Pre Production Project

Another update on my pre production bible. I have altered my story for the third time but now am happy with it and have been focusing on getting all the design work for it done.

I started by going back to my art that i was given/chose. The art of Robert Crumb.

I decided to move away from the internet a bit and got a couple of books from the library on this amazing comic book artist.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crumb-Fabrice-Hergott/dp/2759601927/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1385656102&sr=8-22&keywords=robert+crumb

I soon found that this book was a far better resource than anything I could find on-line and would recomend it to anyone who is a fan of Robert Crumbs work. The book was just full of a wide variety of his work, so I started copying some of his crazy drawings trying to mimic his style even more.

my sketches.

I made sure I used pen as I found that practically all of Roberts work was done using ink. at the front of this book there is some scans of his old sketchbooks and it was really interesting to see some of the lines tippexed out where he had made a mistake. This made me appreciate his work even more as there wasn't many corrected lines. showing the level of skill he had as an illustrator. I have came to love working in pen as i find myself focusing so much on what I am actually drawing and not worrying about getting it perfect because I cant rub it out anyway.

3rd year 'A Light from the dark'

A light from the dark is a third year film that i was asked to help out on and do some concept art for. the story is based in a dark scary warehouse that will eventually be on fire, that has this fire/wolf/alien monster that is chasing this girl.

I was asked to come up with the design for the monster and some designs for the interior of the warehouse to try and get across the mood of the film.


The development of the character design for the monster.

A close up of the monsters face.

A couple of inside concepts one with a more surreal look to it with the darkness overtaking and the skewed perspective and the second piece is more realistic.

Pre Production Project

So my initial idea was a no go. This meant i went back to the beginning and primarily done allot of research, mainly on my style first. I looked at underground comix in detail and found that the artist Robert crumb was said to be the pioneer of underground comix I really loved his style and the content in his comix were just crazy which made me love his work even more.

Here is just a few examples of the vast amount of comics and illustrations Robert crumb has done.

I also came across a documentary called the confessions of Robert crumb, which was really interesting to watch as it gave me an incite into his life and who he is as an artist. i found that he is just as mad as his drawings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR9vfcNYBhc

After doing more research it sparked an idea for a new story.

This new story is based around the idea that for the soldiers to get into Hitler army they have to be able to sing. it will be along the same lines as x factory but with Hitler and his fellow men as the judges with the soldiers as the people auditioning for a place in his army. if the soldiers cant sing then they would be sentenced to death. The hermit character is the executioner hired by Hitler to kill off any of the un talented soldiers. I want there to not be much focus on the main story but more on the back stage element of the show with crazy things going on and creature comfort styled interviews with the soldiers and the hermit character. 

I haven't thought a great deal about what format it would be but i was thinking more of  strong black comedy series as it doesn't have a strong story and will have some strong violent and rude content in it.

So the next stage was to come up with some concepts of various bits in the same style as Robert crumb.

I started by trying to create a poster looking concept in the same style of r. crumb but mainly tried to get across the message of what the series or show would be about. and then a quick character design of one of the soldiers in the same style.

here is just a few frames of what the set-up of the show would be with the interview backstage first, then the performance on stage and then the execution and interview at the end. This is a very brief structure of what an episode could be like  and i plan to change allot of the content in each episode to make it more unexpected, crazy and interesting.

 and finally a quick concept of what the hermit could look like back stage as an executioner.

Pre Production Project

For this project we were give 4 cards consisting of a setting, a character, a style and a show. it was completely pot luck and the idea was that we have to come up with a story including all 4 cards.

The card I received where:

Setting : WW2 Berlin

Style: 60s/70s Underground Comics  

Character : Hermit 

Show: Music show

My initial thoughts was to do a story about this hermit character who lived underground away from the warzone above in Berlin. and when it went quiet the hermit would come up to the surface and collect the soldiers souls which he kept in his underground lair in jars and bottles. I loved everything about this idea i had and cold see it going a long way. but after pitching my idea i soon found that we had to stick firmly to are cards in terms of what are animation had to be and mine was a music show, so this quite sinical and dark story went out the window.

here where some of the concept pieces I did for my original idea.


This was my initial character design for the hermit which is this all knowing wise man who represents solitude.

The war zone setting. i Tried to get the comic book style across in this piece but found it harder than i had first expected.

The underground cave where the hermit lives and stores all the souls of the dead soldiers.

again i tried to get across that black and white comic book style but with a bit more detail. I felt that this piece was allot more successful that the one above.

Funny in 15

So the funny in 15 second group animation is finished. Overall I was happy with the outcome and felt that we all worked well as a group. There are a few things that I would have done differently if I was doing it myself but that's just me being picky. doing this short animation has inspired me to do more of my own projects on the side of my course work to give me that extra boost, and it would be nice to have a finished piece of animation that is all me to show off what I love, my style and what I can do. I loved this project as it was nice and short so we could get it finished at a good standard rather than rushing it to get it done in time. Hope you find it funny :)

Funny in 15

The next part of funny in 15 for me was more 2d animation.

Shot_4

This shot proved a bit more difficult to animate as it was all about the lift and showing weight, but also not too much weight as the main part of this animation was the gag that this skinny weak character is lifting a heavy sumo wrestler. but i felt that i achieved what i wanted after altering the animation a few times and going back over it. in the end i just acted it out and done a lot of research into this dance move.

Shot_5

 

This shot was very simple to animate but was all about the facial expressions which i really loved doing. it was a very easy piece of animation to do but at the same time hard to get the right expression and i found that the timing was the main thing in this piece with pausing certain face movements for longer . 

Shot_6

The final shot for funny in 15 I had to animate, a simple very quick piece of animation, the main thing i had to think about in this animation was how the limbs would move and how they just gave way, the it was a case of just adding in the little things like the facial expressions and eyes turning to crosses.