Animation- WIP

DM Test Scene from Doug on Vimeo.

 

 

Sh 23 Blocking from Doug on Vimeo.

I took 2 of the most challenging/most fun shots to tackle first to set the style of the motion and get a feel for drawing the character. I was also thinking if the project turned out not to work or if I couldn't find time for it at least these would look good on my showreel as standalone pieces.

Production Folder Structure

The whole production for my short film is on this card that's smaller than my thumbnail! If that idea doesn't make me back up files I don't know what will. I just spent a couple of hours building the folder structure of the project and copying the pre-production stuff into the new system.

Gives you a new appreciation of the tech guys at work doing this pipeline type of stuff :)

I found a handy program called Text2Folders which helps you setup folders/subfolders very quickly and since I don't know how to do a batch process this was a godsend.

So everthing's set up and ready to animate. Eek!

Freelance Animation

Been looking for some remote freelance work on sites like elance. There seems to be great demand for these whiteboard type illustrated explainer videos so I had a go at doing one with a Karl Pilkington story as a kind of proof of concept. Quite fun to do.

Ant Problem - Karl Pilkington from Doug on Vimeo.

And here's my 2d Animation Reel...

2D Freelance Animation Reel from Doug on Vimeo.

Dark Matter

Been sketching a spaceman character in my notebook. Really enjoying playing about with a sci-fi theme and thinking up ideas for a possible short film. Threw in some robots for good measure too.

Working on some animal shots and some fight scenes for a new reel focused on VFX and games animation. This is something I have very little experience of so it's fun trying something new and expanding my horizon's a little. Video reference seems to be the mantra from most people in the VFX world so I have studied lots of reference footage and cut together a couple of parts for this shot. Think it's going well but the polish is where it gets difficult. I really want this tiger to look and feel real.

K-9Lives: Episode 3

I must be streamlining my process of making these... this one took a day and a half less time than episode 2. So hopefully I can get Ep4+5 going soon and then I will put together an 8 minute film, cut together with Episodes 2,3,4+5. That's the plan at the moment anyway.

My previous experience of taking Episode 1 to film festivals was that it was too short a film to really grab people. I think the idea of K-9 takes a while to sink in with people. It is a bit weird and surreal so perhaps several episodes together will let them grasp the concept better. Also I think each of these films is improving as I go. So hopefully given the success of the first one I should get a good festival run out of the next film.

I am also busy with other comics work and preparing for a convention in May so we'll see how soon I can get going on the next episode...

K-9Lives Episode2: I thought I would post some background info on the making of this film. It has been almost a year since the first episode and that in no way reflects how long each one takes to make. But I have been busy inbetween, working on another comic strip Bloodwhat which is up to 124 strips! And The Von Spleen Experiment which is a graphic novel in progress.

The K-9Lives comic strip has come to an end in its current format. Now I'm hoping to make the most successful stories from the comic into animated episodes for the website. When I have about 5/6 episodes I will edit them together to make a 12-15 minute short film which I intend to submit to festivals and hopefully develop some further interest.

I found the work of David O Reilly quite an inspiration for this method. His film "Please Say Something" was created in 30second episodes online and went on to win all sorts of awards when the final film was finished.

Episode 2 took me 2 weeks to produce, working full time (with some late nights). I always planned for these films to be quick and simple... because I wanted to see the finish line. Rather than spend 20 years working on an idea that may have been flawed from the start, working like this lets me see my finished work and learn from mistakes and develop and progress.

I want to share some links that have been keeping me inspired over the last few months, most of it is comics related... some animation related. All inspiring artwork and thoughtful blogging. So in no particular order:

http://jason-brubaker.blogspot.com/ Jason Brubaker is working on an independent graphic novel called Re-Mind which looks stunning and I am following the progress on and off.

http://scottmorse.blogspot.com/ Scott Morse is a Pixar story artist I believe. I first found him through his graphic novel Ancient Joe which I'd recommend by the way. His blog is full of artwork he does outside of work. I have no idea how he finds the time!

http://rawlsy.blogspot.com/ Darren Rawlings working on a graphic novel. Agent Orange. I don't know how close to completion it is but the development work is fantastic. He also has a cool webcomic, The life of Rex Bunyan.

http://www.rice-boy.com/ Yet more graphic novelly goodness from Evan Dahm. This one is epic and I've barely scratched the surface. Will probably just get the book when I can afford it but I like to check out the site now and then to see what's new.

http://www.chickenhare.com/ Chris Grine's new site launching soon with Chickenhare 3 which is being released as a webcomic. He is a published comic creator and yet he's decided to release this latest book online. Perhaps that means publishing on the web IS a potential money maker. Hmm.

http://animondays.blogspot.com/ I love this site for an inspirational monday lecture. Davis B Levy has created several tv series and even published a book on how you can do the same. It is quite New York indy scene orientated but very interesting none the less.

http://tedtheterrible.com/?p=36 Fun comic about a kid in school who tries to be a super hero.

http://cocknbull.net/ Foul mouthed but often hilarious comic about a chicken (cock) and a cow (bull).

Rocket Jo (France 3)
Uploaded by Tele-Loisirs

This is the TV show I worked on in France for 6 months... It is showing now on French TV and will hopefully come to England? Or maybe DVD soon. For now though there is an episode on Daily-Motion. This one was animated by Christophe.

Storyboard Comparison (read bottom to top)

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I thought it might be of interest for some people to see the story sketches I did for the animation below. As you can see I work very roughly, on various scraps of paper. I find it is easier to get ideas on paper if you are not feeling too precious about the result, It doesn't matter how it looks to me... so long as I have the idea. Then if it needs re-working I do that when I approach the scene in animation.

I chose this shot as the first animation test because I was happy with the shot, I knew it would be in the film.... wheras some other things in the film are shifting and changing still. I have probably half the story worked out, with the rest roughly mapped but needing some things adding. At the moment the story reel is running about 6-8 minutes and we're about half way through I think. So probably it will end up being about 12-15 minutes. I have about 1 minute of finished animation, so we're on our way!

Animation Test second pass TVSE from Doug on Vimeo.

I have been working on this shot for a while, trying to get the visuals to my taste. It takes a long time cleaning each frame of all the dust and debris that the scanner picks up. I need to see if there is a quicker way but for now I think this is how the film will look.

Festival Update:

K-9Lives Episode1 has been selected for screening at Worthing End Of The Pier Festival.

The screening is on the 30th April.

I've decided to do all the shadows rendering in pencils, I really prefer the look and it means I can spend more time at the drawing board which I prefer to staring at the computer screen. The comments from Sketch Tavern by Spagetthi016 and Dozer (dont know their real names!) were very helpful and I've made a few improvements on these shots.

I went off the grimy look of the previous B+W stills so I did a cleaner crisper version here. I also added colour to the yellow wires... This could be a god way of doing B+W and still having some visuals pop in colour on certain items.
I've posted my concept stuff at Sketch Tavern and just got an in depth critique on some of these stills, I'll post up the altered version soon.

I'm trying to define the visuals for the film, this is where I take some stills and try endless variations of colours, photoshop effects, chop and change different things. I'm quite likeing the black and white style.... I have always been drawn to B+W but haven't utilised it in any of my films yet. It seems like quite a big leap to take colour out of the picture. I do think it will fit the style of the story tho.

Early Animation Test for The Von Spleen Experiment from Doug on Vimeo.

For your viewing pleasure........ a veeery early test on The Von Spleen Experiment. I'm planning on using this very rough pencil style, the colours kinda rough too. I'm using a shadow layer which will take much longer to paint but I think it looks much nicer. I want to get things rolling with this project and don't want to hesitate too much.

It's a bit early for poster design but I wanted to do a sorta concept sheet, with the main characters and the title. I can put this with the pitch materials but basically I'm making this without funding anyway.... so it's just for fun.

I actually started animating the first shot yesterday! It will give me a chance to try some things out and define the style, and I've picked a shot that I really like to start with and it's a lot of fun so far. I'm still storyboarding it but since I don't like getting bogged down in one area I'll move about onto different departments (storyboard, background, layout, animation, colouring etc) as and when I get the inspiration. That way I'll always be fresh.

Character sheets for my new project "The Von Spleen Experiment". I have had this project in slow development on story, character design, etc for about a year now and it's beginning to shape itself into a ready for production project. I am planning on getting some close friends to contribute some work in their particular fields of expertise, partly just to keep things interesting for me. I am planning a 6 month schedule for this which is 6x that of my previous film "K-9Lives Episode1". I think it will be important to aquire some outside assistance if only to keep my own inspiration levels up.

Unless I get some freelance work this is what I'll be working on for some time now so expect more of this to come over the following weeks.

Watch the trailer for my short film K-9Lives Episode 1 on the film's IMDB page.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1358980/

Be sure to give it a rating after you watch!