The Final Project

One of the main things i want the girl to do is walk to different spots in the scene. I have the girl draw out in different pieces and 3 angles, front, side and back. But now ive come to animate the walk cycle from the back and front, i realise i dont really know how to do this. We were only taught walking cycles from a side profile and this is usually the top results on google. Had i have known how to make a 3D model of somthing, id have animated in unity where i could have build the whole scene and used the camera any way i wanted. I may have to adapt so it doesnt ruin the animation.

I am concerned that the quality of my project is suffering due to time issues. Firstly, i had to spend a couple of weeks dedicated to the disseration module as i had some issues in this. I also had another assignment to finish so spend no time at all on this project. Later on, i began having symptoms of endo again. I was on strong painkillers and bed rest as the shooting pains down my legs make it difficult to stand. This continued for a week and a half and i was able to do some work duirng this. I then went home to work on the farm during lambing. This didnt take up too much of my time but i ended up having bad symptoms of endo yet again and struggled to do anything. Once i managed to get to work, my laptop was running incredibly slow. I tried my best to do what i could with it but it wasnt working. I had to wait to go home and get my old laptop that has a bit more power and began to work on the project from that. Once i finally felt in a good place, i got a dose of spring flu and h...

When thinking of how i wanted the girl to look, i decided to look back at some of my earliest drawings to see what i used to do. I noticed that when drawing noses from straight on, i only drew the tip or the shadow of it so it wasnt too harsh. With the image on the left, i made the top lash line more visable an did a half lash line on the bottom. I also made use of artwork i did last year for a hypercomic assignment. Using these references i was able to draw my final design for the girl. Upon doing this, i was not happy with the face of the side profile character so began to rework it. The face on the far right shows the old face and the middle image is the new one. I was also sure to draw new features for different facial expressions.  These are images of the girl in both of the main scenes and i think it fits very well.

When i started to think about fatigue, i considered it to be a slow dopey figure. When i began sketching, i started to draw a turtle like figure. They are known for being slow but not really sleepy. Thats where i began the next two sketches. Rather that drawing on an animal for inspiration, i thought of object associated with sleep. I drew a teddy bear inspired monster. He has scruffy bed hair and droopy tired eyes. I also have him goofy teeth that i plan to make look like they havent been cleaned in a while. This is the final design for fatigue that i will use in the animation.

This character will represent bloating. It is a very common symtom with endo and other such issues but severe bloating can be a sign of a problem. I want it to be represented as this is something i personally struggle with. I resorted to only buying clothes with elasitcated waist lines as i wasnt sure what size i was going to be from one day to the next. In the first image, i imaged bloat as a fat, gross little monster. He has a skin like texture with pimples on him and dribble down his mouth. The top right, i thought about bloat as a pig figure. A little monster that goes out sniffing for sugary comfort food. The bottom moster, i gave bloat long limbs to reach awkardly placed food. Simalar to the first monster idea, he has a gross texture and when not fed, he turns into a puddle. This is my final design for bloat. I have since given him a black outline to match the rest of the animation.

It has been difficult to determine a name for the project. So far, i have created the Facebook page to support the project under the name "Could it be Endo?". I feel that this is a satisfactory project name but i wondered could i do something better for the animation. The following was a quick list of ideas i had. Others could be: End Endo Ending Endo The End of Endometriosis Putting the end in Endometriosis Finding the End Light at the Endo the tunnel Women Fighting Endo Finding the Endo Together United with Endo Existing charities include: Endometriosis  UK Endo Foundation Women with Endometriosis Whats Endo? I would like to have a title for the animation and set up the page as a support hub for women, featuring the animation for information. I would like the animation title to be witty and the Facebook page to be straightforward so when the word Endo or Endometriosis is searched, it it shown.

Whilst looking for a leaflet about endometriosis, i found one that is given to patient before having surgery to diagnose and remove endometriosis. Speaking from personal experience, my own research and my own time spent speaking with various doctors and nurses over 9 years. I have broken the leaflet down to make comments on each section. From the outset, the leaflet mentions that it is a laparoscopy which is minimally invasive keyhole surgery. One key part of the surgery is that carbon dioxide is used to inflate the abdomen allowing the surgeon more movement and vision within the abdomen. This i will come back to later. Here the leaflet described what endometriosis is. If youre having surgery to diagnose and remove endometrial tissue, this should be very clear already. The patient should have tried medical methods to reduce the symptoms of endometriosis before getting to this point. The wording is also very weird. The document is very professional yet it says "tummy" and...

It is important to me that the leaflet be about more personal ways to deal with endometriosis and just painful periods in general. Not enough is done to raise awareness of local endometriosis group and inform people of the support and advice they can get online from other sufferers. A lot of ways i deal with symptoms have come from forums and my own trial and error. I even passed on this knowledge to a friend who was having a laparoscopy. They are the kind of things a medical professional doesnt always advise you on. Personally, i always use a hot water bottle OR a microwavable heat pack or heat patch. The latter two are much better for work envrionments as they are usually safer and easier to use if you have to move around a lot. I also sit on a pillow. This is because i often find that any pressure pushing up causes me more pain. By sitting on a pillow and leaning back, i elevate my pelvis and get complete pressure relief. Buy two sizes of things. I have my bloated days and of ...

Whilst struggling between art styles, i was reassured that i should stick with my instinct and what felt right for me. I had a particular style i had used before and it was something i enjoyed doing. It allowed me to express the emotion of an illustration more and meant i had to break away from my traditional thinkings. By this, i mean that when i learned to draw i was self taught, so i drew everything as literal as i could. Lines were bold and allmet each other perfectly and the shadows were how they were in reality. It was breaking from the idea of perfection that i found who i was as an artist. One of the artists shown to me was Charlotte Salomon. This gouache artwork is very similar in asthetic to me.   "The young Charlotte kneeling on her bed, dreaming of love."   https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-obsessive-art-and-great-confession-of-charlotte-salomon http://spoonful-of-art.nl/en/2018/03/15/life-or-theatre/ This image is a collage ...

I definately feel at this point that i am behind schedule. It was awkward completing my disseration and working another assignment at the same time as working on the project. I had issues with the disseration module that had set me back in various ways so i had to completely devote my time working and finishing it to a submittable standard. The other assignment i had mostly completed so i only needed a bit of time to finish that. In doing so, i had to put the project on hold which isnt ideal but i know i wasnt the only one that did so. I have now started to animated and managed to refamiliarise myself with animate and complete a section in a day. This included drawing the scene, animating and finding the relevant sounds for it. Given that most of my scenes are ready to be animated, i dont feel too uneazy about the workload but i know i have to devote my time to this project in order to complete it. I also have to stop my mind adding things as im working on it. This is an issue ive ...

Once i had begun to draw my scenes, i noticed that it had a resemblance to something called Cel shading. This was a style applied to 3D animation to give it a more toon or comic book effect. This is a still image taken my Telltales "The Walking Dead" game released in 2012. The graphics are a very illustrative style often showing imperfections in the graphics, like something hand drawn.   Although it can be difficult to tell in these screenshots, you can see the black rough outline all the character have. There is often hatching used to show shadows but it isnt always present to keep the image some what clearer. I do love how the textures seem painted and have all the small imperfections. Lighting is taken into account and this is shown in the colouring of the characters clothing. Even with the colouring, there a small spots of colour overlapping creating a darker shade. It is very slight but noticable on the shirt in the lower picture. What i had done had...