Character designs

Second session of the production and process module we was given the brief to design and create a cereal box. To do this we had a look at existing designs for inspiration looking at composition layout and context. Cereal boxes have a character with a image of the bowl of cereal on the front so we was;t doing anything different we had to create and draw our own character to be on the cover of my cereal box. From starting in drawing and producing a character for the cover to thinking about the composition layout of where my character the Octopus will be how will the bowls be placed playing around with the layout the positioning. Thinking of a name and incorporating that into the design.

Some brief and rough sketches I started of with as the main character for my cereal design.

Deciding on a octopus I then thought about the different appearances, e.g.  shape, glasses, hat or anything to make the Octopus distinct.

Having to include the cereal box into the design I tried to use the tentacles to incorporate the idea of the tentacles around the cereal bowl, also starting to think about the package idea.

After a few character design sketches I then folded the page to give me 8 different sections for the cover of the cereal box. However as the paper was creased it would have a impact on the design itself therefore I drew out my sketches again this time without folding the paper.

I started thinking of the idea of the Octopus juggling the bowls so i could use the space and do something different than just having own centre bowl.

Looking at position and layout I re-arranged the size and the position the type octopus and the cereal splash. 

Typography I am...

Using typography I was to communicate a message  beginning with I am and adding a word to communicate a message about myself. The typeface I created had to be inspired by the message I was to communicate.

Communicating the Idea of messy I decided to use a thick type front to which I then wrote the words scruffy and unorganised to show and communicate the word Messy. This type face i didn't really like as it was really untidy and very messy.

To show I am confused I used many abstract lines going in all directions to create a blocked letter. This shows that the lines to form the letters have no direction to follow and are confused which is why it's going in every direction.

Product and Market Orientation - Pete's Lecture

Summary of ‘The Poetics of Open Works’ - Umberto Eco

Open works is an incomplete work piece, a combination of the different elements art, performance and music. It encourages acts of conscious freedom for the production of work advising the authors/performers to ignore the influences of external sources. The artists engage the audience to understand their finished work giving out hidden messages through their works, some symbols to communicate their ideas across. However, the open works reinforces ‘openness’ as every individual views and interpretates these pieces in their own unique way allowing complete freedom to understand and create your own perspective of the work produced.

History of the Palestine War

For the Conversation Brief we was to research on a on going conversation, or a conversation of the future anything which can be a debate or a simple message to deliver a message in the medium we wanted. I chose the topic war as at the moment for me that is on ongoing conversation that is in the news today and has been for quite some time, also i feel it will be one ongoing conversation for the future as war is a never ending conflict. To give my brief a specific direction i decided to focus my brief on a particular war which was the on going conflict between Palestine and Israel. To do this I firstly had to research the origins of the conflict what caused it what it was over and is still over, Land.

A fight over land

In the 19th Century the Zionists (extreist minority of the Jewish population) had migrated to Palestine to ‘Claim’ their ancestrial homeland after considering areas in Africa and America they Settled on Palestine. With the increase of migrants the Zionists created their own community  with the goal of taking over the land for a jewish state.

UN Partition Plan:

In 1947 the UN Nations decided to interfere in this dispute and instead of following the principle of ‘self determination of people’s’ in which the population create their own system of goverment and state. However they decided to follow the ancient procedure where a outside state divided the land between the people. Under the Zionist pressure the UN Nations decided to give away 55% of the land to the jewish state, even though their total population was only 30% and they had control over only 7% of the land.

1947-1948 WAR:

War eventually took place involving 5 Arab armies, throughout this war the Zionists outnumbered both Arabs and Palestinians army put together. The Arab armies didn’t invade the Israel state but fought on the land that was considered to be the Palestinian state. The reason behind why the Arab armies were involved into the battle was due to the 33 massacre’s the Zionists had created altogether. This involved the grisly massacre of 100 men. women and children, which the future Israeli Prime Minister, also a leader of a jewish terrorist group, Menachem Begin described as ‘Splendid’. 

By the end of the war the Zionists had conquered 78% of Palestine over 3/4 of a million Palestinians were made refugees, 500 villages and towns were eradicated. The Palestinian state was then erased and replaced, as a new map was drawn giving the city a new appearance replacing the original state. Te-naming all the existing states to give them a new name in Hebrew. Isreal then became in-denial that a state called Palestine ever existing wiping out the memory of it’s existence. 

1966 War and USS Liberty:

In 1966 Israel was succesdful in conquering the 22% of the remaining land, during the ‘Six day war’ where the also landed a suprise attack on Egypt. West bank and the Gaza strip were eluded as acoording to the international law it isn’t acceptable to claim territory over a state by war. As these states do not belong to Israel but belong to Egypt and Syria as they are still under occupation. 

Furthermore during the ‘Six day War’ Israel also landed a attack on the Us Navy ship the USS Liberty.  This attack injured and killed over 200 of America’s servicemen. 

Current Conflict:

There are two main issues still continuing at the core of this conflict. The first being the inevitable affect of trying to maintain a stable ethinical state especially with their being the majority population of a foreign origin. The original population of the state is 96% being Muslim and Christian, yet these refugees are forbidden to return to their own homes.

The second major issue being that Israel  have continues their military occupation trying to invade and take over the private owned land of West Bank and Gaza. As the Palestinians have minimal control over their own lives most men women and children are held captive in Israeli prison with only a few of them having a legitimate legal trial. Physical abuse and torture is frequent men women and children are often strip searched. The Israeli’s are in control of the Palestine border, people are beaten women in labour are prevented from reaching appropriate medical attention. Food water medical aid clothes shelter are stopped from entering into Gaza. Israeli’s killing kidnapping torturing the inhabitants every single day creating a escalating humanitarian crisis. 

According to Oslo Peace accords 1993 it states that this land was supposed to becoma a recognised Palestinina state but due to the invasion by Isreal the palestinian population rebelled.

U.S Involvement:

Due to high interest in Lobbying U.S taxpayers pay £8 million to Israel every day have have gave most U.s funds to Israel than to any other nation.

The Thomas Beale Cipher

Our First lesson back was like a basic recap of what we had learnt in the last year but we was also introduced to new techniques and expressions using Adobe After Effects. One technique we was introduced to is called the 'Wiggler'. 

To start of with the session we watched 'The Thomas Beale Cipher' to introduce the different techniques of animation that were used as we  was to create something similar e.g. adding textured effects to the illustrations. 

The Thomas Beale Cipher

The Thomas Beale Cipher from Andrew S Allen on Vimeo.

I love the way this animation keeps the illustration to a minimal design adding textures over to create a sophisticated yet historical atmosphere. This animation uses simple techniques which are introduced to us:
-Looping: a sequence of instructions to continuously repeat itself until a specific condition is reached. This is simple yet very effective.
-Living hold: a background or a scene that has a open end to it which can be put on a loop to re-accure.

Our first task was to create a Illustration of a character in Adobe Illustrator. 

Having all the different features on different layers to be able to   manipulate each layer in Adobe After Effects to move each layer individually we imported the whole illustration file with the layers into adobe after effects.

To start rigging the character and joining the layers together together we created a 'parent' layer to which the 'child' layers follow the movement.

(attach the layers together)

- click on the parent column and activate it

- drag the spiral layer to the layer you want to follow

We were then introduced to the wiggler tool which allows movement effective for fast pace and speed but it's restricted with the amount of control you have over the movement. Once you apply the codes of what speed you want it you can't alter it but have to start  it over, which is a disadvantage. I prefer to just do it all manually as you have more of a control over the movement pace and composition as a whole.

Once we had finished adding movement motions to the individual layers we then applied textures effects to either the character or the background. This then adding more of a dimension to the simple illustration making it more effective and interesting.

- Adding the textures to the object drag the text underneath the layer

- Toggle the switches mode

- Alpha Matte

Character Illustration movement with effects from Itba Kauser on Vimeo.

I added the textured effects to the different stripes in the shirt rather than covering the whole character or background. Im really pleased with the Outcome, but do think I can do much better in terms of the movement motion. 

Experimentation with Adobe Illustration

After using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator to draw a portrait of Marilyn Monroe  I wanted to develop my skills and become familiar with the software in my own time. As previously I have always used Adobe Photoshop was time consuming. 

This was the first one I did, simple shadow drops with fading in the opacity of the shapes. This illustration is limited in terms of detail yet the eyes did take some time with the different layers but overall I feel i did quite well and was beginning to understand the process and the software itself.

I then decided to take this further to develop my skills furthermore and try something slightly different and challenging.

This took me twice as longer as the first one I had many more layers and depths of layers in this illustration. Within the scarf there were many shadows and depths towards the shadows which took time adding effects creating the shadows from light to dark with more depth to show the creases. I feel I again did quite good on this illustration and was very pleased on the outcome.

So again I decided to take this to a next step and challenge myself even more.

From drawing and developing my skills in female illustrations I decided to experiment in a male illustration. During my experience I personally found male illustrations are slightly difficult compared to a females. I went into detail with the depth of shadows from the shirt to the face, blending in about 4 different hair layers together to get the perfect gradient. I also found the beard, moustache was quite difficult and I had drawn them several times before getting it right. I enjoyed these small activities and challenges I put myself up to as it developed my understanding with this technique and program.