Evaluation

I believe the project went well despite me changing the direction i wanted to take it many times and having to adapt my work to fit the new idea. Due to this, my final project probably wasn't quite up to the standard i would have expected from myself in the area i enjoy most. The extra week to get my project done enabled me to edit and add to the PowerPoint presentation of my character sketches to a better level. I have completed the presentation but had i had more time i would have liked to have digitally redrawn the sketches.

I am vaguely pleased with my project as i feel i could have done better but because of the workload i gave myself due to changing my idea, the deadline became increasingly less reachable throughout the project. Perhaps next time when i choose to do something similar i will motivate myself to complete an idea and tweak it rather than change it completely, loosing time and work because of this builds up and only means i am then behind in the work that is to be submitted. Or maybe think through the possible alternative ideas for a project before committing to one that i may find too inaccessible.

My ideas changed quite drastically from start to finish as i jumped from fiction to illustration, witchcraft to sci-fi. I have however learned a few more things in the process in programs and sites such as PowerPoint, when putting together my animatic, and Blogger, which, in my opinion is easier to keep up to date as i can have easy access to it at home and allows me to add all relevant information concerning my project and have it all in one place.

When i was finally focused on the project aim i researched an animatic artist on YouTube called Andrew Cherry. My main inspiration for creating a rough animatic myself came from watching his pre-visualisation video: My Deer Friend, which then resulted in me creating characters and putting together a story behind them. I went on from drawing sketches of characters to digitally redrawing them just to give them a a bit of definition against the black and white animatic i had started.

I have enjoyed most aspects of this project, besides the stress of giving myself too much work to get done, and i would definitely consider doing something like this in the future as i would consider illustration to be a preferred pathway. I will just have to make sure i narrow down the possible creative outcomes before committing to one straight away.

Characters

Some coloured pics of my characters:

Avril

Clair

Melina

Hanna

I'll be submitting more when i get around to it. I will also show the process i go through to develop my sketches into these rough digital adaptations.

Story Notes

Notes about the story:

• From what i've written, there are 14 (Samoan, Cameron, Narissa, Melina, Luciana, Phianna, Chantelle, Laraya, Kayla, Becci, Avril, Jarek, Jesse. Clair and Hanna) characters split into 4 groups.
• The setting of the story is inside a simulation (as in virtual environment). Phianna refers to 'the next Phase' meaning the next level in the game. This specific level in the game represents the 15th century with the groups being split in a church next to the ruin of Radcliffe Manor, the graveyard outside the church, a forest and an open field.
• The groups were split up and their goal is to reach the checkpoint to exit the simulation.

More to be added

PowerPoint

I have begun my PowerPoint presentation for the project and will hopefully get it done, or most of it, in time. Below is an example of the process of what i am doing.

Storyboard Animatics

In animation and special effects work, the storyboarding stage may be followed by simplified mock-ups called "animatics" to give a better idea of how the scene will look and feel with motion and timing. At its simplest, an animatic is a series of still images edited together and displayed in sequence with a rough dialogue and/or rough sound track added to the sequence of still images (usually taken from a storyboard) to test whether the sound and images are working effectively together.

This is the method i will be using to set out my project or at least something similar.

EDIT: Instead of pictures with dialogue i will interpret digital typography into the frames. The program i will be using is Microsoft PowerPoint.

Update

>I have written the script and collected more imagery, that is now ready for me to reference when drawing.

>Despite having everything planned out and believing i would get everything done by the deadline, i think i may have set myself too many tasks to get done and have therefore dropped behind in the work i needed to complete the project. However, i have found a solution to this by adjusting my project to fit the Digital Story aspect more than i would have if i'd have done the comic. I am now using the script i had previously written and drawing up frames for a short Storyboard Animatic. The Animatic will be of sketches drawn in biro pen that will be strategically placed in PowerPoint to move using the transitions and effects in the program.

>Of the 2 page script, i have successfully completed over a half of the images required to make the story come to life. The next step will be to finish all images and begin making the animatic.

More reference pics

First Character Sketches

Here are some initial sketches for characters i have created. I have a habit of preferring to draw with pen directly rather than with pencil and sketching out a basic outline. Hopefully you can see that i have referenced the 15th century in my designs and interpreted futuristic aspects as well.

Kayla (LEFT) Chantelle (RIGHT)

Laraya (LEFT) Samoan (RIGHT)

Melina (LEFT) Narissa (RIGHT)

Cameron (LEFT) Jarek (RIGHT)

Phianna (LEFT) Becci (RIGHT)

LEFT TO RIGHT (Hanna, Luciana, Clair, Avril)

I will now work on drawing them digitally and sorting out personality traits and such for each.

Daz Studio

I will be downloading the software for experimentation reasons for creating my characters.

DAZ Studio is a 3D figure illustration/animation application aimed at users who are interested in posing human and non-human figures for illustrations and animation, which will allow me to reference poses using the 3D Model for when i get to drawing up scenes. If i can follow tutorials for actually creating characters i will attempt to do so. 

Character Creation

I have begun to create characters for my comic/digital story, and have a few sketches, possible names and personality traits suited for them to continue planning. I have decided to base my story in a futuristic setting and have the characters not be entirely human, and will, in some aspects refer to common 'superhero' characters, with costumes and superpowers aiding them in their journeys. 

The theme remains to be that of the 15th Century as i will aim for the comic to centre around the mention of Radcliffe Tower with that showing importance in the script when written.

Comic

I have altered my idea again and i will now be drawing characters (with the clothing being based on the 15th century and futuristic fashion) in a comic rather than shots. I feel this may be easier as i can still get photo references for certain frames but instead of there being full images there will only be certain aspects of a person or people. The background in each frames can be drawn and edited into each specific frame and altered to fit the perspective of the picture. 

I have taken some simple images of people in poses i will most likely use in my comic:

And a T-Pose for character creation:

EDIT: Instead of permanently drawing images fit for a comic (having been cropped and fitted to specific frames and such) i will draw up key images of a set size and decide whether to make them into a comic later or to put them together digitally (using a program such as iMovie) for the final product.

Vivienne Westwood

Dame Vivienne Westwood played a vital role in the emergence of Punk Rock in the 1970s and has gone on to become one of the most original and influential designers of our time.

Her designs combine a nonconformity with a sense of tradition. She is renowned for her use of very British fabrics such as Harris Tweed and tartan, and her re-use of historic garments such as the corset and crinoline.

Westwood has spent many hours studying the costumes and paintings in the V&A. Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s early ‘Pirate’ collection of 1983 was based on an engraving of a pirate, while she found a pattern for 18th-century men's breeches in the Museum's National Art Library which became the ‘Pirate’ trouser.

The clothes evoked the golden age of piracy

Witches Collection

Contemporary designers continue explore the past for inspiration. Here, Vivienne Westwood looks to the 18th century. The suggestion of side hoops and the double box-pleats at the back echo 18th century fashion. The design subverts the sack-back style seen in Watteau’s paintings, yet the gown’s deliberate asymmetry, with a single off-shoulder style and a polonaise pouf on only one side, gives it a thoroughly contemporary look.

Despite her exactitude, Westwood's creations are never historical facsimiles; “I take something from the past that has a sort of vitality that has never been exploited – like the crinoline – and get very intense. In the end you do something original because you overlay your own ideas.”

Westwood's approach to bringing back the past in her collections has inspired me to concentrate my efforts on one specific style (merged with 15th century aspects) and base a story around my designs rather than just drawing up illustrations, they will now have more meaning as i intend to make a small presentation of designs alongside illustrations for a short story snippet i will write. (The illustrations i intend to draw will be stills, as in snapshots or screen caps from a moving picture.)

Fashion Styles

A couple of the fashion styles i want to focus on when merging the era's are:

Sci-Fi/futuristic - http://www.pinterest.com/samoanvampcatt/sci-fi-fashion/
Modern Day Street - http://www.pinterest.com/samoanvampcatt/street-fashion/
20th Century/Late 1900's - http://www.pinterest.com/samoanvampcatt/fashion-through-the-ages/
20th Century/Early 1920's/Vintage - http://www.pinterest.com/samoanvampcatt/vintage-fashion/
Gothic - http://www.pinterest.com/samoanvampcatt/goth-fashion/
Urban - http://www.pinterest.com/samoanvampcatt/urban-fashion/
Steampunk - http://www.pinterest.com/samoanvampcatt/steampunk-fashion/

I will most likely choose a style and begin drawing up characters from just that one. All of my designs will in some way be linked to fashion in the 15th century (http://www.pinterest.com/samoanvampcatt/15th-century-art-and-fashion/)

Project Proposal 2

I have again changed my idea, this time from a written journal or poems to now basing my research and initial designs on Illustrations and Fashion, all the while incorporating Radcliffe Manor House and the 15th century in some way.

I intend to first research more into fashion in the era, completing some fashion designs, and then hopefully expand the technique and adapt them to fit different styles (Futuristic, Modern etc). Once i have designs i will progress onto drawing illustrations of characters from said designs and layer them over the pictures i have taken of the tower in Radcliffe which i will use as a backdrop using an Inkling (See here http://www.wacom.com/us/en/creative/inkling) or tablet to redraw the background in a more suitable style to fit with the character illustrations rather than one being realistic and the other being digitally drawn. 

15th Century Witchcraft

The Beginning of The Witch Hunts

The beginning of the witch-hunts as a phenomenon in its own right become apparent during the first half of the 15th century in south-eastern France and western Switzerland.

Here, the cause of eliminating the 'supposed Satanic' witches from society was taken up by a number of individuals; Claude Tholosan for instance had tried over two hundred people accusing them of witchcraft.

Soon, the idea of identifying and prosecuting witches spread throughout the neighboring areas of northern Italy, Switzerland and southern Germany, and a council was assembled. This Church Council, helped to standardize the stereotype of the Satanic witch that would be propagated throughout the rest of the trials.

According to historian Robert Thurston, "From this heart of persecution the witch stereotype spread, both through a flood of new writings on the subject and through men who had been at the Council of Basel and now went elsewhere to take up new assignments in the church."

The most notable of these works was published in 1486 (Info on the book here: Malleus_Maleficarum), in which the stereotypical image of the Satanic witch was set down and torture was prescribed as a means of interrogating suspects. The Malleus Malificarum was reprinted in twenty-nine editions up till 1669.

On December 5, 1484, Pope Innocent VIII gave full papal approval for the inquisition to move against witches, including the permission to do whatever necessary to get rid of them. In the bull, which is sometimes referred to as the "Witch-Bull of 1484", the witches were explicitly accused of having "slain infants yet in the mother's womb" (abortion) and of "hindering men from performing the sexual act and women from conceiving" (contraception).

Trials

There were extensive efforts to root out the supposed influence of Satan by various measures aimed at the people who were accused of being servants of Satan. To a lesser degree, animals were also targeted for prosecution. People suspected of being 'possessed by Satan' were put on trial. On the other hand, the church also attempted to extirpate the superstitious belief in witchcraft and sorcery, considering it as fraud in most cases.

Brutal techniques were routinely used to extract the required admission of guilt from a 'witch'. They included hot pincers, the thumbscrew (A simple vice, which crushed fingers and thumbs), and the "swimming" of suspects (an old superstition whereby innocence was established by immersing the accused in water for a sufficiently long period of time). Besides torture, at trial certain 'proofs' were taken as valid to establish that a person practiced witchcraft.

Execution

The sentence generally was death. Nearly always, a witch's execution involved burning of their body. In England, witches were usually hanged before having their bodies burned and their ashes scattered, though there are several instances where they were burned alive. Most of the victims were never given proper burials, since they had been convicted of witchcraft, they were no longer considered people. They were often laid in unmarked graves. The frequent use of "swimming" to test innocence or guilt means that an unknown number also drowned prior to conviction. 

Project Proposal

After considering my options and narrowing down to my final two choices of either photography and illustration, i have decided to go down a completely different pathway, and make write a selection of poems in the POV of people living in the 15th Century including an accused witch, a soldier on the frontline of the Hundred Years War, accompanied by illustrations. The collection will consist of characters i will create based on facts of how witches/civilians/soldiers lived, survived etc.

Because of the fact that the project must in someway have audio included, with it being digital storytelling, i will hopefully manage to arrange to have poems or at least parts of some read aloud and recorded.

To begin with, i intend to research and find out everything i can about people in the 15th century. How and where they lived, what they did, (for witches, trials of accusation and the punishment for witchcraft) and so on.

At first i had been set on writing a journal/diary in the POV of a witch in the 15th century, but i have altered this idea so instead of focusing on just one aspect of the century, i will be able to incorporate different areas of such in my work, which will hopefully be easier with having more freedom to write about more than one thing. If the idea of a collection fails, i will attempt to create one single poem that will link important events in the century together and illustrate.

Initial Project Ideas

I have researched many possible subjects to base my project on and pathways to follow.

Illustration and Character Design has always interested me so i will most likely consider doing this above anything else, but i have explored other options and might choose to do photography instead if i can find the necessary resources i'll need to complete the project. I am also considering for the second part of the project which is classed at digital Storytelling, to attempt to create a short comic displaying a scene related to an event which occurred int eh 15th century.

The subjects i have considered at the moment for either part to the project are:

>Inventions int eh 15th Century

>Fashion based on the Wars

>Photoshoot of makeshift fashion/ hairstyles based on the 15th century

>Comic about witchcraft in the 15th century (perhaps a short tale of a witch and her downfall after being accused of witchcraft)

>Journal/Diary with illustrations of an accused witch in the 15th century

>More to be added<

Radcliffe Tower

Nicholas de Radeclive built a manor house in the late 11th or early 12th century near a crossing point of the River Irwell on the Roman road from Manchester to Ribchester. Radcliffe Tower is all that remains of this manor house, after being rebuilt by Richard De Radcliffe in the fifteenth century (1403), at twenty feet tall, the ruin remnant remained until the demolition of the timber hall and house attached to the stone pele tower in the nineteenth century. 

When James de Radcliffe planned the rebuilding of his manor house, his intention was that it should be fortified. This would mean gaining permission from the King. A 'licence to crenellate' was granted to James on the 15th of August 1403 by King Henry IV. Under its terms James was allowed to construct a new great hall and two towers and to enclose these with an outer wall. In 1561, the manor was sold by Robert Radcliffe a distant relative of James, to the Assheton family, and by the 1670s the manor house and lands were being leased to local farmers. The Tower and great hall were used as farm buildings until the 1950s. 

Even in its present ruined condition, the Tower stands as an impressive reminder of a time when Radcliffe was a medieval manor, governed by a family who ranked amongst the most important in Lancashire.

I went down to the site and took some pictures:

15th Century Timeline

Defining Years

1400

>The final style of medieval painting, common to all Europe, is known as International Gothic because of its slender and elegant figures.

>German inventor Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press process that, with refinements and increased mechanisation, remained the principle means of printing until the late 20th century. The method of printing involved movable type, including the use of metal moulds and alloys, a special press, and oil-based inks, allowed for the first time the mass production of printed books.

A machine that transfers lettering or
images by contact with various forms
of inked surface onto paper or
similar material fed it in various
ways.

1337 - 1453

>The Hundred Years War was fought between England and France, and actually lasted 116 years on and off. Advances such as the longbow, and later rifles helped shift the momentum of the war back and forth between France and England.

1455 - 1485

War of the Roses. The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars fought in medieval England between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The name Wars of the Roses is based on the badges used by the two sides, the red rose for the Lancastrians and the white rose for the Yorkists.

1485

>Leonardo da Vinci was a great italian thinker, and he was one of the first people to make theories on flight

1486

>In Venice, the first known copyright granted

1492

The first Map Globe was created by Martin behaim, enabling students world-wide to study geography of the world on a 3-Dimensionsal object.