Raleigh Expression Sheet

I'm growing fond of Raleigh, and thankfully starting to get a hold of how he is structured.

Perspective View of Raleigh's Apartment in Progress

Furniture Turnarounds

The next step is to determine the local color of all the furniture.

Orthographics for Raleigh's Apartment

To scale orthographics make for easier layouts and perspective. All I have left to figure out is what I want on his walls and whether or not I want lights on the ceiling. I stopped doing the orthographic view of the bathroom because I realized that I don't have any shots that use more than the door.

Maquette is Underweigh.

I have started working on a maquette of Raleigh that will be about 10 inches tall. I have the armature built and I've already started to bulk it out. I'll have process photos up soon. I love maquette building.

Floor Plan for Raleigh's Apartment

 

I figured knowing the lay of Raleigh's apartment would make my life easier as far as keeping layouts consistent. Now to do a side view for height comparisons I suppose.

Most recent Animatic, Now with an original Sound Track!

View "Pieces" Animatic on Vimeo.com

Studying English Furniture

I've been looking at a lot of furniture from nineteenth century England so I can properly design Raleigh's apartment. These are a few studies.

I'll be heading to the DIA later this week to sketch from some real reference instead of just books. Nothing against books, mind you, but seeing something for real is always better reference.

New Proof of Concept

So this is my new proof of concept. For the actual film I intend to use thinner, colored lines and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The new pipeline saved me a ridiculous amount of time. I think I'm in love with ToonBoom.

Check it out on vimeo

Exciting News!

I decided that I must build an ornithopter myself as research for my film. After all, how can I expect Raleigh to build a working one when I've never made one?

An ornithopter is a flying machine that achieves lift by flapping its wings. I've been doing some research and I'm excited to try this out for myself.  This way, not only will I have excellent reference for the actual design of the craft, but also how it flies. It's all about making it believable, right?

Quick Update

I've adjusted my animatic and added a scratch track. My new proof of concept is coming along nicely and should be done before the week is out. ToonBoom is fantastic.

Finished Proof of Concept, but....

So I did my proof of concept:
Click to view the finished proof

But then I discovered ToonBoom. I fell in love with the program and have decided to use it to do my film. So it looks like I'll be doing a new proof of concept. On the bright side, I used ToonBoom for 2 hours and got more done than I could have in 7 hours traditionally.

Researchin' like a fiend.

I've been doing a lot of research on London around 1895 so the film will be at least semi-accurate. I still have a lot more research to do, but here's a little taste of what I've found thus far.

Style Work

I have a tendency to work backwards, so in this image I actually started with the loose silly version of Raleigh and worked clockwise.

Ultimately I streamlined the design on the left and THIS is what Raleigh will look like.

Ideation Sketches: Raleigh

I should have posted this a week ago, but anyway, here are some ideation sketches of Raleigh. I was really just trying to nail down his look. I was having a hard time with an adult raccoon-man head structure, so I started with a head turnaround of him as a child and worked from there. If  you followed clockwise from the sketch of young Raleigh kneeling, you can see my process. My first attempt at the older Raleigh turnaround after that looked way too old and stern, so I moved on and found a happy middle ground. Now that I'm happy with his head, I have to figure out the rest of him. Back to the drawing board!

I think my self-criticism is showing. Oh well...c'est la vie!

Hard at work

I've been working on boards and nailing down the design for Raleigh lately. I modified his design to make him more raccoon-like and I've decided to give him a tail. This should give me a wider range of expression and contrast between him as a child and as an adult. I'm almost done with the head turnarounds as well. I'll have some sketches posted by the end of this week.

It starts...

Ladies and Gentlemen, the new semester has begun and thus my thesis project. "Pieces" (working title) will soon be in full swing and I will post updates here as they are made.

For those of you who don't know, this is a very personal project for me. In a way, I am Raleigh. I wrote this story as a result of my own loss in hopes of bringing comfort to myself and others who have experienced similar pain. I want others to know that it is possible to pick up the broken pieces and let go, while I prove it to myself. The purpose of making Raleigh male and well, not human, is so I can maintain an emotional detachment from him. This way I can show my emotions through him without feeling as though I'm dissecting my own soul. It took me a long time to come to grips with my loss and it never really goes away, but I have found some solace and I hope that this short film will help me to carry on.

Wish me luck.

So here's the pitch...

Intro

This blog is where I'll be posting pre-production work for my thesis project, "Pieces". I'll be posting sketches, ideation, and storyboards.