New City

After attending a lecture by the esteemed master of futurism, Syd Mead, the iron was hot for a new city concept. Whilst I'm still not entirely satisfied, I think this is an improvement, more looming and dense. It does look a little too pretty, but I think adding some grit on the final paint will achieve the look I'm after. Also possibly replacing some of the fancier shaped buildings. I did think though, other than for dramatic effect, why is the future always so damn big?

Schedule (update) and Budget

above is an update of the schedule so that everything is finished by week 13 as Louise suggested in the previous meeting.

SATURATE BUDGET (Andrew, Emma, Hannah, Tom)

Techniques:

· 3D Animation using Autodesk Maya 2010

Programmes and Tools:

· Sketchbooks and Pencils

· Adobe Photo Shop CS4 for concept designs and textures

· Adobe Flash CS4 and for animatic

· Maya for Production (modeling, animation)

· Pixologic Z-Brush

· Autodesk Mudbox 2010

· Adobe After Effects CS4/ Premier CS4 for the animatic, editing and compositing

Production Budget :

· Festival Entries $200

· Printing

-promotional $100 -general needs $50

· DV tapes $40

· Sound Engineer $300

· Catering $70

· Phone Credit $70

· Stationary $65

Total: $895 approximately

Story boarding, not so boring : )

I thought I'd break up the monotony of story boarding by doing one of the action sequences that I'm most looking forward to. I really want the camera to be very intimate with the action so there's no room for disinterest and the audience can feel the power of every force to give a heightened sensation of excitement. It's all about pace too, and whilst there isn't any camera cues given on this image, you can be sure we'll be fooling around with the speed of reality just a little bit. Most of this is a single shot, cutting only to the end image so lots of delicious camera movement! Also, how cool would it be to have a force generator in your shoe?

Graffiti Spirit updates

With a mix of lack of sleep and Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory, here's the latest (and final) design for the Graffiti Spirit. I added more seriousness to the mix to try and enhance his edgy volatile character. Considering he is after all the embodiment of the boy's artistic energy and desire, he's not to be trifled with so this darker and more angular design improves the mysterious aesthetic surrounding this character I think.


Also, here's the first glimpse of what happens when the Spirit runs and how the environment is affected with his presence...

Environment Reference Pictures

Photos from www.sxc.hu which I thought might be useful references for the environment designs.

Schedule (first)

obviously this is a first draft and will most probably change.

To get the ball Rolling I, Andrew Millist the writer and pre-production guru of the Saturate team have churned out some early impressions of what the characters and environments and the overall visual theme of the film will look like. I wanted to make a really contemporary, graphical urban style, one that incorporates the recent 80's fashion color scheme with some new school graffiti styles. I wanted it to be as though we were looking into the future from an 80's perspective.

To give a more unique visual presence to the characters I also wanted to incorporate some more defined graffiti weighting to their boddies and still retain some simple conventions with regard to how their look reflected their character.



So this here is just a quick lighting paint up to establish the mood. We're going for something dramatic. The city is also a first draft of the look we're going for, but in revision we're after something much more looming.

Here's the first draft of the graffiti spirit. He's sort of the hero of the story but represents something within the artist (Kido) that must overpower the opposition. I want him to have be created from various graffiti elements as though he is literally the embodiment of freestyle art.

The Cop. He's bad, machine like and ruthless. There isn't room in this guys ideals for creative expression outside the realm of the institutions by which he is governed and upholds. In revision, this guy isn't going to have any actual eyes, but so far we're happy with his weight impression.

Kido, he's the main character, an impressionable, curious and slightly cautious young man, with the desire to express his creative side. He's not directly rebellious but he see the need for color in his world and can't stand idly by, even if it means going against the grain. But is his will creative will strong enough to overcome the institutionalized preconditions which it must stand against? This is the first draft of him. We decided to review it as he looked a bit bland.

This is the re-vamped version of kido. I took the intiative of throwing some more sneaker fetish into the mix (I LOVE SNEAKERS...just a hint there) and I thought that really emphasised the contemporary nature of the visual theme and also tied it in well with the 80's overtones. Lot's more fidly bits added to add interest and general kickassness that will leave kids tugging on momies skirt to buy stuff like he's wearing :p

In The Beginning...

Welcome to the Saturate Film blog! This has been established to show off the process used to create the animated short: Saturate. You'll find lots of groovy images and information regarding the how and the what of the Saturate team putting this film together. So without further ado, enjoy!