William Niu

I had to do...

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 18:38:03 -0400

I had to do it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/world/europe/botched-restoration-of-ecce-homo-fresco-shocks-spain.html?_r=1

I went to hiking at the Great Falls park in VA yesterday. The...

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 14:51:00 -0400

I went to hiking at the Great Falls park in VA yesterday. The nature was beautiful and the river especially was very intreaguing to look at. I took my time studying the rock formation as a result of the river’s flow as well as layers that had stacked over the years of history and I realized how much information rocks can convey through its textures. I might end up making another study for the rocks in the future posts. In today’s post, I did a quick study of the grass area of the park. I was sitting on a bench and saw a car drive by and its wind was causing the leaves to fall right behind the car like it was being chased by the nature.

Paperman

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:16:00 -0400

This week I was over at Los Angeles Convention Center running around doing Student Volunteer duty, checking out cool emerging technologies in the Exhibition hall, lining up in a HUGE line for Pixar’s teapot, talking to recruiters at the job fair, and meeting lots of wonderful people who shared common interest in the computer graphics world. The experience was unforgettable, and the amount of information and inspirations that came through this week was simply overwhelming. Amongst the captivating creatives that were spotlights at SIGGRAPH 2012,including ParaNorman, Avengers, Wreck-it Ralph, Brave, and much more, Disney’s short animation Paperman stood out to me as one of the most emotionally charged, visually appealing, and a well crafted piece of motion picture. Without touching on the spoilers of the film, I would like to point out some of its appeals and what I learned from as an artist.

Aesthetically Paperman is simplistic, focusing mostly on large flat shapes and using lighting and blurs to bring focus into the composition. With limited details and color, the film strictly focuses on using the visuals to frame the story. In Disney’s Paperman talk, the creators made a comparison between the 3D films we see today and the traditional 2D approach they used for Paperman. While the 3D movies today have advantage of creating depth and complex settings, it can become so appealing that sometimes the visuals overshadow the story it is trying to tell. I think that is where Paperman really excel. The ratio of visual information and storytelling was just right so that it created a harmony that is best suited for telling Paperman’s story. For me, watching Paperman allowed me to see my role as an artist in a bigger picture. I have always thought that a best design should be so captivating it can stand on its own. While that may be true in many cases, I think it’s important to also consider how one design stands amongst a whole bunch of other designs within a film as a whole, and hit that golden ratio where visuals can most effectively deliver a story.

Another thought I had after seeing Paperman was that portrayal of humanity can be a very strong device to capture the audience’s attentions. Paperman tells a story about how a small decisions can lead to a life changing experience. It’s a theme that is universal and can easily be related with. Even when the character does not exist in the reality, as long as we can see them responding the way we do, showing ranges like curiosity, confusions, determination, and love, they can feel real even on a flat screen. I think that is portion of the reason why many Miyazaki films are also successful. Take Princess Mononoke which illustrates the struggle between polar justices. We can see that both sides of the opposing forces are fighting for what they believe is justice, and neither sides are wrong in their motives. I think simulating a real-life behavior into animated characters adds a layer of depth and helps guide the audience feel engaged in the narrative. It’s definitely something I can explore more as I further myself in character design and storytelling.

Disney’s Paperman will be presented right before Wreck-it Ralph in November and I highly recommend everyone to go see it. It will be an experience to remember!

A small commission I did yesterday for a friend :)

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:36:24 -0400

A small commission I did yesterday for a friend :)

Background design for my short animation Aerodynamos. You get to...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:49:14 -0400

Background design for my short animation Aerodynamos. You get to watch two super rollerblade kids racing each other in a massive city! The project is still in progress but you can check out the teaser animation on the link above :)

A teaser for my short animation Aerodynamos. The project is...

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 09:59:27 -0400

A teaser for my short animation Aerodynamos. The project is still in progress but the final product will come with a minute long non stop super actions!

Pit City Project (2011) Production art for an imaginary...

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 10:57:18 -0400

Pit City Project (2011) Production art for an imaginary industrial city that is located below the ground level. The people in this world live alongside the massive wall of the pit and created a rich culture and massive transporting network under a limited space.

Demon’s Mouth (2011): Originally drawn for an environment...

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 18:58:00 -0400

Demon’s Mouth (2011): Originally drawn for an environment design for a Japanese tale “Yamata no Orochi”. In the story Orochi, an eight-headed serpent takes sacrifice from villagers as a payment for their lives until a thunder god Susanoo comes to slay the beast. This drawing is an original imaginary location in the story where Orochi nests itself. The place was once a thrived city but after Orochi came, it bacame poisoned and lifeless.

Ryu Gu Jo (2010): This piece was illustrated for Japanese folk...

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 09:58:00 -0400

Ryu Gu Jo (2010): This piece was illustrated for Japanese folk tale “Urashima Tarou”. In the story, a young boy Tarou saves an endangered sea turtle and as reward, the turtle takes the boy to visit underwater dragon palace called Ryu Gu Jo. There, Tarou meets a beautiful princess and receives a mysterious box which he was told not to open. This piece was featured in Spectrum as well as Society of Illustrators Annuals.

I did this piece recently to aiming to practice drawing nature,...

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 09:45:00 -0400

I did this piece recently to aiming to practice drawing nature, lighting, and color. It all started after watching Princess Monoke and I had a huge urge to draw a forest scene. Although I have seen the movie many times I keep coming back to find new things to get inspired by. I was very moved by the complexity of the storyline, the beauty of visual language, and depth of the research and appropriate connection to the old Japanese culture. From type of spoken language to the way clothes were worn in order to reflect maturity, the whole movie was so carefully thought out that I’m in awe with the amount of information that Miyazaki is capable of handling. That man is a true beast. From doing this piece, I got to explore more approaches in drawing the variations in nature. It also took me a little longer than usual because I spent so much time making decisions for subtle color differences in many areas. It really made me realize that the amount of decisions made within a piece is exponentially related to how rendered the piece is

A Mac girl

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 10:20:11 -0400

A Mac girl

I watched Brave recently and there was a scene that stuck with...

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 09:52:00 -0400

I watched Brave recently and there was a scene that stuck with me. At Merida’s low point, she sits in a cave in the rain and reflects the mess she was in. As opposed to her typical puffy hair, we got to see her hair getting wet in this scene and it’s one of the rare times in the movie where her hair isn’t so flashy and over-powering. Her hair is muggy, stranded, and deformed from its glory. I think Merida’s hair was a great device that reflected her mental state. Good design!

Sketch from today.

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 00:16:25 -0400

Sketch from today.

This came out of today’s doodling. I’ve always liked...

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 11:12:23 -0400

This came out of today’s doodling. I’ve always liked playing fighting games because its like sophisticated rock paper scissors and of course Street Fighter is a classic. Something that always stuck with me is how obscure Guile’s sonic boom voice was in the SNES Street Fighter II. It sounded like he was saying alecboom or whatever but it sounded nothing like sonicboom! This weekend is super exiting with EVO 2012 around the corner. I still remember that shocking moment when Daigo got perfected by Poonko on live last year. Really looking for what comes out in the next few days!

I had a weird dream today. I saw a serious samurai riding on an...

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:20:00 -0400

I had a weird dream today. I saw a serious samurai riding on an ugly toy horse passing by me with high tension techno music playing in the background. wth?

Here’s a drawing of Anubis from Zone of Enders game. This...

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:37:00 -0400

Here’s a drawing of Anubis from Zone of Enders game. This is one of my favorite mech characters because of the fluid design, radiating wings (both on the back and the arms), and the over all the mighty-enemy quality that it has in the game. Zone of Enders is a super sweet mech game where it has everything I expect for a future robot shooting/ battling game. It has homing lasers that you can lock on to multiple targets, high speed air actions, and even chances to shoot gigantic destructive lasers! Its super cool and I would love for Kojima to make a squeal to the series (rather than making an HD remake although that is nice too) :D

I did this piece a while ago about videogames I played in pixel...

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 20:51:54 -0400

I did this piece a while ago about videogames I played in pixel art style. It starts off at the top left corner of the stage with some of the earliest games I played and then goes all the way down to the newer games I played at the time. Through this piece, I realized how time consuming pixel art can be, and really made me admire some of the crazy dot artists both from the classical games as well as pixel city drawings we see today. Here’s a list of the games that is included in this piece. Hopefully you’ve played some of them :) Pong, Packman, Pokemon, Super Mario, Sonic, Bomberman, Tetris, Street Fighter, Donkey Kong, F-ZERO, Pikmin, Space Invaders, Megaman Zero, Okami, Megaman Battle Network, Megaman, Zelda, Ace Combat, Smash Brothers, Shadow Colossus, Final Fantasy V,VIII,X,XII,XIII, God of War, Star Craft, Katamari, Metal Gear Solid and more

I recently played a game called Journey and my gosh it was...

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:13:00 -0400

I recently played a game called Journey and my gosh it was stunning! Unlike most of games I normally play, Journey is stripped down to the very core of emotional expression using visual and audio interaction. The game takes its vagueness to advantage, allowing the player to figure out everything from the very beginning and experience the journey up close. I absolutely love the way music and the visuals intertwine in the game as every moments is designed so precisely to accentuate the best experience possible. I’m really looking forward to playing this game again and getting the white robe! I also read that the company (called thatgamecompany) has finally made all 3 games for PSN marking the end of their contract with Sony to produce solely for PSN. Now that they have more freedom, I can’t imagine but to be excited for what comes next. It’d be super cool if their games (like Journey) came to the iOS.

Since I drew a version of the boy from my short animation...

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:01:02 -0400

Since I drew a version of the boy from my short animation Aerodynamos, I gotta draw one for the girl too! I did not mention in the last post but the boy is named Hu, meaning “tiger” in Chinese and the girl is Lon, which means “dragon”. I wanted to have polar implication between the two character since tiger and dragon were known to be the colliding opposites in many Asian cultures. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I made the text “dragon” behind her to sort of resemble a dragon head. It’s kind of hidden

I realized that when people say think about silhouette when...

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:13:00 -0400

I realized that when people say think about silhouette when designing a character, it meant a little more than thinking about how interesting the outer shapes is. As I was drawing this character from my short animation Aerodynamos, I wanted to try out different approach and instead of focusing on what I know about the character’s anatomy and how things should appear had it been volumetric, I let the gestural lines be the priority as I was developing the piece. The result came out to have stronger expressive pose and graphic quality than if I had worked my normal way. This method also allowed me to have unique silhouette much easily than volumetric method, maybe because gestural lines have rooms to be unpredictable. This might not be something new to some people but for me it’s kind of a discovery. I’d like to keep exploring this area as I like the perks it comes with.

Here’s the teaser I made for Aerodynamos. It’s still under development so I’m going to keep it coming!