Animation Test

Greetings, Hope every one's Xmas was good. I've just finished visiting every single member of my family and I'm pooped, but I have been working (here and there) on some maya. I thought I'd try out some lip syncing and animation. Man! I'm out of practise, this was more of a test, just getting back in the swing of that infamous grey screen! Plus Maya is being temperamental so it was very difficult!

It sucks I know!

Kim Crow Patches Voice

Hey guys this is Kim Crow's voice of Patches. Kim did a good job but I don't know whether you guys are going to like it. Please let me know.

Alma

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

This is a totally amazing short that I found on the Internet. It looks fantastic. I love the character designs and art, kinda reminds me of the 'girl in the snow' picture I did which you can see as my title on this blog. (though there's is 100% better!)

John Bell Voices

Hi Guys, the voice actor John Bell has come back with an audition for the voices. Wow he's quick. I sent him a script and a picture of all the characters and that was it. I wanted to see what he came up with. He has decided to give all the characters a go. Keep in mind, he did not have the animatic to go by. He says if we want him to change anything, all we have to do is say.
Urgently, let me know what you guys think.
I personally really like them and think he has done an absolutely fantastic job.
Be warned he has done a lot of improv in hear, but I think it works well!

NEW PIRATES DISPLAY

Hey yall! Here's my second design for the cereal display. This one is a lot better, me thinks. I putthe cereal on top of two barrels. I also added some more signs and what not. To top it off I added some cardboard boxes and hammers to make it look like they are still setting up. I did not draw the pirates as I wanted to purely focus on the environment.

PIRATE CEREAL DISPLAY

Hey all, sorry for the delay! We all had Keiron's essay to do and I've have been very ill this last week, bad chest infection and I fell down the staires at work(mucking up my hands, back legs and butt!) That aside I managed to squeeze out this little design for the pirates cereal display. We need to put more signs and cardboard boxes near it to make it look like it's half set up. As well, I think that The display stand should possibly be a pile of barrels as it is more piratey. Let me know what you think!

Golden Treasure!

Oh Boy! Yummy Nummy Cereal! Don't worry Paul I'm not stealing your job. I'd just thought I'd give a stab at some asset designs. I based the box off of a 50's style cereal design. I just think they look really simple and cool. This picture turned out better thought it would. I thought it would look awful!

Box Art Inspiration

LISTEN UP! When good ol' Quirkey was finding random boxes of cereal to decorate his lighting test with he found two hilarious spoof cereal boxes ('Zombie Guts' and 'Tinkles'). These images were from a special Halloween collection called 'Cereal Killers', where various artist drew spoofs of cereal boxes. I have given some examples here. THIS is what some of our boxes need to look like. These are funny but they actually look like real cereal boxes. Not the free toys, mascots and branding. This is the quality that the 'Golden Treasure Cereal' should look like!

P.S If you want to check more of these cool boxes out, the website is...

http://www.wacky-packages.net/Cereal-Killers/

Poster Inspiration

As I said I was inspired (colour wise) by the communist posters from Russia. Here I have given examples of some Soviet posters and some cartoon spoofs. These are really nice and have extremely bold colours!

NEW POSTER!

Hey guys, here's my new poster. Gareth said my old poster was washed out and would not work as a small business card or DVD cover. So I decided to simplify it, and make it more like the style of my artwork for the film. I also took on board what people said, when they mention that all the pirates should be seen (like Paul's). I was inspired by the artwork of the communist propaganda poster of Russia. They have very bold and stark colours. I also implemented elements of the Star Wars movie poster. All in all it turned out better than I thought it would!

Original Concepts (I dug these out)

Here's my original Breadbeard, there was a lot more of a whimsical art style going on. I liked the look but I thought Breadbeard needed to be bigger built and more confident.

Here's the original Walker. With this one I went for a comic book style (sort of like the Hulk).
I thought this Walker looked too monstrous and scary, not funny. Plus muscles are hard to make work in Maya!

Here we can see my second attempt and Walker and my first attempt at Patches. Patches had a little bit more of a mean personality and Walker was more dumb. I really did not like this so I scrapped it.

Here was my third attempt at Walker (I consider him the hardest to get right). He we see his more snooty side. However, he is a bit more realistically proportioned, I eventually played around with him more and based him off of a flamingo.

Finally here is my second attempt at Breadbeard. Much more confident and aggressive. I based his look of combining a bear and a star fish. I went for a more angular style, as i though it would be easier to recreate in the computer.

Walker Model

Finally, guys here the Walker model. Sorry for the delay. I realised that he looks a bit like a fish from his front view!

Music for the film

Hey guys. I dunno who suggested it, can't remember. But here's some piratey music. I really want the Captain Slag theme in the chase scene

Pirate research

Here's the original images that i looked at when research pirates when i was coming up with the film . You can see how some of these images evolved into my characters.

Script version 2

Pretty self explanatory really!

PIRATES OF THE PRODUCE AISLE

By Lewis Drew Taylor

Pan out from sign displaying the offer of the new ‘Petey’s Golden Treasure Cereal’ revealing the display.A can is thrown into a trash bin. The camera pans right to reveal The Guard leaning back on his chair.Guard picks his teeth, then his stomach rumbles. He leans into his security room and stares at the CCTV screens. There he sees the camera pointing to the cereal display. He licks his lips, jumps off his chair and sits in his mobility scooter. We see him tacking off down the aisle.The cereal is on its display stand looking extremely desirable. The guard pulls up in front of it and is eclipsed by its huge shadow. The cereal has an angelic aura around it. The guard tries to reach the cereal without leaving his scooter. He looks disappointed but then has an idea. The next shot is of his claw grabber grabbing the cereal.The guard puts the cereal box in his arms, turn around and drives off. The camera pans in on the cutout of Breadbeard. The guard licks his lips. Breadbeard’s cut-out suddenly frowns and smirks. The guard is getting ready to open the box. Breadbeard begins to pull himself out of his cut out. Breadbeard becomes 3dimensional and lands, powerfully down on the floor.

BREADBEARD

Lads…

Patches and walker pull themselves out their cut-outs.

BREADBEARD (CONT’D)

Walker, Patches. Looks like we got ourselves a little pickpocket.

PATCHES

Aye, Cap’n Breadbeard. He’s got our treasure!

BREADBEARDY

arrh, I can see that Patches. Listen lad if ya hand over me booty maybe we’ll let ya leave with your own jewels in their proper place, If ya catch me drift. Watcha say?

The guard pauses, screams then speeds off.

WALKER

He is getting away Captain.

BREADBEARD

Argh, no he isn’t.

We see the guard being pursued by the pirates in a ship attached to trolleys. The guard looks back in terror.

BREADBEARDM

wah ha ha ha FIRE!

Patches grabs some watermelons and gives them to Walker to fire out of the cannon. The guard dodges every projectile.

WALKER

Our current ammunition seems to be insufficient Captain.

BREADBEARD

Aye, we need somthin’ with a little more kick to it!

Breadbeard and Walker turn around to view Patches looking very nervous. Patches is fired from the canon and latches himself on the back of the guard’s head. The guard swerves side to side in a panic. He pulls Patches off of him and tosses him to the front of the ship.Breadbeard grabs a rope and latches it onto a sign post overhead.

BREADBEARD

Urrgh never said an idiot to do a pirates job

Breadbeard swings off the ship and onto the front of the scooter. Breadbeard pulls out his sword. The guard scrambles and grabs his claw grabber. The two engage in a sword battle. They lock swords together as Breadbeard leans in close.

BREADBEARD

(shouting) GIVE ME BACK ME TREASUUURE!

The Guard begins to look angry.

GUARD

(screaming) Neveerrrr!

The guard disarms Breadbeard and sends his sword flying. The sword hits the front of the ship, cutting the ropes and setting free the trolley. The Ship hits the ground and begins to grind forward.
The Guard realises he is in power and points his grabber at Breadbeard. Breadbeard notices the oncoming ship. The guard turns around. The two of them scream and embrace each other as the ship crashes into them.Cut to black.Fading in, we see the wreckage of the scooter and the ship. The guard is unconscious on the floor. A pair of hands pick up the cereal. Breabeard, looking rather battered, raises the box above his head.

BREADBEARD

Lads! We did it! I told ya no one touches me booty!

The pirates disappear off screen. Hours later the Guard awakes. He walks down the aisles to see the shop is open showing many signs advertising the free sample of the cereal. He sees the cut outs looking maniacally at him. The camera dolly zooms in on him as he screams.

Model Sheets

Hi guys, these are my model sheets that I promised. The Walker one is not on my USB for some reason so I will load it on later.

UPS ad

Simon showed me this today and I thought it was pretty cool. Not only is it a chase but it also has cardboard cut outs who come to life. Thanks Si.

Pirate Ship

Hey all, here is my original design for the pirate ship. I chatted with Mu and we agreed that aspects need to be stripped away to make it more simple. JB, Mu and myself also discussed Ncloth, and how it will be a bugger. So we decided to make the sail out of cardboard.

Character Line Up

Hey guys, here is a character line up that I have been working on. Tom and I chatted about giving the characters a little more detail so that is what I have done in this picture. The characters have beentweaked slightly especially the guard. His legs are thinner toaccentuate his belly and he has a new hat, belt and pockets. His colours have changed also, because I realised that the colours that I gave him before were the colours of a cop, not a security guard. Anywhere here it is, I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

One Piece

Whilst researching pirate ships I found the cartoon ships from a pirate anime called 'One Piece'. The ship is really cartoony and caricatured. I think it looks really simple and fun!

Pirate Ship

Here's some research reference pictures for the pirate ship. These show all the characteristics of the ship. The ship should be more caricatured and simple.

Storyboard

I pretty much finished the current storyboard. I will have to photocopy the frames and re order them tomorrow.

Note to the blog, my Internet sucks at the moment so posting might be difficult!

Environment 1

Hey guys, this is my first environment design. It is a quick one of the aisle with the pirate fort. It has the bow of a ship and a sail, as well as battle towers. Again this was entirely digital. I was trying to go for a bit more of a collage look for this one to emphasise simplicity. I got the idea for one of the Pixar art books. Unfortunately, it did not turn out so good. Instead of looking collage like, it just looks s**t. Anyway it gives a rough idea.

The Guard

Hey Y'all! Here's the long awaited concept for the guard. He is sooofat. We might be hard to weight in maya so we might have to change him. My PC is down at the moment. Therefore my scanner is busted too, so this is my first entirely digital picture. I drew the pencils for it in a programme called sketchbook pro. It's pretty cool because it is sensitive to the pressure on the tablet, thus reacting like a real pencil. I also inked it on the computer and it did not go to plan. I'm not entirely happy with this picture because it looks a bit crap. Anyway, here he is!

Whack'd Poster

Hey guys. I was creating a movie poster for The Pirates project, which took ages but check it out! Anyways, I was having so much fun doing the poster that I decided to do one for Whack'd. This was really quick. LITERALLY ten mins, no exaggeration!

Mood Boards

Hey guys. Here are my mood boards for the film. It includes artwork from Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxtar, Prince of Persia, Street Fighter 4, Batman The Animated Series, Batman Beyond (aka Batman of the future) and Spectacular Spider-man. It also features artwork form two of my favourite artists, Sean Galloway and Skottie Young. All this stuff inspires me, and subliminally help in the creation of the idea...oh and I threw Trix Rabbit in there for good measure!

Movie Poster

Hey all! I'm feeling a bit better about the film today. I've done my teaser poster for Gareth's unit. The poster is inspired by those classic movie posters like Star Wars, you know the ones where Luke looks nothing like he does in the actual movie. They always make the characters look more muscular and heroic so that's what I did to Breadbeard. This is nowhere near finished. For one thing I have to make the typeface more piratey.Anyway I'm going to have a chat with the tutors tomorrow but Tom and I have already spoken about the film, and I am more enthusiastic about it now. I actually see the film in my head.I'll get everyone up to scratch either tomorrow or Friday!

A doodle for Wack'd

Hey guys I was just trying out a quick photoshop technique. I thought I would try and blend the way I draw with the artwork from 'The Incredibles". I just had the 'Wack'd' characters on my mind at the time so I decided to draw them. THIS IS NOT A CONCEPT! I am well aware that it is not my role in the 'Wack'd' group to provide concept art. so I don't want to tread on anyone's toes. I just was practising on the computer and thought I would draw the hitman.

Pirates Ideas

There are soo many ideas buzzing around in my head now (but not in a good way). None of them I can settle on, and none of them I really like. I don't want to just go down the regular pirate route as I think it is boring and overdone. I did sort of like the idea of the new cereal mascots fighting the old ones. I thought that the Breadbeard that we know could be hapilly sailing along the super market and then their ship is attacked. We then find out that the attackers are the old mascots coming to destroy them. We could then end it with the brand of cereal being redesigned with even newer mascots. The only problem with this is we would have to spend time explaining things, which will slow the pace and ruin the gags. I don't beleive explaining things is the correct wzy to go. Take Spongebob for example, why is he a bathroom sponge and all the other sponges are normal? Why does he live in a pinapple? Why is there a squirrel in a space suit? WHY IS A WHALE THE SAME SIZE AS A LOBSTER? What makes spongebob quirky is the fact that there is no logic and explaination to it. If they did explain things, it would loose it's humour and appeal. The same can be applied to Ren and Stimpy. These shows have a a chaotic mindest used in them, and that is what makes the cartoons appealing to its audience. I even said I wanted to tap into that type of audience in my pitch. Why are they pirates in a super marcket? WHO KNOWS? That is why I picked the idea to pitch. I had others that were more logical but I felt they were boring.

This is a real brain melter!

HItman Developments!

We tossed around a few ideas today for Wack'd. I suggested we do a big chain reaction thing for the climax where the hitman throws his thingy-ma-doodle, hits the pizza boy, the pizza boy goes driving into a telephone pole, the cables bresk loose, swinging in front of a huge gas truck, the truck swerves out of wway but drives into the motel, exploding and destroying the target. Its a pretty big finale (Micheal Bay says "if all else fails...blow stuff up"). I think the team did a great job of coming up with ideas (like the turtoise). I think we sorted out a pretty spectactular ending...probalem is I think we need to make the begining stronger, 'cos the ending is kinda kicking it's butt!

Story Nuked!

Hey guys the meeting with Mike and Dave was interesting. They raised some good points...mainly 'Why'. We went through so many ideas, are they toys, are they mascots, do they exist within the box? Soooooo many things. We should all take a night to come up with some ideas and meet first thing tomorrow!

Somethin' ta shoot for!

Hey yall! These are some images of some animations/games that I think look pretty cool. Some of these are shots from 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs', 'Up' and 'Coraline'. Obviously our film isn't going to look as good as these (look as good as Up...fat chance), but I really like the look. some of these shots are from the new 'Ratchet and Clank' game...which is a little bit closer to what we can do, but if we managed to make the film look as good as it I would be really pleased. The other images are of 3d models that someone made based on the artwork of Sean Galloway (one of my favourite artists).