For the new semester of Russian Animations, I have decided to do watercolor style drawings in Photoshop for some of the backgrounds, especially “revamping” the ones I created last semester. Here’s the cafe set I’ve been working on!
So none of this is actually my art! I just wanted to show how I’ve been framing animation tasks for other STAs. I try to be as descriptive as possible; telling STAs specifically what I would like to see incorporated with each reference image I provide them. I also give them colors to use or explicitly tell them that they can choose a color themselves. I also usually provide instruction for how the file should be organized, especially if the task is a little more complicated!
I wanted to include some backgrounds I’ve made so far for the RUS412K Project. These were hand-drawn and painted on paper and then scanned into the computer. There’s still some coloring the paper illustrations will need. Also, they will need to be sufficiently flattened before the final scan (since the paper tends to bend you paint it with watercolor) and the backgrounds touched up in photoshop! All of these backgrounds are based off of real Russian spaces, a step up from last semester!
Things have been moving forward with the RUS412K Project. There are always so many different things I have to do for the Russian Online courses that when the project is in full swing I feel like I always have to be on my toes! We’ve been working on editing the previous semesters’ powerpoint videos, switching videos from different units, removing/adding audio and so forth and I found out last week that I’ll be taking on some of Samantha’s responsibilities for keeping the project on track while she is away for 3 weeks! So I’m working with multiple new google sheets and a more direct communication with the professor, as well as keeping the Box storage for the project organized. But I also have a video STA helping with some of these edits and he works really fast on Premiere so hopefully we’ll complete these edits soon! The preproduction for the RUS412K Animations is chugging along as well, and hopefully I’ll have some pictures to post on my blog by the next STA meeting! We already have a number of new characters and objects created and I’ve drawn 4 or 5 backgrounds!
ALSO!!! The Chinese powerpoint video project is officially complete! So nice to hear:^))))
This week was more bearable after the hectic workload of last week finally wrapped up a little.
For the RGT, I made a simple campus map base for the main page:
I first took the colored map into Illustrator, then removed all the numbered labels and made all the objects a solid color. Then, I used Photoshop and changed the color of the objects to white, and just added a black choked outer glow and a drop shadow for the outlines. The style is supposed to be similar to the hand icon I did before, i.e. an engraving. I think the map will look a lot more complete after we add the etching marks on specific buildings and stops.
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I also continued my work on the Russian Animations object creations with my Awake Girl and a notification bell:
Awake Girl’s looking cute! Not much to say on her other than the fact that it definitely gets easier the more you do. The pigtails are always the hardest part since the Kyle Legacy brush has a hard time drawing curves that look aesthetically pleasing 🙁 Meanwhile, the bell was especially fun for me since I finally got to do a little animation. I had some experience with motion/classic tweens from before, but it was mostly for rotations and position. I’m glad I got the opacity part figured out without much hassle! I look forward to animating more!
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For Russian illustration, I did this work for Kathy. It felt kind of rushed because I was doing it at the end of my week (since I only work 3 days) so I was frantically picking colors the last part of my shift. I don’t usually cell-shade when I color, so it was a bit of a challenge to create interesting textures with a solid brush. I also didn’t know if we were allowed to add effects like sparkles and sun rays (though in truth I was also just running out of time, #procrastination). I liked how my piece turned out overall though, especially the birds!
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I was also asked to do more edits on my “This is Democracy” design and incorporate a more “historical” look and feel by adding things like the parchment texture, a quill, and the relief of a neoclassical building. I also touched up the wigs a little, but I’m not sure how much more “realistic” they can be if I want to maintain the simplistic and minimalistic look. One thing I’m struggling with by adding all those images in the background is making the two puppet characters stand out just as much as they did in the other drafts. Compared to the older version, the new one has a darker but more “historical” mood, which may or may not be a bad thing? Anyways, I’ll keep working on it!
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Finally, I also did more Cascade work. I added contact info, staff pages, the sidebar video, some external links, and the magic trick. Most of the Cascade site is done now, I just need to fix a few details:
Last week and this week I’m super busy, I have like 5 projects going on at a time!
For the Racial Geography Tour, I went over my drafts with Jac and Suloni but it was decided later that they wouldn’t need them anymore :’) So all I’ve done for it so far this week is edit some hand symbols:
Later this week I will be working on a campus map for the site.
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I also went over my “This is Democracy” design with Suloni to revise it and potentially prep it for my portfolio. I’m still messing around with it, but I’m trying to make the font more legible for the quote and make the wigs look more like wigs.
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I worked on screen displays for the Texas Archaeology online course. I’ll probably think of something new to put on the vertical display so I didn’t include it here.
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Finally, I worked on the character creation portion of the animations for RUS412. My assignment was to make an “Awake Girl” character, this peppy college student who loves mornings (definitely not same). I referenced Penny Proud and Snow White, as shown in the pic below. Since I already had some prior experience with Animate, the hardest part for me was just figuring out the way Tate organizes things. I hope everyone else has an easy time figuring out symbols! They can get complicated for sure.
