http://edwardhudsonanimationblog.blogspot.co.uk/
I will also give a summary of the work leading up to this point, and the creation of a 2D animatic, which acted as both work towards my final year film, and the final piece for my second year.
Inspiration
I decided early on that I wanted to use my second year to help develop ideas towards my third year film. This was to help give me optimum time towards the project, and hopefully give it as much time as it needed to be a success. Early inspiration for my film came from a variety of sources. I have always had an interest in vintage photography, and a series of photos I found, showing people both enjoying winter time and struggling against it's harshness inspired me. The bleak contrast within these black and white photographs could lead to some very interesting design motifs.
A winter setting was something I definitely wanted to explore.
Adding to this aesthetic, I looked for examples within an animation context. I found "The Little Match Girl", a Disney short from 2006, had this aesthetic I was looking for. The warm glows of light against the cold, harsh extremes of winter are very appealing to me. It was also around this point that I decided I would take on an Eastern European setting, and probably set my piece within the early 20th Century. This was to help stick to the style of photos I had found earlier in my research.
As well as adding inspiration to location and time setting, "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" inspired how the characters of my piece might look. Obviously I did not intend to copy the art style of that film, but I felt that I could transfer that aesthetic quality of a stop-motion film onto a CGI film. Again, the Eastern European setting of "Corpse Bride" was one I wanted to incorporate.
After my initial research, I created this moodboard to show the aesthetic I wished to employ within my film.
Creating My Characters
My next step was roughing out some character designs. Although I only had a basic idea of the sort of setting I wanted for my film, I had a good idea of the kind of characters I wanted to create. I wanted two characters that were very different from each other, in both characteristics and design, as well as being a clear contrast from one another. I also wanted a kind of "Dickensian" quailty to the characters, which could fit into my early 20th Century setting. I eventually developed these ideas into my two characters; a young orphan boy, and a hulking old man. I felt that these two characters contrasted against another, both stylistically and thematically.
Early sketches of my characters show the contrast in size between the two. These early sketches went through several changes until they became the ones I would use within my storyboards and animatic.
Storyboarding
After I had the setting and characters for my film, I next developed the story the action would take place within. My story takes place within one giant set, which both acts as a way of keeping the story focused to one location, and to create less work for myself and my team. As with my characters, the story of my film would take on a Dickensian quality by showing a divide between the prosperous old man, and the poor orphan boy. It would lead to a fast paced chase sequence, similar to what might be found in a Looney Tunes short.
Examples of my storyboard pages can be found below:
Finished Animatic
The below video shows my finished 2D animatic. From this I will now be able to develop a 3D Animatic, and continue on with working towards my finished film.
