Jed Character Sheet

Mr. Smith has been banging on for a while now to complete the front, side, and back views of Jed. In order to model him in Maya I must have an accurate understanding of his shape and form in 3D. I have a tendancy to design characters which work in 2D, but when transformed to 3D, fail miserably, or just look really ugly from one angle. I think this is because I love to draw characters from perspective, therefore I always give them one eye bigger than the other, a slanted browline etc etc.

So with storyboarding a main issue at the moment, I decided to take a break from it and complete his request. I spent a morning sketching out the 3 different views on A2, making sure that proportions were correct from each angle. I also had to check with a ruler that eyelines, waistlines, necklines etc. all matched up.

I then spent the afternoon and the following day cleaning it up and colouring it in using PS. I used one of grigs' wall texture tests as a backdrop to give me an indication of how well Jed would stand out in the ward. This turned out to be a valuable excercise as we all agreed immediately the colour schemes didnt work together. I had to desaturate and tone down the original wall colour as his skin was blending into the background way too much. The wall is now more of a murky, pale grey colour, with a hint of turqouise, rather than the striking baby blue beforehand.





I also had some issues with the placement of the afro from the side. In the past I had drawn it protruding from his forehead, but in reality the fro would be covering his eyes if this was the case. It was simple to solve, I just had to move it up, so it began where his head finished! Feet were quite hard, because from front on they looked like small triangles rather than long curled flippers. I angled them slighlty to achieve a more satisfying design, however when modelled and rigged they will have to be poiting directly forward (sarah!).

Name Badge

A quick post - knocked up a name badge in PS to give you guys an idea of the type of manky old design I think we should go for. A handwritten name, metal frame, clear plastic panel, and a nice dirt map. Although I agree with Mike, it needs slight personalization i.e a flower, smiley face, sticker? Anything which represnts Jeds frame of mind - funky.

Flashin it larger

An update on yesterdays post - managed to draw some more frames today and fiddle with the timing slighty. The more I progress with this file the more I worry, is the story right? are the camera angles correct? Is there any rythm? Is the pace increasing? I dont feel like we have a working momentum at the moment and unfortunately may have to go back to the drawing board at such a late stage in the game.

Flashin it large

The team have urged me to make a start on the time test for our film. In short, I needed to trasfer our thumbnails into flash frame drawings and whack em on a timeline. The purpose of this is to gain an idea of timing, rythm, and comic appeal. I have never used flash before, so Al's had to spend a while giving me the low down and explaing the basic tools. After a day I achieved the first couple of scenes . . .

This is by no means the final animatic, as quality is poor, shots aren't final and sound is absent. However I really enjoyed learning the program, and was shocked at the speed and efficiency of storyboarding within it. I am now seriosuly considering porducing the final animatic as a flash animation rather than a hand drawn premiere sequence.

Funky Phones

Final headphone design (for now anyway . . .)

I also managed to thumbnail out more of my story today with the help of the guys, especially Phil. I owe him a big thanks for spending time away from splay to help tie up some of my loose shots. I think I have thumbed out about 70% of the final shots now. I hope to have a working thumb board for friday, ready to be storyboarded next week.

Hmmmm

For some reason the team has struggled to focus lately, with all of us feeling slightly lethargic. I dont know why, it just seems like the energy and drive is sucked out of us as soon as lunch is over.

We had a dissertation session this morning which was kind of helpful, but I would have much rather of been getting on with work for P.O. I then sat down in the afternoon to design what I felt was a very important prop for the film - the headphones. The others disagreed, blasting it as a waste of time and unessasary. I understand where the guys are coming from, as I am technically behind schedule with thumbnailing, but I am ahead on other things such as modelling and story. Anyway I disagreed as I want to build my pre production folder and make sure every last detail is planned for the modelling stage. I dont want to say to someone - "go model the headphones" in 2 months time and get "what do they look like?" as a reply. I feel like things are being slightly rushed, and I know for a fact it can come back to bite you later on.

After a few sketches I gave up as I was just too tired, as were the rest of the team. We decided to call it an early day.

This evening I felt guilty, and so after a rest I decided to try again. My first aim was to research the damn things. I needed to know how they fit together, the way the plastics molded, where the screws are, how the headband attaches, the texture of the muff, etc. The best way to do this is to gather a number of different styles and designs and produce a moodboard for reference...



I also remembered these sweet adverts made by a company called Candylab who I used to do some work experience with...



They were made for nokia and are beautifull modelled, lit and textured. I want to aim for the same level of quality, but obviously with a much much more simple design!

I then set about designing loads and loads of cartoony variations, trying to keep the style consistant and funky. I wanted "chunky, rounded, muffs". I eventually settled on one which look feasable, and took it into PS for a bit of sprucing up. I've begun to add colour and texture to gain an idea of the final look, as well as to help save time in the production stage. I'll keep you updated...

Monday Matters

Above is the work I produced over the weekend. I painted the floor polisher concept I produced on friday in PS, which Im really happy with. I feel like I'm improving my shade and toning skills in PS rapidly. Im also beginning to develop my own unique style which is something Ive been after for a while now. I can colour in my designs fairly quickly now, and if I had a tablet I think I could paint them even quicker. A purchase is neccasary.

I also spent Sunday evening thumbnailing a few important shots I wish to include in the film. I used biro, and kept everything very loose and rough. Their main purpose was to help me describe the angles I want to the rest of the team today. I focused on specific parts of the film, such as the collapse, the moonwalk and spin.

I used them as reference this afternoon when thumbnailing with Alec. We managed to get a bit of a pace/rythem going as the tempo of the dancing and struggling is getting faster - faster cutting and more obscure angles. I'd say we're about 2/3 of the way through thumbnailing now, so thats good news.

We then had a meeting with Dave from Aardman, in which I had to update him on the progress of the film and talk him through decisions that have been made. I also had to pitch the thumbnails to him, and explain the shots which I actually really enjoyed for once. I was gaining laughter which as he said "is always a good thing". He was impressed with the gags and the way we'd planned out Jed's movements. He also pointed out that a clock or calender is vital if I want the reoccuring joke to make sense. Another suggestion was to have each scene within the film start on a positive and end on a negative. in other words, Ed attempts to make contact, nearly succeeds to get attention - then fails. The beats need to be consistant, postive, negative, positive, negative, very much so like "Oktapodi" which he disected this morning. It was a good session and he gave good solid advice. It seems as though we are heading in the right direction, we just need to continue working at this rate!

Gooday mate

Yesterday we were lucky enough to have a lecture by the G man a.k.a Gareth Munden. We discussed budegting, distribution, animation costs, promotion etc. We also had a talk about how animated features made in britain cant compete with those made in hollywood because of tax and lack of funding from the goverment. Apparently art isn't a neccessity over here! As far as P.O is concerned, the rest of the day was spent beginning to thumbnail with Alsy babes and sorting out Grisby. Unproductive.



Today we spent the morning critically analysing films with Kieron. Everyone brought in a film they wished to show to the class, and we watched a scene or two before discussing themes, mis on scene, camera angles, colour etc. The list included Robo Cop, Momento, Being John Malkovich, Rear Window. It was facinating to learn how directors use different techniques to achieve certain effects and provoke emotion within us. Hopefully I will get to show a film of my choice next week, so I better browse the dvd collection tonight.

Anyway that left half a day to dedicate to the project. Friday is never a very productive day due to end of the week antics and tiredness kicking in, but somehow I managed to sort it out. I sketched a page of inanimate objects that could be found in the ward. I kept the design style, rounded, cartoony and bulky to match that of my previous concepts. I then knocked up a final floor polisher design by merging parts of my favourite polisher concepts from last week. I did an orthagraphic drawing (top, bottom, side) as it will aid me in the modelling process and help to define shape. I hope to colour it in PS over the weekend.



All in all, a much better day.

Thumbs up

Me and Grigs sorted out story today. We spent a good few hours down in the old BA room with just some post-it notes, a whiteboard, and a pen. I came out sweating - thats how hard we worked! We basically choreographed the whole dance, cut some unessasary gags, planned each characters actions throughout the film, and marked them out on a layout of the room.



Jed:

- Bobbing/kick a leg/head banging/going with flow
- Spinning/afro swing
- John Travolta pose - bum shake
- Dance with polisher, mic/rose pose
- Turn Off
- Moonwalk back to plug

Ed:

- Sleep
- Awaken
- Pats himself
- Grabs throat
- Waving
- Takes off mask
- Screams
- Wheels bed
- Reahes out to touch
- Slumps
- Hand twitch

Decisions:

- Cut high five
- Always holds polisher
- 70's, 80's, MJ, Saturday night - era of dancing
- Slumps right side of bed
- Fast cuts between both characters mouths - scream/sing
- Almost touches Jed while in microphone pose, slumps, Jed stands up, turns off, steam
- Head down moonwalk
- Pan up polisher to Jed

- Thumbnails, explain shots, reasons for.

Fed Up Ed

This character used to be the polished off mascot, an absolute dude. Today I hate him. His character design is all wrong, he looks like a green alien - not a sick man. It all started when i came to draw him front, back, side etc. I realised he looks really ugly from every angle except 3/4. Im panicking now because Im starting to think the characters need a revamp. Story is everything, and Im doubting whether this guy fits the character now.

Im struggled to concentrate today, and it makes it like a billion times worse when things are running so smoothly for Splay. Phil's got it easy with his cubes man. I hope the guys can help lift moral tommorow, cause Im feeling the weight and Im now behind schedule. What a baddd day.....


Unfinished.

Pull a Face

I spent this afternoon sketching out facial expression boards for both characters. Unfortunately I got frustrated and only managed to spit out a few decent drawings. The best of a bad bunch can be seen below.



Every cloud mate, every cloud.

Floor Polisher Doodles

Some early concept designs for the floor polisher. I also tried to emulate the movement/squash and stretch of the polishers base, as I believe it needs to have personality and microphone characteristics. I hope to develop these further and have a finished version ready to be modelled by next week.

Dali's Wisdom

Had an epic meeting with Dali today and he really helped iron out a few kinks in the story, and guide us in a better direction.

He gave us some new things to think about:

- Jed orange?
- Cast on Ed's foot, to constrain him even more?
- Rather than turning every colour, should Ed just get paler in colour as he weakens
- Longer body for Ed?
- Elastic oxygen mask, solves problem of falling off?
- Sound opening scene - Scrap Jeds dramatic entrance?
- Choreopgraph Jeds dance?
- Jed could pull in polisher backwards?
- Give Ed more visable injuries? black eye, bandages?

Snap happy

A camera phone, a day at college, and a shift at the pub = massive amounts of primary research ...

All little extras which deserve a place in the ward - pipes, buckets, vents, radiators, fire extinguishers, air con, plugs, tiles, lights, signs, wires, alarms, machines, buttons, celinings etc.

And the team of course....

P.O - Colour Script

Finished!

Colour Scripting

After browsing some of the other blogs from our year I stumbled across the term "colour script". After looking at examples, mainly from Pixar, I realised that they are actually a vital stage of the concepting process. They allow you to express the change in colour and mood throughout a film via a series of storyboard panels - hense the 'script' part.
"Up"

"Incredibles"

"Nemo"


A feature length film will journey through a range of atmospheres and locations, so the colours will vary dramatcially, whereas a short film like P.O will only experience very subtle changes. The ward will transition from a dark blue moonlit room - to a bright, clinical and fresh atmopsphere when Jed switches on the light. However change is change, and it must be illustrated, so today I'll give you one guess what I decided to make....


Above is the rough sketch I produced this morning. It I focuses on just the key shots of the film (each gag) and where the colours change. I spent the rest of the day colouring it in PS, however it is still not finished yet as making sure all the colours compliment each other takes time.

So what inspired me?

During the summer I must have watched at least 50 animated shorts before coming up with my story, some of which inspired me, others demolralised, and a lot which gave me hope.

Personal favourites included 'Bath time', 'Presto', 'Lifted', 'This way up' and 'Oktapodi' not just because of the colourful aesthetically pleasing characters and environments, but because of the clever storytelling.




I notcied a lot of narrative similarities between my favourites:

• Element of suprise - most of them incorporated some form of "twist" at the end.
  
• Gradual build in pace - faster cutting taking place.
  
• Simplicity - each of them focused on 2 or 3 characters in 1 location

I regard these 3 techniques as my own personal commadments when it comes to writing a story.
I hope to include all of them in P.O, as well as drawing inspiration from the stunning design styles.