AZTEC ESCAPE - Final Film Pitch

Had a the Aztec Escape re-pitch last friday and it went.... really well! was a bit of a rush to get our main pictures printed off and mounted for the summative assessment but we did it, and were one of the only groups who presented the 'old school' print out way! mike said it all looked impressive and many class mates said it was starting to really come together! the animatic took a couple of very late nights and looked great, certain parts of the narrative need editing/emphasing, and the timing is actually pretty good, only 2mins 30secs! ive had a meeting with my film composer Alistair Primrose and he's happy with the film so far, the music will be experimented with over the next few weeks. The general feedback from everyone whose seen the animatic is that they understand the story, but the contrast and timing between the dream world and real world need to be worked on, emphased and more stylistic. Also the pet turtle idea maybe scrapped as most people have highlighted that he isn't needed and 'why is he there?'

My whole team and i worked very hard this term, now for a couple of days rest and for me to schedule everyones work for the holidays, and then we start production! Really very happy with the film so far, was getting slightly stressful towards the end but it was all worth it. Im going to post the individual production schedules in the next couple of days. Ben is already working on the finalised model sheets.

The finalised main chararcter, designed by Ben and I coloured him, it is the first character that i have painted with my wacom, had some tips from class mates and then tried it, it went really well!

A montage of my quick jungle sketches to produce a possible shot/scene layout for actual film.

My quick sketches used in the animatic, was experimenting with camera angles for the main action scene corridoor, might use both - camera moves upwards, over the ledge and follows the main charartcer.

This is a finalised sketch of the alter area, designed by me and rob, it was produced by merging our drawings in photoshop.

Some alter designs and a aztec marking i desgned, the statue i drew from a photograph reference image, could be placed next to artefact or along walls.

A sketch i produced to detail roots/vines and their positioning behind the alter and walls.

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Using robs rough map , i have designed the final map of the main temple chamber, the centre areas will be fog/mist, this maybe changed to flooring depending on render experiments.

My final pillar designs for the main temple chamber, the two sketches on the left are to be placed free standing in the centre areas of the chamber, the right design will be adapted to form the main wall/ceiling supports featured around the chamber.

A detailed stone floor/texture design i created, could be used as a bump map for the texturing section of the film production.

Again another design sheet showing stone stairs and alter concepts/ideas.

Another design sheet for the main chamber assets and corridoors. The wall sketch is going to be used as a base design for the general look of the walls.

My following design sheets show concept ideas and developments for the main chamber and general interior temple areas, some of the designs have been ticked to say that they are to be used for the final film. Really liking how the concepts for the whole film are coming together, the past two weeks have been all about experimenting with ideas, finalising concepts and starting the animatic.

This is my quick sketch used for a corridoor concept design, and is also used in the final animatic.

This is my detailed plan of the main action scene, includes shaded establishing shots and action arrows detailing the animated surroundings, this is the FINAL design.

The next main scene to be designed is the main chamber, this page lists the assests needed to be designed and a possible plan/establishing shot sketch.

Designing the Corridoor and main action scene/sequence,
including entrance sketches and trap placements.

The following drwaings are some of my initial Corridoor Planning and Concept pages, i wanted to get a good idea of how the inside temple would look before drawing concept detailed, these all include the scaled units of measurement stated previously in my blog.

This shot was drawn by myself to concept a spike trap idea i had, the spikes would shoot up from the floor from the square patches detailed. The vegetation, rocks and my aztec design monuments would stop the explorer from going around the traps. This establishing shot consists of 3 of my drawings and were compiled in photoshop.

I drew this vegetation detail sketch so that when compiling establishing shots in photoshop i could quickly place areas of vegetation to save time. And so that i could start thinking about leaf and rock styles.



Just a quick rough sketch of the type of style that could be nice for the exterior temple shot. This also includes a unit of measurement for modelling and visualisation, our character is 6ft and so this will be 1 modelling unit --------1UNIT = 6ft---------

This montage was adapted from one of my previous shots, but it didnt go well, really dont like the setup of the shot, not going to develop any further with this one.

Increased the contrast of this shot, makes the scene more golden, sunlight stands out, really do like this colour choice, think im gunna stick with this, exaggerate everything for the film.

Decided to try a day time mood, this is quite standard for the jungle, would like to improve on this lighting colour.

Changed the lighting/colour balance to create a night/moon lit shot. Really like the atmosphere created in this shot.

Another montage shot created by myself, this one only used 2 reference images, i added the extra rocks in the foreground and in the corridoor, i painted on the roots and vines in the whole shot and also re-shaded areas of the walls/structures to show weathering, dirt and emphasise the shadows already present. Changed the colour balance and lighting to create this cold/desolate mood.

Changed lighting colour slightly, mysterious mist colour used, prefer this one to the last, this could be during the day type lighting

Removed the extra temple. Adjusted colour balance to create a night shot, wanna create a refreshing stlye for the film, so i am open to all colour variations, really like this colour. But story states that the jungle is in a late afternoon time, perhaps more a sunset colour change? it is in a dream now so colours can now be as crazy as we like.

Added the extra temple design, dont really like it that much, the group thought it could be used to place our temple there?

Again my montage but added extra mountains into the background.
Really like the way its developing.

Another montage that i blended in photoshop, using 5 reference images, this was created to help design the main environment pan sequence in the film, again colour/mood experiments will be carried out, this was difficult to produce, especially when blending the clouds, sky and mountain. I added mist/fog into the middle/foreground and haze into the horizon.
Really like how it turned out.

My shot montage that i created from some of the reference images i collected, going to experiment with colours and effects, the picture is made up of five images that i blended in photoshop to create a possible camera view in the actual film.

A week until the re-pitch of AZTEC ESCAPE

Hey, i was meant to put all my work ive done for the past 4 weeks on here last time, but again everything else got in the way, animatic prep, chasing team members for work, finalising assests and environments with the concept artists, plus our essays and presentations. So the following work shown is all my personal work to bring me up to date for the finalisation of the pre-production... CANT WAIT TO START MODELLING!!

Its been awhile....aahhh!

Well the weeks are going quicker and quicker, and its getting closer to the time for re-pitching! the project has been going great! extremely busy but thats a good thing, so far the team and myself are on schedule, pitching is 9 days away and ive made lists and time tables for each individual member of the team, so no one has the excuse of 'what was i meant to be doing?'. Everyone knows how much work they have to do, the deadlines set, when they have to produce the work and when il be reviewing it so that changes are made and ideas added.

Soooo.... to recap the past 2 weeks...

i finished off a couple more 'mood' / colour montages for the inside of the temple and exterior jungle, finished off the shot scene breakdown for the new story with rob and giles, had our ideas checked by more tutors who all seemed to like the work, started producing more concept art for the inside of the temple, schedule everyone and plan meeting times! the storyboard was started end of last week and animatic starts 2moro! together with more concept art from myself on the interior of the temple and planning out the main action scenes with environmental designs/details, as well as creating a unit system with rob so that all the model sheets for the assets are to the correct scale, and the rest of the team are drafting up the final designs for the house (interior/exterior) with asset design model sheets. This week will be primarily carrying on with this work and starting to plan our presentation.

This is my favourite colour test so far, the jungle environment proberly wont be at night, but the colours i chose created a quailty atmosphere!

A colour experiment shot of my montage, i added a dry brush effect, i really like the softness it creates. Im kind of happy with the colours here, quite abstract but too purple.

This is a montage I created in photoshop from a number of environment reference images collected by Giles, the fallen trunk in the centre was drawn and painted in water colour by me in corel painter X, this is a shot that was described in the scene/shot breakdown, im experimenting with composition, style and colour.

"AZTEC ESCAPE" - the new story!

Synopsis:

The story begins with our "average joe" dreaming of an Aztec adventure. The story is set deep within his imagination, where we follow his quest to locate the ancient artefact through dense jungle and Aztec ruins. The combination of his dream and his compulsive sleep walking habits, lead to the dustruction of his apartment. The story concudes when our main character becomes consious and notes his trashed surroundings.

This story gives us so much room for creativity: visual and filmic. The main reason is because the jungle and temple environments are based in a dream world, therefore hyper-realism can be scrapped and a more original, warped and stylistic look/feel can be used. It gives us the opportunity to create exaggerated scenes and actions. The film is shorter, faster in pace and alot stronger. The comedy apects will come from the contrasts of the fast paced, exaggerated dream world, and the slow, subtle movemets within his real life apartment. Here he will unconsiously put himself in danger that will directly lead to the destruction of his home. The question is "why are we doing this film in animation?" and answer we must work to, is that we can create the impossible and stretch the boundaries of our film.

A Crazy Week!

This week has been the busiest and the most crucil for our project! for a couple of weeks now i have not been happy with the final out come of the story, it also showed within the group as alot of the team weren't motivated and enuthisatic. It was getting more difficult for me to boost confidence of the group, especially when ive been having big doubts about the project myself. Even though this was the case, i carried on producing environmental concept art and continued with the development of the temple interior. it was only when me, rob and giles went over the story draft (shot/scene breakdown) for third time, when i knew that it needed urgent direction from our tutors. The day and night before the consultation i organised the team to collectively produce the tumbnails for the storyboard. This was slow and painful! it occured to me that the story was so complex that we were having trouble developing the camera angles (general filmic language) for each scene, there was just so much going on! And the film felt like it was going on forever!

The consultation with Dan...

Me, rob and giles met Dan at 4:00 and were finished by 6:00! the 2hours really opened our minds at the many holes and general flaws in the story, one of the real eye openers of the meeting was when Dan said, "your pitch was good, but you've seemed to have gone backwards with it"... it was then when i thought that the story had to change! He suggested new ideas and angles to view the story, plus also helped me over come the one mistake i made as director; making sure that only 2/3 people work on the story and that i have the final say on it. My mistake was that i wanted the whole group (all 6 of us) to develop the story from the pitch, to make sure the whole team is happy and involved, this can work, but what happened is that a "too many cooks spoil the broth" senario happened, there were too mat ideas and disagreements that the underlying core of the story was lost, i compromised with ideas so much (to keep everyone happy) that it made the whole film a blur of pointless scenes, too many characters and a messed up structure.

So the three of us went home, reviewed the notes i had written, picked at the holes of our story and decided that a complete change in story was needed. 16 hours later we had finished a new story synopsis, timeline and typed a detailed scene/shot breakdown, the camera angles are fully planned and the story seemed refreshing, exciting and stronger! We immediately went into uni and spoke with our main tutor Mike Smith, then Dan, then Jared and finally Jamie. Before going ahead with tumbnails and style development we wanted the story reviewed and 'green lit' by everyone. The feedback was great! The new story was 100 times stronger than the last, it was funnier and gave us endless room for visual and filmic creativity! Every tutor was really positive, i noted all feedback and we made slight changes where needed, but apart from that, the story was finalised instantly! I feel so happy with the new film, the team seems revitalised and very enthusiastic!

i have organised the team into their relavent roles and all know that final say comes from me, we now have a limited number on the story development: rob, giles and me, and all artists can now start development, our lead animator dan and giles will be referencing styles, jungle, temple and apartment environments. Giles and i have been developing styles and experimenting will colours for the different areas/shots of the film, this will carry on for a few more days. I really want this film to have a different, new and exciting look/feel. Rob is working on the thumbnails from our detailed shot/scene breakdown, and i'll be over seeing all areas of the project. Ben will start storyboarding today and by the end of next week we shall start the animatic! Jen is carrying on with concept, but will use the styles that giles and i develop over the next few days.

Personal Concept Artwork - Stone Stairs to the Artefact (in the Temple)

Personal Concept Artwork - Tree/Root Detail in Temple

Personal Concept Art -Main Jungle Establishing Shot Development

Personal Concept Art - Development of Spike Traps

Personal Concept Art - Temple Entrance

Main Temple Map - Completed

The temple environment map that i created from previous sketch.

Rough Temple Map - Created by Me, Giles and Rob
Sketched by Rob.

Production Schedule

The Production Schedule - created by me and giles.

The past weeks and a bit!

Hey!

Firstly...

A detailed weekly production schedule for this term was produced by me and giles. Then together we went forward in creating a weekly schedule for the whole film production. This was given to my team in the next meeting.

After reading the story breakdown first draft, i made notes on the areas that i thought needed changing, then presented these ideas to the group for disscussion. Most of the changes were supported, and i considered their ideas/views too and then changed the scenes/shots accordingly. Some of the additions/changes included: the bridge shot leading to the temple was taken out of scene one, the idea of seeing the whole outside of the temple was scrapped, the first explorer now comes back near the end of the film for comedy aspect (hit by another trap before trying to stop second explorer). The very start of the tansformation/artefact magic is now seen before the shot of the shocked animals in scene five. The explorer that is turned into an animal is seen tugging the artefact out of the temple entrance after the ending credits.

The group suggested the idea to take down the character count, after reviewing the production schedule i thought it would be wise to do so; as the size of the project was already big enough, this would make modelling and animation easier, by having more time to focus on the other characters actions and timing. Hopefully producing a more professiobal result. It also meant that the story flowed alittle nicer, especially when the motives of the animal charcters have changed; they are now watching over the artefact, and protect it by operating the deadly traps below.

The second draft of the story was completed by me, rob and giles. The story is getting stronger, but i think that its getting longer! Going to organise a meeting with Dan our lecturer to review our story, to rip it apart a bit and give us feedback.

While working on the screen writing section, I have also undertaken an environmental concept artist role and organised the part-time concept artists, most of them produced nice work, though some didnt meet the deadlines that i set, which put me back behind schedule slightly. This meant that i couldnt assess the character designs all together and make decisions for development go-aheads.

My main character concept artists were working on their initail sketches at the time. The next main meeting came and the amount and level of work produced worried me alot. Some of the team seemed deflated and unethusiastic, it was hard because i didnt want them to think that i was pressuring them for work or being harsh, but if this film is to reach the professional standard i want and generally keep up with the schedule i needed to take real control of my project; and so set deadlines, gave each member of the group detailed information on what work is expected and when it has to be done for. After talking with the group as a whole, asking if their were any problems and informing individual artists that their work areas needed to be changed, styles/ideas developed and the amount they produce to increase, i felt alot less panicy about the amount of work we have to undertake.

The following meeting was excellant! The work, styles and ideas produced reassured me that we can get this film made! The character concept art from Ben was great, with possibley three of the four characters ready to be developed for production. The group really liked my environmental concept art! Im going to continue to develop and design the inside of the temple.

After hours of discussion and sketching the rough temple map was produced by me, rob and giles. At this point in the project i feel we are still slightly behind, i have informed the team that we are to carry on concept art and story development and start thumbnailing the storyboard on monday. We have a formative on tuesday!

My environment reference images detailing jungle areas and aztec buildings. These also include details of possible styles, colours and background landscapes.

Work Completed:

Story Oultine - List Scenes, established the motivaions, conflict and message, established begining, middle and end, list scene details, briefly described scene, established overall plot, what is setting the scene, central events of the scene. Completed this within group meetings, all notes are typed up.

Screenplay - Ordered scenes, written basic descriptions of each scene and the shot breakdowns, this was discussed/determined within the group meetings in detail, rob and giles typed up, added to and presented it in word format, i then read the document and added and amended small areas of the story.

Character Design - My concept artists (jenny, ben, rachael, luke) have started to produce rough sketches/ideas, rob and I have produced character backgrounds, indicating height and biuld details, motivations, career and life details, key characteristics and I have emailed this document to the whole group.

Reference images have been collected by all memebers of the group including myself, and I wish to produce environmental concept designs for the all areas of the story. The more ideas and drawings that are produced the better the concept development. This should mean that we achieve a higher quality apperance and originality.

The dialogue will be discussed and started sunday evening. Can't wait to get really into this project, its going well so far, alittle slow because we're drafting the story alot, but the development is key to its success.

Initial Film Pitch - "Aztec Escape"

Film Synopsis - Short story comedy piece, set in a beautiful jungle environment and historic Aztec ruins. Three animals set the stage for two human explorers' attempts at stealing the Aztec treasure.

Hey!

Just got around to starting my personal blog for this project! So just going to recap the past week and a bit...

The initail pitch went really well, had to make sure i cut it down and simplify the synopsis/story so that the main points were covered only, and that i didnt waffle on during the presentation! Tutors didnt ask many questions so i took that as a good sign, in that i told them everything they needed to know. Had a great interest from the class once pitched and the orchestral music composed by Alistair Primrose strengthend the overal feel/atmosphere of the film. The only thing that was lacking from the pitch was that i didnt have any concept work.

On the friday of last week the 'green lighted' films were annouced... and mine was chosen! feels really good to know my film has the potential as a BA project. Now it was time to get together my team... which was a difficult prosess to undertake, i had to tell people that i didnt need them and thought i had definates but groups seemed to be swaping and changing constantly! Finally i got together a definate strong team and the main roles appointed (see list below):

Jenny Morgan - Concept Artist
Ben Griffin - Concept Artist

Jonathan Pryce - Modelling and Texturing Artist
Robert Sidney - Modelling and Texturing Artist

Giles Pease - Modelling and Rigging

Dan - Lead Animator

Film Composer - Alistair Primrose

This week has been mainly about story drafting, creating concreate character backgrounds, motivations, scene descriptions, shot breakdowns, rough character design and collecting environmental/style/colour reference images. The story has changed considerably and im happy because the new ideas and cuts have seemed to strength it.