Starting to Rig

I'm not very good at rigging so this is quite a process. Thank you digital tutors for walking me through this. Here is what I have so far. I've been focusing on the legs and set up the Ik's for them.

I was also excited to show the nose when it lays flat. I did this using the soft mod tool.

More on the Bird Model

I added some more to the bird model. I think I have the face done just a matter of finishing up the wings, feet, and tail.

The Main Scene

Here is the main stage layout for most of the action. Kirsten got this to me today complete with reference photos and I hope to hand it off to my modelers soon :)

Animatic Number 1

I decided to take my boards and time them out to get an idea of how long the animation would be and get a general idea of how it would look pieced together.

Here is the youtube link: Click here :D

Fixing Up the Characters

I tweaked the elephant a bit more and have been working on the bird character.


A bit of size comparison :D

More Concept Work

Here are some more sketches from Kirsten. She is working on the main landscape so I can get that modeled up first.

Elephant Texture

Dejaun knocked this out pretty quick for me. I think it turned out great and looks really nice in the light!

Time For the Bird

Here is an update on the bird. Worked on his face a bit.

The Elephant

Here he stands finished in all of his glory :) Ready to be rigged so I can debug/ fix the mesh as needed.

More Background Illustrations

Here are the newest sketches for the environments. Great stuff from my illustrator Kirsten, very beautiful!

Story Intervention

I have been meeting a lot recently with some teachers discussing the story and boards to make sure my idea was working. I have been getting a lot of great feedback!

Recently, CCAD had a story workshop with some of our friends at Shadowbox Live. I got some really great tips and information from this. I spoke with Stev Guyer, executive producer at Shadowbox, after the workshop and asked if he would meet with me which he was more than glad to. We had that meeting today and here are some of the things he had to say:

-liked the simplistic idea of the theme, first impressions and quality of messages
-liked surprise at the end with huge landscape instead of just being about bird getting fruit
-liked the elephants personality and was able to easily understand him
-bird needs some more development/ better character description
-emphasizing the idea the bird can't fly more
-it's important why I chose a bird and why he can't fly
-emphasize the elephants cautiousness by having him narrowly avoid stepping on something
-have the elephant climb into the environment over wall to emphasize the enclosure
-use the body of the creatures and facial expressions to really push emotions
-really use the eyes to emphasize points too
-take time at beginning to really establish birds desire for fruit
-very important to animate real meaning in the faces

More Elephant Goodness

I've been focusing a lot on the head this past week. I've still got a bit of tweaking to do but overall pretty happy! For the ear, I plan to use it as a cloth with pins :) That's why it looks weird.

Story Outline

Here is a more simplified story with outline.

Beginnings of the Bird Turn Around

Here are some sketches from the lovely Ms. Arnett. We met to discuss in more detail the bird shapes and break downs and here is the result. Plan to be getting the cleaned up turn arounds soon.

Basic Bird Shapes Here

I took the basic sketch for the bird character and worked out the basic shapes for him. Heres what he looks like so far for your viewing pleasure.

The Elephant en 3D

This is the elephant character in 3D just going over the basic shapes. It was very helpful to do this and see what it looks like in 3D space. It helped me to see some changes that I needed to make. (this was done prior to Sam's turn arounds).

Elephant Turns Are here :)

Sam made these beautiful illustrations for me to make the Elephant 3 dimensional!

Background concept # 1

Just got my first concept sketch from Kirsten for the backgrounds. Super excited about it.

This is the "general concept" of what the space and trees are going to look like.

The Storyboards

This is technically my 5th or so attempt at this but for the blogs sake we shall call this # 1. Here is the storyboard as it currently lies :)

The Money Shot

This is a board for the final shot. This is the epic shot where the bird sees this huge, vast world for the first time. Loving the colors but definitely need to tweak the design. Met with Kirsten to discuss the ideas for the backgrounds. Look forward to posting the sketches as they come in!

First Background Ideas and Concepts

Here are the concepts for the backgrounds I am going for. Starting with the older stuff to the newer stuff.Below is some reference images for inspiration. Really like Fosters Home for Imaginary friends and the way they use monochromatic backgrounds. I also love the stylized old school 2D cartoon backgrounds. So pulled some reference from there too.




Did a sketch for the first idea of doing an African water hole type setting using the orange color scheme.



Below is an image of one of the storyboards with color. Showing here the monochromatic blues put to use for the beginning sequence. Really want it to be centered around the elephant at first and the blues help to make him pop while making the bird more secondary.

Character Designs

Here are the sketches and designs that I have compiled so far. These are workings from the past weeks to the present.

This first set is back when the story involved a goose. Very crude rough sketches.

This set comes from the new (actual) story where I decided to go with a kiwi-like bird. It's smaller and will work better for the confined environment.



I took my ideas and sketches to Sam Arnett who has been working on my character designs. She helped me spruce them up and bring them to life.

We found the pieces we liked and turned them into these two characters. I like using the two contrasting colors blue and orange (complimentaries) for them to play on their differences. I think they turned out really cute! Good job Sam!!
This is the beginning of the turn around for the elephant. The final to be coming soon :)