Planning pretty pictures

The sooner this is done, I thought, the better we'll work, if we have a goal to work towards. This is one of those coloured-flow-chart-plan-y-things that tell us when to do what when and before what else.

It should be pretty self explanatory. Looksie and give suggestions!

[NOTE] I just realised our final assessment on our films is week 15, not 16. Anything else I've missed or needs to be added?

Sketchy sketchy sketchy

So. Here's the world's roughest animatic. I knew there'd be a good reason behind doing this, and a lot has to do with the sort of music we'll have at certain points. Needless to say I'll be watching plenty of action comedies for inspiration...

My version of the storyboard trims down to 2:20 without any soundtrack reference, just going by what feels good. On and off I was listening to some of our inspirational songs (which I have more of btw), but there's no real continuity in listening reference.

I think this gives my idea across better than my disjointed storyboard did, so I'm really interested to hear what you guys have to say now that I at least think it's coherent.

When Considering Storyboards Strip Comic

Found a hilarious strip comic on when first starting a storyboard by Dreamworks storyboard artist Rad Sechrist. It is funny and teaches you many things.

Monkeh.

Burning Safari.

More reference, this time mainly for animation style. I really like the pace and weight of the characters in this animation. Particularly the monkey. Looks freakin' amazing if you ask me.

First Character Turnaround

Hey guys, here is the first turn around so you guys can start modelling instead of waiting for me:P I am sooooo tired atm.

Evoblution

I said I'd tweak it, so here we are. I was so happy with Brad's interpretation that my changes were subtle enough that I had to do a side by side comparison to my thoughts on what to add or change.

I added pants, so he's not in one of those ludicrous jumpsuit things. Which is possibly realistic, I just like pants.

The other major change was the face: His eyes are slightly larger, so he looks more naturally terrified. I shifted his teeth and mouth down. Could make life easier for us when modelling the mouth, so we don't have to worry about the teeth protruding through the chin.

Skinny character is good. Easy to rig.

Another inspiring short

Here's another short film I just saw. It also has a mix of 2D and 3D, but it's much more angled to the 2D side of things. Good reference for character animation and design none the less. It's got a good comical feel to it too, if there's some way we can encapsulate that somehow, that would be cool.

Knight Fever - Written, Directed and Animated by Christopher Minos.

Blue Bunny Revamped

Hey guys, re did the character design for the second bunny. Really tried to put a personality into him. When modelling we will model him with a straight back but animate and move him into this position. Its just if we model him in this pose its going to be the hare from notre dame:P

Catch up on character design

Havnt posted the new character design stuff that we had in our pitch.

Design options: So for the little dude with small man syndrome he gots large cute eyes, but the rest of his features are small. We need the large eyes obviously for the appeal to the character otherwise he will look like a complete a-hole. Another thing I subliminally placed in there was his small teeth which visually symbolize Hitlers mustache. Just one of the small hints for his personality. Havnt drawn them here but I was wondering what you guys thought about largish hands for him, seeing as he is going to be rather expressive?

Also a silhouette on the readability of contrasting characters, not happy with the tall dude, I need to work on him.

Storyboards are still being tweaked and replaced at points storywise. Been thinking why each storyboard frame has to be there, so we dont have un-nessecary camera which will be a waste of time on our part later on. Also last night, did a new banner for the blog seeing as the characters already up there have changed. Hope you guys like it, the blog wont allow me to change it so I've sent it to Bombi so he can.

First Render Test

I thought I'd better back up those lofty claims I made today about how easy it will be to work with 3D characters and 2.5D backgrounds. Here's an experiment with my emotional walk cycle from last year and a roughly chopped up version of Brad's story beat thing:

Click here to see it @ Vimeo.

His feet slip a little, and the picture will have to be planned better for the shadows to work properly, but I remain confident. Not a bad first shot at all.

GAZE INTO THE LENS FLARE!!

Thinking style

So I saw Neil's (as always) brilliant work, and I was reminded of an animation style I was inspired by. Storm Hawks, I have both seasons if anyone wants to watch.

Meanwhile, have a gander at these screens next to Neil's arty stuff.





Note painted textures, especially the extreme example on the broom. Good artsy textures save time, space, renders and can still look good. Also see the semi-furry creature in the last image.

Thoughts?

Oh, and on an unrelated note, I've started a storyboard attempt.

Rabbit Concept Work

Big Band version

I was a little uninspired to try anything truely drastic with the music, so I thought I'd try a big band arrangement. I also thought I'd try Vimeo.

Let's see if this works...

Click here to see it on Vimeo.

Quickly, before my bed eats my soul.

A quick one before bed. Trying to rationalise why there's 2 rabbits fighting alone. It made sense to me that there may be a guard tower. It also made sense that it should look like a rabbit.

... I mean, how many human guard posts are shaped like the freakin' Easter Island Heads? Really? More sketches to come soon.