2011 Final Year Animation Student Film: Larry Boyd

Well here it is boys and girls, after a long wait I can finally put this sucker all up on the interwebs.
I had been holding off its online debut in hopes it would be selected for the Cartoon Brew Student Fest which requires it can't be already online, but since it wasn't selected there is no reason not to put it up......enjoy

also available on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/46735006 (for some reason I could embed it on my other blog but couldn't on this one)

Larry Boyd Teaser Trailer

If the video doesn't work then go here:  http://vimeo.com/31473763

So here's a little sneak peak of the film, I can't put it online yet coz I'm entering it into a few film festivals, and they have this rule that if its online already they won't except it into the festival.

Screen shots from Larry Boyd

Here are a few screen shots from the finished film.

I had to present it the other day to the other animation students and a panel of people from the industry.

It went over really well with the audience,and I got the reaction I was hoping for.

Animation Production Photos

 Here's a photo I took while animating a scene in the film.

I finished animating last week and now I'm refining everything and phasing into post production.

Overall it was pretty fun to animate, with the characters being more cartoony and abstract I was able to get away with exaggerating the characters animation.

                                  These were some planning sketches I did to figure out how the characters would move.

I pretty much draw every key pose and breakdown pose before I start moving the character rig.

  I find it easier to plan the line of action and silhouette this way, and its also a much quicker way to test out a pose than by manipulating the rig.

Street test model detailing

 

This is a quick test I did on the rough background model to see how much detail was necessary.

I want to keep the background simple and stylized so it doesn't draw attention away from the characters.

 Here's the original design for comparative purposes.

For the model I've simplified this design further, and as far as colour goes I'd like to develop it further to find the right tone so it compliments the final rendering of the characters.

Test animation of Final Crap

This one is a test of the crap hitting the man.

And a test of the crap hitting the ground

Man gets revenge on Larry and Joe

This is a sketch I did a few weeks ago while animating Larry Boyd which is currently around 80 percent animated.

This scene however is not part of the film, it was just a mindless scribble on my animation notes, which I then coloured today for a laugh.

Bird Crap Test

This is a simple test I did to figure out how I'll make the crap work. 

Originally I was either going to animate it in 2D, but it turns out it'll be easier to just create a crap shape and a few different blend shapes to deform it as it falls and when it hits the human characters.

For this test I only had a stretch deform and a spat deform, there are a few other shapes I'm planning to add to the final crap, to give it bit more variation to its movement.

Larry Facial Expression Tests

These are some facial expressions I did on Larry's rig a few weeks back.

At this point I've been animating for the past couple of weeks, which was a little over schedule, by 2 weeks or so.

 Pre production was an incredibly time consuming, and frustrating, though I learned so much in the process, and now I'm back to animating, which is so much more fun. 

Man Rig Dialog Test

This is a quick dialog test I did on the man rig a couple of months ago after I re-rigged him.

I originally wasn't going to have a mouth on the character, but after I decided to re rig the character because I wasn't happy with the joint placement, I figured I might as well.

I wanted to get the same exaggerated look that I got with Larry's mouth, but for this one I created a blendshapes to completely pull away each side of the mouth to create the empty space where you would normally have the cheek on the other side.

Larry Rig: Functionality Test Animation

This is a test of the Larry rig functionality, I'm still testing out how the eyes will work , so the ones in the video are just stand-ins.

And this is a test of the functionality I want to get out of the eye, its important to get them just how I have planned because they will be one of Larry's most expressive features.

Larry Rig: Lip Sync Test

These are a couple of  lip sync tests I did on Larry's rig to see if I had enough mouth blendshapes.

I eventually added 3 more shapes to give just a little more variation.
If these don't play go to http://vimeo.com/24666700

3D Background: Implied Perspective Tests

These are some background tests I modeled, to try and capture the look of the concept designs.

To do this I experimented with implied perspective, creating the illusion of distance without having to place the objects where they would actually be in the physical world.

Of course this only works in this case because the cameras remain in stationary positions for these scenes. If I were to pan along the street the illusion would be lost.

Character Models

Here are the final models for the characters.

There will be more detail on the mans suit, which will be  normal mapped onto the character.

Larry Boyd Animatic

Larry Boyd Animatic from chris real on Vimeo.

Here's the Animatic for Larry Boyd.
The frames were taken directly from the storyboard and composited in After Effects.
The voices I used are a rough draft, but are along the lines of how the finals will sound.

Final Background Concept Colour

Here are the final colour concepts for the backgrounds

Final Character Colour Concepts

Here are the final colour concepts for the characters

Larry and Joe Maquette Busts

I sculpted these busts from Super Sculpey form the final designs of Larry and Joe, to see how the designs would translate into 3 dimensions before I model them in Maya.

Character Colour Concepts 1st Draft

Here are some concepts I did for the possible colour for Larry and Joe

Final Joe Character Design

So here's the final design for Joe

Final Larry Character Design

So here's the final design for Larry.

As I was playing around with different designs and doing various drafts of the storyboard he gradually became more and more this design. 

I feel like this design fits his personality and the style I was aiming for.