The Season's Greetings.

Expressed the only way I know how. Through the medium of hurriedly drawn Doctor Who fan-art.

I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

A Band Member.

The first member of the Brass-band to be housed inside the Music box.
This chap shall hold a Trumpet, hence the angled arms.

A very basic armature within due to the minimal animation required from it

A pretty much finished figure, might repaint him in a more vibrant red, but I'm satisfied with how he looks thus far.
The idea behind the look was a more simplified view of the character Mr. Prigley/Finsbury (the new name under consideration), if that was at all possible.
The "fun" of making a Trumpet now begins.

Colour Tests

Colour tests for the Music box itself designed by fellow team member Hon Hou.

Set Test 1

The set draws inspiration from the animated television series "Paddington" from 1975 which had a mixture of 3D stopmotion animation puppets in a 2D surrounding. It uses a beautifully hand-drawn style with an elegant yet simple design.

 A style reference.

A Mantle-Clock. Minus hands for animation purposes.

The Box Pt II

 Fiddly business, shall be better with wood and hinges, the intended method of construction.

On going production

The Box.

 The Music Box now begins to take shape.
Built out of Balsa wood and the lid commandeered from the reference box.

Please excuse the mess.

As of yesterday (Tuesday 6th December 2011), my project is now going ahead into production. Shall be appearing sometime next year...

The Tests

A couple test photos for lighting.

The Finished Animatic.

The animatic for "Mr. Prigley's Mechanical Orchestra" with soundtrack compiled by Paul Freeman.

The Moodboard.

A collected moodboard of inspirations, references and clocks...
More moodboards possibly to come.

The Animatic.

The animatic for "Mr. Prigley's Mechanical Orchestra" minus the soundtrack.

The Schematics.

These sheets are dealing with the preparation for physically building the music box and the layout of the set in a floor plan including decorative designs and construction plans.

There shall be three versions of the music box. One will be in-scale with the animation puppet for Close ups/Medium Close ups, one will be a full size prop for the reveal of the contents as well as for Long shots, and the final prop will be built for Close ups of the figures inside the box, this will be the largest prop of the three.

The larger props will be built from light-weight wood and card and the single smallest proper will be a mixture of card and sculpted elements.

The Designs.

After talking to a couple classmates, my head was cleared somewhat and new ideas popped in. These sheets show the development of the idea of the music box, pushing it further than the original idea I had conceived did.

The Story.

 The story for Mr. Prigley written on seven Cue-Cards. Part of my production process that, naturally, helps in visualising the story, putting it in a written chronoligical order.

Something from the Weekend

Over the weekend I re-watched Shaun of the Dead, which is certainly one of my all-time favourite films for many reasons. Too many to mention in this brief update.
I decided to tackle sculpting Simon Pegg, someone who's been on my "list" for quite some time now, to save time, to fit in inbetween larger projects I have ongoing at this time, I decided this sculpt would be a caricature type sort of thing.
Using a ball of tin-toil as a very basic armature/core for the sculpt which I sculpted around with my regular clay, this, is what I came up with.

I think it works in a way, something doesn't quite sit right for some reason, might well try it again at some stage, but I'm pleased with this one for the time being.
Right, back to work.

Work Placement Bits

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the 8th and 9th of November, the only days I could have, I had a brief work placement period with the animation company, HRA, Hibbert Ralph Animations for those who dispise abbreviations.

I was given a little animation brief, to make an advert for the presumably fictional "Fruity Fruit".

I think I came up with something nice, considering the amount of time I had to work on it.

Lines-Test

I then had a brief session in scanning in the frames and watched as they were adjusted and composited by Pete, who was terribly busy rendering an advert for Longleat. I felt a bit bad distracting him from his actual work, but he seemed willing to oblige.

I feel a little annoyed by the slightly jittery nature of the animation at times, but I think its not too bad atleast.

Free-time animation.

Whilst waiting for Pete to return from lunch to help composite my frames and backgrounds, Neil, the chap who kind of took me under his wing, said I could amuse myself with istopmotion. "Entertain us James" were his words. Feeling a little daunted, I plucked my phone from my pocket, grabs a sheet of animation paper and a pencil and start drawing.
I planned something a little more intricate to follow, but I ran out of time. Annoyingly.
But I like it.
I greatly enjoyed this placement I must say. It allowed me to get back into the groove of hand-drawn animation which I greatly needed I think.

Developmental Things

 With hands.

Music Box designs.

 Type 1

 

Type 2

                                       Story outline with notations                                           

The Birth of a Pensioner...

Prigley is slowly coming together, hands and shoes to come, obviously. I like the semi-translucency in the ears quite a bit...
I think he's developing nicely actually.