'A Boy and his Shadow' Minor || Prop Design and Modeling Update Post

To begin, I started modeling some of the props in preparation for a initial test animation. Specificially I needed to scale the objects correctly so they looked natural for the main characters to interact with.

I added a nose! It looks completely different to the design I had before, so I suppose this is a lesson in 3D design and having some foresight into the modeling process. It does look a bit like a doll, but this suits the animation.

I feel like this is the most I'm going to do for this character as I have been working on the model for some four months, which is quite a stretch of time, however, it only took so long because the model kept getting updates to look more natural.

A start on the computer model, just need accessories and wires next. It's going to be immobile so no rigging required.

I've also been working on the logo as during the intro, the title appears on the computer screen before the boy walks in the room, so I wanted a more glitchy looking aesthestic going on to best represent the computer framework.

Going forward, I need to create a couple of matte paintings ahead of time to put outside the window in the first bedroom scene, and also outside for a more expansive landscape. I won't worry as much about the environment especially as I need to start getting into skinning and rigging models at this point in time, but I am assured in knowing that I have sound design ready, as it is a crucial point of understanding for the audience. 

'A Boy and his Shadow' Minor || 3D Modeling the Boy Part 6: Fixing Geometry and Other Things

This is my original mesh, it requires more geometry, but the current structure doesn't allow it because the edge loops aren't going where they need to go. I wasn't aware of this initially until it was brought to my attention. 

This is the face geometry with a wireframe to show the fixes made to the mesh prior to smoothing. The nose resolution has been increased to better suit high quality animation, and other parts have more vertices in order to better support animation. I hadn't realised the knock on effect that the structure had of distorting the smoothed mesh because of all the points with more or less than four edges, so this is definitely something to bring forward from this project. 

'A Boy and his Shadow' Minor || The Room and The Blank Space Part 1: Thumbnail Sketches

I fashioned these thumbnails after a theme of escapism. There are a few key props to consider; the computer is the impetus of conflict in the story, being the boy's key form of escaping real life but after the ghost makes contact through it, the red door becomes important as it represents escape for the boy. Both should be treated as key focuses while scene building. 

Also I began to consider the representation of Outside in the story. A green field is often seen as a metaphor for freedom, so this could be a possible alternate ending. I added a tree, just to see what it look like, though I'm not sure if it will stay. 

Please let me know what you think of these ideas in the comments, input is greatly appreciated.

'A Boy and his Shadow' Minor || 3D Modeling the Boy Part 5: Summer Progress Update

Over the course of the summer I have made some progress on one of my models, obviously it isn't done, but I will go over some of the developments as to make a record for future reference.

First of all the eyes have been remodeled as to more resemble an actual, albeit enlarged, human eye, which will give me more range of expression. This point is especially important since the animation has a horror aspect which covers a range of emotions.

The eyes were made using an old blender tutorial I used a few years ago called 'Creating Pixar looking eyes in Blender'. The eyelashes have a transparent blinn which can be seen in the viewport for reference while modeling, and has another arnold standard surface for rendering. I attempted a skin texture, but the sub surface scattering has made it look faded.

I think the normal maps for the hoody have worked out pretty well, I haven't done the underside of the hood on purpose so the difference is more obvious. The shoes and socks went through the same process. The oversized aspect of textures lends itself to the model, as it give a sense of scale.

From this point I want to work more on the hair strands at the back of the head, the skin textures, and generally just cleanup everywhere. after that, I'll start skinning everything. At some point i want to start working on the environments, so expect progress updates on that too.

Premise 2018 || 'A Boy and His Shadow' Finalised Storyboards and Drafts

These storyboards are for reference and require improvement that will be applied after the first animatic is finished. Checklist for potential additions:

• Creepy/cute
• An unlikely Friendship
• Introductions
• Repetition Fixes
• Tension
• Monster personality development
• Ending elaboration?

Premise 2018 || 'A Boy and His Shadow' Finalised Designs

Through looking at what is currently in development, I have decided to go back to basics and redesign some elements according to the initial idea of a creepy/cute interaction. The boy now is much cuter in both depiction and behaviour, and through interaction with the ghost is capable of interesting chemistry that defines their relationship, a reference to the idea of 'an unlikely friendship'. It was described as the story of a young boy who has a friend on the internet, but as it progresses, it turns out that the friend is actually some kind of superintelligent AI that is able to manipulate computers.

As usual, I have created some spare images that were originally for a portion where the boy goes inside the computer and inhabits a virtual space. Here, his clothes change and he gains an unusual companion who follows him wherever he goes, providing a sparing but powerful protection when necessary to protect the child. Eventually this arc would have led to him finding his room again within the virtual space.

In terms of environments, the space is basic and completely assumes the contents of a childs aged 8 - 12 room. A few minor details to note would be the unusual pictures placed about, and an old CRT desktop computer in the corner. 

The Ghost

In terms of development, the original design was considered too visceral and scary for the style choices of my animation, so to act upon this I have made a couple of minor changes to the pallette to make it more 'oily'. The eyes too have had a slight change in structure, with a square pupil like a pixel. 

Further experimentation was made to the form of the monster in this sketch, where I hypothesise different forms behind the mass, and how it uses these forms to its advantage. Fear of the unknown generates the creepiness of this ghost, so in order to preserve that, there is never really any whole to what is seen.

In terms of orthographs, I decided the best way to attempt this would be to create several shapes of eyes and noses onto a large mass. These pictures demonstrate versions of this idea by the study of facial features.

Film Practise || Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Fake Title Cards

Add caption

These title card are based around the palette of the desert and sunset, and I have also 

kept the theme of western in there as well.

Note: I couldn't make the title card for Paul Newman as my computer does not have the same font used in the ones above. It would've been a light pink, with a silhouette of gold bars around the corner in the same fashion.

Premise 2018 || Week 1 Initial Ideas and Inspirations

This story will be about a young boy who spends a lot of time in his room by himself with an old computer, even when the internet router is off. Every night a hideous poltergeist visits through the screen to play games with him and have fun. It could be an analogy about online friends.

It might be the case that i will need to simplify my idea down to keep it appealing to audiences,  in this case the story will be about a boy who is friends with a ghost that appears to him when he is alone. It could be narrated over by a voiceactor if the friendship is mute, or if it is purely visual, in which case it could be important to focus more on the visual state to keep up quality in terms of sound. This leads me to think of the elements in balance, how I can match the voiceactors talent with my content. It is also important to note that I should be taking advantage of CG animation rather than attempting to imitate something which could be done better in real life.

The story in particular will focus on the monster, a concept from keyword 'online friends'. The many eyes, nose-like structures,and smoke-like, corpulent form represent the unified, intangible nature of the anonymous online. He emerges from the computer at night as a thick black smoke, enveloping the boys room, and socialising using toys. The motive or existence of this creature are unclear.

Party on! Kaiju || Props, Character Finalization and Bad guy

Progress for Gen's Character design, as she is too plain and not memorable enough; the objective was to work more around the idea of a female turtle to increase appeal.

Following feedback, Gen was further worked upon to make her seem more feminine by changing her features and stature. Now her look contrasts well with Bu.

For the Bad guy, I had a few ideas from the outset. Initially i wanted to create a European dragon to represent the spread of empire across the sea, but the results looked too generic, so instead I started to look at some pictures of dinosaurs. It is interesting to think that pterodactyls and the pterosaurs were not really a dinosaur, but their own species entirely, the confusion stemming from the suffix -saur.

Forming the basis of this idea and the themes of 'party', and 'big roar', it was possible to develop this figure even more into 'the conductor' an anthropomorphic pterosaur wizard from an alternate universe that controls electricity and summons thunderstorms. Using this ability, the Conductor turns the city of Tokyo into a flashing light spectacle from atop Tokyo Tower.

While considering the nature of these characters appearing in this context, I watched a lot of godzilla movies, and came to the conclusion of figures appearing in the same lieu as wrestlers or gladiators in a ring. Names are clearly identifiable or relatable to design, for example, 'The Undertaker'(1990), also known as Paul Bearer, is a gothic styled spokesman from WWE, and Biollante refers to a massive reptilian rose bush in Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989). The Conductor serves to replicate this fashion.

Character Design Workshop || Environment and Setting

To create this scene, based on the phrase 'It's alive!', I utilized a low angle shot with a tilted camera. The idea behind this kind of framing is to indicate an uneasy atmosphere involving playing with a lot of power, in this case lightning. 

By drawing in this fashion I learnt something about cameras in general; they are there to conjour a kind of presence within the story, and so therefore they should act in rhythm to the human eye, so when a camera tilts to either side, the head follows the eyes. If something is off the right hand side of the screen, the camera should tilt towards the subject.

It is also important not to mix up shots with each other, in my drawings, I had an extreme close up and a long shot in the same scene. It could result in a sort of sensory overload on part of the audience, so it is important to keep things focused on one thing at a time.

Party on! Kaiju || Character Development, Environment and Story

Expressions were applied to my character in a measured response to what I would assume would appear according to a story and the individual personalities, whilst also attempting to avoid the more common emotions that most people think of first. Exercising the face will also help me understand the geometry to a greater extent, or diagnose issues with design.

Judging from the current progress on my characters it would be advisable to work more on Gen's design, which needs to be more identifiable next to her counterpart. I was thinking of giving her a bigger head, as if to contrast her actual intelligence as a tortoise, a symbol of wisdom, with her real knowledge which is quite small on account of being a feral creature. It could also help balance the two in terms of cooperation since Bu (snake) is a deceiving creature that appears in the bible. 

In terms of story, I thought about themes, how these character make up for each others shortcomings, despite differences, they are soulmates. There is definity a sense of hidden potential with these two as well, since they are legendary creatures with an affinity with humanity, there are callbacks to Kaiju like Mothra, who, with her larvae, protected japan from Godzilla. I also thought about the nature of duos in media, Banjo and Kazooie come to mind, since they are quite plain it is easy to superimpose the game player onto them.

Recently I was thinking more about the environments of Tokyo and similar cities; a closed in, sprawling concrete jungle. The districts can be discerned from landmarks, akihabara, the giant crossing, Tokyo Tower. These are things I should be utilising in my thumbnails at some point, because its been mostly generic dead space typical of any city, so in the next attempt there will be more landmarks, Japanese tropes and neon signs.

Character Design Workshop || Props and Pirates

First exercises involved identifiable props that can be quickly associated with a character, so much so, that the object would look wrong in the hands of another character. Working from the image of Wreck It Ralph from the iconic movie Wreck It Ralph (2012), I developed several rudimentary, construction themed weapons that best suited his hillbilly like character.

The second exercise revolved around the idea of sidekicks in a pirate context, specifically those of the 17th century. I had the idea of fish pirates, marine life that has risen up from the depths to pillage the land. Although this idea was received, it was advisable to look more at the clothes pirates wore in order to make individuals more convincingly rugged.

Character Design Workshop || Facial Expressions (Week 5)

in this class the task was to experiment with different facial expressions, and how they can overlap in form when presented in unique situations. we also did a task where we applied these expressions to a pre-existing character 'Fender' from the movie Robots (2005), who was voiceacted by Robin Williams.

Judging for initial observation, Fender is a comedy sidekick whose only purpose is to be louder than the others, this is why he has a big mouth. To directly engage with the viewer on an emotional level, unlike some of the more minor characters, he has expressionate eyebrows; these are the part of the face we normally notice more on human being when we look for expression. 

By using a chart with mapped out emotions, such as fear, joy, or sadness, we acted out situations using just our faces. we are fearful, but also ecstatic when we get on board a rollercoaster, and when we hear a joke that is so stupid or politically incorrect we just have to laugh at it, we have a mixed expression of laughter and sadness. 

Showing emotion  is important when we are interacting with society, which is why its important that our creations also have this trait, since their sole purpose is as a medium of expression on screen.

Character Design Workshop || 'Party on! Kaiju' (Week 4) and Simple line Poses

Drawings this week are based around further development of the kaiju monster, with the objective to infuse a cute and friendly nature in a giant creature potentially capable of massive damage.

Alongside this giant turtle we have an anaconda snake, this is because of the chosen inspiration of 'Genbu', or black tortoise that protects the former Japanese capital of Kyoto from the north. In China similar mythology can be found which describes the beast as the stomach and intestines of Xuanwu, a Taoist, later god, that purged his body of humanity. 

The Kaiju is designed after the shape of an egg, featuring smooth sides to illustrate a cuddly, pudgy exterior. It's eyes point either direction, and a snake wrapped itself around the torso like a sash. 

If we focus on the part of the story that describes the stomach and intestines as part of humanity, we could assume that this character is inherently animal to the core. Much like the former Godzilla and other monsters which have a similar disposition towards primal humanity, it cannot be described as a beast of burden that must save the city at any cost. rather it is to its own self preservation that concerns the creature the most.

So broadly, the creature doesn't have any inclination towards staying in the city unless it absolutely has to. This brings up the question of the snake wrapped around its torso; symbolically it is a trickster, so perhaps it could have an ego that involves the symbiotic nature with the tortoise, except that his pride is counterbalanced by the innocence of the animal. 

Also during this class we were asked to pose so we could study body language of a chosen topic. These pictures are below;