Ani-what?

Sneak Peak of the animatic...

This was the first test; snapshot cropped from After Effects. The bridge represented the background and how it would move. The Airship sketch would obviously be the foreground characters of the story. The lighting test sadly cannot be shown, and the shadow you have to look at the picture a bit clearer to see it.

First shot of the animatic. This worked really well; as I was concerned about the timing of the overview. I didn't able to get the buildings to move with the camera; but I might be able to improvise this on the final footage. Also since I have After Effects up... look at all those layers...

My animatics work a bit differently... I could be doing it the wrong way; but even a rough example needs some feeling of what the final film would look like. Most animatics remind neutral-colours, or just black and white. Since this project was focusing on the backgrounds; I wanted to seperate the character and the environment. To do this, I used two different colours. White to represent the character; as most animatics do. Blue to represent the background. The colour was chosen to select the depressive mood of the story at hand, and the sadness of the world. I even might give the final film a blut tint since I love this colour scheme very much righjt now...

The last show I've worked on, the character has been spotted. I'm suprised how making the backgrounds by placing the flags/buildings where I want worked effectively like this. I can admit I'm not a very good drawer... but I know how I want a scene. This isn't perfect but I'm happy that I could this despite my skills. Stay tuned to the final animatic, the timing might not be as accurate as I hoped... but if it is under 30 seconds then it will be fine. I believe I can do this...

The reason I won't upload a preview video is that i'm always making changes to these; and while I can shown what I have done already; I don't like upload hundreds of files on my youtube account. I like to keep final footage or GOOD previews in which I like. I like these... but they ain't ready. The post is a video preview till the work is done.

Con II: Almost there

Almost there till the final. Here' the new batch of concept art for this project.
This was done at the same time as my "pre-storyboards" last post. I was developing the final look of the characters; and the final concept might be similar to this; and hopefully coloured at the end.



Mainly notes of the timeline; but in the middle you can see early work of the General. Who's the General? Wait and see...



Character nicknamed "Tint", is the character shown near the start who will follow. The name isn't important (check last post) but this was already planned to be used. I always planned for this character to be a plastic cup, as a straw representing one hair string. To go with his tall-er body, I decided to add a long nose to seperate him from the rest of the background audience. hay it's my world...



I love that picture on the bottom-right... despite it having nothing to do the project. Even I get bored with concepts... possible redraw for showreel concept?
Anyway this was quite an early page of ther characters. Before I started seperate pages I wanted to sketch out what character would be featured. Tint, Gasmasks and Rin can be found on this page. Rin is the second character we track throughout the film, after discovered hiding in the trashcan... and shot down by the Airship at the end shot.


Mixed bucket here. Further drawings of the "following" characters; as well as some of the citizen designs to be featured in the background audience. Further civilian sketches can be found later in this post.



Zapphearts, shown at the top right corner was the original name of the Gasmen; their "shock-rods" keep in order the people of this world... and you can pretty much guess where they strike. Amazing how they survive over and over...
You can also see some early background work shown in this picture; a graffiti street corner. OH, and a giant pigeon. Street animals were also meant to be featured...

... I was very... very drunk.



This page was meant as an animation test for the final film. The characters will move via limbs; and each time the leg or arm had changed position, there would be a new body picture as well per frame. I need to make sure each animated frame animates without any "mark-makings".


This was the original final concept page. While its fine on its own right, it wasn;'t what I had planned. I will be redrawing this larger, and with more details... and possible side/top views as well. The Background finals will be beside it.



This is the Gasmen page. Gasmen is just a nickname for the characters and NOT their official name. The gasmask represents that they don't take the air of this world and believe their method if the only way to stay clean. Others who do not follow their ways is considered "dirty", and either be doctrinated into joining them or die. Also... the gasmask is rather scary too. Villain Factor.

As the name says, Citizens. While the "following" characters have been planned, I wanted to develop a bit further on the characters in the background. Designing all sorts of odd-product like shapes and mixing around hair styles was a pain... but I've got enough variety to keep this work full of different backstories.

More animated Tests. This was actually the first tests, in which I had the mouth, nose and eyes seperate from the body. This didn't turn out as well as I hoped, as placing the body parts would make the character look wonky and out of place. It was after this that I decided to have legs and arms as the only replacable limbs. There was also a flags test in this... but was to remain left out due to the difficulty of animating it for this project. I'm not THAT great...

Overall more successful than previous concepts... though maybe I should show my background work right about now...

A Mini Adventure

These WERE meant to be the final storyboards... but ended up too sketchy to be so. I'm currently working on my animatic as I speak, which will serve as both a storyboard and animation test for this project. I will show how the story will play out usuing these draft sketches; and hopefully the animatic should be complete soon enough to replace them.

1. Overview of the city. Fire and smoke overhailing; and ships scanning the area.
2. Overview cut off by character, following him.
3. Character walks into an alleyway.
4. Character caught by guards chasing another civilian.

1. Primary Character flees, other gets shot.

2. Primary Character hits a dustbin, knocks out someone hiding.

3. Following Dustbin character, Primary Character gets shot.

4. Character flees the opposite direction; terror shown in the background as other "trash" characters get rounded up via camps.

1. Top view of following character running towards a broken bridge.

2. Shot cut off by an airship. Shows drivers

3. Airship patrols over a street brawl with the unknown "gas" characters. Other civilians shown fleeing.

4. Airship rises higher; passing more chaos shown in the background building.

1. "Dustbin" character from earlier shown on a building rooftop.

2. The Dustbin Character jumps onto another following roof. Airship detects.

3. Face shot of the character escaping the airship, scared facial expression.

4. Airship fires; face of pain shown. White flash ends story.

Yeah...

After reading my horrible English, the biggest problem is the name of the characters. A lot of the story is contained in the chaos in the environment; but the characters are what makes the story move to place to place. I have got named picked for every main character shown; but that would be just as confusing as the nicknames used. Despite what I wrote, there is no main character. it's just one after another which show the viewer the situation of this story.

It might be easier once the animatic is done, expect a preview... soon?

FECK! DRINK!

Materialism; in short, is a dystopian fantasy world dominated by "trash" characters, rabnging from plastic cups to burger boxes; and the story I have planned is to show a "purge" of unclean trash civilians being slaughtered and captured by an unknown "gas-mask" force. Quite the bit for 30 second aye... but the enviroment should tell the story and the backhistory is quite a discussion.

I already has a rough idea of how I wanted this to look, mainly character wise. So I decided to look at some of the LRC sources of how manufactured goods ( such as Fizz bottles) can be converted to my style of drawing. You've already seen the quite sketches I've done, but these were the inspiration for them:

Products from Coca Cola were the main reaso n I wanted to do, as a daily fizz drinker I've quite aware of what a coca-cola can or bottle would look like; but nevertheless... a source to backup what I know.

The Book shown above was quite the life saver of sources, as it shows the design of the bottles years back, from generations. I wanted my characters in the film to look tired, exhausted and unhealthy from the current world. Here's some of the pages I used to help me:

I didn't plan to use the more "modern" bottles, I wanted to keep the character solid. The tough plastic bottles were closer to what I had in mind... and the drink cups found in fast-food huts. Together, they were my aim.

This was aimed at the additional characters I wanted to be shown in the world. Plastic Bottles are the main species... but I also wanted morre variety to be shown around. This might not end up in the final footage, but could end up as further details to be shown throughout the panic of the story.

Design + Environment, plastic variety.

Some posts back I created a pre-sketch of the "Materialism" logo. The middle picture shows my inspiration for the design.

Plastic and Design was an extended of how these character would work. It's hard to explain why there are trash characters in this world and my only explanation is "fantasy". Attempted to research if there was anything related to plastic I could use as my advantage to create fears and motivations of these people due to them being... well... plastic. I guess this isn't needed... you can hardly give a a reason for these characters in 30 seconds...

What have I gotten myself into...

Well this was quite a minor part of my design; but it still counted as development to the characters of the story.

Conconconconceptia

Okay, after some thought I've decided to make this 30 second story into a mixed media of traditional hand drawn and digital editing. Similar to my previous completed (and also lost) work of "Cooking with Monsters", for Nicktoons UK. here's the final film sent:

I enjoyed it, despite some problems and a rude second come back I just like this. I can see now why it was rejected, to me... it feels more of an experimental test than a 30 second humour story. Sure, some parts might get a chuckle, but I felt dubbed down after my previous work couldn't be understood by any means; I felt I had to get back on touch with reality on my projects. Meh, that didn't work out so well; but at least ot helped to create Materialism... let's hope it can beat this film.

OK early concepts... well before I start showing what I did I would like to show the very first sketch I did of Materialism,though perhaps the meaning has changed some what.

Yeah... I can't remember... 4-6 years back? It was meant as a webcomic. That ain't gonna

happen now. But the overall world still exists, though maybe not as dark and depressing.

Some of these concepts are not the most recent of drawn, as the idea goes back some time. But new concepts are on the way, as well as some already done and willing to be looked at.

Character notes for stories based around them. Cans, Bottles, Trash Bins, Wrappers...and even rats are included in the design.

Clearer picture of the characters based. Was aimed at a more "cuter" or "Friendier" attitude of the characters, they hardely seem exhausted or feared. You might even see some of these characters remade into the final cut.

Continued sketches of the characters. You can also see some designs for other "future" projects on this page. I just didn't have the heart to erase them out this time...

One of the first drawings of the newly designed idea. Notice that these characters don't have any legs; and this is the way I personally still appreciate them. But "bopping" around isn't really a good example for an "animation" course, it be Aqua Teen Hunger Strike Force all over again... urg. The latest concepts feature legs, but kept to a minimum; so they can at least keep to a close appearence of these sketches here.

More designs outside the usual character database. I really liked the idea of the cheeky yet "weasel" character shown at the bottom of the page, behind the barricades. He might be entitled to a cameo in the film; but since it isn't a character based piece... don't count on any attitude features.

More early work just for this project, not before. Here I was developing movement and ideas for legs. As well as the dreadlock "Gascan"; I liked it... but it felt... silly... for an enemy.

When the completed background/character concepts are complete, I'm sure I will able to show more varities in colours and what art scheme I'm going to include. These were originally going to be the coloured in concepts... who knows, there's still time.

Spot the Dalek!

But seriously, I'm not that far-skilled to create a different style of work in which I can master in such a short time. The character designs tend to keep a cartoonist feel despite the dark world I'm creating. If I do get a chance to create my dream project in the future, I'm still going to prove to the world that dark cartoon characters can be taken serious (though perhaps not ANY cartoon character)

Blue huh. At least it has... a little colour... yeah.

I started designing the "scout" vehicle the "Gascans" use in this one. Though I'm quite happy with the final design and NOT this one. Still, it was the first.

More to come, Stay Tune at 133.1 Materialism FM!

It's Timeprime

OK, horrible timelines... and with 6 WEEKS!?
I could use some cake right now... oh well

Week1 - Already past, sadly. But the idea is set; and I've got some early concept up coming up soon...

Week2 - Ok here I am... setting this up. I guess I start working on some concept and storyboards then... as well as working on this blog. Possible Showreel/PPD work also?

Week3 - Start drawing for the animatic. Finishing the storyboards/thumbnails. Find music/sound. Colour Tests? Lighting Tests?

Week4 - Finish Animatic, start work on Final Film. test "Limbs" system. Update this... sigh... blog. Get concept done for Friday.

Week5 - Finish PPD work? Finish over half of the final film. Prepare Rave on Air presentation of workspace.

Week6 - Finish Film. Finish showreel. Rave-on-Air tests + Room Presentation. Relax, drink... and yes...hopefully cake.

These additional three weeks can be used to finish details to submit to Ravensbourne's final year work; as well as the Contextual 2000 words brief, yikes.

Week7 - Sleep, Sleep, Sleep, Sleep, Sleep. Plan additional details for final film. Work on non-Ravensbourne related Projects.

Week8 - Continue Final Film details, finish over half of Contextual.

Week9 - hand in Final Film. hand in Contextual. Start work on Musion related project. Go and scream at the top of your lungs, WHILE attempting to calm your mind with some related pudding brainfreeze method.

Can you feel it?

MAKING HISTORY HERE:



well... no. Not really.

But the project I've decided to create is "Materialism", hench; the blog title. Over this week I've had several ideas that came to mind on what I wanted to create it and... how.
Please note that the materialism logo shown above is NOT the final design, as it is an early sketch for this blog. Maybe I could use it for my animatic also... hopefully.

Well this brief has given me the freedom to create the idea I want... but with a limit of 30 seconds and 6 weeks (5 weeks now) Rave-On-Air deadline (Media Event). Well thats hardly freedom... but I guess theres always the price paid.

OK; maybe I want be able to create a 2 minute idea; but neither did I want a humourous piece. 30 second fillers usual consist of adverts and jokes... and I was and will never be an advert person. So what did I have in mind? Obvious I have given the answer... but I will go into details... right now!

The Painteye

The story of an one-eye monster hobo who decides to paint his dream workings.

This was my "original" idea for the final term story, thought of in the first term. The idea came to me of what is a homeless character could create something amazing, in which if it lead a normal life... then none of what he did would have been done, and nothing awe-inspiring would have been shown. Strange thought, but it stayed.


It could have easily worked as a human, but the character was set on an eye-monster character I drew at the time when thinking of this. This wasn't chosen as it would have been too much to explain in such a short time. Too shame; though the idea might be brought back in the near future.

Lost and-

An "alive" Teddy Bear was left in an abandoned Toy Factory; seeking to reach the outside street.

Inspired by the Tv series (and perhaps TV-film) "The Lost Toys", I wanted to create a darker tail of a toy segregated from the rest of life; and it's experience on surviving. I never planned to have the "reaching the outside" answered in this idea; but to be thought by the viewer as the character's motivation. I think the reason I denied this as I didn't have the skill and technology to create the environment for this idea; no maya, stop motion or crude 2d of mine could have been what I wanted. I think this idea would be better left alone. Title was cut off to be "Lost and Found"; hench... bad ending.

The Mental Biscuit

Lip-Speech of a biscuit-inspired monster who decides that he want to seek more attention.

Moving away from my "attempted" stories, this was the last suitable idea which came to mind for this project. To create work of an example of lip sync really isn't my strong point; as this is why this idea never came to be; but it would have been difficult and interesting at the same time to write the dialogue to be said; and to find the voice to be heard. Might have been used for Musion instead as my own "freelance" project. Extra credit?

Materialism

Story of an fantasy dystopian cityscape-world, inhabitated by living cans and boxes of rubbish; in which the world is being "purged" of these people who live in dirt.

Right... the most obvious idea choice (and of course the winner) was an idea I created years back; in which i wanted it to be a starter story of my worlds, and hopefully shown before my future "dream" projects, to prepare for mistakes and experiences. I thought this might be a good time to test if I could create an example of the world in 30 seconds. This preview will NOT explain the existance of the realm, but a general feel and vision of what exists... and hopefully a keen curiousity to know more once the showing is done. I originally wanted this idea to be more character-based, but with the very limited time slot; I've decided to focus on the enviroments and general motivation of the world. No doubt the most complex of the ideas...

Now the question is... HOW am I going to make it...?

Whatever Happened, Happened... dang it

Oh the "Lost" final is up soon... *squeel*.

But in unupdated blog news, I would like to talk back about last term before I annouce the project at hand... I should have done this earlier but sources are ANNOYING to setup during posts; mainly on projects... than chit chat.

Well... this one doesn't have any sources...

BUT THATS NOT THE POINT!

Ok Last term then... here are the final films:





Yeah... the showreel doesn't have any music. Blame Youtube for that one... stupid key.

Well its watchable... but since my skills in Maya are... poor, I was quite upset with the final result. Sure, I like the music and some 5 seconds worth... but without correct rigging... I couldn't create what I wanted. I could only complete the storyboard if the character is able to do so... which wasn't the case.

I've always discussed my final review on the "last term" blog, so I'm going to be brief. I'm not ready to create work in Maya. And that will stay on with me this term... lets hope I have the choice.

Talk later.