Shell and Paddy Animatic

The showing of our animatic was another good success. It made people laugh and what I found amusing was how obvious it was were some people made a desperate attempt to criticise it for very small reasons e.g. the name choices for the characters and the fart from Paddy even though he hasn't had anything to eat. In my response there couldn't be any more over detailed critical response than that for a kids comedy cartoon.

Up till now Tom has done a few tweaks to the animatic to do slight improvements and now we have to consider animation layouts before the main animation starts.

Shell and Paddy Sound and General Difficulties

Sound was our next target on the list. Me and Tom decided to do simple vocal recordings for our animatic. After our induction to the Sound Recording Studio we booked it out for few hours and started recording. It was difficult getting used to the controls but once we got the hang of it we split up the scenes and I recorded sound files of Tom's vocal sound effects and sound for characters as well. This was getting to be fun at times and to keep our moods positive we also recorded some gibberish.

During the time of the production of the animatic I have been angry up to the high heavens with IT for not installing drivers and programs on our computers in the studio. Tom went through many difficulties to try and get access to the programs he needed to use to start putting the animatic together. Eventually Tom did manage to get working because programs were only working on some computers so Tom ended up having to switch to different computers all the time. Overall I would like to say that IT have been rubbish and there support has been way below disgraceful.

Apart from all this stress for my college I was continuing with the last of the backgrounds and was also passing the word around for second year recruits to help us out with animating. We have indeed found many students who are interested and hope to work with them as we come to our main animating. Also during this stage of our animatic I have been working with Adobe Soundbooth to sync the recorded sounds to the animatic that Tom was working by my side. My assistance was very much mandatory with Tom at this moment because I was the only one capable of using Soundbooth. So again and again I edited the sounds and handed them over via USB and eventually the animatic was completed.

Shell and Paddy The Pitch

Coming up to the pitch we made sure we were properly prepared. Tom set me to select a few backgrounds to show whilst he dealt with the character pictures, the intro wow image and the speaking of the presentation. These presentations were individual but because me and Tom had already decided to group up we were allowed to present together. Tom was happy enough to do all the talking because to be honest he was better at it. So I successfully put together the PDF file of our presentation that was kept as simple as possible baring in mind we only had 5 minutes to present. As a bonus Tom also made some practice animations of Shell and Paddy.

After a nervous wait we delivered our pitch and it went better than we though and the panel were impressed. In the end our project was chosen for production and we went straight into the production of our animatic.

Shell and Paddy Backgrounds

It is almost the end of our first term and we have made some serious progress. During this time my head has been deeply stuck into the work of backgrounds.

From here I have been following Tom's storyboard production and instantly creating the backgrounds based on each scene. During this time Tom had also been developing the characters so sometimes I do feel he is under a lot of pressure. Also there have been slight disagreements between me and Tom but I always make sure we discuss these personal problems and cheer each other up for the benefit of us and our project. There have been many times where I had to keep on changing the backgrounds to the right style that fit the characters and there were some annoying times but I kept strong and patient and just got on with things and eventually I started getting close to completing all of the colour backgrounds.

Third Year Major Project

Now I've entered my third year I have decided to work with Thomas Spettel who is leading a 2d animation project called Shell and Paddy.

So far we are well in to the pre-production in this and we hope that our pitch gets the project through to production. My role in this is the background artist and general assistance for Tom. My recent work on background art is what motivated me to do this role and I will upload my work now and then.

Overall I will work my best and also hope this gets me a lot of practice and experience in digital art.

Pre-Production

During our second term of second year we were given the choice between post-production and pre-production projects. I chose pre-production and was given four cards that gave us a type of character, show, style, and setting.

My character was a balloon animal and here is my concept. His name is Fuliver which is also the name of the show.

My type of show was kids pre-school which combines well with the idea of a balloon animal. My given style also made it easy too because it was UPA which is an animation style.

My setting was base in the Cornish Tin Mines which set quite a challenge for the idea of a balloon character in such a dangerous environment. Here is also my background design style.

During the development of this project, Fuliver, I thoroughly enjoyed this brief because it gave me the chance to be fully creative on a few guide lines just like what a concept artist does for an animated tv series.

Crew Assignment (Barista)

For my crew assignment I have been assigned to help with the Barista project by Alex Joliffe. My job is to collect textures that can be used to decorate the backgrounds of the animation.

I have looked at many material surfaces mainly man made. Here are the photos I took:-

I have also been assigned to take pictures of tea cups to help Alex as a reference for his cup designs in the animation where the latte is poured. Here are the photos:-

Now I have been assigned to a more interesting job which is sound recording. I found this task very exciting and enjoyable because I do have interest into sound development. Using the M Audio recordable device was very fun and inspiring and when recording the sounds I found myself listening to sounds in more detail than I would normally. It did take a little time to get used to using the recorder but when I sussed it out it became so much fun. Unfortunately I was not able to get all the sounds I intended to get but Alex was still great full for the work.

Here are the sounds exported in this video:-