Ruben
[3rd Year Animation Student]
Week 13? i think (26th January 2015)
And after a very long christmas break the time has finially come to return to uni and finish the finial leg of my degree.
So what have you been up too Ruben?
Well I'll tell you Ruben ( and whom ever is lucky enough to get to read this post)
My christmas was spent doing prep for my 3 minuete film, alot of prep and planning as im sure you could have already guessed. This post is here just to fill you in on what ive been up too since uni finished in Decemeber and to prove that im not been slacking as much as i could have over this festive time haha.
Welcome to 2015!!
I'd be lying if i said i did any work after finishing uni in 2014, i needed a break from all and im sure all my other class mates would agree, so in the first week of 2015 I returned to York once again to get inspired to get started on my backgrounds!
Opting to animate in Cel action means that this would be my best plan of action as i would be able to prep my Charecter more accurately at a later date.
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Above you will find a hand full of images i took whilst on this trip to use for references.
I always fell as if my little trip to york have a massive impact of my work with this being my 10th trip since the begining of this film making process. I feel as if i now know the building of York, learning where the little ally ways between building lead, exploring little cafes and learning the history and storys lost by the new age.
I've even now have sconul access to the Libary at the univerity at york, which has been fun.
Backgrounds:-
The Storytellers Land
Scene 1- The storytellers land
First up is the story tellers land, this is where the story teller will always stay, An alternative universe here the story teller is trapped in this sereal setting. Inspired alot by the sand world, the grave yard and underworld from Tim Burton's Beetle juice
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Along with doing a Background i've also started working on my charecter for this scene. Still in his early stages the Story teller has finially started to take form after only a few hours work.
Storyteller 1st Charecter rig
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To the left to this text you should be to see a slide show of images of the current layers that make up this charecter including over 25 head and mouth shapes.
Background 2:-
The street
Background 3 /3.5 :-
The pub
Background 4:-
Lady withington manor
Background 5:-
Grave yard (day time)
Background 6:-
Grave yard (at night)
Scene 3- The pub, background 2 of 2
Though this backgroud may look very dark currently once the charecters have been added alot of the background is going to be lost.
Drawn at with a high pixal rate im hoping that everything will look awesome when it comes to animating. I also intend on animating the candles seperately to create so fancy lighting, but we'll talk more about how i plan on doing that as and when the time comes.
The only issue i may face with this is that its not a historically accurate pub as i just could not find any images to reference off. But im hoping that this isnt going to be a issue. IF it does i'm sure i'll be able to fix it in no time at all, it would only be a case of changing the taps and remoing the clock.
Scene 2: The street.
After the introduction given by our lovely story teller the story finially begins in this street. Inspired by lord street in York. This long street was once one of the busiest street in the city, making it a perfect place to start the tale!
The large red x's you can see in the image is the repesent the history of the time.
With my animation being set in 1665 the great plague was at its peak.
Any family that had one member infected by the plague was locked in their home for forty days and nights. A red cross was painted on the door to warn others of the plight of those in the house. No one was allowed in except ‘nurses’.
Created using a range of mixed media's including images of brick walls and cobbled streets to add texture i'm very happy with how this background has come out and am looking forward to animating on it in the near future.
Scene 4 - Lady Withington's mannor.
This background still isnt complete, but it will be part of one of my longest set camera angle scenes. In this scene i intend of animating the seasons changing. Sun, rain, snow and wind. Leaves growing and falling off the trees. Im looking forward to animating this the most currently as if i acually manage to pull it off it will look AWESOME!
The mannor design was completely inspired by a collection of images i found on the internet.
Again the mannor may now by completely historically accurate but its horror animation, and as far as im concerned the only mannor i was going to use was going to be 80's horror film inspired.
But after Researching into the period its not a million miles off what it would have looked like. So everything should be ok.
The mannor was hand drawn in photoshop and textured the same was as the street background using textures from images.
I large oak tree is to be added to the right once animation starts in cel action.
Scene 5- Grave yard (daytime)
When I started my degree 3 years ago i never ever thought i'd be drawing and animating a grave yard, never. But here i am.
The only background that was acually planned using a pencil and paper before hand, old school i know! But i couldnt for the life of me work out how to draw a nice looking grave yard on photoshop.
I didnt want it to be flat, i want the background to go on and on and on showing how traumatic this time was. The Black Death or the Plague was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people. I wanted to show that within the image, the hills in the backgrounds will be filled with grave stones once completed fully.
After sketching it out i took a picture and recreated it in photoshop using the same mixed media effect for texture.
Scene 7- Grave yard (night time)
Same story as the background above but this one is at night! haha
Im happy with how both background have come out, now its just a waiting game whilst i get the last few inbetween backgrounds done and charceters.
hopfully everything should work out fine.
And that is everything i've done over the christmas period.
Tada and heres hoping that I manage to survive and complete the finial stage of my degree!
Scene 3- The pub, background 1 of 2
The door of the pub before it gets slamed opened. again drawn in photoshop and textured using mixed media.
DD3992, a carry on blog from AX3001 Stater date 25th January 2015