Clean Development

Forgot to post these yesterday. 


As I said in the comments of my last post, I would clean up some of the characters and choose one I liked to develop and produce in the realism style that I'm going for. 

Here are the 'cleaner' versions and I have to say I still like the third one along, I think he would fit well with the story I have as opposed to the other designs.


I'll hopefully sketch up a final render and turn arounds today, ready for some set designs tomorrow...fingers crossed!

My Attempt At THE New Style

So I got some inspiration from the animations I found late last night, and if I'm honest some of Mat's work. Using a similar method I produced this.

And I am very happy with the results :D It is just how I pictured it in my head. 

I should have saved it in stages to show my workings but I forgot...so here's how I did it...

- I started with the outline and then cleaned it up quite a bit (omitting the hands). 

- Then greyed the whole character in and worked on the tonal range on 2 different layer, one for highlights and the other for shadows.

- After this it was relatively easy to just add the colour on a new layer and I was nearly done. 

- And with some tweaks to the shading I was done...makes it sound easy but it took the most part of 2 hours to complete!

Oh and I added a photo texture over the top set to Difference and reduced the opacity to around 50%. this gives it a nice tactile look.

Now I know what I'm doing I feel more confident to be able to produce more work like this as I now have a proper working timeline.

Oh and the mime idea is back in the mix...if you didn't guess already ^_^

Byyyyyee

Ships

Here's a few ship designs I did a couple of days ago, forgot to put them up!

Along with a rough idea of what setting the ship will be in in the story

Final Design

Ok so I'm happy with the final design and I'm gonna draw up the design sheets tonight, I went with a lighter skin tone as Mat suggested but I feel that the paler skin is better suited for this design.

Then I'm on to my final idea and ready to make a move on my futures assignment that has been so far greatly neglected!

A Collection of Heads

...I realise the title sounds a little disturbing :p


I took the poses and tried to give them some different and unusual/exciting hair.

I like the top left and have used it to decide hair and skin colours

I also finalised her face to suit the style. I think I like either the top right or bottom left ones, can't decide right now. Still need to develop some proper clothing and structure to the character so I guess thats more important at the moment.

Stylising

I took my life drawings and used them as a base for stylising my female character, I knew what I wanted in my head and I need to match the style of my other main character so I drew up these designs.  I know they all look the same but it's a style I think blends with the story and with my other main character.

Set Design

Here are a few set designs I have done for my Mayfly idea, I most like the 3rd one with the willow hanging over the stream.  This is because it looks most natural and fitting to a Mayfly.


I'll use these set designs to show examples of the style I'm thinking of and help you to understand more how I want the animation to look like.

The Spaceman Development

On a totally unrelated note...I don't think I've mentioned my spaceman idea, so I guess now is as good a time as any...


Here are some head/helmet designs that I did last week, I guess I should give some of them a body, that can wait till a later post.

Another Idea!!

So I've been struggling hugely picking an idea I want to develop for my 3 minute animation, I surprisingly have quite a few ideas; from sasquatches to spacemen and fish to cavemen...but I don't feel that they're really up to par, but in a moment of inspiration I just had a great one! 

Mimes!

It looks great in my head but now to convert that to paper.

I've done a bit of research yet again and haven't found anything with a similar storyline, I have however found a few mime animations that I feel I can do better than. After furiously scribbling down notes and possible story directions I'm getting pretty into it. Expect some sketches in the coming days.

It is about 2 mimes fighting over a spot to work...maybe just beneath the Eiffel Tower but maybe that's too cliché. Lets just say in short, that they argue and fight with mime objects...that can only be funny right?


I'll leave out most of the details for now, but Mat, you will be receiving an email shortly!

Mayfly Development

Here are some developmental sketches of my Mayflies, I like the top centre design as it has the main features of a Mayfly whilst being simplified. I'll sketch up some more poses using this design and post them soon.

The Mayfly

After watching Ryan Woodward's 'Thought of You' it sparked inspiration for an idea, in short, the life of a mayfly. This idea is solely in 2D and hand drawn so I think this might be more down Mat's street :p and it's something that I have always wanted to do but never felt confident enough doing.  However because my idea is quite simple I feel we could definitely achieve this to a high standard! I'll email Mat with the full rough storyline and some sketches.

Using either photoshop or just pencil, I want the whole thing to be hand drawn with the backgrounds and characters being on different layers to give the animation depth.

I did a little research and found they begin life in a larval form known as a nymph.  Whilst in their nymph form they like to live under stones in fast flowing water or among plants in slow streams.  They usually stay in this state for around 1 year before all hatching out together and only living for between a few minutes and a day, this is because their mouths seal up as soon as they hatch from their nymph shells...weird! During this time they over run some towns and become a huge pest for people for a very short amount of time. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could show their life from a Mayfly's point of view, instead of seeing them as pests. They have to hatch, find a mate and lay thousands of eggs in just hours.

I have a more detailed storyline but don't want to blog it now...just in case.



I'll post some initial drawings I have made later on...

Why Are the Good Ones Always Taken?

I thought I had a great idea...


I was trying to think of something that I haven't done before and something that would hopefully be funny.

So, I came up with this idea for a caveman who is trying to start a fire and things keep going wrong and whatever he does it goes wrong.

My initial idea was with the caveman starting a fire and setting his beard alight, then running to some water and throwing his head into it to put it out.  Then when he lifted his head up, a piranha would be biting his nose. He would then grab a stick and go to smack the piranha but it would jump out of the way and he would hit his face with the stick and all hilarity would ensue! 

At this point I did some research into existing cavemen animations for some inspiration to be brutally honest I found some very weak examples, but then I stumbled across this little gem

I think I can pretty much say it's been done...and well! Except the piranha has been replaced by leeches.


Back to the drawing board...how about dinosaurs...