Character Sketch and Translation

One of the biggest things I struggle with as an animator is moving from concept to manageable character design and rendering for animation. The following is a collection of thumbnails for the young foal concepts and a possible translation to an animation style that may be manageable.

Prelim Sketches Dragons & Unicorns

Sketchbook Dump for Third Year Project:

Cross Promotion

Nothing like cross promotion in film :)

Animators Should think like Artists

Check out the following link for an excellent article about the perils of approaching CGI animation from a purely technical standpoint. Some great artworks that express the individuality associated with the human condition and this is afterall what we are attempting to achieve- a conncetion with the audience through our exploration of universal emotions and stories.

Promo Concept Art

Created some promo concept art to really help 'sell' the idea of the characters visually during the pitch. Although this particular piece of promotional material doesn't give away anything of the character in terms of his motivations and I like the fact that it is very much an expected vision a of 'cutsey' unicorn; a concept that is subverted in the film.

The script is coming along well so far, well the first draft anyway. I made the decision early on that I wanted to tell a good story and that it had to be a story that was universal in experience regardless of the fact that it is being told through the lives of mythical beasts. Once the script is complete it will be sent out to a range of different readers for their opinions and suggestions, I would rather get ideas for improvement now rather than later down the track. Of course I'm pleased and proud of the idea, but its not a sacred cow and can easily be changed or improved based on the suggestions of others.

In terms of character development, I am pleased with the unicorn progress and hope this week to move onto more thumbnails that capture movement, decide on mouth placement and then move onto the young dragon, the protagonist of the story.

Tangled

One of the best films ever produced by the Walt Disney Animation studios, hitting all the marks in areas of story, character and animation design and development. For a basic synopsis of the plot click here. Definately see as a 2D film, not 3D, to full appreciate the details present in the layouts and characters.

Although created as a CGI animation film, the masterful influence of 2D animator and Disney legend Glenn Keane is clearly evident as the CGI created characters exude more movement and humanity than other computer generated humanoids have done in previous and current films (Shrek, Megamind, Toy Story).

Perhaps one disappointing area for me personally was the villian. Rapunzel's mother, clearly heavily influenced by the look of diva Cher, seems to lack the pizazz for which other Disney villians are famous. Although she must hide her true identity from her 'daughter,' I felt that the audience could have been given a more in depth look at the pure evil and selfishness obviously lurking in her soul.

My only other gripe about a film that had an exceptionally tight storyline, great soundtrack, solid supporting characters, beautiful environments that were conceptually complimentary to the plot development and associated themes; was the character's eyes. At times the size of the eyes compared to the dimensions of the head made the characters look like cupie dolls and in a film with so many intense closeups, eyes should not cross- its very distracting.  

Stand out character performances were the comical sidekicks Pascal the 'frog' sorry Chameleon and the unlikely ally Maximus the lead horse of the King's army. Both remained non speaking parts which really forced the animators to explore comedy through movement and also establish a connection with the audience through nuances and a simple look.

Overall, Tangled is a masterpiece, an instant (14 years in the making) classic that I loved. If Disney continues in this direction then maybe there is hope that disasters such as Disney's Home on the Range are a thing of the past.

Colour Tests

Working from basic line art, my other job today was to start wrangling with colour. When rendering I tend to overblend my work and rely upon subtle shading to indicate volume, which works well with illustrations and concept art, but is painful on a moving animation character. I also had to think carefully about how to indicate the definition of the character without losing its predominantly white colouring. This is the first colour test was done with a cool colour palette most often seen in Unicorn artwork.

Line Art

The conversion of a complex concept design to a workable line art piece, is something that I have struggled with in the first two years of uni. I often find that my character concepts are unneccessarily overcomplicated and although illustrative in quality do not always make the ideal models for character animation. Today was spent converting the unicorn herd concept designs into workable and realistic line art that can disseminated amongst a team for reproduction without a loss of original design. So far I am happy with the progress on these secondary characters.

Horse Movement

Starting to focus more on the movement and characteristic habits of horses when grazing as this will be the basis for the individual movements seen in the unicorn herd. Also starting to establish a distinct character shape for the young unicorns as opposed to the elegant unicorns they become when fully grown. This all sounds way too detailed, but it does help me think about the drawings as potential characters rather than as immovable lines.

More Concept Art

A few more concept art pieces for third year film idea. These would primarily be the background unicorns, grazing and frollicking as part of the herd. Script is also coming along well and should be ready for a read through in a couple of weeks. Although we are making the choice to limit dialogue in favour of character actions and movements expressing the mood and emotion of the scene and character.