Sunday, 14 November 2010

D M More Finished Penguin Ref Sheets

Here we go! Ed is coming together rather nicely I think!

I've done two versions, because I remember Andy Kinnear saying that he wanted to see a version with a dark coloured coat with a blue shimmer. There isn't a huge difference, but it does change his look a bit. I think the one above looks cuter and more childish. The one below looks a little more serious, for some reason. After talking to him about these two concepts, he said he preferred the darker skinned penguin. So I will do a ref sheet with the colour change

I will probs do some more detailed reference sheets for this guy, but yeh this is how I think he'll look. I even did a little picture of the little dude over the top of an environment picture Andy picked out and put on his blog. I had a lot of fun working on this, and I hope Andy and the rest of the team think he looks okay. I'm sure there's things that will need editing, but this is still good progress.

In terms of turning this penguin into a 3D animated model, I tried to make the design as easy to cope with as possible. No hair or feathers to worry about. His feet have slight leg bits, so they can be rigged to bend and stuff, which will help when it comes to walk cycles. His face is fairly straight forward. His beak will be "rubbery" so you can change the size and shape to match his mood. He has a little tail too, for added character and flow. His flippers have no hands, so no tampering with rigging fingers. Oh and his mouth opens and closes, and has a tongue.

Here's some livestream footage of me drawing the penguin critters!

Saturday, 13 November 2010

D Studying Lou Romano.

http://louromano.blogspot.com/2009/06/up-color-script.html

Will write about this more, but for now, CLICK THE LINK

Amazing work!

Friday, 12 November 2010

IPP Work experience opportunity - continued

I got a response from Lorna Hamilton-Brown about the storyboarding position. Here's my correspondence with her:

Hi Emma,

I've heard back from the company their feedback was they liked your work. However they are looking a different style. They are looking for a more realistic charcoal sketched storyboard.

I'll keep you informed of any other opportunities.

------

Hey Lorna!

Thank you very much for letting me know the situation. It's a shame that they haven't taken me up, but I'm glad they liked my work all the same. If you could you let me know if you find any other work experience opportunities in the future, I would greatly appreciate it. I am keen to meet and work for some talented industry people. I am a very strong 2D artist, and can do concept, 2D + 3D animation, storyboarding and animatics, so if you find anything in that area of the animation industry, that would be fantastic!

If ever you want to meet up and talk more, let me know

------

Hi Emma,

Yes it is a shame, but there will be other opportunities. Let's meet up sometime. It
would be good to go over your CV.

Have a good weekend.

All in all, fairly positive

It's a shame it didn't work out for me, but maybe that shows that I should try and provide more of a variety of work. This experience makes me want to work with a variety of media, so that if another opportunity like that arises, I will have more to show for myself to cater for any situation.

I'm glad that Lorna wants to go over my CV, because I think it needs some improvement. It can so much better. I'll try and arrange a day to do this shortly

D M The Deep concept

I have been lucky enough to be asked by Andy Kinnear to do some work for his project "The Deep". I have warned him that I may not be able to do huge amounts of work for him because of the other work I am doing, but I have been able to find some spare time to do some concept work of his penguin character.

Here's some concept work he presented me as a basis to work from.

So once I had an idea of what he wanted, I got to work. I am under the impression that this little dude is a rather cheeky penguin. He has been accidently transported by a stray iceburg to unknown waters. He has decided to make his home there, since he likes it more then the cold wintery lands he came from. He comes across the hero of the story, and aggravates him because of their rivalling need to catch fish.

I know for a fact that "The Deep" is undergoing some story repairing, so this brief bio of the penguin may change.

Here are some drawings I did to start my exploration of the character. Most of these are just me practising drawing penguins, since they are an animal I haven't drawn a lot of in the past. I looked at a lot of different penguin pictures, so I could go for a variety of different shapes, sizes and markings. The ones with blue arrows are the ones Andy greenlit for me to continue developing.

Here are some more designs, based more on the greenlit ones I did above.

Lol smiley face for filler!

I'm currently working on some more finished concepts of the final penguin design. I'd upload them now, but I want to do some more drawings to really complete the penguin.

But yeh I almost forgot, here's a little character design brainstorm I did for both the raven and penguin designs

Please take some time to read this, it contains a lot of my deliberations about the designs, including colour, shape, and personality.

I plan to animate the finished 3D model of the penguin when it is done. I will do some little tests of him swimming soon, though I'll probs be doing stuff for Smitten first.

D M Raven concept

The Raven project has been going very swiftly, in terms of first hand research. We went on a trip to the Tower of London (Sophie Lodge, Steven Pender, James Ferdinando and myself) and got to see the Ravens and their masters in person. It was a fantastic visit, and really fueled me in terms of material to work on. Here are some drawings I did.

Early concepts. I rather like the design in the middle left. He looks kinda kooky, but a little like the vultures in the Jungle Book, a reference Sophie highlighted in her pitch.

These odd things in the pic above are the ravens without their beaks, wings, and talons. Sophie remarked at one point about how she'd like to see what they would look like if they took off their "uniform", so I considered how they might appear without the things that make them birds. They look very odd and a bit too comical, so we kinda scrapped this idea in the end. However I'm glad I tried it out!

The Ravenmaster in his uniform. I did a study of his face profile as he was talking to us

Here's some more early concepts I did. Sophie Lodge said that she is looking for something a little more realistic (However she likes the bottom raven in the above image)

I have done some more sketches going for a more realistic approach. Here they are below:

I also have the task of doing storyboarding and animatic for the team. At the moment we have lots of ideas and routes to go on for this project. Here's what I came up with for my brainstorming. Most focus on the Raven we love to hate - Munin, the black widow.

The fact that we have so many ideas is really encouraging, but we are having problems finalizing ourselves to just one proper chiseled framework for a story. So until we have a proper script, I am unable to do storyboarding and such until Sophie has decided on the direction for this project.

D M Research into how to achieve a successful animatic

Hey again!

I have a lot of work to upload, but for now, I'll post up some inspirations I have when building a decent animatic. Since I may be doing a few this year, I feel it is necessary for me to write a bit about it. When I did my animatic for my pitch, I received a lot of positive feedback, and I think the way I did my animatic helped me a lot. I was inspired heavily by The Incredibles animatics by Pixar. Here's an example of on bit of Pixar animaticness. This is an alternative opening to the film they did.

I don't go into as much detail as the vid above, but I really like the way this flows. It gives a clear idea of what the story is going to be like. The shots are well established, and the lighting and poses are well thought through.

I have also been reading a lot of the graphic novel series called "The Walking Dead"

The books has currently been made into a drama series, and the first episode aired on Oct 31st. It has become a big hit, and I have taken a great interest in the zombie apocalypse story.

I love the way the story is told in the books. However I feel it is important to note that the people who produced the drama serieshave used these comics as a kinda ready made storyboard to follow. They stick closely to the way the books tell the story. Below is some behind the scene footage of the drama series production. They speak briefly about ways in which they remain loyal to the books.

Another example of a graphic novel I love that has been made into a film is the "Scott Pilgrim" series.

I love these books so much. Bryan Lee O'Malley is one of my idols now haha! I even had the pleasure to go to his book signing in London and congratulate him on his success!

But yeh anyway, these 6 books he made were turned into a film by Edgar Wright (Responsible for such films as Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead). It has won critical acclaim, and will be released on DVD very soon.

The reason why I write about this is because Edgar Wright looked closely at the books when making a cinematic version of the story. They were the basis for his storyboards. Many of the shots in the final film were taken directly from the books. He even went to the places that Bryan drew for inspiration to shoot some of the scenes! Here's a video exploring this more.

Tuesday, 9 November 2010

IPP Work experience opportunity

Lorna Hamilton-Brown approached my BA class about a nice opening for some to do some serious storyboarding. Here are the e-mails that have been sent between us so far:

Hi Emma,

See below:

A local company is looking for a student to work as a storyboard artist in Pre-Production of a feature film. The student will work closely with the Director and assist him to realise his visual aspirations. You would also gain a screen credit.

Duties and responsibilities: To deliver materials on time and to have fun and be creative.

Essential skills required: Good drawer. Good visual eye and good collaborative skills. Punctuality on deadlines is essential.

Travel expenses will be covered.

You will be working on a professional level and must commit yourselves accordingly.

If you are interested in this position email Lorna Hamilton-Brown <l.hamilton-brown@rave.ac.uk> with a sample of your storyboarding and your CV.

Hey Lorna! Thank you very much for getting back to me on this fantastic opportunity. I'm sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner, I haven't had access to internet up until now.

I have some storyboard examples that I did for a pitch for BA animation which you can look at here:
http://emufmp.blogspot.com/2010/10/my-pitch.html

I can give you some more examples if you would like to see more work. I have a showreel as well that displays some of my work, though it predominantly shows my animation skills. Hopefully it helps show you my knowledge of how to structure a scene well, and my drawing skills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjHuVDW_qbg

You will also find attached my CV. Let me know if it needs some work, I've been wanting some advice on how I can improve it.

I would like to hear more about the project that you would like me to work on, so I can prepare myself for the work I need to do ahead. If you have any details about where I'll be working, who I'll be working with and when the deadlines will be, that would be helpful too.

Thanks again, and I hope to hear from you soon!

Emma Wyton