Yesterday I coloured the shot I had already animated of the troll climbing down the tree. There's also a couple of motion blur frames added; so I think for now I'll call this shot finished. Once I composite it on the background I will see if I need to make changes, although it'll probably be less time consuming to make the changes on the background instead..

I also animated a first pass of the shot when the troll is looking nostalgic and sad at his father's tombstone and then reacts as he notices the dagger is not there. While I wait for some feedback on the animation, I will start working on another shot.

trailer animatic

The outcome of the animatic ended up being the opposite of my intentions as it shows what drives the plot. I'm not quite sure it's understandable though. It's tough to pick the right shots... I left the whole sequence with the faun girl as a mystery though, so the final climax was left out from the trailer entirely.

The scenes with colour in the animatic will be the flashbacks in the finished film. The shot of the clear is not the same style, because it was an experiment I decided to use just for the animatic so I wouldn't have to draw the shot again...

Also the flashback sequences are missing camera movements. The camera is supposed to be going forward through the forest in the beginning, and there will be some pans and zooms during the sequence. And if it doesn't come through, the white lines on the black (after the shot of the risen roaring troll) are going to be like the trail of a sword slash which represents the killing of the father troll.

After getting the demo of the latest version of the software ArtRage, I thought I'd experiment something quick and simple that perhaps, if I'd manage to replicate in more than one picture, could be a style idea for the flashback sequences. It is still a matter to consider though, seeing as I intend to have simple animation in those sequences when I work on the film after Uni. This is a close up of one of the raiders. He'll perhaps need a rougher look as I want to show the leader in this shot.

I also gave the dagger's design a try. Although I should really sketch a bunch of ideas before deciding on which design to go with, I was really looking at getting it the first time to save production time...

Did a quick sheet for the troll as a child.

And more updates on the backgrounds

Animation and others

With a couple frames left to add, I'll call this shot finished for now, seeing as only half of it will make it in the trailer and I have preferences for the first half. The troll is actually climbing down the tree, so just imagine and a vine he grabs onto and giant branches he lands on.

(preferably, watch at 1080p, fullscreeen)

Also, I started making changes on the clear shot, so here goes how it is looking so far.