Group Project - Animatic

Our storyboard for our group project has developed now. The story runs much more fluidly and we being the story outside The Sloop Inn in St Ives. From there the pirate walks in, scares a local and heads to the bar. From the bar he orders a pint and chips from the Barmaid (Inspired by Betty Stoggs) He heads outside. Seagulls are flying around, with a one  waiting on some bunting just outside. He notices the pirate's food and calls in reinforcements. Just as the pirate picks up a chip, a seagull swoops down to snatch it. The pirate notices this and looks up. Several seagulls now head towards him, causing him to fall face forward into his food. He runs back to his ship, a seagull takes a chainsaw and cuts into his wooden leg causing him to slip and fall down into his ship. He runs aboard, there he stands off a seagulls. He shoots it with his pistol. Using the style of the old cartoons, only a hole is visible in the seagull. He grabs his cannon and begins firing. One small seagull heads away from the crowd as a larger seagull divebombs onto the Pirate. From there a mass of seagulls begin to form around the pirate. The smaller seagull sits and watches whilst he begins to eat the Pirate's chips. The pirate eventually shoos all the seagulls off, only to see St Ives up in flames from his cannon balls. The setting ends with the seagull sat merrily on the edge of his boat eating his chips whilst the Pirate screams "Nooo".

We've been working on animatics, so far we've done two drafts and currently working on the final version;
First draft:


Second draft:




We've made some changes, after a tutorial from Georg. The local was the wrong way round, so we've changed that. He also gave us the idea to begin it from the outside of The Sloop.
We've begun sound as well, soon this will be added. I recorded some non-diegetic background sound of the seagulls in Falmouth along with the sea. So far it's going quite well.

Pre-Production. The Underground Circus.

My Pre-Production work has now been titled 'The Underground Circus'
There are 3 Human Characters;
Tilly the Clown (Main protagonist throughout)
Mark the Acrobat (Brother to Martina)
Martina the Acrobat (Sister to Mark)

Along with 3 Animal Characters;
Daniel the Elephant (Ringleader of the Circus)
Lionel the Lion,
Jim the Seal. (Youngest character, only has 3 whiskers)

The concept behind it is to teach pre-school children about respect, etiquette, responsibility and friendship. With each episode a new dilema will happen, in which the characters will have to solve it. The main character Tilly the Clown will be the focus point and the character who tends to most of the problems, except her own, from there she will have the help from her friends. The series is based on and in the Moscow Underground. From there the characters get on the train to The Underground Circus station where they live. Various characters come to visit them. The characters also leave the station, as some episodes feature them in Moscow.

Each episode will be about 5 to 10 minutes long with a simple progression through  disruption - problem - resolution.

The final characters have been designed and turnarounds are in progress. Concept work of the characters on the Moscow Underground has been produced. I am using a mix of collage and pro-markers to produce a textured effect. The skin for Daniel the Elephant is produced by colouring over brown paper in a light green pro-marker.

Pre Production Characters!

Working on the other characters for my Pre Production project. I've decided on using typical Circus animals; lions, tigers, elephants, camels, seals, dogs, horses etc. I have decided to use a Lion, Elephant and Seal.

Started off with some quick sketches, using the 1950's style. 

I began using collage to create my lion and achieve that 1950's angular feel, working with various coloured paper and marker pens.

I tried out using various different shapes and style to see which worked best. I wasn't too keen on using the gold covered paper, though it did give a nice texture.

After critique from my tutors I began as a trial using that very typical 1950's 'star' shape as the Lion's mane.
I began work on the seal, again using mostly block colour and outlines which extrude off the shape. I also decided to make the whiskers for both the Lion & the Seal triangular. I'm still unhappy with his face however and I'm going to work on this.

With the elephants I began using again very angular shapes. However receiving critique from my tutors, they suggested I go for a more curved feel as the trunk looked too sharp.

I began colouring onto brown paper to achieve quite a nice texture which I feel I will bring forward into my final!