Stop press! Oh dear god what has been going on in my head over the summer – churning out this pretentious crap. Getting Derek to look at my script yesterday is quite possibly the best thing I’ve done on this project and certainly saved it from going arse over tit.
I had completely lost my way and it is about time I get back to doing what I do best; complete and utter silliness. Which can only be achieved by an all out assault on common sense! So I’m going to tootle off now and cram this sorry story line with as much random stuff as my mind can muster!
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Trim the Fat!
O.K. so my plan to keep up writing the blog over the summer to save me from having to do what I am about to do failed somewhat. However, I have just about got the bulk of the prep done for the film I have to do – concept art, reference material, motion studies, scratch track etc. all of which I will explain in later entries but today is dedicated to storyboards. I have also done some more research on my dissertation, although probably not enough, but I would like to think that I now have a better understanding of what I am going to be writing about at least. Also, a quick little note to just outline my general intentions for the ole blog this year. I am going to invest in a diary or post-it or something papery to jot down daily/weekly progress on things to: a: make the blog a bit more accurate, and b: if the workload starts to pile up, which it inevitably will, since I am making a film and writing what is essentially a book, then ole bloggy may take a backseat in my list of priorities. My little jottings should still provide something which is recording the progress of my work, and more vitally something to refer to when I have to write a years worth of blogs in a night – so don’t panic if it all goes quite on the blogging front. Also, my internet connection is about as reliable and fast as my animating so things could be a little sporadic.
Now, to get the proverbial ball rolling as it where. I was feeling quite good about my storyboard but a rather lukewarm reaction from people I have shown it to has lead me to have a bit of a re-think. Granted, these weren’t animation people but I still think it highlights an issue. I am hoping that its just a problem with clarity, as the same people seemed to like the script, of course if its an issue with the actual storey I can make the odd tweak but if the basic concept is flawed then I am more or less screwed.
Anyway, to try and sort the techy stuff I have read Don Bluth’s The Art of the Storyboard to try and iron out little problems and make the storey ‘flow’. The book had some very good pointers about layout, lighting etc. Stuff I had already tried to take into account but not necessarily executed in the right manner so it will probably be beneficial for me to redo quite a lot of it in the next week or so. To get that started, right here, right now, I am going to attempt to go through the entire thing and justify everything I have done, and chuck anything I can’t. “Trim The Fat!” as Mr. Bluth would say.
Here we go then:
The main characters are:
The mites: the ‘creatures’ I referred to in my last blog
Cheveu: the main mite
Leurre: The piper
For the entire film I want to shoot with a filter over the lens which creates a sort of looking through a key-hole type effect, inspired by an old bit of A-level work I found lying about. I also want to use a ridiculously small depth of field and perhaps a fish-eye effect to make everything really claustrophobic and disorientating – like the Quays. Oh yeah, the whole thing might also be in black and white.
Shot 1: I’m not quite sure why but at some point over the summer I decided it would be a good idea to include some sort of mechanical device in the animation and promptly set about studying the innards of a clock. I guess I just like all the cogs and stuff. Out of everything I have done I am most unsure about this and don’t really know if it is necessary or not. I can justify it in a roundabout kind of way, in that it is my interpretation of a theory of Wilhelm Fliess, who cropped up in my dissertation research, which based around the idea that the world is based on rhythms of numbers.
Taking further inspiration from the Dadaists Francis Picabia and Johannes Baader who produced artwork inspired by machines and the like I arrived at the conclusion that Fliess’ theory could be represented as a machine. And what machine deals with numbers? A clock. I have dubbed my clock The Entrelacer. The rhythm of the clock also syncs up nicely with the scratch track and could be used to dictate the beats of the animation.
So we start out with this shot of the The Entrelacer Рif this is cut I may keep the ticking in the soundtrack, as a more subliminal thing Рbut I do like the look of the clock and how it is nicely divided up into sections. Anyway we then pan up through the clock to a shot of the street, Poussi̬r, where the story takes place. I am a bit worried that the street is not recognizable as a street but I quite like the idea of the characters moving through an abstract space.
I envisage animating the clock in 2-D, by hand, or dare I say it, on Maya (obviously some 2nd year lackey would deal with it if that where the case). In post this would then be comped onto the street which would be a stop-mo set, essentially creating one big picture that you could move a virtual camera over in after-effects or something.
Shot 2, 3 & 4: Along with the previous shot of Poussièr these shots create a montage which serves to set-up the scene – an idea used in lots of films but I particularly noticed it in Che: Part 2 where the same technique is used to establish a lot of the camp scenes. During these shots I thought I could mess about with the focus playing with areas of interest, just to art it up a notch. Another idea that came to me on a whim was to have the transition between these scenes work like a slide projector; with the image sliding off, black, then the new image sliding in. I’m not really sure what this would add to proceedings, it might not be worth the hassle to work out how to achieve something which may just confuse the audience. A fade in and out between each shot might work better. Shot 4 ends with the Mites emerging and a slow truck in. This might be a right pain to do in stop-mo so I may just use a sequence of different shots, which gradually get closer to the action. If properly executed this should achieve a similar effect.
Shot 5: Here we see more of the mites emerging. In this shot and all of the ones featuring the mites I want to use quite low camera angle, to show their perspective. Actually I think this shot doesn’t work that well and would be better shot from the right, looking left. Or it may work quite well if I got rid of this shot and replaced it with what you end up with after the truck-in on shot 4.
Shot 6: I really like this shot, which pans with one of the mites as he moves through all the other mites. He moves left to right to put the viewer at ease, the whole aim of this shot is to identify the mites as cute fluffy animals. I am slightly worried that this upsets the flow and therefore might work better as a montage, with the same character moving through the foreground in each to keep continuity.
Shot 7: My initial idea for this shot was to have the mites in the foreground Leurre to slowly come into view in the background. However, if I where to turn shot 6 into a montage I would use this as the final shot with the character that is followed throughout coming into the foreground. I’m not sure if I want to shift the focus from the foreground to the background as this may show Leurre too clearly and I want her to remain quite ambiguous at this stage.
Shot 8: This is a reaction shot of one of the mites to Leurre, showing her presence with a looming shadow. Originally I was going to shoot this over Leurre’s shoulder but that would show her perspective of events, which I don’t want to do at this stage. This shot is a bit bland though so I might have the reaction in shot 7 or start the reaction there and finish it off on this shot with maybe a bit more of a three-quarter view.
Shot 9: Another shot that I quite like, although to keep continuity it might benefit from being shot at a lower level.
Shot 10, 11, 12 & 13: The first time we see Leurre clearly is when the mites do, so it is fitting that it is from there POV. We then go back to the mites, recycling the angle from shot 5. By only using these two shots throughout the exchange I hope to build some tension, I would like to think that it works but I’m not quite sure why.
Shot 14, 15, 15b & 16a: Again this repetition of shots continues except I change the shots of the mites to show Cheveu investigating Leurre. I think this all works o.k. but shot 14 and 15b would benefit from more of a three-quarter view, just to make them look a bit more interesting.
Shot 16b & 17: I’m in two minds about these two shots: I can’t decide if I want to keep them as is or shoot everything into shot 17. I’m happier with the higher angle on 17 because we have now seen Leurre properly but in terms of shot economy it might be better to shoot it from the same angle as 9.
Shot 18: Now Leurre starts to get proper scary, to intensify the scene I want to include a light source behind – an idea stolen from A Clockwork Orange – and tilt the camera a tad, I know I went a bit overkill with this on the Robots project but I was watching Doubt the other night and quite liked how increasingly extreme tilts where used to build tension, so I’m going to nab that idea too.
Shot 19: I really want to exaggerate things on this shot – nice long shadows and a high angle to make Cheveu look really insignificant, the shadow of Leurre’s hand should be roughly where Cheveu is, as if its grabbing him. I’m not sure if I should include Leurre in shot.
Shot 20: Lower angle to show perspective of mites, definitely needs to be shot from right looking left or maybe a POV shot of mites in hiding showing Cheveu running from Leurre would be better, it also leads into shot 21 nicely.
Shot 21: Eye level shot to ease tension slightly, but maybe keep tilt (were not out of the woods yet) would be really good to get a shine off the flute. Would be better as a full body shot to lead into 22.
Shot 22: Nice set piece for Leurre’s dance, nice and simple in terms of camera stuff but an arse to animate.
Shot 23: Again, would benefit from being shot from right looking left or including Leurre, like in the alternative to 20 as this would flow better.
Shot 24: I want to shoot this from the mites perspective but I don’t want Leurre to seem to threatening, so I might keep the camera quite far away.
Shot 25: I want to show the weird little dance that the mites do in one go, and I figured the best way to do this would be an ariel shot, this also provides a clear cut between the different parts of the story because it is so different from the other shots I have used. I suppose the best way to do this would be to somehow get a rostrum on the stop-mo set and mount the camera on that.
Shot 26: Same as 24, might use a lower angle to make it look more dynamic, or get a full body shot. Leurre should exit left to maintain flow.
Shot 27: Leurre enters right, folloed by mites. Again, a lower camera angle might work.
Shot 28: Don’t really need this shot, so will cut it.
Shot 29 & 30: I like these shots a lot; I want to fade into black at the end of 29 and fade out on 30 to provide a clear cut but its quite nice that the movement keeps the flow and provides an interesting comparison between the two sets. It would be a lot to animate in one go so a montage may be better, then again I am getting a bit montage happy.
Shot 31 & 32: Its very important that Leurre is on the right of the screen as this will increase the tension, a lower camera angle may also be beneficial. I will also mention that I want the fire to be the main or maybe even only source of color in the film. I’m not quite sure how to do this, I’m sure there is a way to do it in after-effects or something though. As for animating the fire I thought I could probably have a light behind the set, shining through the hole in the oven, then by altering the light intensity between frames I could make it look like it was flickering.
Shot 33: I was worried about crossing the line of action (or whatever its called) on this shot, so I got as close as I dared. However, I think I could actually get away with it and just shift the camera slightly to the right to get a nice profile shot of Leurre. This may bugger-up the next shot but we shall see.
Shot 34: Another shot I quite like, inspired by the teacher character from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. One problem, however, is that Leurre is on the left, when ideally I want her on the right, unfortunately I cant flip the shot due to continuity but I could exaggerate her leer so that she bends round from the right.
Shot 35: Nice simple shot; door to oven slams shut, fade to black.
Shot 36: I’m not sure if I want to include this shot or not – it does provide Leurre with a bit of a purpose but I think it might be a bit cheesy. If I where to use it I thing I would use a long shot from behind instead.
Now, to get the proverbial ball rolling as it where. I was feeling quite good about my storyboard but a rather lukewarm reaction from people I have shown it to has lead me to have a bit of a re-think. Granted, these weren’t animation people but I still think it highlights an issue. I am hoping that its just a problem with clarity, as the same people seemed to like the script, of course if its an issue with the actual storey I can make the odd tweak but if the basic concept is flawed then I am more or less screwed.
Anyway, to try and sort the techy stuff I have read Don Bluth’s The Art of the Storyboard to try and iron out little problems and make the storey ‘flow’. The book had some very good pointers about layout, lighting etc. Stuff I had already tried to take into account but not necessarily executed in the right manner so it will probably be beneficial for me to redo quite a lot of it in the next week or so. To get that started, right here, right now, I am going to attempt to go through the entire thing and justify everything I have done, and chuck anything I can’t. “Trim The Fat!” as Mr. Bluth would say.
Here we go then:
The main characters are:
The mites: the ‘creatures’ I referred to in my last blog
Cheveu: the main mite
Leurre: The piper
For the entire film I want to shoot with a filter over the lens which creates a sort of looking through a key-hole type effect, inspired by an old bit of A-level work I found lying about. I also want to use a ridiculously small depth of field and perhaps a fish-eye effect to make everything really claustrophobic and disorientating – like the Quays. Oh yeah, the whole thing might also be in black and white.
Shot 1: I’m not quite sure why but at some point over the summer I decided it would be a good idea to include some sort of mechanical device in the animation and promptly set about studying the innards of a clock. I guess I just like all the cogs and stuff. Out of everything I have done I am most unsure about this and don’t really know if it is necessary or not. I can justify it in a roundabout kind of way, in that it is my interpretation of a theory of Wilhelm Fliess, who cropped up in my dissertation research, which based around the idea that the world is based on rhythms of numbers.
Taking further inspiration from the Dadaists Francis Picabia and Johannes Baader who produced artwork inspired by machines and the like I arrived at the conclusion that Fliess’ theory could be represented as a machine. And what machine deals with numbers? A clock. I have dubbed my clock The Entrelacer. The rhythm of the clock also syncs up nicely with the scratch track and could be used to dictate the beats of the animation.
So we start out with this shot of the The Entrelacer Рif this is cut I may keep the ticking in the soundtrack, as a more subliminal thing Рbut I do like the look of the clock and how it is nicely divided up into sections. Anyway we then pan up through the clock to a shot of the street, Poussi̬r, where the story takes place. I am a bit worried that the street is not recognizable as a street but I quite like the idea of the characters moving through an abstract space.
I envisage animating the clock in 2-D, by hand, or dare I say it, on Maya (obviously some 2nd year lackey would deal with it if that where the case). In post this would then be comped onto the street which would be a stop-mo set, essentially creating one big picture that you could move a virtual camera over in after-effects or something.
Shot 2, 3 & 4: Along with the previous shot of Poussièr these shots create a montage which serves to set-up the scene – an idea used in lots of films but I particularly noticed it in Che: Part 2 where the same technique is used to establish a lot of the camp scenes. During these shots I thought I could mess about with the focus playing with areas of interest, just to art it up a notch. Another idea that came to me on a whim was to have the transition between these scenes work like a slide projector; with the image sliding off, black, then the new image sliding in. I’m not really sure what this would add to proceedings, it might not be worth the hassle to work out how to achieve something which may just confuse the audience. A fade in and out between each shot might work better. Shot 4 ends with the Mites emerging and a slow truck in. This might be a right pain to do in stop-mo so I may just use a sequence of different shots, which gradually get closer to the action. If properly executed this should achieve a similar effect.
Shot 5: Here we see more of the mites emerging. In this shot and all of the ones featuring the mites I want to use quite low camera angle, to show their perspective. Actually I think this shot doesn’t work that well and would be better shot from the right, looking left. Or it may work quite well if I got rid of this shot and replaced it with what you end up with after the truck-in on shot 4.
Shot 6: I really like this shot, which pans with one of the mites as he moves through all the other mites. He moves left to right to put the viewer at ease, the whole aim of this shot is to identify the mites as cute fluffy animals. I am slightly worried that this upsets the flow and therefore might work better as a montage, with the same character moving through the foreground in each to keep continuity.
Shot 7: My initial idea for this shot was to have the mites in the foreground Leurre to slowly come into view in the background. However, if I where to turn shot 6 into a montage I would use this as the final shot with the character that is followed throughout coming into the foreground. I’m not sure if I want to shift the focus from the foreground to the background as this may show Leurre too clearly and I want her to remain quite ambiguous at this stage.
Shot 8: This is a reaction shot of one of the mites to Leurre, showing her presence with a looming shadow. Originally I was going to shoot this over Leurre’s shoulder but that would show her perspective of events, which I don’t want to do at this stage. This shot is a bit bland though so I might have the reaction in shot 7 or start the reaction there and finish it off on this shot with maybe a bit more of a three-quarter view.
Shot 9: Another shot that I quite like, although to keep continuity it might benefit from being shot at a lower level.
Shot 10, 11, 12 & 13: The first time we see Leurre clearly is when the mites do, so it is fitting that it is from there POV. We then go back to the mites, recycling the angle from shot 5. By only using these two shots throughout the exchange I hope to build some tension, I would like to think that it works but I’m not quite sure why.
Shot 14, 15, 15b & 16a: Again this repetition of shots continues except I change the shots of the mites to show Cheveu investigating Leurre. I think this all works o.k. but shot 14 and 15b would benefit from more of a three-quarter view, just to make them look a bit more interesting.
Shot 16b & 17: I’m in two minds about these two shots: I can’t decide if I want to keep them as is or shoot everything into shot 17. I’m happier with the higher angle on 17 because we have now seen Leurre properly but in terms of shot economy it might be better to shoot it from the same angle as 9.Shot 18: Now Leurre starts to get proper scary, to intensify the scene I want to include a light source behind – an idea stolen from A Clockwork Orange – and tilt the camera a tad, I know I went a bit overkill with this on the Robots project but I was watching Doubt the other night and quite liked how increasingly extreme tilts where used to build tension, so I’m going to nab that idea too.
Shot 19: I really want to exaggerate things on this shot – nice long shadows and a high angle to make Cheveu look really insignificant, the shadow of Leurre’s hand should be roughly where Cheveu is, as if its grabbing him. I’m not sure if I should include Leurre in shot.Shot 20: Lower angle to show perspective of mites, definitely needs to be shot from right looking left or maybe a POV shot of mites in hiding showing Cheveu running from Leurre would be better, it also leads into shot 21 nicely.
Shot 21: Eye level shot to ease tension slightly, but maybe keep tilt (were not out of the woods yet) would be really good to get a shine off the flute. Would be better as a full body shot to lead into 22.Shot 22: Nice set piece for Leurre’s dance, nice and simple in terms of camera stuff but an arse to animate.
Shot 23: Again, would benefit from being shot from right looking left or including Leurre, like in the alternative to 20 as this would flow better.Shot 24: I want to shoot this from the mites perspective but I don’t want Leurre to seem to threatening, so I might keep the camera quite far away.
Shot 25: I want to show the weird little dance that the mites do in one go, and I figured the best way to do this would be an ariel shot, this also provides a clear cut between the different parts of the story because it is so different from the other shots I have used. I suppose the best way to do this would be to somehow get a rostrum on the stop-mo set and mount the camera on that.Shot 26: Same as 24, might use a lower angle to make it look more dynamic, or get a full body shot. Leurre should exit left to maintain flow.
Shot 27: Leurre enters right, folloed by mites. Again, a lower camera angle might work.Shot 28: Don’t really need this shot, so will cut it.
Shot 29 & 30: I like these shots a lot; I want to fade into black at the end of 29 and fade out on 30 to provide a clear cut but its quite nice that the movement keeps the flow and provides an interesting comparison between the two sets. It would be a lot to animate in one go so a montage may be better, then again I am getting a bit montage happy.
Shot 31 & 32: Its very important that Leurre is on the right of the screen as this will increase the tension, a lower camera angle may also be beneficial. I will also mention that I want the fire to be the main or maybe even only source of color in the film. I’m not quite sure how to do this, I’m sure there is a way to do it in after-effects or something though. As for animating the fire I thought I could probably have a light behind the set, shining through the hole in the oven, then by altering the light intensity between frames I could make it look like it was flickering.
Shot 33: I was worried about crossing the line of action (or whatever its called) on this shot, so I got as close as I dared. However, I think I could actually get away with it and just shift the camera slightly to the right to get a nice profile shot of Leurre. This may bugger-up the next shot but we shall see.Shot 34: Another shot I quite like, inspired by the teacher character from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. One problem, however, is that Leurre is on the left, when ideally I want her on the right, unfortunately I cant flip the shot due to continuity but I could exaggerate her leer so that she bends round from the right.
Shot 35: Nice simple shot; door to oven slams shut, fade to black.Shot 36: I’m not sure if I want to include this shot or not – it does provide Leurre with a bit of a purpose but I think it might be a bit cheesy. If I where to use it I thing I would use a long shot from behind instead.
Monday, 20 July 2009
update
Another quick little update, this is more for myself so I can remember what I am doing so it will probably just end up as a random set of incoherent notes that get mashed into something readable at a later date.
My final major project is coming along nicely; I now have a script and some rough thumbnails and am working on a load of concept art and character designs. I am also hoping to make a couple of models of the characters and maybe do some experiments with different effects that could be applied to the finish of the set.
I am afraid to say that, yes, I have ignored the advice from the panel and gone off and developed my crazy, puppy drowning idea which have turned into something slightly less drastic. I had thought it was quite an original idea but it is actually very similar to the Pied-Piper of Hamelin but there you go.
I have tried to keep the storyline and anything I have to make as simple as possible; there is absolutely positively no dialogue and if I am clever I can probably get away with just having two sets and a minimal use of special effects, I am also considering doing away with all Foley sounds and just having a music track but I think it may be too early to call that just yet. The main character is pretty featureless except for arms; it doesn’t have any legs so no walk cycles to worry about. The ‘puppies’ have now evolved into no descript ‘creatures’ which I am considering making out of lint and stuff, collected from a wide variety of nasty sources.
In terms of animation the creatures should be quite easy to animate as they are just lumps, although attaching rigs might be fun. The main character will be trickier, I plan to do a dance scene and I also want to try and get that rippling effect you see in the early Creature Comforts. That said there are lots of films with similar movements to those which I want to get so I might just ‘borrow’ a lot of the animation, like I did for the OSTN project.
My final major project is coming along nicely; I now have a script and some rough thumbnails and am working on a load of concept art and character designs. I am also hoping to make a couple of models of the characters and maybe do some experiments with different effects that could be applied to the finish of the set.
I am afraid to say that, yes, I have ignored the advice from the panel and gone off and developed my crazy, puppy drowning idea which have turned into something slightly less drastic. I had thought it was quite an original idea but it is actually very similar to the Pied-Piper of Hamelin but there you go.
I have tried to keep the storyline and anything I have to make as simple as possible; there is absolutely positively no dialogue and if I am clever I can probably get away with just having two sets and a minimal use of special effects, I am also considering doing away with all Foley sounds and just having a music track but I think it may be too early to call that just yet. The main character is pretty featureless except for arms; it doesn’t have any legs so no walk cycles to worry about. The ‘puppies’ have now evolved into no descript ‘creatures’ which I am considering making out of lint and stuff, collected from a wide variety of nasty sources.
In terms of animation the creatures should be quite easy to animate as they are just lumps, although attaching rigs might be fun. The main character will be trickier, I plan to do a dance scene and I also want to try and get that rippling effect you see in the early Creature Comforts. That said there are lots of films with similar movements to those which I want to get so I might just ‘borrow’ a lot of the animation, like I did for the OSTN project.
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Advice: its for wimps
So here I am again back to the blog, yayyy! And I don’t even have to be doing it. What is going on?
Well dear readers I thought to my self that since at some point I am supposed to write about the ‘thought process’ behind my work, it maid sense to make a start at it now whilst I’m actually doing the work rather than trying to remember/make-up what I did six months from now. So now you know, knowledge is power!
So what have I been doing? Well, I have tried to make a start on the final project work which is starting to gain a bit of momentum now but I fear it could all be in vain as I have sort of accidentally on purpose chosen to ignore the advice I was given in regards to it. You may recall that I submitted three ideas; the space one, something arty and pretentious and the happy cheerful story about a crazy old lady who throws puppies in rivers (guess which was my favourite).
Sorry I am really crap with names so I have renamed the advice panel thing as follows: ‘script man’, ‘Andy’s wife’ and of course Andy himself. They seemed to like the space idea the most because it had a narrative or at least potential for a narrative but the truth is that I haven’t really looked at that idea for almost twelve months and have gone off it a bit and don’t think that its worth me trying to work on something that I no longer have any passion for.
So taking the panel’s advice into account I am happily waltzing through the big gate marked: DANGER! DO NOT ENTER OR YOU WILL DIE HORRIBLY! And combining the two ideas that got an icy reception whilst at the same time trying to avoid a momentous cock-up and come out smelling of roses and more importantly alive and sane. Some of the advice has got through my thick skull and I will attempt to get some sort of narrative going so hopefully I don’t compliantly alienate the audience but at the moment I have a collection of random ideas that need stringing together somehow.
Well, there you have it: a mission statement!
On an unrelated note, here is a nice cheerful video, with what i think is some greenscreen stuff, I am rather proud that i found it:
Well dear readers I thought to my self that since at some point I am supposed to write about the ‘thought process’ behind my work, it maid sense to make a start at it now whilst I’m actually doing the work rather than trying to remember/make-up what I did six months from now. So now you know, knowledge is power!
So what have I been doing? Well, I have tried to make a start on the final project work which is starting to gain a bit of momentum now but I fear it could all be in vain as I have sort of accidentally on purpose chosen to ignore the advice I was given in regards to it. You may recall that I submitted three ideas; the space one, something arty and pretentious and the happy cheerful story about a crazy old lady who throws puppies in rivers (guess which was my favourite).
Sorry I am really crap with names so I have renamed the advice panel thing as follows: ‘script man’, ‘Andy’s wife’ and of course Andy himself. They seemed to like the space idea the most because it had a narrative or at least potential for a narrative but the truth is that I haven’t really looked at that idea for almost twelve months and have gone off it a bit and don’t think that its worth me trying to work on something that I no longer have any passion for.
So taking the panel’s advice into account I am happily waltzing through the big gate marked: DANGER! DO NOT ENTER OR YOU WILL DIE HORRIBLY! And combining the two ideas that got an icy reception whilst at the same time trying to avoid a momentous cock-up and come out smelling of roses and more importantly alive and sane. Some of the advice has got through my thick skull and I will attempt to get some sort of narrative going so hopefully I don’t compliantly alienate the audience but at the moment I have a collection of random ideas that need stringing together somehow.
Well, there you have it: a mission statement!
On an unrelated note, here is a nice cheerful video, with what i think is some greenscreen stuff, I am rather proud that i found it:
Friday, 29 May 2009
Portfolio
Last Blog o the term. Whoop! The main purpose of this weeks entry is to explain the extra stuff that is in my portfolio but first I shall give a brief update on Talking Dog.
This week I have got a couple more scenes done, progress has been a bit slow as I had some problems with the rig holding the hoverbike (georg built me a new one). That did eventually get done but it looks a bit stiff. I am finding at the moment I am somewhat lacking in sticking power on this project, I tend to fizzle out around lunchtime and then just mope around in the afternoon. I am hoping that a decent rest over the weekend will leave me feeling refreshed and ready to tackle next weeks dose of robots with a bit more enthusiasm.
Now! On to the stuff in my portfolio:
Jesus Just Left Chicago
This was a bit of an extension on Kathy’s storyboarding project; she suggested I turn my idea into an animatic, so I did. It was cobbled together a bit quickly so the flow is a bit iffy and none of the drawings fit to screen but I do think that it reads a lot better than the storyboard.
Glasney Vs. Tremough
An idea which I started to develop over the summer but really got into in my free time the last couple of terms. It is about a cosmonaught, Glasney (it sounded vaguely Russian) who has a mundane little job in a communications satellite… until the world is destroyed and he is the only person left alive, or so he thinks. He eventually bumps into another survivor, Tremough, an American, at first things are hunky-dory until the characters start to fight over mundane little things which eventually descends into an all out war to conquer each others spaceships in the name of their now destroyed countries.
I really got into designing Glasney’s spaceship, disturbingly so, and even started to try and build it in Maya, but those files were on my data stick that went missing (and foolishly were not backed up).
Requiem for a Dream
A pretentious working title that I stole from an article that I read as part of my research for this project. This is the thing I was banging on about when I got back after summer. It is an adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange although I have gone off it a bit since I started doing stopmotion as it would be so hard to do but I am warming to the idea of just using the book as a starting point and then create something completely different, a bit like the Quays.
This week I have got a couple more scenes done, progress has been a bit slow as I had some problems with the rig holding the hoverbike (georg built me a new one). That did eventually get done but it looks a bit stiff. I am finding at the moment I am somewhat lacking in sticking power on this project, I tend to fizzle out around lunchtime and then just mope around in the afternoon. I am hoping that a decent rest over the weekend will leave me feeling refreshed and ready to tackle next weeks dose of robots with a bit more enthusiasm.
Now! On to the stuff in my portfolio:
Jesus Just Left Chicago
This was a bit of an extension on Kathy’s storyboarding project; she suggested I turn my idea into an animatic, so I did. It was cobbled together a bit quickly so the flow is a bit iffy and none of the drawings fit to screen but I do think that it reads a lot better than the storyboard.
Glasney Vs. Tremough
An idea which I started to develop over the summer but really got into in my free time the last couple of terms. It is about a cosmonaught, Glasney (it sounded vaguely Russian) who has a mundane little job in a communications satellite… until the world is destroyed and he is the only person left alive, or so he thinks. He eventually bumps into another survivor, Tremough, an American, at first things are hunky-dory until the characters start to fight over mundane little things which eventually descends into an all out war to conquer each others spaceships in the name of their now destroyed countries.
I really got into designing Glasney’s spaceship, disturbingly so, and even started to try and build it in Maya, but those files were on my data stick that went missing (and foolishly were not backed up).
Requiem for a Dream
A pretentious working title that I stole from an article that I read as part of my research for this project. This is the thing I was banging on about when I got back after summer. It is an adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange although I have gone off it a bit since I started doing stopmotion as it would be so hard to do but I am warming to the idea of just using the book as a starting point and then create something completely different, a bit like the Quays.
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Some stuff
Once again I must apologize for the complete lack of blog stuff over the last couple of weeks, hopefully things will be back on track next week. I did have some videos of all the stuff I have been doing on talking dog but once again blogger is not letting me upload them so I will talk about something else instead.
So, fist of all I think I shall discuss my dissertation, as that is pretty fresh in my mind. I think that I am going to do something on themes of childhood in the work of the Quay brothers, although I am still not that sure how I am going to be approaching the subject. I was hoping that doing my dissertation proposal would have helped me get my head round it but I ended up cobbling that together a bit a producing a load of pretentious crap that didn’t really explain anything. I do know that I want to read into psychological theory so I am hoping that when I do that things will start to fit into place and I will have a better idea of what to do.
Kathy’s drawing project was also a bit of a disappointment; I really wanted to make a good job of it but I had to rush to get it done and except some character designs I didn’t really do any sketchbook work for it, bar a bit of life drawing stuff I stole from one of last years sketchbooks, which was the whole point, so I am not expecting great feedback.
What I did submit is here for your viewing pleasure (although blogger is bringing them in the wrong way up and refusing to let me upload the sketches) and was inspired by some weird and wonderful ideas I had after watching too much Quay brother’s stuff. I can’t really explain what is going on because I am not sure myself; I just drew random ideas that came into my head. But the main theme is of a character thrown into this strange yet familiar world, much like some of the Quay’s films.
I am toying with the idea of using it as inspiration for the project next year but it will need a lot of refining to get it away from something that looks like a purely Quay Brother’s inspired piece, which it is at the moment.
So, fist of all I think I shall discuss my dissertation, as that is pretty fresh in my mind. I think that I am going to do something on themes of childhood in the work of the Quay brothers, although I am still not that sure how I am going to be approaching the subject. I was hoping that doing my dissertation proposal would have helped me get my head round it but I ended up cobbling that together a bit a producing a load of pretentious crap that didn’t really explain anything. I do know that I want to read into psychological theory so I am hoping that when I do that things will start to fit into place and I will have a better idea of what to do.
Kathy’s drawing project was also a bit of a disappointment; I really wanted to make a good job of it but I had to rush to get it done and except some character designs I didn’t really do any sketchbook work for it, bar a bit of life drawing stuff I stole from one of last years sketchbooks, which was the whole point, so I am not expecting great feedback.What I did submit is here for your viewing pleasure (although blogger is bringing them in the wrong way up and refusing to let me upload the sketches) and was inspired by some weird and wonderful ideas I had after watching too much Quay brother’s stuff. I can’t really explain what is going on because I am not sure myself; I just drew random ideas that came into my head. But the main theme is of a character thrown into this strange yet familiar world, much like some of the Quay’s films.
I am toying with the idea of using it as inspiration for the project next year but it will need a lot of refining to get it away from something that looks like a purely Quay Brother’s inspired piece, which it is at the moment.
Monday, 11 May 2009
Just a quicky
Once again apologies for how late this entry is and for the complete lack of videos that I promised last week, hopefully now that Talking Dog is out of the way I will be able to get my act together a bit.
Yes Talking Dog is over! We didn’t even get close to finishing but then again we have said that we wouldn’t from pretty early on and I think we achieved what we set out to achieve; which is something that looks good for our portfolios. Our intention is to finish it in all, since we have put so much work into it but for the time being my priority is to deal with the backlog of work that I have pretty much ignored since Easter.
In terms of technical animation stuff to do with Talking Dog I don’t have much more to offer other than what I said last week, although Andy did point out that some of my stuff was lacking in anticipation, so I am going to try and brush up on my animation theory and then go back and re-shoot some scenes. Rosie is now hard at work doing in the special effects and stuff on the animation that I have done and it is looking really nice. I predict that in about six months it might all be done.
Yes Talking Dog is over! We didn’t even get close to finishing but then again we have said that we wouldn’t from pretty early on and I think we achieved what we set out to achieve; which is something that looks good for our portfolios. Our intention is to finish it in all, since we have put so much work into it but for the time being my priority is to deal with the backlog of work that I have pretty much ignored since Easter.
In terms of technical animation stuff to do with Talking Dog I don’t have much more to offer other than what I said last week, although Andy did point out that some of my stuff was lacking in anticipation, so I am going to try and brush up on my animation theory and then go back and re-shoot some scenes. Rosie is now hard at work doing in the special effects and stuff on the animation that I have done and it is looking really nice. I predict that in about six months it might all be done.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
