Getting ready for the final week of university!

It's nearly time for our final and last hand in of the year and of the course.

I can't believe it's nearly going to be time to say goodbye to Falmouth.

As I'm starting to wrap up all the work and finish up the film, I managed to find a little time to do something for me and play around on photoshop.

It's been so long since I have properly tried to paint in photoshop.

Of course out of everything though, I chose to paint boobs.

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POSTERS AGAIN!

I am actually really sorry for the spamming of posters.

I promise these are the last two.

Poster designs for TOWELS

A little break

I barely have any time these days to draw a little something for myself and just let loose so it was really good to sneak a couple hours in and simply 'play' on photoshop.

The fight scene

The fight scene of the film so far has really been bugging me.
The shots planned out so far feels too structured and almost too limited for what I want this film to be about.
I really want the scene to feel powerful, lose and dangerous. To really use the brush technique to good use and make the most of it. 

Since the characters are already strongly influenced by 1940's artists such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, I wanted to look at more 1940's artists to inspired the fight scene. From the vivid and distorted bodies in Bacon's work to the shapes and movement of Polock's and Parker's work.

Francis Bacon - Three Studies for a Portrait of Henrietta Moraes, 1963

Polock's work

 Roberto Matta - Invasion of the Night

Cornelia Parker - Exploding Shed

I just need to make sure to loosen up the brush strokes and allow the animation to move or grow the same way it does in traditionally painted film. 

Film update!

Most of the colouring is finally being done and there's only four more shots to be animated (exculding the fight scene).
I've personally started cleaning up the finished coloured shots and making sure the brush strokes are consistent as well as making sure the characters fit into their environments. 

I'm really worried that I am the only one so far that is doing clean ups for the film so far. Need to start recruiting colourist and training them up to help speed up the process. At the momment the shortest shots take at least the day which is not ideal. However, putting the final touches and faces on the characters takes only 2 to 3 hours to do which is a lot better than I expected.

Overall, so good so far. 

We are still on track and sticking to the scheduel far better than I had ever really expected.

Film study: Schindler's List (1993)

One of my favourite things to do in my past time, funnily enough, is to watch films and sketch out my favourite sequences.

Not really something you do with other people as they might want to lob your head off for stopping the film so frequently but it is a lot of fun. 
I'll generally watch the film once first or have watched it before and then go back to draw a scene that really stuck with me (also sometimes the opening or ending sequence). 

Just quickly sketching out the scenes and thumbnailing out what's on the screen made it a lot clearer to see what the director or cinematographer intended with each shot. 

This weekend I was watching Speilberg's Schindler's List (1993) and was particularly drawn to how dominance was portrayed in a shot. From using lighting to character positioning and camera angles. 

Because the film was done in black and white, the use of lighting was very visible and made me realise how incredibly effective it can be. Especially when it comes to shifting power/dominance from one character to another.

A cheeky little slice

Keyframing has been handed out and animation has officially started for TOWELS.

After a VERY serious discussion with the crew, I have come to the decision to keep the film as TOWELS (all caps of course). Everyone agreed 'Towel Territory' was a bit of a mouth full and too much on the nose but somehow just 'towels' they seem to like.

So TOWELS* it is.

As promised here is a little snippet of the film.

*We also made a Twitter account for the film so if anyone out there is interested in seeing what is going on behind the scene and keep up with our latest updates it is TOWELSfilm.

TOWELS is on its way!!

After a couple of animatic reviews and tutorials, we can finally say that the animatic is locked down!

It is really strange and wonderful to see colour slowly appear in the animatics as well as more and more backgrounds are being completed.

There are still certain timing bits that need sorting out but so far we are ahead of schedule.

Hopefully will soon have a little snippet to share on here.

For now here's just a still from our latest animatic.

It's been a while

This blog has been quiet for a long time. There are so many things in the works at the moment, from directing a final year film to dissertations and getting things ready for my portfolio.

I will soon be moving my work to a professional blog soon but for now here are some bits and bobs from the film. Production should be on its way before Christmas.

I can't wait to start to see the film come together.

Cheeky mid-pitch doodle

Pitching petrified

We just had our big rehearsal pitches today and although I felt exactly the way the title of this post suggests.

However, luckily it didn't go as badly as I feared it would go. I just kept reminding myself to breathe, think and then speak. There are still loads of room for improvement and the ending of my idea still needs to be rehashed, but I think the rest of it came through okay.

Now I need to just go back to the drawing board and try and build my story from the beginning again to see what I am missing.

Here are some of the final concept art I used in the pitch:

I really think I'm going to use the summer to pitch my story to different people to see how they react to the story and get different opinions on it.

What dreams may become (1998) - Vincent Ward

I recently came across an old film that I had once watched when I was around 8 or 9.

I didn't remember much about the plot but even though I hadn't seen it in about 13 years I could still remember specific scenes from the film.

Not only was the story itself beautiful but each scene was composed wonderfully.

I loved how each scene and the environments in the afterlife was presented like a painting.

From romantic landscape paintings to scenes that seemed to echo old renaissance paintings.

(Still from the film)

(The Garden of Earthly Delights)

The visuals of the film really serve the hard topic of the film really well. The surreal world the protagonist experiences are not easy things to depict, yet we find our self completely submerged in it. 

I also love the way the same shade of blue and red and tones of yellow keep reappearing through the film. It acts as a perfect guide in order for to help us pick up on the certain visual cues and how the real world is echoed in the afterlife.

Watching it really makes me itch to paint again.

Winter in Easter

Tasters for Towels

We've been working on our third year pitch ideas and putting together lot of different character and story designs.

My idea is slowly taking shape and I'm really excited to see where it goes. 

Not going to say to much about the plot just yet but lets just say its a wild and territorial day at the beach for two people and all they have is their towels and hot tempers.

So far the character design and story is coming together but there is still a lot of things that need to be worked out. I was surprised how much fun it was doing quick elevator pitches to other course mates. The feedback really helps me see things from a fresh perspective and its feels really good to bounce ideas off each other, especially with all our different influences and styles.

I really want the animation to be visually satisfying and fun to watch. 

Something that will wake you up, make you laugh but also experience the textures and charms found in traditional experimental films. 

Tonal study and the last life drawing of the semester

A first observational study and looking more closely at the different tones present.

We then did a tonal study using black and white acrylics which was challenging but really refreshing to do. It really made me consider how subtle tonal differences can suggest so much. Also made me think more about why lighter tones and darker tones stand out more and the tone that surround them. 

It was a shame this was our last session as I really enjoyed painting again and wish we had a lot more sessions like this.

Also learnt that you can leave some edges undefined and use just lighting to suggest the edges.

Now this one was just pure fun.

With only 4 mins left and a tiny blob of paint left we decided to speed paint with our left hands.