Finished shot

 

Alright, so I'm tired as hell and have been working way too much so I'm gonna post the one rendered thing I have for today and enjoy my spring break for a little bit. 

As you can see, a lot of changes have been made with the store plus the overall lighting and composition. Now I only need to add the character in so I'm pretty happy with how this is all turning out.

Character Design

 

Ta da! A character Design Sheet!

I liked where I was going with the design of the character in one of my previous blog posts, but it definitely felt as if I needed something to have around to reference.

 A friend recommended me the name " In my Head" since the film is all about intrusive thoughts. I thought this was pretty good so I added it for now to at least identify it and ill see if I keep it later. When I sat down and sketched out this first draft of the design today, I felt as though it is still lacking in some ways. 

I envisioned this character being portrayed as a punky, outlandish, and bashful young person, but only when we are looking into their thoughts. In reality, they are genuinely kind and just have a lot going on to handle. 

To solve this, I think ill rework the character a little bit by pushing the design elements to be more exaggerated. I have always heard from industry professionals that, especially in animation, pushing proportions and exaggerating design are two key components to enhancing the visuals and portrayal of a character and story.

So for example, I can add a big round smiley face onto their shirt covered by the jacket to show that they are open to being kind but have to get out of their comfort zone to do so. I can also make their outward design to be sharper with things like the ponytail. 

Right now I'm working a lot on the backgrounds and 3d models so that's what my next blog post will probably be about.

Storyboards

A professional artist's storyboard is usually clean, precise, and overall readable by everyone. However, professional artists also get paid and have time, two things which I for sure don't have (basically I'm broke on time and money :P ).

 Even though I would love to invest a sizeable amount of time into a good storyboard, I simply don't have that luxury when working solo.

This means I have to adapt to working loose, quick, and dirty. The storyboard you see here is not one that is top-notch or the best by any means, but it for sure gets the job done and helps me to actually continue moving forward at a much faster pace.

Storyboard.

Now that I have this, my next post will probably look more into character design or will showcase what I have worked on in terms of animation, see you next time! 

A quick little sketch.

I have been grinding away at the general environment, characters, and props needed for the piece. However right now most things are pretty unfinished except for this one shot that I still think needs some work. 

A merging of both 2d and 3d Elements.

Here you can see how I have started to work on the shot of the Vespa coming into frame. Not only that, I am combining 2d and 3d assets to create the look that I want for the film. This look is still VERY EARLY, especially in the rough sketch of the character and the direction they are facing. 

Next, I need to get that storyboard quickly as it will be key for helping me finish this.

I have a lot more that I have worked on, but again it's mostly stuff that needs polish before being shown, so ill just leave some progress renders showing how I got here.

First pass

Developing Composition

Vespa + Store

Very rough Character Sketch

Different angle + Final Render Before Composite

All in your head.

 As I said in my previous blog post, I will be going over the story told in the first 2 minutes of my film.

The scene will start off with a shot from the outside of a convenience store at night time. From the left side of the frame, a girl on a Vespa will drive in and park on the side of the road. The scene will cut to her about to open the door of the convenience store from a medium shot, then going into a close-up to show her pondering. A security camera angle will show her walking in from the door, then cutting to show 2 store clerks having a small conversation.

From here, we cut to the two store clerks continuing their conversation in the foreground while in the background the girl picks up a heavy ice cream cabinet and swings it towards the clerks, barely missing them ( a most likely rock/punk soundtrack should come in here). We cut to the girl going towards the back of the store with all of the freezers and breaking each and everyone with a baseball bat. The clerks run towards and plead for her to stop, only to be thrown milk jugs at (I know this all sounds absolutely crazy but just bear with me that's the point). The girl drops the bat and suddenly takes a Katana out of nowhere, stabbing multiple milk jugs, grabbing and throwing one of the clerks towards the counter, and putting the jugs down to pay. 

We then see a shot from inside the store facing out towards the clear glass door, showcasing the girl still outside witnessing all that is going on. We cut to the same close-up of her pondering, and then see her go in normally, grab a jug of milk from the back, and pay up normally. The title of the film flashes across the screen and the film opening ends. 

The Scene is supposed to immediately introduced the audience to the main character and what the film will be about moving forward. Not only that, it allows for great opportunities for visual comedy and slapstick humor. 

I think ill try to work out some sketches and shots for my next blog post, and a storyboard will definitely be needed asap.

Finally figuring out a story

 So far, I haven't put too much attention on the actual story of the piece, so I'm going to talk more about that in this blog post.

A while ago, I started developing the look of the film by searching for visual content that I thought would match what I wanted to make. A lot of it was very surreal and experimental looking, so I knew that the piece would most likely tackle more psychological topics. 

While I knew the visual look that I wanted to achieve, I didn't really know what story I wanted to tell. Being inside due to Covid for such a long time really drains down your creativity, and while I could have told a story about that, I just didn't feel as though the look would match the story (plus I had already told this story about isolation so many times through other mediums like segments and PSA's for my tv class.). At one point I even considered going for a completely different style, following a more ghibli-inspired slice of life story, and I even came up with a tile, that being "Shroom Collector Poyo". While I won't be producing this story, I definitely will save this idea for later as I really like the tile and the visual look it could have.

One day, my friend and I were talking and venting about different problems we have had with disassociation and the such. We eventually got to talking about intrusive thoughts, which quickly popped an idea into my head about a story on extremely vivid intrusive thoughts and how someone could handle that.

This works out perfectly for the look that I want since these thoughts getting played out visually in someone's imagination gives endless possibilities for visual storytelling and trippy visuals. Not only that, I think it's an important topic to explore since the declining mental health of various young adults has most definitely increased the number of people who suffer from this.

Next blog post I will be going over what I plan to put in the 2:00 film opening.

2d Stylization for 3d creations.

 The closer we get to the day of submission, the more I start to realize that I will not be able to render this is in a photorealistic way as it will simply take way too much time. Because of that, I started to research some ways to get over this problem and found that stylized shading would solve my problem. So I sat down and developed some stylized shaders and renders that make 3d look as if it were 2d. 

I took an already existing character from one of my favorite animated music videos and got to work. I started by poly modeling the character and adapting them to be suitable for stylized shading. I also again used a reference board to plan everything.

Wireframe view of character.

I continued by developing materials and lighting that worked for the goal I was heading for, simulating the look from the characters in the music video. Flat colors and line work were two things that I was sure I wanted to nail for the character.

Stylized viewport shading.

Now that I had nailed the look of the character, I rendered it out as a turnaround animation and put it into after effects for compositing. I added a background and made it turn with the character. Then I added some film grain effects and softening to help clean up the overly perfect look that 3d gives.

After Effects compositing.

And it's done! This was a complete contrast from the last study I did, but overall a very worthwhile one. Now I'm sure I won't have to worry as much about rendering, and I know that for more still things like backgrounds I should be able to use a more complex look as it will all be mostly composited together in the end. Anyways, here is the final product!

Color Studies and Spooky Demons

It's about time that I start experimenting with visual ideas for my Film Opening, so I sat down for a bit and created a lighting and color study following the inspiration from one of my previous blog posts. 

First, I used a program called PureRef to put together a reference board with all of the inspiration I gathered. PureRef is great since it will always stay over your program while working so you will be able to reference it at all times.

Reference Board 

I wanted to go for a color palette consisting of a very violent red as a Primary color and a more subdued yellowish green as a secondary. My idea for the piece consisted of a figure looking towards the audience semi-menacingly. While my goal for this piece is to develop color and lighting, and this figure doesn't necessarily have to relate to my film opening in the end a friend talked to me about how I could have this figure be revealed at the end of my opening to be hanging over the entire environment and have it be some form of foreshadowing or world-building. 

I started out by blocking out the figure. I thought it would be interesting if I used skeleton pieces from different animals and humans to make up the figure, so I got a few models of whale and bear skeletons and started to kitbash from them, placing them together to make something interesting. 

Beginning sketch of the piece.

I continued by adding the arms, some horns, and a thorn sticking through its head. Then I started to mess around with materials, adding a semi-transparent subsurface scattering effect. Subsurface scattering is an effect you see when light scatters through a semi-transparent object (you can notice this effect when light hits lighter tones of skin.)

More Developed Lighting and Materials.

While I liked the Subsurface effect, there was not enough contrast for you to be able to determine what you are looking at, so I started to tone down the effect and played around with other settings.

Clearer Contrast

I added a background and a foreground element to help with leading the viewers eyes to the subject. Not only that, I brought back the Subsurface Scattering  but this time not so heavily. I also added some glows to the horns to give a more dramatic effect. 

At this point, I was pretty happy with where I was headed, but I felt there were some changes that I wanted to make that were more simple to do as a paintover in photoshop, so I jumped into the program and started to give the piece a more stylized look. I added additional shadows to the eye sockets and started to give the piece a softer painterly look.

Photoshop Paintover

I finished off the piece by adding some outlines for that stylized look and gave it some glowing eyes and an upside-down cross to make it look even creepier (Somewhere along the line this turned into a horror piece and honestly I kinda love it hahaha). Now here is the finished piece!

I learned a lot about color and lighting throughout this experience and even got some inspiration for possible story elements for my film opening. 

A quick Update on what I have been up to

 I  think it's pretty obvious that I haven't been too productive as of lately. After all, I haven't even posted a blog in a couple of weeks. To be honest, I have been pretty uninspired and overall overwhelmed with a lot of things. My sleep deprivation is also for sure not helping me at all, and I haven't been able to manage my time very well when trying to keep up with assignments. I don't think it's very healthy to continue these bad habits, so I have decided to adopt some new routine changes to hopefully get back on track with my project.

One thing I have recently noticed about my routine is that I don't have any separation between work time and relaxing time. This is of course extremely unproductive as I will waver in between working and doing something else very quickly, never being able to get into the groove of working. To fix this problem ill be trying to adapt to a new routine that will hopefully help me fix this problem. I usually eat lunch at around 3 p.m, so I think I should dedicate at least 3 to 4 hours to working after that. If I can get enough of my work done efficiently in those hours, I should be able to dedicate at least some time for relaxing afterward. From then on my sleep schedule should be fixed along with my work habit problems since I can form a clear separation between work and life.

I hope that as I take up these habits I am able to get back to working efficiently and creatively. Creative burnout is a problem I am already plagued with due to all the other activities I do that require me to put in a lot of creative input. A lack of sleep and an overwhelming work to life balance really don't help to solve that, but maybe things will get better from here.