do for the other briefs as well and did not want to spend hours on this small prototype. 

Drawing I've down so far

So far, I in the drawing process I have finished his blank face, except for his mouth. I have kept all the layers separate so that it will be easier to set up later for character animator.  

I am next going to work on creating different versions of everything, for instance the mouth I am going to be drawing each syllable out so that it will look more realistic later on. 

List of things I want to happen:

-       Pupils move

-       Eyebrows furrow and raise

-       Blinking and eyes becoming watery

-       Nose twitching

-       Mouth moving generally, syllables and shapes.