Some mood boards

So I'm thinking of doing a mix of flash and hand drawn. I'm thinking the people in flash using photo collage to colour them and my monster in 2D traditional.... I'll give it a test soon.

sketchbook

Just trying to work out the monsters movements

Animatic take two

So after two full days of drawing and placing I have another animatic to show. Yay. This one is pretty close to how I want the film to look, it's hard to make it work better without actually animating. I'll sure I'll end up tweeking it in production, but there you go.

Anyway... Animatic!

Also... yeah, not sound yet but that is my next move!

Some Inspiration

Right, this has nothing to do with my film but look how wonderful it is. Then look how much time it took to make. Really inspirational.

Right time to make my own labour of love.

Production Art

Clay Workshop

This monday I participated in a clay workshop which was really good as we got to try out lots of different types of clay and I found out which ones I liked better.
These are some tests I did using my monster for inspiration. (Sorry about the pictures, I took them on my phone)

Test Monster

I had it in my head and I just had to sketch it down. It's very messy and I know there are mistakes, but it's a 'dirty baby' as John P would say. On to the next task.

Monster

So he's come a little way. Been dragged through drawing, photo collage and indecision. I had to nail his design to understand how he was going to move so this stage was pretty important. Anyway, after watching the Annecy animation (which I have put in the previous post) I have gone back to one of my original ideas of having him as a shadow, with more ability to use squash and stretch.
Here he is -

Style

I really like that the monster is so fluid and more of a shame than anything else. Also that his colour code is pretty much dark blue and darker blue. Might help my design a bit. Gosh, I have too many design styles that I like and they are so polar!
Really need to upload some more designs!

Week 5

	24.10.11	25.10.11	26.10.11	27.10.11	28.10.11
Week 5	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
10.00 AM			Script	Live Draw research	Script		At Home	Professional Practice		IN UNI
10.30 AM			Script	Live Draw research	Script		At Home	Visual Culture		IN UNI
11.00 AM			Script	Live Draw research	Script		At Home	Propsal for Animation		IN UNI
11.30 AM			Red Group Tutorial	Live Draw research	Script			Life Drawing
12.00 PM			Red Group Tutorial	Copy up Notes	Live Draw research		At Home	Extra
12.30 PM			Red Group Tutorial	Copy up Notes	Live Draw research			Gone
1.00 PM								Lunch
1.30 PM
2.00 PM			Research	Research	Research
2.30 PM			Listen to CD	Storyboard	Research		Aims
3.00 PM			Start Design	Storyboard	Live Draw Design
3.30 PM			Start Design	Storyboard	Live Draw Design			Do 1/2 hour research a day
4.00 PM			Start Design	Storyboard	Live Draw Design			Find companies in the UK
4.30 PM			Find Companies		Live Draw Design			Copy up notes
5.00 PM			Find Companies		Find Companies			Script
5.30 PM			Find Companies					Storyboard
6.00 PM			Copy up Notes					Live Draw Research
								Character Design using collage

Animatic!!!

Ok, so this is my animatic for my film 'Don't Step on the Crack'. It's missing some key sounds.
Like at the beginning, before the title, there will be sounds of my monster walking up and huffing as he sits down. Also the sounds of the people. But the foley is so far taken from youtube, which I will not be doing for my actual film. This animatic is also a working progress. Especially as it exported a bit funny (it was widescreen at one point).

Anyway, I enjoyed making it.

Research

I accidently stumbled on this and thought it was rather appropriate. I need to have a go at colour scripts.


Go here for more

Design

Had a lecture this morning about how to design characters without putting pencil to paper. So I thought I'd have a go to free myself up a bit, I can always go back to drawing afterwards.
So here are some attempts using Photoshop -

Have managed to spend all afternoon doing these. Very fun but I'm finding it tricky to think of animal parts to put together. Should probably look further afield. Hopefully, these will improve.

Bird test

Just a very quick test as I want to have a bird in my final animation. Also, have not animated in a looooong time so it was good for me.

I know the bird is too fast, bit of a shame. But it's all a learning curb.

Monster Drawings

Story

This is my story so far. It's for a 1 minute film created in flash. It definatly needs tweeking but this is what I have at the moment;

A monster sits down by the side of the pavement and waits like he’s sat by a lake ready to fish. Soon a little bird lands on his nose, he bats it away irritably. The bird flies around his head and lands on his nose again. He growls and shoes it away again but it does the same thing. The monster gets too angry and snaps it into his mouth in a fury but doesn’t chew.

After he calms down he feels guilty about the bird, after a short deliberation he opens his mouth wide ‘aaaaaghhhhh’ and the bird flies out around his head and lands on his nose again. He smiles and leaves it there.

Just as you think the film is about to end, the camera has started a slow and happy zoom out, a person walks past and the monster grabs them. The screen goes black on the sound of a loud snap (something like he’s bitten their head off).

The end.

I've also drawn up my first very rough storyboard and painstakingly scanned it in. Please click to enlarge so you can actually see what's going on. Any comments welcome (on storyboard and story)

A sketch

Click on the images to have a closer look

Meg Park has done a rather beautiful painting of a monster.

some monster music

Fallulah - out of it

I was researching monsters and I stumbled on this. The monsters are really creepy and disturbing but also really sweet and likeable. I think I would like my monster to be similar, still scary but with a soft side too.

Its a good song too.

some more relvent research

goat and the well

forest trio

some really good films we watched today which inspired my slight change of idea.

organisation

So I'm trying to be very organised this year (So that I actually have a film that is finished and that I'm proud of.)This involves planning out my week so that I actually do 8 hours a day and setting myself weekly goals.

Here is my first timetable -

My Idea

This was my first idea, handed in on Wednesday 28th of September.

Why?

I want to make a short film that is fully realised and complete. I want it to be something that I am proud of and that I can use in a Show reel.

I would also like something that I can put out in the festival circuit.

What?

It is going to be a short and sweet animation with a complete story arch. The premise is that a boy steps on a crack and falls down into the bogeyman’s lair. But, he is only imaging and is snapped out of his nightmarish daydream by his older sister.

How?

It will be a hand drawn animation, with the safe half of story being traditionally coloured (watercolour or pencil) and the nightmare coloured in Photoshop with a more graphic style.

I want to complete this project alone, but will need help with sound/ music.

Some more...

A little bit of research...

The Little Boy and the Beast go here (click on the top link, it's in German but you get the gist)

I think the background is brilliant. White space but with the right elements to make it seam like it exists. This really fits in with the style I had in my head.

(Really need to make more line ups, something I endevour to do this time)