Puppets!

Just a short test of my Compy.

Getting Compy in there.

I scanned in the character and thanks to my photoshop skills he has a nice halo, but the final render will not be like that...not at all!

Trying to make things work....

Slowly yet surely trying to make this background work...I still have a few things to add here and there but I think it will work out just fine. I think what I need to do now is set up my cameras at whatever angles they need to be at and then place stuff as needed.

Again...

Yeah so this would be more in the distance with closer elements. I like it. So far that is.

New background...well a piece of it.

So I'm still working on building a better background. How does this look? Looks more like a forest? I have a few more to make then place around in Maya, at least this will make it easier on the program instead of all the little bits and pieces that were in there.

Poorly lit puppet test

Yeah just a test. Making sure it works!

Working on backgrounds. Again

Trying to decide what looks best. I know I need to go back in and fix the ground issue. I feel like there's way too much brown and not enough green. The grass pieces will look extremely weird just sticking out of dirt...I think anyways. I'm not sure how I want the plants in the foreground to look just yet. I think the semi-silhouette with a little light shining on it is nice. You can see the grass and flowers yet they dont completely distract from the cliffs in the background where I want to the viewers' eyes to go. Once I fix the grass issue and put the rest of my trees in here all I have left to do is add the skeletons here and there and on the right cliff. Then this background can be used for multiple scenes(most of the scenes actually). Started making puppets, so I feel ok about where I am right now.

More progress!

So, there's a lot missing in the foreground and yeah I don't know about that tree being so close the screne. I'll have to to work on that. At any rate, here's my background progress so far. It may not seem like a whole lot but those trees take a while a to make. I made about 11 and I'm wondering if I should make more....do they repeat to much?! Does it bother anyone that there cliff on the right have a very visible line down the middle? I'm thinking about touching it up in Photoshop? Please let me know what you think. I know its not finished but talk about what's there and not what isn't there.

Testing out background

This is not a complete background its just a test of the sky I made in Maya. Not much of an atmosphere YET, but its well on its way.

Dinosaur cut outs I found.

What a marvel concept we have here. Dinosaurs in cut out form. I love it.

So there's no mistake about designs.

And for whatever reason blogger wants them sideways.

Finished animatic.

Well here's my animatic. I plan on redoing it or at least certain parts. It's extremely rough at this point but hopefully the overall story comes through. I realize that the first part is difficult to see, but until I fix that image that's the best quality I have at this point.

The overall story is about the dragon origin and how dinosaurs played a role in creating these mythology creatures. It starts off on a Medieval tapestry telling the story of a terrible dragon that destroys the village, and then it pans over to a skeleton of the dinosaur(the main character). I have so recent changes in whats going to happen next, but a bird flies by and as it flies over the ocean it turns into a pteranodo. She flies to her nest and the babies hatch. I think most of the story is pretty clear from there. The Compsognathus tries to get to them by trying to fly using leaves as wings and dies. After the credits a Medieval farmer digs up the skeleton which ties it back to the beginning with the tapestry and the skeleton there. I think....

Just a little more progress.

Here's a few more examples of process.

Backgrounds in progess.

Well here are my sketches for nearly all(three missing) backgrounds I need to make. Still not sure if I want to do the painted backgrounds or do a fabric background. I might just do a little of both.

Little bit on process

So a little bit about process. Scrolling down I posted a video of a short hand drawn sequence of animation. Well I took that and turned it into stop motion. I used tracing paper to trace over the different frames and then redraw those images on canvas paper. Canvas paper makes some really nice puppets. It's strong enough to hold any sort of hinging technique you'd want to use. Then I cut out each piece and animated it under the camera. Pretty simple stuff. I think I like this technique so much because when I paint each image on the canvas paper the textures(however subtle) move really well. It can be awkward at times though when some textures are moving and other are not but its still an over all nice movement.

Render Test

Well here's my render test for now. I've worked all weekend on it whether it shows or not. I have a few more items to add to it but that will have to wait until on Wednesday.

Testing out the baby pteranodons.

So the video on the top is a really rough hand drawn sequence that I plan to make into puppets and smooth out. I find it easy to make all the necessary parts for the puppets and get an understanding of how they will move if I rough out a sequence first. The video on the bottom is a test puppet I made last night and as you can tell he's pretty rough and stiff. I think when I go the make my final puppets for the pteranodons I will make their wings out of felt and wire to give it a more three dimensional feel. (And I have no clue why that video is red...).

Finished animatic! It's only missing one thing...the opening.

Well it's finished enough. I should have the opening done no later then Friday...since I have to present it.

Backgrounds/Atmoshpere

Well I've been trying to figure out how I want to render out my backgrounds....more my atheistic. I've just been messing around in photoshop. Not to happy with the results. I want to add in textures (Thinking about Kung Fu Panda and Secret of Kells.) Either way, it's a start.

Progress!

So here's a little tease of my animatic so far. Its the beginning of my story thus far. However, my teacher and I were discussing my storyboard and he said that it may be more interesting and twice as funny to tell the story in reverse. Now, I hadn't thought of that...obviously. I thought it was hilarious! Once I'm finished with the first pass of the story board and scan it all in I will post two animatics. One the original story concept and then my teacher's suggestion(which I love!) But I want everyone to compare and contrast the two ideas.