BSA324: Skyway Robbery (Progress blog) - Chris Sutton

30 March - Julia Study Doing a quick study of Julia form the waist up. If I'm going to 2D animated all my characters I'm going to need to be able to draw them pretty quickly and confidently, especially if I'm doing them in vector (Which is the plan). I figured I would start with Julia as she is the main character and probably the most complex along with Dennis, so they should make a good starting point to see what I need to improve.  Rough draws only took me an afternoon (Wednesday afternoon), but the clean up has taken me another whole day. I need to be cleaner with my line work. This will probably improve with time, but I also need to think about this as I work. Julia pose test Personal favorite is the top right pose, lots of character in it. Others need improve. Considering further exaggeration. Storyboards going well. Making minor changes to scenes as I go and changing out some shots for more informative ones. Trying to get as much info into each shot ...

28 March - Missed days and update Critique coming up Got the next critque due on Friday the 6th of April. Started work on it yesterday. Need to look for a few new texts and references. Can include Hullabaloo and Atlantis as they weren't in my first one. Banner nearly finished My banner for the media side of the project is nearly done. I have to finish a few more small details and then I can post it. Parasols doodle nearly finished Like wise I have finished a few doodles for Julia's grappling hook parasol. I'll need to go more in depth later, but it should be enough for the moment. Going back to storyboarding I will continuing with the storyboarding over the next week. Hopeful it won't take long, but I am prepared to spent a large portion of the Easter break on it. Some shots will need to be revised or removed and I'll need to time out the whole thing. The aim is to get it under 5 mins, preferably under 4 mins but 5 is the upper limit. It would be ni...

24 March - New ideas and thoughts Started work on a banner for my project. Should be good for blog, online and marketing purposes. Just something to fill out my marketing and blog work. Also good to reinforce the style I am after. During the exhibition on Friday, it was suggested to me by Micayla Newth, that my characters looked similar to those out of Disney's 2001 Atlantis: the lost empire. I think this is something that is worth looking into as it could be a good Somewhat positive feedback at the exhibition opening, but nothing that can help me improve the product. https://steampunk.wonderhowto.com/how-to/create-steampunk-persona-0138997/

22 March - Exhibition Planning After putting the exhibition together, I had a think about how I would like to set up my space for the next event. I felt that for this one my panels were too poorly organised. Seeing as I'm trying to get people excited for the project, I really need to put my best foot forward next time. After looking at my first plan, Rachel suggested that I don't add so much work as I might overwhelm an audience. 2nd Site Map

20 March - Side Characters: Dean and Lutwe Dean - Not a bad design, but I feel that it fails to speak for the character of Dean. Needs some refinement. Next few designs should try push the ticket collector idea a bit more. Not sure why, but I feel reluctant to give Dean facial hair. Might be because now both Dennis and Lutwe  have some, so being clean cut sets Dean apart. Lutwe design 2 - Finished this the other day, not sure how I feel about it currently. It is better in that it explore a very different feel, but I also think it changes the character completely. Might be worth making tweaks to Lutwe in the story so that he fits in a bit better.

March 21 - Vehicle brain storming, post print thoughts and personal logo Vehicle brain storming Something that has been bothering me for some time is the Vehicle that the whole story takes place on. It has been a personal debate for a while now and it something that needs to be nailed down if I'm to progress with this project. The debate is between a train, a gondola or an airship. Airship More synonymous with the steampunk genre. I have cool title for it, "Skyway robbery" Don't have to worry about overly complex backgrounds if I don't want to. Gondola Can be set in a steampunk city. Less traditional steampunk vehicle, but still within the same age of technology. Train Has been used in steampunk settings before. Simple to design and execute. Original idea for the story (the one I started with) I don't think this is a decision I should rush. Will probably sleep on it. Post printing thoughts Wish now that I had give my characte...

19 March - Research question and character designs Currently still working on Dean's first design and Lutwe's second design. Thinking it might be worth exploring the idea that Dean is a ticket collector on the airship. This would give him more reason to be on the airship and defend it, rather than just being a passenger and fan of Julia's novels. Will explore this in a quick character design. Shouldn't change the story too much though. Finished Lutwe's second design and Dean's first design, have put them in the render farm along with my other concept pieces, ready for printing. There are 9 art pieces in total, 8 A4 pieces and 1 A3 piece. I wasn't able to get my storyboards up to a point that I would be happy to display them, so I decided that instead that I would just show the character design work I have done up to this point. I can aim to have an animatic up for the next exhibition. Got the character boards handed in for printing. Feel a bit rushed ...

17 - 18 March - Lutwe and sorting the Group project I spent most of the Saturday morning sorting out the lack of a available treatment for the rest of the group project crew. Not sure why this wasn't sort out earlier, as Glenn and Daisy said on the Thursday that one of them would send it out. Whatever might have happened, I lost a few hour cleaning up. Spent the rest of the time working on the basic design for Lutwe, my secondary antagonist character (sidekick). I have also started a secondary design for the character but I don't know how I feel about it. Dean's first design is also nearly finished but I need to do another design for him, preferable one with the steampunk treatment.

Week 5 - More concept work and impending doom - Chris Sutton Got some more character concept work done recently and I have started throwing out designs for the airship. Start from a more traditional angle and will try more and more exotic ideas later. I have also started going over storyboards in more detail. I imagine that there will still be certain shots I dispose of, but that is just how it goes. Finished the first 3 colour variations of Julie's "Hullabaloo" inspired design. Personally I am more inclined towards the explorer setup. I just think it expresses Julie's character and vocation better than the other two. I think I need to do a few more still. Problem booking the TV from Macdonald, I don't know what TV sizes there are, so I can't tell him what ones I would like. I swear to god if I hear "Why steampunk?" again, I am going full monologue mode. I get that it seems like an important question but the way it is delivered feels insul...

Week 4 - Chris Sutton Thumbnails for the storyboards have been finished. Can start blocking in the shots with not character focus as I haven't finished concepting my four main characters. Julia's grappling hook is her parasol. Continuing work on the concept art for the project. Bit stretch for time though. Didn't manage to find time for the storyboarding. Will have to put my back into it over the next few weeks. Had a play with VR in Friday's class. Enjoyable but I think it would be a good idea to check out my 3D models in VR (once they're made). This would help refine things/shots/models later down the line. Also it could be a cool way to drum up interest for my short film. Will continue to think about it. Had some time to add colour to one of Dennis's designs. I think while this isn't the design I would go for, colour really brings it to life.  Random artists I found this week Artist models http://clarichi.tumblr.com/post/171286785850/g...

Week 3 - Development, Changes, Concept art and Storyboards - Chris Sutton Storyboards Thumbnails are taking longer than I thought. This is mostly because I keep making small changes to the story to make improvements and save on screen time. Thinking about changing the vehicle in the story into a airship. This solves two of my problems, making the story/world seem more steampunk and to reduce the amount of environmental objects needs to 3D models. Rachel suggests trying out some weird combinations for vehicles. Old Concept art Julia Costume variations Rachel likes the middle one. Ideas These are just random ideas I thought of to change the story. I wanted to test my current idea against some alternatives. I will probably never use these, but I felt like it was a good idea to test my story's stability. Julia saves a Africa tribe from Dennis.  Story takes place in Julia's home rather than on a vehicle. Julia has a robotic servant she cares about. gets him re...