Create, Relate, Animate: Second Year

3D Morpheus Animation Project

Modelling in Maya

Modifying Morpheus

UV Mapping and Texturing

3D Layout in Maya

3D Animatic

https://vimeo.com/77350969

First attempt at animating Morpheus

Practicing Character Animation

Character Design

Final Line Drawings for the two monsters

Silhouette studies for monster 1

Research mood board for monster 2

Research moodboard for monster 2

Initial line studies for monster 2

Research moodboard for monster 2

Silhouettes for monster 2

line drawing for monster 2

research mood board for monster 1

primary research for monster 2

Line drawing for monster 1

silhouettes for monster 2

DIRECTOR SHOWREEL

Preproduction

{Treatment: A summary of a story; a tool of development, encapsulating a story’s most important elements in a more manageable format.}

Masked Murder

‘Film Noir’

{My Story}

· The camera pans over a crime scene with body marker tape on the floor and on the chair and Exhibits A and B with the gun and the tie.

· The camera reaches the detective who turns away to look out of the view from the window- the viewer can’t see his face.

· The shadows from the venetian blinds cast across his face as he looks out of the window at the view.

· Zoom into the New York skyline focusing on the Statue of Liberty which fades into a waitress carrying a tray of champagne.

· Behind the waitress is a flight of stairs which two woman walk down together masked and in suitable costume for the masquerade ball which they are stepping into.

· Shot of the host removing his ‘Lincoln Imp’ mask to reveal his flirtatious face.

· The women follow him accompanied by his bodyguard to his bedroom.

· As they are walking, one of the women spills her drink on the bodyguard’s tie and so he takes it off and puts it in his pocket.

· Once they reach the bedroom the bodyguard takes his stance outside and the other woman kisses him flirtatiously on the cheek and slyly steals his tie from his pocket.

· She enters the room closing the double doors behind her.

· The clock in the hallway which the bodyguard is facing shows half an hour goes by.

· The woman who kissed the bodyguard now beckons the bodyguard into the room.

· The bodyguard looks shocked as he sees the host strangled in his armchair with his own tie.

· The other woman comes out from behind the door, closes it, and shoots the bodyguard.

· She places the gun in his hand.

· She takes off her mask facing the other woman but away from the camera and they kiss passionately.

· They then undress him to reveal his trousers, vest and braces underneath.

· The camera reveals the man’s face and zooms into it.

· Then zoom out of the man’s face to reveal him as the detective who is now sat at a police desk.

· He closes the file.

· Close up of the case file being stamped with ‘CASE CLOSED’

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A poem/ narrative I could animate to:

That darkness clouding the mind

Fearful that to it we may bind

That spiralling decaying descent

For which many are cruelly sent

In cages we urgently pace

Against time we anxiously race

Only in the mirror in that small decrepit space

Will we meet the villain who hides in this dying place

It haunts and torments beneath the face

In darkness

In madness

In the mundane is the imagination at its most treacherous

In the ordinary dullness of day

The mind escapes to the night

Where the mind’s eye can play

Without being locked away in fright

The dark of night reveals the masterpieces of the mind

The wonder which the day will never find

Moments which are never left alone

Never reach beyond the twilight zone

Feelings, fears, nightmares are never left behind.

They linger on

Names and faces may be gone

They never hide

They grow old, but never fade, and never die

Forever they remain to live inside

A place where we are not set aside

In our dreams, we can confide.

Story board panels- draft 1:

Story board panels- draft 2:

Research

The connecting scene between the initial crime scene and the masquerade in the ballroom is the New York Skyline. The detective is gazing at a view of the New York skyline and the camera shows it reflecting in his pupil. It then zooms in focusing on the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty will need to be in the same stance and size as the waitress in the next scene for it to fade into the next frame smoothly.

Masquerade is an expressive, showy form of party. I have chosen to set the murder in a masquerade as it is easy to fit in with a disguise, and it is capable of demonstrating the host’s wealth, making him a viable target for assassination.

The ballroom should be extravagant and beautiful as a setting for the masquerade. Taking inspiration from the images gathered from the internet above, it could have a decorative floor but soft in colour. It should have large elaborate windows, large chandelier lighting, a grand piano, and possibly an ice sculpture.

The bedroom is initially to demonstrate the host’s enormous exaggeration in his wealth, but also doubles to become the opening scene in which it is a crime scene.

{Imaged collected from the internet}

When the murder/ detective spills champagne on the bodyguard, this takes place in the corridor. This is an important scene as it establishes that the bodyguard takes his tie of and places it in his pocket for the femme fatale to later steal. The environment should be fairly basic but still hint that the host is wealthy. I could do this with a patterned floor, arch ways and paintings.

The film will end with the detective/ murderer stamping a file ‘CASE CLOSED’ and then will zoom out to reveal him sitting in his stereotypical detective’s office with the other femme fatale in front of him. Looking at the images above, which I have gathered from the internet, the office should feature venetian blinds, wooden desk furniture, a ceiling fan, stacks and stacks of paper and files, and a pin board with suspects on.

In ‘Masked Murder’, the grandfather clock is displayed in the film as a method to demonstrate the sense of time in the film. It shows that the bodyguard has been waiting for half an hour. It is also a devise to illustrate the host’s wealth in that even his clocks are extravagant and expensive.

{Images collected from the internet for reference}

The gun is a key prop in the murder scene. As a main focus, the gun will be featured in a close-up shot. Depicted so close to the camera, I have looked into how guns are held and portrayed in film noir. I have gathered this research using the internet.

Film noir generally expresses gothic imagery in a stylized way. For example, the use of light is often exaggerated to produce a shadow forming silhouette which creates a sense of mystery- who is this person?

Sin City is a modern day film noir film based on comic book. Although the style of the film is black and white, there are certain features that are in colour such as the red dress depicted above. The red stands out against a black and white background and connotes blood and lust which are key themes to the film.

I’ve also chosen to look at ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ as a source of inspiration as it’s a great mix of cartoon and film noir. Being part cartoon, it is exaggerated in colour and imagery. The bottom image shown above has an eerie feeling to it with its expressive blues and greens making the scene feel cold and slightly frightening.

10/03/14- 16/03/14:

Style of the Project:

Design sketches- mood, atmosphere, lighting, composition, colour and texture

Colour schemes

17/03/14- 23/03/14:

Characters:

Reference

Thumbnails

Character initial designs

24/03/14- 30/03/14:

Character turnaround

Expression sheet