Responsive: Refugee brief

The Refugees illustration competition raises the awareness of refugees issue by illustrating the truth and the harsh situation of them, hoping to stop war and conflicts. Personally, I think refugee is a serious problem of the world. This is also quite ridiculous that billions citizen have to move to another country under the pressure of war. There are young and old; health and ill, which is heart-aching to look at news when they are rejected by some country. After all, the world is a big family, we should not be selfish.

There are a lot of documentaries and stories of the refugees online and make me realise how serious this event is. 

After all the research, I quickly draw out some ideas that could be quite meaningful to look at and could draw attention. The hand and wires. The wires are the palm print, which might tell a person's destiny in superstition, meaning that their life are being controlled under wires and boundaries. I think this idea is quite affective but there should be a better way of showing...

Straight forward and simple. Kids are suffered and this event took away their childhood. I want to show their sad situation and loneliness. Holding the help us sign hoping someone could recuse them out of this situation, could the someone be us?

 There is a scene where the refugees are going to another country at night in one documentary, the light and shadow make a contrast on the colour and the emotion of the refugees. I hope this picture can be shared to more people.

I extract the pencil line using photoshop and give it blue tone. Simple shading and fine line work to refine the characters.

I scanned in some watercolour drawing and layered onto the sketching, also drew some wires around them. I like this effects as if their freedom is washed away.

I want to keep the pencil stroke for the second illustration. I find it is more attractive than colouring in photoshop. 

I darken the surrounding to make it photograph-looking.(lomography)

This is the situation where all the refugees are waiting to get on the train to another country. Some of them waited for two days with no sleep while some still waited even they know there no chance getting on the train. The whole situation is sad and frustrated.

A few paige colour to lighten up there faces but no bright colours.

Was experimenting with different cropping but eventually give up this decision because it looks quite odd on its own. 

Proof of submission!

Applied Animation: Character design

These are the sketches I did for the characters. There are baby and little boy for the first story, little girl and teddy for the second story and Easter bunny for the third story.



I tried a lot of different styles and facial expressions so that my teammates can choose from especially we all have unique style. I want to be flexible in character design in order to work in different styles and mood. At this moment there are no specific one I prefer so not to limit myself to keep sketching.



I tried to base the characters on different shapes and proportions, experimenting with facial expressions and facial features. Most of the characters are young children so I used a lot of round shapes and the features are more concentrated. I worried if none of these fit the story so I might do a few more character designs and draw out some important scenes to show the group my vision and come up with the most suitable style.

*I also stole some drawings from Lauren's blog because I think there are some pretty good ideas and illustrations like the the parcels, the design of the teddy and the easter bunny taking off the roof. I love Lauren's realistic style which make the characters much more believable and attractive!

Applied Animation: Primaray Research

Since the start of holiday, our group does not have a chance to meet up but collecting data and stories  each at home. We decided to gather around and discuss the results face to face which would be more efficient and effective than working on our own. Therefore we met on 25th Mon and schedule the rest of the week.

It is a shame that I cannot carry out any useful primary research anymore due to my lack of relationship in Leeds and all I could get are the ones from HongKong. soon I notice the the difference culturally on treating children between the UK and Hong Kong, I stopped asking friends back there. I am sure it would be best to use Lauren and Oscar research because theirs might get resonance more easy. They have brilliant stories and most of them are quite silly but very lighthearted. The reality of the story allows audience to believe and to recall their memories which is what I want to achieve. 

After discussing about the stories, we decided to use three of them which is scripted into a more completed story as shown below.

The reason why they are chosen is due to the entertaining and lighthearted factors they have. Also huge contrast between parent and kid perspective that we want. Scripting the story helps us the picture the animation and any neccsessary characters. We want to have the same style over the whole animation so there should be significant linkage of the scenes and to sew the stories together to make a unified one. To achieve this, we are going to do some scenes sketching and stylised characters which are all going to be chosen by one person in our group. Our au this week is to finish the script and the character design.

We seperate the stories into parts and the bullet points are the important notes and ideas. At this point, the stories are more finished and we have clear aims of what we can do to progress. 

Responsive: Loopdeloop

The title of competition this moth is Sister. I started by thinking of what girls do, and the meaning of sister. I was going to make a church sister's animation but I read the message behind this month's challenge which is the relationship between girls are like sisters...so i decided to make a really sister animation instead. The final storyboard is three rabbit gather together, gossip and makeup. A very basic and simple animation that I can try out new animating technique which is Duik.

  Some character design. I differ the rabbit to show they are not genetically sisters but friends with similarity. With different colours and shapes and signature.

Duik is a very useful tool to animate simple character like mine! It is so flexible and convenient to use with amazing result. Although it takes quite a lot of time to rig the character and experiment with, the gestures are super smooth and perfectly rig. I would like to use Duik for the next self project as well.

This is the finished result. I was happy and satisfied with this because I have challenge myself with new techniques and the characters are finely rigged. However I think it might be a bit plain and too simple? Anyway, I submitted it to loopdeloop and I got some respond from them.

Loopdeloop suggests that the animation is too slow. speeding up the timing of the piece and varying the pacing to make it feel more natural, such as speeding up the reaching under the table and pulling up. Also, they played it back at double speed and it was far more natural and engaging to watch. I was surprised that they actually give feedback to me and tell me what to improve which I appreciate a lot. I also noticed how I like the animation to be might not look nice in others' perspective. Therefore I changed the animation and it does look more natural and more engaging.

I will submit an animation bi-month to loopdeloop in order to improve my animating skill more frequently.

Applied Animation: Mood board

We decided to use black and white line work to represent adult's perspective and watercolour-like drawings to represent children's perspective. Therefore when the parent is describing the event, dull line work drawings across the monitor and slowly when they speak about the kid's reaction, watercolour drawing appears with their interpretation of the event. Here are the style and mood board we all agree on.

My mood board

Oscar's Mood Board

Lauren's Mood Board

It happened our image style is very the same and we start picturing the animation and what media we are going to use. Oscar downloaded some watercolour brush in photoshop and test the effect which come out quite nice and very soft. I might try using actual water colour and scan it in.

Cute test by Oscar using watercolour brush on his designed monster! I like it so much and I can see these cute characters in our animation. 

Applied Animation: Artist Research- B-wing.

Hong Kong Artist B-wing

'Why it's good to be alone': Hong Kong artist B.Wing on her inspiration and work

Artist known for her etiquette trailers for Broadway Cinemas reflects on a lonely childhood and says we need our sad moments because without them we wouldn't know how happiness feels

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 10 September, 2015, 6:00am

UPDATED : Thursday, 10 September, 2015, 6:00am

Vanessa Yungvanessa.yung@scmp.com

When and why did you start drawing?

I started drawing at three years old. My brothers are older than me, so when they would be out playing soccer, I’d be stuck at home with nothing to do. So I began drawing. I was a very, very lonely kid. I even played basketball by myself. I wanted to make friends but I didn’t know how. All my classmates thought I was weird. But now, when I look back, I treasure all these experiences, because they have led to what I’m doing now.

Your drawings remind me of Sadness' message from Pixar’s movieInside Out.  

It’s good to be alone. It’s good to be sad. Because without them you wouldn’t know how happiness feels.  I remember a saying: “Every time we are apart means there’s a chance for us to say hi again.” Life should be both positive and negative. People nowadays like to concentrate on being positive – like “you can do everything” and “you can be anything you want”. I think that’s not true. I think you must put in plenty of effort to be what you want to be, and during that long period of trying there will be sadness and failure. If you only want to concentrate on being positive, then you won’t be ready to handle reality.

When did you start realising people resonated with your art?

Only these past few years. Because when people used to say they loved my drawings, I didn’t believe them because I figured my drawings were just my own feelings. I didn’t even think my art was professional – I thought it was like some kid’s drawings.  

What was the most memorable feedback your fans have given you?

I got an email from a Scottish man who had got my book as a gift from his girlfriend. He said the book made him smile for the first time in a long time, because he suffers from depression. I treasure that email.

The happiest moment for me is to sit down and put everything in colour. An illustrator’s job is like making love with colours. 

Do you feel naked exposing your inner thoughts on the page?

A is me. It comes from the bottom of my heart. But no, I don’t feel exposed at all. I always believe I was meant to be a creator. So exposing my soul and letting people look into it is just part of the job. The happiest moment for me is to sit down and put everything in colour. An illustrator’s job is like making love with colours. I can create a world by just touching the paper with colour, it’s the happiest moment for me.  

What material is your favourite to illustrate with?

I use pencils, acrylics, pastels but not digital pens as I’m old school. I like pastels in particular. Pastels are like crayons, which all children use. Pastels can be smeared and you never know how it’ll appear on the paper.

Do you use your merchandise?

No. It’s like asking me why I don’t hang my own drawings in my house. Oh no, please. Some people really like to look in the mirror at themselves, but not me. I don’t like looking at myself. I feel shy looking into the mirror. I’m that kind of person. So why would I hang my own products? No.

What would you say or do to A if he ever came to life?

I  would hold his hand and not say a word. Holding hands is the most romantic thing you can do with someone. That’s how you can feel a person’s heart.

South China Morning Post

I think her signature style is to use material children use like pencils,acrylic and pastels to make her work dreamy and childish. The best things to do is to drawing out own feelings and do not focus on quality or fame too much, being yourself is the best art in the world. I like b-wing's attitude and she has a positive image that I admire and I think her style will fit our animation!

Applied Animation:Research

I talked to my mother who is a teacher of elementary school and I thought would be very helpful in terms of gathering useful information from the parents and kids. We discussed the message behind of the documentary and the methods of gathering information.
In China, adults are unwillingly to talk about negative emotions culturally and usually use excuses or lies when explaining death to kids like: grandpa has gone to a far place; grandpa has went to sleep, in order to relief pain.
The main reason why parents are telling white lies because:
1)encourage the kids
2)dont want to make them worried
3)a quick escape from reality

It is said that adults have mature mind and easily adapted to any situation with experience therefore they have a stereotype on kids that they are very fragile and do not understand most things. However Information from Social Welfare Department Hong Kong suggest that: 10.孩子面對悲傷(children handling sadness )
	小朋友的父母在一次意外中去世，我(小朋友的親人)可以怎樣幫他？ (How to help children who lost their parent during accident?)
	在這樣的情況下，親友很多時候都會感到為難，尤其是不知道應否將父母去世這個悲痛的事實告訴小朋友。其實小朋友到了6歲左右已經知道死亡的意思 (6歲以前小朋友並不能完全理解關於死亡的概念)，他們知道死去的人不會再說話和活動，更不能「復活」─ 即死是不能逆轉的事，跟一個人病了，或是受傷了不一樣。由於小朋友跟父母的關係很密切，每一天也生活在一起，所以只要父母有任何事發生，孩子都會知道有問題出現，只是孩子不一定明白究竟發生了什麼事，因而產生疑慮和恐懼。 (People are usually feel sorry about this case and hesitate to tell the children the truth. In fact, children know the meaning of death at the age six and understand dead people can not speak of move, and can not come back to life. Since there is a close relationship between the lost parents and kids, therefore children would sense the changes. ) 我提議親友將父母的死訊如實告訴小朋友，並且耐心解答他們的問題，例如：「為什麼他們(父母)會死？」。年幼的小朋友可能未掌握死亡的概念，他們可能會問：「他們(父母)是不是去上班了？他們什麼時候回來？」如果小朋友年紀太小未能夠明白死亡的意思，那麼親友便要解釋給小朋友知道，例如可以對小朋友說：「爸媽已經死了，他們給汽車撞倒，受了很嚴重的傷，醫生曾經幫忙醫治他們，但爸媽也好不過來。爸媽死了便不能再見你，再不能跟你說話和抱你了，你跟他們說話他們也聽不到了，死了的人就好像桌子和椅子一樣沒有生命。」 (The best thing to do is to honestly tell the truth and answer their questions patiently.) 簡單來說，要幫小朋友面對喪親之痛有幾方面可以做： 1.    幫小朋友明白發生了什麼事(包括明白死亡的意思) 。 2.    回答小朋友對事件的疑問。 3.    安撫他們的情緒，建議他們將情緒用畫畫、寫信或傾訴抒發。 4.     妥善安排小朋友的日常生活，讓他們盡快過穩定和有規      律的生活。 觀察小朋友的情緒和行為，如果生活安排上已經穩定下來，而且父母過世已經有數月而小朋友仍然有頻密的惡夢、失眠、胃口欠佳、經常哭泣等，便應該為小朋友預約專業輔導。 本小冊子由臨床心理學家何念慈及李嘉怡撰寫 由社會褔利署臨床心理服務科 臨床心理服務課(一)編製 (There are few things we can do:) (1. help the children to understand what's happened (including the meaning of death) (2. Answer children's questions) (3. Calm down their emotions, encourage them to use painting or writing to relief pain) (4. Schedule their daily life, seek for professionals or psychologists if children can not settle well) Therefore I think the animation should educate them to face bad things positively and facing difficulties even at early age, equip them to face the reality. Is parent over protecting their children in terms of emotions and mind? Base on those thoughts and information, I create a set of question and make a questionnaire, hope my mother can help me ask the parents and the kids. It is originally in Chinese version with a short introduction of our school and project and my school email address. Here is the translated questions and answers from three parent of a kid.

I also ask my mother to record their emotion when speaking of the event so that we can interpret the speaker's emotion later on when recording voice. Lauren also gathered some really interesting events and lies her parents told her when she was small and it is useful when considering the topic of or animation. Oscar and Lauren both thing question 2 and 4 are the most useful questions and can be developed even more so they are setting up questionnaire though email to ask their family and friends for research.