Drawing Group!

Today some guys from the lab got together and drew portraits of each other.  Here's mine:

Bottom reads:  "Sourabh 9-28-2013"

Modeling and Animation - Final Character Designs

Here are my characters!  I have some props, too, but they're not as detailed or interesting.  Let me know what you think!

Modeling and Animation - Even MORE Character Design!

It finally happened:  our models are due!  Of course I will continue tweaking them as the project goes on, but for the most part they are finished.  Here are some of the final designs I used to create the models, and then I'll show you the models after the jump: In the next post:

Time Based Media - High and Low Key Lighting Part II!

The project is complete!  I think it was mostly successful.  The biggest error that was pointed out in class is the spill from the overhead light.  At the end of the 10 seconds, once the actor (who did a wonderful job) enters the moody blue light, he leans over, and catches the down light on the back of his head ad shoulders.  A quick relight could have solved this, but as my only complaint, it's not so bad.  It's a little different from the Network scene I was paying homage to, but it's it's still pretty close!  You can see it below:

Time Based Media - High and Low Key Lighting

The next project we are doing increases to 10 seconds long, and must contain (within a single shot) a transition from high key to low key lighting (or vice versa).  When I was just typing the title out, "High and Low" made me think of the Kurosawa movie of the same name.  I can't remember if there's any instance of this kind of transition in the film, but I do like it a lot!  I might have to give it a re-watch soon...

There was a scene from Network which contains a great transitional moment like this during the speech Arthur Jensen (played by Ned Beatty) gives to Howard Beale.  I'll include it below the jump.  The reason it came to mind is because the lighting change is so dramatic and theatrical that it really draws attention to itself.  But, I don't think it destroys the illusion of the film world for the following reasons:  we are kind of swimming in Howard Beale's headspace (which dir. Sidney Lumet slams us into with the ECUs of his eyes) and the dogmatic writing of Paddy Chayefsky (this movie really is firing on all cylinders!), the melodramatic staging.  They all create an atmosphere of such high tension and drama that I totally buy it!

Modeling and Animation - Character Design

So, we're on our way with the camel story!  Now all I have to do is make the movie.  It's all downhill from here...  The first part of that is the character design process.  I began working out some cartoons based on a Google image search for "camel head," and I realized I was totally grasping at straws.  I thought a good place to start would be some basic dromedary anatomy.

You can see Goofy peeking out back there!  I used his face as a reference to try and make the camel appear a little more likeable.  The latest faces look most like the first design, except:  no hair, lower ears, higher nose, and eyes spread out a little more.  I like it though!  Let's run with this one...

Time Based Media - Introduce A Character in 6 Seconds

This assignment was to create either a gestalt or ambiguous character introduction.  I struggled a little with this one.  I had an idea that I was working towards and trying to make work.  The character was a computer programmer, but a villainous one.  Maybe even diabolical!  It just felt a little weak to me.

So, the morning of the project, I changed my idea.  I couldn't get this shot from M out of my head.  Professor Lafayette showed it in class, and although right on the nose, it is also elegant and a masterful use of light and mise en scene to tell the story.  I know my homage to the movie is a little straighforward, but here's the storyboards I came up with:

Modelling and Animation - Color and Animatic

As you might have noticed from the storyboard album, I began experimenting with color a little bit.  Color is going to be an important part of the story, I know, but I also really wanted to draw with the Wacom Cintiq that they have in the lab, here.  It's really fun!

So, I went to this website, colorschemedesigner.com and I made some mood boards for the characters and the setting.  This is a really cool system, and it spells out the RGB data for each color when you hover over it, so you can plug them right into Photoshop or wherever you want to take it.  I will link them below:

Background

Characters:

Camel

Rider

Props:

Bags in the pile

I still need two more props to meet the minimum requirements.  I think the ladder could definitely count as one, and I was also thinking that there could be a complete tea set at the top of the pile, instead of just the single teacup.  I'm open to suggestions!

This weekend, I also turned the storyboards into an animatic movie!  I needed to do this to judge my timing, and I'm pretty pleased with the pace!  I know I have  lot of work ahead of me with the modelling and lighting and everything else, but it's a comedic movie, and comedy is nothing without timing, so it is integral to work that out first!  Without further ado...

Modelling and Animation - Storyboards

It's hard for me to think about camels and the desert without thinking about Lawrence of Arabia, which is why when I began to draw out my storyboards I did them in an anamorphic format.  I think seeing the desert through those lenses creates a distinct sensation that I want to grab a hold of:

A tense moment by a well.

"The trick is not minding that it hurts."

With that in mind, here is a link to an album containing images of my storyboards.  And, for anyone who would prefer to see them all on one page with my messy notes:

Modelling and Animation - Character References

The design of the camel will have a unique set of challenges, because I'm tempted to sketch until I approach realism.  However, It looks like the best way to go in order to allow to camel to deform and move around in a humanoid way (in his face, anyway), is to make him a bit more cartoony.  Here's a good comparison

I like this design a lot (I didn't draw it).  Especially because of the skinny legs.

As for the rider, it was starting to look to me like a cross between Jafar and the Witch from Spirited Away.  I like the proportions and the nose of the witch, but Jafar has distinctive facial features (bags under the eyes, cool wardrobe, etc.) that I will try to incorporate.

Modelling and Animation - Character Sketches

OK!  This is it, loyal followers.  I think my new class at Texas A&M, VIZA 613 will finally get me to update my blog regularly.  We have been strongly encouraged to present our work for class in a blog format, and since I have already made this one beautiful, I decided I would continue working on it.  So, Here we go!

Our assignment was to choose an idiomatic expression, and from that idiom we have to make a 30 second animation.  We will be taking this animation from script to screen, and it will be entirely ours.  I chose "The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back."

I was originally nervous about modelling a camel, but I think I made my story in such a way that the camel doesn't have to move too much.  I've got two characters, the camel and the rider, but what are they going to look like?  Here's some process sketches.