approaching "Roundabout"

Above is a quick concept poster that displays a basic colour pallette and graphic style for Roundabout.  The technique that we are pursuing currently involves digital camera projection of traditional watercolour environments onto 3D geometry.

The challenge we face with this film is bridging Joao's traditional technique and my CG approach to animated film together in a seamless and appealing way. The work i have created for the film so far has been entirely digital so the image above does not accurately represent what we want the final film to look like but rather indicates the areas that traditional techniques can replace and develop.

The animation of rigid structures will be tackled in 3D while characters will be approached in a similar way to Chomet as traditional 2D, however this is subject to change if 3D is a more viable option.  This innovative process will undergo many animation tests but will hopefully achieve a unique look. 

ASF and "Roundabout"

the concept of Roundabout cropped up in many discussions and workshops whilst at the Filmakademie in Germany, September 2010.  While practicing my pitching technique with the idea a traditional Animator, Joao Lopes Da Silva, expressed a keen interest in the project and from that point on we worked in collaboration. 

Firstly a few words on Joao, a brilliant draftsman, he is a Portuguese traditional 2D animator.  He worked until very recently as an animator at Sardinha em Lata and now currently directs an animated children's series in Portugal.  Having his expertise and eye for storytelling was and is an indispensable tool in developing the project. His blog can be found here http://joaoreel.blogspot.com/

digi-painting by James Lewis

Above is an early digital painting of the vision I'd had, the concept of a desert island atop a pool of fumes and busy traffic.  This was an aid in communicating to Joao what was going through my head but this was step one and then came STORY!

The short follows a theme of Health and stems from a personal experience of my own where I was involved in a road accident and experienced a euphoric sense of relief and fear. Working from a personal experience really helped in identifying what tied into the mood

Without giving too much away we developed over several months the story of a man who loses control of his car on a busy roundabout and crashes into what seems to be the fountain of youth, An Urban Paradise that everyone seems too busy to notice. 
below are some examples of Joao's brilliant visual development for the short.

character/environment concept by Joao Lopes Da Silva / Logo by James Lewis

Without the help of Mike Robinson (Cosgrove Hall) and Tim Leborgne (TAW Denmark) this project would not have been developed so I look forward to crediting their support with a great final product.

If you are interested in contributing to the project as an Artist/TD or Financer please contact me at jamesense@hotmail.com.

A very belated Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!, I know it's May! and this blog update is well overdue.
The past months have seen alot of story development on my projects as a result of the great workshops I've attended through Animation Sans Frontieres.  On top of the Chimney Sweep I began work on a project for ASF called, "Roundabout". Which I am Directing and Developing with Portuguese animator Joao Lopes Da Silva, friend and a fellow ASF alumni.

In January I started work as a visual development artist on a feature for Tony White, a brilliant opportunity that I'm thoroughly excited to be working on.  I've thrown something very rough into this post which should give an idea of what's in the pipeline without giving too much away.

Progress...

September already! So the time has come to say goodbye to another summer and welcome gloomy evenings.  Still the Chimney sweep is coming together a little more, I have yet to finalise a storyboard but with thumbnails piling up it shouldn't be long.  Below is the final design for the little sweep minus the dirt textures to get a better feel for the shape and form when modelling.

Along with this are the front and side drawings I'm using to model, these have been quite useful already in blocking out storyboards.  Maya modelling of the sweep has begun as well as for the Victorian environment however story definitely still needs to be the focus so my next post will be set of boards.

Getting Somewhere

Hi all, well the final sweep design is now going under a few last tweaks and I've been reworking the story a little through rough storyboards.  I'm currently on my lunch break at work so this is a quick catchup post really, I've attached a few sketches and a Photoshop render in progress.

Animations Sans Frontieres is just over 6 weeks away now so the project needs to be back on course really if I have any hope of a good pitch.  I anticipated a little Maya work would be done by now to post up but alas I've been preoccupied :(.  So a rough model of a character or 2 should be up on the blog soon.  

Thanks Max for following ;)

environment, sort of

With no idea which character designs to take forward I've decided to start throwing the maybes into a story based composition/environment to get an idea of their contribution to the feel of the film.  This layout features the moth having found light/ hope for the little chimney sweep, injured and trapped.  These are 2 slight variations painted in Photoshop.

Moth matics

Another moth post, had abit more of a go at the wings here.
Starting to think a stronger use of pattern in the wings might be interesting.

A William Morris influenced pattern could be great. 

I'm perhaps getting a little too cutesy with the character here