Thursday 12 April 2007

Day one! The blog begins.....



So this is the start. Studying a postgraduate diploma in character animation at Central Saint Martins in London, I have reached my final project. I need to make a one minute animation based on/inspired by a painting in the National Gallery's permanent collection.

I've chosen Goya's portrait of Dona Isabel do Porcel. I was really drawn to her facial expression. She has a real "good time girl" look, like she'd be great fun to have a few pints with on a Friday night. I thought it was weird that she was totally dressed in black lace - I assumed this meant she was a widow. However, I found out that this was the height of fashion for young, extremely wealthy women in Madrid at the time. So, she was a very rich, young woman who didn't need to work, was really into fashion and looks like she enjoyed a party or two...........Paris Hilton anyone?

So I've decided to base my animation on this "It Girl" idea. My initial ideas are to maybe have her narrating a day in her life (in the style of a diary entry) and animating all the things she gets up to, eg. shopping, partying, sunbathing, falling out of nightclubs. My concern is that there isn't much of a story to this. The animation can't be more than one minute, so I will need to try and fit some sort of a narrative structure into this short amount of time.

If I'm going to have my character talking I also need to come up with a script. Unfortunately my usual hilarious wit (hmmm) seems to have abandoned me. I've been researching Paris Hilton and found some great interviews with some classically stupid/egotistical comments from the self titled "American Princess" herself, so I'll take some inspiration from those. I may need to go and buy copies of Heat, Closer, Now etc - purely for research you understand.

3 comments:

libra bear said...

Heh heh heh..."Welcome to the desert...of the blog" (matrix quote..sort of) Glad to see you have one. I like whats going on here. This seems like an interesting piece your working on. I'm waiting to get a talk on my painting. Lots to do. Hope you had a good break and your pumped for the final term. See you monday :)
Wes
PS thanx for the comment :)

Nick said...

Good luck Eleanor. You'll need it, to beat me again!!!! My competitive streak will shine through one day in my animation, mwahahaha!!!

Sorry just realised this is your blog and not a random web page, seriously hope this goes well for you. Well you know so, so.

Daniel M.C. Alvite said...

Hey Elll
i like the model...beatiful girl..hihih

The idea of she going for an usual paorsh day can be funny..go for it..
have a look on last years animation,,brad did a preparation for a party, kind of narrative as well...