End of the Day's Work

I finally bought myself a copy of the incredible graphic novel 'Blacksad' this weekend - it's been on my amazon wishlist forever! Everything about it is totally amazing, and I've already started pulling what I like into my pre-production for this film. This background is heavily inspired by a panel! Anyway, here's Dad and Daughter going home at the end of the day's work.

Self-Portrait

A painting from the weekend - I was trying to see if I could draw myself in the style of the characters I'm designing for the film and I got a little carried away! The difference you see between this self-portrait and the one topping this blog is 10 months of artistic development and hair growth! I'm also continunig my inktobers. To the right is a study of the main character from Marvel's 'Daredevil' series that's currently on Netflix - I'm completely hooked!

Background Tests

I've been having some fun this week trying to nail a style for the backgrounds for this film idea. I know that I want shapes and colours to be the focus, but I need to decide how graphically I'm taking that as I do like the fluid style of animation that I used for the sneak test a couple of posts ago.

These would be stills from the beginning and end of the film - in the first still, she's just fallen in love with a boy who lives across the river. In the last still she has to find a way to get to him and maybe a barrel from her apple stall might do...

Inktober and Pre-Production

I'm continuing pre-production and using inktober as a part of it! Each of these sketches was done very quickly in pen in my A6 sketchbook. I'm really trying to work on the shape/pattern idea for the backgrounds at the moment. The era that I'm setting the film in had a lot of brickwork in its architecture and the brick pattern works both as a grounding element and because it's beautiful visually.

I went on a lovely trip to Hartlepool to see my brother this weekend and took the opportunity for some reference photographs. Above is a picture of the historical quay there, complete with masted ship in the background. It might give you some idea of the brickwork look that I'm going for.

We also went to the seaside and I took lots of photos of the water. The film will be set in a port town, so I'm looking at patterns in the water to offset the patterns in the brickwork. The first of my inktober sketches may give you an idea of what I'm going for!

Pre-Production and Style Tests

So, as I mentioned last week I have an idea for a new film. I've started some pre-production this week in the evenings after work and this is what I've got. Above is an influence map of what I'm looking at - on the far left are photographs of industrial revolution cities, where my story is set. As you move further right, the photographs change into drawings and paintings that are influencing me visually and stylistically. I really like the idea of emphasising colours and shapes in the designs.

Sneak Animation Test from Julia Young on Vimeo.

Above is a quick animation test I did over a very rough concept background. The girl (as yet unnamed) in the shot is the main character of the story. In this shot she's sneaking around at night, avoiding the police who might stop her.

I'm playing with the idea of using variations of one colour over an entire background; this is a sunny day, versus the purple night in the animation test. I'm also experimenting with simplicity versus detail. I'm looking for a balance that leaves the focus as the shapes and colours but gives a bit more information and life than the above test.

News and Stuff

So, last week was the first public screening of 'The Keeper' at its first pubic festival! The Smalls festival is a festival for 'short films on small screens'. The awards ceremony was on Thursday and here are some pictures of the location.

Unfortunately Josh couldn't join me there because he was struck down with a cold, but I kept him updated with an ongoing commentary. The festival was held at Hoxton Arches in London in a unit made from the train bridge arch. It was a very cool event!

In other news, I'm thinking about making another film. I've started doodling storyboards and character designs and below is a quick rough walk cycle test of a character concept.

Walk Cycle Test from Julia Young on Vimeo.

Logo Designs

Lately we've been gearing up our end of year show - organising, advertising and what-not - and I had a go at some graphic logo designing. These were for a name for the show that in the end was discarded; 'Frame by Frame Cymru'.

Colour Keys

One of the things I did before Christmas was colour keys. This is only one example, but it should give you an idea of what the final film will look like. Josh is responsible for the linework in this example, and I coloured four different versions over the top. Again, hopefully it gives you some indication of what our collaboration will look like in the end!

Building a Lighthouse

It goes without saying that when you're designing a film about a lighthouse keeper you have to draw lots and lots of lighthouses. We've gone from ordinary to fantastical, but the exploration had to end at some point with a final design! We have spent several days drawing every prop and every angle imaginable so that our CG buddies can model everything, and here is a very small taste for you.

Mood Boards

Hi Everyone,

Painting mood boards was incredibly exciting for me as it marked the moment when what was just talking about a film finally became actually working on pre-production to make the film! I thought today I'd share with you a few mood boards I did right at the start of the project.

A Very Exciting Brief!

I've not posted university work in a little while, so I thought today I'd let you know what we're up to; we've kicked off our new brief; pre-production for our final film! I had been looking forward to this for months so to have it officially start was completely fantastic! I'm collaborating for this project (and the production of the final film) with my coursemate Josh. The story idea is his but we're working very hard to bring it to life as a team. In our excitement last week, we even began a little pre-production instead of concentrating on our AfterEffects coursework. I thought today I would share with you two promo paintings that I did to get you as excited as I am for this project!

Concepting

The other day I felt the need to both be productive and blow off a little creative steam by working on something different for a couple of hours. The result was that I put together a couple of concepts for my housemate's game project. His brief was to do an old abbey in the style of the 1992 'Dracula' film, on top of a cliff with waves crashing below. He also wanted a couple of interior shots. Here is what I came up with:

Summer Holidays

Hello all and happy summer holidays! I've been looking back on the year this week and thought I'd share some things with you. Thing number one; I found this photo of me from the day I finished animating. Take a look at tired-but-happy me with my stack of frames!

So tired, but so happy!

Thing number two; the lovely Bethan has posted some more of the backgrounds she coloured for me. Check them out here!

Thing number three; a production test for which I used AfterEffects for the first time ever! A big shout-out to Amber (one of the lovely third years) who helped me work out how AfterEffects works!

Production Test from Julia Young on Vimeo.

Thing number four that I should have mentioned a while ago; I went to see 'The Wind Rises' in London before its official release and my review of it has been published on Skwigly. 

I Tawt I Taw a Tweety Bird

Once again, I apologise for the title - I just couldn't resist! You've seen enough mouse sketches and tests to be forgiven for thinking that the mouse is the only character in the film, but he's not! Enter cuckoo:

Cuckoo Entrance from Julia Young on Vimeo.

Backgrounds and Collaboration

As some of you may remember from posts past, I have the good fortune to have a wonderful friend and part-time collaborator called Beth. She kindly agreed to take on the task of colouring some of my film backgrounds and now I'm posting them here for you all to see! She took my sketches and made them into something beautiful!

In style, I want to give the film a storybook/fairytale quality and Beth, being of the concept-art-strand of my course and up for the challenge, really delivered!

More Character Work

Well, upon finishing my pre-production image I had 113 pages of work, some of which I've shared with you already, and I have some here too. It's not all of them, but I hope you enjoy these highlights.

A couple more promotional images/colour storyboards; these give you a feel of what the film will look like when it's finished.

I have shared with you plenty of drawings of mice but not too many of the bird. First of all, some studies:

And now coloured action sheets!

Finals

This graphic will be adapted into the title slide of the film. As it stands, it makes a promotional/teaser poster! Thank you to all those who gave me feedback on it, you know who you are! Also, here are some action sheets:

Story

This week was very exciting as. with the help of my coursemates, I finally have a title for my film! It's called 'A Midnight Tale' and to celebrate I will share with you the premise of the story. As we're limited to making a 90 second film, it ends on a 'to be continued' note, even though I had the whole story scripted and conceptualised. Hopefully it will leave you wanting to know what happens next!

I also finalised the designs of my characters this week. Here are their expression sheets:

Mouse Studies

As I've been designing the character of my mouse, he has become more and more cartoony; something I don't necessarily want. As such I did a lot of studies of real mice to return in style to a more realistic mouse.