FOOTBALL.

(Took me 2 and a half hours but maybe by best realistic one yet?)

Cam Newton, Quarterback

Carolina Panthers

2010 - Present

Welcome to the NFL.

So this is my little side project. Football. I'm going to make a rotoscoped and animated short film like the films made by NFL films (or go to the NFL and all the videos on their are made by either NFL Total Access or NFL films). It'll be at least a couple of minutes long, I've done a few tests (rolling uploads on this post) and I can do about 5 seconds in a couple of hours because the style is real loose. I basically whack the tiffs into photoshop because I don't have TVP Paint on my laptop.

I've done more finished drawings/digital paintings mainly for pleasure more than anything else, but they also serve as concept artwork. The actual animated drawings aren't this precisely done.

I'm working on some ones with atmosphere in them such as snow (just trying to find good pictures) so keep a look out.

Joe Montana ("Joe Cool", "Golden Joe"), Quarterback

San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs

1979 - 1994

Hall of Fame class of 2000

(if you're at all interested in Football - start by knowing who Golden Joe is)

Barry Sanders, Running Back

Detroit Lions

1989 - 1998

Hall of Fame class of 2004

Because pictures don't explain how amazing Barry Sanders was.

Jerry Rice, Wide Receiver
San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks
1985 - 2004
 Hall of Fame class of 2010.

Deacon Jones, ("The Secretary of Defense"), Defensive End
L.A./St.Louis Rams, San Diego Chargers, Washington Redskins
1961 - 1974
Hall of Fame class of 1980

Walter ("Sweetness") Payton, Running Back

Chicago Bears

1975 - 1987

Hall of Fame class of 1993

John Elway, Quarterback

Denver Broncos

1983 - 1998

Hall of Fame class of 2004

Ray Rice; Running Back

Baltimore Ravens

2008 - present.

Side note; Ray Rice and Barry Sanders are 5ft8, Maurice Jones-Drew is 5ft7, Darren Sproles (coming) is 5ft6. - proof you don't have to be a 6ft6 monster to play in the NFL.

(got this one down to about 12 minutes)
Maurice Jones-Drew ("Pocket Heracles"), Running Back
Jacksonville Jaguars
2006 - Present

Brett Favre, Quarterback

Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings

1991 - 2010

Marcus Allen; Running Back

Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs

1982 - 1997

Hall of Fame class of 2003

DeMarcus Ware ("B-Ware"), Outside Linebacker

Dallas Cowboys 

2005 - Present

Ed Reed, Free Safety (coming out of the tunnel before a game)

Baltimore Ravens

2002 - Present

Joe Thomas, Offensive Tackle

Cleveland Browns

2007 - Present

Warren Sapp ("The QB Killa") Defensive Tackle

Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders

1995 - 2007

Bruce Smith Defensive End

Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins

1985 - 2003

Hall of Fame class of 2009. 

Keenan Clayton, Linebacker

Philadelphia Eagles

2010 - present

Charles ("Mean Joe") Greene, Defensive Tackle

Pittsburgh Steelers

1969 - 1981

Hall of Fame class of 1987.

Walter Jones, Offensive Tackle

Seattle Seahawks

1997 - 2009 

Calvin ("Megatron") Johnson, Wide Receiver 

Detroit Lions

2007 - Present

Andre Johnson Wide Receiver

Houston Texans 

2003 - Present

Charles Woodson , Cornerback

Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers

1998 - Present

Chad Ochocinco, Wide Receiver

Cincinnati Bengals, New England Patriots

2001 - Present

(Not a lot of drawing more photo manipulation) 

Justin Tuck, Defensive End

New York Giants

2005 - Present

(this one is taken from a still from the Madden NFL game which is why he looks a bit...special)

Ryan Fitzpatrick, Quarterback 

St. Louis Rams, Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills

2005 - Present

(this is also taken from a still of Madden NFL)

Jaylun Foster, Defensive End

Buffalo Bills

He's actually a made up player (one of the Madden created Rookies that you can draft in the game)

So anyway, these are some of the posters I've created for the team I play on at the University, the Falmouth Tridents, using the above techniques. 

Player - Ray Lewis , Linebacker

Baltimore Ravens 1996 - present

Player - Jonathan Vilma, Linebacker

New York Jets, New Orleans Saints

2004 - Present

Player - Deion Sanders, Cornerback

Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins Baltimore Ravens

1990 - 2005

Hall of Fame class of 2011

This is what the video is going to look like ; (apologies for poor quality but I don't have premier on this computer yet) It's rotoscoped, the final thing will be a mix of rotoscope and pure animation (like the below clip is)

FAIL. Oh well.

Patchwork Production Bible




So I didn't get the go ahead. But it's alright. No big deal. Pressures off a little bit anyway. I'm gonna work on some peoples projects doing layouts and things like that and make (american) Football related videos with the team!

Above is basically what I handed in for the term. I was going to re-jig a few images but, doesn't seem like it'll make a whole lot of difference right now.

(these are the music tracks. They're in the bible but it doesn't seem to work from scribd)

SWEATBOX

I drew these too. Well...wacomed them.

This is what I showed. It's me playing the music on the geetar. So. Enjoy. hopefully.

Animatic and music.

It's actually a little bit sad. The music does it. It made me well up a bit!

Animaticfraijlousexpialidocious

Well I would have uploaded it but it's been an hour and a few reloads later and Blogger isn't playing ball either so. Forget computers I'm going outside...

I have been working. But, I don't really have anything new to post up. This is all my animatic so far because premier is being a total....you know what. It refuses to export the last 30 seconds of the thing too.

I've coloured it in and re-done parts and its much clearer but Premier isn't having it so, try again tomorrow. I'll just post that up so you see I am doing stuffs!

But yeh, I've pretty much re-written the script like 5 times. re-done the storyboard another 5 times, so it gets a bit boring to just post up tiny changes every other day, so I'm doing it all in one big chunk now!

Hopefully it's going pretty good. We've got an independent judger to watch our animatics on the 7th of December so that's the deadline for this, which gives me 8 days.

The sound hasn't been made yet because I've had to switch who I'm using (the other guy is swamped with work) and I'm yet to record my voice scratch track because we haven't managed to be free at the same time yet! Bit frustrating but thats how it goes I guess.

It's all still on schedule though, maybe even a bit ahead. the middle of the script has been really hard to work with and get right and it's probably still not 100% there at this point.

Anyhow

Short and sweet today.

IT WORKED. yes.

Sympathy Vote?

So...my project actually got selected to the next round? Everybody was saying I got asked some difficult questions so I may have gotten a sympathy vote, I don't know. Doesn't really matter does it?

So the next stage is to produce a full pre-production bible (majority of that is done in terms of design and concept work now just have to bring it to life with mockups etc) and a production animatic with scratch sound tracks.

So here is the starting point of everything, well, the second starting point after the script. The Production story board. So it's rough, it's not an art work it's merely telling the story and working out shots. I've done this all today (from 4th picture down) so it will likely change and be re-worked as I re-visit it during the week. But for now, here it is, I done it, can't say I haven't. Also the shots and things aren't numbered yet.

If you know the song Something in the Way by Nirvana you may spot the few references I've put in there as the 'Son' (unseen character) is based a bit on Kurt Cobain.

Also here's the opening monologue so you can hopefully see how it might work together.

"Why do we vie with ourselves? [pause]. Why does this happen? [pause]. Who robbed you of light? Of life? Who stole your dreams? Hidden deeper than any soul could hope to find. [pause] Was it me? Is this my fault? What is this evil that toys with us? My cage sits by your grave. The years won’t matter but it’s the days that I can’t stand. "

So up to here is where I've done today. The opening sequence I'm still not 100% sure about and I may cut it out all together. (this is also where the monologue ends but that may change which is why I haven't written it all in)









I've just noticed I've forgotten to write in here in the first panel the Mother says "you never did dress warmly" hence why she has the scarf.

(may not be totally clear on here but the neighbour is holding the door open which is why his left arm is out like that...production storyboard, therefore not expertly drawn)

I've also just added to this now, a red scarf now fades in with the blue scarf on the black screen and the two entwine so that the audience clearly gets the connection of the scarves.

Anyhows, time to dress my puppet as shes been naked for too long! Really need to crack on with sets and things so that's the main task for next week with the animatic.

The Pitch

I didn't go that well. I took a bit of a wrong angle pitching it and the "panel" (4 people from industry, i'll write their names when I find the bit of paper) decided to really pick up on that and ask a few personal questions which are now, having slept on it, thought about it and in the comfort of my own room, quite easy to answer but on the spot with about 150 looking at you are very difficult to answer and to be honest there were certain things I was trying not to tell 40 of my fellow 3rd years, and most of the 2nd year (the majority of whom I don't know that well).

But I could have pitched it better and maybe avoided those questions. Of course now 24 hours later I have thought of the perfect angle and things to say. As is the way.

In response to what all my tutors were saying in tutorials I spent the preparation for the pitch really focusing on questions for things like, how are you going to make it? Can you make a puppet? What's the sound track? What style is it? What are your influences? And all those kind of ones.

So when they were asked I think I answered them confidently, concisely and well.

They picked up on a contrast of styles when I said I've been influenced by the Brothers Quay and Susie Templeton's "Dog" but it was kinda sewn into a perso

nal question. So i mean, the question wasn't;

I see you've looked at Dog and Street of Crocodiles, please explain how you're using them to make your film.

I can't remember the exact wording but it was much more directed at the story rather than the style with a little bit of a personal jab between the relationship of me and my mother. And like I said, on the spot that's a bit tricky and I completely bombed. It really threw me.

If I had another chance at it I'd explain that Dog and Bothers Quay is purely for visual influence.

I was looking at how Suzie Templeton manages to subtly avoid lip sync with her puppets but you're still able to tell who said what and that I also took the poignancy and slightly dark feel to Dog.

Where as I also like the abstractness of the Brothers Quay, and the weirdness of it, but what I've particularly taken is their use of sound, minimal sound track and real emphasis on foley. (I said this in an answer to a question about sound but didn't say that this was the main thing I took from the Brothers Quay)

And then I would have declined to try answer the more personal stuff.

But the way the question was worded and directed, being infront of the majority of the animation course, it threw me and I fucked it up. Because it was in essence a simple question just asked in a difficult and complicated way. Thats what I thought any wa

y. But I can't blame anybody because I failed to decipher it. A couple of friends said they wished I had earpieces because they knew the right things to say, but it's much easier to think of answers to someone else's questions when you're in the audience.

The only annoying thing is none of them said anything remotely positive about anything I'd done. I'm not going to name names or projects, and I'm

not saying that mine is the best idea or the best concept by any means, but there were some drawings, and some ideas that were a lot weaker than mine that the "panel" had good things to say, and compliments. And I'm not the greatest, I know, but I think at least one of my pictures might have deserved a comment like "that's not bad you know". That's what's got me down about the pitch thing. It was a wholly negative experience.

However this didn't happen to just me, the project Wife Left Home also succumbed to negative questioning and criticism despite the fact that it was a decent idea and probably one of the best drawn projects that was pitched. I gave it a 9 f

or concept and style.

Anyway, rant over.

There's not much point doing any major work on this until I know if I got approved or not. At the end of the day though it comes down to the tutors really and they've all seen the script and been working on it with me and so know more about it than I can tell someone in 3 minutes.

So yeah I can do my dissertation for a bit and catch up on the chronic lack of sleep I've had the last week. I don't mind not getting approved either because the other stop-motion ideas are awesome and I'm more than happy to work on them and other 2D and 3D projects (helps being a jack of all trades sometimes). And I'm also going to work on an promo for the Falmouth Tridents (our uni american football team for which I play a

s a Defensive Back) and use animation to help raise awareness for the NFL in the UK.

you know what? Maybe I should have pitched that whole idea instead.