Previs #3

A few problems caused the delay for this updated previs (I've actually gone through a number of them but this is the latest incarnation). Areas may still be a little rough in places but the goal of this previs is to focus mainly on the camera movement and animation.


*Smoke from the chimney should be white, and not black.

Notably, sound is needed to reinforce aspects of the animation with actions such as the wing pivoting into position. I'm also considering a soundtrack to compliment the animation, something akin to a soft intrumental piece to further establish the tone and atmosphere.

Previs #2

New version of previs is up with the updated refinments to the environment. It may be a little rough in places as things are still in the works.

Once more, the aim is to capture a moment of flight of Volan and his island as he soars the skies. It relies much on tone and atmosphere which is slowly built up with the reveal of the island and the openness of sound.



The logic behind the camera movement is to follow the reaction of the island as Volan prepares the island to turn. As Volan pulls a lever the camera pans down to see the reaction of the movment of the chain(s), to the emission of the chimney and the turning wheels. We then make our way to the underside of the island to see the wings adjust their position accordingly to bank the island off into the distance.

There are a number of refinements to be had, but any feedback is much appreaciated!

Storyboard + Previs

After putting ideas together as a quick storyboard, I went straight ahead to put the piece together as an initial previs, particularly in the light that it would be difficult to convey the clear camera movement that is needed within a 2D animatic. As such, we are presented with a moment of flight with Volan and his island as he searches and soars the skies.






The piece relies much on tone and atmosphere which is slowly built up with the reveal of the island and the openness of sound. These initial sound effects and camera movements will undoubtedly go through further refinements, but they begin to capture the right tonality of the piece that I am trying to convey.

Building a quick mockup of the home and island has helped to resolve and generate new ideas to the piece and designs as a whole. I am eager to resolve these elements with the character of Volan being of next priority.

Shrine Opening Test #2

Revisions to the shrine opening, with increased speed and acceleration. Still toying with the idea of the fade to black during the narrator's dialogue as you can see in the 4th variation.



Some minor tweaks to the positioning of the rock formations is needed to stop the slight 'popping' towards the end of the pull back.

Shrine Opening Test

One of the trickiest environments to tackle is the transition shot from the shrine where the camera pulls back through the environment. Here is a playblast of the scene focusing on the camera movements, with two minor variations in the editing. Elements such as lighting is not final.



We are yet to determine the idea of cutting to one or two shots of the wolves with the slow panning of the soul and narration, for a sense of tension/buildup before the race. Feedback is most welcome.

Previs/Animatics

As we move into production over at The Wolves Within, we made some more tweaks and refinements to the animatic with the addition of previs. After an initial previs, we found the timing and pacing were better in the original animatic, and thus combined the two.

Animatic/Previs (Latest version)


Previs v.1


Elements are still subject to tweaking, but for now we'll push on with production. Where Jolanta is focusing on characters with the two wolves, I will be taking care of the environments with the shrine as well as the good and evil parts of the environment. Wish us luck!

KLED Animations Update #2

Hot in production, our animation trailer for The Day of the Chainsaw Wielding Baby has been taking shape. We've approached this by identifying a hierarchy of props needed for key scenes and environments in our trailer, and delegated tasks respectively to form a clear list of objectives in mind.

With our tasks outlined for us, we needed to ensure a system of sharing and accessing each others' files was in place in order to work efficiently with production. As such, we've established a sharing system using Dropbox to sync our project files together, where each member also maintains a local backup to work from in case of any lost/corrupted files.

My main areas of focus were creating the Previs/Blocktest to further refine pacing and camera shots, Set Dressing the environments together with the modelled props as well as taking responsibility of the Baby himself from modelling to texturing.

Here is the Previs of our animation trailer, developing from our initial animatic.

Apologies for any inconsistencies with sound as the audio is not yet final.


My work-in-progress of our Chainsaw wielding baby, using the orthographic provided by studio team member Kin.





The nature of our characters exist in a very stylised world, consequently, he may look a little on the wide side at the moment, but I'm sure that once the head is in place the proportions will start to fit more naturally. The chainsaws will be modelled once the 'human' model of the body is in place. Its still a work in progress, but is hopefully headed in the right direction. See more after the link.

There's still much to do as we near the end of production, so wish us luck! You can keep track of our progress at KLED-Animations.blogspot.com.

Opening Scene Progress #2

I've been working away at various scenes of the animation, but here is an update on the opening scene.

Quick playblast of the scene so far:


I think I'll add some more texture variation to the grass, and hopefully the background will be blend better when compositing in after effects.

Mushroom Model


My photos taken of the Ling Zhi mushroom served well in creating the textures for the mushroom. I've also painted over the textures for a more stylised aesthetic similar to my earlier concepts.

Initial Renders


Some refinement is necessary as I am yet to establish the appropriate lighting which I'm having difficulty with. The scene is set during the day, perhaps afternoon - any pointers in lighting would be greatly appreciated. But I hope this begins to achieve the slightly painterly feel reminiscent to my earlier concept pieces.

Back to the pits!

Spore Scene Progress

This particular scene covers panels 2:5 - 2:7 of my storyboard, involving the flight of spores. As the camera pans, we follow the central spore that will begin its growth. The movement and timing is aimed to fit the pace of the music.





For the spores, I intend to have a few hair like features protruding outwards similar to my previous concepts. I believe a fur could work but I wondered if this will animate subtlety to fit with the movements? Either way, its something I need to experiment with but any suggestions would be great.

Opening Scene Progress

Updating my progress with the opening scene, covering panels 1:1 and 1:2 of my storyboard. Things are taking longer than I would like, so I hope to speed things along in the coming days.





For the grass I've used a paint effect which I hope is fine as it seems to work pretty well, and that it would be a bit of a time sink to painstakingly model and animate individual models of grass. With the grass in the direct foreground, I hope to render this out separately to be able to create a focus pull transition to the mushrooms in the midground, where the background will be filled with a matte painting.

Here I've modelled a few variations of the Ling Zhi Mushroom to populate the scene.

Mycelium Previs

A previs of a shot taken through the mycelium. The camera gradually pans in into a developing fruiting body, moving to the gentle pace of the music as shown in the animatic. This leads to the transition outside the mycelium to the final growth of the mushroom.



Some more experimentation is necessary as I intend to have much more branching lines of mycelium to give the further illusion of growth and movement. As for materials, I'm hoping to maintain a quality from my original concept paintings with the colour and particles.

Animatic + Previs - BGH: On Vacation

The Big Game Hunter takes a vacation from his usual routine to relax on the beach with his loving recreation of a colonial sand castle - if only he could work out how to deploy his deck chair...

Animatic


Previs



I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out, managing to fit all my intended elements from my final storyboard within the one minute timeframe.

Initially, I did not intend to put as much detail in the animatic (i.e. number of frames), though I'm glad I did with the final result. I found it viable to do so as the majority of the elements were resolved in my final storyboard making it an easier process to crossover the materials into the animatic. Where the previs was a little more tricky to tackle with the technical aspect, I'm satisfied with the outcome delivering the core foundations of the story across, seeking to only improve the general animation and aesthetics makeup.

Enjoy!