‘Depth’ critique.

Overall I feel that with ‘Depth’ we had a success. I felt we stuck consistently to the brief which was to include an environment, a character, ensuring there is lighting; camera, sound, and also that we had to convey a sense of place, to create a consistent world. I felt that with ‘Depth’ we did that very well. By using combination of occlusions, fish effects, bubble, shadows, along with moving cameras, and the added atmospheric sound I think we created a realistic world for Dweeb. I also added in a short part where we see, what Dweeb sees, just so we feel like we are on board this journey to keep the audience more involved.

I felt that we were also consistent with the brief in that we took inspiration from a poem. Felt Gordon and Myself worked well in the early stages of the summer to have a rough idea of what the story would involve the characters and the general tone of the film.

I feel that by starting with the camera on the Diver boat we got to effectively change the atmosphere to something darker, something unknown. I also feel that by including an array of animals for Dweeb to react with and anticipate allowed us to really make him believable as his own character. The puffer fish scene especially emphasises Dweeb in an unknown environment exploring the depths of the ocean, and this allowed us to gradually begin to crank the tension up toward the tense boat exploration.

I was pleased with the visual look of the film, however if I was to be critical I would say that If I had the chance to go back and re-do the film I would definitely improve the textures on the animals in particular to get a more realistic surface texture. Such as adding fur to the penguins, and feathers to the birds. I would have maybe also looked at another way to make the spines of the puffer fish to more accurately reflect the movement of real life puffers. Perhaps this could have been achieved by adding dynamic hairs into each spine and adjusting the gravity and friction to adjust the movement of them. I also may have gone back and reworked the mouth and teeth of the shark to make it more highly realistic.

I do feel however that we were let down in the production bible area, an area which I feel should have been shorter and more about the concepts and images that we had brought together over the months of hard work. I feel that in general our work ethic was of a high standard and all team members contributed well to the project.

Also I agree with the feedback from most people who have seen the film and the extended versions, commenting that the extended version works better. I do agree that the shorter version could have perhaps been cut slightly different to ensure that the whole reason for the underwater mission is not surpassed. However I do feel as a whole piece the ‘Depth’ movie was a success and was great to be a part of.

Inspirations, Influences and Aspirations.

I would say from an early age I have always been interacting with the world of animation, whether it be from watching the moving image in my favourite cartoons such as ‘Biker Mice form Mars’, ‘The Teenage Mutant Turtles’, ‘Looney Tunes’ or the ‘Adventures of Spiderman’ to reading the still images of comics and graphic novels. These were cartoons that I watched day in day out for years. I used to watch these short cartoons all the time. I also used to get crazily excited every month when I received the newest issue of any ‘Spiderman’ comic that my Gran used to post to me. To be honest I don’t think it was the stories that really particularly hooked me, but it was some of the outstanding compositions within the novels. I also think it was my need to try and draw these characters and poses to the exact detail that kept me hooked on drawing; I just strived to get the images as perfect as the illustrators had done. These comics kept me occupied for the entire month to come. It moved out of just Spiderman to the point where any ‘Marvel’ comic will do. I was just addicted to drawing these characters. It was all these hundreds of characters and back stories that got my imagination questioning why couldn’t I be doing this? I have always been quite a regular drawer and painter and I find great interest in trying to get my artwork to look like the same as what I see.

I still remember the trip to see the ‘Disney’ release of ‘Hercules’ by Ron Clements and Jon Musker, I just loved it. Everything about it just made me want to be a part of it. And by this time I was drawing Disney characters, Simpsons everything, and I sat every now and then in the theatre and was like I could do that, but how. The film with its characters and scenery storyline along with the music, makes for a really memorable film for me. I remember having the ‘Hercules’ movie figures and used to pose them up and try to draw them in my own scenes.

However, I never really thought about animation until the advent of John Lasseters ‘Toy Story’. That movie really started to intrigue me. I came out of the cinema just like everyone else. ‘Wow’. It was just a one of a kind movie. But it was one of those movies that just made you believe that the impossible might be possible, and made me have a serious look at all the toys in my room! It was with ‘Toy Story’ that I would begin to question the process behind the films.

I remember when I was younger, once family started to realise I was quite a good drawer, I used to receive painting sets and drawing materials every birthday and Christmas. Having looked over at my brothers to see more toys and guns and robots whereas I seemed to have more brushes and paints, however it didn’t bother me because I was just addicted to my drawing. One Christmas I received an animation cartooning book by Preston Blair, but I never really took any notice at the time.

In 2000, my family and I took our first trip to Orlando. Having already been to the Paris resort of ‘Disney’ we were extremely excited, not just because Florida too had a bigger ‘Disney’ park, but the fact that we were all massive ‘Marvel’ fans, and they had the islands of adventure parks as well. I remember having sketchbooks with me on the flight over. I bought a few ‘on the plane’ comics, and I just drew the ‘Marvel’ characters for the entire 8 hour flight. I always used to have real trouble with ‘Hulk’, getting him to look just like theirs was always a hair pulling task.

After our visit to the ‘Marvel’ islands I was just inspired by the amount of artwork that the parks contain, and this encouraged me to draw every night while on holiday there. Every opportunity I was sketching away. But it wasn’t until a trip to ‘Disney’s MGM’ studios where I began to consider animation as a future. At this park they had an animation studio where u could go in at half an hour periods and you could draw a ‘Disney’ character of the artist’s choice and he would show you a breakdown of just how to draw the character. As a group we would then try and emulate what he just did and at the end he would show all the drawings on the big screen for everyone to see. At first I really didn’t like the idea but thinking back I would only thank my parents for urging me to have a go. It just so happened, that the character that I had to draw was A.A Milne’s ‘Piglet’ from ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’. It was great to see just how they broke the character down into circles and triangles before lining him in. I had never really drawn in this way before. It was this Park Attraction that got me to get the Preston Blair book back out from the back of the closet.

Although I have always continued to draw and paint for my entirety of High school, because I was so heavily involved in life drawing and self portraits for my portfolio I still never really knew which line my career would take. At one point architecture or civil engineering was a hard choice to shake off after people continually advising me that doing art for a living isn’t realistic. ‘There’s no money in the industry’. While on the other hand I had my art tutors telling me that it would be a waste if I did anything but fine art and continue painting. And although I greatly enjoy painting I think what really gets me ticking is bringing life to things that don’t exist. I have always dreamed of working on films like ‘Monsters inc’, ‘Toy Story’ and more recently ‘Up’. I just love the way these movies make you feel. I would love to give that feeling back to another generation by watching something that I have made or been a part of.

In the end it was to be animation, and I think I’ve made the right choice. So it hasn’t really been animation from the start for me, so many of my influences haven’t been until the last few years. Although I have always loved drawing and watching films and movies I hadn’t really looked at them with my animator’s hat on until recently.

I am a huge fan of all the work that has been done by ‘Pixar’ and also ‘Dreamworks’, they never fail to amaze me, and even in their shorts they still emit that same magical experience. So all the work of these movies has had a great impact on the way I think about my own stories and characters. I would say that in reference to my current degree project I would say that ‘Up’ by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, and ‘Madagascar’ by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath has had the most impact on the post production of the short film. I hope that I can bring the silly hilarity of ‘Madagascar’s’ ‘anything can happen attitude’ with the heartfelt uplifting story of Up to my own project. I am also a huge fan of the penguins from Madagascar and remain one of my all time favourite characters in an animated film.

After watching films like these I love to go and see where it all began, and especially with ‘Up’. I love looking at the guru behind its creation, Ricky Nierva of ‘Pixar’. He was put in charge of the entire visual look of ‘Up’ and I believe he done an extremely good job. I also love all the little details that go into these films, the backgrounds, the little objects that just make the characters a little different to all the other films, and especially the stories, that Nierva himself believes is the reason Pixar movies stay on top. His concept work is a great influence on my own work. I love researching through some of his initial thought processes from films that I watched when I was younger such as ‘A Bug’s Life’. It’s great because along with bringing back some nostalgia from when I was younger it also allows me to really see the development and ideas of someone whose work has proved to be such a success and influential in Hollywood.

It wasn’t until the last few years that I have really found an area that I feel I can work to my potential, 3D. I’m not sure if it’s something that had always appealed to me. Whether its having the desire to try and get things to look life-like and feel real, or whether its influence from films like ‘Toy story’, ‘Monsters inc’ and more recently films like ‘Wall-e’ and the spectacle of James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ that draw me to this area of the industry.

Another area of the Animation world that I have always been interested in is the visual effects industry. The film ‘300’ directed by Zack Snyder, probably a film I rate in my ‘Top 5’ ever movies is a film I would have just loved to have done some work on. Some of the cg especially in the fighting scenes is just immense. Every time I watch the movie it just inspires me to go and start reading more about textures and rigging and also more recently looking at camera types and angles, which will hopefully insure a good fourth year film. I would have to say though, that the horror genre is also an area which I have a great appetite for. Having a quick glance at my DVD collection I can see its probably eighty percent horror. So this is also an underlying ambition of mine to direct my own horror movie. I just love the suspense and thrill from films like the Stranger, Hills Have Eyes and the Ruins and the more recent phenomenon of Paranormal Activity.

So really to sum up, I have always really been an artist at heart, and will probably always continue to draw and paint until I can’t. Hopefully I can accomplish some of the goals that I have aforementioned, whether it be to give that magical experience to someone else through some work of my own, whether I can get the opportunity to work on some awesome movies of the future, or whether I can achieve the ultimate goal of being part of a film that makes it into somebody else’s ‘Top 5’.

The Tripod Walker

The Tripod walker Boris uses to cause havoc, was inspired by the aliens from War of the Worlds in their gigantic tripods.



A towering machine both intimidating and awesome for the skunk to drive.
I wanted to try and get a similar scale and feel to the one we use in the film.








The final design for the Tripod by Gordon Henry.
Its Legs are gas chambers the skunk can use to capture and intoxicate innocent creatures. It also has 2 large exhaust vents on the back from where it blasts even more toxic gas to incapacitate everything. Its legs are controlled by pistons and hydraulics connected to gears on its knees for a very mechanical motion.

Boris the manaical skunk

Boris the main character is a Striped Skunk with a bad temper. Left alone and ignored everyday for years in his enclosure until he snaps and vows to destroy everything.






Left : an example of a striped skunk, used as the inspiration and development of Boris.







Syndrome from the incredibles, was a main inspiration for the skunks evil characteristics. Boris has similar qualities and background and motive.











The final design of Boris, produced by Dave Gorman.
He needed to be short and fat to fit easily inside the tripod. We also wanted to make him evil looking, but cute and cuddly at the same time so people can sympathise with him.

FUR-BREEZE Inspiration and origins

Many of you will wonder where the idea for fur-breeze (working title - suggestions welcome) came from. The idea has gone through many stages of development. Initially Dave and I both had our own ideas for what the 4th year film should be. I had plans to continue our first semester idea "Depth" by looking into how the main character dweeb is created on a production line (like in a car manufacturing plant). That would have been god fun to create and animate, with lots of possibilities regarding visual effects. My other idea was about Revolutionary Terrorist Gorrillas (R.T.G) fighting to free the african rainforests from the oppression of logging companies, farmers and hunters. Led by Che` Gorrilla the band of freedom fighters would lay waste to the infrastructure of the surrounding lands.

Dave initially thought about a zoo set in the future that has become run-down and dilapadated (Abes Odessey style) and is now patrolled by robots. These robots are bored from the lack of visitors and decide to turn on their animal subjects. Taking matters into their own hands, the animals set up plans to escape "Great escape meets madagascar" style. Then one day over coffee, Dave and I decided it woukd be funnier if the robots were torturing the animals in humerous and ridiculous ways. Bears and monkeys being shot out of cannons at giant targets painted on mountains miles away, James Bond esque torture scenes with laser beams and gas, and solitary confinement cells where animals plot ways to escape.
The idea then changed into more of a p.o.w camp for animals with robots as the guards. We discussed multiple settings for the idea, thinking it could either be on a spaceship heading for a new planet, whith the animals oblivious to the fact that they are in space, or it could be set on earth far in the future where people no longer bother about zoos.

After all of this we decided focussing on one main character would be better than trying to show an entire zoo worth of animals and robots, so we came up with the idea of Boris the skunk being ignored and outcast by the crowds of people in the zoo. To keep robots involved in the story, we made boris construct a huge machine to help him exact his anger on the other inhabitants. Later on we decided to include the smelly youth ( a young enthusiastic fan of the zoo, who is most excited about seeing the skunk) in the film to help bring an end to boris` reign of terror by making him the only fan of the enraged skunk. The skunks main reason for setting of on a swathe of destruction was that he had no fans and was left on his own everyday. The smelly youth could be the one to bring balance back to the zoo?

Current objectives

We are currently producing as much artwork as we can for the final production bible, and have been concentrating on character design and concepts these past few weeks. Paintings, marker renderings and line drawings are all under construction. Since we are aiming for a 20 page production bible, thinking about the layout and contents of each page, and what we are going to design it like is definately at the front of our minds. We have looked extensively at the art books and production bibles produced for various pixar and disney films to get inspiration for layouts and contents. Our plan is to produce something similar with a variety of styles and concepts in a hard back cover.

Character height sheet

This is the most recent character sheet, with our chosen final designs layed out beside each other. For previous character concepts, please refer to the production bible. Not all the characters will likely be in the final film, but for the moment they help flesh out the idea.