Tuesday 30 November 2010

Production Schedule

As Producer, I have tried to compile all the assets and things needed to be done in a time table.
Below is in rough the amount of weeks and how long roughly everything should take to do and when things should be done by, Obviously its not going to happen like this, so ill keep you updated on what's going on and what's gone wrong......





Character Sheets/Designs For Presentation

Combined some of my best work for the presentation formative on Monday.... Hope all goes well....

Script


Here I have tried to look into the script and change the changes to make it fit with what David wanted and said to me..




Snatched

By

David Legge


Script

Scene One

Ext – Deserted Mongolian landscape – Dawn/Morning

Camera pans down from a early morning sky to show a vast Mongolian landscape with large snowed mountains, there is a small wooden hut with a smouldering fire outside in the distance.

A Mongolian man (mongol) has prepared his food placing his plate on a wooden log.

The Man looks really hungry and happy that he is about to eat his food.

The Marmot jumps on the back of the Mongolian man’s head and runs away with the food.

The Mongolian Man is very upset and angry.

Scene Two

EXT- Mongolian Landscape

The Mongolian man chases the Marmot across a vast distance over a hill. We can see here how far away the Marmot is from the Mongolian Man as he pants behind.

The Marmot Dodges round a giant rock.

The Mongolian Man doesn’t dodge the rock but smacks into.

The Mongolian manages to jump over the rock and carry on running.

Scene Three

Ext – Deserted Mongolian landscape – Morning

The Mongolian man chases the marmot further.

The Marmot jumps over a broken down Cart without any problems.

The Mongolian man crashes into the Cart sending debris flying.

The Mongolian man Appears from the dust and debris, attached to two of the Cart’s wheels where he is struggling to stay on them.

The Mongolian flies past getting closer and closer to the Marmot.

Scene Four

Ext –Forest - Morning

They enter into a forest full of trees, its quite dark with angel rays shooting through.

The Mongolian makes a jump for the marmot and the wheels fly off.

The Mongolian is inches from the marmot when an Eagle swoops in and picks up the Marmot.

The Man is by himself, looking up at the eagle taking his food away.

The Mongol looks to the floor and sees a big leaf that looks like a feather.

Black screen

Scene Five

Ext –Outside of Forest - Morning

The Mongolian Man is set and ready to jump off the cliff with leaves attached to each of his arms to look like Wings.

Titles

New Script - In Progress

Writing the Script

Hey David, I broke down the scenes a bit more, i think it makes more sense. Couple of things may not be quite right. I thought he needed a reason for him to smack into the rock so i added the eagle shadow. Let me know if you want me to change anything, i couldnt make out also how the marmot steals the food, so i hope i got that right??


Snatched

Directed

By

David Legge

Script


Scene One

Ext – Deserted Mongolian landscape – Dawn/Morning

Camera pans down from a early morning sky to show a vast sandy desert landscape with large snowed mountains, there is a small wooden hut with a smouldering fire outside in the distance.

A Mongolian man (mongol) has prepared his food placing his plate on a wooden log.

The Man looks really hungry and happy that he is about to eat his food. Meanwhile a Marmot jumps out of a bush and towards the Mongolian man.

The Marmot jumps on the back of the Mongolian mans head and runs away with the food.

The Mongolian Man is very upset and Angry.



Scene Two

EXT- Mongolian Landscape

The Mongolian man chases the Marmot across a vast distance over a hill. We can see here how far away the Marmot is from the Mongolian Man as he pants behind.

The Marmot Dodges round a giant rock.

An eagles shadow is cast on the ground in front of the Mongolian Man, causing the Mongolian to look up and therefore doesn’t see the rock he then smacks into.

The Mongolian is in a lot of pain and rolls around on the floor.

Scene Three

Ext – Deserted Mongolian landscape – Morning


The Mongolian man chases the marmot further.

The Marmot jumps over a broken down Cart without any problems.

The Mongolian man crashes into the Cart sending debris flying.

The Mongolian man Appears from the dust and debris, attached to two of the Cart’s wheels where he is struggling to stay on them.

The Mongolian flies past getting closer and closer to the Marmot.


Scene Four

Ext –Forest - Morning

They enter into a forest full of trees, its quite dark with angel rays shooting through.

The Mongolian makes a jump for the marmot and the wheels fly off.

The Mongolian is inches from the marmot when an Eagle swoops in and picks up the Marmot.

The Man is by himself, looking up at the eagle taking his food away.

The Mongol looks to the floor and sees a big leaf that looks like a feather.

Black screen

Scene Five

Ext –Outside of Forest - Morning


The Mongolian Man is set and ready to jump off the cliff with leaves and Twigs attached to each of his arms to look like Wings.

Titles



The Scrpt is up, Please let me know what to change, i couldnt work out how the marmot got his food. I added the birds shadow to give a reason as to why the mongolian smacks into the rock, unless he is trying to be cocky where ill change it to that. Please let me know. Thanks. xx
    • David Christopher Legge Pretty much there, Just a few things to change
      about an hour ago ·
    • David Christopher Legge Ok i just wrote it all then lost it lol pressed the wrong button. Ok just keep it set in the mongolian plains as desert may confuse the audience, they may not associate mongolia with desert. i got rid of the marmot stepping towards the man as we just dont have time, he shouldn't jump on his head as its a very fast inrto. He smashes in to the rock , i think thats fine as he is frantic desperate and more preocupied with the food while the marmot jumps i think by putting the eagle in it will just get to confusing as these scenes are so quick, the audience wont have time to work things out. the shadow could be put in a subtle way in another scene. He doenst have to roll aound the floor as that will break the chase it has to be continuos. The last bit is prety perfect just change to tree branch lol with leaves sorry to be so anal just got a get it right. and then the final scene is of him like a bird .

Character Sheets For Presentation.....


I have Combined some of the better designs on one sheet together for Formative....

Saturday 27 November 2010

Hut/Prop Design

Looking into the different huts that may have been used in older times. Most of these are huts with straw and sticks, the middle is cloth, and made out of wood. Not sure on any of these designs...

Landscape Plan - sketch

Basic landscape for project, slightly exaggerated, and not all in the same perspective.
This is to try and get a better idea of what's going to happen within the scene.

The light line is the path in which they will run..... Probably need more Mountains and more hills to run on....

Marmot grabbed by eagle concept

Been Messing around with concept sketches..... This is where the Marmot gets snatched by the Eagle, but we are in two minds of whether the Marmot or the chicken should be snatched... The Mongol went out the window because he was too big for a eagle to carry which apparently are quite small birds....

Monday 22 November 2010

Marmot Designing



So Davids also asked me to do some sketches for the marmot in case he doesn't get round to it in time, and wanting some concept work for my folder, i don't mind doing some.

I do not feel my drawing is up to much, and so i've been practicing with life drawing on the train to and from college and looking at cartooning animals.

I have also looked at artists such as Preston Blaire to try and help with the line and making them look good.

The initial sketches I Scanned into my Laptop and went over them in Photoshop to try and get good concepts out of it.....




This is my favorite, which is why its first...... Ive spent most of the weekend on sketching and design for the marmot....

Ive tried to get different poses that would be related to the film in these sketches.






This design is very cute and I've used Preston Blaire's Cartoon Animation book to get some of these poses.













I quite like this design, the eyes are really big, and his head is a weird shape. The body looks pretty bog standard, and so to get some design in the marmot could change a bit more to it.

Ive spoken to David and hes unsure about this design..... He does look a bit more like a Dog though...













This concept cam from what david gave me as an idea for roughly what he should look like, but these are very similar to my first ideas, so i want to try and push him a bit more..













Here are the initial sketches for the marmot i did in blue pencil and went over in black pen.

His eyes might be too small, and making him look cute rather than cheeky like we need him to.....







Here are some facial expressions, the nose may need to be more rounded. This will come in useful with blendshapes, if we pick the main expressions we need....




Experimenting with Marmot colours, From the reference videos and Pictures of Marmots I Colour palliated in Photoshop and Picked the colours actually on the marmots to get some of the colours working well together.... I personally like the Forth, But David wants something a bit darker, nearer to the last colour idea...














These are drawings of initial ideas for shapes for the marmot character.... The debate at the moment is will he run on two legs or four....

For rigging and Animating purposes, as a team we decided he might run on two. That way he can also hold the piece of chicken in his hand rather than his mouth....



































































The sketches below are poses taken from the photographs and video references I found online. Just getting a feel for that marmot....

Friday 19 November 2010

Eagle Character Sheets

Below are the Character sheets i gave to Sam a few days ago to start modeling the eagle with. It seems the design has slightly changed in the modeling process, but the eagle looks good still, it just doesn't have the head piece because David felt that looking at some of the mongolian eagles, they didn't really have this. He also decided that we don't want to over complicate something that will only be in shot for a could of seconds.....











the side view - Needs to be longer.....



















Wings here look too deep in between the wings.....



the wings also will need to be longer....

Thursday 18 November 2010

Eagle Video Ref

Colours and how the eagles fly is why i have picked these videos to look at. this first video is ausome for character reference but it may be hard to model and rig with the feathers sticking out like they are. This bird minos the head feathers may be an idea......



Oktapodi - Chase sequence reference and Making of Ika Bola


This is a great film with lovely camera angles in and tells the love story and chase sequence really nicely. I has good interaction between the three main characters and also incorperates 2D animation skills into the beginning opening sequence.
The pacing of the sequence is compelling as you believe the octopus are out of harms way and then you find they aren't and back into the chase again.
The sound is key to this films pacing and is a fun tract to listen to.


Below i have looked into the making of a film called inka bola to try and get an idea of what things need to be done for concept stages and to try and get the film looking good.... I like the layout and maybe when formative hits we can take a look into making a film like this to watch rather than a boring powerpoint presentation.....




Monday 15 November 2010

Eagle Sketches






I think Davids getting slightly behind with designing our characters. He wanted to design all three but times running out so ive said i would try and help. He are some initial sketches of the Eagle in designs for him.

The eagle isnt in the film for very long, so i dont think we need to over complicate his design and so long as he looks like an eagle it will be cool. The texture could be where we get some different colours and design within him.

I have tried designing him characatured, such as the image to the right he looks more like a chicken than an eagle, and i referenced to chicken run for this design in particular.... I don't think it will work.

Below i have also looked into wing design, shall we give him straight wings or make them a bit more complicated? The only thing i would be worried here about it the rigging of the eagle and making sure there arent too many vertices to paint weights to.

These two eagle concepts were done in photoshop to test some colours to begin with and researching into mongolian eagles, they tend not to be black, so theses are out the window.....

Friday 12 November 2010

Style- Video Reference

I have begun looking into style, I found this film advertised in 3D world magazine and loved the render they have. the clouds tell a story as well as the action. The animation is not overly complicated with textures. Sams doing the rendering, so i guess ill leave it to him to do the main research into the look of the film.

Short Animation: Bus Stop from Mitch Perry on Vimeo.



Short Animation: Bus Stop 3D Version from Mitch Perry on Vimeo.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Storyboarding Rough ideas




The Drawing is in relation to the story board ideas. They dont all fit together, i drew them so David can get some ideas for shots.
The last page does sort of run together, it incorporates davids idea of the animal being in the bush. With alternate endings we could find a way of leaving the ending open, but we don't want to over complicate it, a we only have 30-40 seconds.
The boards run down the page, not across.

Title Name

Ive suggested the name Snatched as the food gets snatched by the Marmot and then at the end the Eagle swoops in and the food gets snatched........

I believe our team like it, so it will probably be the name we go for, even though it sounds like one of the other groups names... Unhatched

I feel better that the title has now been sorted.....

Marmot eating cracker! - Video reference

Found this video of a marmot eating a cracker for eating reference, thought he was cute....

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Mongol - Character/Costume Research

The look of the mongolian is very important to try and get across what mongolians look like. The design needs to be very simplistic and old fashioned. David is designing our Mongol, but i have tried to do a bit of research for him to look at and refer to.

Below are some Hat designs and Pictures:

The Man in the red Fluffy hat is very much what we are hoping to go for, but we may characterize it a bit more so the man isn't too realistic....

Title Ideas

The Mongol and the Marmot seems such a long title, and David and I were discussing changing it. Our team tried to come up with some other alternatives which would be catchy and people would not have a mouth full if they were to say the name.

The film is about a chase sequence, so I tried to come up with names that would be around this area.

Below is my List so Far......

Hunted

Prey

Mongol and Marmot

Chase

The Hunted

Who's food?

Escape

The pursuit

Hustle

A good catch

Food chain

Always a bigger fish

What goes around comes around

Karma

Mongolia - Facts and History

I have begun doing some research into Mongolia, I think this will help understand some of the culture in the country.

Some of the population travel and set up tents in which they live in. This is the main point to the story, but our main character will be alone instead of in a pack.




Mongolia as a Country
  • Country name: Mongolia (Local short form: Mongol Ulus, formerly known as Mongolian Peoples Republic and until 1924 was called Outer Mongolia).

  • Capital: Ulaanbaatar (means Red Hero), population 904,000 people (2006). Situated on the Tuul River. From 1639-1706 was known as Urga or Da Khuree.

  • Size: 604,826 square miles (1,566,00 square km)

  • Area comparison: Four times the size of U.K. Mongolia is the world’s largest landlocked nation and is the 18th largest country in the world.

  • Location: Northern Asia, situated between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation.

  • Population: 2.8 million. More than half the population is under age 30.

  • Languages: Khalkh Mongolian (90%), Turkic, Russian. Cyrillic script is used in writing.

  • Religions: Mahayana Tibetan Buddhism (96%), Shamanism,

Environment:


  • Terrain: Desert steppe, Desert plains, Grassy steppe terrain is found in most parts of Eastern Mongolia, Mountainous zone covers 5% of Mongolia’s territory, Mountain forest, Taiga forest region in the north is 5% of Mongolia’s total landmass.

  • The Gobi Desert is the world’s northernmost desert and has a mostly gravel surface with low-lying rocky hills. One of the earth’s great deserts it ranges through most of southern Mongolia and comprises 17% of Mongolia’s total landmass. Annually desertification in the Gobi Desert area is increasing due to overgrazing primarily.

  • Mountain Ranges: Altai Nuruu Mountains ranging northwest to southeast, Khentii Nuruu Mountains in the northeast and Khangai Nuruu Mountains in Central Mongolia.

  • Highest peak: Khuiten Peak14,350 feet (4374 meters) in the Altai Tavanbogd Uuul range.

Music Culture

  • Music is an integral part of Mongolian culture. Among the unique contributions of Mongolia to the world's musical culture are the long songs, one of the greatest features of the Mongolian music, overtone singing and morin khuur, the horse-headed fiddle.
  • The horse-head fiddle, or morin khuur, is a distinctively Mongolian instrument and is seen as a symbol of the country. The instrument has two strings. There is some controversy regarding the traditional carving of a horse on the upper end of the pegbox.
  • Mongolia has a very old musical tradition. Key traditional elements are throat-singing, the Morin Khuur (horse head fiddle) and other string instruments, and several types of songs. Mongolian melodies are typically characterized by pentatonic harmonies and long end notes.

Cuisine/food

  • The Mongolian cuisine is primarily based on meat and dairy products, with some regional variations. The most common meat is mutton, supplemented in the desert south by camel meat, in the northern mountains by beef (including yak).
  • Dairy products are made from mare's milk (Airag), from cattle, yaks, and camels (e.g. clotted cream). Popular dishes include buuz (a type of meat dumpling), khuushuur (a meat pastry), khorkhog (a meat stew, usually a special meal for guests), and boortsog (a sweet biscuit). The meal commonly known as Mongolian barbecue is not Mongolian at all, but Taiwanese in origin.

Clothing:


  • The deel, or kaftan, is the Monglian traditional garment worn on both workdays and special days. It is a long, loose gown cut in one piece with the sleeves; it has a high collar and widely overlaps at the front. The deel is girdled with a sash. Mongolian deels always close on the wearer's right, and traditionally have five fastenings. Modern deels often have decoratively cut overflaps, small round necklines, and sometimes contain a Mandarin collar.
  • The hair would be divided into two pigtails, each of which would be divided into three braids. The ends of the braids would then be looped up and bound to the top of the braid behind the ears. Men also shaved the tops and sides of their heads, usually leaving only a short "forelock" in front and the long hair behind.
  • Each ethnic group living in Mongolia has its own deel design distinguished by cut, color and trimming. Before the revolution, all social strata in Mongolia had their own manner of dressing. Livestock-breeders, for example, wore plain deels, which served them both summer and winter. The priests wore yellow deels with a cape or khimjthrown over it. Secular feudal lords put on smart hats and silk waistcoats.