Last Week was a Tough One

Last week we met as a group with the scriptwriting supervisor and it was kinda tough. Trying to express my vision of the project was difficult and hearing that the entire project was a horrible idea was heartbreaking.

So, after a little cry I went home and thought about the project as a whole rather than just as a script. I took on board the suggestions from other team members and that helped me hone the story to a more manageable narrative. I think the thing that was upsetting was the threat that the core idea of the project was a bust and had to be changed. Once I worked through the narrative another 3 or 4 times I could see that it was possible to keep the central idea but alter the actual narrative to make it doable in the time limits.

The story has now paired down to a coming of age tale about a little dragon who wants to fit in but has a habit of sneezing and the most inappropriate times. He gets a chance however to step up to the plate and become a hero. I love the classic form of the hero's journey and this has been the basis of the entire project from the beginning.

We had another project meeting on Tuesday where we came together as a team and worked out the major overreaching vision of the project. We established that we are looking to create an old school vintage cartoon with a focus on theatrical character animation through strong lines of action and comedy.

After a rocky start I think we have the opportunity to start and finish an amazing film, I can't wait to see it done :)

Inspiration for project

We Get Board!

Our upcoming short film, Draco has started its promotion phase and we've started the ball rolling by putting up posters and concept art on the legendary boards of Level 5 at QCA lol.

Story Beats

These story beats are quick sketches- 10min to complete, that capture a particular scene or character moment from the script. I've tried to draw them as I see them in my mind.

Meet a Possible Draco

After many drafts and hours spent working on the creation of this character I think I have been able to create the little bugger that was stuck in my mind. Yes he is overtly cute, but I think his face will allow me to push my animating abilities and his body is built to tumble and express that awkwardness that comes when you're not quite sure who you are yet.

This is not the final design, but its the closest I've come to it so far and that makes me happy; for the moment.

Need to research claws more, not happy with these ones yet.

Scriptwriting

Without much guidance from the 2nd year scriptwriting subject where we were supposed to learn the craft of scriptwriting for animation, I have just completed the second draft of the Draco script.

I made the decision early on that I wanted to test the script on a range of readers before even beginning to animate a single scene. As a animator I not only want to demonstrate all that I have learnt in animation so far, but I also want to tell good stories. So now I wait to hear back from my test readers, then the script will be revised again before being sent out to a different lot of test readers. My attitude in relation to opinions and criticisms is that I would rather know now than waiting till we get further down the track and find ourselves trying to animate something that just isn't a very good story.

So for now? I wait.

Sky studies

Sky and cloud studies, focus to establish depth and realism.

Essential Cloud Painting

Given that the sky is an integral part of the third year film, with it being the home of the source of inspiration for the protagonist- where the little dragon sees his father at his best, I was thrilled when I found this article on a fantastic animation blog . The article provides an insight into the delicate art of cloud painting.

Colour and Background Concepts

Messing around with colour and style to create a concept background for the third year film based on the colours and style of both Fantasia Pastoral Suite and What's Opera Doc.

Concept Art Background

A pivotal moment in the film I'm working on, is when the little dragon is rejected by the group and goes to cry by the lakeside. He sees his reflection and, in a similar vein to Disney's Mulan, is disappointed with what he sees as it is different to everyone else.

Before creating this background, I researched a lot of Disney legend, Mary Blair's work- in particluar scenes from Alice in Wonderland. I'm happier with how this one is evolving and also happy that I am starting to understand how colours work to create atmosphere and direction.

Concept Art Layout

Taking a break from scriptwriting and character design to try and illustrate the place that I see in my mind when I'm writing the film script. I see the valley as appearing in a kind of alpine setting, in keeping with the idea of purity often associated with unicorns. An alpine setting also allows for rocky outcrops and a variation in zones from the peacefulness of the valley covered in wildflowers to the dragon roost and the troll cave. It also holds the potential to be dramatic in scale.

At the moment I am grappling with the idea of a realistic setting versus a designed and imagined setting that is colourful and fanciful, more in keeping with fantasy. More to come.

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:

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.

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.

New Project

After much discussion and debating about ideas and possible stories for third year, we have come to a very simple notion; that story is key. We want to tell a good meaty story without complications. A story that has a sense of universality in the themes and a easy to follow 3 act structure perfect for a 5-10 min film.

In addition to pages scribbled with character ideas created during meetings at work, the piece pictured above is one of the first srs concept art pieces for the adult unicorns.