FAN FRIDAY | Reboot!Tomb Raider

GameStop Norway had a competition on their FB page to win the limited edition PS4, so of course I had to give it a try! (My budget doesn't allow for a PS4 console... yet!) Unfortunately, it was not that well run and the whole process was a mess from the start.

I thought I had an extra day so I had a whole background planned... and then they changed the deadline the day before and after I rushed and submitted it unfinished... they changed it back to the original deadline.

In the end a pretty great entry featuring Nathan Drake won, so it wasn't all bad. Their judging was spot on! (The winners tumblr is here, check her out!)

Though... maybe GameStop Norway is in the need of some fresh faces in their social media management team? ;^) I'm am seriously thinking about sending them an e-mail! ☆Hire me!☆

Ah well! At least I got to do some Tomb Raider fanart!♥

I'm pretty excited for the new game coming out! I'm crossing my fingers for a release on PS4 too!

Busy Busy!

I've been pretty busy with projects lately- sorry!
Christmas is coming up and I haven't even had the time to send out the Christmas letters to my friends... I am really failing this Christmas-planning thing.

Here is a sketch from my sketchbook that I tried (unsuccessfully) to color in an interesting way- everything just turned very... rosy. At least it was an interesting exercise! :^)

#Color blocks | Week 48

Some fun color blocks inspired by the lovely Tiffany Ford.
I decided to do the outfits I could remember wearing this week... unfortunately my main go-to outfit color is black, gray and white so it's more "gray-scale block".

Oslo

I've been busy-busy with projects!
Last weekend I visited a friend in Oslo to celebrate her birthday- luckily there is a direct flight from my city to the capital, so sitting on a train for 12+ hours wasn't needed... hurray!♥

The birthday-party was a blast and we didn't even make it outside of the apartment because of all the excitement! Thanks for a great party! :^) Invite me next year too!!

On Sunday we had a lazy day consisting of eating great Vietnamese food, drinking bubble-tea and doodling. In the car ride to the restaurant I saw this guy carrying his dog on his shoulder like a parrot!

A+ weekend.

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Digital sketches!♪

Thanks for looking!
xAnneM

Det lille som skal til - Helsekontoen

I've been working with a design firm these past months on a couple of different projects and when I went out on a run I stumbled over an ad-shell of a campaign we just finished that has some of my work in it!♪

I knew they were out there somewhere, but I hadn't seen them yet so I was pretty excited when I found it! There are a lot of different posters coming out in the area where I live with some elements that I have done with the team, some backgrounds, some people, some ideas and even one where I am the person in the ad! Pretty neat! (I will make my best attempt at taking a photo of myself and my ad-self in the future...!)

Here is the original (colorful!) version:

xAnneM

Inktober & Tenerife

Inktober is well under way and since I've been busy traveling I've been pretty distracted from participating... but I did make an attempt to do some ink sketches on the go! I was lucky enough to get a free ride to Tenerife to celebrate a 60th birthday and brought my ink brushes and sketchbook to the party with me. Here are some photos and a few of the ink-sketches done on the trip!

I did almost only animal sketches since I have never been to a zoo and got to go to one in Tenerife! It was a great experience to see a lot of animals I have only seen in pictures myself... though I didn't have the heart to look at the larger animals for too long... 

they just looked so sad.☔

They do have some wonderful spaces for the smaller- and medium-sized animals so it wasn't all bad. In addition they fund and support the conservation of nature and animals, hurray! My favorite exhibition was the anteaters because not only are they super weird and amazing... there were baby anteaters too!♥ I didn't get so see them running around like my bf did, but I did see them all snuggled up together taking an afternoon nap. 

I think I'm getting cavities just thinking about it...!!!

I end this post with a travel-doodle of my bf + myself.

I am a fashionista of the best kind as you can tell by my travel-wear ;-)

Thanks for looking!

xAnneM

How to create a simple animation in illustrator and photoshop - Part 2

Now that I have finished the animation material in AI we can continue to part 2. If you came here though somewhere else, Part 1 is here.

Part 2:
Animation in Photoshop

Open the exported file made in Part 1 in PS.

Now each movement should be on separate layers in the correct sequence. (If they are not, you can go and check the layers in the AI file and move them around if needed.) Open the Animation options under Window -> Animation. Click on the right corner for Frame sequence- this is so we can edit the frame times in a more visual way that by Timeline sequence.

Then, click the top right corner of the animation window for the menu and choose Make Frames from Layers.

Ta-da! Click Forever by the play options and play to watch it go!

Additional info:

• To edit the timing of the frames, select them all and choose the time you desire in the drop down menu below the frames.
• To add a white background, create a new white-filled layer and drag it under the frame layers. Activate in animation by selecting all the frames and clicking the eye in the layer options. If a text is desired, you can paste or write on a separate layer over the frame layers and then activating it similarly to the background.
• Want your pencil in a different color, but don't want to re-do the tutroial? Add a layer with your desired color, set to screen and activate it by selecting all the frames.

When you're satisfied with your result, click File -> Save to Web & Devices and choose GIF from the drop down menu under file type. You can preview before saving and make necessary changes if needed.

Finished!
Enjoy your new animation.

Any questions?
Comment below!

How to create a simple animation in illustrator and photoshop - Part 1

This is a small guide on how to make small animations in AI and PS!
It should be said that I am still experimenting and learning. This is just one of the ways it can be done, and probably not the best way either. I hope it is of some use to people out there wanting to try out some simple animations and need a starting point.

Onward to the guide!

Part 1:
Setting up your animation material in illustrator:

In this guide I will show how I did the spinning pencil animation for my portfolio. It's pretty simple and easy to make! An obvious start is making the object you are animating:

Ta-da! My pencil! As you can see it's shapes are merged and expanded compared to the "sketch" version where the shapes are unexpanded. Note: If you're making a more complex shape, it's a pretty good idea to keep one version where you have not expanded your shapes or merged them. Just so if you decide to change something you have a back-up.

My goal is to spin the pencil so I use the rotate tool, hold ALT (WIN) and click on the center of the pencil marked with a blue cross!

This is where you decide:
Do I want a smooth animation or a more choppy one?
Less movement per frame = smoother animation, larger file size.
More movement per frame = choppier animation, smaller file size.

For the pencil, I've decided I wanted a smooth animation, so I choose 10° and check preview to make sure the movement isn't too large.

Phew! 

Click on copy and the first movement is finished. To complete the movement and make the pencil continue around, hold CTRL+D (WIN) and watch it go!

Copy the whole collection of movements into a new file- The reason for this is that I am exporting it to a PSD file. Select all of the movements, go to the layer options and click Release to Layers (Sequence).

Now only one thing left to do: File -> Export -> PSD
Keep it CMYK to allow the option Write Layers.

Additional info:

• If you are making a more complex shape where parts of the shape is grouped but not merged with the other they will get separate layers. This makes animating it a little more work, but not impossible. For this tutorial I will not get into it, but if you have a question please e-mail me or comment!

Ready to animate!
On to part 2!

Need any help?

Comment below!

x AnneM

Animation | Alien girl

Last week there was a sale on Anime Studio Debut and I jumped at the chance at trying it out for a few dollars. I played around with it last night while trying to learn how to rig a character with bones. A couple of fails later I figured out how to export PS files, link bones to the layers and make them ~dance~ to Shake It Off. It isn't perfect, but it turned out pretty cute.

Here's the result!

Happy Thursday!

xAnneM

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Woah!
I've been busy-busy with work lately and working on updating my portfolio.
Hopefully I can post something from the projects soon!

xAnneM

New office!

I have finally gotten my new office up and running...!

Since the new apartment isn't that big, the only available space was a small cupboard I manage to squeeze one of my two desks into. It's super cozy and has loads of shelf space! Perfect for somebody who owns 100kg of art supplies...

While it does lack natural light, the advantage of it that when the winter sets in it will be one of the warmer "rooms" in the apartment and my poor fingers will be spared from turning into frozen sticks of meat! Hurrah!

My other desk from my old office got a place in the living-room and is used as a shared computer desk. Pretty nice!✨

As a comparison... here are some photos of my different work-places since 2012... some was forgotten since it was a one-time thing, but here are the places where I spent most my time. My favorite was my last one... easy to heat, had lovely natural light and a lot of room to do projects in!

2012:

2013:

2013/2014:

Thanks for reading!

xAnneM

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Some digital sketches made the past week.
 ✨ It's all about the girls! ✨

Progress gif: Colors are off, but fun to watch!

xAnneM

Summer 2014

This summer I was lucky enough to get to spend a week in Stockport with Ida, staying with the lovely Sigrid and Tom! We got to explore Stockport, see Lyme Park and house, shop for comics, go to Manchester museum and meet some of their friends!

Thanks for the inflatable mattress to crash on and all the delicious meals! I have never eaten so well and healthy on a holiday ♥

After Manchester we headed to London to meet up with my bf where we had another round of comic shops, great food and hanging out in parks. I also got to see the House of Illustration's Quentin Blake exhibition which was amazing! A definitive recommendation if you're in London before November 2.

Back in Norway we were visited by my bf's cousin and we went on a road trip through Lofoten. Lofoten is a collection of islands on the coast of Norway and one of the must-see places for tourists and natives alike. I slept and ate breakfast to some amazing views...! Even just driving through it was pure nature porn.

All in all a great summer!

x AnneM