Collaboration - Background/Concept Art

Our last given module - the 'Responsive Brief'  - allowed us the opportunity to collaborate with each other. This felt different than are other 'team based' modules as it gave me a chance to offer help in areas I felt some confidence in whilst simultaneously still wanting to improve, without having the stress of creating the concepts etc. I enjoyed helping other people and know that if I show a willingness to get involved and help people with their work that they will (hopefully) return the favour in future. Due to my project being quite small I didn't need a straight up 'trade' with anyone, but do intend to ask for help in future projects, whether this be needing a hand on set etc.

Chris originally had a vampire-film concept and wanted a quick bit of concept art:

This didn't take me that long, as I especially enjoy drawing faces, but highlighted that I need to be more adventurous with the expressions and poses I give characters, I definitely need to work on making them seem more dynamic and less 2D. In the end Chris changed his idea so these weren't needed.

I also offered to help Ryan with the backgrounds for his animation. This was partly to help me improve on environments, as I tend to play it safe and stick to what I can do and therefore 'enjoy more', such as faces (as I mentioned earlier). I'm quite interested in set/environment design as it can be used to compliment and reinforce a strong narrative. 

Working on this allowed me to, in a way, experience working to a brief as I referenced the animatic stills Ryan gave me for colour/perspective and would ask for feedback and whether or not this is what was wanted. It was a little freeing as I didn't necessarily have to worry too much about the over all story etc, and only had to focus on aesthetic, which allowed me chance to experiment with colours/lighting. 

In hindsight I should have found out specifically how many backgrounds were needed, as I was a little caught off guard when the final amount to be done was revealed. It'll be something I keep in mind to ask before agreeing to help with other projects. Not that it was a big problem, but due to the limited time for this last module it was pushing it slightly, and meant a few pieces had to be rushed and are not to the standard I would prefer as I didn't want to impact the time spent on my own work. Each image is at a resolution of 1080x1920 so, though they look passable in the above thumbnail images, look quite scruffy when blown to full size. I attempted a washed out look as to not distract from the animation yet still wanted to leave a paint-like style. Doing this has given me a push into drawing environments more, which is hopefully something I'll continue in other work. Something I am interested in and haven't yet tried is to create an aesthetically successful Matte Painting and adding it to a filmed scene in After Effects, such as when mountains or broken buildings are added.