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

Cliff Production Blog 20.03.11

Today was the cloud and the witches time to shine.
Luckily the background i needed today were very basic. As the witch and her cloud are floating in the sky all that was needed was a sunset gradiant, some clouds and a tiny flying bird.
As the scene requires the cloud to giggle (At Para Cat's injury) we were trying to think how 'fluffy' could laugh.

We came to conclusion that a baby laugh, with the pitch up a little did the trick perfectly. I simply had to draw the cloud giggling.

The most time consuming work today was simple turns and arm movement's of the witch against her surroundings.

I was also exploring sound effects today, so added some in that I discovered free online. Although i found some fantastic ones, there are still many I am missing, these i may end up doing foley in the future.

Because of one of the first scenes beind animated before official production, after a through fixes I am now officially 43 seconds into the film.

Here is a shot of todays work

Click for bigger

Tomorrow i am going to create an epic scene, where ghostly hands steal a key from Cliff's neck in silhouette. That is the plan.
I will be researching a scene from Television series 'Sailor Moon' and another from Disney Film 'The Little Mermaid'.

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

Cliff Production Blog 19.03.11

I missed a blog for yesterday but I was able to work. Yesterday reminded me that frame by frame animation takes a very long time. I planned about five keyframes for one short piece of dialogue. Doing the inbetweens for this, + shading + Animation of face, + lip sync really eats alot of time.
So with short pieces of dialogue i will plan less than this, maximum of four keyframes.
Also i must watch more actors acting, as i seem to limit myself to pointing and fists with hand/arm movements during acting.
I need to gain some more experience on that.
I completed the background and finished off that dialogue.
Today i worked on the next part, where Para is ZAPPED by the witch, she fires off screen. I was able to mimic an earlier animation I did for 'Little Howard's Big Question' and also look at inspiration from various 'Road Runner' shorts avaliable online.

I also planned out the next shots to follow this one, one of which i completed. A shot of the witch blowing the smoke away from her finger (Like a gun). All of the movement in this shot is motion tweened, I LOVE SHOTS LIKE THIS!!!
I also recoloured and lighted the background and setting for the scene i am reusing from my earlier animation. Though I am still concidering adding shading to these scenes to give them a finished glow.

Although some shots are changing to different camera angles, and some for different speeds, it is all sticking to the timing of the Animatic, which i am quite happy about :)
Also my musician, RubberOnion, or 'Stephen Brooks' is planning to listen to some tracks i sent him via email.
This tracks represent the type of sound i want the film to have, a very acoustic sound. Guitar, bass, a bit of whistling perhaps. Calm, moving sounds.
He has said he is extremely commited to the project, as am I.

I am also looking for a sound artist, someone that can throw in those patter patter explosion sound effects in post production. As i am almost certain I will not be able to forfill that role.
I did have a look into it and sent an email off to a sound artist, unfortunately his reply was one of 'CASH'. And alot of it. But as a talented soundman, it is to be as expected.
I have sent off another email asking a close animation friend if they would be able to pass on some of their collection of sound effects for my time of need. I am hoping their reply is positive.

Here are some shots of my work in the last 2 days

The above is a remade show of one of my earlier scenes.
Here is what it looked like before

Not only does it look better now as a whole, it will also fit nicely with the previous shots

Above is a keyframe

That witch is DEADLY!

Here is a very very basic plan of the next shot i need to produce

The triangle is the witch, the circle is her sidekick cloud.
The below right is a bush.
Here is the full motion tween shot i loved to produce.


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

'Cliff' Production Blog 18.03.11

18.03.11 Cliff Blog

It is a thursday, another hard day of animation... i hoped.
The first half of the day i managed to draw up half of a background, the third shot in the film. The other part of the first half, i animated Para Cat Landing, turning to see the witch and then making a 'shocked expression'.
Then i got locked out of the house! (By accident)

When i finally returned to work hours later i managed to complete the third shot background and animate Para Cat appearing in that shot, he lands and then looks up.

But i came across a problem, whenever i played the video through or tried to watch the exported SWF file, the video began to lag around the point of the third shot.
I exported it as a Quicktime, hoping this problem would fix. Unfortunately doing this only made a quicktime from an SWF, maning, it was also laggy.

After various notes from RubberOnion, (Cliff's music man and a fantastic animator in his own right) I realised, for top notch quality I will have to export the film as image sequences.

I will do good blocks of the film as Scenes, this could be 3-5 scenes. And then export them seperately as image sequences, dividing them into organised files.
From there i will import the sequences into a video editing program, (After Effects or Sony Vegas), whichever is avaliable and the simplest to use.
This will bring my audio and visuals together for the final film export.

This event will not take place until 80 to 100% of the film is complete. I do not have enough time to do test runs for this, but i am hopeful.

Today i produced mostly character animation, Para Cat landing, turning and looking surprised.
Here are some shots of todays work

Click for Bigger

I've been animating Para Cat without any facial features, meaning i can move them where ever i like afterwards. Although his ears will sometimes move, his eyes, nose and mouth are much more flexible. Meaning he can look almost anywhere without complicated animation of his head.

I thought this might be good for a desktop. Once Para is fully animated in this shot i will make him a 'graphic' and darken him (Relevent to the sunset, like previous scenes)


List of things to do on 19th

• Para Cat Acting to Dialogue
• Para Cat ZAP
• Para Cat Lip Sync
• Next background and BIG GUY character design
  

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

'Cliff' Production Blog 17.03.11

Today i produced the final background based on yesterdays mountain/river design. I had to draw each mountain seperately so that I was able to turn them into graphics, meaning i can manipulate their colours quite easily.
With this i made the mountains that were closer to the sunlight, orangy and bright. The mountains futhter away i made very dark.

I also animated over this and drew the 'Witch' for the first time, riding her broom stick. I was dreading this moment, as i had no idea how she would be sitting on it. Her costume is quite complicated. But it worked out absolutely fine, her cloak flaps in the wind behind her as she flys. I was able to put her into some shots straight away.
This will be a useful piece of art, one that i will be able to bring back at various times during the films production.

I also animated the beginning scene, where Para shops the tree branch in half. I was not exactly sure how i was going to go about this. It is not my favourite looking slice but at the same time, it does work as a fast action.
I had to act out the scene whilst holding an invisible sword (or object). This helped my draw the hands and imagine the position.

I am playing around alot with the lighting and colours, making objects and characters darker and lighter due to the sunset.

Here are some shots of todays work





- Nathan Viney

Cliff and End of the Rainbow Production Blog 16.03.11

Official animation production
Day 1
16.03.2011

First day of production went well. There is one scene i animated previous that was set at sunset. As i was hoping to reuse this scene for the final piece all shots (before and after) must be at a similar time of day. (Continuity)
I also wanted the first shot of the film to be interesting to look at for both the viewer and myself. I looked at various examples of 'Sunset' on Google Images.
I was influenced by the lighting in the sky and the glow that shone through the clouds. I was also interested in the pure darkness that hits the world below, like trees in the fore-ground.
Here are some images i used as influence on my final background art. I used eyedropper to mimic some of the colours.


Here is my attempt at SUNSET. This (With a few adjustments) is the first shot of the film

Click for bigger
Today i had to produce a panning background. This meant drawing up three seperate backgrounds which would fit together to create depth and distance. Although they are seen for less than a second, it does give a real feel of distance over the mountains.

Another point that came up towards the end of the day was that my original animatic did miss some sense. Para Cat was being chased by the witch, although in the next scenes, Para is shouting that he will catch the witch eventually.
I have re-worked it so that this visual story element works to my advantage and all scenes connect up perfectly.
Now Para will be chasing the Witch, his first attempt is chopping the tree, then lands and she flys past. He soon jumps after her. He then lands in a field of crops/flowers, these last two scenes have yet to be draw.

Click for Bigger
The above is a scribbled sketch of what i hope to achieve with my next day of work. A new background with a reflecting river. The river will reflect the sky and sunlight. The two characters will jump over the hills.

Goals for tomorrows day of work

• produce and finish the second river background (above)
  
• animate Para and Witch chase scene
• If i am lucky, design and finish next background. (Then work on the harder parts of the film next)

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