Thomas and his Film

Royal Television Society Student Awards 2006

2007-05-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

www.TdotOdotM.com

2006-06-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Please visit our website at...

www.TdotOdotM.com

to view the movie and more...

Done!

2006-06-04T04:27:00.000-07:00

thats right... every box is coloured in.

done!

Our meeting with the editor...

2006-05-03T04:18:00.000-07:00

It seems after 2 months of being 3 weeks behind, the 17 hour days finaly paid off because today we went into university to hand in the finished film, on DVD.

However, we had a meeting with Syvie Bringas and she pointed out that the black slug in between the park scene and the end scene looked like we just didnt have time to finish him walking off or we had missed out a scene. Also the end scene (then 27 secs long) was too long. She understood that we couldnt actually tell as we had been looking at it for so long, so it was good to get an outside opinion on that scene aswell. Oh and there was a black frame in the middle of a cut befor scene 13 aswell. AND we forgot to credit Kristy and Skindred for the sound recording of the voice, so we came back here to sort all of that out.

FOLEY

2006-05-02T04:11:00.000-07:00

foley!

Well we finished the compositing on monday and today we finished off little bits and bobs, and then we did some foley (mostly footsteps) to add onto the rest of the sound, and had curry.

The rest of the garage have left us know, so its just dan and myself left. Tomorrow... we finish!

Compositing

2006-04-28T03:52:00.000-07:00

Today we are compositing. Only a few problems in flashing colouring and such like but it is all going pretty smoothly.

AFX 'Change to colour' is great for the shadows, we can just match up the colour of the painted shadows in the scene, and change the black shadow to that colour and it matches up good! 3 scenes down... 16 to go...

2006-04-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

If lilac is colouring that means we have finnished colouring! YAAAAAAY!

The Voice Talent

2006-04-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

Yes that's right daniel we are going out. and in the day time.

Here we are picking up the voice talent...

Here we are waiting for the voice talent...

and here she is... Miss Kristy Cromwell.

pro tools and studio curtosy of Mikey from 'skindred'

it was exciting for all the family.

all done in one take!

Payment recieved.

Coloured scenes

2006-04-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

Heres an example of some coloured scenes.. theres some wierd artifacts in the compression of these images...

Scene 6 colour
Watch it [HERE]

Scene 8
Watch it [HERE]

Radio 2 and us

2006-04-14T05:17:00.000-07:00

The colouring begins...
and thank you to Ken Bruce for his kind words

[LISTEN HERE]

Animation COMPLETE

2006-04-12T04:40:00.000-07:00

yes we are still here.

here is the last scene animated [SCENE16]

All we have to do is put the light guides in. clean the line and colour the frames.
Dan is halfway through cleanup lines and I am just finishing the light guide lines.

New Studio!

2006-04-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here is Tom in the new studio. Kindly provied by Dan's olds and much thanks to the university for deciding to not let students in over the Easter holidays...

First Cut

2006-04-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

Work in progress edit.
[HERE]

Scene 7

2006-04-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

Scene 7 keys

and the animation [HERE]

Dissertations

2006-03-26T07:15:00.000-08:00

The week of no joy is over.

Production shalll resume tomorrow, late night and weekend access untill May 5th.

work to follow...

I close the shop when I leave

2006-03-11T07:20:00.000-08:00

Video HERE

This is where I hide my socks.

2006-03-11T07:19:00.000-08:00

Video HERE

2006-03-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

Scene 14 again.. This time with some superific sunlight + glass action.

Shoes

2006-03-01T01:27:00.000-08:00

Here is scene 2 so far...

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Tom in Colour

2006-02-28T09:37:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Mr Matthias for helping us out with this one. We now finally have a colouring method that looks most excellent. (we think)

Junk Shop!

2006-02-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

Scene 12

Scene 13

Scene 14

Scene 15...

AND THATS IT. no more Backgrounds. animation following shortly...

2006-02-28T09:30:00.001-08:00

Pan number 2... Scene 16

2006-02-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

Scene 8

Scene 19

Playground

2006-02-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

That's the park, I don't go there any more it's for little kids...

17_01

18_01

First Pan

2006-01-31T16:49:00.000-08:00

Here is our first pan, Scene 7 background, painted.

Inside The man who checks his post at 7 am everyday's house, Scene 9

Outside, Scene 10

and The close up, Scene 11

2006-01-27T16:47:00.000-08:00

Scene 1

Heres the last Background of the week - Scene 6

2006-01-25T09:43:00.000-08:00

Scene 05

Scene 02

Scene 04

2006-01-24T09:46:00.000-08:00

Background 04 with thomas in.

Scene 4

2006-01-23T11:23:00.000-08:00

Background for Scene 4

First background Painted

2006-01-19T10:33:00.000-08:00

03_01

Walk Cycle

2006-01-16T10:27:00.000-08:00

Here's a walk cycle test...

LINK

Tom Model Sheet

2006-01-15T10:36:00.000-08:00

Naked...

and with his uniform on.

Production has Begun

2006-01-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some Maya renders of the first 5 backgrounds.

01

02

03

04

05

Production Shot

2005-12-15T14:04:00.001-08:00

So this is it what we are aiming for...

Envioroments

2005-12-15T14:04:00.000-08:00

Here is an enviroment concept, hopefully something like the real thing. Using maya to block out the scene and then Corel Painter to paint and then Photoshop to pencil/.

This is a test for the swinging/panning cameras. It was used by rendering out 8 frames of a camera move in maya and then megring the layers together.

When this image is scrolled underneath a camera, it gives a feeling of a 3D camera move...

CLICK HERE FOR TEST

Character Design

2005-12-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

Well we think this is him, at last, Thomas. Say hello to everyone tom...

turnaround

and some colour and shading, we are still animating him in Toon Boom so some tests coming up...

Animatic v3

2005-12-13T01:03:00.000-08:00

Here is the all new animatic...

CLICK HERE AND WATCH

Please note this animatic is not a reflection of character design or enviroments.

I made a change to the 'shoe' scene. I changed the line to 'At this corner is Mrs Pembers Bush, its has big leaves....' I did this to break up the monologue from the visuals a bit, so we see him taking off his shoes, but he is talking about the bush, and we are finding out about the bush, but then.. whats he doing? hes taking off his shoes. Why is he doing that. Not yes, yes your taking off your shoes and turning them upsidedown. I can see that AND you are telling me.

2005-12-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

Heres a character design I did so I could make a clearer animatic (coming soon), Its a pastiche of Dan's original concept, one of his newer ones, the cambells soup kid from the 50's, the statue I saw in belgium and one of my fat man drawings. The bkrd, is a sort of colour key for the film. Im not sure If I like it more than what else we have been doing so far, so some bkrd tests will follw the new animatic.

I take off my shirt by losening my tie, and undoing the top two buttons, it all comes off in one then...

clean my teeth... (maya concept work with photshop)

Thomas Reference

2005-12-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

Well whilst looking around the belgium I came across this little, fat naked chap, with a sticky up nose. and I thought why look! its Thomas being led out of school with a sheet draped around him, so I took some pictures for reference

Animatic 2

2005-11-28T10:53:00.000-08:00

here is version 2...

with a slightly different begining and end.

CLICK HERE

Kitchen

2005-11-24T09:27:00.000-08:00

Here it is (at last). The kitchen with base colours and lighting. We need to get in there now and dirty it up, CRUBS and grim and a new tap, its a little too posh.

Also I may need to change the lighting now the textures are in there, and also maybe make it so it doesnt take an hour to render.

2005-11-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

Kitchen without textures

plain colour textures

test

2005-11-14T06:15:00.000-08:00

patterned walls, the kitchen is too big, we need to make it smaller like this...

very old lady and freaky child, and with more colours like this...

.

2005-11-14T03:33:00.000-08:00

painted textures are bad. They loose the sense of scale.

2005-11-13T11:28:00.000-08:00

This is the kitchen with some halftone, It might look nice, with some tweaking and stuff. But now for the textures...

2005-11-13T08:15:00.000-08:00

one hour render time.. I think I put in too many lights / rays.

Animatic!

2005-11-08T17:20:00.000-08:00

Well here we are with version 1 of Thomas in film form.
The monolgue is a scratch recording, and will hopefully be not much like the actor we finally get.

CLICK HERE FOR LINK

We are still unsure of the ending, so thats why it isnt there yet.

although... maybe it would be nice if he WAS using a voice box to speak.

Storyboard 03

2005-11-08T17:19:00.000-08:00

Storyboard version 3. Obv. it makes more sense with the monolgue.

2005-11-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

kitchen so far...

2005-11-01T11:40:00.000-08:00

Heres the kitchen That I am re creating.

Halftone

2005-10-31T10:22:00.000-08:00

We spoke to Sam Baker today (lecturer of Graphic Design at Centreal St.Martins) and he helped us realise the effect I have been hoping to add to the background to make it look like the 50's adverts by trying to recreate the 'circles in the printing' ontop of the textures as you can see in the advert below.

now we know what the 'circles' are called - Halftone, which has to do with the printing techniques, we can try and recreate it in the textures backgrounds in the film, something I had been keen to try out. Below is a test, just using a digital photo. Itworks quite well, but will need some tweaking. But thanks to Sam as now we know what it is. :D

Storyboard 1 of ...many

2005-10-30T10:54:00.000-08:00

Our first storyboard, just basic shots and getting a feel for the film as a film.
we are thinking of just having the monologue for the first 2 shots and seeing what Thomas talks about but we don't see him untill he starts to speak about his breakfast and we see him in the kitchen.

Props

2005-10-30T10:35:00.000-08:00

Heres some sketches for ideas on shots etc. for the opening of the film

Character Design.

2005-10-30T10:33:00.000-08:00

We are thinking of changing the character slightly to make it look a little bit more like the children in the 50's adverts we are wanting to recreated for the backgrounds and other characters, not too much like them, but a little more. above is one with a little more Lilo and stitch type body, and below 'tomweena'

.

Matt feedback session feedback

2005-10-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

Very good feedback from the people that were there, here are a couple of ideas from it.

Firstly is the ending, whether we need thomas to walk into school, and see him do that, or see him walk to the school. Or not.

And also how will we show that he does go off to the zoo or an adventure after he is sent home, we don’t need to show it, but we know he does it, so one idea was to show pictures of him in the credits at the zoo, or maybe after the credits we see him running towards the zoo. Not sure…

Also if we are using 50’s type adverts, it was all screen printed, so maybe use the same methods but digitally. Having some set colours and then laying them over each other to create other colours. – This might be an interesting one.

And Ben suggested we look at painted photographs, as they have an interesting look which could go well with what we are looking for. e.g.

2005-10-07T05:54:00.000-07:00

a rough turnaround to help me model...

Negotiated Propsal

2005-10-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

BA(Hons) Animation

Negotiated Proposal

AN5: Advanced Theory and Practice 5

Level 6, Semester 1

Printed first drafts must be handed in by 4pm Thursday 6^th October 2005

Any alterations to your proposal must be documented and re-submitted using a new form where necessary.

All forms must be counter-signed by your Module Leader.

All forms will become part of your final assessment.

Name:	Tom Brown / Daniel Gray	Date:	6/10/05
Working Title:	Thomas	Revision No.	2

Premise

The theme of the film is that of a young boy who, in order to get out of schooling, goes to school in the nude.

Outline

The story so far…

“My name is tom, every day I have the same routine. First I get up, put on my pants, socks, shirt and tie, and trousers. shoes. I then clean my teeth, eat one and a half slices of toast with the jam from around the strawberries. I don't like lumps in jam but my mum keeps buying the lumpy one. I pick up my school bag packed from the night before and out of the door. Up the left hand side of the path, cars drive on the left hand side of the road in Britain, Japan and probably some other places. At this corner I take off my shoes and place them upside down under Mrs. Embers bush, its leaves are big and they don't have a dog so they wont get wet. This is where I put my socks (post box on a house) he checks his post at 7am every day so they'll be safe all day here. These socks are 100% cotton - I’m allergic to some man made fibers. I hide my trousers here (maybe a rack in an Oxfam shop with a sleeping attendant he thinks she might be dead), I sometimes look at myself in this window, I don't think I’m the only one, I think its the only reason people stop at this shop because they never go in. I think I look like i have a shirt on, I’m a boy. That’s the park; I don't go and play there anymore because it’s for little kids. I take my shirt off by loosening my tie a little, and opening the top two buttons, it all slips off in one then, it looks a bit like there's an invisible man wearing it. That pen ran out ages ago but I like how it looks. (Hides the shirt under the merry goes round about thing). Every day I get sent home from school (walks through the gate). I don’t like school, so I do this and get sent home. (Walks up a corridor and opens the door of a class room).... something... something like that”.

Treatment

The piece is a narrative, driven by the mono log of the main character describing his day. The medium we are currently investigating is a 2D/3D hybrid. The choice of colour and visual style is that of a halcyon summer morning. Bright and transparent, with the bulk of the background and environmental cast is currently being made up from idealised advertising images. Cereal box images, images of school children painted with the joyous glaze that advertising seems so adept at. That’s the sort of environment we are currently trying to go for.

The main character of tom is an aggressive looking young boy, he’s meticulous and considered in all he does, although the rules of his consideration are somewhat off if calibrated by the sense of the average person.

Research

Le Building , Goballs people, 2005./A Backbone Tale, Jeremy Clapin, 2005

What we drew from these particular animations was their use of entirely 2-D principals through 3D computer generated means. The end result being neither a 2D film nor a 3D one (with all the connotations that normally go with them) but is in fact an animation that carries the narrative seamlessly and with an unbroken diagesis.

The story in Le Building is a very simple cause and effect scenario, which effectively drives a visual circus through a housing block and its surroundings. We particularly admire the sense of progression and pace in this piece, something that we would like to adopt in our short film.

A Backbone Tale is about the lonely existence of a man whose extreme stance makes him incompatible with society, resulting in him leading a loveless and lonely life. The conclusion of which sees him meet someone with an equally extreme gaunt resulting in true love. As well as the stunning visual styling this film has in motion it is also the way the story is told that interests us. It has an attention to detail in every respect that ties the character, environment and communication of the story together in a very satisfying and tight manner. We will pay particular attention to this kind of integration in our production.

Roles and Responsibilities

Pre-production/Production/Post-production

The roles with in each of the production stages are going to be undertaken with equal responsibility by both members of our team. These are the tasks, in order of execution:

Story and character design as a tandem development.

Environment and environment character design alongside production of a storyboard as the resources can be shared effectively.

Make an initial recording of the narrative monologue.

First construction of the elements (animatic) and evaluation in order to maximise out put quality.

Scratch sound recording.

Gather all the resources in order to construct finished levels of quality on static images and background elements.

The building of the environment and combining with the background elements.

Vectoring out the animation of tom with the environment.

‘Inking’ the vectored animation in photoshop.

Record the final sound.

Compositing and Editing with final sound.

About you…

“Viewing my work retrospectively, I can see two areas that I would like to build on, both style and performance are evident in my soundscape and Group project, and this is something that I would like to work on and advance in my final year of study. Considering the issue of style, I believe it is very important in a short film to have a tight coherent style, as this will captivate an audience far greater than narrative or dialogue. This includes character design, world design, consistent Palette and the general aesthetics of the piece.

Performance plays a major role in animation and as I am writing my dissertation on the matter I would like to put the theory I am writing about and apply it to my practice as this will both inform and help develop both my theory and my practical work. My soundscape, Early Worm, was a basis for where I would like to take my work. I tried to create a believable world through the aesthetics but, character and world aesthetically are one. However then through the performance and animation of the bird I wanted to create a misbalance, pulling the bird out of that world and drawing the attention to him. I really enjoy that concept and would like to extend it further. I also managed to work on this with my latest project, but not to the extent that I would have liked.- Tom Brown

2005-10-04T04:10:00.000-07:00

longer arms?

Narrative Basis.

2005-08-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

my name is tom, every day i have the same routine. first i get up, put on my pants, socks, shirt and tie, and trousers. shoes. i then clean my teeth, eat one and a half slices of toast with the jam from around the strawberries. i don't like lumps in jam but my mum keeps buying the lumpy one. i pick up my school bag packed from the night before and out of the door. up the left hand side of the path, cars drive on the left hand side of the road in britain, japan and probably some other places. at this corner i take off my shoes and place them upside down under mrs pembers bush, its leaves are big and they don't have a dog so they wont get wet. this is where i put my socks (post box on a house) he checks his post at 7am every day so they'll be safe all day here. these socks are 100% cotton - i'm allergic to some man made fibers. I hide my trousers here (maybe a rack in an oxfam shop with a sleeping attendant he thinks she might be dead), i sometimes look at myself in this window, i don't think i'm the only one, i think its the only reason people stop at this shop because they never go in. i think i look like it have a shirt on, i'm a boy. thats the park, i don't go and play there anymore because its for little kids. i take my shirt off by loosening my tie a little, and opening the top two buttons, it all slips off in one then, it looks a bit like there's an invisible man wearing it. that pen ran out ages ago but i like how it looks. (hides the shirt under the merry go round about thing). Every day i get sent home from school (walks through the gate). i dont like school, so i do this and get sent home. (walks up a coridor and opens the door of a class room) .... something something something..... something like that.

Test 2

2005-07-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

Here is another test done by the Daniel in ToonBoom.

Sway Test LINK

Below are some stills from the test then taken into Photoshop and Inked and coloured.

Colour Sway Test LINK

Animation Tests

2005-06-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

Dan did these tests in ToonBoom

Test 1 - Pencil Test
a pencil test, with correct timing

Test 2 - Colour Test 1
A colour test

And

Test 3 – Colour Test 2 - with stool
A colour test, with the correct Timings, and a stool (It makes more sense with a stool there :P)

THOMAS!

2005-06-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Original picture of Thomas

Thomas at school

Character Design