Bear Designs

Here are some bear designs that I went though. These are getting toward the end of what we wanted the bear to look like. It was a hard process because there was so many different reference that we could take from. Here are some of the more rendered images.

Background Design

Here are some background designs using texture and solid block greyscale. These were done in photoshop using texture brushes.

Insight

This is a little bit more down the line. We had been working on the script for some time and had made a storyboard. This took a long time as we were experimenting with shots concentrating on cinematography. We had also done a number of bear designs. We must have draw over a hundred different bears each (so better than others). After making a storyboard and eventually making them into an animatic to show then we were on our way. It ended up that we have now done 11 different animatics finally reaching our final one. This paragraph is jumping though a lot of time. I have done a lot of work for this but would clog up this a little bit so I will save you from the paper work.

Walk test

This test I did in flash just to see if I could replicate a bear walk. It isn't the best as I didn't spend too much time on it so it has a bit of a limp which isn't ideal but here it is never the less.

Photoshop Animation

By this time I had been selected as one of the films that were going to get made into a short film. I decided to take on a fellow of mine as a producer and an Artistic co director. We decided that we wanted to make the film into something in a lot of texture and grit. This was to match the gritty poetic feel of the story which we were going to create. We had been playing around on photoshop with brushes using texture so naturally when we discovered that we could actually animate in photoshop it was worth giving it a try. Here is my first attempt.

Granted its not great but it was a first step. It meant that we could animate with texture using bitmap instead of the flash vector quality which we wanted to stay away from.

In the beginning...

Here are a couple of concepts that I came up with for style ideas when I came back from the summer break. I hadn't worked on the project much over the holiday. I would be doing a pitch to see if my film would go though in the first weeks of September. Here are some of the first ideas I came up with.

Bear on Bike

Out of the cave

Bear necessities

Under the sea

These were created in photoshop using some textured brushes. They were just quick sketchy design ideas to try and create a look that could be turned into a useable style within an animation.

Back in the game

Currently I am directing my own 3rd year final film. It has been though many stages of production and currently we are fulling in the stage of production. Looking at the state of the blog I havent updated it since October which is rather shameful. I have been very busy getting this film together so this is with merit. I will add some posts to get you up to speed about the progress which has been going on...

Some light drawing

Some Life Drawing

Drapery Work

Casual Friday

Face to face

Loathing Clothing

Swept under the rug

Back in the game

Spikey Mikey

"Oh hey neighbour"

Aint got nothing to do today

Here are some life drawings that I have done progressively throughout the second year of University. I always dread the thought of life drawing but in practise it is very satisfying task which I enjoy greatly even though it is very hard and frustrating but I guess thats life in a nutshell.

Poster for 'Claws for Concern'

The poster for my up and coming animation 'Claws for Concern'

Font used 'Brainflower'

Claws for Concern character/prop designs

Bear on All-fours

Here are some designs for my up and coming 3rd Year film 'Claws for Concern'. It will be a 2D animated short film based on the style of lino and wood cuts. Here are some characters and a boat enjoy. 

Rowing Boat Design

Salmon side on

Add caption

Salmon in bucket

Whale Design

Bear full length Design

Heres by character of bear full length body shot with and without clothes on. He is holding a bucket with a salmon in it. It will all make sense when you read the script but the jist of it is that as the story goes on the bear becomes more of a wild animal and sheds his human clothes.

Building A Prison Cell Set for Deep project

 Action image of me sawing some wood to build up the base for the Set

This is the MDF frame I used to build up the sides of the prison

Painted walls and floor

I used a dry brush to add texture to the model

I soared into cardboard to make a brickwork effect

Here is the finished product which will be furnished and then animated in hopefully

Pre Production Developed Concept Pieces

Bear in Boat with Fish

Bear in Bed

Drowning

On the way to the daily grind

Back to the forest