Shape Play

I got out the scissors and glue and tried out a few shapes to try and visualise what I'd imagine my baboon looking like. I want to keep the shapes fairly bold, unrealistic but still so you can recognise it as a baboon...

Apes galore!

To get ideas about character design, I looked at a variety of different types of apes from popular culture.


I. R. Baboon

Quite the contrast from wise old Rafiki, this baboon is dim-witted and very silly. His character design is full of interesting shapes though, like his muzzle and protruding buttocks (hehe).






The apes from Tarzan have a multitude if different facial expressions throughout the film, I'd like my baboon to be expressive too.







Kerchak has the type of build I'd like for my baboon- huge and scary-looking.



This is a great machete of Kerchak for the artists and animators to look at for a 3D view of the character. I will be making a machete to help when it comes to modelling my baboon.



Rafiki is wise and old, yet still lively, agile and mischievous. The Disney style characters tend to look too realistic, I'd like to exaggerate and play with the baboon's proportions a little so the character will be instantly recognisable.





This is Sky Ape, a flying super hero ape from a black and white comic book series. I like this character's simplicity.



Let's not forget Evil Monkey!



And of course I will look at imagery of real baboons too.

Look at those teeth!



I like mandrills as they are the most colourful baboon species.

Blue Baboon

8 years ago on a school trip to the south of France, we'd just canoed over to a small island and one of the instructors told us a joke that I've never forgotten. It was a joke about a big blue baboon...

In an exotic pet shop, a man is looking for a brand new pet. In the corner, is a huge cage with an enormous blue baboon inside. The man waves at it, the baboon waves back. Thinking of all the tricks he could teach this obviously intelligent creature, the man buys the baboon. Just as he was about to leave, the shop keeper called him back.

"Remember, lad, listen to my advice. Do not EVER touch this baboon. Not even once, it can be very dangerous."

Eager to get the baboon home, the man nodded and left, wondering about the shop keeper's words. But once inside his house, with his baboon nicely settled in, he seemed to forget them completely. After successfully teaching his baboon how to sit, the man reached inside the cage.

"There's a good boy..." he said, patting the baboon on the head.

At once, the baboon stood up causing the man to yank his hand back in surprise and step back from the cage. The baboon's eyes were wide, its teeth bared, fur standing on its end making him look twice as large and twice as menacing. The baboon yanked at the bars of the cage till they came loose.

The man turned and ran, just as the baboon came free and started to tear after him, screaming. Turning corner after corner through the house, the man reached the front door and pulled it open, looking back. The baboon was still chasing him, getting nearer and nearer. Nearly tripping down the stairs as he did, the man left his house in a hurry and carried on running down the road, hearing the baboon follow closley behind. Finally, panting, the man found himself backed into the corner of an alley.

The baboon came forward, eyes locked on the man's every move. It stood over the man, seeming to tower over the cowering figure. It reached out a large, hairy arm, claws glinting in the dim light. It opened its jaws, revealing two rows of sharp yellow teeth. Its finger tip reached the man's sholder, poking him.

"Tag, you're it" said the baboon.

I thought of this joke when it was suggested to me to have the interaction of 2 characters. Its full of action and provides plenty of opportunity for quality character animation and dynamic camera moves. Its a simple idea that i can deliver in a complex way. The characters are very different from each other, in size, species, personality and presence. There's a lot I can do with it.

The story needs a little editing to cut it down to what's important. Perhaps I could even cut out the pet shop and have the man get the baboon as a delivery with a note attatched- Perhaps he could be looking after the baboon for a friend? I'll have a think about it.

Before I start on the storyboard though, I'd like to make a start on the character design.

Specialist study 1- Aim

For this project I will focus on character animation and dynamic film language. I want to hold the audiences attention from start to finish. The soundtrack will be fully integrated into the film and complimentary to the action. I plan to keep the story simple but execute it in a complex way. Character design will be important, each character being different in looks, personality and aura.

I want to further my knowledge in character design, modelling and animation, film language both in short and feature films and simple narrative construction. I will experiment with techniques to enhance each shot, such as lighting, staging, exaggeration, timing, suspense and dynamic camera angles.

Films september- december

There are lots of films I really want to watch that are being released in the next few months.

9 (9th Sept)
This one slipped past my notice, its being released tomorrow in the US but a UK release date still hasn't been revealed. Shane Acker's "9", produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (director of Wanted), is based on Acker's short film of the same name.

The original short film is fantastic, boasting beautiful cinematography and characterisation without dialogue, simmilar to the opening of Wall-e. I hope the new feature film lives up to it.



Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (18th Sept)
I'm hungry for this one...



UP (9th Oct)




Fantastic Mr Fox (23rd Oct)



Planet 51 (4th Dec)




Where the wild things are (11th Dec)




Next year we've got Alice in wonderland, Toy story 3, Astro Boy, The Princess and the Frog

Website

I've been working on a website these past few days to display examples of my work in a portfolio and an online curriculum vitae. Hopefully this will make it easier if any opportunities come up and I need to show examples of my work with explanations of what I did.

Click here!

Test animation

Silhouettes are very easy to animate. I used flash for this, no tweening. I'm quite happy with the results, especially the birds landing and take off. I didn't have a lot of reference material for this so I did it mostly by eye.