Finally up for your viewing pleasure, my Octopus Esting!!!

HERE IT IS!!! My E4 Esting via youtube!!

With absolutely no word what so ever from E4 about wether or not my entry will ever be put up on the website, or in fact has actually be received, I have decided enough is enough!!

It has been FOREVER since I completed and entered it , and sent numerous follow up emails regarding wether or not it will appear on the website or has been accepted into the competition at all!!

I CAN'T wait any longer to share it with you all!

So here he is, the one, the only showering Octopus!!

Octopus E Sting, Slow progress....

The Showering Octopus (as I have dubbed him) has been successfully uploaded and entered into the E4 E Sting competition!!!

In fact this was the case as of exactly a week ago today... I was hoping to be able to post a link for you guys to FINALLY be able to view the finished animation by now!! However I'm still finding myself at the mercy of E4's website admin, and when they get round to publishing The Showering Octopus (along with a few other people's entries, some who uploaded theirs over a week before me!) onto the website...

Rest assured, the moment it is up for public viewing you will be the first to know! (Here's hoping it's worth the wait!!)

Octopus E Sting, IMPORTANT UPDATE!!!!

IT'S FINALLY OPEN!!!!

E4 have Launched their E Sting competition!!!

Can you believe it... After spending last summer making this animation to only find out (after numerous unhelpful emails) that the competition was not going ahead for 2010, E4 have finally launched it for 2011!!

You can find all the development drawings, colour concepts, bits of animation and the roller-coaster communications with E4 about their sluggish launch right here!

Of course this means that I have got the hard part all done and dusted, and once I've sorted out the last niggly bits of animation and added a sound bed, it'll be ready to upload well within the closing date in July!!!

So please, please, PLEAAAAAAASE!!! When the time comes, vote for me!!! :D

Octopus E Sting, UPDATE. (It's been a while!!)

Okay it's been absolutely aaaaaaaaaaaages since anything has been heard about the 2010 E Stings competition. Evidently as it is now January 2011 there was no 2010 competition despite the responses to my emails.

I've postponed the finalization of the Octopus animation for the launch of the competition. It is pretty much done, all that is left to do is add transparencies to certain layers and edit in the sound (but any backing music/jingle will have to wait till E4 launch and make available any usable sounds).

So I thought I'd email them again expressing my disappointment at receiving misleading information and the lack of any news on the website, despite continued interest from other people who comment on the site.

This was the reply I got:

Dear Sara,

Thank you for your email regarding E-STINGS on Channel4.com.

I can confirm that there will be another E-STINGS competition in 2011, but unfortunately there are no confirmed dates as yet. We would advise for you to keep an eye on the website for further details.

We apologise for any disappointment.

Again still rather vague on the details, and you can be sure that if nothing goes ahead I'll be having some strong words. I would rather wait till the competition launches to reveal my finished animation, but if worst comes to worst then I will not be able to wait any longer to share it with you all!

So please, don't think I've given up on the 'ol Octopus! He WILL get his debut in the near future!!

Octopus E sting, another UPDATE!!

Last time I left you, I was waiting for a more definitive answer on when or whether the E Sting competition was happening this year.
A week later and I still hadn't heard anything back, so I decided to contact them again!:

Thank you very much for your prompt response to my email!
I am contacting you again to ask if there has been any further information regarding the launch of the E Sting competition.
I notice that a few more people have commented on the E Stings page since the comment I left before contacting you directly. It seems that there are plenty of people willing to participate in this annual competition and would very much appreciate some information on if or when it is going ahead this year.

Thank you for your time!
Sara Dunkerton

And just today I have received this in response!!!

The annual e-stings competition has not started yet but should be launching over the Autumn/Winter period of this year.

Okay, so it isn't an extremely informative answer, but at least it's some confirmation that the competition is indeed going ahead this year!!

So as always, stay tuned!! :D

Octopus E sting UPDATE!!

Okay so, I have been keeping regular tabs on the E4 website for any news on the 2010 launch of the E sting competition, and so far have had no luck!
I've commented along with many other people on the E4 E stings page:

Posted on: Thu Aug 19, 2010 at 06:46 pm
Comment: I'm sure the competition last year launched in July and closed in August. Could someone from E4 please let us budding Sting-makers know!! We're dying here!! >.<

And there was no further response... So I found a contact on the Channel 4 website for asking direct queries and sent them an email, this is what I said:

I am interested in entering an animation for the annual E4 E sting competition. I wonder if it is possible for someone to contact me and let me know if the competition is going ahead this year. I have started animating my entry despite there being no news of when the competition launches for 2010, and regular checks to the E sting page on E4.co.uk has yielded no further information! As the competition launched in previous years during the summer months I am concerned that it might not open at all this year! Please could you let me know if this is so. Thank you!!

And this is what they have replied:

Dear Sara,
Thank you for contacting E4.com with your enquiry.
I have escalated this issue to the site producer and await a response.

So I am still waiting for a definitive answer on what is going on... BUT in the meantime I am continuing with the animating regardless!!
I estimate that I am about half done, and am pondering on the best way to give you all a taste without revealing too much before the competition (if there is a competition...)

Stay tuned!!! :D

Octopus E sting - Developed concepts

Finally, here are the finalised concepts for my E sting idea. I've had many a distraction from getting these concepts done, including two separate commissions within about as many days!

One is for the couple next-door who are opticians and have recently bought a second shop that needs some sprucing up. They have asked me to do an illustration for a print to hang in the reception and also to be adapted for the shutters on the shop front! I shall need to investigate the best materials to paint on metal and possibly get myself acquainted with spray paint, which will be interesting...

The other commission is from my boyfriend's cousin; Sam Wilson, who's band (Sick Wax) is looking for someone of a creative mind to design their album cover! I volunteered myself straight away and am working on sketching up the ideas that Sam had for the content of the cover. He said he hopes that the album will be ready to release in about 2 months so you shall see sketches for it on here very soon!

In light of all these new projects I have going on, I have made a new addition to this blog! You'll now find an 'About Me' page on the sidebar where you'll be able to browse through a whole list of projects currently in development, I'll be updating this page when projects are completed or new ones are added so all of you (and myself) can keep track of all my work in the real world!

Octopus E sting - Animation tests

After drawing up and scanning all the key frames for the Octopus as he slips on the soap, I realized how tricky it will be to actually animate this!

Co-ordinating the movement for 8 legs as the Octopus flips 360 in mid-air is really quite tricky. Accounting for each leg and how it moves in relation to the Octopuses body/head as it flips really confused me at times, I'd either loose one leg somewhere or mistake one for another and skew the motion up.

So, before developing the colour concepts any further I thought I'd tackle this tricky section, and here is how I managed it!

Stage One - Drawings: First I drew and scanned all the key positions for the Octopus as he slips on the soap.

Stage Two - Rough Guidelines: I then colour coded each tentacle so as to be able to track them individually as the Octopus flips.

The front three are red; these are the tentacles that have contact with the soap and so initiate the flipping motion.

The 4th and 5th tentacles either side of the front three are blue, and the remaining three tentacles at the back are green. The head is also marked in pink and the position of the Octopus' eyes are in orange.

I animated each colour coded section of tentacles separately so that I only had 2 or 3 legs visible at a time, this made things a little less confusing.

Stage Three - Fleshed out Guidelines: Next I fleshed out each tentacle to be able to see how they interact with one another; where one overlaps another, if their in the foreground or in the background, etc.

Similarly to before I tackled each colour coded section separately, but this time made regular checks to the positions of the other tentacles... it still looks a bit of a mess here though.

Oh I also added in the motion path of the soap to help with the timing.

Stage Four - Final Outlines: So with all the tentacles and the head in roughly their correct positions throughout the flipping motion, all that was left to do was basically trace over the fleshed out guidelines with a single outline.

This final clip will now become the reference for when I come to animate the real thing. Once I have developed up the colour concepts and have a clear idea of how the Octopus character will look (e.g: if he has an outline, texture, colour, markings, etc) I will be able to simply trace over this clip, frame by frame and concentrate on the aesthetic quality of the Octopus having already got the technical side of the animation pinned down!

Octopus E sting - Storyboards and Colour concepts

I'm still working blindly in regards to the criteria for submitting an E sting here, there is still no news on when the 2010 competition opens!!

But I'm working on regardless, here are some storyboards that i've sketched up. But after watching a couple of the 2009 E sting entries I'll probably have to edit this down a lot...

Also here are some quick watercolour wash colour concepts. I've gone for the very E4 purple palette and complimentary orange.

Octopus E sting Idea

I was watching E4 the other night and was struck with inspiration to create an E sting animation for their annual competition! Although I may possibly be quite premature with my ideas as there isn't actually any news of when the 2010 competition starts... Oh well, nothing wrong with starting the development early!!

So here are designs for an Octopus character that I came up with!!

Stay posted for colour concepts and storyboards!