Update

Sorry for the week of silence, i have had minimal energy and maximum stress due to the discovery of something rather unpleasant, and i have been of little use consequently.

Work has continued though, today i finished off a new version of the storyboard which i will transform into an animatic when i get the chance. Along side this, i have been looking at litter to populate Crab beach with. Might even pop a dog poo bin on the hill somewhere.

I shall be carrying on with design work this evening as i need to work on the shell interior and the mean crab. I really just want to get on with modelling the beach!!!

Hopefully i will have some stuff to post here soon.

Working sketches

Here are some more working sketches i've just scanned in. The most recent were the beach plants i did yesterday. Enjoy.

Beach layouts

One of the things i've been working on is the beach. Here are a few layouts, a birdseye view and a front fiew, and also my original concept sketch. Colours are not finalised.

I'll be looking into plants and other things to populate the beach now, as well as the character work.

Update: I came across this picture as i was searching for plant inspiration, and i really like the colours in it. I would like the beach to have the same colours in the daytime (maybe with slightly darker water) but would you believe this was taken of a Scottish beach?! Must have been a very good day...

Character design sketches

So here are lots of wee sketches for character designs. I am happy with the crab at the mo, the first one was my initial shot (he turned out really gangly and war of the worldsy from the side) but i squished him down a bit lower and also did a few variations on him.

Also, after the peer review, people were keen on a starfish or a lobster to be the compadre. I prefer the idea of a lobster but the more i talk to people the more they want a starfish. Hence drawings of both. Here are my sketches anyway.

Here is a wee size comparisson too. Or something like that.

I did some starfish

This one looks like space.

So i spruced up the blog

Do you like the new look? It's purple.

So what have i been up to since the completion of the Animatic?

Well on Monday we had our 3rd year peer reviews, and it didn't go badly. Nobody had any major issues with the story, but there were a few suggestions to think about, (some more serious than others!)

• Getting rid of the cave and having the big shell sitting on the new beach
• Making the story start at night and end in the daylight
• Having the bad crabs beat him up and chuck him over the rocks instead

I also got one rather unnecessarily mean feedback form, but we shant go into that!

After the peer review i did some character designs for my wee crab. I will pop these up as soon as i get to a scanner, and also i have been putting some thought into whether i want a Lobster or Starfish as the companion. I personally think lobster, but people seem to like starfish. It changes every day in my poor head.

Animatic #836194

This probably looks awful on here, appologies if it does. After approximately 92 different versions of the animatic, i think this might just be the last one. I hope anyway, the line tester doesn't like me very much. It went a bit tempremental when it came to focusing and not going from extreme dark to light but just look past that...

If you need a friend

It's just occurred to me i haven't even posted the song on this blog. Silly billy.

Listen to it here!

 If you head over to the Wheatus Website you can download If you need a friend from The Lightning EP for free, and other previous releases.

You can choose to donate if you're a good'un. You should you know.

Natural History Museum

Went to visit the shells at the Natural History Museum today in London. Took some lovely photos, and did some sketching which will be very handy for designing!

Script

Today i finalised the script! Yay! Now i am working on the rough storyboard, the one i did previously isn't terribly great shot wise. Here is a wonky scan of the thumbnails i've just done. There may be some issues reguarding crossing the line in there...i shall seek guidance about this. Meanwhile, see if you can make sense of it!

Concept art loose not quite storyboard thing!

Thus far!

An outlawed crab sits on the a cliff overlooking the beach.

He makes his way down a sandy path onto the beach where he sees the other crabs cave.

He approaches, but is refused entry.

Dejected, he carries on along the beach on his own.

He comes across a large pile of rocks which he spots a gap in and squeezes through.

He emerges on a new and beautiful stretch of beach he never knew about.

Ahead is a cave containing a huge shell.

Curious, he peers into it, but sees the shadow of a creature coming towards him. He cowers, expecting the worst.

The creature reveals itself, and it's not scary at all. He lets the crab in.

Changes might be made if the script is altered, and there will probably be an extra few shots at the end somewhere but i've been timing it out using the flash animatic i started (and it's not quite finished yet!)

Enjoy :] 

BREAKING NEWS!

Look what i got.

Thanks John and Bev, now i'm going to be so organised and nothing will go wrong.
I'm going to put some stickers on it. How homely my desk will be.


Meanwhile in the real world, i am drawing out more storyboard panels. They're looking quite nice :]

Production Meeting 2

Yesterday was the 2nd production meeting. Lilly has decided to take a step back from my film but will be helping out next term when i need help with animating etc.

Last Wednesday after the first meeting i mailed away the plot beats to Wayne who unfortunately overlooked them, so the script was on hold this week until i got suggestions of improvement.
To keep myself busy i thought i could start to create a flash animatic (much better than my rubbish drawing skills, and hey, stills can be used as a storyboard!) It wasn't quite finished at the time of the meeting and i don't think it was understood very well so i've put that on the shelf right now and i've been doing some drawing (and smudging) with a pencil.

It's just unfortunate the lack of time we have to work on this project, two and a half days of studio time isn't much.

I'll try to get some pictures up here asap! :]

Storyline poll

So today after the first production meeting, i was more set on the story i wanted to use but still undecided on what should happen in the end. Public vote! 14 people voted and 13 of those were for the second option.

Terribly helpful!