Monday, 28 January 2013

A Meeting with Phil

Today I had a meeting with Phil to talk over the possible direction of this animation, I showed him the storyboard that I had done. (Which I shall post tomorrow) He had some initial concerns with the order of the frames, which after he pointed it out, it seemed so obvious. He also expressed his concerns for the entire project itself but I also got the impression that he knew I could do - Or will do it anyway.....

I will re-do the storyboard to show the ideas we came up with in the meeting rather than try to explain it.

The design for the character is also coming on very nicely! I will also post them tomorrow, when i get a good scanner.

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Major Project idea

Well Hi guys, it's been a while since I was last on and that's because I have tortured myself by writing my dissertation at the last minute! NEVER AGAIN!! But I am now back nice a fresh and ready to do something amazing for my last project!

I have had a chat with Alan about things I can do and we also took a look at the minor project so we can work on the things that I didn't do so well. He mentioned that I had got better with my design process but lacked on my technological aspects of the pipeline - Which I heavily agree with. 

My initial ideas is not to do a creature design again because I would like some diversity in my demo reel and something new and fresh to get my head around. I would really like to show all the things that I have learnt in the 3 years and prove to myself that I can do this too. So i would like to make an animation with the full pipeline, the animation will be more cartoonistic, brighter and more concentrated on the animation. The last couple of days I have been thinking of some ideas. 

  
Tonight, on the way home I saw a red cone behind a low wall, and for some reason all I could think of was that is definitely a sneaky gnome that is trying to hide but his big hat is giving him away. All the way home I couldn't shake the idea of the stealthy gnome from my head and I started to develop a story in my head about a gnome that must stealthily move from one garden to the next avoid a guard of some kind to get to his love. An I started to get really excited about this and picturing more and more gags and pieces that can go into the script. This is what I have: - 


Agent Gnome

Synopsis – A young male gnome must get to the next garden to get the girl he has seen through a small hole in the fence – she was placed with her back towards him so she doesn’t know he’s there. A small dog is on watch, the gnome must sneak past using the obstacles of the garden. This will be a James bond parody type animation, serious yet funny at the same time via small gags throughout the animation. – 2-3 minutes long depending on how much it can be cut down by.

Characters – Fully modelled and rigged Male Gnome, Basic working dog, Very basic Female as she won’t appear too heavily in the animation.  

Setting – Garden A and Garden B – Night time (depending on the need of the comedy and stealth)
Three act structure

Beginning – setting the scene

Scene opens on Sleeping dog (Chihuahua, or other small dog – adding to the funny side)

There’s a noise that wakes the dog (thrash can being knocked over possibly)

He wakes and looks about and sees quick blurry movement – causes alertness – he hears a rustle from the bushes – a red hat is sticking out of the bush.

The shot changes to the gnome behind the bush, he is looking at a map that he drew on a  leaf.

Dog barks – the hat disappears down.

Middle – losing the dog and getting over the fence

(More obstacles are used – trap the dog possibly or just fool him – This will be thought out)

(Getting around the fence will also take some thinking about – This of course needs to keep the style involved and it needs to be short to keep the overall time down)

End – Meeting the girl

He see the girl – there is a pink mist filling the air – the water fountain that she is near turns on, creating a heart.
He travels to her and turns her around. He notices she is actually a guy gnome painted pink.

He screams, falls back off the edge (a smash sound can be heard out of screen) and shards fly back up into shot.

Scene Ends







I am very excited to take in feedback and get cracking on, so if you are reading this then please tell me what you think. Everything must happen quickly for me to be able to get everything done to a standard that will get me the highest grade I can get. So this is the initial time frame.

Week one - Finalize Idea - Start script - initial character design

Week two - Finalize script - Design Male and female character (quick idea, the female could just be the male dressed pink!)- Chose what character the guard will be (get designing)

Week three - Start and Finish an animatic from the script. - Continue designing process

Week four - Finalize design process - prepare to model.

Week 5 - Model at least one character fully - Continue the others

Week 6 - Finish all characters, with textures and Uvs completed

Week 7 - Catch up on any lose work - Model and finalize both gardens complete with obstacles

Week 8 - Finalize all lose work - Set up lighting in the garden scenes for testing.

Week 9 - Begin animation - Key important poses in act 1 - fill in animation

Week 10 - Key important poses in act 2 - fill in animation

Week 11 -  Key important poses in act 3 - fill in animation

Week 12 - Finalize animation and finish special effects (lust scene and heart fountain)

Week 13 - Finalize lighting, Cameras and Render settings/passes - test everything - Render

Week 14 - Render everything to high standard - Composite - tie in music. - Full fill any submission requirements - turnarounds, DVD, demo reel turnarounds.

If any extra time, do a title sequence.

I have to get to work!!! CIAO


Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Mutated Cockroach Turnaround

The render is finally over I now have something that I am extremely proud of! I am slightly disappointed that it couldn't be finished for hand in but to be honest I don't really care about that because this creature is for me and for those that enjoy it.


            

Friday, 11 January 2013

Final Images and Render Passes


This is the final render image 







Update 02 - Rendering has begun!

There has been a lot of problems tonight, but finally rendering and I plan to do the other little bits for the submission whilst it is rendering. 







Here are some of the latest renders from today




Thursday, 10 January 2013

Tonight's Update no. 1 - A long night ahead


I'm just going to share the latest render and then it's back to work! The teeth are finally in and textured. 



Let me know what you guys think :)

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

Update on the Cockroach

I have almost finished painting the creature, it isn't at a level that I'm 100% pleased with but that should happen in the next few days before hand in. I'm almost on rigging the creature which shouldn't take long because I have practiced it already.

My renders are speeding up thanks to some alterations in the setting which I'm really happy with.