The Circus Showcase?..

I feel now after realising that the number of characters is just too large to design in the time we have, that something has to be done. The film has to be cut down to an achievable amount of characters, without loosing its quick, sharp, lively nature. Taking out characters takes away from the film because its contrast of the quiet, peacefull village and the chaos of the circus needs alot going on in order for the film to be successful.

I then began to think of different ways in which the fim could be done, thinking about Creature Comfort style, creating interviews with the locals and circus characters about their life, whilst things happen in the background. This could limit the character numbers whilst allowing for more detailled animated sequences. Its the same with my other idea, which is to show the opening sequence of the village still, and the circus's arrival, but then to show clips that are auditions for the circus in the town- showing artists performing, but having the locals interupting and getting in the way. This again would keep the character number down slightly.

But still, there would be quite alot of characters to design, and the film may not flow as successfully. At the end of it all, this project needs to show off what I can do, so rather than creating a film that tells the story but doesnt show off any detailed animation, or simply seems like a rushed version of what the film has potential to be, I'm thinking of going down more of showreel route. I could create a trailer for the film mixed with designs and still images, or show the same storyline and flow of the overall film, but only animate chosen scetions, like the start, and blend in detailed shots of the 3d set, stills of what the rest of the characters would look like, complete with the crowds and settings behind them, even making maquettes of certain characters, so that mixed with the portions of animation it will eventually show off illustrations, detialed animation, and 3d sets and characters so will show of as many areas as possible. This way the short animated sections will be able to contain all the details of the backgorund crowd movements, and will be able to show off the potential of the film more successfully, showing what it could all look like if completed.

This way it will hopefully allow for more detailed animation, allow me to show off more skills in other areas, and will work as more of a teaser for the film that hopefully get the audience excited to see the final finished film. Acting as more of a showcase for the film it will mean it wont be rushed and will hopefully show off its potential and as many different aspects as possible. But I need to know whether the 2 or 3 characters I choose to animate in more depth will be the only ones needed to be designed in pre-production, and the ones used in the stills can be designed in full production- that way I can go more deeply into their turnarounds and expression sheets, but I shall see...

The characters of the Circus begin...

 

 

Now that I've almost got a style, I can begin to develop the individual characters and reach a final look for them all. They will be created in illustrator and photoshop, but to provide a base to work over I want to draw the designs up first...

 

 

Circus Master...

Bear...

Clowns...

But now that I've started looking at finalysing the designs, I've realised there are 19 cirucs characters in the animatic that need designing. Even if they wont all require turnarounds and expression sheets as they'll only appear as short snappy pieces, they will all still have to be designed and made digitally. This is quite worrying and although it seems it should be ok to animate them all, it's the time I have to design them that worries me, and I feel in some way it has to be cut down...

The style of the Circus goes digital... again...

 

I really liked the Bear design, its style seems to fit the circus themea dn is bold and quirky enough to stand out. So I tired the style again, creating the basic shapes in illustrator and drawing over it in photoshop...

But then I took it one stage further by mixing that style with the airbrush technique...

 

After adding the airbrush details, I liked the style even more, it seems to bring more depth to the characters, and even more of the old fashioned sense, so I tired it out on the bear design from earlier...

 

 

I'm so happy with the look, and hope I will be able to use it for the final characters.

I wanted to try a more basic style aswell, with aquick quirky background design, and simple line drawing characters on top. The style is nice and works...

Maybe not with the colour...

 

But I feel that this style wont give enough contrast between the circus and local characters, plus will take away the watercolour wash style and the old fashioned look that that will create...

The style of the Circus goes digital...

 

Seeing as I want to create more of a Flashy style for the Circus characters, I thought I'd try and create some designs using Illustrator and Photoshop.

I really like the air brush effect used here, its soft yet highlights the areas needed. It also maintains quite an old fashioned look which the film needs, whilst mainating a bold and lively style...

 

This more cutout effect using illustrator and drawing over in photoshop is something I'm really proud of- it's bold, clear, and still keeps that edge of an old fashioned style. Yet its swirls and detials add a quirky edge that fits the circus theme and makes it stand out further...

I quite like the blocky nature of these designs- their simple and bold, yet I dont want to make them too childish in the final film...

 

Further textures could be added to give a grainy look to the film, again adding to the old fashioned style...

 

 

This design is soft and quirky, but may be too sketchy. It works,  but may seem too compex confusing when mixed with the rest of the film and characters...

Im really happy with the designs so far, and feel that one of these styles could easilly be used for the film, so when I do a few more, hopefully I'll get a style sorted and I can move on ot designing and developing the actual final look of the characters...

The style of the Circus...

These are the early sketches for the circus characters. They're more to start me thinking about styles techniques that could be used for the final characters rather than the actual final design, so im sketching various characters in different styles to test them out...

I want to use very simple shapes and line arcs to create the characters- even though they will only appear as short snappy pieces of animation, they still need to be simple enough to draw, yet be exaggerated and interesting to stand out from the village and their designs...

Im starting to think that the characters could be created in a Flash style- using sharp yet exaggerated movements and shapes to stand out. Creating them for flash might also allow more detail to be put into them, to further the contrast between them and the sketchy, water colour style thats being thought of for the village locals. To further that contrast further, me and Hannah are thinking of splitting the designs between us- me taking the circus characters and Hannah taking the village locals, that way we'll hopefully achieve a much more varied contrast between the two sets of characters and create a more interesting look for the final film...

The Circus comes to life...just about...

 

From the thumbnails, I've got a very rough animatic together to get an idea of timing for the film.

I originally planned to see which sequences would have to be cut in order to fit the three minute time limit, but it turned out everything fit into the time, which on one hand was good as all the planned aspects could be included, but on the other it's quite daunting as it means a lot of characters to design in a short space of time, and a lot of animation. But if it's kept to short, snappy sequences, hopefully it should be fine, it just depends on the style thats chosen in the end.

Splitting the project in two?..

With me and Hannah collaborating for the project, the idea at the minute is that we both create two seperate pre-production folders for the film, and join together the best from both at the end or throughout the process to make the film with.

With Hannah being a designer and me an animator, I will ultimately animate the film, with Hannah concentrating more of backgrounds and character designs, and colouring of the film- even if need be going into subtle animation for background characters.

But now I feel, with a lot of elements to design, from locals to circus artist characters, to props and backgrounds, I'm beggining to feel it will be a good idea to have one of us take the village designs- for its characters, its look and style, and the other take the circus characters and style. That way the work load is more manageable for us both, we both collaborate more efficiently, and the village and circus will ultimately end up with very contrasting styles, which was the look we were wanting anyway.

Overall, this route may be more efficient and worthwhile, and will make the collaboration more exciting- trying to get the two seperate styles to gel and bringing the film together as one. But I will obviously have to speak to Hannah and see what she thinks. Tomorrow could be a very decisive day for this project...

We're gonna need a smaller Circus...

With ideas in mind, I feel its the best idea at this stage to get some basic idea together about how the film will flow, what segments will be used and what time we have to play with. Hopefully getting some quick, initial thumbnails at this stage will help not only to get a very quick animatic together to see what we can fit into the three minutes, but will also show which characters will be used so that only those neccesary will be designed and developed...

 

The beggining section in particular- the segment passing through the village- I want to be smooth and almost one long shot, in order to keep it flowing and calm to hopefully emphasize the peaceful nature of the street, and contrast the snappy, quick firing shots of the circus's arrival...

I need to make sure that the flow of shots and connection of segments doesn't appear random- bolting from area of the street and circus to another, and that the shots flow together as the circus travels down the street- mapping their journey, and keeping the whole film tied together, letting audiences follow the madness and become part of that moment with the locals...

It became quite a task to get all the ideas to merge and flow, and to figure out where the different pieces should be placed to work best in the overall film. It all has to have a flow and a build to the end, it cant just dwindle and loose energy. These thumbnails may be too much to fit into three minutes, I wont know fully until I get a quick animatic together, and I may be going too extravagant with some of my shots, but at the minute I feeling quite daunted by the thought of so many characters to design, so much animation to do in a reasonably short space of time. I dont know now if we may be giving ourselves too much to do. But tomorrows a new day, maybe I've just exhausted myself with the thumbnailing, and need a fresh day, and even a fresh pair of eyes to look at things, guess I'll re-analyse tomorrow...

Preparing for the Circus's arrival...

 

Now from the circus images, I can get ideas together for the film and the short snappy sequences that will be compiled to make the film...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really want to see the locals of the valleys interacting with th circus and see how in that moment of chaos, for that brief spell, the villagers can be changed and they can let go off their lives as they are...

 

 

3d, or not 3d, that is the question?..

With the action all set in the same street, Hannah and I were contemplating the idea of creating a 3d set for the film, in which all the shots will be filmed and them imported into Flash for me to animate and draw the characters over. It may be alot of work to get it built, but in the long run it will mean that all of the seperate backgrounds and angles wont have to be drawn, and it will hopefully mean that more ellaborate camera angles, shots and moves can be incorporated into the film to give it a little more interest and life.

Also it is something I have wanted to try for a long time- building a set. I feel it will be a worthwhile venture that in the end will hopefully leave us with a different set of skills, and leave the film with something that makes it stand out to viewers- the mix of 3d and 2d.

At the moment the idea is to make a 3d set, but cover it in drawn 2d images, so that it maintains the watercolour effect we currently have in mind. But it will obviously only be clear what style will be used when various looks are developed.

Roll up, Roll up...

Now that the idea seems like it has the potential, it's just a matter of getting the ideas together to make a story. So looking at circus artists and performers, I can make a collection of small scenes that in the end can be pieced together to make the film. It will include a mix of characters, a tapestry of short, snappy scenes that follow and flow with the circus as it passes along the welsh valley street...

 

 

The Circus is coming,,,

Second project, and its the big one- the major project, or atleast, the pre-production side of it. Life was made a little easier for myself by having several ideas in mind from summer, but one in particular stood out as a piece with potential to be full of life, full of action, that would grab the attention of audiences without relying on an overcomplicated storyline. It was an idea me and a colleague on the course- Hannah Pugh- have thought up and developed. She had heard the true story of the time that a circus rolled through the welsh valleys, and when sitting down and talking about, we seemed to have a flow of ideas and characters that could be formed into a film about the event, so working together on the designs and story, we hope to collaborate and show the moment when the circus arrived...

 

From this, other ideas and elements were generated for the film...

 

 

 

 

These ideas focus alot on the storyline of the elephant and his progression into welsh valley life, but I feel with only three minutes to tell a story there is alot of potential in just the circus element- it's contrast of the peacful village and the lively circus, its integration with the welsh valley street, the capture of the moment of chaos when the circus rolls through the narrow streets of the valleys, and for just that brief moment, the lives of the locals are turned upside down...

 

Harry Potter and the Final Film...

 

So here it is, the final advert. It ended up a little longer than I originally intended, and some changes were made for the client, but these were only very slight. The NSS light beam from the castle was added to make the NSS theme run through the piece, and the end slogan was changed from 'Problem with your tutors?' to 'How are your tutors?' so that it didn't seem like the piece was inviting people to think of problems with their tutors to give in the survey, more personal ones, and so it ended more positively and left them wanting to put any comments down- good or bad. But in the end I think it still became the piece I set out to make, if not better.

It still feels wierd and unreal that in just a week a 40 second piece has been made, but Im really happy with it, and hope that the NSS group are and possibly lead on to using it for their campaign...

 

 

Harry Potter and the Background creation...

 

These are the backgrounds that were used in the film, created in Photoshop before beign imported into Flash. Im really happy with the Hogwarts image- its got enough detail to show clearly what it is, but keeps it linear and basic enough to not over complicate the scene.

 

When attempting to create the astronomy tower background, I wanted to keep the basic theme going, using the same colour as a base for simple line work and slight colour shading. But here, it didn't seem to work. it seemed too basic, and the colours don't tend to fit the theme. So I kept as many of the original colours from the Hogwarts scene as possible for the final backgrounds and they worked alot better.

Harry Potter and the NSS animatic...

 

Now with the characterd designed, and the story developed, it was time to see it in action, but here in a simple animatic form to test that the timing and the shots work together, and that it is understandable to viewers...

 

Harry Potter and the National Student Survey...

 

The castle of Hogwarts that the films are based in is incredible- the detail and wonder of the building is striking. It seemed to lend itself to a nice establishing shot, with subtle cloud movments and lights to birng it to life...

 

I then wanted to use actually shots from the scene to lead up to the twist to make it more recognisable to viewers and to make the twist that much more unexpected...

I wanted to keep the characters simplified, but as they would only use simple, subtle movements, I wanted to make the most of the chance to give them a little more detail than usual...