Dragonfly fun!

this is the finished dragonfly video i did for the film crew, it is on a black background which is transparent so they can put video footage behind it. They asked for it in the style of A-Ha, 'Take on Me' video, so Joe helped sketching over the frames in Photoshop! Good times!

Love is in the air!

So.. in like a demented older male version of Carol Smilie walks Shaun Batkin, and decides we need a restyle, changing rooms style!Ok, that was a bit dramatic, but yeah...weve talked ideas and new things are happening!

Weve given little Mooky an incentive!!!

Like all incentives in the male world, its a girl!

A pretty girl!!!!

Well, pretty to Mook, probably not to you or i.

Basically, the new idea is that Mook wants to grow a flower really badly to make her like him, hence the turmoil of what you saw in the animatic! It involves a new, and interesting environment thrown into the mixer, and a whole new means for him to come across the plantpot (this bit is still struggling me to be honest....he's going to be looking the other way, and maybe fall over the pot? but the pot is too big for him too fall over...maybe walk into something and have the pot fall into his hands?) Im not sure, i'll test that in the animatic.

Same plot follows with him growing it, but we will see his 't

hought bubble' when he finds the pot is all!

Here they are in a nice cutesey concept piece, this being the environment i will be using.

cute isnt she?

Animatic? You betcha!

Yowzer! Exactly what i advertised people, they should call me 'the postman' - i always deliver!

Ok, so obviously its missing sound to make it muuuuch more appealing, and the animation seems quite stiff..... il get to grips with his squash and stretch, and a little bounce for him. But thats pretty much what happens in the film (bar the credits....im saving that one for a suprise, sorry people!)

Hope you enjoyed the fruits of my Wacom, 'Photoshop has had an expected error' based labour!

On another note...

This is something completely irrelevant that im working on for someone else, its a series of animations iv been asked to do, that will interact with real film footage. This is the dragonfly shot, its still an animatic, and i need to tween it and sketch over the drawings, but im really pleased with the motion, so i thought id show off and give you a look aswell!

back with a vengeance

Dont worry, im back!!!!


Its been a while, and to be honest...progress has kind of slowed down a lot...


heres what iv been getting upto...

• friends birthdays! (always seem to come at once dont they?)


• Bought 'The best of the BeeGees' (i know, i like it though!)


• finished working on the test walk cycle (motivated by the BeeGees of course)


• successfully fixed my broken blind (you ever get them days when everything is a distraction?)


• AND, sized up and done a 'roll-call' so to speak of every object that appears in my film


• started work on the animatic

So yeah, one of them weeks.

Heres the roll-call i speak of...

It looks like something aimed at little children....maybe it is? Iv never thought about my target audience to be honest with you, but its worrying that my mental capacity has lead me to 5 year olds!! Big market though!

Anyway, im not so sure about the thickness of line in this picture, i used photoshop brush size '12', iv done a few tests, and i reckons im sticking with size '9'! One little decision there, but every little helps! The colours are perfect though, and the environment works. Simple yet effective!

Ok, ok, chillout...im getting to it...

heres what you've been waiting for...first bit of motion....

Yeah, i know the animation isnt top quality, but to be honest with you it was just a test for the pipeline, colour schemes and whatnot, i havnt put the environment background on here yet.

I do kind of like the way he bobs up and down, and his little legs kind of scuttle about, but he's way too quick, and rigid for now.

The pipeline i used was - drawn and animated in Toonboom - floor and coloured in Photoshop - edited and composited in Final Cut.

Simple, useable, i kinda like it....i also have ToomBoom and Photoshop at home which makes things conveniant....however i dont have a Wacom tablet...which is an absolute ball-ache to be honest. Looks like more hours in the sweatshop :S.

war of the worlds...

Ok, having completed my storyboard, and the whole thing having been pretty much scripted out, iv started really thinking about my pipeline, strengths that i may have, weakness's that i can avoid and whatnot.

Here are a few bulletpoints of things im confident i can do -

• Animating in Maya
• Animating 2-D or in Toonboom.
• Colouring, set design & everything else involved style wise
• Lighting in Maya
• Recording sound

and the things i have issues with -

• Modelling in Maya
• Rigging in Maya
• Editing in general, after effects, or final cut. (particular nightmare for me!)
• Credits etc.

These are things i am going to set out to work upon, or seek help with in the next few coming weeks so as not to be so clueless when they pop up in production. Aswell as that, i am starting to navigate my way around ToonBoom, with a couple of personal tutorings by Simon, it seems easy enough to achieve what i am looking for.

One thing thats been a nice idea that Kyle contributed to me was (because the film ends on such a sad tragic note...which of course will leave all of the audience on a bit of a downer, having fell in love with little Mooky), maybe i should have something cute & quirky in the credits! This i like, so iv just stuck with the simple idea of Mook dancing about bottom screen whilst flower heads rain down during the credits. Setting out to achieve this is one thing, we shall have to see how achievable it really is. Here's the idea in a nutshell!

I have also been wondering about the overall appeal of the film, maybe a 'nothing' environment isnt such a bright idea? I have been playing with different 'surfaces' so to speak for which the scene takes part in, as part of my test pipeline.

For the pipeline, i am merely doing a walk cycle in toonboom, colouring in ToomBoom to see how it exports.

This is the simple floor i am using for the test, and how the character will look on screen colour wise etc. in ToomBoom.

I feel it looks a little bland, simplistic...so iv gone back to the drawing board....literally (haaaa!)

...and iv come up with this....

...which i feel looks much more accomplished, and appealing.

However, it was all coloured in photoshop.

This will all of course be irrelevant if once i have my model made (currently being worked on by Joe Cornell) in Maya, i choose to use it.

This is the perspective turnaround drawing i have given to Joe to use to model Mook, it also has a couple of notes on how i would like it rigged aswell to make it easier to understand the matrix of his movement, and computer clean-uppy shizzle that may need to occur, and the amount of squash & stretch required. I also played with a few colours for him, but i feel the pink & grey/blue are just too moomin!

Time shall tell...in the meantime, walk cycle should be done by the end of the week! Keep your eyes peeled!

Storyboard!!! Booyah!

So yeah, this is exactly what it says on the tin...its my storyboard

Story opens with character, walking into shot. With every step a sound happens, (musical note?).

He is pretty non-plussed, just walking, not really looking where he is going. Camera follows him waking, as gradually a plant pot (upside down) comes into shot.

(note. This reads from top left to bottom right)

Mook nears the plant pot, still not looking where he is going until WHAM!...the inevitable happens, he walks straight into it & falls flat on his face. Laughter insues!

Naturally he's a bit disgruntled, then notices the object that caused such annoyance. He is fascinated!

Confused by this encounter he cautiously investigates, prods and pokes his find to test its reaction, before deciding to put it back down...the other way round.

It seems silly to you or i, but Mook is pretty satisfied with his work here...

with his plant pot in its new upright position, Mook expects some sort of reaction from this curious object, so he excitedly waits... but nothing happens!

'Hmm' thinks Mook. 'Maybe i should catch it by suprise'...so off he trots, keeping a beady eye on his find.

...and BAM! He suprises it!....still nothing. poop.

Clueless and dissapointed, he stands, and ponders...but wait! (DING!)...

He seems to remember seeing something like this before, all he needs is some mud!!!

So, off like lightening our hero takes, leaving only a cloud of dust behind him (how cliché!).

Then, we hear a squeaky sort of sound coming from the distance offscreen, as Mook appears ye again, screen right, wheeling before him a wheelbarrow full of mud, and whistling happily to himself. He is pretty pleased with himself as he pops some mud into his pot.

And then, all he has to do is wait...

(camera cuts to gradually further away)...

he still waits...

night falls...

he waits...

...day comes back around...still nothing.

His poor enthusiastic smile slowly drops into sheer upset as he sheds a solitary tear.

We see this tear fall, close up, into his plantpot.

Mook walks away, yet again dissapointed...

as he walks away, we see something bizzare going on behind him....

A plant is growing!!!!!

He continues to walk, back to this miracle, until...POP!

We hear the flower pop into bloom....and so does Mook!!!!

He turns to look, a little bemused by what he thinks he's just heard behind him...

and OH MY GOD!!!! WOW!!!!!

little Mooky has done it! he bounces around so excited, and embraces his new born friend. Love, sweat and tears have gone into this marvel of his...he has never felt so pleased in all his life!

he dances a merry victory dance!

Oh sweet little Mook is practically bursting with happyness!!!...

until.....

FIN!

Theres parts that need work, maybe take out the bit where he falls over the pot at the start?

I shall ask around my classmates!

Mook and the moon

Back again, and with a couple more sketches understanding the in's and out's of his body shape and whatnot.

I have enquired into the complexity of getting him modelled and rigged on maya, and Joe said he could work on the modelling for me and then i could get help from Paul having him rigged on set-up machine, a simple rig would do me fine, but i havn't set myself a structured pipeline for work just yet, i will have to see what is most practical, and useable.

In the meantime however, iv been drawing more, here's what we have...

(again, forgive me for the quality of scanning...its not something i can do owt about :S)

Nice concepty one, environment not to be used

...getting to grip with a couple of expressions.

So, with my characters structure and level of expression figured out, im pretty much ready to crack on with the idea building part, basic storyboarding and scene layout.

I did still have time to work on the concept piece first though, just to get my juices flowing....

The last few weeks condensed into a power bar!

Hi, hello, bonjour and all that jazz!! Ok, so im not going to lie to you or pretend im way more organised than i am, so iv kind of neglected this blogging mullarky for a while....heres the update you'll be craving ever so much!

So, i left you last time safe in the knowledge i have a character, and a lot of enthusiasm for him, but no real actual direction, or accomplished sketchwork of this guy.

So iv been working!

I sketched me some more of him, played with different sizes, fatness, cuteness, etc....

and he's evolved so to speak! Well, he's gained some arms...the lucky bugger! and iv made him a lot smoother, sort of like a bar of soap would be (if that makes sense?)



One big debate i had with myself was wether or not to give him the ability of speach? Now i weighed up some pro's and con's, pro's being that iv had experience doing lip-sync before, and actually consider myself a bit of a specialist in the whole process, dope sheeting and all that!



However, having to record the sound, give this adorable lil guy a voice of some sort seems like a whole lot more work than neccesery, and i could lead a very nicely animated piece using him as a mute, it would allow me to focus more emphasis on his expression etc. Think scrat from the Ice Age shorts, it shows a great use of character animation and expression!


As for sound, im thinking some nice music will do nicely, maybe a few squeaks etc from Mook.

So, progress progress progress...

iv drawn him a few more times, getting used to his body shapes, expressions, and his relationship with his plant...or pot as he finds it!

Cute little bugger isnt he?

Anyhow, im slowly becoming more and more attatched to drawing him 2-D, i really like the idea of doing it all 2-D, but the idea of colouring frames etc is daunting, and also, i worry about the quality. (i mean, look at the picture for god sake, on paper looks much better than that beige scanning!)

Anyhow, toodles for now...i shall return and show you some more sketches and concept stuff as it develops!

And so it begins...

An idea has been born...this idea is Mook!

Ok, so this is my final year of University, studying animation, and the task ahead of me is to create a short film/vignette...which brings me here!

You (the reader) are probably thinking 'what the hell is this Mook nonsense?' well...to answer your question...im not quite sure. Neither is he to be honest!

Mook, is a generic character dreamed up by myself, he isn't anything you or i would really recognise, alien if you must...but he is very humanlike in behaviour, walks on two legs, has two eyes and a mouth......and is fascinated...almost infatuated by.......flowers!

He lives in his own generic world, one we see little of, with no appeal or environment in which he is to interact...(think art attack, but without the giant pencils)...just a white studio...this is his world. I chose this world because Mook is to be the focus...you WILL watch Mook wether you like it or not!

Mook likes you, and he wants you to like him...so go easy on him.

This blog will document mine, and Mooks journey...and the tools used to achieve our goal.