Thesis Animatic - MAY

Here's the animatic I presented to the committee, it's not final final, but it is getting there. The voice over is a bit overbearing at times, but some of it works really well.

I sort of overloaded the VO track on this go around to see what worked, what didn't and where I needed to just let the film play out. A couple things have changed since...and my voice over is just too awesome for words...by awesome, I mean awful.

Sean

The Stranger - New Head

That's the final head design I'm going to go with for The Stranger, much better than the previous two incarnations.

I'm also working on an updated design for the pawn shop owner, much more old school dealer with the green visor and skinny build than big time bouncer that I had. I think that will help give him a silhouette that is more defined/different than those of the other 3 models.

Semi-Final Character Designs

So these are the character designs I'm working with right now. The Detective is set, as I really appreciate the balance of tiredness and strength in his form; The Pawn Shop owner might change, as right now, he is far too beefy, might end up a bouncer in the club; The Quarry is right, although his color is not; and The Stranger's shape is still the same, although his face needs work, I especially dislike the one in the upper right of his page.

Thoughts, comments and criticisms are most welcome.

Visual Development #3

So here are the worthwhile pieces of Vis Dev I've done so far. All of them were done in Photoshop or Painter, the first is a great indicator of the energy I'm looking for in the chase sequence in my film, and the last two are excellent examples of what I'm aiming for visually...granted, with a bit more spit and polish.

The second and third ones were experiments I might draw from in some regard, but in no major way.

Visual Development - #2

This is the second piece of Vis Dev I did, this was in Painter...and clearly I haven't used it much, all in all though I think I learned quite a bit from it. I won't be going this direction with the figures in my film, but texture wise I might draw from it.

It was all charcoal, or what Painter calls charcoal anyway...which the more artistically inclined I know have said actually does look the part...who knew?

Visual Development - #1

This is my first piece of Visual Design I did for my film, at this point I was very much into just trying out all my different options when it came to digital coloring/animating, something that will be readily apparent when post the newer samples.

Done in Photoshop, the look I was going for was very much so an updated old school Noir appearance, simple palette, familiar iconography with a higher level of contrast. Pretty much all solid colors with no gradients to speak of; there was also some very rudimentary compositing, just for fun, but nothing really of note. I think it turned out really well and will definitely have to be considered for part of the final look.

- Chef Cox -

Antagonist Final Design - Sketch

Here is the final look for my antagonist, very boney, sharp angels and triangles everywhere.

The movement will be somewhere between that Squirrel from Over the Hedge and those twisted hallucinations from Jacob's Ladder. Very jerky, but purposeful at the same time.

I'm totally diggin' on those skinny legs too, they look pretty wicked.