HI

HI from Rak on Vimeo.

One Sheet

Final Locked Animatic

Final Locked Animatic - Commotion in the Ocean from Rak on Vimeo.

Final Rhyme

In the harbour, where he lay,

A man thought it was, the perfect day.

The sun was shining, the birds were out,

It gave him reason, not to doubt,

That there wasn’t any, huge commotion, 

Going on, in the middle, of the ocean.

He thought it was, a good idea,

To find a boat, to commandeer,

And sail it to, his lady’s home,

Who lived far away, and all alone.

So off he went to find a boat,

Something small, strong, and likely to float.

Of course in this harbour, it took no time,

To come across, what he wanted to find.

A lovely little boat, with a wooden mast,

And a big white sail, to make it go fast.

He knew his lady, would love the surprise,

But foolishly he rushed, not checking the skies.

He jumped on board, and got ready to leave,

Pulling at the ropes, he gave a great heave,

The boat drifted out, away from the side,

And floated down the river, along with the tide.

He traveled out slowly, with the warm ocean breeze,

Moving closer and closer, towards the seas. 

As the sailor tacked, out of the river

He felt a huge gust, which made him shiver.

The waves started to swell, making the boat rock,

He knew he should turn, back into the dock.

But the man didn’t care, he was feeling bold,

Even as the boat swayed, rocked and rolled.

The boat was crashing, against the tide,

And the sailor leaned out, over the side.

His destination, was still far in the distance,

But convinced he could make it, with a little persistence.

Then with one huge wave, hurling onto the boat,

There wasn't long, for him to stay afloat.

He looked into the bottom, and noticed a crack.

Yes, now was the time, he had to go back.

He travelled fast, whilst he was still assail,

The boat would soon sink, in this horrible gale.

He had little time, to get back to the land,

The water so high, he had to stand.

The harbour was near, there wasn’t far to go,

But there was little left, of the boat to show.

The sailor jumped off, when they reached the side,

With a sigh of relief, he ran off to hide.

He knew he’d done wrong, he was scared to be seen,

The little boat was now sinking, deep into the green.

The owner would soon, arrive at the dock, 

His boats disappearance, would be a terrible shock.

But the sailor was selfish, he just didn’t care

He had no desire to tell, show or share,

What had happened to the boat, on this unusual day 

Sadly he cared, only for the fact, that he was Ok.

Walking in the Harbour

Here is a rough example of what the harbour clip will look like. This is zoomed in and he is walking to find a boat. I like the appearance of the clip but I feel he could be bolder and more predominant against the buildings. Also, I may need to improve his walk slightly. This is the first time I have animated character movement and it is defiantly something I will also need some technical help with, during the production process!  

Walking in Harbour Test from Rak on Vimeo.

New Waves

Using a shiny silver thin plastic wrapping material, I re-tried making the waves. This looks so much better than the paper! The light reflections on the give it a more realistic water appearance. I have also used the reflection of the water against a white background as the new sky. I still feel I could get the motion smooth, but this wil be something I can get help with from the tutors when I am back at uni.

Waves Test 3 from Rak on Vimeo.

BOAT ON THE WATER:


Here I have done a quick test to see how the boat would appear on smooth water. I really like this and feel that my visuals are starting to come together. 

Boat Sailing on Smooth Water from Rak on Vimeo.

The Boat

 This is the style of the boat. Colour decisions could change but this will be done whilst i'm making the scenes to make sure all the colours are suited with each other.

I am at a stage now where a lot of my style decisions have been made and feel that I should start thinking about making a few scenes, even if they are just experiments.

By Rak

New Character Design

 First Drawings

Harbour Test

Harbour Test from Rak on Vimeo.

Scenery and Boats

I really like the little boats in these pictures along with the buildings and colours. I can imagine these in the harbour shots against the white background.

Like this Style

I really like the delicate but carefree approach of his, along with the colour against a plain background in this image. 

I'm wondering if a combination of my cut out style paper sea with a drawn boat and character with splashes of colour might work quite well

Paper Sea?

By Rak

This is much better!

Paper Sea Test 1 from Rak on Vimeo.

Even though I made this very quickly, I really like the way this is working! I love working with white acrylic and paper and this is a combination of both. Also, I can make this move easily in front of the camera creating a stop motion wave scene. The only real problem is shadows, but I may have to be patient and crop out the sky in photoshop and replace it with a block colour (green screen). I could then replace the background using keylight in after effects. 

Paper Sea Test 2 from Rak on Vimeo.

In this video, I used a green screen and edited in After effects with keylight. I really like this technique and think it is something that could really be improved with more consistent sea movement.

Cut-out Sea?

Cut Out Test from Rak on Vimeo.

I made this using paper and an art knife. I'm not keen on how this is looking and can't see it working for this project.

Commotion in the Ocean Animatic

Commotion in the Ocean Animatic from Rak on Vimeo.

Storyboard

By Rak

Storyboard - First Draft

This storyboard was made very roughly on scrap pieces of paper. I found this a really useful way of working as I could switch the places of my scenes, and scrap what I didn't like and save what I did like. Now that I'm happy with this order, I can start working on a more accurate storyboard ready to make my animatic. 

 By Rak

Scenery?

These images are incredible. Trying to find ideas to help me with my cut out back grounds but still want them to have a 'mood'. 

www.colerise.com

Changes I have made

There were a few things that I wasn't feeling happy about with this project, so given that I have the whole of this year to work on it, I decided that it was time to make some changes.


- I am now only working with one main character instead of three.
- I have changed the style that I want to work in which means I will not be using the character designs that I initially came up with.
- More about, cut out, stop motion, working with materials on glass.
- Lots of experimenting!!

Pre-Production Chart

Loving the Leaves

By Rak

A starting point with a cut out boat in...a leaf.

Beringer - Vineyard :45

Layered Cutout

Love the layered and framed look to this. Also, shows that colour works.

More Cutout

www.boom.com

Stunning.

Hoedown from Rodeo

Also a big fan of this short film. If I start doing cut out styles, I need to be very careful not to make it look too similar to other peoples work.

Rob Ryan...again.

Rob Ryan is very much in my head at the moment! 

I love the way he works and I cant help but think that my children's sea rhyme would be well told in a cut out form. I know this is very different from the styles I was initially coming up with but I just haven't been able to shake this idea!

MORE OF HIS WORK...

This last one especially gives me a good feeling about working in this way. 

I could still work in stop motion and after effects and the characters would then work as animated stop motion puppets, which is something I really wanted to try for this project. It would be much more child friendly than the other styles. The backgrounds I was working with felt quite harsh and possibly scary for children. Also, I could have the rhyme written into the cut out instead of being spoken which would be good for children's reading skills, and make them interact more with the short film. 

Love this

This reminds me of Rob Ryans work in a more photographic form. The cutout feel. 

I can't seem to get this process out of my head.

Waves Video

Still from my short waves stop motion

By Rak

Only a rough test...

This has been made using fabric and taking photographs whilst gradually moving it. If I was to work with this idea, I would make it much more accurately.

At the moment I seem to have two conflicting methods. The background and the characters will not work well together, so one or the other needs to change!

Character Influence

Influence for my characters and their clothing has mainly come from the crew of 'Moonbeam', an old classic yacht racing in Cannes and St Tropez. This is one of my favorite boats and I really love their uniforms. All white, old fashioned sailor look, with a big number 8 on the back!

Character Designs

These are the first character designs I have really done for this project. I'm sure they will develop further as other design ideas start to fit into place, but as a starting point, I am really happy with them!

Character 1.

(All characters are having the same body and outfit, but different hair and faces. This is because the story is not about the individual characters, but more about the journey. Also, often sailors in uniform look similar, apart from their faces)

Character 2

Character 3

By Rak

Rhyming Influence

My story is being narrated and told in the form of a rhyme. I want it to be fast moving and slightly comical. As it is a film made for children, it doesn't need to be anything too complicated. I have looked carefully at Roald Dahl's, Revolting Rhymes and am going to try and follow the same system that he uses in these quick witted rhymes.

MY RHYME...

This is only this beginning of the story:

In the harbor where they lay,

Three men thought it to be, the perfect day.

The sun was shining, the birds were out,

It gave them reason not to doubt,

That there wasn’t any, huge commotion, 

Going on, out in the middle, of the ocean.

They thought it was a good idea,

To find a boat to commandeer,

And sail it to their lady friends,

Who lived far away from these mens ends.

The girls home is painted red and white,

Where often shines a crimson bright light.

Its hard to miss, even in fog,

The Story

PLOT:
I have decided on a story, at last....

Three sailors are in a harbour admiring how good the weather is. They decide to take a trip in a boat to visit their Lady friends. The calm of the harbour tricks them, and its only when they go out to sea they realise how dangerous and fatal the conditions are. The old boat starts to get destroyed and with no radio or life ranch, will they be able to make it back to land safely?

GENRE:

Comedy, action, adventure.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Children aged between 6 to 12, but should also be enjoyable for adults.

HOW WILL THE STORY BE TOLD?

- Narrated

- Spoken in rhyme

- By a man with a sailors accent!

Test Shots

Yesterday I bought a boat, which hopefully I will use in my animation, if I dont draw my own. Its a proper old fashioned yacht which is the sort of boat I want to use, as this is mainly what I love photographing.


I took some photos of the yacht on a blue sheet and then edited them in photoshop. I put a pastic sheen over the sheet to give it a sea look. I was really surprised with how this looked. I actually quite like it and may consider using this method for my film. I added the sky from the paintings I have made in my sketch book and also changed the filters once the layers had been merged.

By Rak

and...The Sea

This was painted after looking at some lovely illustrations from the children's picture book, The Mousehole Cat.

By Rak

Rough Sky Paintings

By Rak

Made with acrylic, these are examples of how the base layer of the sky could look. I think I prefer this from the wall paper idea. Its rougher and could represent a typical sea sky, especially if there are colour changes dependent on weather change. In front of this, I would like to have moving clouds.