Film update 24/04/15

It's been a while since my last end of year film post and during that time I have managed to get a lot of it done. There is a lot to do, the most important items I need to address are the lip sync, import the stop motion scenes and finish off animation at the end of the film.

Once I have completed the film to an acceptable level and I got some time left to make things better I want to go back over the very first scene and fix the stiff animation on Max.

A look at Cartoon Network

 Before I go back to me posting about my end of year film I want to take  to look over one more animation company, for this post I want to discuss a company which I pretty much grew up on watching day in day out, which is Cartoon Network.

Cartoon Network launched in 1992 with a 8500 hour cartoon library showing cartoons such Looney Tunes, Merrie melodies, Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Droopy, Scooby Doo and much more.

The idea of creating a channel which showed nothing but cartoons for 24 hours was a risky choice but in 1994 it became the 5th most popular cable channel in the United States.
In 1994 Cartoon Network Studio was created and immediately the studio started production on a show called "What a Cartoon!". The show gave animators the opportunity to create animated shorts where they had full control, high budgets and no limitations to the animation. This worked in favour for both the animators and the studio alike, (the animators could be creative and show they ideas and the studio and show them and find out what the audience liked and make more shows like it).

The first short to get it's on series this way was Dexter's Laboratory (a show about a boy genius who's inventions would get destroyed by his sister Dee Dee).

Others show where then soon to follow such as
Johnny Bravo, Cow And Chicken, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Powerpuff Girls and more.

In early 2000 Cartoon Network created the channel "Boomerang" which showed shorts from 1980's and earlier. the next year three new series premièred which where Time Squad, Grim & Evil and Samuria Jack (winning many awards).

It was around this time where audience for the shows produced by Cartoon Network wasn't strictly young children but also older audience. Through the years to follows to now, a lot of shows produced by Cartoon Network Studios are aimed at audience of all ages such as Adventure Time, Steven Universe, The Amazing World of Gumball, Over the Garden Wall and more.

A look at Blue Zoo Animation

Blue Zoo Studio is based in heart of London and the company has been around for longer then a decade which during this time has created strong strong relationships with TV broadcasters and media companies worldwide and to name a few would the British Braodcasting Channel. ITV, Cartoon Network and Disney.

The company has won many awards and BAFTA on multiple accounts and is will no doubt win many more. The company has four major areas which are 3D animations, 2D animation, mixed media animation and Motion Graphics.



The company has many different IP's but it's most currently popular show is "Those Scurvy Rascals". The is about about small group of pirate (three in number) which instead of seeking treasurer chests or valuables they want to obtain underpants.



I could go onto discuss the studios other shows (such as Blue Cow which is another popular show) but it would be more beneficial to visit their site which has a good number of videos and posts discussing their work in detail.

http://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/

A look at Sun and Moon Studios

Looking at anouther company which is close to home, Sun and Moon studios (which is based in Bristol) produces two kinds of work which are animations and games.

They company started up in 2008 by Dylan Shipley and Louis Jones and since then has created a large number of high qauilty gaming apllications for children to help educate and entertain the viewing audience.

But the company has also created many animations which ranged from educatinal videos to viewed on mobile devices or web browser to TV adverts and stings.

Sun & Moon Showreel from Sun & Moon Studios on Vimeo.

I was unable to comfirm what software the company uses but it would be my best guess that Illustrator and Flash is they're primary tools but is not limited to that, the company contuinielly growing and is not afriad tto try new ideas and styles and it's because of this why they are well and will cointuine to do well.

A look at Cloth Cat

While currently looking companies close to home, I want to look at a company which is specifically aimed at doing animation and the company I have chosen to look at is “Cloth Cat”

Cloth Cat is one of largest animation companies in Wales and currently set up in Cardiff. While the company does work on a number of client-led and co-production based projects they also have their own content and shows such as Boj, Toot the Tiny Tugboat, Grandpa in my Pocket and more.


Cloth Cat Animation Showreel from Cloth Cat on Vimeo.


Cloth Cats primary tool of the trade is CelAction which is a 2D rigging and animating software to which the companies core team have been using this software for a decade in a number of companies on various productions.

A look at Oyster World Games

To mix up my blog posts a little bit I decided to take a few game and animation companies starting with a company close to home, Oyster World Games.

Oyster World is a company which specialises in making top tier independent games for a variety of platforms (to name a few would be PC, Wii, DS and many more). But the company specialises in the point and click hidden object games, with their most recent title being “The Great Gatsby: Secret Treasure”.



Recently Oyster World has set up in Melin Corrwg Business Park within Wales after being in competition with Canada for the project for an unspecified amount of time. Today the company is still creating jobs for junior and experienced employees alike.

http://www.oysterworldgames.com/

Ultimate Image Development Part 2 13/04/15

Using my final concept as template I fine lined my work in flash and then continued to colour and shade it Photoshop.

Below are some of the screenshots I took during the development process but I have cropped them because I don't want to give away how I colour or layer my work.

Below is my final image (The text isn't part of the poster, it is there to stop anyone from taking it and reposting). As a whole I'm satisfied in how it turned out.

Ultimate Image Development Part 1 08/04/15

For the last few days I've taken a break from my final film in order to work on business projects.
This first of which is my Ultimate Image, which in it's simplest form is a poster which promotes your work as an animator or character designer.

When doing initial research for this project I took a look at the work from past students as well as looked at movie poster that are currently being used to promote movies out in cinema's.

(I would show examples but until I get permission from the artist I won't post there poster just yet)

After looking over my research I knew I wanted to have poster which incorporates the character I have created over the last three years of university. So after drawing a few concept I managed to narrow them down to one idea, then I refined that idea a bit more and played around with the composition to get my final concept (while getting general advice and ideas from colleagues and family).

(Final Concept)

End of Year film update 02/04/15

The last couple of days I've trying to finish off as many scenes as possible (but not including the lip sync). I've only completed 3 scene's but I'm hoping I'll pick speed since the next few scene's involve only one character at a time.