Transcription Project Proposal

 It's the story which miraculously unraveled to me during the summer. It follows the musical storyline I was delivered that time.

A story of a mash-up Bird.

It starts when we see a mish-mash bird „sleeping“in ship model workshops. A passing by match-character wakes him up and soon after the bird finds himself overwhelmed with the surrounding, not fully satisfied he continues on exploring the place: jumps out of  the workshops to the outer world. There, to he is struck with the beauty of a little island in the lake. The island has something so attractive to the bird, he can‘t help himself but try do anything to reach it. 

So he tries to swim there (surely, since he is made out of ship parts) . But in fact there are lots of  holes and as he also realizes, he isn't constructed perfectly to funtion, he sinks.

Disappointed and he gives up while still looking towards the island dreamily … Match-character constant accompanier, struck with an idea, jumps onto the bird, opens something in his chest and Ivan pops open into a sky lantern!
Match matches the fire inside Ivan, and gasses start lifting Ivan to the. And then with little effort of his own, in short time the wondrous island is reached.

The metaphorical story tells about looking into the world, having dreams then trying to reach them. And that often  means also looking wor ways to reach it, for changing (improoving)  yourself . If you take the challanges, the reword is always there.  And perhaps most importantly  that everything best was already  there and waiting inside .

I really  feel passionate to express this one. We'll see how it goes.

The Art of Ivan the Bird

Yesterday I've ordered a book  The art of Ivan the Bird to be made using Bob Books  services. At the beginning I didn't know  what to start from , but the website offered to download a program wich helped to organize the layout and other details of the book.

I do understand its not gonna be perfect since this was my very first book evber published :D But  I've concentrated on forming an argument ant highlighting the main points of  the creative jorney I've taken in this project. So hopefully the book will clearly express it, but no doubts, there are things to be critisized . . :D

I won't upload th pages since it's much like what's here on the blog. Only one thing missing though,  the 3 side view of the finished Bird model. 

Presenting Ivan

I wrote before that I want to present Ivan as if he is captured in animation and its not just him in bland background, but in his environment. Also the picture serves as a peace of concept art for future development.

The idea for the environment isn't new. A month or so ago I've posted some sketches, one of wich captured the proportions, composition and shapes for the environment depicted here. But what happens in the place is what really directed the design. Initially this  it is where ship models are built and  tested in the lake. So we can see shelters made out of sails, or half of the ship deck used as arbour and so on. 

First Glimpses at Ivan

Today I layed all the textures and set up base materials and really got the chance for the first time to see how Ivan, the bird made out of various unused model parts, looks.
I am happy that the outcome is so much like the concept drawing. Again I got to realise how a good resolution of design in the  stage of preproduction  saves time/energy/sanity throughout all other stages.

There's still some tweaking left to do, for example to add bump and specular maps. Maya..  also started complicating things.. I think the problems are caused by the load of textures.

Texturing in progress

Sorry for the delay yesterday :) won't do it again guys :D

Texturing Ivan

The week befor I was busy with UV layout, this week I started texturing and hopefully the Bird, (which has a name now :D , Ivan) will be finished.

Examples of UV layouts

I took Phil's advice to paint the textures in a traditional way so there would be a feeling that the Bird is actually hand made. So after having layed out the UV's I printed out all the maps and used aqua paints, pencils to create base textures.

Example of painted base textures

But still I'm importing it all to photoshop to tweak some bits and add some more detail.

Example of Bird textures

I'm not rushing the process,also it is going slow because I can't help myself enjoying the summer :D All those trips to have and friends to visit are really taking some time, but I'm quit optimistic to see Ivan finished and book released before the deadline of this  summer project   :)

Modeling is finished!

Today I've finished modeling the bird. At the very end I made sure the outcome is as close to the original drawings as it could be, since I really enjoyed the feeling and proportions captured in concept drawings. No its time for all the rest that's waiting.

Work in Progress: Bird's Model

Bird's Model Sheet

This is what I have so far.  Few things like bird's wings and.. well nothing else really, is left to model and I'm good to go for UV mapping. Since I haven't layed them as I was modeling. I left myself the freedom to change things without thinking to readjust the UV map.

I think/hope/pray  this week UV's will be layed out and the texturing also done :D  And I'll be ready to work with  book layout wonders as well as final images of bird presentation. I hope to draw the environment, put the bird in it and present it as a fully resolved still image of a supposed animation.

SO far I'm really happy I have taken this task seriously because I had the luxury to take all the time I needed to solve modeling problems, watch tutorials etc. I'll be so much more confident this year.

Well.. less talking then :)

Bird's Design: Blocking out Essential Shapes

It's bin a while since I've posted, I have to repeat myself here again. But finally things have sorted out and I could work with my summer project...again.

Blocking out Essential Shapes

I started sculpting the bird, trying to follow the guidelines of my 2d drawings thoroughly. And so far I see these designs were the most detailed ones I made so far. I can see the benefits immediately. instead of having to solve technical problems I would need to make creative decisions constantly. I don't know if it could slow up the process more, than the lack of technical skills already've done it...

But I have to say the borrowed DVD of Gnomon Workshop tutorials really helped.
I watched through Kevin Hudson's automotive modeling tutorial. Hopefully it's going to help as I imagine :D

Really really hope to do some amazing things with my Bird in near time.. :/

The Aim and Idea for the Environment

I think with this project I'm more confident to experiment and just see what happens, so what I imagine for environment is very simmilar to one of my previous works I did - a mixed technique true media work I named it pixie (And perhaps you can see her there) but in fact the work is more like abstract environmet - something what I'm looking for .

This is the general feel I think I'll be reaching for, but these next couple of days I'll experiment and see what happens .

Bird's Design Sheet: Front, Back, Side

This is the most resolved design of the bird in his primar stage ( befor becomeing a lantern) Full resolution of how a 3d model would look. Now I'd feel confident modeling it.

The Bird

After..now two weeks of visualizing and roughly a week of drawing today I got to first time see how actually the bird is looking. I have to admit, this is perhaps the first design that really has a lot of likeness to what was in my head. Some changes , of course, will take place.

Also there's still the side and the back view left to be drawn. But this was the hardest bit.

So as you may notice, the bird looks like a ship and is made out of ship details. But that was, as I mentioned, my intentions. After figuring out the proportions ( where I researched the variety of birds), how its going to be constructed (to get a good idea of that I researched bird's anatomy, contemporary architecture and the "what's out there", in particular - Howls Moving Castle ( Dir. Hayao Miyazaki, 2004)) what left was building a ''puzzle'' . The bird looks like he is clayed together from various bits of ships and in general, from leftovers ( I think I should make the bird asymmetrical to make the idea he is made from leftovers even better pronounced..).

Having figured out the design of the character I can go and find what his environment is like.
Next week, my last one here in Rochester :) , I'll try and create the concept drawings of the environment and the world of animation in general.

Bird's and Bird-Lantern's proportions and structure guidelines.

After listening Alan's comment I decided to tweak few things. He suggested to first research birds anatomy and all the 'hidden' bones they have because that consequently might affect the design work. And it doesn't matter if its a cartoon character.

In my case the bird is somebody's made model/sculpture, so I imagined it's moves restricted ( penguin-like walking for instance), On the other hand if it were for animating it later , I'd still need to express his thoughts and feelings somehow. I thought the tool for that could be his head and eyes and his wings, which , I read somewhere, should be considered as additional pare of eyes :D ("Hands are like extra pare of eyes in animation "). So instead using the blocks for wings, like I planed, I went for more real-like construction of bird's wings.

Also changed the proportions so both bird and bird-lantern would look slightly better

Developing Bird's Design: The Architecture of the Bird

This is the first step in developing the design of the character, that is figuring out the proportions and finding the structure which would then serve as guidlines in the actual process of design since the bird will be constructed of various bits of other models (ships, tools etc.) . So to make sence in the design I first started thinking about the "anatomy" of the bird.
Also the bird will transform into a lantern, so I bared that in mind when designing. For instance, I was planing to make the wings short, but they didn't suited the bird-lantern so I went for longer wings.

I took the advice I heard quite a few times this year and quickly done some shape tests. So far it looks like the shape is simbolic, simply readable and in this case suitable .(In animation the bird would be a bit clumsy and in a way inconfident, but still childishly energetic, cute and outgoing).

Now It comes to figuring out the detailes, as in this case it's all about the details since the bird is going to be one large 3d puzle.

Idea's Development and the Aim

SO far it looks like I'm aiming for something similar to what producers of Howl's moving castle (Dir. Hayao Miyazaki, 2004) made.

It is interesting how the idea reached this point. It's like a story here.

Last week (as well as tree upcoming weekends) I was working with robots Sparky and Atom, as one of the operators ( I was the robot's arm :D ) in the Fuse festival, which is now taking place in Medway towns. I noticed that seeing these robots day to day also influenced the idea of summer project..

Also one of my friends went to Sunrise Celebration festival here in UK and uploaded gorgeous pictures from there. One which inspired me was with the lanterns. I thought - that's it! that's what I needed! Before that my bird was only running towards the lake from the garage, but now it is reaching the water and then reaching the sky. This is like one of those moments we were tought about in Storytelling unit - of course the bird is actually a lantern and flys up instead of just floating! . That was an Eurica moment. Eventhough I'm definetly not thinking about summer project, all seems to fall nicely into places. :) Atleast that's how it feels.

It looks like the personal experience really is playing a part in creative solutions . Now over this week I'm hoping to draw as much as I can and come up with more substantial designs .

Research: Principles of Architecture, Ships and models, Extraordinary Chickens

The first idea after listening the music was, it's going to be an emerging structure. Soon after that I started researching architecture and this was what directed idea's development. it is also a good reference of what the construction of the bird could be.

But as the idea was developing and becoming what I wrote about, I started researching ships . So far I think they are going to serve as bricks for my bird, as well as shape and from solutions. There should be lots of elements of ship in the design works.

Also to refresh my eye and just to brake the stereotypical visualisation of birds I'm looking at the extraordinary breeds of chicken. But just to clear things out, the bird structure is not going to be a chicken (even some of those chickens I saw don't looks like chickens at all..). But I needed to see the variety of shapes and feels brought by the shapes ( why some chickens look cute while others, to my mind, perfectly embody pure evil :D :D )

Few other Little things are important to my concept. such as the Sky lantern.

Initial Responce and Ideas

After listening the music many times an idea came. The music suggested everything to me: colour palette, shapes, proportions, then environment, character and finally the story.

The place. It seems it's going to be a model-making class-garage where such things as ship, plane and other smart models are made. The garage is near a lake . The space itself is very open but in the same time definite, surrounded by woods.

The character. It is a bird-like model, made from all the 'leftover' from other models. So its a bit of everything together - you can see parts of ship, parts of plane, other objects , all different but working very nice together in dis mish-mash model , the bird ( A bird also just 'came' while listening to the music. At first I didn't understand and asked my self - Why bird?? , but now listening to the music, there's really a specific ..bit of tune, that really sounds and reminds a bird)

The idea.


The idea is the forgotten model one evening becomes alive and his goal is to reach the water and finally, the sky, or in other words, forfill his purpose and become what he is meant to be.

the idea is , he is a sky lantern and not only a mere mish-mash from the leftovers of other models. He just needs to open himself, light a fire inside and fly up , this is not a metaphor also :D he really opens as a paper lantern, lights a fire to gather warm gasses and because of that starts flying up.









After working out the idea and the story I was confident to start researching the concepts which will be used to create world, character design.