What i'm doing

I said I'd update, so here we go:

Currently, i'm trudging through all my work and starting to lay it out in my production bible. It's taking a while because i've got a lot of files to sort through and i'm also missing things, so i'm trying to fill in the gaps.

I'm also working on my FULL animatic, not just the filmed storyboard anymore. Trying to make it neat and tidy so it's easily understood. Should have that done by...Sunday? (As it's inbetween everything else it's taking longer...and yes, I know to focus on one thing at a time but my brain
wanders onto different tasks easily!!) Anyway, when it's done i'll post it here once more.

Um...the model has gone on hold for the time being while all the paperwork is sorted, I am down to the mouth on the faceplate and the body is in almost the same state as I showed you before.

Since I don't really have anything to show on here right now as it's all in progress, I'll stick a little piece of concept art up to keep you happy:

EEP!

Ok...I know I missed a weekend update, but there is reason for that!! I had paying work to do. Yes! Money distracted me from my uni work! I had some book illustrations to do. And I also had a tiger commission sketch to do (again, small version of it, tis A3 normally):

Now these are done though, I can continue with film work and post later this week. So don't worry, be happy!

Patch modelling is confusing!!

Yes, not going to stick much up as it's just a flying visit, but I thought I would update. Got the basic structure of the body (minus hands and feet) built. Needs a lot of work...but at least the base is there:

Then I started thinking about the head..."Oh dear, I've never really built a functioning head before...where do I start?!" I tried continuing with box modelling, but I couldn't seem to get the loops and bits right. I tried nurbs, and sub divisional surfaces all with no joy.

And finally I found a tutorial that has helped a lot!! It's actually a tutorial for making a "Dobby House Elf" from Harry Potter, but it has nice images that explain the process of head building using patch modelling. It's insanly confusing when you start, but it seems to be working for me so far. This is the progress at about 45 minutes:

It's not much I know, but when you think it came from a single plane and i've just been extruding and such, AND it's my first go at it, it's not all THAT bad!

Just some more work

Ok, so...started modelling Ioan in Maya this weekend. My goal is to have him ready to animate with by the end of this week. Not textured necessarily...but Modelled, UV mapped, Rigged. Tall order, but hey! It's gotta be done. Here's the start:



And this is one of the props i've built so far...Ioan's mug, hoorah for room filling objects!!!



This weekend I have also started my budget plan, in conjunction with updating my schedule, Friday's talk with Katherine McQueen from A Productions was extremely useful, so thankyou a lot for setting that up tutors!!

Hmm...what else? Oh yes, I started painting some new concept art/colour and lighting examples. When they're finished i'll put them here. Also drew up a new list of sounds I'd need for the film, and a list of objects/props. Need to start drawing the designs for those soon.

Finally, to relax a bit...I decided to do a promotional picture of Ioan, so you can see that HERE.

Revised Animatic

Ok...so here's the filmed storyboard with the alterations James suggested. It will be a full animatic soon, but for now...this shall do.

APPROVAL!!!!!!

...with a few changes! Hehe. But yes! Finally have an idea that both I and the tutors are happy with. James said about some minor changes that would be better, so I've made those...but my Premiere is failing me so I can post it until i've exported it in uni i'm afraid.

Production on things start this week, hopefully the character, but I have started making various objects to fill up the set.

Will update later this week!

New Animatic...well...filmed storyboard at least!

As I said I would, I am updating. If you want to see the animatic that went so bad in the crit, you can see it HERE please bear in mind it only has temporary sound and it's only here for documentation and development purposes.

So, now the new one, (at the bottom of this post) it's only a filmed storyboard and not a full animatic because I think I should get feedback on the general idea before I start putting more time into a full thing.

Hopefully the story will explain itself, but if it doesn't (eep), here's a quick over-view:

There's a guy that is making a kit robot, and he gets to the last piece...but he drops it. Upon looking under the cupboard he discovers that there's a hole in the floor. And guess what? Yup. That's where the last little piece went. He tries to reach down through the hole but fails to reach the part.

He then has an idea. He shall create a tool...a tool so crazy it may actually work...and then he can finish his remote control robot! So he wanders around collecting various things, from the shed, drawers, etc. He then constructs this odd looking contraption, that he lowers into the hole, and he gets the last piece of his model back. Hoorah! He fits the last piece and is happy with both of his achievments.


ANDDDDDD it has a moral! YES! You heard me correctly! A moral! It is one that was told in Aesops fables, about a crow and a pitcher. And the moral is:

"Necessity is the mother of invention"

Finally...my film has a point. Hopefully. Lol.

Bonfire Night!

Yes...I know I missed yesterday's update. But there is reason for that. Here goes the explanation:

Friday's crit went...well..badly. I did finish my changes and my animatic for it, which I shall link here once I resize it tomorrow just for development purposes. I went up first in the crit and it was pointed out that my film was well...pointless. And I agree. I wasn't that happy with it. So I listened to everything the tutors had to say, and James explained about there being 2 main story types in film, and I'd picked the harder one.

SO! Over the weekend, I wrote down a multitude of ways to change my idea, but keep things I was happy with, such as the character. I started storyboarding and what not, and I came up with something I am fairly happy with. Made notes, spoke to peers about it, got some feedback, altered it a bit. All that stuff. And I thought, hey! I can make that into a filmed storyboard/animatic by Monday night...i'll update then!

I was wrong. Not in the fact that I couldn't do it in the timeframe, but I never took into account that it was Bonfire Night...and I have a dog and 2 cats that are all terrified of fireworks. I spent the whole night looking after them and didn't get any work done at all except for the individual frames. So I appologise and will get the animatic up tomorrow.

And now, I shall leave you with a pic of my poor pooch, who decided it was safest to sit in the bath during all of the commotion...even though thats the loudest spot to be in ¬_¬

I'm tired and going to bed. Night.