Pitch Update: Pocket Sized Grandparents

A few weeks have passed since I have started to develop the idea of pocket sized grandparents, and I managed to find time to pitch the basic concept to Derek our course leader. His initial response has been very positive, and thinks there is a lot of potential within the idea. He explained that if it is really well written, it has a lot of promise.

So the next step really is to write the story, even if its just a few hundred words in terms of a more detailed account of whats going to happen. I have quite a few random ideas bobbing around my head, but its true that it never really makes sense unless I write it all down. Im still a little unsure how it will end, who the teenager will be, if you even ever see the teenager, or if I want to make it more serious or focus more on comedy. However Im going to attempt to write a short story for it, and maybe enlist a buddy on a creative writing course to help out.

As for now I have created a few extra character visuals for the short; the Grandpa, Ron. And the Grandma, Iris. 

Pitching Ideas

During the 3rd year of our course, the main project is to create a final film, in which we work on for the duration of the year. Its normally a big project which involves lots of people, and 2nd years are roped in to help out. Normally, we would be pitching ideas for our final film in the 3rd year, however it has been decided that we would be better off with a head start, and to think up and pitch our ideas this year.

In reality this is a good idea, as we would definitely be a step ahead of previous years, the problem is that initially I have had. However I am aiming this week to focus on this, and to come up with 4 or 5 solid ideas that I think could be good enough to get through, as only 6 or 7 ideas end up being chosen.

So far, I have had only one solid idea in which I think could be successful. So far I am calling it 'Pocket sized Grandparent' however that will change. Its essentially a story of a boy / teenager, who's loveable grandparents are slowly but dramatically shrinking in scale. Its a story of his life looking after his grandparents, which initially is fun for them, but as the story draws to a close, it becomes increasingly clear that this is a sad story, as the boy struggles to look after his tiny grandparents, who he eventually looses as he cannot see them anymore.

Its a bit of a strange idea, but I wanted to pitch something that at first seemed humorous, but had a very serious, somber tone to it, something that was thought provoking and emotional. Its still just an idea in the early stages, but it might work at some point. I did a very quick concept piece for it below

Deep Update One

Being invested into the design side to this project, myself Jordan and Carl have been focused on

how characters will look, and the over all style for the first week. So far, we really only 

know that we are seeking to emulate a Hellboy comic style, that is a style which includes heavy contrast of black and whites, in a very graphic style. We also only really have two characters within

this scene, a female and male. So really in terms of our design process we are concentrating in this early stage on the way the characters look and how the overall scene will look.

These first early concepts are just playing around with the graphic style that we are trying to mimic. As an artists I rarely draw in this style, so this kind of stuff is quite new to me. However I feel that there is some real promise in working with this style in terms of animation.

These next few images are seeing how colour looks in this graphic style. We have been looking at comics for reference, including the Sin City original comics, Hellboy and various others that all include a similar style. Within these comics we found that often there are various bits of colour used in a mostly black and white image.

Finally, I have drafted up a early concept of what the background may look like. Again here I have added some colour to the black and while image. Within our scene there is a lot of snow and trees, and originally we thought the shot was during the day, however we have now been given more free roam in terms of design, and thought that having the scene in moonlight would enhance the contrasty look.

Animation Practice 4: Deep.

One of our major projects this year is working this shot film project: Deep. This is a real live brief, being directed and produced by one of our senior lectures, Derek Hayes. The production has been in the works for a while now, on and off, and includes work from both the professional industry and now is incorporating students too. 

As part of our module, have been given a selection of shots / scenes that are available, with a variety of roles within those shots or scenes. Ideally I was after any sort of animating role, or failing that, backgrounds / concept / character work. Anything that involved drawing. Luckily, myself and my group have been assigned to one of the most important scenes of the film, which is the final climax scene. It involves a lot of work, and we were told upfront it is going to be a challenge, any work that they don't like (which could be all of it) can and will be scrapped completely. However we are all up for the challenge, and my team (which includes Carl, Ben, James and Jordan) are all very keen to do it justice.

In terms of the team roles, four of us are animators  / designers (Myself, Carl,  Ben and Jordan) while James has been assigned technical director. Our scene consists of 22 shots of varying time scales and some with animation, some without. It takes place in a snowy woodland scene, and there is a lot of tension within the scene. 

Below is one of the concept pieces we were given to try and illustrate what it might look like, however we have been given quite a lot of free reign in terms of design, and Derek said he wasn't actually too keen on this image. However we are aware that he wants in the a sort of Hellboy comic style; black and white, stark contrast and very graphical, with limited colour when appropriate. 

The first step for us is to really pin down  a style, develop the characters in the scene and begin animation tests. 

Animating For Fun: Dog Walk Cycle

The other day I came across this professional animators blog that basically highlights the fact that there are hardly any animators out there (student or professional) that actually animate for fun. They concentrate on paid work or work that they have to do. Understandably, this is the way for most animators purely because its such a time consuming and labour intensive activity. However if you find yourself with some free time, its often not taken into consideration that animating can just be done, for fun!

So here is an quick walk cycle development of a dog, for which there is no reason other than the fact I wanted to animate a 4 legged beast. I've never done it before, and thought it would be good practice. Low and behold, it actually was fun! I really enjoyed doing it, and it only took one evening to complete.

so here it is:

Any feedback is welcome.

Sketchbook update

Quick peek at some of the drawings I've been doing recently which has no relevance to anything on my course. Just some sketches I wanted to do. 

Most of these drawings have taken influence from using my Pinterest, from various artists, photographs and from life.