New Animatic (No sound)

A few days back I finished off my second animatic with all the changes I made to script, I haven't got around to recording the dialogue and will the soonest date I will be able to record it is on the 3rd of January.
But here's the version without sound (the timing is completely off but soon as I get the audio I can then fix that problem)

Character Outline

Tomorrow is Christmas so everyone is rushing around doing what needs to be done and I'm still trying to get through the new second animatic as well as my dissertation.
I've gotten a fair amount of Concept background done which I'll show when I but them into slides but for now I thought I post the slides detailing the backgrounds for my characters

Characters Expressions

I managed to finish off all the character expression sheets today and tomorrow I plan to work on more background concepts

Protagonists Turn Around

Since my last post I have either been updating my CV and cover letter, drawing some expression sheets or creating some concept backgrounds. But haven't done anything that I'm willing to post yet apart from finishing the turn around of the three main protagonists (which are shown below).

I hope to post some of my backgrounds I have done in the near future and also finish the new animatic I'm doing creating. 

Character Development update

Through out this week I have been working on my characters. Finishing their design, creating a turn and making action/expression sheets. Below are a few turnarounds and expression sheets.

Ruff Animatic

I finished my ruff animatic over the weekend which compared to the storyboards I changed a few scene's because either it was difficult to understand what was going on or film worked better without the that scene. There is still one or two things I want to change (mostly characters expressions and how characters interact with other characters) but the main scene I want to change is the end because currently it doesn't work that well.

Story boards for third year film

First half of this week I spent creating my storyboards for my animation so everyone can get a better idea of what I want to do and how it is going to look.

The second half of this week (carrying over into the weekend) is changing it into an animatic. I have put the scene's together and recorded the dialogue but I still need to gather some sound effects and then put them altogether in Adobe Premiere

Three Protagonists Complete

Today I completed my third and final protagonists design (which I have shown below). The original back story of the characters where very different from what they are now. Although this doesn't effect the plot at all for the animation I thought it would be interesting to bring up.
Originally the  three characters are unrelated and work for the one character Trixy, But after designing the third character I wanted to change it to that the third character is the father and the other two are his son and daughter.

Again although this don't changed anything for animation I'm creating, it would if this was to go onto be on going series.

(below are two images of my first initial sketch and the final characters I decided to go with)

Protagonists Character Development

This week I have been working developing my three main characters for my current project.
I have finished two out of three but still need to create a turn around and expression sheets but I decided I wanted to leave that till I finished that until all the characters are designed for two reasons:

First, I want to see if they look had staying power, because many of times I have designed a character and thought I liked the way they looked to completed all the expression and action sheets and find out I didn't like the design as much as I thought I did and then I wasted a day or two.

Second reason is I don't want to spend all my time on some of my characters expression sheets to run out of time which results in maybe the world design being cut short.

Maybe this will come back and hit me back of the head or maybe it wont, time will tell.

Below I have posted images of two of my characters (final design... which might change if the staying power doesn't last) and concepts for my third character

Character Trixy's Clothes

For the last day or two I've been developing my characters but to be specific gathering research images and drawing what clothes they should wear.

I've done a few concepts for one of my characters (Trixy) but I still got a few more things to want to try before I going to detail. Below I've posted some of the concepts I have done.

Starting New Project Pre Production

Monday I was given my new brief for pre-production for animation of my own creation.
I already had an idea of what I wanted to do so I could jump straight in., so far I've written an outline and started writing who the characters are (name, age, history etc).

But at the same time I have my first hand in for my dissertation Monday coming up so I have to put this project on hold little bit until I am up to scratch on it.

After Effects test videos

I've but together a test of my final video for my project as well as corrected most of it on the feedback I was given and made a second test. I've put them both below instead of making two posts within the same day.

Test 1

Test 2

After Effect Final Video Progress

I thought I would show a few screenshots of my progress so far on my final video for the After Effects project to show how it is coming along.

I have also recorded the audio that will be narrating over the top of the video and once all the clips are complete I can then edit them all together.

After effects test 1

Over the week I got in touch with charity I picked to do my promotional video on and they where fine with me doing a video for them and I've created a ruff storyboard as well as gotten started on blocking it out.

I also created a few more tests which I've put in a video show reel below

After Effects tests 1

For this new brief I have been tasked to explore the feature of after effects and then using that knowledge create a 30 second click to promote charity of our choice.

I've completed a number of small tests but my best effects are smoke changing into text and creating a wave portal. I have added the videos of these effects below.

Final Google Doodle Tweeked

Over the weekend I improved my Google doodle which I have posted below.
What I have changed is the mouse cursor and I have made the barn door click able where you can now enter the barn and taken to a new screen

Finished Google Doodle Project

I managed to finish all the essentials for my Google doodle today, but over the weekend I want to iron out all the little errors and add improvements.
The biggest idea I want to add is the ability to click on the farms doors and enter the barn to play with more buttons, but that would require me design an entire room and code it so the user can enter and leave. But until the weekend comes around I'm not sure how much time I'll have to do it all.

Google Doodle Progress

I have almost completed my Google Doodle and the current progress of the interactive image is shown below

the constant animations are complete but only three of the buttons are working so far (and the Moon buttons sometimes glitches which I need to go back and find out what's wrong). At the rate this is going I should be finished by Thursday.

As I side project I also created an animated image of a ghost puppy using the transparency and glow tools in flash

Ghost Puppy Krinkles by NonsenseGhost on deviantART

Creating a Google doodle

I've started on my Google doodle idea and after a number of concept ideas I settled on the idea scarecrow field idea (which I posted below)

(this is a ruff design of what I'm going to do, the red text are click able events and the blue text are objects in constant motion)

My progress so far on creating my Google doodle is I have drawn the basic images and labelled all the separate layers so I know which is which, my next task is to colour all the images and then start transforming them into buttons and then animations.

Improving Flash animating and action script

I've spent last week and this week (thus far) continuing to learn to more about flash and experimenting with more action scripting.
Using action script I have created a number working buttons one of which is embed below.

This is of button which looks like an old man which will play a different audio clip each time he is clicked.

I'm going to try and find some more tutorials on flash and then I shall start my final piece for this project which will be this Thursday.

First day of third year

First day back in the Atrium, starting my third.
I have been given my brief which is in short to learn new skills and tricks on adobe flash.
What I've done so far today is look up tutorials on how to add glow effects, learn to use the bone tool and use nesting more effectively.

While doing individual tests for these I also made 10 second video using all three of these features which I have linked below

Completed Projects

I managed to finish my final Major project yesterday but before I show the final video I want to get a second opinion from my lecture for last minute changes or edits which I didn't notice.
In Addition I finished the title card for fellow student for the collaboration side which is below.
There are few things which I would of liked to improve on but given the time I couldn't do them.

Animation with sound and collaboration

I had ruff test of my sound yesterday which I have put into a test below. In general I'm happy with the sound maybe a few tweaks here and there but this close to hand I'm not sure if there would be enough time to make the slight changes.

I've also took on a minor collaboration with one of the stop motion students (Hannah Griffiths) to do he title card. below is very early animation, I'm planning on animating a rising sun in the background and another doll on the right side which when reveal both teddies/dolls will run off the screen.

Animation near completion

Wrench Fight test 1

This is last complicated scene of animation, everything else is just animation which I can in day.
When doing my backgrounds there was one I missed and it's for this scene so I need to go back and create it but the animation looks to hear with a tweak here or there.

Ruff Test 2 (No Audio)

Final Major Project Update

I haven't updated for a while because I've had other course work to do and I've quiet ill but here's an update on my animation, I've added text for the two missing drawings and I've haven't put the spaceship animation in because I want to finish a bit more of it first.

Animation progress so far

I havn't really shown what I have done altogether on my animation so  thought I'd put the scenes I've done together in the correct order show my progress. Please keep in mind this far from finished and a few scene's need to be completely reworked.

Music and Sound

Yesturday I met up with my sound guy to discuss what I want for the animation.
He seemed to understand what I wanted which opening up with a cheesy 60's alien invasion theme
(e.g. The opening theme for "the day the earth stood still, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ULhiVqeF5U)

He mentioned doing the sound effects should be no problem and seemed to be really emthusasitc about doing them which is good given the sound effects is probably going to be the thing which will make or break the animation.
Trying to get the idea of what ambient music I want was rather difficult, I wanted something mysterious and yet tranquil but changes up when the first alien dog is in the shadows and again for the gaint monster. The only example I could find was this (starting from the 14 min mark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKfgP93FjCc)

Final major project update part 2

I haven't posted for a while mostly because I've just been getting on drawing the key frames for my project and I wanted to show some animations (even if not completed) in my next post. So here are some animations that I have done but it's not everything I've done because I want to finish a bit more on them before I show them.

Animation Tests

I've started doing my animation tests and so far they're going okay but I think I'm going have to back to scratch again for my walk, this is my second attempt and I'm not completely satisfied with how it's looking. But for now I'll finish it off and move onto a new scene just so I don't run out of time with only a half animation done.

Finishing backgrounds

I've have now completed the lining and adding the main colours to my backgrounds and the next step is to add textures and shading which shouldn't take to long (I'll mostly likely have them done by tonight) but I've already finished one which I posted below.

Each section is it's own layer for easy editing if needed and this will be the same for each ground.
Tomorrow I should be able to move onto doing key frames for the animation.

Background Progression

I've still been working on background and at this moment I've finished 7 out of 8 line works and 4 have been coloured (but not shaded or textured). I should have them all coloured by the weekend.

But I have also done a keyframe test on my first background to get an idea of How the animation will somewhat look like and I think it work when the background is fully finished and the animation has been smoothed out.

Starting my Final Project

Sorry I havn't update for a while, I've had a lot of PC trouble on my home machine (constant blue screens which lead to me buy a brand new motherboard and CPU), but it seems to be sorted out now.

Jump straight into my Final Project I've started creating the backgrounds for my flash animation and here are a few screen shots of my progress. I would of done a few more but as I mentioned before the PC troubles held me a bit.

I'm planning on animating the boulders on space background and I'm currently adding the shading to world background at this moment as well as designing the other background (8 in total). I'm going to add some textures to both but what your seeing above are still working progress and when I've finished them I'll upload them in a future post.

Slides update

A lot of what I've been doing lately is putting my slides together ready for the hand in Monday. So I thought I'd just show (for now) some of key slide like the turn around and character line up as well as some colour swipes for the alien world.
I'm planning on colouring in the turn around but at this very moment they're on the top of the list importance.

Final Animatic and Outlines

This week got around to finishing my final animatic which includes sounds and I've also taken this time to upload the slides which describes my character in a bit more detail and some history about them which isn't told through the animatic. I'm currently recreating one of my background concepts in illustrator to see which style works the best with my characters, I've already tried hand pencil drawings and bold line drawings (using photoshop). Once I've finished illustrator I can decide which one works the best.