Astro Animatic

Dark Matter Animatic from Doug on Vimeo.

So this is the old version of my film. I've tweaked the story since then but I don't think I will post up the final version as I want some surprises in the final film.

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.

Humphrey's Corner

Humphrey's corner by Sally Hunter is a mini business empire based around these little elephant characters she based on her own family. They started off as greetings cards and have been licensed into books, clothing, furniture and everything else imaginable. Quite an inspiring story for independent artists. Anyway I did these art tests for a portfolio submission to the company when they were hiring illustrators. I was unsucessful but I'm quite pleased with how the watercolours (above) and digital watercolours (below) came out.

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.

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.

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.

5. Refined. More reference for parts that I wasn't happy with, elongated for a longer vertical pan. Experimenting with colour in photoshop.

4. Colour. Inked up a version based on the previous sketch, and coloured digitally.

3. Rough sketch. Looked at photographic reference for various elements to get more depth to the piece. Developed the composition a bit further.

2. Developed thumbnail. I've been looking at forced and extreme perspectives and I tried to incorporate that into the composition. Thinking about a possible camera move around the scene too.

1. Initial thumbnail: I knew I wanted a street with a doctors surgery sign. Town in the distance. The road was going to be very hilly here.

I wanted to give an idea of the process for this piece. I'm working on backgrounds for my new film project, it starts out with rough little thumbnails that are really not very good..... then I think about the composition and elements that I want or don't want. Then I take a look at some reference photo's, etc. Gradually it develops into something quite interesting.

This is going to be a birthday card for my cousin, a massive star wars fan!

Playing around with some animation background styles for an upcoming project.

Been joining in the draw every day in February challenge on www.sketchtavern.com

I'll post a few pieces that I like.