Pups: Early background concept art, designs for Pup and a walk cycle

As well as Tall Tale (the title of which, due to story alterations, may change sometime in the near future), I'm assisting Estelle Sharpe with her film, Pups. I'm assisting with the animation, and a little artwork and concept designs here and there.

To help pin down the colour scheme and overall layout of a specific shot, I tried to visualise it in Photoshop (left). It's not one hundred percent in-keeping with the look Estelle was looking for, but it served to help imagine more clearly the world in which her characters inhabit.

In addition to that, I've been working on the character of Pup. There is a scene where he becomes wrapped up in a gigantic ball of clothes and blankets, and as it will be my job to animate the ball (with 3D assistance from Jake Longworth), I had to get to grips with the details of the character in this state of multi-layered over-insulation.

An early attempt to visualise 'Ball Pup'.
The number of segments has since been reduced,
and a rope made of knotted blankets was added to look like
the cloth is somehow bound together.

Developed visualisations. The small drawings at the top are by Estelle -
I used them as direct reference to maintain a very close similarity to her style.

When it comes to animation, I'll also be working on the other character, Jenny - whereas the role of Pup animator only falls to me while he's a big ball of clothes, I'm to be much more involved with animating Jenny. The first hurdle is her walk cycle. Jenny is a young girl and has massive boots, so it's a challenge to make her walk in a way that represents both these characteristics. The wobbly, swingy march I've developed (below) is a step in the right direction, but I think I need to tone it down a little to stop Jenny from looking like she has genuine difficulty walking. Also, her arm movements look like she's constantly shooing some small creature from obstructing her path.

Shoo, tiny elephant! Can't you see I'm wading through treacle?