I started drawing the flashback sequence shots on paper last week but never got around scanning them earlier, since I gave the film a break so I could work on my dissertation.

Pan shot of the human warriors drawn in two sheets of paper with a ball point pen. The colour set will be the same as seen in the animatic.

The leader of the human warriors will stand in front of his army. I will animate fire on top of the stick he is holding, and I have him on a separate layer to add parallax to the scene, which will also be accomplished by adding another layer of silhouettes behind the army.

This is a test of the colours and pen lines for the very fist shot of the trailer. It is not finished though, as I want to try to add something more to it...

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.

Other Work

In the first term an extracurricular opportunity came up; that of producing a trailer for a fiction writer who has got a novel on the way, with the help of classmate Richard Steenoven. Due to the amount of work my Uni project requires, the work on the trailer has been pushed forward to after finishing the course, although I already worked on a few character designs; designs which I cannot share. I have agreed though, to give a try at drawing a cover for the novel, in the next month.

I have also taken over a couple of small opportunities to do some character work for classmates.

A girl for Rachel's Autumn project, done last term.

And a little girl for Jack's dark comedy short, done last week.