week 06 

these are some of the story board panels i am adding into my animatic.

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week 5-  23/08/2016

this is a head study page. trying to get the best head shape and know the ins and outs of it!

These are some rough story boards i have been doing to try touch up my Animatic. I have been trying to replace the weaker shots in my old animatic so the shot movie altogether will look as refined as possible and keep up the anticipation which is what im going for.

18/08/2016 week 04

This was a bunch of concept tests with colour, ears and different snout shapes. These dog concepts all have an overall similar look to a dog which i was originally happy with but I took a few steps back and currently trying to redesign the head to get more of a wolf feel.

Ive been focusing on the head a lot and really trying to know the ins and outs of the shape which has proven to be a bit challenging especially in trying to find the fastest method to quickly whip up different angles. I am a lot stronger with the side profiles and because i have mainly been focusing on them i have neglected the other angles which have needed equal attention so I will be trying to focus on the general shape of my character and dropping the detail while i discover the perfect shaped head for my wolf.

I was originally going to do a boar character but ive changed it to a tapir for no major reason except i think they are super cool and can easily fit into the same size and similar movement as a boar. These concepts are not quite what i want but I  am getting a rough idea of how i would like this character to evolve. Finding anatomy reference is a little harder with the Tapir compared to the wolf which means i havnt had as much practice and knowledge on the mechanics of its bones and muscles structure so i do think i need further investigation and a lot of live action reference.

This was my original half done turn around before i decided to change up the head and I have also been trying to simplify the shapes so i will be able to animate him easier. I feel like ive spent a long time on the character development which i didnt take into consideration at the beginning but i really want to know the creature and its movement inside out so i dont have a lot of trouble while animating and can go into it confidently that i know where the anatomy and weight is carried.   

Frans told me about practicing a lot of gesture drawing from wolf documentaries and videos to really start getting a better understanding of the movement and perspective changes which has really helped a tone! I do think i need to do this a lot more for the practice so hopefully i can get more of these pages done quickly!!

these were some emotion studies on my wolf character before i decided to change my design..... looking back now i really liked the look of a few of these but whats done is done hopefully i dont waist to much time and finish the characters asap because BGs and animating will take a long time. 

My mood boards for my two characters

For my wolf characters I need to find easier methods for animating them. I have studied their joint movement and looked and different ways to simplify their body shapes. Ive learnt a lot about how they move and have a better idea of how Im going to tackle this in animate.

Top wolf is a made up character using the knowledge from previous studies to see how i could pull it off, I want to go with a slimmer wolf  so i can really show off the muscle structure underneath and avoid the hassle of animating a lot of wavy fur. the other wolf is just a test concept to see how fur does give volume to the animal and to see how much fur actual covers the wolf. 

This is a further exploration of the 2nd wolf and an anatomy study to learn about how certain muscles show through the fur. I had a lot of fun doing this and will keep studying the muscle structure in order to recognize the muscle shapes to push my character design further and to understand the mechanics a wolves movement better.

A front study of the wolves muscle and skeleton structure. this will really help me when im doing harder poses like a front on leap forward. 

The different studies altogether! I am really enjoying studying the wolf and think this is a really great way to learn about this animal in depth and I will be able to use this almost like a model sheet when animating and needing reference for my cartoon wolf.
still need to do the side view of the skeleton just to give me better understanding on the mechanics of the structure movement. This page only took me a few days so i will be pushing onto more of a finalized wolf character design as soon as possible.

DRAWING BOOK CONCEPTS & RESEARCH

A small study done while watching a wolf documentary to observe their movement and behavior.  

Rough concept page for my wolf character.

Had a lot of fun studying the  wolf skull, it is a shape i need to get familiar with. and a few other drawings of wolves (different types).

more rough concepts trying to discover what look i would like to go with and playing around with different shapes. I think i need to go a little scarier with the concepts to suit my short animation better.

I finished a background (test) for my animation short which didn't take a lot of my time. Still unsure if this is the style i want.. its very cartoony.  With this BG I decided to play around with the line work colours instead of going with the typical black lines, I think this has helped me not go too dark with shading?...     still unsure about the light source and have to take into consideration how my character will look with his shadow and  lighting on the body.