Lone Wolf - Production Report 2

Second production report from me. Things has gone a bit slow, but I'm getting myself ready for post-production with tons of practice animation and animal pose sketches. These are some sketches I've made of the film's villain, the lynx. The lynx is a tricky animal to draw since it's feline that's basicly the size of a dog, but it also has very big back legs and big fluffy paws to make it easy to travel on snowy terrain.

So basicly I had to draw a cat with massive hindlegs and a big bum, but the furry paws makes it easy to draw since the fur pretty much covers up all the toes and claws.

Lone Wolf - Production report 1

First production report for my third year projects.

In this report I will be focusing on my work on the Lone Wolf project.

To prepare myself for the end of pre-production I have practiced on animating canines and felines so that I can effectively start animating with precision as soon as I get my assigned scenes.

Working on quadruped characters is a challenge since I need to get down to a reflex on how a four-legged animal walks and runs, and how they interact with nearby obstacles.

Below are some WIP's of a wolf rig that performs walking, running and landing, to get myself familiar.  

Running-cycle animation.

Has a tendency to slow down as it leaps forward, and I need to change the order of how the paws touches the ground, since they always land one at the time and not all at once.

Walk-cycle animation.

Still a bit jerky with the movement, but still feels it walks in right order. 

Landing animation.

This one is still very much a WIP since I feel I need to work on how gravity pulls his body down when he lands, and where his paws should be placed.

Walk-Cycle.

This is a walk cycle for a feline character, using a common house cat as a reference since felines has generally the same movement. Only thing is that the feline character in the animation will be a lynx, so I need to find a way to imitate it's movement since a lynx has very big hind legs in proportion to it's front legs.

The Barn Confrontation

Time for a new weekly. This is actually an older animation I did, but I haven't been able to render it until recently and I've done some tweaks to the animation. Still needs a lot of work, but this weekly is for making quick animations once a week and not perfect ones.

Sketch Dump

Working on a animated short about wolves made me think about doing more sketches of animals.

Here are some I've done to get myself more prepared for production.

I did these sketches to get myself familiar on the pose and movement of wolves/dogs that I did as preperation for the animated short Lone Wolf.

Simple sketch of an elk.

Some sketches of a mountain lion that I did as practice for the animated short Lone Wolf.

It's been changed to a lynx now, but I think the movements and poses still remains as they are both felines.

Just a fun sketch of an annoying cat.

The Naked Gun

This was suppose to be up here last week, as part of my weekly animation, but this was also the reason why I made it possible to stretch into bi-weekly in case of delays. I took the monologue from the movie The Naked Gun.

Devilish Date update again

New update for Devilish Date.

Production has finally begun for real, but currently I'm still a one-man animation team.

Decided to go for a 2D approach, since I don't have time to model and fully rig two characters and would only lead to more delays. I am animating everything in Flash, but I will still be using 3D environment, which will be modeled in Maya. I have also decided to do some re-design for my characters, in which makes them easier to animate on a 2D perspective.

New design for Lora. Previous one was a bit more older looking with very expressive motions, but decided to notch things down to make it manageable. So her face is more outlined and curved to make it easier to animate expressions. Also changed her look to a more goth/punk appearance.

Dave's previous look was more handsome and rugged, might even say playboy'ish.

However, I felt this didn't feel right for his personality, being a wannabe devil that insecurily tries to get lucky with mortal women. Made him more skinny looking with a 90's boyband hair, and added a big nose, big eyebrows and big eyes for better comical expressions.

A screenshot for a dialogue scene I'm currently animating lip synch on.

Sweary wolf and the oversized moon

I want to focus more on 3D character animation, and also modeling, that I will try to put up one very short 3D animation once or twice a week to keep my skills up. Starting here with a wolf trying to tell another wolf to back up, using some very adult language. The sound clip was taken from Tropic Thunder.

The rig I used was Wolfdog, and you can get it here.
Difficult getting it to make it look like it was talking properly. Tried animating the lips more, but just made it look more "off looking".

The Toy Plane: Concept art

Another piece of concept art that I've managed to get done.

I really enjoy making quick paintings like this, and the previous others, because it let me be creative at a much higher pace.

Here we have a fighter plane inside a hangar, with the sky turning into a passionate colour.

I'm testing more on what kind of colour scheme would suit my project best.

The Toy Plane: Concept art

 Slowly starting to update with some new concept arts for my third-year project.
I wanted to experiment a bit on colour and style for the backgrounds in my film, seeing if it would suit well with a very painted look. These cliffs will be very Kim will be standing to watch the dogfights off the coast, in suspense about his father's safety. It will also be the place of Alistair's grave in the final scene of the film.
As such, I have made a mid-day and sunset versions of the same painting.

Sketch update

With a big pitch just updated, might as well lighten things up with fancy T-Rex.

Second Pitch (The Toy Plane)

Here we go on a second pitch for you people in my course to know what I am working on.
The story has changed, but the characters and setting still remains.
There is more concept art coming along, since I have managed to recruit some artists on my team, so I will update promptly as they come in. So for now I will pitch sketches and concept arts I have worked on myself. I've decided to re-write the script, so I won't post it yet on this blog for open view, but it will be done before the main pitch next week.

One sentence pitch:
A story about the strong connection between father and son during a time of war, involving a toy plane.

Story:
Kim is a young boy in Cornwall, England, during the Second World War.
Kim has a father by the name of Alistair, who is a Spitfire pilot in the RAF.
Kim and Alistair has a strong connection to each other as father and son, and one time Alistair made a toy plane for his son so that Kim may keep him close in memory as he fights the war.
Kim often gets bullied because of him taking the toy plane everywhere he goes, but he never let it get to him because of what it represents. In this story, Kim will figure out really how important that toy plane is.

The film starts with Alistair and Kim talking over the phone with each other, as Alistair is on duty at the nearby air force base ready to scramble at incoming enemies.
Kim complains about school and how the other kids bully him for playing with his toy plane all the time.
Alistair tells him to always keep that toy plane safe, for if something happens to him, he will always be close to him as long as he has it by his side.

Evie, Kims mother, takes the phone and talks to Alistair. She is often worried that their strong connection will lead Kim to be too distracted from important things, like school.
The conversation get cut short as the scramble alarm blares on the base, forcing Alistair to hang up the phone and run to his plane. Evie calls upon Kim to do his chores they can hear the distant sound of the air base alarms, faint as it is.

Kim goes upstairs to tidy up some old stuff in the attic, when he sees out of the window a squadron of Spitfires up in the skies passing over the house. He recognizes his father's plane by the decor on the side, since Alistair painted the same symbols and colours on the toy plane.
Kim sneaks outside without his mother's permission with his toy plane, and runs towards the coast where he saw the Spitfires was heading, leaving Evie to wonder where he is.
Kim sprints towards the coast, through a entire wheat field and through a cow pasture field, until he reaches the end. Kim hears distant explosions and gunfire as he gets close to the end to his marathon run.

As Kim finally reaches the cliffs overlooking the ocean, he sees high up in the sky fighter planes engaged in a big battle for the skies. Smoke and sky trails decorate the heavens, as various explosions twinkles among them. Two airplanes breaks off from the skirmish, passing close to Kim. He sees that it is his father following after a enemy fighter plane. Kim cheers wildly, but he notice another enemy fighter plane coming up behind his father. He waves, screaming and shouting in the vain hope that his father will notice, but Alistair never sees the German fighter plane coming up behind him and gives him a straight salvo in the mid-section, causing his Spitfire to leak oil and smoke.

Kim gets mad and hysterical, seeing his father getting shot in front of his eyes. Alistair's plane dives straight towards the cliffs where Kim is standing, unable to control his plane. In desperation, he closes his eyes and thinks hard about his father and accidentally lifts the toy plane as he turns away from the incoming crash.
Alistair's Spitfire launches upwards from underneath the cliffs, climbing up with the engines in full blast.

Kim then realizes that he can control his father's Spitfire with his toyplane after he stops concentrating and Alistair's plane starts plunging down, but regains control by lifting up his toy plane.
Kim does his best to keep his father alive, dodging enemy fighter planes with incredible maneuvers.
Kim thinks his father will make it, but suddenly Evie appears, furious about Kim running away.

Kim tries to explain that he has to help his father, but his mother won't listen and only wants to save Kim before he gets killed by the fighter planes flying dangerously close.
Evie picks up Kim and runs away, but Kim's toy plane slips out of his hand and breaks as it hits the ground.
Evie stops and tries to explain to Kim that they must leave quickly, not understanding why Kim is so upset.
Suddenly a Spitfire, engulfed in smoke and fire, passes right above them with a thunderous and shrieking sound, crashing not far away from them. Everything goes silently dark as Kim tries to understand the spectacle.

Years has passed and the war is over, but the wounds have not healed. Kim stares vacantly out of the window, with the broken toy plane left in his toy chest. Evie comforts Kim, getting him to remember what the toy plane represents, as she finally understands the strong connection between him and his father.
Kim repairs the broken toy plane, before going to his father's grave, placing it next to the tombstone.

The End.

Characters:

Kim:
Kim is a energetic seven-year old boy who treasures a toy plane that his father made for him.
He takes it everywhere as a good luck charm, thinking that nothing wrong will happen to his father as long as he keeps it safe.

Character design: Kim

Alistair:
Devoted father who fights in the Second World War as a Spitfire pilot. He only wants to keep his family safe, and to comfort his son he built a toy plane replica of his own Spitfire.

Character design: Alistair

Evie:
A devoted mother who worries a lot about Kim letting himself get distracted in school and getting himself bullied because of the toy plane, feeling that he should focus on other things and doesn't understand his feelings of what the toy represents.

Character design: Evie

Crew:
Here I will write shortly about what I look for in my crew.

3D animators:
I will be looking for 3D animators who can convincingly animate the flight of propeller warplanes.

3D modelers:
I am looking for modelers who can create accurate and convincing fighter planes of the WW2 era, particularly the Spitfire.

2D animators:
The vehicles will be 3D, but the characters will be animated in 2D. I will need talented 2D animators who can effectivly copy the design of the characters and animate them with great dedication and talent.

Compositor:
During the editing phase, I will need compositors who can blend together 3D and 2D animation with painted backgrounds.

Background artists:
I will be looking for background artists who can make convincing matte paintings.

Storyboard artist:
I will be looking for storyboard artists who can work efficently.

Character designer:
The characters are already created, but I will need the help of someone who can work out the kinks and create better designs.

Sound engineer:
If you have experience in sound design, or know someone, they will be surely needed in this project.

Musician:
As any film, this one also needs a musician who can create ambiance and emotion.

Artworks:
Below you will see sketches, concept arts and 3D models.
Hope they will help you imagine what kind of movie I want to make.

Spitfire model created in Maya, with wireframe.

Quick painting of the cliffs.

Status update

Currently hard at work in developing my third-year project, which I will fully update on this blog once I have gathered more character sketches and concept art.

In the meanwhile, here's a rendered still shot from my new showreel that is coming up as well.

Rejected sketches

Part of working on the pre-production of a animation is to settle on a artstyle. My own style isn't very suitable for animation, which is why I like to observe other animation artists to see if I can adopt small traits from them to add to my own. I did some character sketches for Evie, a character in my third-year project, and the goal was to find a style suitable for animation. These are some I personally rejected since I didn't feel they suited.

[Working Title] The Wooden Plane

Hey, fellow animators of Falmouth University, and anyone else interested.

This here is my little pre-pitch for my third-year animated short film "The Wooden Plane".

Note that this title is just a working title and will most likely be altered in the future.

Story:

Alistair is a pilot in the RAF during World War 2 who is stationed in Cornwall as a Spitfire pilot in charge of a interceptor squadron that has to prevent German bombers from reaching Britain as they cross the channel.

Alistair is the father of Kim, a very enthusiastic six-year old who wants to be a pilot just like his father, but he is very worried about him getting killed during any of the perilious missions.

Kim, in his spare time, likes to make model airplanes of all different sorts out of wood, and he has made one of his father's Spitfire.

As Alistair is fighting desperatly in the skies above the English Channel, Kim is playing with the wooden replica of his father's plane. As Kim runs around in the garden, playing with his model airplane, Alistair's Spitfire starts to react the same way as Kim makes his toy move.

As Kim makes his model airplane make a loop, Alistair's plane does the same, but Alistair has no knowledge of this and just tries to shake off enemy fighter planes on his tail.

Alistair does well against the Germans, but as soon as Kim is called inside by his mother and put aside the model airplane, Alistair is losing control of his plane and is shot.

Kim and his mother Evie is worried about Alistair as they hear nothing from him, sitting up all night waiting for any word of his well-being.

Under the light of a full moon, Alistair's shredded and smoking Spitfire breaks the cloud and flies home.

Characters:

Alistair:

Alistair is a Spitfire pilot and father of one. He leads a squadron in RAF with plenty of experience, but often worries that one day he may never return.

Kim:

Kim is a six-year old boy with a huge interest in airplanes. He likes to make model airplane out of wood, and has made one out of his father's Spitfire to honor him. He hopes the model airplane will work as a lucky charm and get his father home safely.

Evie: 

Evie is Alistair's wife, a strong woman who keeps Kim and her home safe while war is raging.

Just like Kim, she is worried that Alistair won't return.

Artstyle/Animation:

What I want to use as a format is a mix of CG and hand-drawn animation, with the airplanes being 3D animated, characters drawn in 2D and backgrounds hand-painted. I want to make the look and feel of this movie to be very colourful and vibrant, so artists that have a lot of experience with colour is well recieved.

Artists and animators needed:

I am looking for people in any level of the animation course who wants to either work with 3D modelling/animation, hand-drawn traditional animation and background painting.

If you want to work on other projects as well that is fine, but this project will require a lot of attention so dedication is very well appreciated.

Below are some sketches and moodboards that I have made in preperation for the third-year pitch that will happen later this year. 

Sketch of Alistair in the cockpit of a Spitfire with full gear on.

I based this sketch on various photos of Spitfire pilot combat uniforms,

trying to keep this as realistic as possible.

A close-up of Kim painting a model airplane.

Kim sitting by the window, hoping that his father has survived whatever mission he has been sent to.

Alistair's wife, Evie, standing by the window and hopes Alistair will return alive.

Sketch of a Spitfire getting critically damaged, and a pilot trying to escape.

Below are various moodboards that will be used to help set the mood and design during the animation production.

11 Second Club - Progress update 5

Finally finished everything, from animation to setting.

I've had some problems with getting the Alex rig to be more emotive, but every rig has it's limitations, so at least it was easy to work with. The Bonnie rig was very fun and easy to use and I highly recommend it.

When it comes to the setting I just made some basic polygon shapes and plastered some textures on them, since they are only there to provide background.
This is the final playblast preview, so now all that is left is to render the scene.

11 Second Club - Progress update 4

Finished the animations, but I will probably do some more tweaks since I'm never happy with the final result.

Also added all the polygons models needed for the stable, so now I'm going to make textures, which will contain a lot of wood, stone and hay.

11 Second Club - Progress update 3

Another update for my 11 second club animation.

I've done some animation on the male character, but also started on the setting in which it all takes place.

I decided to have the scenario play out in a barn, which doesn't look like much at this point.

11 Second Club - Progress update 2

Refined the Bonnie character with more subtle movements and made some tweaks to her hands and arms to make them look more natural. Even done some brow animation to make her expression change from thoughful to depressive.

Also added some animation to the horse, since it would be too distracting if the horse did absolutly nothing.

The guy behind has not been animated yet, so in this clip he is just standing there.

My idea is to have him walk up to the woman and place his hand on her shoulder.

11 Second Club - Progress update

Decided to take another hit at the monthly 11 second club competition.

For this I'm using the Boonie rig, which can be aquired from here.

This is a early rough animation, where I'm going for a woman who is emotionally attached to her horse and the guy doesn't understand why she wants to keep it.

Spitfire again 2

Some new updates for my Spitfire model.

I ended up having to do some huge changes to the model, so I haven't gotten as far as texturing yet.

Still plenty of tweaks to be done before I start UV unwrapping it and start painting textures.

Rexxy

Testing out a rig called Rexxy, which can be aquired from here

Vignett (Title Sequence)

This is a title sequence that I did this summer. Summer vacation is a great opportunity to practice on you're skills and experiment with various animation softwares.

I wanted to get more milage on Autodesk Maya and decided to create my own personal title sequence that I could possibly use in future showreel and personal projects.

This clip shows more plainly how I put it all together.

The setup was very basic, but was thinking more that the use of lights and shaders would provide more then enough eye candy for a brief 24 second long title sequence.

I started everything by making the text first, which is easily made using the programs text feature, in which you just type in the desired words and are created in polygons.

The spotlights we're modelled before-hand and then imported in.

I then copied it three times and placed them in a half circle around the text. which would give a nice coverage.

Afterwards I imported a spaceship model that I had made some time ago, which I felt might be useful for this title sequence.

After everything was set up I went to work on how the lights should be set up and rendered.

After quite a long time of trial and error I managed to configure it to the way I wanted it.

I created 'spotlights' that would create cones to face toward the text via the spotlight models, and set them to 'fog' so that I could get a nice mist around the models.

I then used 'Final Gathering' to make the lights look more defined, and help make the reflections look better.

This image shows how the the assets are set up.

Image taken during my modelling session of the spotlight.

 I set the "lamp" to glow at a certain brightness to hide some imperfection that might have ocured when I set up the light effects. I used 'spotlight' effect to get the desirec light cone effect, which I then set to 'fog' to get a nice misty glow around the model. 

This image shows how the various lights reacts to the floor, that set using 'blinn' shader to get a nice reflective look and make more use of the colours coming from the spotlights.

Animatic - Workshop project

This is a animatic I did as part of a workshop hosted by Luis Cook.

Unfortunatly I didn't get to show him this, but maybe whoever may be watching my blog will enjoy this

little project that took me in total of a day to put together.

Spitfire again

Almost done with my Spitfire model. Finally got some time to work on it. The plan is to finish the modelling, texture it and then do some test compositions.

Sketches 4

Some may take the last three weeks of term as an excuse to get lazy, but that just means there's more time to be creative and work harder. Some more sketches to get a feeling of a more cartoon'ish drawing style, although I don't know why I drew the woman below the skeleton head like a doll reject.

M.S.S Whale

Done some more modelling on my spaceship, last seen dangerously close to a sun.

I will be doing some more tweaks, and the next step will be to UV unwrap it and paint textures.