Leokage Productions

As of late I have been e-mailing, ringing up people back and forth on a occasional basis to discuss about my documentary film project and I'm gradually getting the agreement across some of those Chinese institution that is willing to help and be involved but here another message that they don't seem to comprehend is that I don't want to take up their course as I did my research and I came across a list of Chinese courses within London, are expensive but, I look at one which seems convenient and reasonable to me at a really cheap price as I spoke to her by phone but I have yet to meet her in person. http://courses.vivastreet.co.uk/language+london-se1/chinese-mandarin-class-/48438700 her details amongst the list. so now I got a few options to choose from the contacts that I call up and they agree to discuss the topic even further in person.  I found her information through this list: http://www.emagister.co.uk/chinese_courses-et29_9.htm
If possible I like to avoid paying at all cost because I rather not pay for such a course at this time but it bugs me to think of a solution in my current situation that i'm in and to foresee a light at the end of the tunnel.


3 types of how documentary are made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEP_CugxZCI
I decided before Christmas that I'm going to do a participatory type documentary film and this video reassured me of my decision as I want to create one that is appealing and not doll from the feedback I had in uni workshop before the holidays were set in stone.

life as a mixed race child documentary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0302-Ld5KA
I was browsing on youtube looking for 'in search for identity documentary and other videos that might inspire me to develop my documentary in the process and I came across this video by Garolenmedia which made me realized one thing or more about how I'm going to approach my work and where I was going with it.

December had taken it's toll on me ever since I got deep into researching as I  fight against the time as the days passes by but I'm no doubt getting somewhere with my project.  

Research & practical approach for my documentary film project.    


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEP_CugxZCI
http://www.meridiandao.co.uk/?q=node/27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Gh_0Fx0B8 - neither here nor there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCK7i1ecSLA
http://www.dependentfilms.net/files.html
http://www.desktop-documentaries.com/how-to-write-a-script.html

I wanted to know some of the different types of documentary that are out there in terms of style. So I began googling on the internet looking through explanations on what makes a good documentary film compare to a amateur shot film.  I follow a few simple guide lines what makes and breaks a documentary with some simple tips and tricks bearing in mind.

During the past week I was looking around fore free chinese calligraphy classes that they might be doing within the London without splashing out cash on I find it relevant as apart of my participatory type documentary film. I have yet to get in contact with them as I was over thinking it thoroughly if it is possible to film in there with a film crew. There were many websites I came across on my research that simply couldn't afford to pay for the classes.  

More links added which I will be explain personally in class.

I design this particular scene of sand with the intent to portray a summer feel that I had in mind. I used a sand brush set by one of the artist from DeviantArt site. I plan to combine this with the psunami plugin and see if I get the scene I want in my animation.

 Inspired by kingdom hearts I decided to design these two background in PhotoShop. However, I do not own the cloud brush at all. Credits for that particular brush set goes to the rightful artist.

Design in PhotoShop :)

One of a few background concepts that I did by simply doing the rough sketches and composition in opencanvas then afterwards I took the sketch into photoshop where I played around with the filters such as the lens flare, gaussain blur and plastic wrap as I wanted to portray a winter feel to it when I did this although I can make further improvements on it.

These are a few collection of my design of Naomi in various poses that I drew up using opencanvas and it is worth my time and energy spent on doing it for my final year animation. More coming soon...

Lately, I've been animating like there no tomorrow and on my way to finishing what has been a very long time consuming to animate the female character poses in a short amount of time given with the amount spent on research I had little priorities to sketch out the backgrounds along with the bubbles, shadows and color it all digitally. I progress on rapidly as I picture how all these character poses will eventually tell the story in my final year animation. I'm happy with the character animation set in motion, i'll move onto design the backgrounds which won't take me as much time as I do with the characters. All in all i'll approach the hours where i'll have the music sources and get started in post production.

A experiment test with the cloud and mountain brush together as a means of an abstract idea to sketch my own background concepts for my animation. Credits go out to the artists who made these brush sets.  

This is done in adobe illustrator using the pen tool to go all over the sketch layer as I simply did this one on a separate layer above the rough sketch version from opencanvas. More coming soon so stay tune :)

A few rough sketches of facial expressions that I did early in the post production as a sample shown above. I really like the use of facial expressions in this one as it defines the characters emotions which I find very wonderful and extraordinary in the development stages which is essentially many aspects that goes to convey my unique thought process into my flash animation.  

A few sketches selected out of my animation production of Nami Sakuragi as I refine my character designs. These shows some of the update changes that she wears now a t shirt, short stripe skirt and sandals rather than short jeans, sleeveless Hood top and trainers for her footwear as I wanted to portray Nami have that summer look design overall. The wet suit design is essential to show the viewer that she is about to explore underwater beneath the surface as well as keeping it pg. I have yet to maintain consistency throughout when animating her in any dynamic perspective view before bringing her to life with some color and shading that will be the highlight during the production.    

 Like the title says I accumulate some glimpse of images occur that I envision during the day and that these images shown represents my thoughts and some idea of what the characters is going to be acting in my animation in addition what fascinates me as an animator, is each poses has a unique prospective of tricking the camera in many ways to portray characters looking at from a certain direction or the characters' emotions convey in a story which makes camera work just as important as the characters communicate in the animation itself which lead me to think differently during my post production. Had it not been for watching countless anime episodes, allot of time spent researching on female in motion and taking this subject under my wings to realize and awaken my senses to what extend I believe how my animation should turn out eventually.

As far as poses are concern, it is up to each artist on how they manipulate exaggeration in their animation as every single artist has a certain style or approach when doing so in their production. Mine in particular I can easily relate to Japanese anime and Disney cartoons in general as there is always some facial expressions or body language during a episode or movie that had me laughing and some epic moments too. Only time will tell, if my female character poses seems too exotic or ecchi for the viewers then that is fine by me as I intent to keep it pg with no form of adult nudity in any way, in my animation.                                                                                 

Lately I have been feeling quite unwell as the days passes by.  I manage to do nearly all of the character animation required at the beginning and middle scenes and carry on doing some fixes here and there. I have a strong desire to see this through to the end as it will be one tedious, frustrating project that might just well be 5 mins with all that I have in mind.  Once all the character animations as well as the concrete backgrounds has been completed in pencil, i'll then use the live trace option feature in adobe illustrator to help me with the workload in addition, it makes the process much easier and quicker for me so I can focus adding color and shading to the characters rather than outlining them with the pen tool one by one, if that was the case, I'll fall behind schedule. I'll continue fulfill the gaps and use my imagination to see how I tell the story to the audience in my animation as unique and interesting as possible.