Face Time & Skinless People! Mostly Skinless People...

Here's another entry being written on a plane to be eventually transcribed once I'm settled on terra firma. I'm leaving the US today, the very evening as it cruelly turns out that Maria Bamford, one of my favourite women in the world is going to be in New York. All in all though I couldn't have asked for a better first experience of the city, and by a miraculous feat of willpower I was able to stick to the work hours in the hotel room and am still on schedule. I can't say I was able to stick to a diet that suggested any modicum of self-respect, there being about a billion Dunkin' Donuts scattered around the island. But screw it, something had to give.

This morning before I headed on down to Newark airport I decided to crowbar in one last jaunt down at the seaport and see the current exhibition being held there. While the supposed intent of 'Bodies' is to document the more urgent functions of all our lovely gooey inside-bits - along with the numerous ways each organ can get messed-up and kill you - my fascination stemmed less from an eagerness to learn than a childhood awe of the visceral...viscera...and such. I recall vividly how alarming yet strangely compelling the visual of a skinless body was when leafing through one of the most potentially-traumatising pop-up books a six-year-old child could receive:

"The Human Body" Produced by Intervisual Communications, Inc. Published by Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1983

Years later, perhaps my favourite movie as a pre-adolescent was Clive Barker's Hellraiser, which featured a typical love-triangle premise - the wife, the cuckold and the brother-in-law - with a typically Barkerian twist of making the latter party a reanimated, skinless zombie.

Hellraiser: I know what you're thinking. Those oversized star earrings really are horrifying...

In it's first* sequel Hellbound one scene which carried particular resonance depicted a morbidly obsessed doctor at a loss for words as to a similarly revived woman's appearance. "Strange?" She offers, "Surreal? Nightmarish?"

At twelve I found all terms to be apt, so in seeing an exhibit of genuine (if preserved to the point of resembling sculptures constructed of wax and smoked meat) flayed cadavers at twenty-four, I found this morbid curiosity reignited. I have been meaning to take up life-drawing as by all accounts it is an ideal and essential supplemental skill to have as an animator. But beyond nudity, the full glory of human anatomy and weight could surely be studied to a greater and more beneficial degree with these as subjects? If it's common practice I have never encountered it, though procuring the corpses would be tricky...
This entry has so far been a little detached from 'House Guest', although it's strangely coincidental that the focus of the last week's work has been on a scene in which the zombified Hunter is in a not dissimilar state of excoriation. In the spirit of the previous 'Face Time' posts, albeit with a slightly macabre twist, here are some pencil tests for the final scene's expression changes.

In fairness my cartoonist license allowed for tenuous (at best) fidelity to actual human anatomy. Or, come to think of it, duck anatomy for that matter:

*They ended up making eight Hellraisers in the end. I'm not kidding. Each godawful straight-to-DVD sequel crushes my precious childhood affection for the original anew.

The Gun Show

I think if I were to ever own a gun, it would be a blunderbuss. Mainly because of the name. A great, big, oversized one that I'd mount somewhere so that people visiting my apartment couldn't miss it and would thus be compelled to comment.
"Oh, that?" I'd say with carefully-rehearsed nonchalance, "That's just my blunderbuss." I'd feign indifference while inside I'd be overly-gleeful that I'd had a legitimate excuse to say the word out loud.
These are the small pleasures that seem to genuinely make my day. While giving this some contemplation I made an executive decision to crowbar said firearm into my film. In the storyboard the Hunter and Duck face-off near the end with shotguns, but I figured the Hunter would probably collect different types of gun and, like me, probably just want to have a blunderbuss around so that he could have an excuse to say the word.
That's the great thing about creating characters, they can have whatever personality traits I bestow upon them, for I am their GOD. Here's an example - there's nothing in my film that lets you know that the Hunter has a secret, guilty fondness for Girls Aloud, but he does. How do I know this?
Because I fucking say so and I am his indisputable creator!
That power-trip is another gleeful pleasure. It's frankly astonishing that I'm single.
As the gun is pretty much ornamental, when the Duck tries to fire it he discovers it isn't loaded. Instead he opts to throw it at the Hunter's head. This action is represented in a very short, two-second shot, but one that took a lot of trial and error to get right, so I thought I'd break it down.

Firstly we have the animatic shot, which is just a still from the storyboard with the soundtrack already constructed. We hear the gun being thrown, connecting with the Hunter's head, his own gun going off and then the resulting rumble of debris start to come down from the ceiling. It's a fairly busy two seconds where pretty much every frame is sound-dependent, plus it's an important action that needs to be presented clearly. To start with we have the Duck's action, which comes down to three motions: the throw, the reaction to the Hunter's gun going off, and looking up at the ceiling as it starts to come down. When timed and animated the line test comes out like this:

I'm pretty pleased with the head movement and the slight squash/stretch with the reaction. After fiddling with the timing to get it exactly right the line test can be detailed, inked and coloured to get this:

For the Hunter we carry out the same process, breaking down his movement to three actions as well: about to topple after being hit, getting flung forward when his gun goes off, then cradling his head once he's settles back to his original position. Here's the line test once the timing has been worked out:

And, like before, once I feel happy with the movement, I do the inking and colouring to get this:

There's a bit of cheating going on with this shot. The first and most obvious one is that he (while sporting a thatch that would make Kay Parker seem bereft by comparison) has no actual genitalia to speak of. I figured I'd blur the crotch area for the finished film but throw in a bit of grisly detail because...uh...I'm not sure. There may be some quite deep-rooted issues there.
As far as the actual animation goes, you can probably tell that for a few frames his torso is the same drawing while his head and limbs are fully animated. This was really just to conserve time and labour - if I hadn't done the foolish thing and made him so hairy I probably would've drawn each of those frames separately. I've also employed some cartoonist license with the physical action itself - technically the gun's recoil would fling his body backwards, not forwards. But in a film where the antagonist is a reanimated, talking duck, the laws of physics aren't a primary concern. Mainly it's because this way works better with the way the shot is framed. Here's how the (nearly) finished shot works with the background and additional animation comped together:

This is obviously a funnier visual when viewed in the context of the film rather than as a perpetually-looping, miscoloured, animated GIF. As the animator, though, there's a desire to see everything you produce repeated and repeated until your brain no longer attempts to make sense of what you are looking at. As an audience member, well, there's a good chance that if you closed your eyes to sneeze at the wrong moment all the work in a shot like this would go unacknowledged. Hopefully this film will, when completed, come across as greater than the sum of its parts. That's a phrase, right? I've heard it somewhere.
Uh...how do I end this entry? Um...

BLUNDERBUSS!

Sorry, I panicked.

And here we are again...

In the wake of all that giddy rotoscoping wonderment it's now back to business as usual, although at a slightly faster pace. I'm getting between one and four shots completed a day (which averages out at just a few seconds, which is still heartbreakingly slow) and am determined to have the penultimate scene which includes all the complex animation finished by xmas. From what I've been able to determine, the other scenes in the film are far less demanding, so I want to have one scene that really lets me indulge in some different methods and styles to have under my belt for when I am assessed.
Here are a few more stills from said scene to give some indication of how it's all turning out:

Hope you all appreciate the bare flesh. I would like to post some clips soon as the visuals in motion sell the whole thing a lot better. So there's something to look forward to!
And away I go!

At last we get some nudity!

Well, I kept my word, because that's just the kind of guy I am. Shame about all the other horrible facets of my personality though. Anyways:

These visuals are developed from some of the layouts that were shown in previous entries over July and August. I figured that the small handful of you who have stuck with me all this time deserved some full-frontal nakedness. It's my way of saying thanks.

A Laudable Lack of Organisation

My devout professionalism when it comes to the film-making process is...well, non-existent. So I doubt it will come as much of a surprise to anybody to learn that, rather than going through the required layouts logically and methodically, with a sense of order for ease of reference, I've been spewing them out at random. When I've exhausted every conceivable layout and pose from the storyboard I'll be faced with the unenviable task of sorting them all chronologically by scene, then by shot. In creating all this extra work for myself I've come to the conclusion that I am, in fact, a closet masochist. I should just cop to it and start paying some sallow dominatrix to beat me senseless every weekend.

Until I can get together the scrilla to indulge that vice, here are some more examples to show how scattered the whole thing has become:

Two more drawings of the Hunter having gone crazy (a bunch more from this scene were posted here). The latter shot accomodates a double-barreled shotgun being raised into the frame.

These drawings have very little facial detail as they will be silhouetted in the colouring process save for the eyes. To keep the character from going too off-model and unrecognisable without features you can see some consideration has gone into the shape of the head.

Our good friend the Prospective Lay. The pose of her in a seated position was drawn in a manner that allows the character to be placed against two different-angled backgrounds and give the impression that she's shifted her position. Whenever I can cut corners I can, I'm just that crafty.

Hands - they're a bitch to draw on their own, and when they're attached to arms it's even trickier. Lots of erasing, redrawing and staring at my own hand in that position went into these.

That feathery prick of a zombie duck is notable by his absence this time around. Rest assured he'll reappear soon enough...

More O' The Same

Just a quickie to throw some more examples of poses your way. These are from the earlier scenes around the time the Duck and Hunter first meet:

The Hunter at home, unaware of the turn his life is about to take. I was thinking of throwing in his arms sticking to the sofa leather a little bit as an extra detail.

An upper-body shot that will probably only warrant some hair movement, next to a set-up for a basic profile-view walk cycle

The first reveal of the Duck, although this level of detail will only be glimpsed for a split-second (lightning illuminates the design which is otherwise in silhouette). I'm a glutton for punishment.

The subsequent reaction shot from the Hunter (note that with this drawing and the previous one I've tried out some dodgy POV perspective work). This is probably the only example of symmetry in body language used in the film.

Two befuddled reaction shots from the Hunter as the Duck's more eloquent side emerges.

A fairly standard Hunter pose alongside a setup sketch for a forthcoming challenge: The Duck's 'hop' cycle.

These profile shots can be used for reference on numerous occasions, chiefly in the 'first meeting' scene when the Duck is seemingly threatening the Hunter with violence of some sort, as well as a later kitchen scene in which the two are arguing over a missing calzone.

As a plethora of poses are piling up persistently (heh) I don't imagine it's worth posting up every last one as it would fully engulf the blog. From this point on I'll stick to highlights or layouts for specifically complex sequences and give the more boring ones a miss. It's how I keep things fresh, yo.
'Til next time...

An Appropriate State of Mind

Some of you in the UK may have noticed that it's been a little wet of late. Others may be too busy floating through the deluged remnants of the town in which you used to live to be reading this. With some luck Bristol managed to be well-situated for this...situation, although it took me an extra five days to get back home after the trains stopped running out of Cheltenham. This wasn't so much a problem in itself, after all it's nice to get away, I can draw wherever I am and, push come to shove, I can swim. However, when the threat of Cheltenham's water supply being turned off presented itself, I made a hasty exit. I'm a man who likes his toilets in working, flushable condition.
Now that I'm home and dry, literally (derp), I can look back at the last few days' work and acknowledge that my frazzled mindset could only have worked in my favour with these layouts. These are some images from the penultimate scene as previously seen in storyboard and animatic form, in which the Hunter has lost his mind. To make this point clear a lot of the poses are off-model and a little grotesque.

These four are cutaway shots that will be used for reactions to dialogue. There's a distinct increase in stubble and a rockin' case of bed-hair going on, as well as the absence of glasses so that I could throw in some crazy eye-acting.

A reveal of the Hunter in the buff, with some shameless shotgun positioning. Naked + hairy + crazy=funny...as long as it's a cartoon. The proportions of the gun and the relationship between his torso and lower gut are a little off and will need to be redone when it is all inked in.

I hope these have enriched your day. I'm off to run all the taps and flush the toilet repeatedly while laughing manically, for no reason other than I CAN. See ya later.

What A Poseur

What is it precisely that you feel you need to make your day complete? If your answer was anything other than 'Why, to see more of Ben Mitchell's poses and layouts for his film, obviously!' then prepare to be bitterly disappointed.
It's called 'life', chump, get used to it.
However, if that was your answer then get ready to squirm and writhe with unrestrained glee, as that's exactly what you're gonna get! Isn't life grand? Here are a selection from the 'Prospective Lay' scene:

Setting up a walk-cycle, fiendishly framed so that no leg-work will be required.

These three are stand-alone cutaway shots designed to show the Hunter's increasing anticipation of bedding his ditzy gal, and his horror at being cockblocked when the Duck moves in on her

A number of sequences will come from this one, with and without the presence of the Duck, who'll be brought in as a separate layer. Proving that anything can look cute if you can make its eyes (or, this case, eye) big and tearful.

The slightly mismatched proportions of the Prospective Lay's head/body are done to accomodate two differently-framed shots (one of her face and the other of the Duck). I'm pretty proud of the not-so-subtle boob-nuzzling in this sketch and the one previous. It took a lot of trial and erasing to get right. Welcome to my life.

Oof, Maddon'! It's all over!

I'm a mess of nerves and emotions. For the last seven years I've been anchored by the ever-stabilising institution that is, of course, 'The Sopranos'. In a world that inexplicably finds worth in shows like 'Ugly Betty', the trials, torment and tao of Tony Soprano shone so brightly that to watch five minutes of an episode was to risk permanent retinal damage. Every episode was a masterclass in cinematography and screenwriting, not to mention the fact that it was pissingly funny. With dross being recommisioned left and right, leaving potentially brilliant shows ('Deadwood', 'Carnivale', 'Arrested Development' and about a billion others) on the chopping block, it's a genuine wonder that 'Sopranos' lasted as long as it did. For six (technically seven) seasons the dips in quality were so minimal they barely even warrant acknowledgment, and - without going into details for the sake of people who haven't seen the ending - it could not have gone out on a more fitting note. The best thing of all is it has incensed countless fans who were desperate for a more conventional finale, and whose opinions simply must be heard on message boards throughout the web.
So this blog has apparantly become exactly what it isn't supposed to be - an excuse for me to expunge unsolicited opinions on pop culture. Fortunately, 'Sopranos' was the only show I've ever felt motivated to talk about (aside from the animation 'research' case studies) and it's now finished - so that's that over before it began.
To link the previous sentiment back to the subject of my film would not only be tenuous, but audacious - I'd be u'pazzu to suggest my output was equatable with that of David Chase. Nonetheless I'll link it anyway. What are you gonna do about it, leave this site? I'd like to see you try.

No, please don't go! It's so desperately lonely here...

My film's ending isn't nearly as inspired, but it's a lot better than it was in the original draft of the script. The proposed resolution saw the Hunter snap and shoot the Duck in his bed, only to pull back the bedsheets and reveal he's blasted a pillow instead. The Duck, hearing the noise, emerges from the bathroom and sees the Hunter, shotgun in hand (up to this point the ending has remained the same in both versions). The Duck and Hunter have one final, blazing row, ending with the Duck's exclamation that 'altruists are just narcissists who extend goodwill to make themselves feel better than you'. He storms out, determined to make it on his own, leaving the Hunter a miserably guilty wreck. The final scene sees the Duck show up on the doorstep of the kid who stitched him together, unable to break his pattern of dependency.
While perhaps more observational and true-to-life, this ending never sat right with me and in trying to make its point it lost a lot of comedic elements. The revised ending abandons all attempts at social commentary, instead opting for random cartoon lunacy. While nobody would be up-in-arms about knowing the way this film ends (compared to, say, knowing that 'The Sopranos' ends with Furio Giunta returning to New Jersey, killing Tony and whisking Carmela off to an idyllic happy ending in Italy...whoops, sorry) I've made it so you have to highlight the description of the final scene to read it:

The Hunter chases the Duck through the house, firing and missing along the way. When he is finally cornered in the Hunter's trophy room, the Duck attempts to sweet-talk his way out of his demise. The Hunter continues to shoot until a mounted gun is dislodged and lands in the Duck's hands. It is now a face-off, and after an impassioned speech the Duck fires only to realise his newly-aquired firearm isn't loaded. Instead he throws the gun at the Hunter's head, who reels back and fires into the ceiling causing the entire house to collapse. When the smoke clears the two corpses are visible in the rubble, and both are struck by lightning and brought back to life (for a second time in the Duck's case). Six months later, the two have made a life for themselves as zombies living in the debris that was once the Hunter's house.

As the teeny-weeny thumbnails are most likely too small to give anything away, here are the final storyboard scans for the ending (if you want to know what happens, click to make 'em all big like):













And just for the heck of it, you can look at the concept art for the scene originally drawn up months ago by clicking here.

So that's the end of my film's storyboards, soon it'll be time to bite the bullet and actually start working on something that will move. In the meantime I'm going to get me some capo cuoll and stave off Sopranos cold-turkey by whipping out those DVD box-sets.

A salut!