Art n Clan n Projections

Bit of a whatever I've been up to update.
I'm working on a short little pixel sequence at the moment and learning TVPaint animation software!
It's interesting to use it for pixel stuff, as it is a bitmap program, rather than vector, so you can actually animate at a true pixel level. Learning all the shortcuts for it and the interface has proved complicated, it's very unique in it's layout and shortcuts. Frustratingly unique.
I'm considering using it to colour my film.

Here is some concept art for a side project I am doing. Hammertrots!

I've been researching medieval architecture a little, as my house mate just bought a buncha castle and siege warfare books!

Hey, check out this awesome car mounted projection animation thing. Very very cool.

run by vjsuave from vjsuave on Vimeo.

New Dorkly.com Comic

My latest comic for Dorkly.com is up now
(I don't write these, just draw them from assigned scripts).
http://www.dorkly.com/comic/17257/gritty-mario-kart-noir

Final Ass* Animation Done (*assignment)

This was an intense little animation to finish in time. The colouring ended up being tedious, though I watched about 6 episodes of Red Dwarf while I did it, so it was cool.


I wanted to colour it in photoshop, but that technique turned out to be too time consuming on my schedule. I still plan to colour my film with that technique though.
The dialogue is Bill Hicks. Animated in Toon Boom.

I've also just gotten into League of Legends. I blame Jouste and his amazing daily high 5 drawings.
It's free to play so give it a shot!

Necromancy!?

I've been playing around with an "idea" and trying to flesh it out and weave story arcs and character profiles into something. I think THIS project could be pretty neat, the problem with it is it's not for anything. IE not for uni, not for work, just a personal project that would require a buncha effort. I really want to give it a shot though, I have some ideas for distribution.
I won't mention what the idea actually is until I've done the initial stuff for it, that way I won't "talk it out" too much.

Click for a BIG OL version

REGARDING MY UNI FILM:

We had another pitch a few days ago, this time to the head of school and another lecturer. The response was really good. Some students had a rough time with questions and interrogation over theirs, so I was pretty relieved. A guy I had in mind to narrate my film dropped out which is a bit of a bummer, but that's ok.

So I am thinking I will do it myself... again. Just record it with a bit more "personality".

I'm almost up to ACTUAL animation on it. I'm just doing a short animation project at the moment.

Dorklin

I have an irregular freelance illustration gig for Dorkly.com at the moment.
Basically drawing up comics from scripts they provide.
LIKE HERE

And here is some real ROUGH ROUGH animation keys of uni related stuff.

Pokemon and Sperm

That title is a bit weird I understand.
The pokemon plague ravaged through our house a while ago and I ended up doing a bunch of stupid Pokemon pictures on some image boards, but never compiled them. So here are some of my favorites.

Click for full res

I've also been working on a uni project for a short film pitch that involves pixel art, sperm and eggs. All will become clear later. But for now, here is some concept art.

on the film front I am currently trying to lockdown and locate a great voice actor for my narration. I've also been sharing my animatic with as many industry people as possible. Been getting some great feedback.

Character redesigns, animatics and shaving

Hello hello. Lotsa progress has been made of late.
I have my animatic in a real good place. Basically it is the first final candidate animatic. I've been showing it to classmates and trying to get as much feedback as possible. I am also about to send it off to a bunch of industry animators to try get their feedback too! One point I am still trying to make my mind up on is my narration. I just worry it is currently my weakest point and may need to look at finding a proper narrator real soon. Stressssful!

I have also shaved my moustache, sideburns and got a haircut as I am having my "Beardstones" or facial hair milestones linked to my film, so I got my animatic done so now I'm fresh and clean to grow my beard until my film is finished. It's going to get rough...

I have also been revisiting my character designs and updating them. I find they grow organically as I do my animatic and end up drawing them a bunch. The biggest change is perhaps the wife. I also just had an idea for a new hairstyle as I never liked my old one.

And I updated the boy a little, to make him looser and gave him tails.

 

I've been diving back into pixel art and tried recreating my characters as just a warm up exercise

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.

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

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.

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.

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!