Thursday 18 March 2010

Metropolis

Finally mostly finished a background of the Charing Cross based motorway.
This will be a panning shot and to it many cars in traffic jams and a darker light will be added. I have spent around 50 minutes trying to upload this image in full but alas I think Photoshop is weeping at me to shut down. I will upload as soon as I can but for now as a teaser, a portion of the background can be seen in the header of this blog. So watch this space!


Animatic


2 minutes and 32 seconds of unadulterated sketchy vagueness.

Enjoy and comment. There are some things which will be changed - namely the scenes shown from the children's perspectives will be exaggerated and certain scenes will be simplified and/or cut but please watch and comment away. The music too is also not a complete soundtrack, more possible snippets of themes which may or may not be used.

Can also be found in its present state on vimeo:
http://www.vimeo.com/10261194


Storyboarding and Scene Cuts


I am in the process of uploading an animatic for which I have received music snippets from my friend
Richard 'Addi' Addison. Many thanks sir and a gratitude laden salute.

In the meantime here are some scenes which have not made the most recent animatic cut!

Tom and Ada Meet RGB

Does exactly what is says on the title.
Before you panic the designs are still not final. There will be much cause for celebration and happy posting when that is the case.


Early Experiments In Colour

I took one of the concept sketches, redrew it and added some color in Photoshop. This was more a coloring exercise as the final designs are as yet unfounded. This is not entirely finished but this is how it stood at the pitch presentation of the idea back in January at the beginning of the semester.

If I don't get round to finishing it soon, please remind and berate me.

Bear With Me

Character Design is not my strong point.

It may take some doing and will get there eventually but until then I have some preliminary concept sketches/ doodles of Tom, Ada and... Tom and Ada. Very sketchy but they give a rough idea of the type of design I'm looking for. Be aware that some have been subjected to that phenomena of animation- the squash and stretch during formatting.

Final designs will follow as soon as I learn to draw.




Charing Crossing

The Charing Cross area of Glasgow was radically divided with the introduction of the M8 by city planners. Without commenting for or against this move, it has created an interesting intersection of levels between modern, victorian, transport, pedestrian walkways, busy underpasses and street level pedestrian crossings.

Ironically despite the urban facelessness of the area, it has some personal meaning to me as it was one of the first areas I got to know really well when I first left home. Although it is far from being a site of natural beauty the lights and speed and constant movement ensure that it is never boring and I often thought that it would be a dynamic backdrop for a film. It is worth noting that while the film is set against this type of backdrop the backgrounds will not be a direct copy, instead they will use elements which are present interspersed with exaggerated more fantastical ones.

Below is a panorama of pictures I took on location over the Christmas period


In The Beginning...

..there was sunlight, good company and daydreams.

The initial idea stemmed from a few thoughts which, over a summer of discussions with friends and observations, turned into a very basic story incorporating a few things which I had always found interesting:

1. Friendship, loneliness and interaction
2. Childlike wonder and fear of the world
3. Urban planning and contemporary division of cities

The idea was never to make a deep, dark or challenging piece but to tell a simple story with a lot of heart. I decided to base it around two characters a boy and a girl who divided by the motor-way used ingenious ways of communication to keep their friendship going. These two characters turned into the ten year olds Tom and Ada and the motorway into an environment loosely based on the charing cross area of Glasgow.

Concept set it was time to do some development.

The Mission

Animation. 25 frames per carefully constructed second. Timing. Discipline. Editing. Sound. Compositing. Design. Characters. Postproduction. Environment. Story.

18 months to create a self directed three minute animation degree show film.

Let the adventure begin.