'Cliff' 01/05/2011

As part of self promotion I have released a trailer online.
I specifically chose clips that would not reveal any story, hopefully it will bring an audience in for a Friday online release.


If i am to send it off to festivals I may take it offline (If required) But I thought i'd give people a chance to see the movie.

Another part of my advertising was making a FACEBOOK event for the release.
This means when people say they are 'attending' the notice will remain on their facebook page until the release date.
Meaning on Friday facebook members following the event will be reminded of it's release. I will also be able to send out a mass email about it.
I sent the invitation to a large amount of people.
Here are currently the stats

• 61 attending
• 22 maybe attending
• 35 not attending

______________________________________________


I aslo thought i would post the original concept of the story.

The whole story of the film came from this:
Finding voice actors can be difficult, especially child voice actors. So, i decided to make a film about a boy without a voice! The rest grew from that.



Nathan Viney

'Cliff' 30/05/2011

The soundtrack for the film is being produced by Stephen Brooks, a fellow animator and talented musician.

Before any production began I came across a set of blogs he had posted online.
This was the one i was impressed with, how he takes the idea of his animation and creates a perfect tune to fit it.
Although he presents himself as INSAAANE in the vlog, he shows off his enthusiasm for both animation and music.


I asked him if he would like to work on my next animation for my final major project. He was enthusiastic and was looking forward to getting to work.

He first began work on the original animatic, which to be honest was a mess. He was doing a basic guitar tune for a some scribbles. Luckily i began work and seemed to complete a good amount of footage in a short amount of time giving Stephen a taste of what the polished film will look like.
I went back and fixed up the animatic with co director, Lana Cohen and began to make sure the story was clear.
I then did the same thing as i animated.
Stephen's basic guitar track was fantastic and completely created the mood for the film where the animaton did not.
He chose beautiful sounding chords and tunes for different moments.
Since then I have completed animation and edited the whole film together in a way, that i hope represents the story to the audience clearly.
From what I have heard of the music so far it is fantastic and i am very very excited for people to see the movie and listen to the music.
There are some scenes in my film, i admit may drag on a bit but his music will keep them interested and excited.
He will be working to complete a good % by the end of today for my hand in deadline. But will continue to polish it to his liking for the 'Summer Show Screening'.

*

Here are the song examples i sent for Stephen to look over and possibly be inspired by.

I wanted a very acoustic sound to the film, 'guitar, piano, bass, drums'. ~A classic sound, similar to children's series like Peanuts and Winnie the Pooh.



Other that i told him he could do whatever he liked with the sound, and he has done brilliantly.

*

Schedule, to do list for paper-work
* = not done
* = done

Front Cover *
Statement of Intent (* but not printed)
DVD Authored*
Journal* (Blog)
CV*
Promotional Package (Information about film and cast)* (Including DPI Images)
DVD with Quicktime file *
Evaluation *


*

'Cliff' 17/05/2011

i finished animation on the 12th of May. Almost two weeks ahead of schedule. This means i am straight into editing now.
All of the scenes have been put together using Sony Vegas, an easy to use professional software.
The reasons i decided to use Sony Vegas

• Although i am comfortable with editing on Adobe Premiere, i have had bad experience with exporting my animations from it. No matter what i did the quality would lower or the colours would glitch. It is also not as simple to important image sequences into it as Sony Vegas.
• I'd like to use After Effects for compiling the images as i know it is brilliant with exporting image sequences at a perfect quality. Though i lack the knowledge to add simple effects like fading, also the sound control is very limited on After Effects.

Sony Vegas imports image sequences in the easiest way possible and I have full control of the sound. I can also add various effects to the film if i prefer. I have been doing this, adding glow effects to the scenes in the golden world as well.

I emailed a friend of mine, a fellow animator. It was important to get someone who did not know the full story, or had not seen any footage yet to review it.
I have plenty of people who have helped my progress throughout making the film, but as they have now all seen the production their they cannot judge the footage by story.

Milo Waterfield, a brilliant animator. Here are his views on the film.

• There were a couple of moments that i thought could do with a little more time to absorb what's going on... in the opening shot, maybe a beat or so between Miss Locket flying by and the cat cutting the branch off the tree? It all happens at once - i guess that was the idea - but i was a bit, like, "whuh?"
  
  
  I wonder whether when we first see toddler Cliff, before she takes the key, he should speak or at least make a noise? Maybe repeat "Good boy" or something? It might make it clearer that she is stealing his voice? I was a bit confused about that at first...
  
  
  I find the fade to black just before Cliff shakes the plant to get the Tam's attention a little confusing... it suggests time has passed. And should he look up at her when she finds him?
  
  
  Maybe just a beat or two at the very end after Tam kisses Cliff and the camera pans up? That all seemed to happen quite fast...

All of these critiques have been taken into account. I may fix up all of these points.
To do these fixes I will need to go into the flash files, do the fix, then export the png image sequences to individual organised folders.
Then i bring them into Sony Vegas and replace the original files.

Click for larger

My letter to my musician
"So i will try and get that full film sent to you saturday-sunday (15th)
> From then on we can conference call whenever you have the time if need be.
>
> The deadline if it is ok for sending me the soundtrack would be
> 26- 29th of May
> This gives me a bit of time to edit it all in and plop the film on a DVD
> for uni"

Here was his letter in response
Perfectly fine! Like I said if you give me a date to meet I can meet it.


Once all of this is done i must work on the paperwork that accompanies the release of the film. And place the film on an authored DVD for hand in.


- Nathan Viney
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog

'Cliff' 09/04/2011

Recently i have been working day by day on the last scene I need to produce. This is the airship scene. I am quite proud of some of the simple background i have produced for this.
The workflow has slowed down a little, possibly as I am thinking I am ahead of myself. But work is still being produced each day, i am hoping to complete the scene in the next three days.

On Friday i attented my university class and got a useful critique from my tutors and fellow students.
This critique was on the lines of "It is not clear that Cliff's voice is 'the key'."
Although you do see it occur in the film, i agree it was not clear. So on the spot i worked out something that could help this plot-point be communicated to the audience.

I animated an extra scene involving Cliff at the bottom of the ditch. In editing i will put a faded clip of the witch pulling his voice out of him, Cliff will then slowly touch his neck.
The audience will clearly connect the two together.

I will begin editing this weekend. Although i may put some of the scenes together before then if i finish this airship scene early.

*

To inspire my progress i have also been reading a lot of Peanuts, i love the characters so much it makes me want to jump back into MY own story and tell my characters story through animation.

*

The scene i am doing at the moment includes

• airship outside and interior, all designed.
• cliff and para discussion, completed today
  
• rain storm working on it
  
• lightning and electic shocks not done
  
• balloon pop not done
  
• Captain animation not done
  
• Cloud turning evil not done
  

I was working on the rain falling today a long with a few other things.
Here is some screenies of my work

The captain is holding a pipe when we first meet him, this was to avoid much arm/hand animation.
This was my first and final test for Para Cat folding his arms.
It was noted by my assistant director that it does look weird for a character with no elbows to suddenly have elbows, but there was no other way of doing it.

I then worked on the animation of Cliff, he is tapping on Para's shoulder throughout the scene trying to get his attention.
They are both leaning on the side of the airship.
As a final attempt to get Para Cat's attention Cliff does this.

As you can see from the picture i have put a dark gradiant over the top to add a darker mood, as well as a grey sky and rain drops.

*


Skype is a very useful program for communicating online.
Over the course of film making i have spoken in depth with various people over skype.
I have constantly asked advice of my girlfriend and my fellow animators.
Skype has a brilliantly system where the other people on the call can see your screen, and what you are working on, giving advice and suggestion.

I have also used it to communicate with my musician to work through the animatic.


Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog

Nathan Viney

'Cliff' 05/05/2011

Today i began re-working the epic middle scene of the film. This is where the audience are introduced to the 'captain', who takes them on an exciting journey across the sky.

Here is the scene list and of which are completed

Intro - Pre story
This is where we are introduced to Para Cat, the Witch and the abused Cloud
This scene shows Para trying to catch the witch and prove his is a worthy warrior but fails. The witch then captures a small blond boys voice (Cliffs)
complete
Intro scene
We are introduced to our two children main characters, Tam and Cliff as the play hide and seek.
complete

The sad scene
Cliff falls down a ditch and is unable to call for help! Once he has got back up to the surface we learn that he really wants a voice.
A letter appears from the sky inviting him to meet Para Cat.
complete

Para Cat scene
The informative scene, Para lets Cliff know about his past and asks him if he wants to come with him to get his voice back.
Tam jumps in introducing herself. She shows her care for Cliff
complete

Emotional departure
A very short scene showing Tams sadness that Cliff is going away
complete

Boat scene
We are introduced to the wacky captain of the ship, a big, beautiful mechanical flying boat.
They fly along, there is a bit of dialogue, then the abused cloud (A sidekick to the witch) comes after the boat and fires lightening at them bursting their balloon.
The captain lets them know that the door at the end of the rainbow is a TRAP. They are sent away with parachutes.
incomplete

The end of the Rainbow scene
Cliff and Para finally get to the end of the rainbow. Para trys to fight the witch but fails. Cliff befriends the abused cloud and the witch opens the door at the end of the rainbow.
Cliff trys his hardest to pull her away from it but she only pushes him down.
complete
Conclusion
The witch is caught by the trap and gets wisked to only a skeleton inside the haunting world. Cliff runs out scared and slams the door behind him.
Back at home Para gives Cliff the key (his voice) It floats towards him and enters his mouth. Cliff is about to talk, but gets kissed on cheek by tam instead.
complete


Here are some screenshots of recently production
In the beginning I was very frightened about doing an 'intdoor' scene. I have had bad experiences with working on the insides of buildings and rooms. So to avoid this i planned to have them talking and discussing Cliff's departure out the front of the house.
But once I'd seen some inspirations pictures I decided, with the time that i have, why not try my best?

This image from google images inspired my scene set out straight away. Although it was very ambitious i went ahead anyway.
So this was my first plan

This drawing autmatically looks too modern, and why does he have a double bed?
So then i drew myself a victorian bed. I am very proud of the look and shape i ended up taking from it.
This image was not traced so i was quite happy with my final result.

Once i had that i drew up a bedroom around him.

The keywords were
Farm House
Childs bedroom
and Victorian.

Once tracing over all my red lines and going into extreme detail with lines and colour this was the final piece.

Then i put Cliff and Tam into the room to have their own emotional goodbye moment.

I really like the window, and how even though the background is quite different with all the objects the outside is the same as the viewer should be familiar with, bright and blue.

Today i was working on making the big flying ship work (Designed by Lana Cohen) and finding some great mechanical sounds for it's engines and wings.
I also reworked the animatic for the big boat scene which took a lot of mental effort but will hopefully work out for the best.
We worked it out in a way that the 'flying' boat would be quite a surprise for the audience.

First the characters will begin of the docks (Jetty) meeting the captain. Para asks the captain how then seas have been treating him, he replies good, where are you heading?
The witch has been sighted downstream. Fade away


Then we see a close up of Cliff smiling with his hair blowing. Next up we zoom out and reveal to the audience the flying boat!

- Nathan Viney

'Cliff' 01/05/2011

It is 01:27 am on a Saturday.
I was continuing work on the main dialogue scene today. Will still be working after i write this until i fall asleep.
Some inspirational music and support from my fellow students.

It is now 01:58 I am still working on the lip sync. Creating keyframes of mouth shapes so tomorrow i can draw inbetweens for them.
I've saved a progression swf for lip sync to show with my final hand in.

This scene is basically 25 seconds of Para Cat Lipsync (Talking). So, although i was ambitious to get all of it done tonight, i do not think it is possible. I am sleepy and I am yet to animate Cliff's facial expressions or Tam's entrance.

Tomorrow my list of production is this

• Para Cat finish lip sync
• Draw background for behind Cliff
• Animate all of Cliff's expressions
• Bring Tam in and animate her acting

If i can manage to complete all of that i will

• draw set for outside/inside house.
  

But i doubt i will get there just yet. There is alot of acting and lip sync to be done in this scene. But i still feel confident that i am moving at an ok pace concidering my time avaliable.

The full film is 6 minutes 20 i think.


- Nathan Viney
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Update

'Cliff' 27/04/2011

I've just discovered this book hidden among many others. It is a collection of comic strips from Charles M Schulz released in 1968.'This is your life, Charlie Brown.'
It is very interesting to see how the style developed over the many years of drawing the strip. The style of the characters and how they move in comics has always inspired my art style and where i went with my work. I did used to have a lot of characters + a dog as both a comic and animations. Although i have left them behind the style of Rainbow is clearly influenced by their simplistic facial features, button eyes and simple lines for noses and mouthes.


Recently i completed the 'last scene' in Cliff and the End of the Rainbow but not the final one i am to work on.


here is a drawing of my production


As you can see the green areas are complete, the beginning and the end.
I recently finished the ending of the film with some suggestions from my girlfriend. Originally Cliff would breath in to speak, then get kissed, then the screen would go black revealing the end.
It ended up being too sudden, and did not really work for a short films finish.
Because of this i made it so the camera tracks upwards above them, past a tree and into the blue sky revealing the words 'The End'
This seemed to work better than the quick cut.

So now i have returned to the middle of the film to work as hard as i can. My personal deadline in June 25th.
I am very much hoping i can pull this off.

Here are some screenshots

The warrior is very hard to draw/animate so i decided to give him a tough confident look when bringing him back for the films ending. These are the red line drawings for planning.


This above is actually a quick sketch to tell me where abouts Para Cat would stand in that shot, though the drawing came out strange it was still very useful.

And below are three frames from the ending as the camera pans upwards

Click for larger


- Nathan Viney
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog

'Cliff' 25/04/2011

For the last few days i have been working on the final scene in the film, The storm of black ghosts in the golden city that kills the witch, and the happy ending.
The happy ending is very much still in production.

I am at 11.7 seconds and i need to get to 32 seconds.

Once that is complete i can begin work on the rest of the film

At the moment i have 2 minutes 55 to complete by my deadline the 25th of May. I'm not sure if it gets tighter than that.
I am still confident though, i will fight through until the very end.

Here are some production screenshots

The death of the witch.
First i animated a few loops of ghosts that i could place into the screen, they soar across from the side multiple times throughout.
For the witches death i frame by frame animated her body getting thinner, like her insides were disapearing, and then a wave of ghosts fly past leaving only the bones and fly off screen.

I used a running loop i'd already animated for an earlier scene and then drew a standing version. Once i'd done that i could do intbetweens connecting the loop from the new keyframe stance. So he runs and stands smoothly.

Cliff watches as the golden city turns a dark corner, the backdrop becomes a blurred red and black. I used the same background for a variety of shots in this scene, simply flipping them or making them bigger.

A character sheet of the main cast.


- Nathan Viney

Sunny days in the UK

The sun has been out for a while now, at least 3 weeks.. maybe. That is a very long time. And it was hot for like 2 days!!! cooorraazzzy
I went out in it once, that was nice, got some icecream and sweets! And a pie.
I'm animating everyday, not as hard as i dream of. Writing a schedule is a bit like having a nice dream really.
You plan out all these wonderful days where you complete a full load of coursework or any kind of production all at once. You expect, on that one day you will be stuck on WORK MODE( A mode you are familiar with, you have done it before, you'll do it again.) But you don't, you wake up, tired, lazy, and looking for food even though you are not actually hungry.
Any excuse to get 'in the mood' I'll be in the work mood in a moment, surely. Maybe once i have a shower, no, maybe if i eat breakfast.
Maybe if i check my email, facebook and twitter all will come together and work will start.
It does not work like that, first you've got to pass the most difficult part: Is todays work difficult?.
This question is very important.
If the answer is YES, then you avoid work because it is going to be difficult and possibly BORRINGGGGG
if you the answer is NOOOOO
Then you will leave it all day (It's ok, i'm ahead of myself, that bits so simple i can finish it later).... you either end up staying up very late or doing it the next day! Then you end up behind schedule! *

Another thing that can hold you up is if you've had a bad experience previously, if you feel like what you have just done sucks! It looks terrible and it has wasted (ooh stylo just came on on media player) a load of important working time.

To get past that last one I try and find something really easy to work on. Whether I'm doing something easy or difficult at least i am doing something that helps production. Then something is always completed by the end of the day, even if that is just flicking a puppies nose.



Conclusion
GET TO WORK
and stop blogging

thanks Bobby Womack for those kind words


Night

'Cliff' 21/04/2011

I've once again not updated for a while but here i am with a progress report. I've been working on the final scenes of the film (Keeping in mind the whole middle section of the film has not been worked on since i left it).
I have almost reached the three minute line, so close! I just have to keep working.
The final scenes have used mainly the same backgrounds with trees moved around the place and some blurred.
In the past I have made sure that every background has perfect detail, but i just want to tell a story and make sure i get it completed on time, so I am doing character animation mainly, with some occasional new adaption of a background.
All of the 'fighting' off has been done.
Para Cat is frozen by the witch after his attempts at shooting her. Cliff is punched down whilst trying to pull her away (Still more pulling to come) and fluffy the cloud is unfortunately set on fire. But all of them will return, once the witch gets eaten by dark mystic ghosts of the golden world.

(Click for larger)
The witch holds the key to the door at the end of the rainbow. This is how all my shots work. I take the animatic, turn it into a much clearer image and then create the final version.
This is the final version

Notice her arm has changed since the original drawing, this is because in the next shot she is using her left hand, it did not make sense to have her arms swap around.

I worked on the golden world through the open door tonight. I wanted a world full completely with piles of gold. Quite a wonderous place.
I took inspiration from these images

(Disney's Ducktales)
When i saw this i wanted to use bags of gold! Like someone had placed all of it in there.

In this image from Aladdin i took inspiration from the piles of gold close to the camera.
Here are my production shots.


The golden world has many objects, bags, a crown, treasure chest and goblets. As well as rubys. The ruby/gem that i was orginally going to have in the sky did not work for me. I liked it but the light it would shine would be red, and this was not a red world, is is a very.. golden one.
Although i wanted this place to have a sun, almost like another planet, i got rid of it all together. Though i do have clouds in there.


- Nathan Viney

'Cliff' Update 16/04/2011

At this point in time Flash is crashing half way through exporting my last scene.
Unlike previous weeks where i have managed to complete 1 minute in a week, this week i have only been able to complete 38 seconds.
Unfortunately, not even that will export from flash at the moment. Flash, with help from my laptop have decided that blurs and motion tweens are too much for the machine to handle. This is a sudden development but one i almost always expect.

The swf export gets half way and then freezes, stopped, paused in time forever.
I have seperated the first part as a different fla. But i am now having the problem that some of the important blur effects are not working the way i want them to.
Will have to look into this.

Today i animated an emotion scene between Cliff and the Cloud and Para firing an arrow.

- Nathan

'Cliff' Update 15/04/2011

I've been working on this project every day for the last week. I started work on the final scene, from where the characters see the witch once again flying over them and go in to fight her in the clouds. I am worried this scene is a bit rushed so i may have to let my musician know soon.
My musician, Stephen Brooks will hopefully be producing some demo tracks based on the animatic and footage i have sent to him.
Ive animated some character acting animation for Para Cat, where he tells Cliff a little more about the End of the Rainbow and the possible reason for his voice being stolen. This is good practice for when i return to the middle of the film where there is a lot of acting.

The reason i have gone straight to the end now is because the final scene has some complicated animation that needs first attention.

For example today i animated my Para Cat character doing a backflip loop, it does not work like a perfect animated backflip but it IS perfect for the scene.
He is struck by the electric force of the witch.

When i was animating I sent an email to Benjamin Rudman, the voice of Para Cat to record a sort of screaming (Whilst being attacked by the electric force). He immediately sent a perfect recording. It works really well and is quite funny.

Then i moved onto the continuation of the cloud scene, where Para Cat lands on a cloud looking quite serious and then jumping upwards in front of the sunlight.

Here are some screenshots from my work

Above is: The money shot. My favourite shot in the film so far.

Frame from backflip


- Nathan Viney

'Cliff' Production Blog 9/04/2011

Once again I have avoided updating for a few days. This is because as work becomes more intense there is more need for sleep, also i had uni on friday so there was less work to take note of.
First off, yesterday I officially completed 2 minutes of production.
This means i have two minutes of animatic developed into polished/ish animation. The reason i got a minute completed in one week is because i have stopped putting in as much detail in some of the artwork and also the animation itself. There will be less inbetweens and not as many shadows for the rest of the film.
Reasons for this are

• They slow production down
• They were useful for starting off the film, hopefully getting people excited for the rest of the story. Once they are in the story they will not notice this lack of detail.

Something else that is speeding up production is that i am reusing backgrounds. Some backgrounds are just a green field i can place right in the background. Eager obvserves may notice it in almost every shot following the introduction.

When i worked on the sunset scenes it was important to turn my animations into graphics so I could easily darken them.
Since then i have used this technique to brighten, colour and darken characters and sets through production. In the night time scenes i did for Cliff stuck at the bottom of the ditch, i made him and his surroundings much darker. This means i can just use the colours i usually use for the clothing and backgrounds and then change them slightly for the mood. This is a very useful way to get through drawing different settings.


Here Tam is showing her emotional side by reminding Cliff that he does not have a mind. Both characters are lit up slightly in yellow to show the sunlight glaze over them.

When Cliff falls down the hill he gains a small cut on his knee. I decided to show the pain it gave him, so the audience has even more sympathy for this small voiceless boy.


The image above is when Cliff finds his way out of there, he sees a tall green plant. He then uses it to shake, to get Tam's attention above.
As the picture shows, i used the blur tool to bring the plant in focus for the audience. To show it's relevence on screen and for the story.


- Nathan Viney

'Cliff' Production Blog 05.04.2011

It is so late! Animators work late.. that is just how it is.. It is not like i woke up late or anything...

So today (And the last few days) I have been working (very slowly) on a very important scene in the film where Cliff falls down.. a cliff... Well a dirt hill.
In reality a dirt hill/cliff would not stand up like a giant cliff, but this is my fantasy world so i can do what i like.

I've produced another shot of Cliff running. This shot/background reveals a little bit of what is to come. Although these images are very subtle i hoping if viewers watch the film a second time they may notice these things.

Cliff slips up on some mud, there is a water pud on the dirt path earlier on.
When he is running there is a slight cliff edge near by.

I am reusing the same distant background over and over again as a green field. Resizing it, colouring it and sometimes blurring it. This makes production much quicker and easier to work on.

That will teach kids not to run around!

I decided to make the slip quite a surprise, and very fast paced. As i believe this works better for 'surprise' and possibly a bit of comedy.
You will notice the bottom shot has a cliff edge type drawing on the bottom half. This was to make it connect with the next shot, a dirt cliff. Else, i was told, it looked like it was falling out of a tree.
Fall with animatic below

Today i animate Tam calling out and Cliff rolling down the dirt hill and stopping.

Tam calling out involved some simple arm motion and short lipsync.
As the background was blurred behind her, as only she is in focus I thought it would be interesting if, when she ran off the background came back into focus. My video camera does this occasionally, i thought it might connect it with live action a bit more. As there is not any handheld camera work in this film I need a way to connect with the audience as a camera man.
I thought it might add live action connection with the animation.
You will be able to see this in the final film production.

I animated the rolling down the hill frame by frame, as well as the cloud of dust at the bottom.

This roll was not as hard as i expected or as complicated. It only took two goes for me to be happy with the result.
I'd also animated Little Howard doing a similar thing in my commerical freelance work so was excited for this scene.

I had a lot of trouble with this background, i am still not happy with it but it will have to do. I suppose it could have been worse.

After this follows a close up of Cliff rubbing his head (Injury) and looking up to the sky. This was all animated frame by frame.
It is easy to fill in the inbetweens whilst listening to music, gets me through the boring drawings. And I do not like keyframes because they are the ones that stand out. They have to be just right! But the idea of them is genius.

- Nathan Viney

Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog

Cliff Production Blog 26.03.11

Hello! Over the last todays production has been quite slow, but still a good amount has been produced.
Yesterday i had to draw up the first background set at day time. The requirments were sunny day, blue sky, green grass.
I've sort of worked out my own shade for the grass which i will be using throughout the whole film now. It is a shade that relates back to a more realistic colour. Rather than shiney light green (Like in the original animation test).

With this i used the techniques i used for creating the sunset backgrounds, + my tractor as a background prop. I thought, if most of the film is going to be set in nature, we need a sign of the existance of human living, a tractor and some background windmills help this feeling.

I also had to re-design an old character, Tam. I had some assistance with this from Lana Cohen, who worked with my on colours and outfit.
Her old design was a basic miserable blue dress with a necklace. This came from the diea that the original story was based in victorian times. As I have set this story in more modern, mystic times almost anything will go.

Here is a picture of Tam's development (Minus the evil eyes)

Click for larger

The final Tam has a yellow patch on her dress, and a bandage on her knee. This gives the impression that she is a country girl. And not extra special.

Cliff's design had already been established But i did make his head shape a little bit more circular in the final drawing. This makes him look a bit cuter, and likable as a main character.
His head shape used to be an oval.


This is Cliff popping out from the tree, very happy to see Tam below him.
The next shot is a close up and reveals Cliff falling and landing swiftly and safely next to Tam. Soon i will add falling leaves and sticks to his fall.

Next i will be animating Tam's dialogue, "Hide and seek." Which then leads onto Cliff running off and falling down a Cliff. Hopefully i will move swiftly into this scene.

Here is a shot of my original red sketch for his landing.

Para Cat does not return to the story for a long while now.



- Nathan Viney
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog

Cliff Production Blog 24.03.11

Today and yesterday my pace has slowed but still producing work that will overall help the outcome.
I completed the 'pre story' scene. Basically scene 1, which involves, the beginning of the film, set up and introduction to 2 main characters, Para Cat, and the Witch, who has been frozen by a bigger stronger Warrior than Para Cat.

He was designed by Lana Cohen and animated by me. As he was a difficult shape to animate i decided to only animate his arm frame by frame and leave the rest of him to motion tween. Which seemed to work fine.
The lip sync is animated frame by frame and moved slightly throughout to match the moving head.
His voice was chosen from a few auditions at the website, Voice Acting Alliance.
His name is Scott Stoked. Website: http://www.scottstoked.com/

Above: 2 Warriors.
I am quite proud of how I animated Para Cat wiping the dust off of himself (Following the previous incident)

When animating the big warrior man's words I tried to keep most of his mouth shapes with big white teeth. Showing us he cleans his teeth like a good warrior.

Today i drew a Tractor, this will be used as a background prop in the first scene introducing the other two main characters, Cliff and Tam.
Here is how i went about it.
First i drew a quick sketch of the basic shape i could do. But i did not feel any 'Tractor' from it. Giving up but also hopefully, i traced over it and added plenty of detail. This was my outcome

I'm quite happy with the finished look.

I also animated a run for Cliff. This was extremely difficult, i used various images for inspiration of the running. Unfortunately it is not perfect, but it is enough to use when i need it in the film.



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This is the run cycle above.

I Will be able to rotate this and play with expressions for various scenes in the film.

I also looked closer at my animatic recently and decided a scene near the beginning is irrelevent in these times of deadlines. A scene where Cliff and Tam are enjoying some icecream does not really help the story move along. I was forced to cut it, but happily it means i will be able to jump straight into the story.

Cast and Crew List

Cliff and the End of the Rainbow
Written and Directed by Nathan Viney

Cliff
Para Cat: Benjamin Rudman
Tam: Lana Cohen
Miss Locket: Tracy Ann Oberman
The Captain: Sam Ryall
Fluffy: Baby sounds

Animation by Nathan Viney
Music will be produced by Stephen Brooks


- Nathan Viney
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog

Cliff Production Blog 22.03.11

Today i worked on the scene where the witch is shot by an arrow and turned to ice.
To make animation production faster i decided to have a shot of the arrow flying towards her, rather than a man firing it and the need of an extra background.
I used fast moving clouds to create fast motion for both the flying witch and the arrow.
When she is shot by the arrow i attempted to make her backflip., she does fall backwards but flys off screen very quickly.

The next shot i had to decide whether to do far shot with the witch getting up and turning to ice, or a close up.
I thought i might as well challenge myself and do a close up (Frame by frame detail). Ice seaks from the arrow which is stuck into her chest as she gets up. The ice spreads and soon she is frozen solid.
I then did a far shot revealing this.
This required another background, this one surprisingly simple and fast to create. Last off i placed Para Cat and the Warrior Character in place for tomorrows work.
This will be an intense day of character animation for both of the characters involved. Once this is finished the 'pre-story' will officially be complete.
After that I will be onto the actual story. I feel like i am behind, so i am going to work extra hard the next few days to get back up to scratch, there is a lot to do on this production.

Here are some shots of todays work

The ice reaches around the witch from her shot wound. I animated the ice frame by frame and then created a shine effect for the far shot.
Blurring the background creates more focus on the main character in shot.

frozen!

I also looked more into sound effects today, finding various clips like 'Breaking branches' which seemed to work for her fall off screen.

The most useful website i have discovered is this one
http://www.freesound.org/

- Nathan Viney
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog

Cliff Production Blog 21.03.11

Today i did some exciting work on one of the most important aspects of the story. The witch stealing Cliff's voice as a toddler.
I went about this with two inspirations in mind.
One, is 'Sailor Moon'. In their transformation scene they hold out their hands to reveal a powerful/ magical necklace-like thing. This bursts out light formations across the screen
Here is a shot from Sailor Moon.

Here is my adaption in Cliff and the End of the Rainbow


This next part of scene I have always planned as a silhouette scene. Two inspirations helped me to produce this.



5 minutes 48 seconds reveals two scary smokey green hands reaching for Ariel's voice in 'The Little Mermaid'. This shot is very dramatic and inspired my work today in a big way.

Here is a shot from my attempt at this scene


The reason for silouette was because it was a good way of revealing the 'key' inside the boys throat. Without going to graphic or violent.


- Nathan Viney
Cliff and the End of the Rainbow Production Blog