Subcultures - Proposal

How are subcultures represented in animation - are they being made fun of, or is there perhaps a slightly deeper meaning to the representations seen in the animated medium?
What research needs to be undertaken into the general and specific contexts of your practice?

1. Books and online articles on the History into each discussed Subculture.
2. Books and online articles on Subculture fashion.
3. Various examples (From animations, movies and video games) focusing or at least making mention of such subcultures, be they stereotypical or not.
4. Documentaries on Subculture (Such as "The Don Letts Subculture Film").
5. Visual Responses (From Pinterest, Tumblr, Online Shops, Friend Photos, etc.)

What are you proposing to undertake as a practical response to your essay title? 

This would be a good opportunity to explore more into concept designing as I believe I never truly had the opportunity to get more detailed character designs done for any of my assignments thus far.

Aside from showcasing the stereotypical way people see these subcultures dress, I thought I could also design clothing that is just as often worn but not as well known by the media, something simpler and considerably less outlandish, while all the same still retaining the qualities of that subculture. (Eg, punks also tend to dress in tees and torn jeans, they do not always sport crazy mohawks and layers of tartan, leather, safety pins and chains all over their bodies).

I will still keep it down to the European area however (Especially when considering how diverse some subcultures can actually be if you go further past that area presented by popular culture). There will be a total of 3 characters, though more than one outfit will at least be designed for each of them. Little backstories will also be written to give better insight to each character and their supposed lifestyles, and of course make them a more roundabout character.

If there is time, I might also do at least one turnaround animation (At most 12 frames) for one of these characters.

What approaches will you take and what processes, methods, materials and tools are to be involved in research into your practice? 

This will all basically be done in Photoshop, particularly the final character designs and turnaround animation/s.

During experimentations and studies however, I will try using various traditional mediums (Pencils, markers, paints, ink, etc.) to experiment with colours and textures for their outfits when working on their designs (Though I will make sure that they will all be done in the same (Or at least similar enough) art style so to show that they actually come as a set during submission). Considering the direction that I will be taking this visual response in, a lot of fashion studies will be done during the development of this project.

Do you need to do any primary or secondary research in order to undertake your practical? This could be visits, conferences, or books, magazines, periodicals that me be relevant. (Use Harvard referencing where appropriate. ) 

These Areas of Research are:

1. I will be able to make further use of the books I have borrowed for my essay (About Subculture History and Fashion).
2. I might interview a few acquaintances who consider themselves to be part of a certain subculture (Eg, punk), so that I will be able to create a more realistic and relatable backstory for each character I am designing.
3. Various Character Model Sheets (More professional examples especially).
4. Tutorials on writing proper backstories for characters.
5. Research into more diverse designs, with different skin colour and body types.

A (Really) Brief History of Illustration - Proposal

A short proposal to sum up everything that I have already written about in the previous posts:

Proposal

A (Really) Brief History of Illustration

Assignment

One of the final assignments given to us for Context in Practice 1 is to create a short animation (That is between 10 to 30 seconds) based on one of the lectures or seminars that we have attended and taken notes from in the past.

Idea

I decided to choose Illustration as my animation topic (Seeing that the lecture about it was also one of my favorites), seeing that it was an area I had previously studied about in my previous art school, I find this to be a good opportunity to combine the two together. I found it interesting how there are near countless examples of illustration (Eg, Storybook illustrations, pottery, displays, comics, advertisements, packaging, the possibilities are endless) that sometimes they wound up blending in with other areas such as Graphic Design. But when it comes down to it, all illustrations must have a message to communicate to the audience.

My idea is to do a showcase of various examples of illustrations throughout history (While of course I will have to be selective in my choices considering the short duration given), as well the different styles and techniques that are used for them. The easiest way to present this is to do a simple animation of someone walking through a gallery and viewing the showcase, that character however will change in appearance to match time period from which the illustrations (Or the technique used) originated from.

While the animation is considered educational (And also contemporary), the target audience for this animation is for young adults and older, seeing that anyone younger might not understand it without any basic facts or exaplnations being properly provided on screen. To make things simpler, no  examples with nudity will be included.

Process

This animation will be done in Photoshop (Seeing that it will be the fastest), the background will be designed first (It will be as detailed as possible in contrast to the character), I will paint a small segment of it before duplicating it to create the required length. (The character should pass by each section in 3 seconds, so there should be ten sections in total)

Due to the limited amount of time, I wish to keep the animation as simple as possible, the walk cycle will be recycled throughout (Though a different one will be used for the caveman in the beginning), while the character will be a silhouette throughout, his clothing will change to match the illustrations, distinct clothing accessories will especially be chosen so they are still recognizable on a flatly colored silhouette.

After that, everything will be put together in After Effects.