Animation test

Matthias Manner

German artist Matthias Manner specialises in installations, based on "technology versus organic life". His simplistic shapes and structures inspired me to incorporate a similar approach to the design of my environment and character. The futuristic shapes and organic parts feel alive. The feeling of life within the environment and the technological characters will help to communicate authenticity and naturalism. Below are samples of Matthias's work.

Animation test - Basic walk cycle.

Testing out how the shapes and sizes of geometry and how they work when animated. The rig needs more work to refine actions....couldnt distribute a good shift in weight due to the simplicity of the rig but its a work in progress.

Not got the glow it should have but just wanted to get these guys together in some sort of environment.

Maybe a production diary cover.

Poses

A few poses after testing out a really basic rig. Glad to have made it to this stage with no major problems. Now to go back and build more intricacy into the model.

3D model (rough geometry)

Put together this quick model so that I can have something animated for the deadline. Next step...the dreaded rig.

Influences

Short film "Panic Attack" was directed by amateur film maker Fredrico Alvarez. A reference I looked at a while back when I was contemplating combining live action with CG elements. It inspired me to follow through with technologies intensifying rise within the world hierarchy, claiming its place at the top as a new superior being.


Tetra Vaal shows a robotic being taking charge of its own initiative and reactions. Policing a third world area of South Africa; another intended system for the benefit of mankind. My film aims to show the systems that mankind has created and what perils they may lead to. (Directed by District 9's Neill Blomkamp).


Artificial Paradise Inc shows great incorporation of mechanical/robotic and organic elements e.g. the jellyfish creature at the start. Something I am keen on doing with my character.

Eye-eye!!!

Fang-tastic

Rough geometry put together to test the spiders fang mechanism. Might be cool to have him drooling venom. The timing is a bit dodgy but should look good when its fixed.

Character 2

I have recently recruited the services of Gordon Crawford to help with character design. He will be focusing on rifining the character below and another character which hasent been touched yet, giving me more time to focus on story development, environment design and all the 3D work. Which is a task in itself! If your interested you should check out Gordons degree film "Brown Balloon"....its brilliant! You can find it at http://imaging.dundee.ac.uk/animation2007/2.html.

Getting there!

Development sketches.

Web test

Not much going on in this video but am just testing out spider web. Could probably do this a few ways but looks as though it works quite well.

First animation test I did for 3rd year production "Catalysis". Not perfect but decent for about an hours work. My spiders will have another 4 legs but the speed and basic movements are similar to how I want my characters to move.

Story development

As you can see from some of the drawings below, the main character is robotic. Ive been toying with the idea of making these spider robots more organic which will give me the opportunity to stylize the environment with webbing, residue, maybe bodies suspended from lampposts encrusted in web.

The title "Atrax" is taken from the Latin name "Atrax Robustus". It is the name of the notoriously dangerous Sydney funnel-web spider. Along with the Northern tree funnel-web they are the only Australian funnel-web spiders to inflict lethal bites to humans. Known for their aggressive personalities and their deep, silk funnel shaped hideaways.

"Kingdom of Echelon" was the orginal title meaning, Kingdom of hierarchy. At this point the story was very basic and broad and I was concentrating on technologies speculated rise to claim its position over humans, thus, a reconstructed social hierarchy. However, focusing on the main character has resulted in a snappier title. Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Mike.

Concept design

Storyboards

Rough storyboards. Please excuse some of the rubbish drawings. Camera shots are very basic at the moment as I want to experiment with angles later on in the production, but this will give a feel for what im trying to achieve.

Rough Animatic

Here is a very basic animatic. Could change the timing in a few places but now that I know how long this is as a whole Im going back to work more of the back story in. Theres alot of unconfirmed actions and improvised drawings until I figure a few things out. The part where he pushes the button on the aircraft/transport/thing is completely improvised just now as Im still figuring out a better way to seperate the characters. Any suggestions would be appreciated. No sound at the moment but its in the pipeline! (Excuse some of the sketchy drawings!)