Pixel test

For a section in my animation Verdigris has a flashback to a certain scene. In that scene I want everything to be animated using old videogame style sprites. I thought it would be an interesting take on how a robot would recall something.

I've been testing using the pixel tool in flash, making sure to keep to a grid and using exclusively the same size of pixel. I feel that maybe a smaller pixel would be better for this. I will continue testing to see what looks better.

Scripts

For the animation there will be a live action segment where an actor will be playing a scientist in a recording explaining about the secret weapon hidden under the cathedral. This is only a small segment of the animation and it will appear on a screen so it won't be obtrusive to the animation. I have timed the script with the animatic so I can fit the necessary amount of dialogue in the segment.

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Script

Scientist: If you're listening to this recording that means you have both access to the Lightning Storm generator and the USB key to unlock it. The device is located underneath the cathedral which is heavily fortified. Although someone could smash through the window But what are the chances of that happening.


[Verdigris smashes through the window]


[Later as Verdigris tries to look for a way to stop the device]



Scientist: Oh! Forget to mention! If you need to self destruct the generator there is a way to do it, However it is an incredibly complicated procedure. First you need to set the coolants to 20%, after that set the tesla drive to version gamma, then you need...oh you know what you'll probably figure it out.

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The actor will most likely be myself as I know what inclination I want and, as it is only a small segment, I don't think I should hire an actor out for it. I will film the segment in front of a greenscreen so I can edit in an appropriate background later. I am help Alex with animation so he has agreed to help me with the filming process.

Fireball

One of the biggest influences for the aesthetic of my robot characters is the main character of Fireball, a short animated series made by Disney in Japan about a robot princess and her servant. The character looks very modern and sleek, which is something that I wanted to replicate with my own characters. While the characters move very erratically, they still have a lot of personality. I will have a more natural looking movement with my own characters but it is still useful to look into how robots move in other animations.

Flash FX Animation

While looking for 2D effects online I came across this great site all about 2D FX animation. flashfx.blogspot.co.uk/ hosts a numerous amount of examples of 2D effects in animation, as well as a number of useful tutorials on how to create these effects. More importantly all of these are done on Flash, which is the program i'm using to animate my short films. This site will no doubt prove very useful when working with effects.

3D Cathedral

I have build the Cathedral in 3D and have animated the camera to how they will move in the animation. I have also added very simple characters to get a feel of where characters will be during the animation. I am not very good with Maya so there is a few issues with this animatic. Some movements go far too slowly and certain scenes don't translate well in this format. However this is being used as a guide and it will work fine. I will eventually draw over this animatic so that everything is on 2D. I also have changed the layout of the cathedral so it is longer and wider. This is to accommodate for some of the movements in the animation.

Animatic

Using the panels in my Storyboard I have created an animatic. With the timings listed in the storyboard the animation comes to roughly 4 minuted and 10 seconds in length. This is very good as I planed to make a 4 to 5 minute animation. Later on I want to create a second animatic with more detailed animation and the cathedral modeled in Maya to get a good idea of what characters and scenery looks like at different camera angles.

Cathedral layout/plans

To get a good idea of where characters are in the cathedral, I made a plan of the building. I then placed the characters on the map and wrote down the movements in the animation. This will help me with the animation process and provide me with a guide when I build the location in Maya

Cathedral Designs

I have made designs for the cathedral in the animation. I have kept the large space of the cathedral while keeping the aesthetic modern and minimalistic. I have made the pillars see through both for aesthetic reasons and so they don't get in the way of the camera. Despite the need to keep things simple for animation reasons, I feel that I could put more detail in the walls.

For the exterior I put a considerably more detail in the building. I have tried to include the aesthetic of a cathedral while keeping it angular and modern. The window is important as the protagonist will eventually smash through it in the animation. To explain why robots would need a religious building in their society, The robots use them to remember there more simple ancestors, and again the landscape has been adapted by the robots as opposed to replaced.

Robot Minion designs

I have finished the designs for the robot minions that Verdigris will fight in the animation. In order their names are: Snake Eyes, Two-for-two, Triple Threat, Quadrophenia and Pentafaust. I tried to vary the designs for the minions as I did want a standard human shape for all of them. As these characters will not appear as much as the main protagonist and antagonist I decided to have limited turnarounds for these characters. With this all characters are fully designed.

2D effect tests

One thing that I want to work with in my animation is the use of 2D special effects. I think that drawn out effects look really great and it is something I want to get better at doing. These are a few tests that I have done, in the final animation I will obvious would want them in colour and using no line art. There are certain effects that would work better added in through After effects, such as certain glows and motion blurs. Howerver I will endeaver to use drawn out effects as much as possible in my animation

Boxcars designs

I have finished designs for the antagonist for my animation: Boxcars. Again as they appear quite often in the animation, I wanted to get a lot of angles on the character to get a good idea of what they look like in any direction. Boxcars and their minions are based the sides of a 6-sided dice. Hence the name.

Verdigris designs

I have finished turnarounds for the protagonist of my animation: Verdigris. I went through a couple of colour tests before finalising on a green and white colour combination. Verdigris will be appearing in the animation the most so I wanted to get a reference of them at multiple angles. One of the complaints that I got from my previous module was that my animation looked too flat. I want to avoid that in this short film.

'Solar Forest' Designs

For the outside world in my animation I wanted the look of a sweeping country side and a forest but adjusted to a futuristic world occupied fully by robots.

I then thought of the idea of trees being solar panels instead. I used a lot of blues instead of greens to avoid a natural look. As the animation takes place 200 years i the future where robots have taken over, I figured there wouldn't be much living things around. I was unsure whether to make the designs look very logical and ordered to match a machine like order, eventually I chose to keep them looking like a scattered forest, my reasoning being that the robots a didn't recreate the world so much as they adapted it to be robotic. It is almost like a big robot blanket has covered the world.

Robot designs

Using my research into robot designs and armour designs, I have been making some sketches of potential, characters designs. As I have mentioned before I wanted a sleek and modern look for the robots, not something that looked too industrial of steampunk, with the armour aesthetic a lot of the robots look very angular and made up of simple geometric shapes, this is an aesthetic I was aiming for so  am quite happy with it.

Animation test

I have been doing some small animation tests. These are of course incredibly simple and quick, but they give a good feel of what type of action on want in this animation. While the characters are robots, most of them will move in a natural human way, albeit with some over exaggerations with some of the movements.

Storyboards

I have finalisied my storyboard panels and put them together, including detailed explanations of what is happening in each scene. As the illustrations are very simple I felt like I needed to go into detail with what is going on, as the images alone don't sufficiently explain what is happening.

With the storyboards complete I can begin creating an animatic using the timings detailed. I am unsure if the timings reach my target of a 4 to 5 minute animation, so I may need to return to these boards to increase or decrease the duration of some of the timings of scenes.

Mood Board - Cathedral

The main location for the animation will be inside a cathedral, as such, I have been looking into church and cathedral designs.

From what I have researched, cathedrals are very wide open and very ornate. For my animation the location may as well be a fancy corridor, with most of the action taking part through a middle line in the cathedral, so most of the area in my designs will be taken up with pews.

The detail in these cathedrals will most likely be toned down in my animation for two reasons, one is to keep things relatively simple to animate, the second is I want to keep in line with the modern, robotic aesthetic I am working with. My cathedral will be very metallic and smooth looking throughout, with any details being very angular and relatively simple.

Mood Boards - Characters

I have begun to look into robots and suits of armour for my robot knight characters. While the two main characters are going to have standard human proportions, I want to explore some different body types for the minion robots.

There is a very deliberate aesthetic that I want for the characters. I want the robots to look very sleek and modern, much like Eve from Wall-E. It is a style that I am very fond of and I wanted to stay away from more traditional robot styles or steampunk.

I have been looking into both traditional medieval armour and more modern interpretations of armour. I believe that the modern aesthetic of the robots will blend will the armour aesthetic I want for the characters. The armour would be built into the robots, as opposed to looking like human in metal suits. 

Treatment

While I have the initial idea planned out I need to figured out what Is going on in the animation before I begin proper scripting and storyboarding. Therefore I have created a treatment  document to get down the basics of the animation, so that I can make the scripts and storyboards easier.

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Treatment

Shot of scenery with futurist buildings in the background, the sky is dark. A Robot knight (Green) riding a hover bike type vehicle zooms by, leaving a trail of light behind.

Panning shot of the robot knight on the bike going through some futuristic wood. Camera cuts to a front view of Green. The screen pixelates as the knight has a flashback.

Green’s flashback takes the form of a sprite animation that looks like a videogame. A large, horned robot knight clad in black (Boxcars) explodes through a door and walks towards the throne. Green tries to attack Boxcars but they are swiped away easily. Boxcars using some kind of telekinesis to acquire something from the top of the thrones gem. The king cowers. Zoom in of Boxcars floating a USB stick in is hand “HA. HA. HA.” Scrolls slowly along the bottom. The screen pixelates away as the flashback ends.

Back to Green on bike. They power slide to a stop to see a large cathedral. Green goes off the bike and it starts eating the grass like a horse. Green walks up to the cathedral the camera pans up.

Cut to inside the cathedral, Boxcars is watching a recording of a human scientist explain that a doomsday device is under the cathedral and the USB unlocks it. Boxcars minions (One, Two, Three, Four Five) are hanging around in the cathedral.

Green smashes through a stain glass window in the front of the cathedral. They land and use a sort of magnetic power to draw their sword while putting down their visor. It’s pretty cool. One goes in to attack but is easily fought and cut in half. Two jumps from the rafters to attack Green, Green flee through the cathedral and slides under Three’s legs, who accidentally crushes Two with a massive hammer. Green sticks their sword in Three’s back and flips around to cut them up. Arrows fly by and hit Green in the shoulder; Four is shooting arrows form the distance. Green dashes into the pews to avoid another volley of arrows, then begins to leap over all of the pews before diving and straight up cutting Four’s head off. Five comes in with a flail and smashes it into Green’s chest. Five swings again and Green grabs it, flinging Five over their back then stabbing them in the chest.

It’s just Green and Boxcars now. Green comes up to the front to confront Boxcars. Boxcars quickly swings around and swing their sword up, smashing Green’s visor of their face. Green flips back and charges up their sword with energy, launching a blast from their sword towards Boxcars. Boxcars swipes it away with their sword and launches a grappling hook from their hand to grab Green. Green gets dragged rapidly towards Boxcars as they ready their sword. Green twists round and severs the cable connecting the hook and Boxcars, Green deflects off of Boxcars and lands behind them on the altar.

Boxcars jumps up on top of the altar and starts sword fighting Green, it's intense but Boxcars seems to be the better fighter. Boxcars cuts Green's right arm clean off and kicks them to the ground. Boxcars raises their sword to finish Green off. Green uses their magnetic power to summon their sword, which goes straight through Boxcars chest. Green grabs their severed arm still holding the sword and swings it around, dashing through Boxcars as they slash. Boxcars rears around to attack but they fall apart before they can swing, Green is victorious!

Suddenly alarms go off in the Cathedral, the screen shows that the doomsday device has been activated and will fire soon. Green goes to the controls to see if there is a way to stop it. A video appears on the screen of the same scientist, explaining that there is a self destruct system for the device but it is very convoluted and takes time. While the recording of the scientist explains, green  notices a large button clearly labelled self-destruct, which they promptly press. Green dashes out of the cathedral just in time as it explodes spectacularly. Green stumbles to the ground from the blast.

Green gets up and places their sword into their sheath using their severed arm, then turns around, the wipe of their cape transitioning into the title of the animation, then the credits.

Extended Practice Initial Planning

I plan on creating a short 2-D animated film. Roughly 4-5 minutes in length, depending on how long storyboards and animatics run. It will focus mainly on character animation and 2-D effect animation, aiming to be stylised with a cel shaded drawing style. I would like to include a segment in the animation featuring a different style or animation technique, potential for a pixel based animation in the short film. It will be supported by character sheets with details and turn-arounds, in depth storyboards and animatics, I will use Maya to create simple 3-D environments and characters to use as a guide for camera positioning and correct proportions. Animation will focus mainly on action sequences, fight scenes and large movements, leaning towards spectacle and style and away from realism. Action will be over-the-top, but not to the extent classic Disney cartoons (less massive squash and stretch, proportions stay roughly the same throughout animation). Animation will largely be done using Adobe Flash, with lighting and filters made in After Effects and sound put together through Final Cut. Would like to have a live action sequence within the animation, person talking in front of camera, potential to get an actor in, use of green screen required.

Story will be based around robots in a futuristic setting, but acting like medieval knights, using swords, protecting kingdoms etc. Robots will be mostly humanoid, potential to explore interesting designs for other robots. Robots will act intelligently, essentially they’ll be human. Story takes place hundreds of years after an AI uprising, when the machines get sentient enough to be individuals they form kingdoms and regress to ancient technology (albeit more sleek and modernised versions, laser swords, castles made of steel etc.) Robot design will be sleek with smooth casings, much like Eve from Wall-E, they will move naturally, not in a stunted robotic fashion, the robots will have personalities they won’t be just machines. Robot faces will be mostly simple with circular lights to denote eyes, their will be no voice acting for the robots. Rough plot: an evil robot warlord besieges a peaceful kingdom and steals a treasured USB which will unlock a doomsday weapon created by humans. A brave robot knight pursues the warlord and their lackeys to an abandoned cathedral where they will have a massive, over-the-top fight.

I plan to work largely on my own for this project, there is potential for other people in the course to help with character design or environment design. I will need help setting up a camera and green screen for a live action sequence in the animation, would only need 2/3 people at most. I have spoken to Lija Jursins and she is happy to help out during filming. Potentially need to hire an actor for this, though I am comfortable playing the role myself. I will need help in compositing the green screen footage and creating a digital background, as well inserting some miscellaneous effects. I plan to obtain help from outside the course to work on the music for the animation, may have to hire a professional to create the soundtrack.