Concept images for final project

For the past two weeks I've been looking at the storyboard concept for my final film !

The premise:

Set in a dark room, a 2D woman is taken hostage in a camera film negative. She must overpower her captor to become 3D.

I've used a style board  to put together a rough visual guide, which will provide a visual framework for the story and images to evolve from.

These images are for working reference only - they are not my own work...

UV Mapping - basics

UV Mapping in Maya

This reminded me of pattern cutting in costume making...

I am used to XYZ axis in AutoCAD and Google sketch up and today I learned a about the UVW axis -  XYZ axis' are used in all 3D modelling software...to avoid confusion, mapping is known as UV (not sure what happened to the W!)

Here's some basic UV mapping, applied to a pre-made object of a torso...

Final film research: Dark Rooms !

Research for final film....

I've had some vague ideas about 2D & 3D transformations but no underlying structure or theme....

so I have been letting the ideas soak...

I was chatting with my husband last night and we started talking about dark rooms. I had a call scheduled  with my very good animator friend Karen Watson http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba84caa82; to brainstorm and give shape to some of these ideas I've been having....the two conversations ignited an idea and the story idea arrived ! 

Today I've been researching Dark Rooms and the photographic dark room printing process....

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Print-BW-Photographs-in-a-Darkroom/?ALLSTEPS

And I've found these images on line...the top one is from a photography student's blog....http://arlettaelizabeth.blogspot.co.uk/2014_11_01_archive.html

I love this image; the colours, the loose neon style of text and the whole general feel of the image.

The striking simplicity of the colours in a dark room, plus the process and the subsequent analogies and metaphors will be perfect to tell the story...

First attempt at a walk cycle

I've been reading 'The Animator's Survival Kit' - Richard Williams
and thought I would try out some sketch ideas for a walking man...
I drew the images on detail paper, using a base line for the character to make contact with...the contact drawing seems to be very important...
I then took a quick photo of the sketches on my phone and imported into my old version of Photoshop CS2, and tried out a rough walk cycle; using simple block colours, lighter and darker tones to differentiate the left and right arms and legs....
Each frame was set to .5 second, the timing is a bit slow and I think I might need to add some in-betweens, to make the walking smoother...

Really pleased with this first attempt though, and like the simplicity of the character...

Playing with eyes

Whilst researching Pixar's Inside Out, I came across some youtube tutorials for colouring in eyes.
Sketched one in my book, then photographed it and imported it into photoshop...
and played with colours and highlights...

Animation basics

My first attempt at animation!

A test of a bouncing ball....using the basic animation tool in Photoshop CS2...the timings seemed to become slower, particularly noticeable on the first drop, once exported as a .gif.

I've spent the afternoon reading half of the 'The Animator's Survival Kit' by Richard Williams. What a brilliant book.

It's inspired me to dig out some life drawings from 2010....looking forward to starting classes again!

Next experiment will be a walk cycle!! 

2D-3D Character Design

2D - 3D Character Concept/Design

Pre-production

Brief:
Design a Humanoid character concept/design.

Deliverables:

• Character Concept Art
• Model Sheet
• Turnaround
• Storyboard
• Animatic

I've brainstormed, mind mapped, sketched, researched digital images, looked at adverts, film clips and youtube tutorials to begin to formulate ideas for my final film.

I am making the leap from static visual to moving image - this is in terms of research and creation - plus creating an online sketch book https://uk.pinterest.com/andreamcswan/animation/ in addition to my hard copy sketch book....

Ideas for 2D world and character...

Flat cut out layers. White to colour. Grid reference visible. Bombed out exposed interiors. Geometric white cloud skies. Rigid modernist, regimented and controlled enviornment

Themes of Isolation towards belonging; Harm to Justice

The protagonist = A female character. Drawn outline, semi-transparent. Layered and fragmented

The setting = a 2 dimensional, flat, white world. Bombed out houses. Glass. Restriction. Maze?

The Antagonist = Self doubt and self deception. Plus an 'outside' force. The 2D police? A mangle? A vice?

The change = She overcomes self doubt and deception and transforms into 3D

Who is the main character? Why are they isolated? Is it self-imposed?
What has she lost?
How did it become lost?

What are the obstacles in her path that prevent her from regaining what she has lost?

What is the change that she goes through to overcome her obstacles?

What is the result of this change?
Tone - Dramatic, with possible humour?

Film references to date (suggested by Brendan Body and peers)

'Please Say Something' David O'Reilly 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2YdJy0w66Y&list=PLR6NkeqscAx1G47ES3keltSaZi4DNOpXk&index=2

'Ryan' - Chris Landreth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbkBjZKBLHQ&list=PLR6NkeqscAx1G47ES3keltSaZi4DNOpXk&index=3

'Inside Out' Pixar - Bongs Shortcut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nlF4BVJBgU&list=PLR6NkeqscAx1G47ES3keltSaZi4DNOpXk&index=5

.

Book References so far:

Dobbs, D. Fleming, B (1999) Animating Facial Features and Expressions.Charles River Media Inc

Frazier, C. (2003) The Illustrated Voice. Graphis, Inc

Maestri, G (2002) Digital Character Animation 2. New Riders Publishing

Nie, Y (2011) Illustrators In and Out. China Youth Press

Shulevitz, U. (1985) Writing with Pictures. New York: Watson-Gupthill