snare

500 w Summary

This entry celebrates the sad end of the Pre-Production process. Though I’ve loved picking up new Photoshop skills in painting, learning neater more professional ways to construct storyboards and character sheets, I have still had enormous trouble getting my 2d art style to translate into the 3d realm. I am happy with the results, and pleased to hear that Pre-Production skills are invaluable to any production company.
I was itching to begin production, and sneakily I have jumped ahead. I tried to get pre-production knocked out of the way fast, and poured most of my efforts into a colour scheme, and an effective narrative.

Layouts helped somewhat in constructing scenes, and references collected from John K's blog added to my knowledge of colour schemes and other aesthetics. I fear I wont be touching my pencil much anymore, as Winter has fallen, Production begins.

The hardest aspect of pre-production for me, was the fact that I could conjure up a fantastic image, reeking of cute and cuddly characters. But when applied to the 3d world, a lot of the characters lost their cuteness. Similarly the fantasy styled environment, has made way for a much more spooky, eerier land scape, which was I did not predict, but am happy with none the less.
Seems like a lot of happy accidents occur, and a lot of disasters when forcing the loveable aspects of 2d into 3d. Some say its foolish to jump from pre-pro to production, and back and forth, modelling and redrawing eating up so much time. But I needed the learning exercises of modelling characters, so many attempts were definitely executed, with sad results. Interesting results, but the character looked nothing like the 2d version.

Character model sheets

Character colour scheme

I Whipped up some nice, almost professionally neat Character sheets, using Paper walker's blog as a guide. Keeping the background colors in mind, I selected character colors that would either blend, or stand out.
Production begins very soon, so I'll have to force feed all of my assignments in order to move ahead quickly.

Pan scene = %80
Need to separate scene into 4 or 5 layers.
Sky, Background, Midground, Foreground, and Monsters hand.
Need to Light each layer accordingly, then do 3 lighting passes.
Also I should experiment with HDIR lighting globe.



Shepherd = %80
need to fine tune textures, and fix pole vector problem on rig. Also need to get JDT_rigging tools operational.


Sheep = %60
Need to fine tune textures, complete rig, skin and weight ears if necessary.

Monster = %20 Not completely happy with his look, nor his functionality. Might have to remodel. No Rig at the moment.

Footprint Scene = %45 Need to Light scene, and perhaps correct layout so the Characters can be animated on a flat surface, rather than something circular.

Interior Shack: Finish Lighting and shadows. Build props= Table, Snare (rig snare) Monster schematics and trap schematics.

Sheep stage Front on: Almost fully textured fence. Need to light and considering background.

Sheep stage Aerial: For the background I can use the Pan scene, just need to remove the shack for the sake of continuity, and raise mountains on each side. The fences themselves will be difficult. I'll have to construct his pen out of the all ready textured fences, as oppose to the cartoony ones in Pan.