Thin Glynn

Vectors

2006-04-28T23:52:00.000Z

Cleaning

2006-04-22T22:57:00.000Z

Wip - today.. terrible pencil guide - got to vector blind. ARGH

Apologies

2006-04-12T18:59:00.000Z

Sorry for the lack of updates, one miute away from colouring seems like an eternity *sweats* @ the amount of precious time lost writing this!
Here is a WIP frame from flash that will feature in the film.

A few scenes

2006-03-21T00:19:00.000Z

Welcome to my "Thin Glynn hell"

Status

2006-03-15T22:59:00.000Z

Just a quick note to update you on the progress.

Bg's (pencil) - CHECK
Glynn animation (pencil) - CHECK
Pigeon animation (pencil) - Beginning 16th March
Music - Beginning work on the 27th March
Thin Glynn 3d stopmotion animation - Studio + camera ready to go, will begin as soon as pigeon animation is done.

The Glynn animation has been taking ages due to the complicated figure and detail moving in a 3d kinda way.
The pigeon animation shouldnt be too arduous and I hope that I can re-use a lot of his/her flight loops in several scenes.
Backgrounds are going to be touched up in flash, more detail/less detail edited where necessary.
The Thin Glynn 3d stopmotion will be presented as keyframes for the 1st cut (but all timed ready for the music work to commence).

Glynn with tie in fax machine.

2006-03-07T11:52:00.000Z

BG change

2006-02-23T23:03:00.000Z

Keyframing officially underway

2006-02-16T17:25:00.000Z

Keyframing for scene 1 and 2 completed.. minimal tweens to be done with flash vectors. A favourite frame from scene 2 .. the same cant be said for the corresponding photo though.

64 bgs now SCANNED

2006-02-10T18:55:00.000Z

This is one of the 64 bgs i have just scanned with my ADF scanner (old ebay one though). This si the fax maxine that Glynn is ejected from after visiting taking a trip through the phone line.

Looking out Glynns window BG

2006-01-28T18:47:00.000Z

The next bg following on from the long pan scene. The pigeon hops up in through the window and lands on the wire paper support thing ontop of the fax machine (superfax 3000).

Pan bg - snow city

2006-01-27T12:27:00.000Z

Click ~HERE~ for a wmv pan of this bg.

This bg has changed a lot from the original idea, I really despised the idea of doing a landscape pan, but once the first couple of pages were done I didnt find it at all laborious, just wish that I could have more animals knocking about in the forest. Theres still time to add them in later though, the bg will be scanned and flattened ready for vectoring in illustrator. Im going to tackle each depth of bg as seperate layers so that they pan at different speeds. If you have any ideas for additional features please let me know.
Oh ~ the antagonist pigeon begins stood upon the sign on the left, shivering in the cold conditions. He wakes from his icy slumber when a wisp of warm air reaches him. He then begins his flight across the bg towards the city, where he lands upon a window ledge and proceeds to hop into the office (Glynns office) as this is the source of the warmth.

Office ledge

2006-01-23T22:42:00.000Z

This is the ledge onto which the pigeon lands in the opening scene. Snow is now involved in the scene to support the pigeon's motive for entering Glynn's office for warmth.

Glynns office (interior) bg design

2006-01-20T19:02:00.000Z

Design for Glynns office bg. Shapes on desk are origami, which crop up later on in the film.

Thin Glynn design pencil

2006-01-19T13:22:00.000Z

This is what Glynn will look like when he is printed onto the paper and transforms into the human form.
The bottom two pictures are what the origami looks like before it is folded. I'm going to colour the unfolded pictures on separate layers in Photoshop. Then print onto coated paper ready to be glued to the cinefoil to give strength.

Final storyboard update

2006-01-12T21:16:00.000Z

This is the first 11 storyboard frames of Thin Glynn, hopefully there will be minimal changes from these designs. Im going to make a scratch animatic as I go with these, AE movement in some. The beginning has been simplified since the (terrible) last presentation i done. Enjoi!

Quick texture brush

2006-01-06T16:12:00.000Z

Apologies for the nasty grey bg, its makes glynn nice and poppy though. This quick texturisation process is the same style as I will use for the 2s animation throughout my final film. Possibly its my personal way to escape the general flash look.

Vectored Glynn

2006-01-06T14:30:00.000Z

Vectored character form. Still to do paint texturing on him. Will do asap.

New and final Glynn design

2006-01-05T23:31:00.000Z

Changed the face and the hair and the body and the clothes and the legs and the hands and the shoes.. because I was bored with the last design and it felt so forced. I wanted the lines to flow and I wanted his body to compliment the shape of his head, which really wasnt happening before because of his tubby shape. Im feeling better about this design.. the weight still feels a bit floaty but he wont be on screen for more than 30 secs so its really not an issue for myself at this stage of production.
Im glad that I have addressed my dislikes at this stage before beginning the animation process, otherwise I'm sure I would have fallen out with this idea and it would never have had reached its potential. Hopefully now .. these small changes have encouraged my patience and enthusiasm for this project as recently I have been feeling detached and sick of the impending mountain of work ahead of me.
*Smiles*

Glynns office

2006-01-04T21:07:00.000Z

Office bg design. Mini vintage mac on the desk. Luke

Opening BG

2006-01-03T23:47:00.000Z

Background for the opening scene. Still to be texturised and painted in Photoshop. Having difficulties in importing the .ai file while keeping good colour. The colour appears to just desaturate when it reaches photoshop.

Narrative changes

2005-12-31T15:32:00.000Z

New pigeon design

2005-12-14T12:07:00.000Z

New pigeon design, chose to redesign it simply because the old one had been out-styled and out fashioned by Glynn and the background design. Much prefer this one as he/she has 'glynn-like' feet / legs / hair and neck!!! So its easy to see why this character will fit in to the scene nicely!
Illustrator - Photoshop digital paint

Possible postcard design

2005-12-14T11:07:00.000Z

Illustrator quickie of Glynn in his dream world... WITH PIE!

Colour walk cycle

2005-12-12T23:51:00.000Z

COLOUR TEST

Done a quick colour version of the walk cycle, needs tweaking because it hangs on a part of the cycle. Sorted .ai imports no trouble, but still having issues with what settings to use or codecs for perfect quality image.
If you have any suggestions please email lukasarts@hotmail.com or leave a comment. Thanks

walkcycle line test

2005-12-12T02:30:00.000Z

CLICK HERE TO LOAD WMV VIDEO

Just rendered a line test of Glynn's walk; while holding a newspaper. I'm making a short little animation test which will include Glynn / Thin Glynn / a rock / a telephone box / a slingshot / a short little twat and bottle of sunny-P .

Opening scene background

2005-11-30T10:23:00.000Z

I have issues with the colour and digital flatness of this background, I want to rough it up a bit with some brush strokes and involve more variation in colour. Also some texture. I was thinking about involving some wallpaper pattern which would be subtley integrated into the existing colour scheme. Hate the colour of the computer and fax machine they seem dead and dull, where I feel that the fax machine needs to be interesting and strong because it is important in the plot. I think I need to flat out decide whether I will go for rich varied colour scheme or stick to a certain colour with which I will play with light and dark areas of objects in order to suggest their involvement in the scene.

Glynn

2005-11-29T12:41:00.000Z

Hopefully the final model design of (human) Glynn. Had some issues with the hair colour, basically due to the gaming settings I had adjusted my pc monitor for ... oops. This is my postcard design ~ I wanted to involve all the aspects of the film into one image. Apart from the paper airplane and the throwing star, I have managed to do this. I will include the throwing star into the title design like the header on my blog.
Pleased with the shoes, and the white socks (as requested by all). Unfortunatly the pen and shirt pocket has been lost just because of the lack of space on the upper torso.
I will eventually painter or pshop this image so it follows the shading that the pencil sketch displays. I wanted to achieve the Superman 'bulge' in the trousers, as that is what the stance is based upon.

Wmv animatic

2005-11-22T23:31:00.000Z

Animatic - WMV
Finally managed to reduce the file size of this animatic. Still attempting to get the .mov below 10mb.
Hope that there isnt too many artifacts etc in this low res vid.
If you have any tips on reducing the file size of movs. Please let me know.

Update - minor changes to story

2005-11-22T15:41:00.000Z

3d fimo model

2005-11-18T21:30:00.000Z

Fancied taking a creative diversion away from 2d today. Took a while to get back into the modelling mode. This is what I ended up with. Painted with acrylic. Suppose it could be used for awkward angles, in order to see the shape of his hair and position of nose against the face. Would be nice to finish it off sometime, just as a souvenir of this project.

New narrative - storyboard

2005-11-17T09:16:00.000Z

Steamy pie in window

Glynn is making an origami cup, in which we see him pour a beverage. He has laid out a table mat and knife n fork on his desk ready to eat his lunch … a steamy hot pie, which is cooling in his window. As Glynn finishes preparing his desk for his much anticipated meal, he turns around to find that the pigeon is stood in the pie eating from the centre. The pigeon can’t see Glynn as it is frantically gobbling the centre of the pie away, so Glynn sneaks (tiptoes) over to grab the pigeon. Just as he is about to reach for the pigeon he steps on a creaky floorboard which startles the pigeon causing it to raise its head and become aware of the impending danger. Glynn lunges to close the window but the pigeon whips out through the rapidly closing gap.

Motive of pigeon- Scavenging for food

Motive of Glynn- Make origami, eat lunch + get rid of pigeon by closing window.

Other changes include : Thin Glynn jumping directly into a pigeons nest after escaping the shredder building.
Thin Glynn escapes scene after cutting down the piano, he leans against the wall and wipes the sweat off his brow - and is immediatly plucked from the pavement by a street cleaner's rubbish grabber.

Development of Thin Glynn model

2005-11-16T14:40:00.000Z

The black part of the model is the cinefoil, which gives the model strength. The final model will be entirely covered in white paper.

Today I made progress with the development of the Thin Glynn model, by successfully backing an a4 sheet of paper with cinefoil. The cinefoil will strengthen the paper so that the paper stays bent when animating. This is my first encounter with the material, and it is a strange experience. The cinefoil will bend like paper, but once it is bent you cannot remove the crease! So much precaution will have to be taken (and was taken, after Tim Allen warned me about this problem) when making the models. The biggest problem I had today was finding a suitable adhesive, which did not set rock solid - which would make the model unbendable. The adhesive also had to be thick wnough to not soak in to the plain paper - causing it to appear see through. PVA, copydex, spray mount and Uhu were tried, but all failed. My eventual choice of adhesive is Araldite, very strong.. bendable if applied thinly and does not soak into the paper! Attached are photos of this new model which I have folded in the thin Glynn origami form. I will post photos of the creation process soon.

Finished board

2005-11-14T13:18:00.000Z

Start

When I came to draw the rest of the storyboard I found that the story had changed so little since the last storyboard. Therefore I have decided to save myself about 3 days of (basically tracing) drawing, by using these existing frames. I have inserted some new frames, those who can remember the first storyboard I presented might just about see the differences. Each of these .jpegs are between 1mb- 1.5mb and contain many more frames, so if its difficult to see the detail you should be able to zoom in on the picture (you can if you are using firefox). I have stuck with the original ending until I have conversed with James about Tim's feedback. If I do change the ending I will post the new frames which change.

39 frames of Thin Glynn

2005-11-13T00:32:00.000Z

Frames 1 - 10 (above)

Frames 11-20 (above)

Frames 21-30 (above)

Frames 31-39 (above)

Hey'all, heres the latest progress with my film production for Thin Glynn. Attached to this post are the first 39 frames.. (need some close-up shots ere 'n' there). If you see any deadly errors with the camera direction please put your hand up and let me know about it. Storyboard production is still on-going, I hope to finish with about 100 frames. The rest of the storyboard will come together pretty fast because I have already drawn them a little while ago. The pigeon/raven debate is still on-going with a 50:50 feedback ratio from people. I do like the pigeon and they have nice distinctive colour and form. Once the second half of the film is storyboarded we should be able to get a better feel for which character we naturally side with. By the way... the Big Ben model is made from origami (will be more obvious in finished film) and Glynn is putting the last piece on to complete his sculpture! I can't stress enough how welcome comments are on this blog (at this stage especially) so fire away if you get the urge!

Thanks

Todays stat. update

2005-11-10T21:31:00.000Z

Been grinding through the new storyboard today which will be used for the animatic too. Sorted out some niggling problems with the start of the story, to do with the affect of the pigeon's startling squawk. Ill post some frames tommorow. Human Glynn will now have about 10-15 secs more screen-time .. woo! My brother 'Guy' has also brought up the possibility of the bird character being switched from 'pigeon' to 'raven/crow' to better emphasise the good vs. bad relationship. The black of the raven/crow, better contrasting the white of Thin Glynn's paper torso. Think Luke Skywalker (white) and Darth Vader (black). Although the pigeon fits in with the Uk urban setting, the black of the raven/crow (e.g against the light blue sky when we first see him) is such a strong idea which will imprint character on Glynn's nemesis. Guy's idea has caused a difficult decision in my mind. If you dont mind (and if its possible for you) please vote on which path you prefer!?!

Thin Glynn UNFOLDED!

2005-11-08T14:51:00.000Z

Opened origami form of Thin Glynn - Flat paper

Darkened version of above image to show folds of paper clearly.

I couldnt wait to open up Thin Glynn this time (unlike before) ! This accidental composition of his form scattered across the flat paper was really exciting to discover, I just hoped that the sketched design wouldnt end up on the back of the sheet! Fortunatly, every section of his torso apart from his finger tips stayed on the front of the paper. The composition was so much better than I had expected, it isnt broken so much that it loses all reference to the original design; but instead achieves an aesthetic level of symmetry due to the way that it was folded. The coloured or faxed damaged version of the image once p'shopped will be much clearer, and will present an intresting visual link to his preceeding 2d form.

Transformation onto paper

2005-11-08T14:07:00.000Z

When Glynn is faxed, he is transformed into a piece of paper. 90% of feedback from people side with the idea that some part of Glynn's original image (2d form) should be printed onto this paper. Emma Baker started the ball rolling at the start of the summer with her comment on the 1st script "like the idea here but how does the audience know the paper is Glynn? Is he going to display a typical characteristic or are you just going to tell us it is him? Maybe give him an orange corner, or something to represent his hair? Just so there is something recognisable." When I presented my film, the animation group again liked the idea of his 2d image being printed onto the sheet of paper. Due to the head shape of 'Thin Glynn' it was going to be difficult to incorporate his hair; especially as at this time he had a large afro. 7th November lunchtime chat with Johnny again surfaced this recurring idea. I had been worried about the in-world physics which crippled this idea because if he was printed as full design of Glynn onto the flat sheet of paper... the following folds would jumble the print all over the place once he was in the man / crane / airplane / throwing-star shape. Johnny proposed the idea of designing the print so that it works as the man shape, and then unfold - therefore allowing the sections of his body to self-jumble themselves over the initial flat paper. This idea fixed the forementioned physical problem, and opened up the oppourtunity to enhance the facial character animation once in origiami form (something that was going to let down the strong character that had been built up by 2d Glynn). So... onto the fresh clone of Thin Glynn I sketched Glynn's human form so that it fit into the constraints of the origami form. The result is a very awkward looking stance, but I think that this fits in with the awkward process that Glynn was squeezed through in order to reach this stage! The main torso of Glynn's body is stretched slightly so that his belt fits in with the belt on the origami form. Overall I like the stance and composition of Glynn on this paper, and the transformation alongside the print of his existing 2d form works on so many levels. In the next post I will explore the uncomposed affect this sketch has on the (unfolded) flat sheet of paper. (CHANGES)- I may depending on feedback, move his feet/shoes to the corner of the origami form.

3 of the most scary hours!

2005-11-08T13:54:00.000Z

I have spent this morning attempting to recreate 'Thin Glynn' (the origami version!). After a frustrating 30 minutes, 1 on1 with the sheet of blank paper I was no further than I'd began - just with a heavily creased web of folds. Coffee turned ice cold as I pondered the neccesity of a surgical dissection of the original 'Thin Glynn'... Will I be able to read anything from his exposed carcass of folds?... Can I put it back together again!? So, so, so much regret for not documenting its creation at the time! I eventually took the plunge and tentatively opened up the frightening array of interlocking folds. An hour later and I had successfully cloned the original with less folds and a thicker belt; to better coincide with the design of (2d) Glynn.

Stopmotion composite tester

2005-11-04T23:24:00.000Z

This clip is the first of several animation tests to experiment with the composition of 3d stopmotion composited onto a 2d background. This render is purely lasso'd photos with no colour or effect correction. The 2d background has a pan blur operator. Im very pleased with the result of the test, but am skeptical about whether the similar colours of the sky and origami crane are the reason that the composition works. I will be continuing these tests over the next week with 'thin glynn' (the man shaped origami).

Animation test#3 - Origami crane fly cycle

Pigeon head bobbing test

2005-11-03T19:57:00.000Z

A quick animation test of the pigeon bobbing its head left to right. I aim for a simple animation style but with extra animated details such as the nice flopping feathers in this test.

Animation test#2 - Pigeon bob

Storyboard pigeon

2005-11-03T19:51:00.000Z

Storyboard sketch of the pigeon, and Thin Glynn in the foreground peering around the corner. I'm liking the design of the pigeon better in this frame rather than my initial sketches (in previous post).

Pigeon designs

2005-11-03T19:46:00.000Z

Initial pencil sketch and photoshopped colour version. Neck will be longer and eyes slightly smaller. I may also extend the legs to showmore than just the feet.

Scratch head

2005-11-03T19:31:00.000Z

Check out my Glynn animation test, simple scratch of the head to test movement of arm and rendering techniques. Please let me know your opinions. p.s The hair looks awful when it moves, too much movement.

Animation test#1 - Scratch head

First coloured frame of animation test

2005-11-01T16:10:00.000Z

Flat colour Glynn - first frame of current animation test. Should the pocket pen make a comeback? Vote now!

Scratch line-test

2005-11-01T14:41:00.000Z

Quick line test for the physical movement of Glynns arm, and some expression. Working on the coloured version now. Couldnt get the gif to work, so this is a frame from the test.

Chalky colour test

2005-10-29T17:59:00.000Z

Chalky glynn on crumpled paper. Like the effect but not the idea of repeating the method thousands of times. I will upload more colour tests soon. Comments please as usual.

Face and body design complete

2005-10-27T19:38:00.000Z

Today's mission - design a body to compliment the new design of my main character - Glynn. Tried all sorts of shapes and heights, but this combination came out best. Hopefully the colour version will clear up the middle section because at the moment its a bit "busy" looking. Comments please.

Facial design - Glynn 25thoct

2005-10-26T17:03:00.000Z

Latest character design, completed on 25th oct. Much more favoured in most peoples opinion including my own. Cant wait to colour it. Any ideas for colour and character movement... please drop a comment. Nose wobble and glasses fiddle (thanks garth).

Coloured office - angle 1

2005-10-25T15:17:00.000Z

Office scene coloured. Inspiration from windows 98 default
desktop! Pastel shades and muted tones to focus attention
on Glynn's body during this scene.

Office room design

2005-10-25T15:07:00.000Z

The office room is the beginning scene in this film.
It now features a large Big Ben origami statue which
Glynn will be meticulously constructing when we first see him.
Only for a pigeon for make him jump and self-destruct
the giant origami tower. The office will also feature a desk chair
on which Glynn is balancing in order to gain enough height to
complete his tower of origami.

Story tweaks

2005-10-25T14:36:00.000Z

Fax tests

2005-10-25T14:22:00.000Z

Now that Glynn will be faxed onto the piece of paper when he arrives at the dialled destination. I have tested the settings of a fax machine to see what kind of affect this has on the composition of form and tone. Attached are the results.

Glynn Spynn

2005-10-24T21:43:00.000Z

The spinaround featuring my new character design turned out
quite successful. I encountered little problems. Using this spin around
I will make a small model of Glynn to work from, possibly with
moveable arms and legs ^_^

Colour design of Glynn

2005-10-24T21:29:00.000Z

Featured to the right, is the colour design of Glynn worked from the original scanned sketch. His main features thanks to the colour, are : His glasses, hair, tie, belt and pocket pen! Thanks to the comments from the group - some or all of these features will be carried through the fax line to the piece of paper. Comments please on the character design and colour.

Character problems and development

2005-10-12T22:16:00.000Z

This is the result of a design change in the character (AGAIN!) I achieved this by sketching a few new head shapes and eventually ran into the same shape as I had very first began with but with a change in the facial details. I shrunk the glasses lens size and removed the pupils as I felt that they devoured the characters focal point, and I instead want to focus on expressive human movement.

The character is still in pencil sketch form, but tomorrow will be devoted to testing colour design.

2005-10-04T14:16:00.000Z

After struggling through my Glynn character spin around this morning, due to his oddly positioned eyes (basically on his nose) I began keyframing a short animation test starring this awkward character and a paper aeroplane. By now I had fixed the characters face, by positioning his eye behind his large nose, therefore allowing the spin around to work. Although I wasnt happy with making this change, it had to be done otherwise it would undoubtbly cause serious problems later on. Most people I showed the change to said that they in fact preferred the new one.

I started work on 10 keyframes which would form the basis for a short animation test starring Glynn throwing a paper aeroplane. After just a couple of keyframes, I decided to pause for lunch during which I decided that I could not work with the design I had simply because I despised the character.

New Glynn character design

2005-10-03T21:35:00.000Z

Featured are the new character designs for Glynn's human form. I am happy with
the colour use on his clothing and think that the new form he has taken will
coincide with the humour element of this story more successfully.

Glynn's face and tweed suit

2005-10-01T22:59:00.000Z

Two colour designs for Glynn's face and tweed suit. The face doesnt work so well in colour as it does in pencil, where as the suit works much better in colour. Both need further development and colour tweaks. I have already decided to scrap the tweed stripes as they will be a nightmare to animate.

Initial face sketch

2005-10-01T22:56:00.000Z

After sketching the body shape and clothing, I focused on the facial features of Glynn. I was happy with the shape of the head. Although the features appear to work with this expression, the facial features dont work with other expressions. I must now adapt or redesign the face.

First character design sketch

2005-10-01T22:52:00.000Z

This sketch was drawn at the start of the summer, shortly after I wrote the first draft of "Thin Glynn". The sketch features black shoes / brown cord trousers / red tie and brown jacket.
The character is very human-like and for this film I will design a simpler/smaller character to animate.