Going Live: Production Roles

I've put together a list of production roles that people are keen to do, I imagine this will flow and change a lot throughout the production, but it's a useful starting point so we can start organising tasks. 

Art School Location Scout

We've been looking at different locations around the art school to try and find some interesting shots for the film. As it stands at the moment, we've got 3 locations in the building, 4 locations which will require travel, and 1 green screen shoot. 

Hopefully with the editing and choice of angles, these interior ones will still be interesting to people who're familiar with the building. 

Going Live Begins!

We've been given our going live brief from Axis Animation in Glasgow, and it's an exciting project to create a short 30s animation to accompany The Hobbit. 

I was keen to direct the project as I'm a massive fan of the source material, have experience leading an animated production, and had the bare bones of an idea. Mercifully, my classmates were up for it! 

The idea revolves around explaining the mysterious origins of the dragons, which is rather unexplored in Tolkien's works. After some extensive research we settled on an idea that they originated as Eagles, and were captured and corrupted by Morgoth, one of the great gods of Middle Earth.

I'm a massive fan of the iconic map style Tolkien carries throughout his work, and had a rough vision for how that could translate into an animation. I think a combination of origami/papercraft alongside the illustrative ink effects would work extremely well in 3D. Also the paper effects would gel very nicely with burning and fire effects. 

I'm very hopeful for the project, and everybody seems enthusiastic to get started!

Character Designs

I've been doing some character colour tests, which were designed and drawn by Tom. Any feedback would be grand, any favourite? A combination? Patterns? I'll probably work on doing a few more colours and patterns, and trying different combinations of those... but this is just to get me started.

Tentsmuir beach location scout.

Made the most of the stunning winter weather today with a trip to the beach to scope out some potential shots. I'll just dump the photos here, some are better than others. It was really great, I'll need to head back with the rest of the team and do some more thorough planning... but I think these definitely get across the feel of the place.