Claws for Concern Animation Tests

Some recent test shots for Claws for Concern. Working out how the bear moves in tricky, especially as we are aiming for him to begin as a slow moving bear, to transition into  a fast moving bear later on.

Claws For Concern Production

Following on from the work on Within the Cloud, I have made the decision to join Claws For Concern, and this is now going to be the graduation film I will be working on. It is now being directed by both myself and Harry Bayfield. I will also be producing this short.

Unfortunately (due to the nature of animation festivals in which we intend to eventually screen this film) I cannot show the animation or too much of this production. However I will endeavour to put up a few concept pieces and animation tests in the coming weeks.

A Fresh Start

3rd Year pitches are looming (3-4 weeks away) and Ive been more and more dissatisfied with my pitch idea: A Good Innings. The idea was good, and I enjoyed the imagery that I came up with. However I just do not feel excited about it as I should, especially if I were to produce the work for a year. So I have decided to create a new pitch, or at least give it ago seeing as I only have a few weeks to come up with everything, so there is a strong chance I won't get enough work together to pitch it time. However I am going to try, no harm in the practice anyhow!

So here is some concept pieces I have been working on this week for this new project (but will be vaguely along the line of sky bound, or something aviation related). I do not have a  title yet, nor a story complete enough to try and describe it all now, however Im hope they imagery is enough to get people intrigued for now! (the second image, the sky octopus, is not complete and is definitely a work in progress)

A Good Innings update

   

Produced  a fair few images recently for my pre production Bible which is nearly finished, so thought I would quickly upload those. 

Firstly, here are the finialzied character sheets for both Charlie and Ron (Grandpa). These pages are just to give a basic idea of what these characters are all about. 

next are some concept pieces including a rough poster idea. 

Some more images of ron

and finally some more of Charlie.

I hope you enjoy, and there will hopefully more to come from this duo soon! :)

Lip Sync DE

Just a quick update, this is the final (low quality youtube) version of the my lip sync shot before it is taken, edited and made pretty with a nice background and snow FX. It took around 3 attempts to get it right, and I am pretty happy with how it has turned out. I think that the sound fits the character, and that it is believable that his is saying this line.  It would have been nice to take a bit more time on that action animation rather than just focusing on the lips, but time is tight.  For this short I really found the use of a live action reference video incredibly useful, and I think it would have been a lot messier without that added direction. I also think that the fact that I had around 3 or 4 attempts at this shot before I settled helped a lot too, as I think it can be easy to rush into a shot and then suddenly realise its going to be much harder than expected, and it is important, especially with Lip sync, to get it right.

I have completed my other two shots as well, but as they are so short, I haven't bothered to upload them. I will post the final product with all the other shots as soon as they are ready..

below is an older version for comparison.

A Good Innings....

It as been 'A Good Innings', said Ron.

For now, from  a little (a lot) of help and discussions from various individuals, this is my working title for now, to replace 'pocket sized grandparents' for various reasons. 1: PSP was taken, and used quite a lot by lots of other films / programs / books ect. I thought it was original I swear! Secondly, one of the key aspects to my story is that grandpa Ron was a very successful cricket player in his prime, and charlie (the boy) envy's this and wants to be as good as him! so thats that for now.

I have also updated my facial character page for Ron, similarly to my previous post for Charlie, so heres an update of that (below). Im reasonably happy with these, but to be totally honest both Grandpa Ron and Charlie are both works in progress, and probably will change a fair amount by the time the final pitches come along! But i think they are good place holders for now to give an idea of the story!