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.

Update 10: Oh wow! The ocean!

All environmental shots were done swiftly and I'm very happy how they all turned out. Now it's all colour work. Everyone now is colouring, except Will of course, who is working on his own film.

When it comes to colouring I always try and slow down the frames onto twos when the character's are still. I knew I wanted every frame to have this boil but to have it on ones when the characters are still go to quickly and it really messed with my eyes, I worried it would mess with the audiences as well. Putting the still boil on twos did create a lovely effect, almost like the characters are just slowing down and the boil is simply them breathing. It's great. Objects, like Jenny's bucket for example, don't have this boil when they are still. I did this for a few reasons, one to stop it from being to distracting, the eye should focus on Jenny and Pup, and also because an object doesn't breath, it should just blend in with the background to best of it's ability. 

So yes, the film is going at a comfortable pace. Currently as I write this we only have 20 shots to colour and between the three of us I see this being easy doing.

Update 9: Lights glisten on the salty sea

Shot 3: Animation and Background by Pat. Sea animation by me!

I've finished doing all of my core animation for the film. I took over a lot of shots that Will was set to do and now he only has 2 to complete, one nearly finished. I've now moved on to environment animations such as the sea. As you can see in the example Pup not longer looks like he's running from nothing. The low frame rate sea doesn't feel to out of place and adds an illustrated look to the film. Which is neat! I just have to keep chugging a lot in this direction for now and then I can help the others with colour work.

I also fixed shot 49. Jenny is looking much less malformed. Hurrah! It's below with some other shots I feel proud of.

Shot 30 (Pup animated by Pat)

Shot 49

Shot 58

Shot 37

Also in the world of "Not Pups" I helped Dan out with his film. He wanted some lighting concepts. He gave some some blank line work and some colour concepts and I went to town on creating ideas for the lighting. I started out in rough grey scale and then once Dan was happy I went to colour. It was a short notice job and was done over the weekend.

Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

Final Colour

Overall things are going well. Ella is continuing to colour and Pat is tweaking backgrounds and also doing colour work. Very positive all round.

Update 8: Dusting off the blog

Ugly shot 49

It's been awhile since I've posted, not because I haven't done anything but just because it's all been more of the same. Shots have been coming out smoothly with nothing special to point out. The majority of the group seem to be doing well, especially Pat, who as usual takes critique well and puts her all into every job given to her.

Will is slightly slow at doing shots but seeing as he is working on a film of his own I don't feel I could lay on the pressure on him harshly. I give him wide deadlines to compensate and he usually fulfills them. I feel due to this that my original plan to have the animation done by March may not work out. This is ok though, I don't mind going into March and any shots that Will has yet to complete by that time I will just take over. I understand Will's lack of work comes from the fact he is not only balancing a film of his own but also a recurring freelance job, so taking on the shots myself is to be expected.

Less Ugly shot 50

Ella's work flow constantly fluctuates. She seems to struggle to set her self a schedule in order to balance the work load given. I've tried giving her shorter shots to colour but at crunch time I will need her to toughen up in order to complete the film in time.

She isn't the only person colouring, a second year Rob has taken keen interest and completed a shot for me, although his work output is also slow. Another second year, Hana, also offered to help and completed one shot but hasn't gotten back to me for doing another. I have found I can't rely to strongly on the second years for help and I don't feel confident enough to pressure them for help. I do need the help but they have work of there own to produce and the colour work isn't interesting enough for them to join my team. Sadly this is probably the only area I really need help in.

This is why Ella's recent reluctance to colour is concerning and I hope she gets back into the flow soon.

Pat, like always, is on track and has done all her animation work for the film and has moved onto background work. She's doing great work and I have no current critic to give her when it comes to her commitment to the film.

Shot 19

Shot 54

I only have 2 shots left to animate, because of this I may go back and fix a previous shot, shot 49, as Jenny is painfully off model in this shot. I don't know how I ended up doing it so badly but I defiantly will go back. After the animation is done I start doing the animated environment backgrounds. It'll be a challenge but I have confidence. I also seems to of forgotten the schedule another background, shot 54, but I quickly threw one together so all is on track. I also did another background for shot 19 ahead of time to help Will understand the shot when he gets around to it.

So yeah, same old same old. All seems well! For now...

Update 7: Colour!

Shot 20

More shots are getting done, it's getting exciting to see less and less of animatic in premiere timeline. Another shot in which Pat animated Pup and I just animated Jenny (Shot 20). Shot 20 was a very subtle movement but I just didn't like her standing a blinking. She had to do something.

Next I did some shots of Jenny getting her hat for Pup, 23 and 25. These were very easy as one was just a continuation of the other shots movement.

Shot 23

Progress is going on well! Will has started his next shot after his two week break from Pups, Pat has caught up with all the previous shots. It took a lot of work but she really made the Pup shivering shots work. Ella is bashing away at the colour work, having done 2 shots so far.

Shot 25

Speaking of colour work I decided to colour shot 1. A lot of effects, splashes ect., where animated straight into Photoshop so they would be consistent with the background. I decided very early on to have the sea animated in Photoshop so this rule has to apply to the effects as well.

Bonus Blog

I forgot that I did these magpies to help with Will's film.

Update 6: Shaking off the snow

 All caught up and still ahead of time. With these shots Pat had animated Pup and I animated Jenny after the fact, in attempt to make Pup look consistent.

Also I did a turn around for Ball Pup as we seem to have move into the colouring stage of out production. Ella has completed her background work and is now chugging along with colouring shot 1.

Shot 22

Pat is working on the next shots and with Will is practicing how to make a character shiver convincingly.

Shot 21

Update 5: Quiet

Not much to post this week as I've done nothing. It was a lot of family time last week and I had to sort out coming back to Lincoln and cleaning the house and dissertation and blah, blah, blah. I'm still ahead by two weeks so no pressure.

Everyone else seems to be doing ok. Will has caught up and Ella is back on track. Pat is still on time but the shot she sent me this week was of poor quality and sadly I had to ask her to it again. To defend Pat she has been working hard on other things and more than likely spending time with her family so I can understand why it seemed so rushed. Still I hope this isn't to much of a bruise on Pat's ego.

For now the film is chugging along and I have been spending most of today working on the next shot so more work will show up on the next update.

Keep on truckin'

Update 5: New Years Eve

Work is continuing at the same steady pace, another two shots done, short and simple, not a lot to say about them in terms of acting, the just push the story a long.

Meanwhile Pat has fixed the shots from the previous week. I needed
to tweak shot 60 in the end as some things I felt I could only explain by
doing. I changed the pacing of Pup popping up as I know Hilary suggested holding on this shot. The biggest change was to Pups face. It looked as though he was looking to the side, rather than the horizon, and he had an oddly mischievous look on his face. These edits were minor and I wanted Pat to move on to the next shots, I informed her of the changes and she had no problem with them. Will is still behind but is slowly catching up.

Shot 60 Pat's Edit

Shot 60 My Edit

Update 4: Slow and Steady

Shot 41

More shots have been done. I'm particularly proud of Shot 41, the act of her running down the hill shows her trouble of staying stable which foreshadows nicely to her trip later on.

Jenny's final shot was finished as well and although I feel it could be better it works for now and if I still feel disappointed near the end of the animation production then I'll make tweaks then. For now I feel it portrays what is needed for the shot.

Pat has giving me shots but they needed tweaking, I gave her some notes to work with, hopefully

Shot 59

they were helpful. Ella's computer has been recently been fixed, I hope she can get back into the work flow soon. Will has fallen slightly behind. He is working on two films and working on jobs outside of University so things like this are bound to happen. He has promised me that the two shots he needs to do will be done when we get back after the holidays.

For now progress has slowed down slightly but I'd just put it down to the Christmas season and I'm sure people will catch up soon.

Update 3: Christmas Cheers

Shot 33

I've gone home for the holidays and have given everyone my contact information so everyone can keep me up to date with what they're working on. Me and Pat are currently ahead of time, Will is on time and unfortunately out of reasons beyond her control Ella is going to get slightly behind as her laptop is currently being repaired. For now we're just going to push on.





I've been working on shot 41 which is making steady progress. I fixed the legs on shot 33 and now it plays out perfectly. Shot 9 was next on my list and seems to play well. I've decided to work on shot 18.5 as it's very collaborative and it'd  be best to work on it when everyone is around. For now I'm just  going to carry on with whatever's next on the schedule.

I'm also going to try and balance some dissertation research while doing this but seeing as I'm ahead hopefully this wont be to difficult.

Shot 9

Update 2: Keep Moving Forward!

Shot 33 Background

Much progress has been made this week. We seem to be plowing through the shots at a confident pace. The only slight trip up on my part was that I forgot to put down a background for Ella to do for shot 33, the shot I'm currently working on. Instead of giving her more work suddenly and seeing as I was ahead of schedule I managed to make a background fairly easily, referencing Ella's past backgrounds to make sure it would all fit in.

Shot 7, my edit

Also I had to make edits to Pat's shot, Shot 7, nothing big but she was making quick progress with the other shots and the change was nothing big so I decided to just make them while my work was getting finished so quickly. All I did was edit the smear frame and make it so the tale goes up after he falls, so it leads on nicely to the next shot. It's still very much Pat's shot though and she did a great job with it.

Lastly, going back to shot 33, I've been struggling with it, getting Jenny to move around the ball convincingly. Her legs have gone to long as well. This will be something for me to sort out this week. Other than that things are moving smoothly.

Shot 33 WIP

Production!

About two weeks ago we started production. We're currently ahead of schedule, seen here. Everyone is working hard and seems pretty confident so far. I'll try and update weekly. As for now I'm very confident in my team.

Also on another note I created a colouring tutorial video awhile back to give to anyone interested in helping with colour.

Hopefully this will be useful in helping understand the method I'll be using to make this film.

A challenge that we overcame this week was the opening shot. Thanks to Will and some after effects magic we split the background into two 3D planes, the sky and ground, so that that when we panned down it looks convincing. I feel it helps the films opening.

Opening Sequence Sea

I animated the sea it's self in Photoshop, as I felt flash animated water on top of a Photoshop background would look really out of place. I kept the water at a low frame rate, as from previous tests this just proved to give a nice illustrative look. Over all what I did for the sea it's self is something I am proud of.

Then further on we placed the animation of Jenny on top and found the shell needed sea foam running off it. Once again this wasn't something I could do in flash as it stood. I decided we needed to export shot in after effects and then put it back in Photoshop again for the sea foam effects. I was slightly worried about quality being lost after 2 exports but they both seemed clean and the effect needed was there.

There are still some things to add to shot one, such a the seals jumping out the sea, but these rough tests show it can be done rather simply.

Opening Shot Test (after effects by Will Wivell)

Other than that shots are making good progress. Everyone it working well I am hoping to get all the animation done by at least March.