Animatic and Storyboards

Here is my animatic for the trailer. Credit to Michael Moir for doing the voice over. Ideally the animatic would've had a music track as well, but I couldn't find an appropriate song.

(Or alternatively it can be viewed here) 

And here are the storyboards the animatic was made of.

Bradford Animation Festival + Adam Elliot

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Bradford Animation Festival, which was held at the National Media Museum. My main reason for going was to attend a talk by Adam Elliot.

It was very interesting, it was even enjoyed by my partner who is an engineer and has little interest in animation. During the talk Adam was being interviewed (very informally) by his friend Barry Purves, who is also an animator. In between the questions and stories, all of Adam Elliot's short films were shown. After the talk there was a screening of Mary and Max, and even though I've seen it numerous times, seeing it straight after Adam describing the production process, made it more exciting.

I also attended the after party, where I managed to talk to Adam for quite some time. He gave some great advice on armature and the whole stop motion process. I even managed to get him to pose for an awkward photo.

Character, Creature and Background Designs

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had to concentrate more on the group project so haven't had time to update this blog. 

I've come up with some character designs, based on Hanna Barbera animation from the early 60's that I posted before. Below is a sketch of the male characters, which I then finished in Illustrator and Photoshop.

And here are the finished versions.

This is Jonny. He's the male protagonist. His plans to enjoy the evening with his best gal, Josie, are rudely interrupted when their town comes under attack by a vicious creature from out of space.  

This is General. He is a seasoned officer of the military. Due to his many years on the force and vast experience, he is contacted to save the day once again.

This is Officer. Although he is a man of few words, and is often seen as short tempered, he takes great pride in his job of protecting the citizens and makes sure he does his job to the highest of standards.

Here's the sketch of the female characters.

And their finished versions.

This is Josie, the female protagonist. At the beginning of the evening, she has no idea that her date with Jonny is  not going to go quite as she planned.

This is Betty, Josie's busybody of a friend. It is in fact her hardened gossip skills that end up warning others of the invasion.

This is Ruby, a respectable member of the community. A pioneer in the science field, she is asked to come out of her retirement to help save the city.

And of course, the creature. 

I wanted to keep the Creature as simple as possible, as it will be modelled in plasticise, whilst still staying true to the creature designs of 50's B movies.

Once I decided on a design, I drew it out in illustrator.

I wanted it to look cheesy, and I think this drawing achieves that. 

Starting next week, I'm going to start modelling the human characters in 3D coat. I'm planning to have the plasticine model of the Creature made by the last week of the Christmas break, so I can start animating it when we get back.

As for the backgrounds, I just drew them straight in Illustrator.

The town where all the action is happening

The Sunset at the beach where the couple are having their date

The sand for the beach

The sky the UFO flies across

It was after I spent some time debating the different colour palettes and finally deciding on these, that I realised it doesn't particularly matter as I will be making the whole thing Black & White and adding a grainy filter later on.

Material bought! + Character/ Background stylisation

So after doing some research on materials I decided to go with Newplast plasticine, all 1.5kg of it! 

I will be mixing the colours together to make more of a swampy green colour for my creature. I've also got some copper wire for my armature, but I feel it might be too bendy. I might try some aluminium wire instead.

Right now I just need to finish off the character design for the Creature, so I can start modelling.

Speaking of character design, I've been looking into different styles for the other characters in the animation - the people. I've looked at various cartoons from the 50's, and I really like the style of the ones below.

I've also looked at some Hanna-Barbera cartoons, as I loved them when I was a kid. I really like the stylistic feel of the Jetsons and Flinstones. Even though both the cartoons are from the 60s, I feel the style would work just as well for my animation, as they're not far off from the images above.

As well as looking at Hanna Barbera for background inspiration, I also looked at Craig McCracken's work that has a very simial style, such as Power Puff Girls, Dexter's Lab and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends . Here are some images that I liked in particular.

Materials & Locations Research

Materials

I've been looking into what materials I should use to model the creature out of. After some research I've decided that Newplast plasticine would be the best for this project. Aardman use it for their stop motion, so can't be that bad.

On the downside, it is a bit on the pricey side. I've found a few places that sell it online. There are also a few art supply shops that have them, but none that I could find locally. I'm thinking I might go into Newcastle and have a look in the art shops there. 

For the armature, I'm going to use a 2mm aluminum wire. Thankfully that's a lot easier to find. I just need to figure out how much wire I will need and that depends on the size of the model I want to make.

Also, as the plasticine is heavy I'm thinking of first bulking up the armature with polystyrene. I have plenty of that lying around. This will also mean I can cut down on the cost of the plasticine.

Locations

I have also been looking into different locations for the set of the B movie. My original idea was to set it in Los Angeles, so I've looked at some photos of the city in the 1950's.

I've found some good photos for reference. Here are some of them-

However, as nice as the city is, I'm not sure how realistic it is for me to model something that's so busy in the time that I have. It also brings up another point - accents. It might create a problem trying to find voice actors that could do the accent.

I did originally want to set it in a small town in a southern US state, but again, the accents might be a problem.

Another possible location I came up with is Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. My family actually comes from there and I go over once a year to visit. It's a very beautiful city with a history. In the middle of the town centre is "Old Town", which was the original Tallinn, with walls to prevent from intruders etc.

Some photos of Old Tallinn-

If I did set the b movie in Tallinn, it would change my original idea. The film would now be set in Europe, which never happened in American B Movies. It might add a touch of humour, as I was thinking if I do go for Tallinn, the characters could have Estonian accents (think typical Northern European accent, in particular Finnish).

A well as looking at cities for purely aesthetic reasons, I've also looked into different towns in US that have had UFO "sightings" in 50's. Here's a list of the few that I'm looking at:

McMinniville, Oregon - where the famous "UFO" photos were taken in 1950;
Great Falls, Montana - Mariana UFO incident in 1950;
Lubbock, Texas - v-shaped formation of lights seen in 1951;
Bismarck, North Dakota - "UFO" witnessed by 45 people in 1953;
Levelland, Texas - multiple report of "UFO" in 1957.

There are, of course, a LOT more of these "cases", but these are the types of towns that would work for the b movie location (and time period) if I decide to go for a small town.