Monday, December 10, 2007

New Storyboards for the End

So, we had the big seminar thing with all the crits. Very helpful. Except about half the people seemed a tad bewildered by the ending. How does he get into the tavern? Why is he in a tavern? What happened to the fairies? Etc.

It's something I was always a little worried about. Last year when we were first figuring out the stories, there was an idea kicked around that I ended up feeling wasn't true to what I wanted to do. However, I don't really want to sacrifice good storytelling to try to squeeze in a story that doesn't quite fit. So the alternative ending would involve a little bit of a change towards the beginning as well. Here's how the story would play:
The guy is walking through the woods with his cows but they don't really stay together as a herd that well. His playing wouldn't be very good here. A couple run off the road, and he has to chase them down. He tries to go after them both, but gets distracted by the fairy music. The middle would be the same. When he wakes up after the fairies, he'd be a bit befuddled, but start to play. He stands to play, his eyes are closed. As he plays, all of his cows come out of the woods and carry him towards town. You would see a couple fairies pop out of the woods behind him and do a little dance before flying off into the woods. The End.

Here're the boards for the new ending.


I'm not really sure I like it better... but I think that it might pull the story together more neatly? Should it still go back to the tavern? There will be a town in the distance that you can see. You can sort of see it in the last couple frames of the boards.

Also, just for fun, here's what my boards look like just in pencil. I like it, it's just harder to see.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Passed out in the clearing

Ok, I have two choices here for the guy passed out in the clearing after the faeries do their magic POOF! thing. This would be a shot from above of the guy lying down. One is basically what I had in my animatic/storyboards, the other is a different position. I'm having a curiously difficult time choosing. So, I don't know how much people look at this blog, but any opinions would be appreciated. I think the first has a more elegant shape on screen, but the second is sillier.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Rough Animation

Here is some rough animation. I'll be putting up more later this week. I have yet to make changes like exaggerating motions and the like.

Here's a walk cycle for the cows both from the back and side.


This is from when the guy is riding the cow and he sees one of his herd wander off the road, so he stops playing and dismounts. I'm going to redo it, however. It's just not really the right motion.


This is after the guy gets off the cow. He's watching his cow that just walked off the road and putting his violin away.


Here the guy has just chased his cow into the woods and he hears some music, so he looks up.


That's all I've got for right now. I'll post this week's animation later this week.

Monday, October 22, 2007

More Backgrounds

Here are pen drawings for a couple of the shots in the beginning. Basically, the next three after the background I posted before. I won't color them until the end - just in case I decide that I need to change angles or something.





Monday, October 1, 2007

Animatic Time!

Here's what I've got so far.



Untitled from EmilyT on Vimeo.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Character Designs and Backgrounds

Here are the backgrounds I have so far. This one has the look I'm going for:

This one needs fixing still. It is the inside of the fairy hill, where all the fairies will be partying. It isn't as graphically simple as the look I'm going for. Also, the farmer guy will just blend right in:

Speaking of characters, here is the farmer guy, the lead fairy and a generic fairy. The fairies will probably be glowing in the film:


And just for good measure, the farmer guy riding on a cow, playing the fiddle. This is the look I'm really going for here.

Introductions might not be nessesary

Odds are, you already know who I am. Just in case you miraculously found this without me telling you about it, I am a senior at USC studying animation.

This is where I'll be posting stuff for my thesis, hooray! I need a title...