Production Schedule

This is my Production Schedule - I'm planning on finishing this project more than a month before the deadline so I can spend some time on learning Maya.

My Actual Production Budget

This is my 'Real' Budget - Basic costs are for travel (to and from uni), some prints for posters and DVD covers, the DVDs that I will use, music license as I might need to buy a royalty free track to use as a soundtrack, and some miscellaneous expenses that might occur. Also I figured since I'm working mostly from home, it could be considered as a home office and Electricity should be accounted for. (it would probably need to be divided by the working hours but I can't be sure how that will go - probably that would be done when you do the profit and loss, balance sheets and cash-flow accounts as a company.)

Production Budget - Hypothetical

I researched for what would be a realistic number for the budget of a 3 minute short but couldn't find any numbers specifically for that.

I found this blog (Asterisks Animation) that explained what costs would occur for an animation studio from pre-production to post-production. This is what kind of costs I figured out that I would have to face for my 3 minute short. I could not find out the important costs such as fees for the basic jobs(directors, producers, illustrators, storyboard artists, animators, etc.) so I did not put any numbers down. I found it hard to put my finger on specific numbers because they varied a lot depending on experience, skill, what you are prepared to offer, and who is prepared to work for what your prepared to offer, and that depends on the quality you are asking, or even how much personnel you'll need for each task.

Test Animation

A 20 second test animation (no sound).

(click on image to view)

Line Tests And Experiments

Some line tests and camera movements. To figure out the size between characters and objects and their positioning.

(click on image below to view)

Animatic (with Sample Sound)

This is my animatic on VIMEO. (click on image below to view.)



As I mentioned before, the concept is to use street/bucket drumming for the soundtrack, but still need to talk with a friend of mine that might be doing the soundtrack.

Storyboard

Objects

The stuff that the characters will be comparing - columns are what A, B and C describe respectively.

Concept, Colour, Camera

Some variations for the background colour. I wanted to keep the look of this simple so I wasn't sure if i should use colour or not. After trying it out I thought it gave the animation some depth (being 2D - it would not look as if they're just standing on a straight line.) But I didn't like the gradient colours, or any others besides that bright yellow.




I decided on this look at the end:
These are some different camera angles and character positioning I tried after having a talk with my tutor. He told me to try out the use of two cameras instead of having the view constantly at the front as if on stage at the theatre:


These are some more concept drawings:

Character Designs

After a lot of drawings, and simplifications I ended up with these 3 dudes. I did not want them to have many differences, just to stress out that they would be using their possessions to differ from each other, but still be part of the same group, as they would compete but also be similar to each other....if that makes any sense.


Character Turnaround

Sound For Project

This is the type of sound (street Drumming) I'm thinking of using for the animation.. I think its quite a universal, multinational sound and can be used for my animation.. still working on it.

Some influences...

These are some artists I looked into, they influenced my line, and perspective for my animation. Colour was not much of an issue but added yellow for the background as it goes well with black and white, and I get that offsetting effect like you get in screen printing.

John Dilworth - I liked his characters and line work.
Paul Driesen - Concepts, idead, humor, line and colour.
Greg Holfeld - Characters, line, colour
Bill Plympton - Basically everything about this guy, style, colour, concepts, humor etc.
Raimund Krumme - His line work and concepts.
Low Morale - They made Radiohead's Creep music clip.
Hanna & Barbera - for their sound fx.
Pink Panther - For the simplicity of the characters and backgrounds - you stay focused on the characters - the story - and don't really pay attention to the background which is just there to give the general idea with not too much detail.

I also looked into movies of the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin, they were very helpful for the directing and cinematography of my film. Still working on my camera experimentation.

Character K

Possible Style that I will follow, still experimenting but I really like this one. This is also one of my characters.. still in development but you get the picture.

3rd Year Animation

Right, so I got 1 single massive project to do this year, and since it's my final year I should really give it my best. I was thinking of making a 3-D short this year, in order to put me through learning Maya, but it's quite risky as I haven't ever touched Maya before. So I decided to do it 2D digital, and learn Maya on the side.

The idea: 3 guys comparing and showing off to each other. Sounds simple... but it's not. Basic concept is that people like to show off, at least where I'm from (Cyprus), but its not that different I guess abroad. Must be human nature or something. So these 3 guys start comparing their possessions, and as they talk and talk and talk, towers of objects keep stacking up behind them, which eventually collapse onto them....and they die.......... But as their naked spirits rise to the sky, and see beneath them what they are leaving behind, they got nothing left to.. oh wait... their naked.. THEY STILL GOT ONE THING TO COMPARE!

Possible title is: Man cannot live on bread alone. Taken a bit ironic as this phrase means to say that he needs spiritual food too.. but bread alone? no way! we need a lot more than that.

2nd Year Animation Module

This was done last semester, for my animation module. The idea was to experiment with line, colour and synchronise everything with the music. Soundtrack by Manolis Manoli (Manix). Thank you dude!

The basic concept of this is the man, representing anything inspiring and life-giving, passes through this old, dull street and injecting life for a while.

Man Made (Stop-motion)

Something Niki and I did over the summer, inspired by the frequent forest fires.

Random Designs

So got a Wacom Tablet 3 months ago and been experimenting since. These are some random stuff I came up with while doodling with it.

Still had some thoughts left on the last illustration project I did last year.








You can also see some more of these in this album on my profile on Facebook.

2nd Year Illustration

Project: Rituals - Live music and Jazz Vinyl Covers






I spent my days researching and listening to jazz and blues music, attending live performance at bars, and drawing on the spot.

Project: Word and Image - Final Task: Poster


Final Task: Comic Strip





Editorial: Cat gets swine flu

Abstract Book: Labors of Hercules