Music

Great News, Nox Arcana will be providing music for my short film!
Nox Arcana are two incredible composers, Joseph Vargo and William Piotrowski. Their dark and gothic compositions are often featured in independent films, so Im very lucky to have their music included in my animated short.
Aido.

Right Now......

So thats it so far, Im still working on Joey and his textures.
Watch this space, there will be more stuff posted over the coming weeks.
Feel free to comment on anything !
Cheers,
Aido.

3d Test

Right now Im trying to make Joey in 3d and get a nice painterly look to him.
Im actually painting the textures in colour first, also rendering in colour too and the conversion to black will be done as a post process.
Here are a few samples of Joeys development so far, its not final.
Again Im not using cloth or anything like that because Im pretty sure that on the move, the viewer wont notice. The fun is gonna be in the performance, not the amount of hours gone into setting up physics based clothes and hair system.
All animation is going to be done by hand, no sims for me baby !
Aido.

Promo Poster

The other day, i was messing around in photoshop and started painting a texture test for Joey, the main character. This turned into painting a full period promo poster for the film, Good Fun !!
Im pretty happy with the look, i think it has that 50's/60s horror kinda feel right ?
Aido.

Living Room Concept

Another set of very fast concept sketches of the living room and a few props to go with it.
Again its only for quick reference so nothing its nothing fantastic to look at. It does, however , give you an idea of what direction Im heading in !
Aido.

House Concept

So because Im going for that 50's/60's B&W kinda look, i thought it would be nice to have something almost like the Brady Bunch ! When i did research into period style houses i didnt really find what i was looking for so i settled for something less deco but still stylistically interesting.
Im going to put and funky old car in the driveway which might help give that retro look.
Aido.

Cemetery Concept

As rough and rudimentary as it is, I still needed to have some idea of whole style for the cemetery.
It will be high contrast black and white, set at night with some moonlight back lighting trees and headstones. I want a funky, quirky, off-kilter kinda look, with lots of thorns and thistles wrapping around the graves.
All of the headstones will have hand painted textures, i think it might be interesting to leave some brush strokes visible, make it obvious they were painted.
Aido.

The Casket

Here is a quick Casket concept, which is a bit odd because we are only going to see the interior of it, I have no idea why i sketched the whole thing !
Aido.

Joey Pratt Concept

I dont want to do anything as slick and polished as Pixar or Dreamworks, that style is being done to death right now and im really over seeing it.

Im hoping to do something a little different, not so refined. I want the importance placed on animation and performance and the general feel of the flick. I think being artistic is paramount and not rely on simulations and techy bullshit all of the time. (Thats because i cant do any techy bullshit, to be honest!)
With these things in mind i guess its time to jump right in !
Because this film is not for a client, i dont see the need in spending heaps of time on concept art, so everything i have done has been painted directly into photoshop using a wacom. Its basically just for my reference, the real work will be in hand painting all of the texture and not using any procedural stuff at all.
Here is a really rough concept of the main character, Joey Pratt. Originally I wanted him to be in some funeral clothes but the little school kid style outfit will work just as well i think.
Aido.

Style Board

Right from the start i knew i wanted to do something quite stylized, and i really love the retro 50's/60's horror flicks.
I put together a really quick and dirty style board of elements needed for the film, and things that I can draw from for inspiration as i progress with concepts and things.
Here is my initial style board, Its very simple but strong conceptually.
Aido.

The beginning

I guess i should explain what this is all about before i start posting stuff.
So this short film is an adaptation of a really great poem that a very talented script writer named Shaun Keller has written.
Shaun and I are both huge horror fans and agreed that his story was perfect for an animated short film.
The Boy Who Wakes Up Dead is the most awesome creepy little tale of a little boy who happens to wake up dead and makes his way back home to see his family. Of course there is more to the story, but you will have to wait and watch the finished film to find out the rest !
This is where it all begins........

First Post

Hey guys !
So this is my first time to actually "Blog" anything, please bare with me while a get a few bits and pieces ready to post.
Watch This Space.............
Aido.