Color Style Cont'd

So this is a kind of final iteration of what I am thinking for the coloring of the BG's in the real world. It is basically all gray and black, which turned out better than I thought it would. If this look gets a positive response I am going to move forward with it and color the rest of the BG's in a similar fashion. It is fairly simple to do and won't take long. Anyways here is the scene for your enjoyment.

Color Tests

For this week the bulk of my time was spent working on color for the backgrounds. I finished up a couple new backgrounds from my schedule but I then spent the rest of the time trying to find colors that worked. I am still unsure whether or not I like these ones I am posting but they are the best of the lot so far and I have done too many to post them all. My main goal in class today will be to work through these and find out what works but any feedback online will also be helpful. The color scheme was pretty muted and on a couple the quality when exporting was not so great but they still give an idea of color look. I colored these in flash and played around with some masks on a couple. Let me know what you think.

Character Animation

So for these next couple videos I got bored of doing the Backgrounds and decided to work a little with the characters and how they would appear inside the letter. Each movie represents a different characters entrance onscreen as animations inside the letter. Each scene is a different character transforming into an animation after being sucked into the letter and transformed from pixelation. I am still working with the characters so that they correspond a bit more to their live counterparts but I will change that once I have the pixelation shot.

As for the characters themselves, I went with a more amorphous blob look that transforms into a fanciful representation. I wanted the characters to have a flow to them and their movements, really smooth and to seemingly appear from nothing. I like some of the transitions but I need to work on their movements once they form up and have them play more of their instruments. I think they turned out pretty well though and I am looking forward to continuing work on their movements.

Letter Flying Away From House

This is something I put together a couple weeks ago and is probably my favorite scene so far. I am really happy with how the flying animation turned out and I am still trying to incorporate this speed and action to other scenes where the letter is flying. After telling the letter where to go, this shot takes place as it flies away from the boys home and begins its journey. I still need to place the jpeg images of the letter in for the blocked out grey letter box acting as a placeholder. Any comments would be appreciated.

Continued BG Work

As I have still not yet shot my pixelation yet I have been continuing to work on Backgrounds. I have been really happy with the shots and how they are turning out. I have settled on a line quality and style for the BG's but am still working out color.

I have all but decided against the use of moving holds on the BG's because some are complex and it was brought to my attention that it would distract the viewer. Especially in the case where the letter was moving across the screen as it diminished that movement and its importance in the narrative.

Instead I have been working with limited colors: greys, blacks, and playing with opacity. I feel like the initial part of the narrative the world should be slightly dull and rely more on the line quality and simplicity to contrast with more color later. Fuller color will be used in the world within the letter and I think that will contrast nicely. I am also planning to have the pixelation to be in black and white and I will color treat the parts where the characters are holding the letter to have slight color in the pixelation as they hold it. I will put up some of the coloring tests tomorrow after class hopefully. For now have a look at some of these new BG's and see what is working or how they could be more dynamic.

More Letter Test Animation

For these couple shots I have been playing with the letter and how it moves. I am still playing with the wing speed and how the letter moves but I think that it is quietly developing. The first video is when the the boy first puts the letter into the envelope and the wings react by flapping as it comes to life. The red is meant to represent the characters hands as he places the paper into the envelope. That of course will be pixelation once I do my shoot. I still need to add a few in betweens to smooth the motion out a bit but the look is something I think works. Also I need to fix how the paper is put into the letter but I will do that later.



This second video shows a different angle of the letter hovering outside the window, awaiting instructions on where to go next. I will probably change the up and down motion as it flaps its wings to be a little more pronounced but other than that I am fairly happy with how it turned out. I took the png images of the letter out of Photoshop and placed them into the flash scene. Let me know what you think or any questions about the motion.