Saturday, April 23, 2011

Greedo Wallpaper

So continues a strange Greedo infactuation. NOW IN WALLPAPER FORMAT!

Click for big ol size.
  I don't have much more to say now sorry.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Colour Script v1 and Greedo

I really think Greedo is an interesting guy. He is a character I would like to explore further (disregarding actual canon).

My colour board is now in some kind of version. I don't know how indicitive it will be of the final piece or anything. I discovered that having intense tones to then paint over created some interesting results. ie. me fighting with colour constantly.
And here is an amazing animation that my friend Alex shared with me (be sure to check out her production blog).




[Director] SUGIMOTO Kousuke
[Music] MANABE Takayuki

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Post Progress Pitch and Boards

Last week was our follow up progress pitch. I'm happy with how I went and people seemed responsive.
For it I finished my layout/storyboards so here they all are together!

 
 
 

So on a basic level that is my film. I am now going through the process of doing colour research and looking at lots of colour boards and theory. Then I will colour these boards to get a vibe for the mood and emotion of each shot.

I'm also going to be starting up a side short film project in collaboration for something much more exciting which I will reveal eventually. It's going to be all pixel animation! But a bit more artistic and abstract hopefully than your stock standard stuff.
Ok... I need to go try work in the small amount of time I have until Portal 2 releases. OH NO.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Wedding Compositions

I had gotten into a semi rut with my film recently. It came about from iterating my animatic too much and losing a little faith in my narration. I had recorded my writer Jack doing a narration and I had thought it was pretty good. But upon getting some fresh eyes on it and then really looking at it I realized it was both too fast and sounded a little forced. I have now taken a step back and decided that my film length shall be completely dictated by what should be the appropriate pacing to make it as good as it can be and that perhaps I should narrate it myself (I'm undecided). So to give me a break from all this I have started working out my shot compositions.
I started by making a complete list of all my shots and taking inspiration from Pixar's process begun creating the foundations for a colour script/story board. Here is my first page.

It is unfinished obviously and uncoloured.
I was in a bit of a panic about how I would go about framing these shots. I felt I had infinite possibilities and perhaps not the skill to pull it off interestingly. Then I found an amazing blog by Up! Colour board artist Lou Romano. It is his second blog and called CINEMOSAIC.
Basically he has been making collections of shots from great movies and throwing them together in a kinda colour script style. He has heeeaps. Basically when I need to make a shot I look through all these panels and find other examples of similar scenes or shots for inspiration. That way I have some degree of confidence with my composition due to being able to say "Well Citizen Kane bloody well did it!". I watched Citizen Kane last night actually, I've been meaning too since forever. It was great. Unreal sets and scope.

Here is another stupid animation line test.


Simon C Head Moves line test from Simon Cottee on Vimeo.

I've also discovered that Joe Brumm's friend Damian Pin has joined our vimeo line test group to check out our stuff, Damian recently won the 11 second club and has some INSANE 3D Animation. Oh gawd.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Production update again

Lots to do and lots done. I'm a little stuck in the cycle with my animatic at the moment, constantly recording new dialogues and rejigging my animatic and the timing. My latest dialogue was discovered to be too quick and after a meeting with script writer Priscilla I came to the realization that my film has to be as long as it is needed to make it as good as it can be. Yesterday I recorded myself in the sound booth, but I'm not sure if I will use it. I'm starting to think I might just narrate it myself as I will then be able to make constant changes with ease.
I've been animating a lot for Joe Brumm's animation class. Here are some very rough walks:



3 Walks Line test from Simon Cottee on Vimeo.

I think I will now do a kind of colour script for my film after being inspired by some Pixar stuff. Also to work out the layout and compositions of my shots.
I'm also growing my moustache and hair until I finish my animatic. Then I'm going to completely shave and grow my beard until my film is finished I think. My moustache is pretty insane at the moment. I'll put a pic up when it's about to go.

Hey check out this cool blog! It is a film condensed into strips that come together to create a barcode of all the colour in the film.
http://moviebarcode.tumblr.com

Here is Pinocchio!