Major Project - 2D characters taking shape

The 2D characters are taking shape.  Each character will have its own maya plane, running its own animated sequence.

YEAR 3 MAJOR PROJECT - INTERIM CRITIQUE - GROUP AND PERSONAL PIPELINE

A Third of And Son - Chrissie Peters by smallbrowndog

The Art of '& Son' by Sammy Butler

And Son - test footage

The Making Of "And Son"

The Making of and Son by smallbrowndog

YEAR 3 MINOR PROJECT- INNTERRIM CRITIQUE

Link to Interrim Critique Presentation
This week our studio group had our interim critique. We presented a slide show, animatic and very short previs, available through the link above. We have some changes to make, but mostly got a "green light", so we are good to go!

Year 3 Minor Project Week 5 - "And Son..." Benjamin revisions

After a chat with tutor Justin, I have made some revisions to the Benjamin sketches.

Firstly Justin felt the black mourning outfit needed breaking up.  There are restrictions on our colour palette because of the narrative, so I have kept to a range of greys. The red-and-white bow tie is necessary to the story.
Justin also felt the original boots were "wrong": too stubby and rounded, so I have revised these using reference material.
Justin suggested making the coat tails long to help make Benjamin's clothes look too large, but I'm not sure about this, I think it makes it a bit too comical.

 The second set of sketches show revised faces now that we have settled on a face with widely spaced eyes, large low ears, and a wide forehead.

Year 3 Minor Project - "And Son..." Week 4

Refining main character concepts this week, Benjamin and Barnabas.

Yr 3 maya Tutorial: Mental Ray: Using Maya Layered Shaders with Mental Ray Nodes

Year 3 Maya Tutorial - Lighting Profiles: IES Lighting Information Files

Year 3 Maya week 1: Mental Ray: Round Corners Node

YEAR 3 Minor Project - "And Son..." - Week 3

This week I have been working on rough drafts of the two main characters in our story, Benjamin and Barnabas.  I am focussing on the father and son dynamic and looking at expressions.
I've also done some more rough concepts for the environment.

Year 3 Maya Tutorial: Ambient Occlusion Lighting & Light Decay

Year 3 Maya Tutorials - Using Ambient Occlusion with Displacment Maps

Year 3 Maya Tutorials - Sub Surface Scattering Part 2: Cartoon Shader

MAYA TUTORIAL: SUB-SURFACE SCATTERING

YEAR 3 Minor Project - "And Son..." - Week 1 & 2

My Minor project is a collaboration between myself and two fellow students.  We aim to create all the pre-production needed to make a 3-5 minute short animation, which we hope to produce as our major Project next term. 
The film is called "And Son"; it is based on an animatic made by Samantha Butler as part of her year 1 work.
The bulk of the work for this project will be on our combined studio blog POLYDOODLE PICTURES but I will continue to post round-ups of my work on here.

WEEKS 1 & 2
 I am mostly Chief Concept Artist at the moment!  I have spent a vast amount of time researching style and form for artistic direction, and begun to sketch characters to get to know them.

YEAR 3! AND A NEW STUDIO!

I have made it to the Third Year of my degree!  This year I have formed a collaborative studio partnership with two fellow students, Sammy and Stitch.  Our studio blog is

http://polydoodlepictures.blogspot.co.uk/