Final Pitch and showreel

The final project pitch were the project was shown and discussed was today. Here are the slides that were used for the presentation.

Other than these stills, the animatics were shown as well as some animation tests and animation references, all which is in the module showreel.

The feedback given on the project was that the success of the series would be determined on how solid the character acting was and the interaction between the characters. A concern was also raised about the similarities of some of the characters, making it harder to tell them apart.

Animation Reference:

We have been working on getting animation references for the web-series. We started of by doing character walks.

After we had tested out the character's personalities we went on to creating reference for the episodes that are being created for this project.

New Guy:

First day on the job and no clue what to do.

Project Period:

The different states of procrastinating and hysteria in a project period.

Progress report, 19.05.13, Asset Modelling & Storyboards:

This week I have been working on the improving the storyboards and filling out the 3D scene with assets.

I have discussed the timing and poses with the Tore who is doing the character design and we did a live action test, to see what could work and what did not.

After that, the storyboards were imported into Adobe Photoshop and traced over to create a background.

I have also been working on creating the 3D office environment for the animation, I have finished most of the main assets, but I need to discuss them with the one I am collaborating with so that our styles match and I have make sure they are ready for texturing.

Animation tests:

Animation test created to test the character rig and its capabilities.

Link to Video

Asset Creation:

The web-series Stick-Man Studios is an office based situation comedy. So office environments had to be created in 3D Studio Max to fill the office space. Here are some work in progress models for the project.

 The first modeling method that was tested:

Second Test:

It was decided that a single mesh was better for the texturing that is was being used:

 Extended polygons created for project specific texture style

Research:

Part of this module will be about researching the web series format. To do this I will take examples from already popular series that are exclusively distributed through the internet and see what the professional level is in this market.

Here are some of the series and studios that will be analysed.

-       Collegehumor:

o   Bear Shark.

§  2D-Animation, Simple situation Comedy.

§  Runtime: 2-3 min.

§  LowBrow Studios.

§  We write and produce original content for the web and TV. We like sandwiches and play a lot of Nerf Basketball.

§  Team: 1 Creative Director, 1 Writer, 2 Animators, 4 Total.

o   Glorious Adventures of Kim Jong Un.

§  2D-Animation, political satire.

§  Runtime: 2-3 min.

§  Studio Joho.

§  Based in Brisbane, Australia, Studio Joho is a small team of animation professionals with combined experience of over 35 years in the animation industry.

§  Team: 1 Director 1 Producer 1 Animation Director 1 Sound Designer 4 Animators, 8 Total.

o   Dinosaur Office.

§  Clay animation, Office humour with a twist.

§  Runtime: 1,5-2 min.

§  Buddy System Studios

-       Cartoon Hangover (Frederator Studios):

o   Bravest Warriors.

§  2D-Animation

§  Runtime: 5-7 min.

§  Season: 11 episodes.

§  Season 1: Nov 19, 2013 - Mar 21, 2013.

§  Team: 5 Total.

Storyboards:

One of the larger tasks for the Pre-Production module is to get a working storyboard ready. A thumbnail storyboard has been drawn up so that it can be discussed during the Monday session.

An animatic was also created to help visualize and time the actions in the episode.