Character Concept art for The Magpie

Not only have I been developing the characters, I've started to pin down an aesthetic for the film, one that I hope Jake can replicate in his 3D-rendered backgrounds. The style is very washed out and watercolour, but whatever level Jake reaches in his mission to capture it will be just fine, as it's unique-looking enough to look nice.


Having discussed the film with tutor Neil Housego, his innate knack for character design and shape dynamics bubbled forth and he developed a completely different style for the character of the tall man.
Instead of being lanky and bird-like, with a round head and no chin, he is bulkier, more sullen-looking and has a big red nose, indicating that he has a cold (to further warrant the handkerchief). His new design lends itself better to the idea of being downtrodden and miserable, which makes the final scene of the film, where he rescues the boy and consequently softens in his demeanour, all the more poignant.

Furthermore, a change in his appearance demonstrates a change in heart. Whereas he's initially made of lots of straight lines - smart hair, furrowed prow, deadpan mouth, upright walk - he softens after saving the boy. His hair, slightly ruffled by his rescue attempt, has more of a curve to it, his eyebrows are raised to a couple of compassionate arcs, and he smiles.

A few animation tests for Pups

This is an experiment with rotoscoping CGI,
to make the volumes of the ball consistent as it rolls.

Here, Estelle provided the keyframes,
and it was my job to make them animate smoothly.

This is more of a personal test, experimenting with extreme movements
so that animating the character of Jenny became more innate and natural to do

Version 1 of the animatic

The titles, they are a-changing

'Tall Tale', despite being a title I'm quite fond of, is not as relevant a title to the storyline as it once was.

Whereas the man's tallness was initially a key aspect of the story, it serves as much less of a catalyst now. Instead, the most prominent narrative thread running through the film is the continuous appearance of the bird - who is now a magpie.

Therefore, I am proud to announce that the new title, until further notice (it's pending approval from the rest of my team), is 'The Magpie'.

All posts regarding the film will be tagged 'Magpie', including previous posts, so that it will still be easy to find them amongst the rest of the blog.

'Ball Pup' turnaround

My most recent achievement is successfully imagining the texture of a 3D sphere from all angles. After quite a bit of trial and error, I managed to create a turnaround of 'Ball Pup'.

Pup, whilst in a big ball of clothes, will be animated in Maya as a very basic geometry in order to maintain a visual consistency as he rolls. When creating a texture to place on the geometry, however, we need to have some sort of idea as to what it will look like from all angles.

Storyboard V1

The quality of the images is a little low - I hope to remedy this when I find my good camera. I'll update this post accordingly.

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?