Animatic Style

I quite enjoyed working in the style for 'Don't be Rude on the Road' animatic, and using the graphics tablet/pen drawing directly in Photoshop certainly saves time, but it was still a bit labour intensive to do all the shading.

I think it would be a good idea to attempt slightly different styles for each of the three animatics, as this would give me wider experience and I would be able to see what works better for me . . . also what gives a quicker result to look at, rather than what sometimes feels like a slow process. Ultimately, it is getting to a point where I can see the story unfolding while not being conscious of the artistic process taking place.

So the next animatic, 'Couch Potato' will be more sketchy in style without so much shading. I am going to have a go at using the animation facility in Photoshop . . . don't know how it works yet, so that will be fun! . . . but it could give me the immediate feedback I need to speed up the process whilst being able to concerntrate on telling the story in coherent sequences.

Country Lanes

Had to play a rough version of the first animatic in this weeks production meeting, which was thrown together in Premiere without any edting or timing done. . . so it didn'y look too good. Took the afternoon off to re-group my thoughts so that I could take a fresh look at it on Friday morning. Have now done some editing and re-arranging of scenes to hopefully tell the story better. This is the latest version (if it uploads) . . . but I am not doing any more work on it till the other two are finished to the same level, as the schedule is tight already!

Animatics for This Happy Breed

In the past I have concerntrated on trying out different techniques on animatics, such as Flash sequences, hand drawn illustrations etc . . . but the Flash sequences take a long time to do, Talking Dog 'Knights' had about 55 sequences and I didn't really like the end result because the sequences seemed to be dis-jointed some how.
So this time, apart from trying out a different technique than using Flash so much, I am going to concerntrate on the emotions of the characters and the drama of the scenario. The technique will just be hand drawn illustrations, with shaded areas for contrast done in Photoshop in black & white. The backgrounds will be fixed and the foreground characters will be layered on top so I can just change facial expressions and postures etc. Hopefully this will cut down on alot of the work that has held me up in the past, giving more time for getting the story told. So I guess it will be more traditional in terms of animatics.

Still not looking forward to doing sound, even if it is only scratch tracks!

Riptides

Snapshot of the storyboard . . .

Country Lanes

Snapshot of the storyboard . . .

Couch Potato

Snapshot of the storyboard . . .

This Happy Breed - Storyboards

Finished drafting out initial storyboard outlines, seem to look OK at the moment, but there are some areas I can see will need to be addressed in the animatics.

Not happy with the opening sequence of 'Couch Potato' . . . but I think it will iron itself out when I come to do the actual drawings for the animatic. At the moment it is just a pan up at an angle, but what I have in mind is more of a pan around the living room and eventually ending with Frank slouched on the sofa. So, it will need to be thought out better . . . what I need to do is a geographical floorplan of the living room and sort out the camera move from there. I'll wait till I get to start the animatic and then I can concerntrate on that shot.

Also not happy with the geographical plan of the crash scene in 'Don't be Rude on the Road' either. Want to have Kenny getting up and facing the car windscreen so that he is facing the driver and passenger, but at the moment he would end up behind the car. Had a thought whilst out running this morning though . . . the car could spin round after it screeches to a halt, so that after Kenny tumbles over the bonnet of the car and lands in the ditch alongside the road, the car spins round to be facing the opposite way, thereby leaving Kenny to get up and facing the windscreen. Think that would work . . . and also it would be an interesting shot as the car boot could fill the camera view, ie: become larger as it passes the camera and diminishes again as it swings round on its front wheels.

Riptides seems to be working OK, just need to check sequence of shots during the animatic stage. Otherwise, don't think that there are any major problems . . . as yet!