New PoV!

one of the tutors suggested that maybe for an ending the taller one could eat the smaller character. had to draw it out to see what it would look like XD

my tutorial was at the end of the day and it was very hard for anyone to concentrate, everyone just wanted it to over and done with. was gonna use blood instead of drool in the picture, but didn't want to make it too halloweeny. But as concept, i don't think it really goes with my story. i want a concept along the lines of 'acceptance', not devouring another character.

Draft Tutorial

Had lots of feedback from some tutors today, who we're not familiar with my work and what i have been doing. so it was good to get a review from a new perspective and how they understood my film.


From the tutorial they had mentioned, that the film should have more a conclusive ending and clearer idea of the concept. At the moment, the main concept that i wanted to portray was that there is always this part of you that 'holds you down' kind of feeling. I don't think my characters portray alternate persona's, because if that was the case, the characteristics of both the characters should have binary opposites, and i don't think that it has that. on the other hand the tutors my have seen this mainly because of the slight conflict. As for the ending, I want to have that conflict to be resolved, but the tutors have suggested that it is missing something and it needs to be a little stronger.
The concept for my film has changed dramatically and changed a lot, as has the narrative. So i need to make it clear on what i what i want to portray, because of the changes i think i may have forgotten on what i actually want to portray.

Animating animating

Been busy animating. I have tried putting some animated scenes to the previous animatic, this process gives a rough idea on what it will look like as a final piece. I did this a couple weeks back and found that the opening scene is very jumpy, as it goes from close ups to long shots, so will have to work on that later. I did dwell on it for a while, but decided that I would just leave it, otherwise I wouldn’t get the rest of the animation done.
This is a video of the animations that I have done till now.

Many scenes are incomplete and are still missing some scenes, but are still in order. Some scenes have bright colours; these are my rough key frames and to remind me what I must do, it really helps. if i have enough time, i may try and put these clips on to the animatic and put it on here.

Animatic 03

Another animatic. i want to get the story and the timing correct before i start animating some scenes. however i have done the twirling scene, because the ending is set. i have also found a way to animate the chain without drawing it, but neither the less it is still a very long process, as is the whole process of animation.

I have changed my opening scene, it isn't very clear and I'm well aware. But from the other animatic, i have changed the narrative opening to show something that causes the conflict between the characters. The taller character wants to socialise with the other characters with the caps, but the smaller one doesn't and wants him to stay, therefore pulls the chain back. The other characters see this conflict and feel uncomfortable and leave them; this may not be so clear in the animatic.

Mask?

After my second animatic, I'm debating on whether i should keep the mask on the small version of themselves. it has been discussed that maybe it doesn't need to be in the film and is quite clear without it, as the chain is the concept of that they are connected and the mask can confuse the audience.



However without the mask, the only physical differences are the heights. Because they are practically one person their faces are the same as well, which may become a problem. At the moment my animatic has many close ups of their expressions (though they are not so clear on the animatic), with its mask off the audience may become more confused, because with the close up you can't tell the height differences, unless i add part of the other in shot. Another option could be that i could make more of a physical difference in the face. But with this idea, the audience could mistake it for 2 different people chained together as convicts.
So at the moment i am having this problem, but in the end i really like the concept of the mask and that they a part of them are hidden, i just need to find out why and add it in to the narrative.

Second animatic

Back again with another animatic, its a little more complete than the previous one, so no more 'scene missing'. The pace of this one also seems to be a little faster and i'm not quite sure whether it is this that is giving me the feeling of something missing, thats why i say a 'little more complete'.

The changes are that it has slightly more of a focus on the chain, and that the chain is a burden to the larger character. Another change was to the end in that both the characters take off their hoods, this makes the effect of acceptance a little stronger than just helping the little one up.

Completed models

Finished painting my models, im pretty proud of them and it looks alot better than the old man in Death' Best Friend . They also stand up :)

Modeling

decided to make models of my characters, because i think it will help me with the composition and make sure i dont get the hands wrong.. so i wont be using coraline anymore :( . had many problems making them, i couldnt find my tools to model.. so i improvised and used wire and skewers. i started with the feet and worked my way up.. but the skewers wouldnt stay in place in both the models argh! but the worse one was the larger model, because it wouldnt stay in place, his head and feet kept falling off! the feet were the worse, because there was so much weight.. it wanted to fall forwards and the feet were like a door stop, because all the pressure was going there.. but all was good when i took this picture :)

but it fell 5mins afterwards of taking it :( so im lying it down for the moment and hopefully it will be more stable when its dried and will be painting it too. i have also brought a chain for them and hoping that it wont be too heavy for them.

Draft Animatic

Ok back with my draft animatic. It is still a draft and the narrative is not definite and oh please excuse the 'scene missing' part.. its still developing :). at the moment im not feeling my best and have taken medicine thats made me slightly drowsy :( , so i dont blame you if you dont understand.



When coming up with the story board, i encountered several problems... mainly chain related. As both characters have their chains on their opposite hand, i had the problem of drawing it on the wrong hand, when the composition was different. To solve this problem i tried making a chain profile and putting it everywhere.



Unfortunately that still did not solve my problem and I still manage to draw it on the wrong hand.. so i had Coraline come and help me :), it was easier in that she was in front of me and plus shes poseable:D



Problem number 2, the character design for my main characters has a mole under his left eye, which i kept on forgetting to do. so in the animatic at the moment it may be a little confusing on which characters which...but i intend to go back and dot them :)

Go! New Project Go!!

hello again! i've decided to put up some of my sketches because i keep on coming up with new ones, so i dont want this project to have a backlog of sketches XD. so the priliminary idea was about the feeling you get once you done something wrong, and you go over it again & again in your mind and kinda blame yourself, however i want to maybe go to the extreme and kind of turn in to self loathing possibly. i knew from this concept i wanted another phsyical being to present the feeling of self loathing.From the influences of Strings (2004 Anders Rønnow Klarlund) and the anime/manga series Zombie Loan , i created the concept of being chained together.




similar to the concept of the Golden Compass, they are in an environment, where everyone is chained, so it is the norm and the main characters are not just different.



i tried comin up with other ideas of portraying the idea of self loathing and came up with the idea of a represetation of the main character in doll form, which is similar to the idea of voodoo dolls or the feeling how some people take out their anger on to other objects. eg. screaming in their pillows ( i dont do this often, if thts what your thinking XD). however i believe that the 1st concept was a lot stronger.



so next step... storyboard and then an animactic :) i have come up with an ending atm, but it may change if it doesnt go with begining and the middle. its very stereotypical 'yes everythings fine' in the end kind of ending, but it brings closure.

Howdy

Hi, this is my first blog, took alot of thought on what to put on first and still deciding.. but here we go! I am in my 3rd year of studying animtion, so in my last year, i will be making 2 short animation films, so my blog will show the ideas, sketches and reviews of short films to main stream films. i'm hoping that the new animations will be alot better than my previous animations, coz i've obviously had more practice; not saying that im not proud of my other creations, but theres alot i could have done to make it better:

Death's Best Friend: Stop motion combined with flash


The Photobooth: Flash


For 'The Photobooth' The first whole animation i did in flash, the other animation had small scenes that was in flashcombined with stop motion. im sorry for the sounds, its still my weak point, but its developing and the quality at the start of The Photobooth, its been compressed alot.

But enough of the past and on to the present; i have developed an idea for the new project and i will be posting my sketches up later, so watch out for those :)




LiN :P