Read All About It!

So, a theme I noticed a lot in The Lost Thing, is a lot of old newspaper clippings and scraps and whatnot, to add to the untidy, jumbled look. So I thought that a good way to tell some of the story quickly would be through newspaper clippings and headlines.
I made up a few of these and I think they turned out pretty good, I think they will look good in my animation if I can figure out  way for them to flap in the wind or something.

New and Improved Artworks

So I took a couple of the sketches I drew and polished them up using Photoshop. I was quite pleased with the results.

First Attempts at Modeling a Turtle

 I liked the stance on one of the sketches I drew so i thought i would try and model it in 3ds max, Here are the results:

 


So, it didn't work out perfectly but I think I got the stance pretty accurate. The things i need to work on most I think are making the shapes smoother and less blocky and working more on the details in the skin and shell, so that it looks more realistic and less simplistic. i also need to model more of the body from one block, instead f from separate pieces  otherwise, when smoothed, it pulls the planes apart as you can see, leaving gaps in the skin.

(Edit, I have since learned that I was supposed to model the characters in a 'T' position or it makes it very difficult to animate, so I will have to start over anyway)

Animation Choices and Some Art

So I decided to chose the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which I will be rebooting in the style of The Lost Thing.

My reasons for choosing the Ninja Turtles are that it is the option I was best acquainted with, having grown up watching it, whereas I wasn't as knowledgeable on Paddington Bear or Rhubarb and Custard. I also felt that there was more versatility as they were more humanoid characters and so would be easier to model and animate, as well as being better at gesturing or expressing emotion, which is a direction I wanted to go in.

My reasons for choosing the lost thing were that the textures were closer to the sort of textures I would be likely to use anyway, and I also liked the whole look and feel of the piece. I liked the fact that on the surface it could appear as just a sweet simple story, but it also had a deeper meaning about growing up and losing your imagination and creativity as you get older, and about how things change over time. This was a feel I defiantly wanted to use in my animation.

Here are a couple of sketches I've Been Working on.

VE Project 2

We started a new project, to reboot a children's TV series using inspiration from an existing animation. this was the brief:

Title:

In the style of

Task:

Re launch a children’s TV programme

Pick from: Paddington bear, Roobarb and Custard or the teenage mutant ninja turtles.

And re-boot them in one of the following visual styles:

Lost and found from studio AKA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaGTYl0hZQw

The Lost Thing from Passion Pictures Australia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kikA9pUAnWs

Varmints from Studio AKA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJQ4RTo6hRg

Produce a 1 minute promotional trailer for this rebooted franchise.

Objectives:
Understanding and interpreting visual style is massively important as is character and scenic design. Autodesk’s 3ds max and Maya are merely tools, understanding how to push them in specific visual directions allows you to produce added value in your creative enterprises.

This project encourages you to develop a broader understating of the 3d development pipeline and how to use it creatively.