Inspiration

After being given the go ahead on my project I stumbled across an animation by Arjen Klaverstijin called Manfred. Though the story doesn't seem compelling at all the stylization more than makes up for it. Very similar to what I am going for with my project, very simple 2D and 3D concept were he has made a simple yet aesthetically pleasing believable world. I didn't want to steal a style from animation but this more or less hits the nail on the head. So to add that as my main source of inspiration along with: Mary and Max, Lost and Found, The Lost thing, Skhizien, Harvie Krumpet, Don Shank, Lou Romano and American Beauty. Either way check this out, its an awesome graduate film and has been featured in Cartoon Brew and the like!

http://www.arjenklaverstijn.com/category/animations/

Pitch - The Story Of Jeffery Chide

Well that was another pitch out the way with. Same idea as my last one just more refined in my head since then. I made sure I had my video for it should my mind completely go blank or I just over talk it.

Anyway the panel that we had seemed to think the idea was quite strong. Out of the three the one that most interested me was James Henry a writer from Green Wing, Smack the pony and also Bob the builder. The idea that I have I have obviously become very involved with and tend to overthink it all the time.

James suggested it could be an idea that would work well in a series. I don't know whether that was because of his background in writing or he genuinely could see it working. Either way my writing skills are poor and though I have the basic story beats mapped out and how it will pan out, I would love to get him to go through the script and literally rip it apart and help me rebuild it in a more powerful way.

As I have constantly said, their is no way I am going to produce artwork or any animation for something that isn't strong enough to potentially go the whole mile. It has to also be a very strong idea as otherwise I would loose the drive along the way.

All this into consideration, I can now leave the idea to rest maybe forever or for a few days until we find out what the crack is for the projects and who's are going ahead. Out of all the pitches that I watched and some were extremely strong, Sarah Crombies stood out for me. When I heard her idea I loved it from the start, combined with the imagery she produced and the character, I can actually see this being the first successful film from Falmouth animation if she has a strong team of stop motion artists working on it and I hope it is.

If my idea does go ahead I would like to work alongside someone who knows a little bit about 3D or at least is willing to entertain the idea of using it this year. As well this someone possibly working alongside me on pre production would be extremely useful as I feel I have still not nailed the final look I hope to achieve where I can bridge that gap of an illustrated 3D film. If Jennys idea wasn't so strong she would be ideal to work with as she has this combination down.

Ideally a team of 3 would be perfect whilst having others drafted in and out where they wish to work on their specialist areas. If this doesn't happen, I'm keen to get involved in another 3D project or possibly do a similar thing to Jacob (from last year) in that of character design, modelling and learning the whole process from start to finish.. But for now we can only dream..... and maybe do some dissertation work?..

Anyway here was the pitch video....

3D Experiment

18th October - 3D Experimentation

So I haven't actually tried my characters in 3D properly yet. So I picked what is my favourite design of Jeffery, at least the one that really conveys his personality to me and proceeded to quickly assemble him in 3D. Modelling him was no problem as it was just a matter of tweaking a few vertices. I read a few things on projections and UV mapping which were actually a little more than I needed but for now I have an idea of what he would look like in 3D. I really need to learn how to render objects out in varying ways as I really have no idea. Anyway here is a few screen shots. Would really like to rig him as soon as I am fully satisfied with him, very retarded pose, my bad.

I now need to work out how I want my design to look, I'm feeling 2 and a half D, maybe 3D but just thought I would experiment with a few things, above was just a quick one to through him in a room that would bear some similarity to his when actually designed.

So Year 3

Alright so I'm still going with the basic same premise for my story of last year. Since then I have been playing with the story and how to put it across. I had a bit of a diversion when starting to try and put my character in 3D and found there was something I no longer liked about him. Anyway this post is just so I can get some feedback on my character designs. There all quite similar in facial design but please tell me which ones you like and which ones you don't and why. I have one in mind myself now.

I am designing Jeffery with the character traits bearing in mind, he is a nervous person that lacks self confidence. He will be working in an office and is just trying to fit in. But most importantly he is flat so nothing on him will be protruding except for maybe his tie or something.

Why won't my blogg work!

Why won't my blogg work!

Development of Shakespeare 3D Model

Cannot get the images uploaded properly, I am having trouble with the images so for now as you can see above is the development. It is not necessarily in the right order but I hope you get the jist.

Sunday 6th June

Well I've started to get to grips with this modelling malarkey. I'm loving learning so much, I think their is something about doing an artistic subject that means that you feel like you are never learning or at least you are but its slowwwwwww. Anyway I have learnt a shed load of new tools today in Maya and I have actually enjoyed modelling. I have focussed today on creating a definitive shape for the face working into the eyes, nose, mouth and chubby cheeks particularly. Even through in his tash and beard. I wish I had a few more days to do this but as ever one project at a time, multi-tasking tshhhhh. Don't be silly.

Next up is his hair, full beard and ears. I want to be able to have time to put his body on as it would be a shame to leave it out and it captures a lot of the essence of him. I feel like I am going to have a lot of trouble getting body and head together into something that looks similar to my designs. I now know how I will do the collar however with a little help from the Loft tool.

Well I have two days to do this as I am leaving out tomorrow to do an essay on Animation technologies. Georg, if you are reading this I neither appreciate nor care for essays as it curbs my creative time, limits my exposure to much needed UV rays & reminds me further of why I am a Falmouth student. Just a thought.

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Monday 7th June


Tuesday 8th June

Another average day of work, I’ve been getting really frustrated today as I just want to put the hair on. I’m having trouble working out the best way of doing it. His hair defines him but I figured I would move on and do a few little bits before going back to it. Today I modelled his hand which look alright. I just tried to keep them simple but give them some defining characteristics that hands contain e.g. finger nails, knuckles. I also managed to model the collar today through extrusions rather than lofting as I wasn’t to familiar with the process so stuck to something I know. It has the general shape about it although it needs thickening and a few vertices tweaking. Tomorrow I have a lot to do but I think I have been staring at him to much right now, so I’m giving it a break before the big one all day and maybe night.Today has been very unproductive as I had the essay to get on with as well, my internets been ridiculous so finding tutorials to help me along the way has been lame.

Priorities tomorrow are the hair and beard. Once these are done I will
1. Model a simple ear
2. Add details to his torso.
3. Attach the hand to the wrist
4. Thicken the collar
6. Work into his lower skirt thing.

There is a lot to do but if I can do the most part he will look like my character model design! That would be amazzzzzing!
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Thursday 10th June 8:01am

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep finished. Whats that. Finished. Yes I am. For 2nd year way. Here is a finished image of what I ended up with one with hair and one without. Mainly as I really couldn't get to grips with the hair. There are many many faults in this model but for now lets not dwell. Lets go out enjoy the sun and see the world outside the PC!!!!!!

Pitch and Development Work

So today we did our Pitch , It went well apart from the part where I opened my mouth. I had a feeling I would be struggling to make sense of my words after sufficient lack of sleep and so I was glad I did the narration pre recorded to my pitch. I was quite pleased how fast I managed to get this out. I set myself 3 days to do all the concepts and any remaining work I could muster as all I had from the practice pitch the Friday before was a lead character - Jeffery . As I had spent most of the term thinking about how it would look and trying to pull a strong story idea out I left myself little time to get it together. However I had all the ingredients there so I just went with it. I seem to work much better under pressure as it means I make decisions decisively.

What I pitched slightly different to my final bible story, ever so. The ending for my pitch story was weak but I had changed my mind the night before on the story ending after talking to Andy. Instead of him just popping back to normal behind a wall, Jeffery finds himself in a flat world and pops back to normal. Once more the odd one out. He also gets trapped as he can no longer travel back through the crack. This probably doesn't make much sense but if you check out below my Story synopsis and the pitch above it will give you a much better idea.










After this I really want to keep pushing the style and story. I feel the base story idea is now strong enough to develop further and hopefully create something that could be deemed worthy of a festival place. That is my main aim to get noticed with something that touches people emotionally whilst tickling them with some comedy elements. I hope to also really push some style aspects and nail down something coherent. It is is only in the final two images above that I really got more to grips with what I was trying to do. On the upside I can now paint even faster in photoshop without massive loss of quality. Royboy taught me the most amazing simple tool in photoshopthat made my work flow massively faster so a big YeahROY, as I would have probably produced half the amount of stuff.

Pitching.... really....

So we have the practice pitch tomorrow for the Development project..... so.. My progress thus far for this project has been me a bunch of ideas that I don't feel are worthy of taking forward, or have taken forward and then thought wow this sucks, I couldn't work for a year on this. As I wanted to combine the 3D and 2D elements to produce something that was a little bit different and allowed me to play with both areas I was thinking of a story that would allow this. Flat world was a big inspiration but I felt if I was going to stick with an idea the base idea had to already be there so I didn't just discard it. I remembered the story Flat Stanley from when I was younger. This is the overview:

"Flat Stanley Stanley Lambchop wakes up one morning to find a notice-board has dropped on him in the night, leaving him happy and healthy, but only half an inch thick. It's a little unusual, but he finds he can fly like a kite, be sent on holiday through the post and can use his special new skills to catch some art thieves. Still, he's glad when his brother Arthur thinks to use the bicycle pump to inflate him back to his normal shape."

Above - An early design for Stanley ( he will be renamed.... Stanley..... tshh I think not)

Since then I have played with ideas for it including,

• Superhero or Superslim,
• A sad tail about how he strives towards trying to return himself to his former self.
• A man that is slowly becoming "flatter" and "flatter" as he feels more down in life.
• A guy that is on the run and his adventures with being flat

Above Left - SuperSlim . Above Right - An idea of how he might have been flattened.

My main thought that I am holding on to quite a lot is that he is maybe not flattened by anything but that his physical shape is as a result of his emotions. Something around like he is crampt at work and is literally walked over in life. Maybe he is really good guy but gets treated in a bad way and is slowly becoming flatter and flatter. I have envisioned for a while a guy in work at an office and feels secluded, flat and lonely. The whole idea needs a lot of work but I really really want to come up with a story that is both moving and contains the comedy values that could be subtly put across with his humorous shape.


The idea is that he will be a flat character in a 3D world. However the 3D world will also appear relatively "flat" with a toonshading element overlaying the 3D models. The character design I have kept simple but given them as much appeal as possible. Basically everything will be based around a simple flowing shape

This is the kind of idea of how the character design would role. The head down to the body is one smooth whole object, the clothes would be wrapped around as a texture. The noses on the 3D characters would be the only bit that was actually protruding from the characters. The style needs more work on but I think I was to try out this gouache jazzz.

I have thought about so many ideas I really need to get into that Bluesky thinking. I hear thats were all the ideas come from :D ; out in the sun chilling, catching some rays, I think I have found my dream job. But anyway for now I think I want to go with this idea, it has come a little late, though my practice pitch will contain next to nothing I think I have a lot to work with for the next week for my actual pitch, it will probably still be a bit vague around the story but hopefully I can start to nail the style and make it coherent across the board, currently only the main character has it. I want the background to be simple shapes with a loose overlay just like the character. This is the current state of a test I am doing for the stylization, at the moment the whole things looking a little cheap. If the story is to be a dark one the colours are going to have to reflect that, they all look a bit to chirpy at the moment...

Development Project/ Not Developing

In regards to the Development project, I am epically behind schedule. My lack of creative thought combined with my ridiculous strive for an original yet compelling story is driving me slowly insane, I have had so many ideas , thought they were really good, only to change my mind and bore myself with them the next day. This showing how my ideas must have actually been crap. I really like the idea of coming together with 3D and 2D creating something in a similar style. I was pointed in the direction of Flat world which has a lot of the aspects of what I was envisaging. At the moment I like the idea of doing some kind of twist on the story Flat Stanley. Unfortunately I really cannot see this happening as I'm sure there must be some kind of copyright to stop this... It is just taking me ages to think of an idea that is very original and doesn't sound cliche that I would want to develop for the 3rd year.

Shakespeares Head

So here is the head as it stands currently ( I started again...again.....again) , its got more volume and curve to it than the previous model, for now I have ditched the image to work from as I'm looking to concentrate on furthering the appeal of Shakespeares character in a 3D space now that I have the base shape. I need to add details now in or at least further define shapes in the nose, mouth and eyes. Then or maybe next the body. I have been using Jacobs model from 3rd year as reference for the edge looping and the like, though I completely different model , he has an awesome turnaround on vimeo. What I like about this model is that it has both the artistic flair of Andys drawing backed up with Jacobs insane modelling skills to create an awesome model.

Hopefully this should be alot easier, I feel like I have the grasp now of working in the 3D space.

Negotiated Brief

So my negotiated brief..... For this I just really wanted to get a bit more knowledge of 3D modeling. Though I do find it tedious at times the drive to make the characters appear in a 3D world and bring them alive keeps me going.

As I had already created some characters in 0ne of the previous projects I sort out tubby Shakespeare as my character of choice.

I proceeded to try and model his head in clay, this was fun, it was hands on and you got instant feedback ( unlike maya and dragging vertex points). Turns out my side view drawings were a joke so had to redraw them. What works in 2D doesn't necessarily work in 3D.
After redrawing I got them ready to be modelled from. As most characters seemed to be poly models I went for that approach with the general aim to produce a smooth model as similar to my drawings as possible with added aesthetic changes if I felt needed. At current I am trying to recreate the head, I'm enjoying the process although I think I may have to start again with my edge looping seeming a little dodgy. I have the rings from the mouth going to far round the face which seems unlike other topology models I have looked at. Thee cheeks being so high up on him are a pain. Anyway I'll keep posting on progress with this...