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.  

Rob Ryan

I'v just bought Rob Ryan's book, 'You can still do a lot with a small brain'. Recommended to me by Amy (www.mypaperthoughts.blogspot.com). Absolutely love his work and I wish I could incorporate some of his style of work into an animation but I really dont think it will work for this project. I'm going to keep it in mind and see what happens.

By Rob Ryan

Test Clip 1

I decided to expriment with the colours and filters of a background still which I had of a harbour. I wanted to see how a photo would look edited in photoshop but made to look like a cartoon. I ended up getting carried away and finding images off the web, such as: a toy boat, some clouds and some wallpaper and editing them all to make a short test clip...

By Rak

This is a very very rough idea of the sort of style I might like to work in. But, I would like to use more of my own drawing and painting methods for creating the sky, clouds and the sea and then edit them in photoshop. I will probably take photos of any background boats and then edit them to fit in with the style of the film.

1st Tutorial

Today was very useful.
For the last couple of weeks I'v really been struggling with my storyline, looking at different children's and adult books trying to find inspiration for a short boat story. Today, I was told to think about my own personal experiences with boats and try and create a story on them. There is one very definite boating experience which sticks in my mind. I have now decided to elaborate on this and hopefully it will work for a short film.

Over the weekend I am going to start writing down a series of events based on this experience and hopefully I will have a rough script by next week!

The Owl and the Pussy Cat

Today I found some amazing illustrations by Charlotte Cooke, who coincidentally was also a student at UWE. These were drawn for a book project based on The Owl and the Pussy Cat. They are really charming and has given me some more ideas for how I want my film to look.

Absolutely love the background for this one. Really soft colours

Brilliant character drawings...some of them remind me of Where the wild things are!

I really like this one as well. Reiterates what I have been looking for in an animated wave!

All illustrations by Charlotte Cooke

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

I love this famous picture. There are elements of this wave, which I will try to recreate in my animation.

Red Head Speedskater

Really like the sky in this video as well. Also, the hills remind me of waves. 

By Kompost

Trekant Title Sequence

Delightful short film. I really like the effects of the sky. It looks like several layers have been used here. Definitely an effect I should consider for my film.

By Kompost

Dark Side of the Lens

This film is amazing. Really beautiful cinematography. Could be useful to look at for camera angles of the sea. The timing with the music and narrative is also very well done. 

By Astray Films

Love this

Could be an idea for a start or finish to my animation

Boat Books Ordered!

Having decided to make a film based around the subject of boats, I have ordered some new children's picture books off amazon. I only want a simple story as the film will only be about 4 minutes long and I would like to focus on the quality and style of the film. The books are:

- I love Boats by Flora Mc Donnell
- Sail Away Little Boat by Janet Patel
- Toy Boat by Randall de Seve
- The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber and Nicola Bayley

Boats, Sea, Weather, Waves!

As I'm keen to pursue yachting photography in the future, I'm interested in making a 2d film around this subject. I am still keen to make a 2d film which has some child like, quirky qualities to it and possibly using a combination of methods. These could include stop motion, photography, film and many more. I am unsure of how exactly I want the film to look as of yet, or even of a rough storyline, but its a starting point!  

Back to Work

THE BRIEF


The pre-production module is designed to enable me to explore the creative aspects of conceptualisation and project management within the broader context to my own current art and design practice while setting it alongside existing modules of animation production.


It is very important that the pre-production stage of any project is a thorough and rigorous process. In order to plan a successful project I need to have a good idea as to what the project is about.


Need to be aware of:


- script development 
- design for animation
- storyboard
- sound
- production management and scheduling
- project tracking
- resource management

St Tropez

After a week on the press boats in Cannes, we went over to St Tropez for the 2nd regatta. This was my first time here and I had no clue what to expect. For sailing photography, it was fantastic! 

AND MORE BIG BOATS...

 

 

Photos by Rak