Santa Test animations

these are a couple of test animations for Target X-Mas. The point of them is to visualise current ideas on how things would move allowing for changes that would mke the film better.
The Talking test was a little too rigid in the facial features meaning later adaptations allowed for more mustache movement.
the walk test was a failed attempt at how santa would walk. my thought process was that because he was such  large guy he would waddle, and i didn't take into consideration that the arms would move independantly to allow for better motion. in the end my walk test wasn't used at all, and Santa doesn't even appear to walk at any point during the film.

Bug Bombed test animation

Done as proof to the director that I can animate with the characters to the degree that they are satisfied with.
Another test set by the director to see if i can be trusted to work on their film. whilst I can understand the need to make sure everyone is on model, I feel like they are adding a little too much to see if they can trust us. I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't for the lack of character guides making it hard to actually draw the characters on model.
For me the movement works, I went a little overboard with eggman rolling towards the camera but i can't help myself. If I was to do this again, I would make the movement more snappy and smooth.
I would have a faster start to BC getting up with a slower followthrough and i would attempt to get the distance rolled by eggman consistant

Layouts For Target X-Mas

The Bottom three are character layouts whilst the top one is closer to a place holder background layout. The idea is to have the characters in the area and in proportion to the enviroment and any other characters in the enviroment making it easier for the animators to draw the characters with out having to worry about size and placement of the characters.
thankfully i had a lot of character guides to work with allowing the characters to be as on model as I could get. They could be better, which means I shoud have done more character practice like i've done with the Bug Bombed Characters.
The Background Layout, whilst mostly a place holder, all that'll be needed to bring it up to propper background art is more detail and colouring and shading. which i will do at a later date.

Bugged Bombed Character Learning

This is my attempt at learning the character designs for Bug Bombed. I had character reference but no actual character guides that told me how they were constructed. This was changed when I had done these, and even when the guides where brought out, they weren't the best in describing how to draw the characters. This combined with the preciousness the directors had for the design made it hard for a lot of people to be trusted to actually start working on the film.
thankfully I managed to get my head around the design, afterr asking what shapes the characters were composed of and more on ow to draw them.
I should have done them more rough, or not gone the extra mile by adding colour or clleaning up the lines. if i had done them in rough i could have gotten more done and sooner allowing me to work on the film sooner.

attempting the new background style

here are a couple of images of me trying to get the correct art style for backgrounds. i have been able to get the houses and the sky relatively well and could actually work for the film, except for the sky which was immediately  decided to be changed after i showed it to the art director... wasn't me.
the snow is where i am struggling, primarily because i'm getting a overly saturated versions of what is needed. this could be because i'm pressing too hard with the pen, but thats because i am not confident ive done anything to the image when i use it as it comes out invisible. what i need to do now is keep trying it and hopefully i will get it right eventually.

background concept

these are a couple of early background designs, which will be dropped when actual pre-production starts, probably because the number of lights in the buildings is too ridiculous to do for an animation. the designs that are actually being used cut the number dramatically opting for a more side on view which is actually better and more suited for the film. my stuff looks good but takes too much effort to create than the results it provides.

Storyboard Panels

so here are some fun storyboard panels for the Santa Assassination film, or Target Xmas in the later renaming. the first rough version was for the first rough version of the storyboard. it was a little too detailed or that versions with colours and all but apparently it was good enough for the pitch version of the storyboard. it is only now that i realized that the colourised pitch storyboard panel. it works for being a colourised storyboard panel created for the purpose of showing off the film. the slay is different in style because the design for the slay changed from the reference image to the actual design. its alright but still holds the marks of me not fully knowing the style yet and there not actually being any character tern around, or i just didn't know about it.
the bottom left is the best storyboard panel used for the same reason as the top right image, however this was a clean up and colouring of Jamie's storyboard image meaning it was always on model and i was given a bit of advice for it making it as good as it is.
the last one is besed off of a really bare early storyboard image, as i was still trying to fully understand the art style it isn't as gorgeous as it could have been.
maybe if i went back over them now they would look really good.