Student Support: Derek, Robert, Ryan, Patrick
Will collect character motion based on the story evolution from shot to shot and sequence to sequence. Will provide reference for character motion that fits the description of all characters. Will provide many options so that the class can select the best composite for the reference provided.
Motion Reference will be critical in differentiating the personality of one character to the other in our film. What you recommend for motion reference will determine with much more impact, how the character animators approach the models with consistency and style. This will be more important in many ways than the character design. You will be looking for the motion of actors -- puppets, actors in film, "normal" ( non actors) people from youtube or any other source, other animated films, whatever.
After you receive the Sequence List on January 25th, you will support the characters in the film with motion. The motion can simply be a samurai walking or Clint Eastwood laughing or your grandfather sneezing :-) You can use Charlie Chaplin or John Wayne or our actors -- Matt Smith, Troy, Suzy and Randy. You can extract clips from the acting sessions we've had so far.
The idea is to build a library of motions that fit the personality that we're looking for in our characters -- to bring the characters alive!!! So if the students in the class look at a series of clips they will know that this is our Old Man #1, for instance :-)
The trick will be to do this for our cards too :-) We're looking for emotional states -- for the Old Men and the cards. Try to find a range of emotions that define their personality and distinguish it from the other characters by way of footage of character/human or animal motion.
This will not be easy but it will be a great gift to the rest of your production group.
I'd like all three of you to take a shot at:
Please collect what you can and pull it together as best you can and send me descriptions of each clip by Sunday night at midnight. You will need to justify why the motion you select will fit whatever character in the film you are referencing.
Student Support: Boards - Sharon, Scott, Dan, Matt, Derek, Justin, Koos
Will draw the final boards based on the Thumbnails. Will add color and shading to the boards and present them in the order needed for the motion bible. Will then help with the motion bible.
Student Support: Layout. Amir, Byron, Amber, Patrick
Will work out and present the most appropriate and compelling cinematic locations for our camera and out characters. Will provide this information through whatever way possible to the thumbnail and storyboard artists.
After you receive the Sequence List on Friday, story boarders will each design one board per step for each of the Sequences. Please use shading and color. These will be exercises for you and for me to see the different boarding styles we have. For the layout folks, please work with two of the storyboard artists and recommend two camera and character positions per board. Talk it over with each of the Storyboard artists before they begin their work and upon completion. Provide a written and drawn layout outline that describes your suggestion and submit it for your assignment #3 on Sunday evening by midnight.
Student Support: Thumbnails. Robert, Jordan, Derek, Koos
Will draw the first set of images to tell our story. Will use the text and sequence list and reference that the story group and other groups have created for the class. Will edit and iterate the thumbnails until the story is told visually.
Student Support: Layout. Amir, Byron, Amber, Patrick
Will work out and present the most appropriate and compelling cinematic locations for our camera and out characters. Will provide this information through whatever way possible to the thumbnail and storyboard artists.
After you receive the Sequence List on Friday, Thumbnail artists will each design one sequence of thumbnail drawings for each of the steps defined in the Sequence List. Draw quick and loose thumbnails with the emphasis on gesture. You will most likely end up with a total of approximately 7 pages of rough drawing for us to review. Bring the story alive !!! Please work with the layout artists by chatting with them about the position and motion of the characters as well as the position of the props and set. Use the suggestions of the layout artists as best you can.
Layout artists, please work with the thumbnail artists and recommend layout options for a minimum of one sequence. Talk it over with each of the thumbnail artists before they begin their work and upon completion. Provide a written and drawn layout outline that describes your suggestion/approach for your layout suggestions and submit it for you assignment #3 on Sunday evening by midnight. Provide a critique analysis.
Robert, Sharon, Andrew G, Amir, Matt, Jason
Will collect and provide efx reference for each shot and sequence of the story based on the consistent and supportive role that efx has in our story. Will provide many options so that the class can select the best composite for the reference provided..
After you receive the Sequence List on Friday the 25th of January, provide all of the possible EFX suggestions you can think of for the steps assigned in the Sequence List. If you have ideas for steps that have not been assigned to you, email or talk to the person who has that step so that you can share cool ideas.
Please include (and focus on) any card motion that we can't easily accomplish with motion in Maya, any animation that can't easily be done with current tools in Maya and or anything else that doesn't fit neatly into any other category of the pipeline. Remember that above all else you are supporting a story with efx and that those that we select to pursue will be selected on that basis.
THEN, please provide a minimum of one source for visual reference for each of your efx ideas. Please provide a text based list of the efx, the visual reference and the justification for the effect as support for the story.
Cale, Justin, Andrew G Jordan Scott Andrew Y
Will collect lighting ideas from anywhere and bring in visual representations of lighting in the order of the story. Will recommend a color palette for the story that shifts from story sequence to story sequence. Will provide many options so that the class can select the best composite for the reference provided.
After you receive the Sequence List on Friday January 25th, you will be creating a series of "color swatches" that will be compiled into a color palette. A color swatch is one flat color that can be included with a series of other colors to together give you a color palette -- and a sense of what the overall emotional feeling for the lighting will be for that shot. This palette can be created with paint, pantone colors, digitally in any paint package or with finger paints. The most important goal is for you to determine how to use color to create/intensify the mood for each of the sequences defined in the story. Each one of you will be responsible for supporting one of the seven steps in the story. Color swatches are simply flat color squares and are therefore abstract and unrelated to set or character.
Here's your step:
We'll be reviewing each of these sequences. If you have ideas for a sequence that you haven't been assigned, please discuss/share it with your colleagues :-)
We're also looking for reference -- and we need as much as possible. So please provide lighting reference in the form of photos, films, books real life, for your step assigned above. You can have different approaches but you will need to justify your approach based on the story step you've been assigned. Again, if you have ideas for other steps, please feel free to share :-)
You'll be providing a critique analysis and your project will be due into me by Sunday Jan 27th at midnight.
Dan Erik Byron Lauren
Will find books, films, photos, as well as take photos, of all of the characters of the film to try to match the character descriptions to their physical appearance. Will provide many options as possible so that the class can select the best composite for the reference provided.
After you receive the Sequence List on Friday Jan 25th, take the description of the main characters and "find" them and bring them to life for the rest of us! You may find only some characteristic you need from one reference and others from another set of references. You may not find exactly what you need in one reference. Most likely our characters will consist of composites of the people and cards we find along the way. We won't go with the first option without looking through many others. We also need reference for styles so please try to match the historical and set location style as best you can. Again, you'll get this direction from the story folks on Friday.
Each one of you will be assigned characters to pursue reference for. If you have ideas for other characters, please feel free to chat with those responsible for those characters and let them know.
We're looking mostly for visual reference -- photos, books, films, etc. But you may also wish to provide foley or music. Each of you will work to provide reference for both an old guy character and card characters. See below:
You don't need to agree with the others in your group about your reference. We'll take as much reference as you can find. However your reference must support our story and that's how we'll determine what works best. So, please feel free to collect reference from diverse sources. It will help us.
You will need to email me a list of the reference you have and for each reference item, how it relates to the character in the story we're telling.
I would like to see a minimum of 10 different references from each of you (don't send in the same reference -- there's too much out there) for one of the old guys and 3 for each of the cards in the decks assigned to you. Find unusual playing cards with unique card faces -- shapes and sizes. Or look for objects that combine with the cards. Get creative. It will help us :-)
That means for each of you: 10 for one of the old men and 3 for each of the face cards (13 per deck) for a minimum total of 46 references.
Feel free to turn in more than that of course :-)))