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.