Turnaround & Character Design: ANNA

 Finally finished with Anna's turnaround! the "T" pose is mainly for the purposes of modelling her in maya- however she will be animated in 2D (digitally) so i included a relaxed 3/4 turn.

Anna is a russian peasant girl, she lives in a small village community near a forest where she and her neighbours gather food and hunt. She is 19 years old, recently married and 6-8 months pregnant with her first child.

While drawing my friend Megan, i asked her to wear a long skirt of mine around her rib cage so that i could observe the folds of the material around her bump, i really liked the look and changed Anna's design at the last minute. I was also persuaded to change it after drawing my storyboard and realising that conveying lots of movements would be difficult underneath a shoulder-covering shawl.

 Some costume decisions...

 In the end i dropped the front-tied scarf idea because i thought it made Anna look too old, i found out a head scarf would be essential as Fall of the Wolf is set outside; and after reading parts of "The Empire's New Clothes" i found out that headscarves were a sign of modesty and mainly all country girls and women in 19 Century Russia wore them. They became less common in the cities as other European fashions were absorbed into the culture there.

 I was inspired to design a shawl-type shoulder cover for Anna by one of the characters in "Zelda"- But also liked the idea of an empire-line dress cut like Chicha's (The Emperor's New Groove). Chicha is the only pregnant animated character i can think of. (I do not own the 2 images above)

Researching clothes worn by russian peasants ("The Empire's New Clothes") and sketching some basic outfits for girls...

Some very early google image drawing of pregnant bellies...

Storyboards FINALLY

Pre-Natal Yoga: Observational Drawing

Following on from drawing my friend Megan in some poses of my own choice this week, i arranged to draw in a pre-natal yoga class at the Olympia centre in Dundee city centre this morning. 

This was very interesting as i had no control or knowledge of the type of poses that would be involved here, it helped build an understanding of balance, weight and flexibility in a pregnant body. 

I will use the reference and knowledge gathered here to inform my character drawings and actual animation.

Movement research: Life drawing

As part of the research for my animation i organised a session of life drawing with a girl who is in fact full term. I will use the results to guide my drawing of Anna especially when blocking her poses. The session helped me further understand the movement of a body with so much extra weight on it's front; what is possible in terms of movement.

As a follow up, i have arranged to attend a pre-natal yoga class this week in order to observe and sketch participants.

Thanks to Megan for letting me draw her :)

Recce of Tentsmuir Forest

Now that i'll be working with live action footage I organised a trip to explore the wooded area of Tentsmuir as i heard it had potential to be the backdrop of my film. With the help of our camera man we took test footage and photographs of the area, some examples are below...

Credit: Adam Morrow photographer/film maker