Final Film

Well after many long hours and struggling to get it all finished.

It is done!

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, although I can always do more, and more, and more to try and improve it. But thats just me being a perfectionist. Anyway please watch and enjoy!

Character Poses

All the poses for my main character, each limb is fastened together with all the correct rotational pivot points. This makes it easier to put him in any position I want, and for him to move realistically.
In the final film the characters legs are hardly even shown, which is annoying as they are rigged for every angle and ready to animate, but at least I didn't have to animate them in each scene.

Behind the Scenes

A few pictures from the making of my film at different stages.

Super Final Screenshot

Last minute change of skin colour, now this will be the final look of the film!

 

Final Screenshot Update

Well, its been a while and i've changed little bits of my final project here and there, including colours adding effects and the entire story!
This is a screenshot of the final look of the film:

Now rather than adapting the entire poem of The Raven, i've now changed it to be more of a psychological horror story. With the raven being a visual metaphor for something sinister that torments the main character.
Will be finished soon, its going pretty well, so hopefully will be fully completed before my deadline.
Stay tuned.

Final Screenshot

This is a screenshot of how the final animation will look, everythings rigged and finished.
Now comes the fun animating bit!
More updates soon....

Hex: The Legend Of The Chained Oak

Well to the people who have ever visited Alton Towers and have ever gone onto the ride, Hex, will know all about the Chained Oak. But the people who live in the Staffordshire area will no doubt be aware of the fact that there is a film been made about it, by Dean 'Midas' Maynard, a well known psychic investigator.
Now as I live very close by to the chained oak, and have visited it numorous times as you can see:

It is an impressive sight, although lately looking a bit worse for the wear. Anyway, I decided to contact him and see if he wanted any help with the film, and funnily enough he got back in contact and will phone me soon. I sent him a link of a short little piece, which could be used for the titles at the start of the film. It is a little boring at the moment, but just imagine with music, special effects and the actors names over it. Could look quite good!



For more information about Dean and the film, here's the link:

http://www.deanmidasmaynard.com/hex.html

The Man

He's the man

I promised you the man, and here he is;

You may notice the similarites between him and the author, Poe;

I think that his face is so tragic and sad looking, it will capture the look and feel that I hope to bring in my film.
I put my character in a dressing gown, so he will be lazily reading a book at midnight. The character is rigged and assembled completely, so I can move his head and arms, and they will move realistically to that of a human skeleton.
I have made a total of 6 views;
Front,
Back,
Front Side Right,
Front Side Left,
Back Side Right,
Back Side Left.

I may change small things, such as add more detail and such, but im trying to follow the user guide for Animate, which isn't the most easy of tools. Ah well.

Paintings Part 2

Here's two more paintings, I've done quite a few now, I wont put them all up, but the main character, the man, will be up and running shortly! :]

Paintings

I've decided to paint each of the props for my film, things include; Fireplace, Table, Chair etc.
Then i'll worry about the backgrounds and the characters later on!
As good ol' Blue Peter would say: Here's one I made earlier;

After I play around with them in Photoshop; cut them out, fix all the errors and add colour and shadow. They will be ready to use within my animation.

Animatic

This is the finished animatic, using the rough storyboards I drew and using a recording of the Raven I found by James Earl Jones;


I can bring an edited version of the poem to life! Almost!
The main character is all over the place in terms of asthetically. I cant decide on how realistic to make him, what style or design. Hopefully settled soon!

The Raven

Well, i've been working on my final animation piece for my last year at university (sob), before i'm kicked into the real world, which is an adapatation of Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven'.
Its something i've wanted to do ever since I was little and saw The Simpsons first Treehouse of Horror, which had their own version of it. Although I didn't understand it, I knew there was some powerful meaning behind its simple premise. And after my dad read me the poem and helped me to understand, i've been an avid fan of Poe ever since.

Well, 10 or so years on, and i'm finally making my own version. I'm not aware of any definate animated version of the poem, other than The Simpsons, so hopefully if I do a good job, people may call this one 'The' animated version.

I have no idea what the finished thing will look like, I really want a crazy abstract look. But im not artistic enough for that, I like to play around with camera angles and use clever animation techniques, but nothing 'arty'. Although I wish I could.
Anyway I'll have some drawings of my character soon......ish.

I'll leave you with a drawing from the french artist 'Gustave Dore' from his work on The Raven.

The Tell-Tale Heart

A very influential short animation, based on the tale by Edgar Allan Poe, narration by James Mason.

Heard of this a while back, then found it was included on the Hellboy DVD as Del Toro is a huge fan! Have got the dvd, have seen the short many times, not watched Hellboy yet though :/

Post Number One

Well, here I go...