ROADTRIP : TEASER VIDEO 2

My wife said I should turn this old storyboard into an animatic, so I made a start on it today:

RE-DRAW: Calligraphy Brush

 So for experimentation I re-did my original thumbnail for this shot in ROADTRIP, and then cleaned it up with the calligraphy brush (budget style).

Original thumbnail: 

Re-drew using the calligraphy Brush. Clearer (Yes I think so...the smoothing intuit brush, forces you to draw with more commitment).

Clean up (still very loose/rough)

I then compared it to the original : 

So I think it could result in a faster boarding style (which is great in tv animation, it could also end up more dynamic). Only time will tell if I will incorporate this or not though :P)

STORYBOARD PRO: Calligraphy Brush

 I was looking at some rough storyboards by Alessandra Sorrentino and wanted to try and mimic a sort of brush that is similar to what she uses. I don't quite think I have it figured out :P But always good to think about finding new ways to shake up your process. Here was my effort at replicating it:

This is the level of detail in the first pass she showed, still very minimal line mileage but very expressive. I may try and match it in a test sequence.

As far as I can make it there is some slight transparency on the brush, so it needs to be a textured brush, so I edited one from a standard round brush.

and a couple of sketches of Bixie

ROADTRIP - Chapter 1 - Finished

 So I added some voices and audio and tweaked a couple of things to match, here's the final version.

I largely consider this a failure..who knows, maybe I'll warm to it later. But it's important to see things through they say, so at last I get a star for that! :P

ROADTRIP : ANIMATIC WIP - NO AUDIO

First pass on chapter 1. It's quite interesting since I originally came up with this as a comic book..just how much story I could get through in a comic vs as an animated sequence. I'm even more convinced now of the power of comics as a pitch to get ideas out quickly. And they can be great sources for adaption in the future.

ROADTRIP: Teaser

These are all the shots and I even added some sound effects for fun. Now on the the actual story :P

ROADTRIP TEASER : Pt 2

  I finished up the remaining shots of this little sequence

ROADTRIP TEASER : Pt 1

 So I decided to do the comic I wrote as a storyboard instead (I always feel I need to work on my portfolio), even though this was a 1 page intro, I've been adding stuff to it, just as inspiration hits, so undoubtfully it won't make a lick of sense :D

The main reason for an intro sequence is to get warmed up before drawing the actual board.

Loud House 2

 Another morning study of a loud house panel before starting work.  It'a always good practice to draw from different artists, even ones you don't draw anything like. From working on more realistic shows, I realise how over elaborate my drawings are these days, I really love this stripped down style, really suits comedy so well. 

Loud House Study

 So whenever I feel like I am in a drawing slump, where I over draw and take too much time to go through panels (for work), it's time to look at board artists whose work you admire. One of those people is Kyle Marshall! 

So I copied a couple of his panels (badly) :D from a sequence of Loud House. I was interested in his line weight and how he simplifies his gestures. As always to really get a benefit from doing this, would need to do this daily for a while. 

The Prestige - scene

 This is a nice scene from the Prestige, using a super basic set up. Just shows you don't need to be fancy to construct a nice scene. 

So in this sequence he uses the camera set up, with a master wide shot and then 2 single shots.

We start with a single on Christian Bale, he is composed to left screen, the camera looks down on him because he is the prisoner. So he's weak at the start of this scene. A hand of the warden comes in to snatch the paper away he is writing from.

We cut on action following the warden, on a single, he reads the piece of paper, camera pans down to show a single of the paper, and then back up to his face. I love these simple types of shots, very efficient without being boring.

And then a wide to show them both in relation to each other.

The rest of the sequence is shot with the exact same set up.

SCENE STUDY : TRUE GRIT

So I tried to watch the Witcher series, because I feel I should like it. But the exposition sequences are so dreadfully boring I can't even get past the first 15 minutes :/

I then watched a bit of True Grit, and I was instantly hooked.  So I wanted to do a quick scene study. I figured out 2 main things:

- Frames are kept interesting during dialogue with moving backgrounds (sand blowing in, or people passing by).
- The classic :Get in late - leave early- way of writing. The filmmakers don't bore us, we get the information we need, and we are moving between scenes by having to figure out things for ourselves instead of giving everything on a plate. 

-> So in this short scene Mattie (the girl) is talking asking this guy if he can think of somebody who can help her track this outlaw. We have a standard 1 shot, notice how she is composed in the right portion of the screen for screen direction. The frame is also kept interesting with passerbys in the background.

Cut to a two shot (Over the shoulder), once again respecting screen direction by framing the guy in the left side. The frame is kept alive as well with passerby traffic.

We cut before he finished his dialogue to see Maggie take in the information , and then asks where she can find this guy called Rooster. 

CUT to new Sequence. Of an abstract shot. Close up of a door with Maggie knocking on it. Keeps the pace going, and as we don't know where we are, our brains need to piece things together, so we're staying interested. 

We cut out slightly, still not visually revealing where we are. We hear Rooster off screen saying it's occupied, so we figure we're in a toilet. But we had to figure it out, instead of being given the information visually.

Then cut wider to finally see where she is. We stay in this shot, and once again made interesting by dust blowing in the background, and a dog passing by the frame. 

We then CUT out the shot, back into an abstract shot. 

A board shaped like a coffin is slid in, with the station information, so again we are piecing the information together. We then hear a trainwhistle before cutting again afterwards. 

And below some frame studies I did from avatar, practicig drawing simple roughs with the same information as the final board drawing: