So i'm having a few layer problems with the robot so i'm not sure if i need to let it stay this complex. i'm thinking of maybe replacing it with a better design, but i probably don't have tie for that whatsoever.
12.03.2009
Preview
10.28.2009
So Far
So far it looks cool, but i think the camera angles are a little to complex for how limited my assets are. When the camera moves, it breaks the tone for me. A this point, i'm cool with going down a more 2½D venue because all i have to do is fix the camera. I'm more comfortable with this and i feel i can get a more interesting and fluid project.
10.14.2009
10.08.2009
9.22.2009
Assets List
Shot 1
buildings
streets
stars
moon
Shot 2
Crowd
children
dragon dancers
misc. floats
buildings
street
sky
Shot 3
crowd
dragon dancers
misc. float
heroine
roofs
ground
Shot 4
heroine
sky
Shot 5
heroine
partiers
buildings
Final Character Designs
i decided to switch my style up and go back to the way it used to was. i dropped the painterly look and am now going in a more familiar direction with a more vector look to get the style of animation i'm looking for. More after the jump.
9.17.2009
Storyboards
The camera pans up viewing the mountain of a city
the camera cuts and takes us to the city streets where there is a halloween/carival styled celebration. Everyone walks around in masks
the camera cuts to reveal our heroine standing on top of a roof, surveying the city. 
she smiles, dons her own mask 
and jumps down to join the festivities.
we move back to see a parade in procession. 
one of the floats is of a suspicious looking cardboard box.
the box float suddenly explodes releasing a handful of bots.
the bots run into the crowd and begin extracting the identities of the citizens 
turning them into the monsters they were masked as.
The hero sees a woman being attacked by a strange creature and springs into action.
The bot looms over its vicim. 
Suddenly our heroine comes crashing into the bot's face with a powerful punch, saving the vicim who runs away.
The other bots see this and stop, staring. 
Then they run off. The heroine gives chase, but the mutated citizens surround her.
she manages to leap over the blockade 
and begins to chase down the bots.
The bots make their way to the radio tower at the top of the city. They stop running and the heroine meets them. 
The bots let out a long, loud screech.
The ground begins to shake. Suddenly the ground breaks away under the bots 
and a gigantic Robot with four faces climbs out of the earth.
The Robot sends out a beam across the city extracting identities at a far greater volume than the bots. Our heroine is also effected.
However, since the heroine is masked as a superhero, her powers become amplified. She begins to attack.
The Robot throws a punch at the heroine, misses, driving his fist into the ground. the heroine runs up the arm and punches the Robot sending it staggering back.
While still in the air, the Heroine's scarf becomes stiff and sharp like a sword. She takes hold and swings, cutting the robot in half.
The Robot falls and explodes releasing all of the identities and changing the citizens back into humans.
9.15.2009
Script
The camera pans up viewing the mountain of a city
the camera cuts and takes us to the city streets where there is a halloween/carival styled celebration. Everyone walks around in masks
the camera ccuts to reveal our heroine standing on top of a roof, surveying the city. she smiles, dons her own mask and jumps down to join the festivities.
we move back to see a parade in procession. one of the floats is of a suspicious looking cardboard box.
the box float suddenly explodes releasing a handful of bots. the bots run into the crowd and begin extracting the identities of the citizens turning into the monsters they were masked as.
The hero sees a woman being attacked by a strange creature and springs into action.
The bot looms over its vicim. Suddenly our heroine comes crashing into the bot's face with a powerful punch, saving the vicim who runs away.
The other bots see this and stop, staring. Then they run off. The heroine gives chase, but the mutated citizens surround her.
she manages to leap over the blockade and begins to chase down the bots.
The bots make their way to the radio tower at the top of the city. They stop running and the heroine meets them.
The bots let out a long, loud screech.
The ground begins to shake. Suddenly the ground breaks away under the bots and a gigantic Robot with four faces climbs out of the earth.
The Robot sends out a beam across the city extracting identities at a far greater volume than the bots. Our heroine is also effected.
However, since the heroine is masked as a superhero, her powers become amplified. She begins to attack.
The Robot throws a punch at the heroine, misses, driving his fist into the ground. the heroine runs up the arm and punches the Robot sending it staggering back.
While still in the air, the Heroine's scarf becomes stiff and sharp like a sword. She takes hold and swings, cutting the robot in half.
The Robot falls and explodes releasing all of the identities and changing the citizens back into humans.
9.10.2009
Puppet + Parent Part 2
Here is a color version of the previous test. Right click (or ctrl+click for Mac) to view fullscreen. I'm liking the style a little more than i was at first. I still don't know if this is a definite direction i want to go in, but despite the arduous setup, its clear that this is a more forgiving solution than traditional animation.
Puppet + Parent Part 1
In the first part of this experiment, i used parenting to animate the line art and used the puppet tool to move subtle parts of the pieces to get it to look closer to traditional animation. Like the first one, i plan to animate the color out of synch with the line to get a watercolor or inked effect.
9.08.2009
The Puppet Tool
This is a test using the puppet tool and the main character of the story. Here, i used the effect to animate hair and clothing, as well as give the character a subtle facial expression change. The image is separated into a different layer for the face, bangs, hair, eyes, and body as well as the respective outline for each. The method itself, in my opinion, is best used in moderation like any other effect.
Personally, i don't particularly like this effect in the way i've seen it used. Trying to do a full scale animation with the puppet tool isn't the most elegant way to animate anything really. I can't exactly call it cheating since something has to actually be worthwhile to be called cheating in the first place.
However, when used sparingly, the effect is pretty nice. I can have a nicely rendered image animate without having to actually really do anything (except keyframe every single little pin i put in).
The puppet tool is definitely no substitute for parenting, but when used together can probably make for some pretty powerful stuff. Interestingly, the puppet tool can compensate for the gaps when pieces are rotated too far when parenting.
9.02.2009
Concept Sketches
The following are concept sketches to kinda get the ideas i have out of my head and see where i want to go in terms of color and situation. Above is what i want the city to look like. Instead of it being a flat grid, i decided that i wanted it to be disorganized and reaching higher in order to give it a distinct character. this, i can build with the vanishing point. Check out the rest after the jump...
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Here is a shot of the heroine surveying the festival. Again, i was interested in color and the overall ambiance of the city in this festive time. i don't really feel the sketch conveys the chaos of the celebration but i think its still interesting for the heroine to distance herself.
Here is one of the bots stealing the identity of a party-goer and the party-goer's transformation into his respective masked monster. in this case, the patron was wearing a demon mask and has therefore mutated into a demon upon losing his "self".
Finally, this is a shot of the main bad guy. In this drawing i wanted to establish the scale and get the feel of what it may look like. i thought about how i may want the lighting to ass a little drama.
9.01.2009
Rough Outline #1
I'm interested in trying to look at the role of masking and the effect it has on identity. i created a story that takes away the identity of a character and replaces it with the mask identity. In the story, i chose for it to effect the characters in the background so that it changes how the city interacts with itself. This also places the main character, who is unaffected, outside of the identity crisis, which in turn creates this identity paradox: a masked hero with a dual identity in a city of people with an imposed identity.
SYNOPSIS: Superhero saves citizens from identity stealing robots during a Halloween like festival.
I. Hero Patrols City
A. We open with a shot of the superhero surveying the city from a roof top. She then begens to explore the city from the roofs and makes her way down into the city streets where we can see that is a festival with many people wearing masks, which allows her to blend in.
B. A parade of floats and costumed people moves through the streets as the hero looks on.
II. Bots attack
A. Suddenly one of the floats explodes and several bots run into the crowd. The bots touch a victim to steal that persons identity while the victim takes on the identity of the mask he or she is wearing. The parade and festival goers begin to interact with each other much differently.
B. The hero fights and destroys a few of the bots and the stolen identities are automatically restored to the owner. The remaining bots flee and the hero gives chase.
C. The bots regroup under a radio tower and send out a signal. the ground shakes and the tower rises up revealing a giant robot with many faces emerging from the ground. The robot steps on the smaller bots and attacks the hero.
III. Hero defeats Robot
A. The robot activates a vaccuum like weapon and begins to steal all of the identities of the citizens in the immediate area while physically attacking the hero
B. the hero dodges a punch and gets the robot's hand stuck in the ground. she runs up the robots arm, but it manages to free itself and attempts to shake her off which temporarily stops its identity vacuum.
C. the hero manages to make her way inside and deactivate the robot thereby saving the day. All the citizens' identities return.
D. Elsewhere, a darkened figure broods at his failure
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