Friday 23 November 2012

Character's Progress

After Steven did an excellent job modelling both the characters with all the details I was tagged in for laying out the UVs. Hair is yet to come but the models are ready to come to life :D Exciting stuff.

Carl
Close-up

Front

Back

Simon
Close-Up

Front

Back

Also Included... 
Their Shiny Eyes

And a Mouth


Monday 19 November 2012

Character Modelling: Carl Complete

Other than adding his hair, replacing his eyes and stitching his limbs together, Carl is complete!

Friday 16 November 2012

Character Modelling: Base Head Progress

After starting over with the head (twice...), it appears to be almost complete. All that is left to add at this stage is the hair and the updated eyeball and then it'll be complete!

Thursday 15 November 2012

Environment Re-Design

The feedback after our pitch presentation was to explore a simpler environment. The characters in our story are highly stylized and are metaphors for Religion and Science so it didn't make sense to place them in a real world setting. As a result the script will be altered to allow for the change in story and we're looking at creating a white space environment. In our first plan the set was only to be revealed after the characters had interacted with it to so their creation of the world/history so the suggestion at the pitch was to return to a similar style. The following images are of some influences I found to inspire the redesign. Mostly one colour or a cut out flat style.


 


Here are my concepts...
The White Forest.
How the forest is when it's undisturbed. A blank canvas.

Carl's Painting Forest.
These are digitally painted but would be hand painting for the final animation.

Simon's Sketch book Forest.
Again the shading of the trees will be hand sketched. This style
includes a sample of da Vinci's handwriting across everything...
...As this close-up shows.






To give an idea of how these settings might interact I've made a short animatic to show the changing. There are two styles in the same video to see which would work better. The first 10 second shows the idea of the trail... only the specific area they've touched changes. The next 10 second shows the whole forest transform after them.



I also looked at a coloured forest... completely green, to give another style for the studio to choose.

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Environmental Concept Art

Finished Concept Art for the Forest Interior and the Riverside. They show the moods we want to create in each scene as well as the use of block colours as the scheme for the setting.



Monday 5 November 2012

Storyboard mark 2.

A nice tidy Storyboard with the additional shots that have been added since in conversations.







Sunday 4 November 2012

Character Modelling: Base Model Progress

This is the base model for our two characters so far.
The characters are deliberately identical, so this makes modelling them slightly easier, as the same arms, legs and head can be used for both characters.
So far, the legs, feet, arms and hands have been modelled, with just the head left to go. I've put them on a basic torso for demonstration purposes, but in the final products, the torsos will be completely different.
Base Model With Smooth Preview

Base Model Without Smooth Preview

Base Model Front View

Friday 2 November 2012

Character Influences

During our tutorial with Alan, we discussed looking into existing characters that will inspire our own. We could use how they're animated as another tool for showing the vast differences in their beliefs.

Simon
Simon is a great thinker. He's analytical and always thinking. We discussed characters that seem to be in two places at once. They're involved in the real life happening action but at the same time, thinking about something else. These characters move suddenly as idea after idea pops into their head. Our major character influence is the 9th Doctor (played by David Tennant) as he always seems to be in another place just thinking.

Carl
Carl is a lot harder to place in existing character world... but he's essentially the opposite. He's calm and secure  He already has the answers he needs as he has his religion. His movement is graceful and flows from one movement to the next. The best character I could think of the compare him with is Dr. Watson from BBC's Sherlock. He is the opposite of Sherlock, who is one of Simon's influences, he's calm and kind and doesn't move around as erratically as Sherlock. When there's action he's involved but otherwise he's happy to sit and enjoy the surroundings. Zevran (a character in Dragon Age: Origins) is here as purely movement influence. He moves in a light, delicate way which would contrast the sudden movements of Simon. Same for Quasimodo, he's graceful and gentle. 


A Change of Scenery

Our story is very action based but the only major threat to our characters is the environment on which their stranded. To increase the tension of the film and the visual splendor I've began exploring the environment a lot more. Before we were looking at a generic desert island with palm trees and sunshine but this just didn't feel right. Palm trees aren't a threat, they mean holiday and coconuts. So I've begun to change the environment space. Here's the existing concept.


It's too safe and cosy for the style we want so we discussed moving the setting to, still an island, but one in a much damper, less pleasant corner of the world. The forest itself will be more of a rainforest type. Completely untamed by human presence, damp, mossy and uneven terrain. This'll be much more exciting to see the boys run through. This influence map show some existing environments that look ominous and dangerous.