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!