Character Design: The Horse Concept

The Horse Concept art 

Character Design:The Daughter

I made a few changes to the dress of the daughter because she was lacking shape and was starting to look blocky in terms of her silhouette.  The dress is now hugging her waist more this time around like in the concept art for her character. I have also updated the facial expressions to include her mushroom  crown and the top of her dress. 

Character orthographic- Narrative

80's character 

Train character

Inventor

I've been drawing my character orthographic images to prepare to go into photoshop. 

Narrative Pitch

Pitch Presentation by Kym Mumford

Storyboard

Updated Final  Storyboard After Pitch 

Initial Final  Storyboard 

Final concepts & initial sketches - Narrative

The changes made are very small, I just changed the jaw line so that they are all the same  so that this would be easy for  modelling I made these changes after the pitch when my tutors said that it would be ok for the characters to all have the same head shape because I made their body types very similar to make modelling simple. 

Narrative - character

I have been working on the character design for the three characters,  the group agreed on the facial influences that I would use to base the character on. I came up with characters after a lot of refining and the final characters will be based of the colour tests depending on the characters colours that the group like. I will also be adding a print to the train character and adding more shadows to the 2d line drawn character. 

80's character a-d

Train character a-d

Inventor a-d

Character project: Research

               
The thief trailer shows the outfit that is sort of ninja like and Arthurian in the sense that is has parts that resemble armor. I think that this is something similar to what I want my character to have in terms of her outfit design.


             

Rough storyboard

Today myself and the group sat down and roughed out our storyboard together figuring out every shot that we wanted for the animation. 

Influence maps Character sheets and logline

Character project: Research

Arthurian & Ninja Research

               

Influence maps and Thumbnails

  

30's aArt Deco scene influence Map

Storyboard

This is my initial story board I just wanted to get the story down visually, it still needs more in terms of the transitions 

Initial Phonograph sketches

Group Idea

First photograph shows a man is sitting on a bench in the middle of the day the park is buzzing with people and children playing the man has his iPod plugged in and he is oblivious to the world around him. Another picture is placed on top of the previous photograph this time it’s in the afternoon there are less people, but the same man is still in the same position he still hasn’t moved. Another picture is placed on top this still shows the man in the park it’s night the lamps are on and the man is alone in the park. The picture then transforms into a 3D world, the camera zooms into the man’s iPod and the cover art for the album that he is listening to. The cover art is of a room from 1920 the camera pans around this room until it finds the radio, music is playing but it is interrupted by an announcement by Churchill. The footsteps of people running down the stairs to hear the announcement are heard as it zooms into the radio. The announcement is faded as the room fades into black the radio is stripped of its outer layer until the cogs in the inside are exposed. A picture still slides through and is projected onto the wall. The first image is of Edison designing the phonograph; the next image projected is of him caught on fire with the initial structure of the unfinished Phonograph. The last image is of a proud Edison with his very large Phonograph, the screen goes white as the flash of the camera is heard and the 2D photograph is now a 3D world and Edison moves his hand to play the phonograph playing Mary had a little lamb. 

As a group we sat down and came up with this idea we think that it still needs to be developed further but this the base of the story. 

Story Ideas No.2

Story ideas part two      

Inventions

A book placed on a table with the words Inventions that changed the world. A gust of wind flips the book open and onto the blue prints of the Diesel engine, from the pages of the book emerges the engineering room with a young Mr Diesel hard at work on his engine. He screws the last screw into place and puts his spanner on the table and reaches for the on button. The camera cuts to his finger as he presses the button then a loud bang is heard, the camera slowly pans up to his face that is covered in dirt his hair is standing on their ends and the tips are on fire. And both of his eyebrows have scorched off, the blackened ashes of his eyebrows fall to the ground. Mr Diesel is still in the same position that he was currently in since pressing the button. The screen then cuts to Mr Diesel’s attempt number two, he is hammering away at a part of the machine then stops. He pushes the on button a clunk can be heard then the camera pans up again only to reveal a small cog in the middle of his forehead, Mr Diesel then falls to the floor. The screen then cuts to stills of four different other events of Mr Diesel failing to start his machine. The fifth still has the words attempt fifty one, and then it plays. Mr Diesel has bandages over his eyebrows and the ends of his hair are still burnt. He has the red imprint of the cog that landed in his forehead and all of his fingers are covered in bandages and he has a crutch to help him walk because of his broken leg. He sighs and his face flinches in anticipation for what’s about to happen, the cogs can be heard turning on the engine. Mr Diesel jumps into the air out of happiness with his broken leg and the image freezes but the engine is still running and in motion.  The walls of the room fall back into the book with the rest of the engineering room the only things left on top of the book is    in air and the engine that is still running. The engine then forms into a train that surrounds Mr Diesel the sounds of the engine can still be heard and the engine forms into a train that moves around Mr Diesel. The train then morphs into a Ship circling Mr. Diesel, Mr. Diesel and the Ship then morphs back into the book.  The page shows a picture of a smiling Mr. Diesel accepting an award for inventor of the year.

The Phonograph

A box marked waste is left in a scrapyard, a young man finds the box as he walks by, and the scene skips to the young man inside his home. Sitting at the table with the phonograph on the table, and some other random components. He peers at the machine, and fiddles with it in his hands and turns the crank. It begins to play back beautiful music only it was a little fuzzy. The man leaves from the table and gets up to get his tool box; he unscrews the back and fiddles with the wiring then cranks it again. The music pours out smoothly and the camera zooms into the mouth of the phonograph. Then it zooms out again the young man is now on stage accepting an award for his new invention.  He lifts up the award but a man from the audience screams “You imposter, you fake! That is my invention”. The man replies “I don’t see your name on it.”  The phonograph name has been replaced with ‘Graph’ over the ‘Phon’ with a piece of paper and under it Edison’s name has been scribbled out and replaced with Alexander Bell. Edison rips off the paper and everyone gasps. They both reach for the machine but end up braking it, Edison puts it back together but it doesn’t play smoothly then Bell makes the same change that he previously made and it plays clearly again. They smile and shake hands and both accept the award for the invention. The people fade away but the Phonograph remains on a pedestal it morphs into a record disk a tape recorder then into a cd player with headphones then into an IPod then back into the Phonograph. The words shaping a generation appear and fade out as the screen fades to white.   

After discussing the Phonograph story with Kym and Alan we got to the core message of the Phonograph story. The issue that I wanted to express was that the Phonograph paved the way for other forms of equipment that plays music. This idea created the stories below I really like  Ideas 1 & 2, the below video is the idea that I am going for of showing the ageing of equipment. 

The evolution of the Phonograph

Idea 1

An IPod is on a table and a hand comes in to press play. The music starts to play and the IPod vibrates on the table and sprouts legs then arms. He jumps up and starts to dance and he begins to moon walk backwards, he starts to morph into a CD player he rounds off his edges and becomes bigger. He keeps walking backwards and morphs into a record player, he is now chunky and thick resembling a middle aged man. Finally he turns into a Phonograph the large machine with a long horn and he personifies the characteristics of an old man. The Phonograph stops walking and sits on the table, the legs invert into the object the Phonograph begins to play and the words ‘playing music since 1877’  are spoken and the first recording of Mary had a little lamb follows, after those words the screen then fades to white.

Idea 2

An anthropomorphic IPod walks into the middle of the screen he begins to do a popular dance that represents the current generation (i.e Gangnam style). Then the music changes to 80’s rock and he plumps up into a CD player with a Mohawk, he pumps his fist into the air and starts to shake his head. The music shifts into 60’s music and the CD player becomes large and fat begins to dance to the disco music. The object then continues to plump up and grows a large horn as he morphs in a Phonograph. The music stops and the Phonograph walks foreword. He sits down and cranks his handle playing the first words that were said on a phonograph Mary had a little lamb.

Idea 3

A record player is being played on a table, the music is playing loudly and the disc is spinning but as it plays dust starts to settle on it, the record stops playing and its moved to the end of a shelf. A CD player has replaced it, the music is playing loudly and the CD player is enjoying its life spreading music but slowly dust starts to settle on it. The object is then replaced by an IPod dock, the music starts to play and slowly we pan away from the IPod dock to the shelf of old electronics it pans past the CD player the record player and reveals the Phonograph at the very end of the shelf. The image then fades into white. 

Style inspiration, with story ideas

 Cut out art Influence map 

I was looking at the above videos and they inspired me to look into cut out art I think that this could be a great style in which we could use to tell our story about the industrial revolution. Apache is a great example of how we could use a 2D style in a 3D format.

Story Ideas 

Story No.1

Thomas Edison

The camera zooms out of the candle that is placed beside a book on an old wooden table the only light source in this room is the candle. The camera zooms into the title of the book, Thomas Edison and the 19^th century. A gust of wind flips the book open to the first page. The pages flip open to a page filled with, blue print drawings of inventions all of his inventions are on the page from the Kinetographic camera to the perforating typewriter. The 2D image of the Phonograph begins to wiggle and move and the notes begin to push their way out of the book crating 3D notes. The music of 1877 fills the room, and the phonograph begins to pushing its way out of the book changing its 2D shape into three-dimensional version, it floats out of the book playing music from 1877 the phonograph dances away then the carbon telephone seeing what had happened decides to push itself out off the book too, as it floats out of the book it begins to ring in beat of the song that the phonograph is playing. It follows the direction that the phonograph has taken, a light bulb comes out next with a long string at the end gets stuck in the book and the light bulb forces itself out by pulling upwards his string is released and the click is heard as the light bulb turns on. The light fills the room, and follows the other inventions that are dancing in a circle above the book the sound of an electric locomotive can be heard the books open page morphs into the exit of a tunnel and the electric locomotive bursts through joining the others his sound also adds to the music that is being created by the phonograph and telephone. All of these inventions continue to circle then they float back into the book closes. The light bulb floats above the book and the light continues to get brighter and brighter the camera zooms into the light and the screen fades into white. 

I think that Going west and the  cut out influence map show the art direction in which I think that story 1 could be shown.

Story No.2

Mr Diesel & his engine

A large workshop with pictures of planes and cars and engine sketches placed all over along with miscellaneous machine parts placed all over. The workshop is packed with boxes of engine parts and fuel. A calendar with the date 1897 is on the wall. Mr diesel a man in his thirties is hard at work tightening the last screw on his engine; he smiles and decides to push the on button. But before his index finger touches the button he walks out of shot, the sound of rustling can be heard and then it stops and Mr Diesel returns with a bicycle helmet. He pushes the button but nothing happens, he pushes it repeatedly but nothing continues to happen. In a fit of rage he throws his spanner at the machine and it starts to rev slowly but then the speed slowly begins to increase faster and fast until the engine combust in flames. The flames die down and with no eyebrows Mr Diesel continues to stand in shock staring at his machine. The screen fades to white and the word four months later appears. Mr Diesel is accepting an award for best new inventions as he stands on a podium He still has no eyebrows but he now has a broken arm, nose and all of his fingers are wrapped in bandages. The Engine is embossed with the words Diesel engine Test 51. As Mr Diesel lifts his award his picture has been taken with a bright grin, his background show the sketches of machines that the Diesel engine is used in, Planes submarines and ships and trains. The camera fades into the headlights of the train fading into white.

Workshop Influence map 

The Workshop influence map have ideas for what the scene could look like in story no.2 . the animation for Girl and Robot are also influences that we could use in terms of the layout also the structure of the story of having an inventor interact with their creation and having it face problems which is the premise for story no.2. Maybe there are some things that we could learn from Girl and Robot if we decided to pursue story no.2. 

Additional research

Initially we thought the direction we wanted to go in was to travel away from England and to explore the industrial revolution in different countries.One way in which I thought that we could do this was through the wars that occur in this time period, but after a discussion with our tutor we realised that we were drifted away from the focus of the industrial revolution and just focussing on the time period. We decided to continue to dig deeper into the industrial revolution I decided to explore any folklore and inventors of the time. Through my research I discovered that folklore wasn't the route that I think would be the best to go down. But the Inventors of the time would be a great way to sum up the industrial revolution an era that was pushing forward because of the inventions of great people. We have all decided to explore the topics that we found the most interesting and to create stories from these things. Then we will pick the story that we all agree to have the most potential. 

Narrative Project- Additional research

Narrative: Research

We decided to divide up our research and I had the task of researching the Political issues of the time and any wars that occur. I found that there were a lot of political injustice and the country was ran by a corrupted government my scribe document goes into more detail about my findings.

My group met today and we had a discussion about what we wanted to focus in on, we have decided to explore different countries. I will be doing some more in-depth research on the the wars that took place on foreign land and hopefully this will allow us to explore different story lines and inspire us to decide on what the story line for our animation will be.

The Industrial Revolution Research