Final Project part 3: ideas 3: Pet/Insect Blues

During the week I was developing some ideas for my animation, which is about animals singing the blues. Before I came up with this idea I had thought up some other ideas. As mentioned on the previous post I have run them through Alan but he felt they were a bit too big to make and did not carry the simple feeling from my last animation.

Old Ideas

Also as mentioned in the previous post I have listened to some blue musics to find the right one for my animation. While I was listening to them I also wrote some ideas that came to me and drew a little thumbnail to show the type of creatures that came to mind. I though that the title could be 'Pet Blues', or something that ends with 'Blues' since it involves pets singing the blues.

Idea Development 1

Idea Development 2

Idea Development 3

I then developed the ideas I liked even further. The first idea I developed was Kenny Neal's ''Baby Bee'' song. The idea was to have a fish singing about how annoying his owner is, while a hamster plays the harmonica. I have shown this idea to Phil but he felt the song would suit better with a bee than a fish, because the lyrics involves a bee buzzing around. However the bee could just be representing a woman who is talking too much.

Pet Blues

Nevertheless I took Phil's advice and started developing around the concept of a singing bee. I thought the area were the animation will take place is inside a bar for bees and the singer and the harmonica player are the entertainment.
I have thought of changing the harmonica player from a bee to a wasp because I felt a skinny character would be suited for the role than a fat character, plus his rear could be used as a stool.
I might run this idea with Phil again or Alan because I really do feel a fish would be more suited to sing this song than a bee, because I having a bee singing a song about a noisy bee is a bit typical. However a fish singing about a noisy owner, who is represented by a bee, would be kind of interesting. This shows that the fish is fed up of his owner talking rubbish and it annoys him, like a bee buzzing around.

Bee Blues

The next developed idea is The Two Poor Boys song ''Sorry Dear''. When I listened to this song I imagined two pets going to the pound. During their trip they sing about how sorry they are to their owner, for if they did not take her for granted they would not be going to the pound. Another idea to this would that two dogs or cats are going to be neutered and they are trying to change their owner's mind.
I felt a rubberhose style of animation would suit this short pretty well because when listening to the song, going for the rubberhose approach seems appropriate.

To the Pound Blues

The next short is inspired by Cecil Grant's song ''I Wonder'', Big Bill Broonzy's song ''Baby Please Don't Go'' and Ivory Joe Hunter ''I Almost Lost My Mind''. Here I felt going for a comedy route would suit these songs. The idea is to have the owner going out to work or the shops and the pet blows it out of proportion and started singing about their owner leaving them. This could be hilarious because the pets pour out their heart to their owner to not leave them, and yet they just going out for a bit and will be back soon.
The other idea involves Joe Hunter's song ''I Almost Lost My Mind'' live version. Here I thought of a concert where all the ants went to, to hear the lead singer sing. I thought that the designs would all be based on real musical instruments but done in a fashion of leaves, twigs and other things.

Waiting Pet Blues/Ant Blues

The next song is ''Poor Boy Blues'' by The Black Sorrow. When I listened to this song I thought of having a small homeless puppy/kitty singing about having a home. However when I have shown this song to Matthew he felt it carried more of a desert theme. We then threw some ideas around and we came up with a coyote or a wild dog walking across a desert looking for food and shelter. While also avoiding some vultures who are following him. This idea could mainly focus on the environment and the character design while also giving off a nice tune to listen too. Out of the two approaches for this song I have to go with the desert idea because now listening to it the song does carry a desert tune.

Stray Blues

The last idea is another comedy theme. The name of the song is ''Kill My Baby'' by Nick Curran. When I listened to this song I imagine a Chihuahua singing about his owner. That she treats him badly like treating him as a baby and making him wear costumes, mostly girly clothes. The chihuahua then wonders what he did to deserve this and thinking about killing her. The comedic effect comes from the chihuahua himself because he is a little yet he has a big loud voice.

Chihuahua Blues

Out of all the ideas I only like three of them. The Baby Bee idea because of the singing fish, but also the singing bees. Even thought the singing bees sound generic I think it will work. I Almost Lost My Mind the live version idea because I think it would be unique to see the world of ants, especially seeing the furnitures being made out of random objects like twigs and leafs. Finally the Poor Boy Blues idea coyote/wild dog version. I like this idea because the desert theme does seems to fit with the music, And seeing the coyote walking across it while being followed by the vultures would a moving or suspenseful scene. I also thought of designing the vultures as grim reapers since technically they do follow their prey until they die, and that's when they eat. Like reapers when they follow the public until it is their time to die.

Final Project part 2: ideas 2: Seen Alan and Pet Blues

Today I have had a one to one with Alan about the projects I has thought up. He told me that they felt a bit too big to make, and try to think about something that is simple yet enjoyable like my last animation. Alan gave some ideas to go about this and referred me to a television series named 'Modern Toss' and a comedian name Eddy Izzard for inspiration.
I also had a meeting with Phil to help me to come up with some ideas for my project. I mentioned to him that I also wanted to do some music animation and the only ones I came across was blues songs. We then thought it would be a great idea to do an animation where we haves pets singing the blues.

So today I was doing some research on blues songs. I also have some good ideas that came to me when I was listening to them. I basically listen to the songs and get a rough idea of what they are about and try to use the songs narrative and change them to how a pet would sing them.

The first blues song I listened to was Kenny Neal's ''Baby Bee''

The image that I thought up when I listened to this song was that the lead singer is represented by a fish/hamster, while the harmonic player is represented by another pet. What I gathered from the song is about a man who is greatful to have a girlfriend, but she talks a lot of rubbish. So I thought I could have the singer singing about how noisy his owner is.
EDIT: I have found another version of ''Baby Bee'' and it sounds better then the one I have posted

The next blues song is by The Two Poor Boys ''Sorry Dear''
The idea I have thought up is about two pets who are going to the pound and are singing how sorry they are for the way they have treated their owner. The style that also came to me was a rubberhose animation style, where everything is in constant motion. The only thing that does not move from their place is the singers's heads.

the next song is by Joe Stone ''It's Hard Time''
The image that came to me was about animals going to the slaughter house, and while I was listening to this song, I believe its about a man going to work. So I thought for the animals their work is going to the slaughter house. This has to be one of the most grimist stories I have thought up so far.

The next song is by Ma Rainey ''Booze and Blues''
The idea that came to me was about a stray animal in the pound singing about how she got caught and all see want is a drink. Which is what I think the song is about, where it has the singer going to jail and what she wants is a drink of beer.

I have thought about having some animals playing the blues instrumental, but I do not know if they have the same impact. One blues instrument that caught my attention is by Fiddle Frank Nelson ''Buck Creek Gal''
I just imaging the common farm animals playing all the instruments in this music, again I do not know if this is a good idea.

Final Project part 1: ideas

With the minor project finished, it is now time to come up with ideas for the final project. I had though of some ideas that I would like to make for my final project.
The first idea was about a hunter going in the woods hunting for a creature, however he is attacked by a bear. The hunter and the bear fought for a bit until the hunter found his gun and shot the bear. The main focus of the film was to make the hunter a victim of the bear's attack, while in reality it was the other way around. The entire conflict between the bear and the hunter is also being observed by a small bear cub. the small cub also plays as the narrator of the short film. This idea was not meant to show people as monsters but was meant to be a sad story that ends with a bear's death.
The second idea is set in the computer world. We have the main character, who is an anti-virus, fighting a group of viruses. He does this until he is up against the boss of all the viruses. Here it could end in cliffhanger or a 'to be continued' because I felt if I chose this idea it would be too long to finish that at most the fight between the anti virus and the group of viruses will take up most of the films timeline.
If I were to reference this to anything it would be the two Tron films and the tv series Reboot, because they both focuses on the world of computers. With a computer programme or virus causing trouble. The character designs would resemble that of cyber puck to give a futuristic techy look.
The final idea I had was to do another music transcription, because I want to give this another shot. Of course I need to look for non copyrighted/free to use music and it will be tricky to select a definite choice, so when I see Phil I hope he can give me some advice on this. I will also ask Matthew about this as well since in his last animation the music he used was free to use.

These are the ideas I have got so far and if non of them works then I will try and brainstorm some more.

Self Initiated Project Finale: Finished animation

'The story is about a gamer who decides to act out the fantasies as video game characters from different genres, however his fantasy does not go to plan...'

This is the complete animation of my minor project in the third year for UCA, I am actually pleased of how it turned out, but I can see that there are still room for improvements. This animation was very hard to make, mainly on how to make my character's movements feel natural. I was actually worried that I would not be able to finish it before the deadline, well I have shown me that I can do it. Hopefully I can pull it off on the next project.

Self Initiated Project part 15: Toon Shade Tests and Final Renders

During the Christmas holidays I was finishing up on a few things on my animation.
Fist I started with setting the type of material shade for my character and the objects. I used the sofa to be my test subject because it was one of the first models I have made. The following images are not the final choices but tests to get the right amount of shade I was going for.














Once I have decided on the the material I then applied the material to my character and the rest of the remaining objects.
I also created the final design of my character and the costumes he will be wearing in my animation. Only one I had to change which was the fighter costume, I first image shows off his first rubbish bag gi. Although the crinkles where good, they would not show up when using the toon out line render. I then had to remake the gi and make the crinkle textures.

Template

Fighter: Old Gi

Fighter: New Gi

Knight

Shooter

Mop

Box Sword

Box Dragon

Sofa

Self Initiated Project part 14: New Shooter Costume Turnaround and Mop

During this week I was making some changes to two of my designs that did not have the right appearance. The first was the Shooter costume, I went for the pillow bullet proof vest and did a complete turnaround to see what it looks like from all around the model. The second design is the mop, apparently the last model looked more like a brush than a mop so I did some changes on the head to make it more mop like.
I even redone the model of the mop too.

Shooter Turnaround

Mop Design

Mop Mesh

Mop Wire

Mop UV

Mop UV Map Layout

Please leave some feedback if you think they need some improvements.

Self Initiated Project part 13: Last Week Interim Crit

Last week my class had an Interim Crit. We had to show the group where are we at in our project. For me I am in between the modelling and rigging process in my projects and once I am done with them I will finally begin animating.
Self Initiated Project Presentation

On a side note when I went back to my shared apartment with Ethan C he gave me some helpful feedback on my soldier costume. He said that the costume does not carry the feeling that my other costumes have. We then bounce some ideas until we felt giving him a poorly made bullet proof vest would work for the shooter design.
Here are some of the design that I had made for him.

The design I have decided to settle on the the pillow one because it covers most of the body.

Please leave some feedback if you have any suggestions on improving my animation.