Visual Diary – Only One Bed?!

Depending on who’s reading this, you may or may not be aware of the infamy of the literary trope that goes: two people try to book at a full hotel, but there’s only one double room left, forcing them to share the bed.

It’s famous because it’s cheap, and usually used in fanfictions as a way of forcing characters together. And I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to use it, oh yeah. This is another fantastic addition to the “ways I physically force Drake and Ludwig together” to overcome their collective shyness.

Anyway, below is an excerpt from the piece I’m writing for it right now. YEAH BABY.

—

“Ahem, speaking of nuisances… have you had a chance to look at this bed, yet?” Drake cleared his throat and waited for Ludwig to stand.

The pair of men stood facing the bed for several seconds.

Eventually, Ludwig broke the silence.

“I think “double” might have been a bit of creative marketing on the part of our host, don’t you?”

“I certainly don’t want to see the single beds here,” Drake said as both of them broke into laughter.

The situation was hysterical: the bed was barely big enough to sleep two normally-sized humans, let alone Ludwig. Drake began to picture how they would have to sleep in order to fit, but Ludwig interrupted his thoughts.

“Ok, ok. This has been particularly funny, but let’s see. Techo left her cloak with us, and if I lay my clothes out on the rug, I can sleep on top of those on the floor by the fire.”

“You’ve got to be joking!”

Drake’s offended tone surprised Ludwig.

“Look at these floorboards,” Drake continued. “You carry your own pack and all of Techo’s things every day, and for two days you’ve been carrying me, for God’s sakes. Give your back a rest tonight. Take the bed.”

“You won’t heal if you’re not sleeping properly,” Ludwig retorted. “You’re sleeping in that bed, or I’ll be carrying you all week.”

“Fat chance! You only carried me today because you insisted, as a precaution. I’m better – and I mean it this time. I’ll be walking tomorrow.” Drake didn’t pause; instead he made for Techo’s cloak draped over the chair, that he might lay it out and make himself a bed on the floor.

He walked straight into Ludwig’s arm, which might as well have been a wall.

“No way.”

As they spoke, they began to break into giggles again: the fight was getting farcical. Together they conceded, and left the cloak alone.

Paddington – File Format Problem Solving

Today I threw random media into Premiere Pro and exported it in the Apple Pro Res 422 HQ format.

I got the sense as I did this that I had been prepared somewhat for this by previous experience – that awful day where my videos got exported in Virtual Reality for NO REASON did, admittedly, get me familiar with the nuance of the Media Encoder.

I made the sequence in 4k resolution. Once in the Encoder, I saw all the Apple file types. It exported – PROBLEM. It exported as a .mfx file, which my computer didn’t want to play.

Solution? I went onto the app store and found a “DVD Player” app that claimed to play all these files. Against all odds, I could then successfully open and view the video on that app. So I know how to export in the file type they want now! This is a big step!

Problem: I wasn’t sure how to export transparent video, but I was almost offered this solution by the brief: the BBC suggested saving anything with an alpha channel as a Pro Res 4444 (with Alpha). I ran a few quick tests saving a transparent video in this format, and lo and behold, I can reintegrate this into Pro and it WORKS. This is huge.

This now means I can work with multiple moving assets at once as layers, whereas up to this point I’ve only been able to import transparent images as frames.

If I keep jumping hurdles like this, soon my biggest problem to solve will be what I’m gonna wear to that Banquet.

Below is a little visual reference full of assets and angles I can use as backgrounds.

Visual Diary – Bound (To Falling in Love)

With some reluctance, I dragged myself up to make another reel. Instagram is absolutely kneecapping still image posts – I’m convinced it’s hiding them – and I am only receiving scraps of engagement on moving image – that is, reels.

Of course, I ended up enjoying this. I got to animate a scene from the New Canon where Ludwig teaches Drake about pressing garlic cloves with a knife to help peel them. They’re making a soup for the household while Techo is too sick with a cold to cook. I’ve thought about (and indeed, vividly seen) this scene in my head for a while.

The audio is trending right now, and it’s a good challenge trying to find some plot to spin to it that’s all at once self-contained (requiring no context for a first-time viewer) and also offers a reward to anyone who does know who my characters are. Lots of people make these videos to people standing in liminal space doing nothing, so I like to think the hint of plot gives it a little USP and charm.

Visual Diary – Drake (and, more importantly, George)

You may realise that the completion of Drake’s design (or at least, something working) means that all five characters have designs in this universe now. Which means I can start sketching up some cool scenes without limitations now!

Drake meets George while still on Mytikas, his home city in the clouds. The culture on Mytikas, particularly at the Boarding School, is overbearing and claustrophobically strict. Drake threw a few crumbs to a bird one evening, and was surprised to see the same bird eyeing him up the next day. There was an exchange: the raven got some crumbs, and Drake got someone to talk to for a while.

Fast forward around two years. George hangs out in the vicinity of Drake at almost all times. If he’s not to be seen, Drake is no longer worried – he always shows himself eventually. Drake has fashioned a perch out of leather scraps and old belts, which he wears on his arm. After a little training, George knows to land there.

The bird isn’t magical, can’t speak or read thoughts, isn’t usually in battle. He’s just Drake’s friend. George would attack someone if they were trying to hurt Drake, if he happened to be around at that moment.

Paddington – Sweet Lord, I Got Chosen

Roderick told me yesterday that my submission was one of the three picked to go forward. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

A soundtrack to put on while you inevitably celebrate with me.

But now to business. Today, I went to uni in the hopes of gathering as much information and help as I could before term ended.

I had a fantastic conversation with Roderick, who was REALLY generous with his time, considering he had a staff xmas meal to get to and I hadn’t made an appointment in advance. He put me in contact with Kate from Animation. I also went to Animation in Edward Street, and some students I found there said Sam the technician was really on top of his emails, so I emailed him too.

The timeline looks like throwing any old thing into Premiere Pro, and seeing if I can export it in this wacky file format they’re asking for, and what that looks like. Then, if that goes well, it’ll be making up the animation!

But – back to the main point – champagne soaked career launch in the palace, HERE I COME. I have absolutely already let this hypothetical fame get to my head, and will now not leave the house without dark sunglasses ‘lest the Paparazzi steal my image. Mum entered a fully immersive daydream when I told her the good news on the phone, where I became The New Paddington Animator for the BBC.

Performance Project – Finale!

On Thursday, we wrapped up the performance project and put on the show!

The show was recorded on Instagram Live, and has been retained as a video on the account.

I appreciate that this is the wrong orientation. To be honest, I had a complete nightmare with the Broadcast and Documentation team at the end, as it seemed like nobody would record the show. Rory was willing! But his phone wouldn’t pick up audio. That left Joe and Niamh, and I don’t think Joe even showed on the day? His stickers never came to fruition either, and that was really all he put towards the performance. With the smallest group in the production, the no-shows and lack of interest was a letdown.

Tia acted alongside me, and made gorgeous tickets and a ticket holder, as well as GASP and LAUGH signs, so she worked really hard and made a big positive impact on the team. Rory was fantastic with the video, sorted a fab poster and took a good photoshoot on the day of the performance too.

Overall, I would say I had a positive experience with this project! I had a tiny bit more breathing space to work on my Paddington things, and it was fun trying out new things.

Here is the final image of the mantis arms! There was a head added on the day at the last minute, but I made the lower arms, so it’s best to document those.

Lo-Fi Printmaking: Lino Progress

I mocked up my Jester as a final image in Procreate. This featured two layers: the lino layer, and the colour layer underneath. I saved both and uploaded them into indesign at exactly the same size, to use as guides to creating stencils and lino.

I thought carefully about bleed, and my colour layers go right to the edge of the lines to help smooth registration.

Below are process images: I used a soft pencil to outline, and then put the lino layer on some lino, and scribbled on the back, making a transfer. I then outlined this again in sharpie so that none of the lines budge while I print.

The next step is to carve it!

Visual Diary – Cleric, Academic, Bounty Hunter

My plot can only come visually to life once I’ve nailed these outfit designs – or at least, created a good base that can evolve with the work and plot.

I absolutely love this one. I made more iterations of this than any of my others so far, really working it to get an outfit that sang to me. It’s mad, really, because I’m just sat in this infinite hypothetical fabric store with every sewing technique known to man. And every piece of jewellery imaginable, literally. And I have to narrow down an outfit that works using the metersticks of plausibility, plot, shapes that tell you something about the character, colour.

Ludwig’s colour has always been yellow. His shape language is heavy on circles – he has a round face, a round, soft torso, lots of curves. I pushed this in my designs through the circular tabard he has, circular shoulder pads, and circles in the peacock feather logos. Ludwig has close ties to fashion through every universe. He adores wearing fancy things, and this makes his design that much more important, because he would have put a lot of thought into his daily outfit (unlike Mitzi, who’s outfit was designed specifically as something she had to cobble together from bedclothes and stolen shoes, as per the plot). All this to say that the peacock motif works because he takes pride in his appearance, and it’s a bit of a decadent, golden icon to work with. I worked up a peacock outfit in the Jester AU – hmm, can I find it?

Circa last August. This was something of a turning point when I realised I was drawing just to design fancy outfits, and clocked my love for outfit design.

In that universe, he’s literally a tailor – possibly the most gifted in the Kingdom. This is what he makes himself – although he’s so utterly shy and humble, he does get embarrassed drawing attention to himself. A man of contradictions.

I digress. I digress on purpose, so that someone is forced to read this, but I now reward you with all the outfit iterations I did to get to the point of the final design. Done after a nice time scrolling around pinning things on Pinterest and getting inspiration. One of the pleasures of sitting and reading these images is that you really see the idea development richly.

I also put together my tallest and shortest character – not quite proportionally right, but heightwise, correct, so have that for a treat.

Visual Diary – Enchanted Gloves?

What a delight this image was to make. It’s exhilarating getting closer and closer to a point where I can make people see what I see in my head. With this AU, there’s been a big jump in quality, just like I saw over summer with the Jester AU. It needed the vampire AU and modern AU to wiggle it through another pubescent phase, obviously. The big new difference is how cinematic my pieces are, and I’m using slightly more daring composition than before. I am achieving this through thumbnailing and using lots of sources of reference, and leaning into the experimental and playful side of things.

I really feel my creative process maturing, although people have reacted the same to this art that that have for OC art my whole life. I really have to be the meterstick of progress here. One day, someone will sit down with me and take a real interest in them, and not just to tell me that the eyes don’t look right or that I need to add more detail.

The start of this one’s progress was me dancing around the room to some new music my favourite artist released. I was in a dramatic mood, and I took lots of pictures of myself in different poses. I include the most successful one below.

Nice clear silhouette, real movement, good line of action. EXCELLENT hand.

Here’s the ink thumbnails I did! I needed to keep the gloves front and centre, and the bookshelf that crept into my little reference pictures served as perspective inspiration. Funny where these ideas come from!

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