Phew! I think there are around 48 storyboard frames at the moment, but still more to come.
Here’s a WIP of the animatic:
Archive
The illustrations that I’m going to present: (click to enlarge)
Made this one over the night, as I don’t have much to show on the presentation today.
It’s a concept for a futuristic scout on a distant world… *sigh* Yes, “space marines” are fun to create.
D for Dragon Head is done and ready for the presentation on Friday.
Eleven more to go *sigh*
I started with my initial sketch and coloured on a new layer in with a natural brush set to ‘colour’. Adjusted opacity. Made a gradient fill with texture for background, then I started painting with a natural brush set to ‘normal’, with angle jitter turned up to around 70-80%. Then I adjusted levels and saturation.
Here’s the final image:
Last week Mark helped me plan the shooting of the footage for my AVE assignment. Michael helped me set up things and switched between being cameraman and actor. Later on Bjørne, Erlend and Andreas came and helped me out with the more complex shots. Bjørne became my actor, Erlend and Michael swithced between being cameramen and holding a lamp. Andreas controlled the flickering of the light. Mark shot the last shot as it required the use of a lift.
Here I'm directing Bjørne, while Michael is holding the lamp. Mark is the camerman.
I’ve started modeling the characters in 3D Studio Max, and I still struggle with the head.
The model is being made with facial animation in mind, which means I have to get nice edge loops. This have proven far more difficult than I anticipated, but it seems like I’m back on track now.
Update (26. November 2009): I made this in Photoshop, but after a presentation/tutorial by Nigel Dobbyn at the University, I’ve decided to continue this style in the superior (for inking) Illustrator.
This is an experiment. I went away from my sketchy/painty style and went for some comic book-ish style for this piece.
It just started as a doodle, but I kept working on it. The composition is not good at all, but this is one layer, so I can’t move things around easily. Note to self: Start with composition next time.
I could remove the guy to the right and cut away a tiny bit of the backgrond, then it would be solved, but it wouldn’t be a team anymore.
And yes, Mike Mignola is awesome…
I’ve been busy with other things this week, but managed to put together an animatic for the AVE assignment.
I took the storyboard pictures, cut them out and imported them in Adobe Premiere. Then the shots we’re put together in the timeline and timed.
Added an animated cloud layer over the exterior shots and a fume layer over the interior shots. They are hard to see in the render I did, but will hopefully be fixed.
I added a piece of music that I intend to use in the final product. Sound effects are yet to be put in.
Here is the animatic:
My idea for the vfx project is approved. I have cut out the frames from the storyboard, and am about to assemble them into an animatic, which I will upload at a later point. I’ve also acquired some epic music, fitting for a vfx segment like the one I’m going to make, as well as footage of moving skies, for the matte paintings.
After the animatic is finished, I will start to make a simple previz and get ready to shoot some green screen footage.
In fact I’m going down to the green screen room right now to get familiar with the equipment.
(Updated 29/11/2009)
Practical Project (60 credits) – Project Specification
Project: Clockwork Heart – A short animation
The goal of the project is to create about 1 minute of a 2-3 min long animated short film, from the first stages of story development, to the final editing and post-production. The intention of the project is to show 1 minute of strong animation and visual storytelling, but also to pre-produce the rest of the film.
The main focus will be to create convincing animation, which includes detailed face model morphs. Detailed textures and good compositing comes second. Other elements, like sound and modeling, will be less detailed. A secondary goal is to create the animation in a more serious tone, as opposed to slapstick comedy, adding more diversity to a showreel.
3D Studio Max, Photoshop, Premiere and Nuke will be used for this project.
The story is about an inventor in his late thirties, whose wife just recently passed away. He creates an automaton replica of his wife, which is just finished when the film starts. She awakens, curious, but soon realizes what she is. She panics, the inventor tries to calm her down, but is electrocuted by defect wires connected to her heart. Falls dead to the ground. Automaton crouches by inventors side and flips off her heart switch.
The visuals will be gritty, set in a steampunk world. An establishing shot of a cityscape, camera zooming in on a house, will be done in a stylized manner. Possibly in 2.5D and/or as projected matte paintings, to give it a stylized look and to save time. As of now there are no plans to include voice acting, but to tell a story with body language and props. The inventor will be fully skinned, but the female automaton will have limbs linked together instead of being skinned. Both characters will have morph targets for facial expressions.
The story will be written as a treatment, then made into a storyboard. Concept art of the two characters and environment will be painted/drawn. An animatic and a previz will be made to plan the shots. Characters will then be modeled, rigged, skinned, textured, animated, lit and rendered in 3D Studio Max. Textures will be made in Photoshop and 3D Studio Max. All rendered passes and the cityscape will then be composited in Nuke. Composited footage is then imported into Premiere, where it will be edited together with sound, music and titles.
The report size will be 6000 words.
Schedule:
Week 1 (19.Oct - 25.Oct): Story planning & Treatment
Week 2 (26.Oct - 1.Nov): Story planning & Treatment
Week 3 (2.Nov - 8.Nov): Research & Concept Art
Week 4 (9.Nov - 15.Nov): Storyboard
Week 5 (16.Nov - 22.Nov): Storyboard
Week 6 (23.Nov - 29.Nov): Modeling of the two characters
Week 7 (30.Nov - 6.Dec): Modeling & texturing of the two characters & Animatic
Week 8 (7.Dec - 13.Dec): Rigging/Skinning(envelopes) of the two characters & Previz
Week 9 (14.Dec - 20.Dec): Modeling & Texturing of the scene and props
Week 10 (21.Dec - 27.Dec): Lighting the scene & Animation
Week 11 (28.Dec - 3.Jan): Animation
Week 12 (4.Jan - 10.Jan): Animation
Week 13 (11.Jan - 17.Jan): Animation
Week 14 (18.Jan - 24.Jan): Animation
Week 15 (25.Jan - 31.Jan): Animation
Week 16 (1.Feb - 7.Feb): Animation
Week 17 (8.Feb - 14.Feb): Animation
Week 18 (15.Feb - 21.Feb): Animation
Week 19 (22.Feb - 28.Feb): Matte painting, Rendering & Sound creation/gathering
Week 20 (1.Mar - 7.Mar): Editing, Compositing, Rendering & Sound creation/gathering
Week 21 (8.Mar - 14.Mar): Editing & Compositing
Week 22 (15.Mar - 21.Mar): Editing & Foley
Week 23 (22.Mar - 28.Mar): Reviewing the film & Finishing the report
Week 24 (29.Mar - 6.Apr): Finishing/printing the report & DVD creation
