Environment // Opening Screen playblast

Narrative // Female Character Rigged & Posed

Environment // More Cogs!

Playing around with some more cogs. Now I know how to get them working, I'm starting to work on more intricate designs to fit our world. Lots of fun!

Environment // Cog test in Maya

I followed an online tutorial which Charlie found to make a cog quickly and easily. Our animation will have lots of different styles and sizes of cogs which I'm quite looking forward to making. I've made these as a quick test to see how they look.

Male and Female Character // Concept

Environment // Props

Some sketches I put together for props, cogs and things in the background! 

Narrative // Script

Narrative Script

Male Character // Thumbnails 83 - 88

Today we got together and discussed the design for the characters, this resulted in quite a few changes that I've started to sketch out, he still needs some work.

Male Character // Thumbnails 60-63

I took one of the thumbnails that I thought was strongest from the last page and sketched him out a few times.

Female Character // Thumbnails #3

Environment // Thumbnails

Some thumbnails for environment ideas. Quick sketches first and then a more worked-on version at the end. Will work on these further.

Male Character // Thumbnails 40 - 59

I started to explore more into some of the thumbnails from the last page i did.

Female Character // Thumbnails #2

Male Character // Thumbnails 19 - 39

We distributed the required elements between the group today, I will be working on the male character from concept to a fully resolved 3D model. Here is a page of thumbnails that I did tonight, still early stages but I quite like 23 and 37, I'm still playing with shapes and proportions.

Thumbnails and Reference images

These are a few character ideas I'd had. Because they are toys I liked the idea of using simple shapes. I see them as made from wood, quite elegant with painted faces. Their clothes would be very bland at the beginning of the story, but as the characters change, I imagined their outfits more flowing and colourful and made from fabric, rather than painted onto the body of the toy as they are at the start.

Quick environment sketch to show the inside of the factory. Needs more work.

 For a bit of research and something to springboard from, I gathered some images together of how I imagined the style and look of aspects of the animation. I went with a Russian theme as this is something the group have dipped in and out of throughout our discussions. 

Russian costume, once the characters have transformed during their dance. I see this kind of style with patterns which could be mirrored in the environment once the mood of the story changes.

Some quick reference material for factories. These show both men and women at work, what they would have worn and the working conditions they would have been subject to. Lots of monotonous lines of machinery, lots of repetition.

A quick look at some Russian architecture for when the couple are dancing. The buildings and scenery would change and grow as their love builds. Again, I've gone with the theme as the colours and style would all complement each other. I like the shapes of these buildings, which would tie in nicely with the cogs and twirl of the female character's dress as she is dancing.

These images are Russian designs again which I thought could work well in transitions, or in the costumes or music box design. The image middle-right is a Bird of Freedom which I thought also links to the story nicely, though I can't easily see how we could include it in the animation.

Environment // Thumbnails

I did some environment thumbnails today, trying to create a big cluttered factory space.

Character 1 // Thumbnails

I started making some thumbnails for one of the characters today, I tried playing around with his shape and proportion while trying to make sure it still resembles a wooden toy.

Storyboard #1

I finished off my take on the story today.

Story Breakdown

We thought it would be useful to write down the main steps of our story, so that we can use it to work towards.

• Shot of cogs
• Camera slowly zooms in through cogs
• Establishing shot of characters in factory
• Characters look at each other and smile coyly
• Characters look back at their work and Character 1 has a soppy smile on their face
• Character 1 misses the beat of their work
• Sound of something breaking or going wrong
• Reaction shot of character 1 realizing he has created a new sound
• Character 1 starts to make music with the machinery
• Character 2 carries on working until she realizes what the other is doing.
• Character 2 joins in
• Shot of both characters looking at each other while making music
• Background characters start to join in
• Char 1 & 2 leave workstation and come together by jumping onto conveyor belt
• They start to dance on conveyor belt
• They dance through the factory while interacting with it (pulling levers etc)
• Environment begins to change
• Transition into different clothing
• Music paper being written in background
• Climax
• Transition to outside the music box, characters ascending on top, becoming the two main dancing figurines

Influence Map

Final Story Idea?

Following our tutorial with Alan this morning we have worked towards finalizing a story idea. This is the one that seems to have the most potential and the idea which we are all happiest with.

 

The story is set inside a music box, though the audience doesn't know this until the end. We see cogs turning and hear the sound of rhythmic machinery working. The camera zooms in through the cogs and we are in a factory. Two main characters are working robotically in the factory which creates the sound we hear. We can see there are other characters in the room. (These could be in the form of silhouettes as they aren't important). The two main characters often look at each other, and we see they clearly have an interest in one another. Because they are distracted, we see one of them has made an error with their work and the machinery starts to break. We hear a change in the repetitive sounds when this happens and this starts the beginning of a different feel for the factory. The other character joins in to create more of these pleasing sounds with the factory machinery and the two come together and start to dance. They jump onto a conveyor belt and dance along. The music is more flowing and the couple's movements are more fluid than their repetitive working actions. As they pass through the factory, they interact with the machinery, pulling levers etc which transforms the background and music to show how their love is building. At one point the couple disappear behind a part of machinery and as they come out the other side their clothes have changed from their factory uniforms to beautiful and colourful clothes to suit the mood they are in and the dance they are carrying out. The camera zooms out to reveal that the factory is actually a music box and show how the characters have ascended to the top, still dancing.