31st March 2015

After some feedback I am working on trees without the hand symbolism due to the part of the story that the trees will be viewed.

I had internet problems for a few hours today so Maya was playing up for me. IT fixed the issue in the afternoon but I couldn't get a huge amount for my blog today.

I have also done some thumbnails of trees, which I will scan in later. 

30th March 2015

Today I have been modelling and UVW mapping trees for Dani to texture. 

27th March 2015

Today I have begun the modelling and UVW mapping of the forest. Here's a couple examples:

26th March 2015

Today I started out by drawing a concept for the forest clearing in the morning before class.

I then spent a little while creating an handout for the 48 hour film team meeting which was at 12:30.

I then did some experimenting with UVW mapping and bump mapping in preparation for the test frame we will be doing. 

In the afternoon I did life drawing and did a one hour tonal piece:

25th March 2015

Today we finalised the story outline. We will be finishing the script later on based on this outline:

We see a Tree in the foreground with a poster stapled on it (the title of the short movie) and in the background is a Circus Tent. The foreground is slightly in focus and then the circus becomes in focus. We hear applause (from an audience) and then a sudden gasp. We see a man burst out of the Circus tent, the camera tracks him, and a bigger tree (closer to camera) swipes past, transitioning the 3D character into 2D. (the trees are still 3D) 
As the man keeps running through the forest, the Beast is swiped on and off through the trees. The trees start to gradually become 2D as the man gets deeper into the forest. The beast seems to get closer and closer as the 2D becomes more consistent with the background, and eventually leaps for the man, he looks behind him and sees the beast leaping for him, he stumbles backward and the beast overshoots him. The camera stays with the beast as it slides along the ground, catching itself. The beast looks around, and we see from its point of view that the man is running in the distance, deeper into the forest. 
It cuts back to the man running, but he starts to get out of breath and slows down. He desperatley looks for a tree to hide behind, and sees a thick tree which he hides behind. We see the man hiding behind the tree. The man peeks behind him and sees that the beast has dissapeared (the camera stays with the man, following what he sees), but we see that the beast is on the other side of the tree, getting closer (swirling from one side of the tree to the other). The man decides to take another peek (on the same side he peeked from before) and the monster is right infront of him. He freaks out, starts to run but in his rush he stumbles and starts to tumble. The shots are very fast as he tumbles. The camera blackens and then we see a point of view shot (from his eyes) as he opens his eyes and see the trees curving like a circus tent. He gets up and starts to brush off the dirt but stops midway, as something catches his eye. He gets up properly and squints his eyes.
Over the shoulder shot where the camera pans around the edge of the clearing looking inward and the mirror appears into view. (it was lined up with the man before)
He starts to walk towards it, puzzled. Once he reaches the mirror, he touches it with his finger, ink seems to come out of his hands, but in the mirror and foms into the beast.
The camera zooms into the monster's eye (it is a very pale blue colour) and starts to zoom out, as it zooms out we see that the eye of the monster is the iris of the Girl and as it zooms out she becomes fully visible. (transition to circus scene) – the rest of the circus scene is the same as the storyboard-
It zooms back out of the man's eye, he blinks again, his expression angry/guilty. He starts to turn away, but stops midway. He looks at his hands, the side that the mirror is, his one hand is in a fist while the other hand which is facing toward the forest is open. He looks at them, trying to figure out what he should do/which fate he wants/ He clenches his other hand that was open before and looks toward the mirror, determined.
He anticipates and starts to run towards the mirror, he leaps into the mirror and catches the trapeze bar in the circus. -the rest of the ending is the same as the storyboard, but this time he has an expression of acceptance

The entire group is working exceptionally well together. We're all putting forward well considered and thought out ideas and discussing all the pros and cons. 

20th, 23rd, 24th March.

My group has spent the past 3 working days nailing our story as a group. We are very close to sorting out every last detail of it now.

I will be doing the first draft of the script later today probably.

I have been given the task of concept designing the forest that the character is chased through in the story. 

19th March 2015

Today I finished the stepped animation, then started working on the smoothing. I have fixed the poses that were weak, and I'm currently working on perfecting arcs and secondary action. There's some subtle squash and stretch, especially when he goes between the pose of pushing the table and crossing his arms. I am also working on removing symmetry from my animation. 

18th March 2015

Today I have been working on my stepped animation pass. The timing isn't perfect yet, as I will be correcting it with the dope sheet. The hitting of the table will be in time with the word "cow".

I will also be adding moving holds, and secondary animation. I have tried to incorporate strong poses and squash and stretch into it, and will be focusing on arcs and overlapping action etc tomorrow. 

16 March 2015

Today I started organizing the 48 hour film project that I will be producing for the school. I will be ready to start on that later today or tomorrow. 

I also worked on starting some strong poses for my animation. I'm struggling right now as the voices I got don't really match the animation I want to do. I took some reference today but I'm going to have to tone it down in order to make it match the audio. 

12th March 2015

This morning we presented our pitches to the class. I had to go up first and got super nervous, and ended up getting cut off at two minutes. I was right up to the end of my pitch but never got a chance to finish it, so I don't think many people know what happens. It's a shame because the ending is the thing that really makes the story work. Unfortunately nobody asked me about it when it was time for questions.


This afternoon I had life drawing which went much better. I'm improving with every session, and I'm definitely noticing a huge improvement in my drawing ability. I'm very proud of how my drawings are looking now.


They are in order of when I drew them during the session, and it's interesting to see the quality of my lines and attention to detail improving as the session went on.

11 March 2015

Miracles exist. 

Pitch pack dooone :)

10th March 2015

Today I finished my storyboard and animatic. 

9th March 2015

Today I finished my story board panels off. 

I'm currently in the process of laying them out in the proper format. 

These are the four that I have done so far: