DIRECTIONS ASSIGNMENT

BTEC ART & DESIGN

7739 – LAURA NEAL

The brief – • To research a particular art or design discipline (animation and concept art)

and produce an illustrated A3 poster, which represents and promotes the BTEC course to prospective students.

• To create an encouraging poster that appears clear and concise, not cluttered with information, and welcomes new Art & Design BTEC students

• To have researched into both animation and concept art, as well as researched into the Art & Design course and formed a study linking both

Two practitionersRoxie Vizcarra

• I searched for both a familiar concept artist that focused on character design, and a famous, familiar animator who graduated from The National Film and Television School, which links to the BTEC second year.

• For my first practitioner, I found the artist behind the character designs on some of the promotional posters for Red Dead Redemption, Roxie Vizcarra.

• Researching her via her Twitter, Tumblr and DeviantArt pages, I found that she has worked with the acclaimed game company Rockstar for many years, and Rockstar always convey the feeling of

their game within their games art.• Her work is extremely well-known throughout the gaming community and is showcased on many different websites.• The poster designs for Red Dead Redemption are rough, using harsh colours with a red and black background. The style could be considered similar to the poster designs of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, who also use harsh lines and colours to depict its characters.

• Nick Park• For my second practitioner, I focused on an animator and graduate from The National Film and Television

School – Nick Park. Well-known among mainly British audiences, Nick Park is the creator of the Claymation Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep.

• Nick Park is an extremely good practitioner to look at; he links to The National Film and Television School (being a successful graduate) and links to the BTEC course as animation is one of the sections covered in year two. I was introduced to the works of Park from a young age, so I am very familiar with

his technique.

• Wallace and Gromit is very detailed, and the fact that so much expression has been put into every frame just shows how successful work can be when so much effort has been put in.

• He has worked with Aardman Productions for many years, and his work is very family-friendly. His work on Shaun the Sheep moved him from film into television, and is enjoyed by children and adults alike.

OUTLINE OF THE COURSE:To link my research with the course, I also researched into the second year’s animation project.

• In the second year, the Art & Design BTEC course branches into animation, utilizing media such as Adobe After Effects and Photoshop. Based around research from the V&A, this multi-media project’s brief is to work together as a group to produce an animated and/or interactive sequence from chosen objects from the V&A. The animations will then go on to be saved as a movie clip, and then combined with other groups, finally producing a team product.

• The end product will be where animation is used to explain, reveal and enhance the viewers’ experience.

• I am trying to communicate that this course will strongly benefit students who are enthusiastic about moving into a career in animation. This course offers a good chance of becoming a student at The National Film and Television School, which has a wide range of now well-known and critically acclaimed alumni such as Nick Park and Roger Deakins, 1975 graduate and DoP of 007: Skyfall, True Grit, and No Country For Old Men. The National Film and Television School prioritizes art talent beyond anything else, and are always looking for people with new ideas and new designs.

My four poster examples

• Two animation magazine covers

• A selection of University prospectus

• A poster of an issue of TIME magazine

EVALUATION

• After going through the Directions assignment, I feel it has given me a real chance to research games design; the area of art & design I want to move onto after college. Researching Roxie Vizcarra has now inspired me even more, as she works with Rockstar, the company I sincerely hope to work with.

• Personally, the most difficult part of this project has been designing the poster. I found that it was difficult to incorporate 4 different chosen designs into my 1 poster design.

• The assignment has encouraged me to research further into what I find interesting, which is a bonus for my University portfolio, who are interested in new ideas and personal research.