Scarves of Red

Scarves of Red from Julia Young on Vimeo.

Well, here it is, the finished film! When I originally had this idea back in October - after hearing this song for the first time - I thought I'd challenge myself to making a film in a month as I knew I had a free December. Very soon after deciding to do it however, December became decidedly not-free. So, the updated challenge was to make a film in a month's evenings and weekends. I hope you enjoy the result!

Happy New Year and may it bring you all happiness!

Tomorrow!

Well, film production is wrapping up today - a film made in a month! The final film will be put online tomorrow at 6pm. I hope you've all had lovely holidays spent with people you care about and are looking forward to a great New Year!

Happy Christmas Eve!

Latest image from the film. I hope you're all well and have a Merry Christmas!

First Glimpse

I thought today, as it's now half-way through the month and therefore half-way through this production it was more than time to give you a first glimpse of my main character!

This is a shot I'm working on at the moment, so no background yet. We're on target though - keep anticipating January 1st!

Winter Robin

The film is continuing at a pace! Here's my little winter robin as a teaser.

I'm sort-of doing this film in the wrong order as I didn't design any of the characters before starting production - I've just been working off my storyboards. Today I designed and built my main character so I'm sure you'll see him soon! It's very exciting!

Film Countdown

Happy December everyone! One month exactly until I release my new film. First I have to make it though! The first still of the film:

And so the countdown begins!

Animatic

An update - my storyboards, of which I shared a few last week, are now an animatic with music. It's very exciting!

Shot list compiled, colour coding sorted, I'm ready to get to work.

I'll share more things about this project soon, I just don't want to spoil anything. My goal is to finish it for New Year!

Winter is Coming!

Autumn is the best season and November the best month as far as I'm concerned! A photo from my living room window yesterday afternoon - the first November afternoon of this year - may there be many more like it!

With it being November I feel that I can now mention the 'C' word - Christmas! I've started storyboarding a special festive piece of animation. I'm putting the other film on the backburner for a short time and concentrating on this one. More updates soon!

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.

End of Third Year

Keeper: Sneak Peak from Julia Young on Vimeo.

Well, as stated that it would be in my last blog post, since you last heard from me the film has been finished! We have also enjoyed our end of year show where, judged by A Productions in Bristol, the film won the 'Best 2D' category! This marks for us the end of University and it certainly feels odd...

I hope you enjoy the sneak peak posted above; the film in its entirety will be put up both here and on my website once it has completed the festival circuit. I'd just like to take this post to thank again all of those who were involved in the production of the film - you're all the best!

Some credits again and links to websites:

Soundtrack - Joe Barlow

CG Artist - Rhys Jones

CG Animator - Gary Seto

Compositor - Georgia Dutton

Super-duper special thanks to Jason Evans

Thanks as well to Ben Mitchell from Skwigly for taking these photos at our end of year show, 'Animotion'. Congrats to all the winners!

From left to right - Sian Mills, Saeed Ahmed, Josh Cranton & myself, Alice Parkes, Steph Howell

Variations, Moods, Compositing

Last week I posted the following image. It was the background of the very first shot of the film. It's sunset and the scene is bright:

Since last week, Josh and I started talking again about the colours of the film and the implied moods that they create. We agreed that at the beginning of the film we actually wanted a moodier/darker feel so that the relief and optimism at the end of the film is more pronounced. With this in mind, I created this new version:

A while back our tutor suggested that we could create a nice completing-of-the-circle feeling for the film by repeating the first shot of the film at the end of the film. We took this on board as it did provide a sense of emotional completeness and so here is the final background; the lighthouse at sunrise:

My wonderful friend and housemate Georgie Dutton has come on board of the project to help us composite the film. Very, very soon these backgrounds will have CG water in them! The final deadline is this Friday so next time I post the film will be complete. See you on the other side!

More Film Backgrounds

Less than two weeks to go! Eep! These are two backgrounds from the establishing scene of the film. I've almost finished painting them all, and the next stage is to composite everything together. The sea in this first shot will be CG, but for now I've put in a blue area to indicate the horizon. 

Film Backgrounds

Well, terrifyingly, it's now less than 3 weeks until our film deadline. Everything is starting to come together now; animation is being coloured, compositing is going on and I thought today I'd share with you a couple of the painted backgrounds I've finished. The CG base of each and every background in the film was created by the ever-wonderful Rhys Jones and I then take those greyscale bases into Photoshop to paint.

Fonts

Having so far been using Times New Roman in our animatic film as we update and add credits, it is far beyond time to make our own bespoke font. I found a great site to turn my letters into a font and above you can see our current credits used as a test. We've also just had an influx of first years volunteering to help colour our animation, so they will be added soon too!

Rough Keyframe Animation

Rough Keyframe Test from Julia Young on Vimeo.

The aim this week is to finish rough keying every shot of the film so that not only will we be able to see more clearly the pacing of each shot, but we'll then be able to edit the shots together more exactly and we can pass the rough version of the film on to our very talented music-maker! We have so far been cleaning-up each shot as we go along, but it's time to change tactic for pipeline purposes. Here's an example for you of what those rough keyframed shots are looking like. This is Keeper recoiling after the lighthouse bulb suddenly bursts on.

Into Production

 

Hi everyone!

We're properly into production now with our fabulous corner work space, our brilliant CG modeller has been giving us our background layouts, we've begun animating and my super-organised schedule to keep us on track can be seen in the bottom left of the right image. Pictured in our work-corner on the left is Josh, my collaborator, whose blog can be found here. On the right you can see Josh and Rhys lining up the camera in Rhys CG environment with the angle drawn in the animatic so we can render a frame  and use it as a background for our animation. Rhys is brilliant and you can find his work here. Below is a scribbled keyframe animation I did this morning to give you a taste of what we're up to!

Bye for now!

Getting to Work from Julia Young on Vimeo.

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.