Final Showreel!

Here it is, completed!!

2nd year animation showreel for hand in. Shahnaz Mohseni - Animations created by me, with some colouring by S.Beleviciute. All animations on either photoshop, flash or on paper. 

My dA = http://shazy.deviantart.com

My animation blog = http://2dshaz.blogspot.com

Contact = s.mohseni.196@gmail.com

Song - Ao no Exorcist OST - 09 AOE Suite First Movement : MyStar

I am happy with the final showreel, and am looking forward to getting stuck into my third year film
-shaz

Hoverboard Animation Test

Final animation test, to fill a gap in my showreel. wanted to animate a hover board sequence. I like the way it glows

Animation in Colour

I realised that i dont have a great deal of colour animation for my showreel. I'm trying now to get some last minute animation done in colour to bulk out the showreel a bit

Heres a quick test i did today. This is the character of my rejected film idea, but i still wanted to try out the style i had originally planned for the film, and its a shame because i still quite like it.

Other Animations

Here is a collection of other short animations i have made over the year in my spare time, using either flash, photoshop or just on paper:

Animation test 2 - added

Here's the finished animation test. He now turns around and smiles. Decided i like animating hair moving around, and these characters are growing on me so i probably wont change much about them for the film

Creature concepts

Just thought i'd throw in some concept work i'd done -->

Primarily i am working to be an animator, but i enjoy painting and designing in my spare time as well
-shaz

Animation test 2

I was told to move on and do another test

So heres the first bit i got done. Hes going to turn around fully eventually. Thus far i got him to look over his shoulder. Decided i like the rounded simple style of this character alot, its easy to animate

Animation Test

Been working on an animation test of my main character, crouching down and looking at something. Not finished, around 8-10 hours work so far. Will finish in the following week

-shaz

Boy in Boat Animation

Animation i did this week, for a third year film project

A boy sitting up in a boat. The real animation will have him move on an image plane on Maya in a CGI boat

Editted Layout

I was told by my coursemate that the angle and curve of my layout needed editting. I did some minor adjustments to it to make the image flow better towards the focal point

Images show before and after

Layout Practice

Tonight i painted up a layout, for some quick practise with setting and lighting

It is only a rough idea. Below are several variants of the layout. Its an enchanted forest with some glowing entity illuminating the dark. The plan was to show the impression of the entitiy but not completely reveal what it is, to give the scene a sense of unknown, fear and mystery:

Change of Plan

Okay so i realised my previous idea for my film was riddled with problem. Firstly, it would mean a hell of a lot of work and dont think i can get so much done in the time i'll have. Also, since i'm primarily a 2D animator, i wanted a piece with more focus on the animation so i dont have to be getting many people doing all the other work for me. Elements of the story and characters were reminiscent of existing characters/pieces and i wanted something original.Also, the film was meant to be synced to music, and finding the right piece was proving a nightmare and making progress slolw. I decided after some deep consideration that i needed a new idea, something more subtle where i can just do some lovely animation to show off.

My new film idea is softer in its look and story. No backgrounds (or very simple ones), just characters. Its an emotional piece about a boy who is bullied, so he draws fantasy creatures to be his friends. More details on the story as i map it out

These are my initial concepts. The film features the boy as an 8 yr old, and then as a 13 yr old in school. These are sketches for his design, though i may alter them as i go along. The film will be coloured in this same gold hue.

Helping on another film

For the same coursemate whom designed the squirrel for me, i have been working on a character for their film.

I was asked to design an 'average joe' of a character, in an western old-cartoon sort of style.

These where what i came up with, eventually settling on the one at the bottom:

-shaz

Help with character design

I asked my coursemate to help design a squirrel character for me. This is what they came up with:

I liked this design the most out of the first 4. This is the companion for my protagonist.

For my coursemates blog go here--> jadeshowreel.blogspot.com

We will more than likely be helping out with each others films from now on

-shaz

Character Turnaround

Working with this second character design again. Here's a turnaround i did for him:

Character idea 2

So i've decided i dont like the first character i came up with

Here is a design i like alot more. Already thinking of tweaking it a bit, but for the rough idea i think this one is alot more appealing and fits the theme of my film

Boy Animation

Here's another piece of animation i made, as part of helping out on a current third year project

Its a ghostly boy looking around a corner

It begins

So i'm going to start doing some preparation work for my third year project. I have a pretty solid idea of the film i'd like to create. Not sure if it'll get made for real yet (as i'll need alot of help) but i'll pitch the idea anyway

Right now i'm going to work on solidifying the look and style of the film/characters.

Without having to go into detail over the plot, my film is set in a city at night, so the colour palette is dark but with alot of bright neon colours. I want the film to be eyecatching and kind of street/grafitti in the style. The whole thing should be synced to a dancey soundtrack.

This is my first attempt at a possible character. I tried clean lines with block colours and then a gradient. however the clean lines took far too long as i'm a perfectionist, and all in all its not quite 'rough' enough for the street style i'm after.

The Cat. She is finished.

Finally. Been slaving away cleaning up foxy cleocatra over the past couple of weeks. Shes not perfect but i'm going to leave it there and get on with some prep for the third year from now on, i think.

Anyway, here is the finished animation:

Extra Animation - helping a third year

I was approached by a third-year to do some animation for their final film. It was a much welcomed break from this cat animation so i tried my hand at it. I was asked to do two closeup shots of a girl -the first with eyes widening in awe, and the second with her looking up at a huge impressive structure.

These are what i came up with, after many rough tests and reworks

More cleanup - final version?

Okay so i've been tearing my hair out trying to get this blasted cat to move properly. over the past week and weekend i've been cleaning up alot of the animation and getting the lip movements in. I'm already sick of it and thinking about leaving it here and moving onto a new animation. Still, we'll see what my tutor reckons tomorrow

Anyway this is the animation as it stands now. If i were to finish it, all that needs cleaning is the last part at the end

Fifth Draft...so many reworks

So it took me 4 different reworks to get the right movement i wanted for the jump

here are the different versions:

I settled on the fourth one because i liked her ending up in the original crouch i had intended.

Here it is with the sound and rest of the animation:

Fourth draft

Heres the fourth draft --

I was told to rework the part where she jumps away from the camera, so this bit is cut out for this draft. The first closeup shot is cleaned up

Third draft

Heres the third draft. Just blocking in some bits, tweaking stuff mainly. I tried to get that last part moving nicely with the lipsync working. I also fixed the part where she sits up

Character sheet - second draft

So heres my character - Foxy Cleocatra. Shes a black cat, headstrong and not to be sassed. Tried to go for a subtle egyptian theme and of course she had to have a female afro

And heres a second draft -

Proposal, Animatic and first draft

Proposal

Career intentions


Ultimately i am aiming to go into 2D animation, illustration or graphic design for a career. Anything that involves drawing, be it digital or traditional. I would prefer freelance work because the thought of a big industry is intimidating to me, perhaps something to aim for a little further down the line. For now i like to have more control from start to finish, and enjoy working from home. When i do eventually tackle the industry, it will be smaller studios, so i can build up my confidence before trying my luck at places such as disney. Already i am a part time graphic designer for a company, so that is another potential career path secondary to my animation goals. I enjoy painting and character design work, but feel i will be outclassed in the industry in those areas, so i shall be focusing on 2D animation for the remainder of the course.


Skills


I will need to really practise drawing in general, the principles of animation, and most importantly to me, adapting to the software, which is my biggest restriction at present. Animating is easier for me on paper, but much more time consuming, therefore not efficient/practicle. For this term i will be forcing myself to use computer software to animate, so that in third year i am wasting as little time as possible. I already have skills in Photoshop, Flash, After Effects and other such programs, so it is just a case of settling into a comfortable workflow and using those skills combined with my drawing to refine my animation.


Production Pipeline


This term, i will be aiming to simply get as much animation practise in as possible. I am already starting with a lipsync, something new to me, and generally just want to get into the habit of animating on the computer and getting my skills honed ready for my third year film. Depending on the nature and length of the animations with determine how much work i get done, but a variety atleast for a suitable skillreel at the end of the term is what i am going for. By the end, i hope to have enough for a 1.5-2 minute showreel to hand in, demonstrating my skills and what i've learned. Throughout the weeks i also plan on getting some ideas down for my third year project, to get a headstart over the summer for next year. Most animations will be made in Photoshop, whereas the final showreel will be composited in After Effects.

Right, back to the animation:

So i did these a couple of weeks back. the animatic to my chosen sound clip. I chose to animate a cat, after a lot of time spent playing with ideas. I like animating 4 legged creatures. Tails are hard to animate but if you get it right, its a nice touch to an animation.

-shaz

Introduction and Excuses

Hello

My name is shaz and i'm an animation student at University of Lincoln. As part of my second year of study i am currently working towards a showreel to showcase the skills i have learned on the course.

I'm primarily a 2D animator, though i try my hand at layouts, character and storyboarding when i can.

As part of this module, i have to make a blog documenting my progess throughout the term. Unfortunately and rather anoyingly the tutors have neglected to tell us this, so i am taking the initiative and going ahead with one anyway. However because of this my blog will be a bit behind and will require a few posts early on to catch up and get up to date with my progress over the past month. I hope when reading this the tutors/examiners will take that into account

thanks
-shaz