Contents Page

Pre-Production:
Introduction/Team Members/Synopsis
Inspiration
Colour Sheets
Environment Sketches
Jenny Character Sheet V1
Jenny Character Sheet V2
Pup Character Sheet
The Life and Death of Jenny's Mum
Ball Pup Rough Concept
Jenny and Pup Interacting
Jenny's House V1
Jenny's House V2
Jenny's Room Rough Concept
Sea Animation Tests
Colour Tutorial Written
The Music

Storyboard V1
Storyboard V2
Storyboard V3

Animatic V1
Animatic V2
Animatic V3

Pre-Production for other projects:
Game concept art
Hand Colour Concepts
Prop Concepts
Cherub Concepts
Dead Deer Concepts

Production
Update 1: Production has started!
Update 2: Keep Moving Forward
Update 3: Christmas Cheers
Update 4: Slow and Steady
Update 5: New Years Eve
Update 6: Quiet
Update 7: Shaking off the Snow
Update 8: Colour
Update 9: Dusting off the Blog
Update 10: Lights Glisten on The Salty Sea
Update 11: Oh Wow! The Ocean!
Update 12: Done and Dusted
Final Update

Other Work for Other Projects during Production:
Magpie Concepts
BFX Contest
Magpie Animations

Finished! DONE! COMPLETED!!!

The development of a shot. From animatic, to line work, colour
and finishing touches.

The film is now handed in so I can say with confidence that the film is finished! I'm really proud that we managed to keep so ahead of schedule and still produce something so lovely. The people who worked along side me all did a fantastic job.

Pat was defiantly my star player, taking critique well and taking the brunt of the work. Without her I don't think we could of gotten this much done. Taking on the majority of the Pup shots was a brave task and she took it so well. You can tell that at the start she was a little shaky but she really got into the flow and produced some great work. Not only did she animate Pup but she also did the backgrounds for the outside, she pretty much planned the whole town, giving it an amazing consistency. Even on top of all this she helped with colouring to. Pat was a real pleasure to work with and sometimes I worry she's sometimes over looked when it comes to this animation course but I've never met anyone so hard working.

Ella did a great job also. It's a shame that I couldn't really give her much else to do besides colour work and background design for Jenny's room but without her I'm sure we'd still be colouring in right now. Ella was a hard worker and when it came down to it she got what we needed done on time. She was late coming in sometimes but once she was there she would knuckle quickly. Ella had her confidence knocked at the beginning of the third year when her pitch wasn't excepted so I hope her work on Pups had helped fill that gap. She really took the pressure off and it was great that she was part of the films production process.

Will, bless him, did more on my film than I thought he would. I knew when he decided to make his own film that our original plans to have him be my right hand man would have to be pushed aside. Still despite this he pitched in, doing small shots when he could. I took over the majority of shots planned for him in the end but the shots he managed to do look great. Will is a very expressive and talented animator so to have that level of animation in my film really gave it a shine. I'm very grateful and I tried to repay the favour by doing some animation on his film, although it can't compare to what he did for me.

The music for the film, done by Tom Britton, came out just how I thought it would. Absolutely fantastic. Each time he came back to me it was hard to think of things to say in terms of critique but we managed to communicate well, despite the majority of it being over email. I think the music really helped sell the emotion of the film and it's great to have his talent be apart of it.

I felt a lot stress at the start of the production, worries and and anxiety oozed out of me when I was writing up the initial schedule but I think it was that stress that pushed me to get so much done and in the end by the time I was finished I wasn't stressed at all. I feel comfortable and happy it's completed. Perhaps not a healthy directing method but it worked. It was a great experience being a director, despite all the initial stress. If possible I'd like to do it again, most likely on an independent basis.

There are a few things I wish I did during the production process, like actually going on that trip to the seal sanctuary to study seals for the day, or perhaps gone to study seaside towns on a more intense scale. I also wish I stood my ground a little more when it came to certain changes, like instead of having Jenny's shells in her front coat poach they were in a bucket instead, I liked how it showed Jenny was scruffy and also gave her a feeling of closeness to the shells, but it did give the story better flow so swings and roundabouts. I am glad that due to us being so a head of time I managed to do some final touches in After Effects. Adding shadows to certain shots, giving a slight burn around the edges to bring the eyes in and finally a slight water colour paper overlay to the whole thing to really bring out the storybook illustration look I wanted from the beginning.

With all that done and said it's strange to think it's over. For now I'm going to rest for a week or two and then get ready for the rest of my life. Nice.

Magpies

Man animated by Will Wivell

Now that I finished with Pups I helped Will with his film The Magpie. I just animated some magpie shots, Gary and Will had already done much of the film but I took off some pressure by doing these shots.

BFX Bonus Mission

Factory/Paper Person Concept

Seeing as Pups was going so well I had a keen interest in entering the BFX Competion this year. Lincoln University did a wonderful job last year and it was a hard act to follow. I was invited into a group of second years, they wanted an all girl team and being female and having team experience meant they thought I would be a good candidate. When I joined they still didn't know what idea to go with so I helped organise to story side of development by becoming the story artist. Working together we agree to base our animation on the 'I Created a Munter' script. We went with themes like the social pressures to become beautiful and in the constant pursuit of beauty one can loose there humanity.

Story Concept Suggestions

I suggested that the people who go through these radical changes turn into 'paper people'. Their face and bodies becoming like a collage of magazine images. I was inspired by the game 'Grim Fandango' during the Land of the Living portion. A brief section in the game in which the main character, a grim reaper, goes to the land of living to pick up a soul, the perfect 50's Americana setting is off set by these deformed faces. I thought it was something that could be applied to our message. Fine tuning your beauty, like you would when you making collage or any artwork, to an excessive amount can cause you to loose your true self.

The 30 second animation takes place is a factory in which people go to become perfect. The main character, a young woman, goes on the conveyor belt ready for her new look. She becomes intimidated by the machine and is pulled through and when spat out the other side has been transformed into this paper being. Horrified at what she's done to herself she pulls herself apart. Scraps of her self land on the floor and it pulls out to reveal other piles of paper which are other people who shared her fate.

 


We went through a few ideas but this came out the strongest. I made a few rough story concept pieces and the final storyboard and then the final animatic. It's a great experiance. I've been made lead Story Artist and Lead 2D Animator.

Last week it was announced that we made it into the finals and now we're set to go to Bournemouth for 6-7 weeks. It's exciting and I hope we do Lincoln proud! Our pitch can be viewed here!

Final Animatic

Update 11: Done and Dusted

Shot 33 Colour

All the shots are now in colour and animated! We're eerily ahead of time... but this is good. I hope. Now that all the shots are in colour most people in my team have nothing left to do so I'm just tweaking, making sure the shots are edited together nicely. I also did some credit images. I want the credits to simple and sweet, nothing is worse that the credits seeming as long as the short it's self. I did two images, on the first will be the people who worked on the project and the second is special thanks. I thought it would be cool if the shell Jenny get's at the end would be on the special thanks section, seeing as it was what Pup thanked Jenny with.

Poster Easter Egg Image

Credits Image 1

Credits Image 2

On the first image I did Jenny and Pup having a snooze, I liked this as it suggested that Jenny and Pup still hang out together after the movies events have ended. Also it's kind of cute, can't go wrong with cute! The style for the images was something I messed with when I made a movie poster for Pups as an easter egg for Dan's film . I thought it would be

nice illustrative images to end on, not to distracting something to look at.

I hope to just beauty it up a bit After Effects with Will giving me a few pointers. Nothing to over the top but just little things that give the film some polish.