Character Model Sheets

These were my initial try at some rotations for my two characters. Although reasonably pleased with how they came out, they are not how my characters are going to look in the final film, as they are far too detailed and have lost all the charm and movement of the characters I drew for my storyboard.

Megan

Model Sheet

Mother

Model Sheet

I think my final characters will remain quite sketchy and loose, much like the drawings I previously posted, taken from my storyboard. This suits my drawing style but also the background aesthetic I am aiming for, which I think will be similar to the backgrounds in Anna and Bella by Borge Ring. These are quite simple allowing the characters to be the main focus.

Instead of continuing to try and draw accurate rotations I plan to continue sketching both characters in various poses and with various expressions.

New Animatic

The latest version of my Animatic, which was shown at the first rush on Wednesday 3rd of Dec.

Basically the same as the previous version but it now contains more sound effects and backgrounds. I have added a shot where the umbrella falls to the ground when dropped by the mother, and also adjusted the scene where mother and child are reunited. Although it works as an animatic in that it tells the story, I still feel the reuniting scene isn't quite correct. The most important part of the story is when the mother realises the importance of the doll and although I've started to portray this in the animatic I think there is another shot needed. This shot will probably be of the Mother watching the child be reunited with her doll. The current shots in that scene also need to be closer to the characters, so that the viewer feels the intimacy of the moment.

Animatic

This version of the animatic has place holders for sound track and effects and also dialouge.

The dialogue is just me recorded at uni and most of the sound FX came from the uni libirary collection. The sound track is mostly two tracks from Yann Tiersen, Mothers Journey and La Terrase. But the two tracks at the end is the start of two Yael Naim's songs, Lonely and Far Far.

I'm am now working on adding a few more camera moves (done in After effects) and drawing in the missing backgrounds. Will hopefully show this new version in the rushes next wed.

Calvin and Hobbs Background Aesthetic

The illustrations from Calvin and Hobbes also have essentialy "unfinshed" backgrounds, where only parts that are interacting with the character is shown. Although I don't think I could take this as far as the image below, I do like the idea of showing the edge of the paper, maybe the texture too.

Inspiration from Winnie-The-Pooh

I've always admired the work E H shepard did illustrating Winnie-The-Pooh, It has a almost unfinshed quality and the pictures seem very much to be drawn or painted by hand. I'd really like to replicate this when creating my film.

Below are a few of my favourite pictures that also relate to the subject matter of my film.

Aesthetic

This is a scan from a comic that I own. I really like the sepia tone as it make the highlights really stand out, I also like the use of random textures ie. the leaves. I'm planning on using this image as a basis for my character aesthetic obviously it may need to be simplified as I will have to do it to 1000's of frames. But definatly take the muted colour pallet, the sepia tone and use of patten/textures.

I have been playing around with brown paper for a while now, these three sketches I did drew using pencil, chalk and charcol and the middle one has some water colour pencil too.

I have to confess I did copy the middle one from an oil painting by Audrey Kawazaki.

This picture below by David Revoy uses the same method of drawing onto darker toned paper to make the highlights really stand out. He has created so much depth and texture and made the picture look as if it appeared from the paper, especially by making the grass blank paper.

I love this tonal sketch done in blue pencil (found on google images), it has so much depth and i really like how visible the pencil marks are. Even the where the paper has been left blank adds to the image.

I toying with the idea of using water colour, maybe for both my characters and backgrounds, though not sure whether I would do this in digitaly or by hand. Below is a quick painting I did a while back, just to get back into using water colour. I do like the quality of the colour but not the inked line as it makes it too static.

I much prefere the use of watercolour in the painting below, an image I just stumbled apon on google. It is softer and more fluid. This also has a similar colour pallet to the one I think I will use for my film.

Character Sketches

I haven't done any real character sketches yet, but found that by drawing my animatic I have a much clearer idea of what the three characters are going to look like.These are a few of the stills that have drawings of the characters I really like.

Mother

The mother is the main charcter, I want her to be a sterotypical young mother, obviously affectionate and caring but perhaps not so suited to mother hood yet. I think this can be achieved by making her resonably thin and giving her slightly longer hair.

Doll

Child


I want the child to be cute, as the audience must empathise with her, by making her thin and giving her pig tails i think makes her young but also vunrable. Adding the coat with hood and wellies will also increase her cuteness.

I want the doll to be similar to the child, to enforce the fact that, the way the child feels about the doll is the same the mother feels about the child (well almost). I've decided that i want it to be a rag doll as somehow it seems more vunrable and more cuddley, and it inspires more history perhaps the child made it herself (it will have button eyes).

Hopefully I will produce some rough model sheets soon.

Photo Inspiration for Backgrounds

Found this photo in a book called along the riverbank. I decided to post this image as it really captures the type of backgroud i'm hoping to create. Lots of trees and shrubs, but still neat (as it is meant to be set in a park). I want my background to have many layers to increase that sense of depth and create a frame almost out of leaves ect close to the camera.