I always jump into the deep end first

It’s been a while since I published anything. Work’s been slow. But I have something new to talk about.

The final term is upon us and we have our final project. We must make a short scene of two characters interacting. We have to use the two characters we made last term. As I covered in https://johnhawk.art.blog/2019/03/05/a-bad-case-of-the-mondays/ and https://johnhawk.art.blog/2019/03/11/archetypes-shapes-and-cutouts/  I went for a warrior woman with a shield and a half man, half fox mage with a magical mask that let’s him look like anyone.

As stated earlier, I designed them to be characters who I would enjoy playing off each other.  I wanted a male and female who would have a positive dynamic, maybe even be friends. My Shield Maiden is a nurturing type more interested in peace than violence.  Someone looking for something positive in the world. My Mask Maker is a self-hating loner. Trying to find peace by hiding in other-people’s identities. Both are high fantasy characters with valuable skills. I could see them working as spies or mercenaries. I like what I have come up with.

 

 

For the current Brief I have to make a short film, at least 30 seconds long. Showing the two characters interacting. But also showing them thinking and going through emotional change.

“-a series of drawings going through the thinking process…. [That] is the real aphrodisiac” – Richard Williams.

I’ve done my best to comply to this brief. Thanks to trying to make characters who fit together from the start coming up with dynamic was easy. She’s a nurturer and comforter who is confident in her power, and he’s a misanthrope who distrusts others. She would be way to close and touchy feely for his liking even if he would respect her kindness. It would be like trying to hug fire. It can only burn or be smothered. Even there is no malice on either one’s part.

 

I first had to name my characters. I named the Shield Maiden Hestia. After the most under represented greek goddess. And the Mask Maker Ezekiel. After the Biblical prophet. One name from Greek mythology and one from the Bible. Keep things balanced.

 

Then I decided to write a script. Have all my ideas fleshed out before even putting pencil to paper (Also I was going through a phase where I was terrified to draw anything). The scripting processes was easy (it does only need to be 30 or so seconds long). I actually had more trouble coming up with the character names.

 

Here is the final script

 

Exterior: Night: A cliff face overlooking the sea.

 

Ezekiel, the Mask Maker looks out over the cliff. Sadness in his eyes.

 

Hestia looks at him from a distance.

 

She feels concern.

 

She wonders what to do

 

A smile crosses her face

 

She walks over to him

 

Ezekiel finds himself hugged from behind.

 

He is surprised

 

He mellows

 

He looks thoughtful

 

He the closes his eyes and grits his teeth.

 

He shakes Hestia’s arms off him and pulls away from her.

 

Ezekiel gives Hestia an annoyed look.

 

He then walks away. Hestia looks on

 

Ezekiel walks out of view.

 

Hestia continues looking after him.

 

She then looks down at the ground.

 

Her expression looks sadder

 

In total, 18 lines of text to be turned into 18 panels for the storyboard. Nice and simple.

We’ve had the importance of storyboarding drilled into us hard for the past few months. We’ve had side-classes, extra reading material, and even a film-class storyboarder as a lecturer. They want us to take it seriously. If what I have been told is true then storyboarding is every bit as important to animation as daily exercise is to a boxer preparing for the big match.

So had to take these seriously . It was advised that we should make series of thumbnails (Rough drawings the size of a box of matches) before doing the storyboard proper. But this is where the title of this journal comes in. For some reason I thought the others where using postit notes for theirs. So I decided to make my thumb nails the same size, tracing around a pad of postit notes to get them the same size and shape.

The result is I had a lot of extra space. Enought space to make some very detailed drawings. With shading and gradient lightwork and all. So when I finally showed them to Own he thought it was my storyboard. Morgan seems to agree. They are storyboard quality (At least for my skill level). Once again I have jumped into doing the hardest part first. Like how I often seem to approach art. Running before I can walk. And it’s just as well. According to the brief the storyboards were due to be finished yesterday.

So I guess there’s no point doing the thumbnails now?…..

 

Here are the storyboards as they are now.

I considered photographing each panel. But right now my ability to upload photographs is a little compromised and really this is more about evidencing my work for the future than showing off my lackluster drawing skills.

 

With that done I am now ready to start turning this into a film. Tomorrow I will begin making an animatic of these storyboards. Which can be used to judge of long each scene in the film should be. That should get me ready to create an animation.

 

I had lengthy talk with Morgan about the process of turning storyboards into animatics. He thinks it will be fine. But he was also keen that I alter some drawings to change the composition and add in some closeups. He says both will me it read better to a new audience. I can’t say I want to. I have a rhythm and vision planned out in my head. I don’t really want to redraw things. And I hate doing closeups. Drawing faces is the hardest thing for me. But it is good to actually get some hard constructive criticism for once. If I decide to add those bits in I’ll write about it here.

 

We also talked about my habit of jumping straight into the deep end. My odd little blunder made me thing about when I was younger and planning to make the greatest animated film ever. I had long ago given up such dreams as overconfident nonsense. I’ve been trying to aim small and manageable. But my work has lacked passion and I’ve suffered from bouts of paranoia where I am scared to draw anything. I wonder if my habit of doing crazy things I had no chance of pulling off was what gave me my drive to begin with? It certainly kept on helping me make my best work. Maybe I need to start dreaming big again.

Certainly as I remember a lot of the dreams I used to have a weight of tension seemed to melt away. I felt… free….