First pass animatic

Since my story has changed, this is my first animatic since my last one last semester.  I like where it's going, but of course, there are ALOT of things I would change.  The challenge I faced was asking another person to help me storyboard, and although it took some off my hands, I found it harder to be able to direct the film the way I wanted to in the short 2.5 weeks with specific camera angles I had in mind.

Things I would change in next animatic:

His facial expressions.  I didn't really draw his face in my storyboards, but there are some instances where he looks too happy or perplexed, and it doesn't look like he's blind, looks like he can see in front of him.

Actions- more hesitations, exploration, no looking directly at objects, like the trees at the end. It's all about feeling everything and finding his way with his stick.

More close ups? Definitely going to play with more camera angles/ compositions. I feel like some shorts could be more intimate?

Ready for revisions!

WHAT'S UPP??

Damn, so I realize that I haven't updated my blog in FOREVER. I keep another blog on my website that I update more often, so I kind of forgot about this one. Sorry!!

Butt, anyways updates for my thesis!! Everything posted so far has been from last semester (so long ago, but not really again), but thankfully I have been working on it and slowly chipping away at my film during the summer in between classes and an internship.

This summer, I spent a lot of my time refining and revising my story and making it into something I was satisfied with.  I had started with a seed of a story I really liked last semester, but I knew I really need to tie up a lot of loose ends and just make it more cohesive. So after racking my brain for a while, very frustrated at times, I finally knocked out a script that I am more or less satisfied with.

The boy is not a child beggar anymore but is now an orphan trapped in danky closed walls longing to get out and explore the streets.  There is no coin anymore, it has been replaced by a music box! And the guitarist- he is not just anyone random, he is actually the boy's father. With that said, the whole concept of the boy being able to dream through music is still there. And there's a slight "twist" at the end that I won't tell just yet :)

Along with revising my story, I mainly worked on some concept art and character designs this summer.

Exploring orphanage shapes for the building!

Some quick, really messy sketches. I had this idea of the orphanage being on the hill but it was more for illustration purposes than anything.  I cannot imagine a blind boy maneuvering himself down a precarious slope...

I wanted to make the orphanage look rather ominous.

Emile in his bedroom holding the music box. This one I don't like how it turned out because it looked much cooler in my head ha. 

Wondering through the snowy streets ...

Some water color tests on how I would like it to look in the film! I did not paint these but edited them on photoshop.   I would love to get this look though.

The park where they meet. Just concepts! 

Emile! 

The guitarist/ his dad. I'm not crazy for his design at all paticularly... maybe because I just can't draw men. But in my film, you won't see him face anyways so I guess it doesn't really matter? 

I'm trying to post more inspirational pictures up on my blog so they don't get lost on my computer somewhere. I need to get better at that. The following I love for the mood and lighting, cherry reds and lovely golds. Summer is here! Well more like fall, but the colors kind of remind me of summer too :p

This is by Stephan Martiniere! After attending his workshop at CDA a while back, I stalked his website and found this :) It makes me me happy.  

Storytelling according to Pixar

For me to remember and refer to mostly!

22 Rules of Storytelling

Glowing Embers of Magic

Don't remember where I found this picture, but it's beautiful and gave me inspiration for art direction and story ideas for my film :) I LOVEEE  THE SKYY!!!!! Exactly how I want my textures to look. I love the silhouettes as well and how simple the composition is!!

Updated Character Designs!

Unfinished Swan

My friend showed me this video game called Unfinished Swan that I thought was brilliant. You start off in a white world, and must throw splots of black paint to figure out how your surroundings look like.  Brilliant!! 

After meeting with some of my teachers from last semester, I started getting this idea that maybe, I would start off in a black canvas and have the notes slowly form the boy's world as they land on buildings and slowly bring his world to color. No depth, no space in the beginning. Just void. That concept intrigues me and I think I could do some really cool things with that.

It is a totally different turn from how I originally imagined my film- I think I'm leaning more towards a very abstract beginning now, and in the end transform his world into a more realistic setting when he encounters the musician whereas in the beginning, I was imagining a regular complex city street to start with.

I think the idea of starting off in a black canvas would make more sense portraying his lack of sight.  Excited to see how this can form!