Animatic with Dialogue!

I had my sound recording session this evening, and it was a great success, if I do say so myself! Eric was great to work with. The editing took a while, but it was definitely a fun process to go back and listen to all the takes.

So, here is my animatic with dialogue (and a bit of rough animation)! Eric did all the male voices. My sound engineer (I think that's the proper title, but I could be wrong!), Bethany Sparks, has a cameo, and so do I (though I am not happy at all with my own performance).

Disregard any subtitles that are there. Some of the text does not match the spoken dialogue.


Animatic with Dialogue from Lauren Blakely on Vimeo.

Feedback is most appreciated!

Rough Animation

I finally have some rough animation scenes that I thought were decent enough to share with the public. This isn't the only animation I've done, but these are probably the best two scenes I've done so far. I realize there are still a lot of things to be fixed, but I think they're both at good starting points.


I think the second hand flopping down turned better, probably because I did that one second and learned from the first one. The crawl could be worked on too, I'm not sure what I can do to make it better aside from more in-betweens.


I didn't want to deal with the clothes and hair on this yet. I think the first step of this is the best. Also, I know the kid's body gets bigger. I should have done a better job of making sure he was slumping the whole time, but at least I got the action down.

That's all for now. I will definitely have more in the next few weeks!

Voice actor!

Exciting news! I have voice actor, Eric Bauza! (hi, Eric, if you're reading this!)
I'm going to embarrass him and say you should all check out his profile and listen to his reel, he's amazing:
http://sbvtalent.com/vo_talent_detail.php?id=358

I'm aiming to record sometime within the next couple of weeks, before the Thesis Review. By then, I will be sure to post my animatic with added dialogue.

Until that happens, I may not have as many updates, as I am beginning to do actual animation instead of backgrounds. I suppose I could post my pencil tests, but I don't think my rough tests are ready to be shared with the entire internet quite yet.

That is all!

Backgrounds, yet again

This week I have even more backgrounds! There sure are a lot in my film but I'll be glad to get them out of the way. Hot diggity!

A shot of the finish line at the beginning of the film



A stormy sky for the thunder god. I am not sure how I am going to animate the scene to reach this, but this is the look I eventually want. I've left out the rain for now, I think that will have to animated on top of everything.


A sky that will be used for a background of the wind goddess. Come to think of it, windy days aren't always cloudy. I might not even need to change the color of the sky for wind, but I think I will use it so it contrasts with the normal sky color.


A beautifully blinding sunny sky!



And just as a treat, I thought I'd share a lost panel:

I was going through my storyboard panels and forgot I had this one. I changed the plot a little, and with it the location changed, so this became obsolete. It's too bad, I thought that panel was rather cute.

Comic Book part 1

So here is a page of the comic book. It's a little ridiculous I had to spend time designing something that will only be on the screen for a few seconds, but this is the way of animation.

Sadly, I am not used to drawing huge muscle-y comic book men, and I think it shows. Can't say that I'm really happy with it, but I spent too long on it (or so it felt) to start completely over.

Well, at least that's one page done with. I think it's better if I work on a couple rough animations now than do the other page, though.

Even more backgrounds

Some more backgrounds! I think I enjoy the zoom look way too much.

This is actually a background for the VERY last shot in the movie. Do the off-set halftones work, or should I just do away with them?


Here are some plain old clouds, for the few shots I have on the very top of the hill. I'll probably have them move slowly across the sky behind the characters.


Finally, an upshot of the hilltop, with a little more detail than I had on the wide shot I posted previously.


Next to come: comic book designs!

More backgrounds!

Here is another installment of backgrounds. Thank you, Photoshop, for making things so much easier with filters. I know these aren't that exciting, but they needed to be done for the Gods' intro shots (one for each of sun, rain, and wind). I hope they look comic book-y enough!




The next post shall most likely consist of more backgrounds. I also need to start working on designing the comic book hero who, sadly, will only be in two shots of the animation. Right now, his temp name is CAPTAIN AWESOME. But for now, Travis just calls him "the hero". Who knows if I'll actually use this name.

Backgrounds!

Here is my first set of backgrounds. I've got the hill, and a sidewalk.


I tried adding a gradient to the hill. Hopefully, it doesn't look too flat.



Also, the textures I used were all from this website: http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/texture_colour/

Final Characters and background design concepts

These are the most current designs! The characters are pretty final at this point, but the backgrounds still need a little work. I like the textures, but I think I still need to add some gradation or shadows to make them look a little less flat.

Semi-final character designs

It's about time I updated again! Now I can get caught up with the current concept art I have.

These designs are the final designs of the gods, but the kids have changed a little since this.

Wind goddess, version 2

After the previous post, I settled on the Japanese-based wind goddess.

However, she has since then gone through yet another transformation.

Wind goddess variations and new rival design

In the process of my character designs, the wind goddess has given me the most trouble. It's hard because there aren't many wind goddesses out there who are as distinct as Ra and Quetzalcoatl.


This version is based off of a Japanese painting.


I read about a wind goddess who rides on a ram, but decided to just give her ram-like features.


This particular goddess keeps a bag of wind, and rides on a tiger who walks on a path of clouds.


Also, I redesigned the rival of the main character.

Character designs, version 1

These are the more finished versions of character designs, but still in preliminary stages.

The main kids.


The whole gang (now including the wind goddess on the right)

First character designs

These are the very first character designs I did, of the kids, and a couple of the weather gods. The text is from another blog of mine, posted on April 5th.


I'm reaally still tweaking the facial shape and hairstyle of the main kid. But, I think those are most likely going to be the clothes. The other kid has the more pointy/sticky-uppy hair. Also...I need to figure out exactly what age they are. I'm thinking about 10 or so (which means I should draw them shorter).


These are based off of some of the original artwork from the Mayan (I think?) religion. But they were a lot more geometric. I kind of just took the original elements and modified them. They were two variations of the way Quetzalcoatl looks...I'll probably just end up blending them in some way in the end.


Again, I took the Egyptian hieroglyph designs of Ra and incorporated those elements into my drawings.

Welcome!

If you've found this, it's either because of class, or I've just told you about it :).

Anyway, I'll be posting things soon. Hopefully I'll be able to backdate things. If not...I guess I'll just have a bunch of posts on the same day for a while!