I've been looking at dramatic scenes and inspirational images for the money shot sequence in Act III for my Masters Project sequence THAW...
Here's a few shots taken from Avatar; which I've rearranged to create a simple sequence of the Protagonist's journey from despair to hope....
It's been great to just drop these pre-formed images into Premiere to give me a very indicator of how the film could feel and look....
So for my final year animation I want to create a stunning sequence of transformation; and to explore over the next few days what shot set ups, sequences and effects I can incorporate to push the transformation to maximum effect.
My opening sequence shows a static woman, emotionally frozen in grief.
I discussed with Phil my idea of having the camera revolve around her 360 degrees, whilst she remains static. I have a time-lapse sequence in the background so I need to get some facts about how this can be achieved; either via live action or digitally.
For her later transformation and emotional 'Thaw' I like the idea of intense movement both slow mo and real time.
Quicksilver's kitchen scene in X-Men Days Of the Future Past came to mind as a great sequence that incorporates these elements.
Of course, this is a high end feature film technique, but with imagination and the expert tuition and experience available at DJCAD, I might be able to instill the key ideas of this into my film.
Phil brought in sweet/salty popcorn for us to have whilst watching the latest 48 hours films. One of the students, Sean, asked me what my final film was about. His comment after my description. "Cool. Bitter sweet."
No: 18 version of my animatic is complete.
Next steps to take:
One more rough cut edit.
Research inspiration for 'money' shot; to create dramatic sequence of transformation
Cheat as many shots, to reduce workload.
Create Shot list
Schedule Live action filming
CG shots
Casting.
Opening mood. Sombre silhouette live action figure, shot against a green screen. Maya flowers/painted scene behind
So today marks the start of semester 1 year 2 for me and I met with this years MSc Animation and VFX cohort and had a fun doing a quick 'show and tell' of some of my industry experience, funny anecdotes and mistakes as Art Dept Assistant on Judge Dredd http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113492/
I became adept at brewing tea shade to the exact specification of brown on the art department 'tea' making paint chart...but to begin with was not so great at figuring out that gun drawings, created for prop mock ups, with "1/4 scale" written on were in fact full size.
After six hours at the photocopy enlargement shop, I arrived very late back at the studios, with massive polystyrene guns protruding from my 'open top convertible' 2CV.
My caffeine deprived hysterical boss screeched "Have you ever seen six foot ****ing hand guns?!!!"
Errm.... That would be a no.
Here's a quick snap shot of me taken on the Wild Turkey set; for the scenes filmed with Ian Dury; where I managed to get some experience in Mega City one, sticking fly posters and generally littering for fun.
Oh and here's the best part of the film. I managed to get the task of drawing the door and corridor that Judge Dredd kicks in.
A few more frames to go - just figuring out the final section within Act II and in the next few days will send the complete animatic to Phillip Vaughan for his critique and feedback on the next steps to take!
After a very exciting trip to London to visit Double Negative, Framestore, Jellyfish, MPC and my personal favourite ILM - culminating in the Masters Show screening, including our Going Live project 'Toy Scandal' at the DCA, I am now back and putting together the middle section shots for my animatic for THAW.
As the visual style of the film is highly photographic incorporating vivid technicolour, live action and CGI, I've moved on from hand drawn storyboards to create quick concept art work, using images on line, Getty Images, clip art and photoshop from the following sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5l4MghKGEA&list=PLR6NkeqscAx1r2b3gn0xPJqqfAe7tIEYy&index=2
I can then use these images and compositions for the purposes of inspiration for the live action footage, when it comes to shooting my own original work later on in the process...
Here's a few exported frames to indicate colourscript, tone, lighting and how CGI will combine.
Next step is to finish off the frames for Act II and to include camera moves, directions and notation to show to Phillip Vaughan....
