Week 3: Production Schedule

This is my production schedule commencing Week 3. I have had to reconsider the things I need to work on now that I have won my pitch for Nickelodeon. I will now be spending more time this week developing my storyboards and concept work for Nickelodeon which I previously was not intending to do. I also intend to make major headway on my Veronica project and try and get a large part of this final piece out of the way so I can concentrate on ROA and Nick. As for my showreel I did make alot of ground on this last week but I am going to focus more time on doing my intro graphics this week so that this is out of the way and completed. I will also start to pay more of a thought to the ROA showreel for the exhibition as I start to gather more work. This week is very important in terms of making major headway on all fronts and I think if I achieve a good amount of work I will be alot more pleased about my progress by the end of the week.

Veronica Magazine Water Effects Testing

These are some water tests I have created in Maya. The water is made up of 2 particle emitters, 1 making the large mass of the water and 1 making more of a spray effect with smaller particles. I have also managed to model the logo in 3D by taking it from Illustrator and using the extrude and bevel feature. I think the logo looks nice and I think I am starting to get the look of the water nearly there but it definitely needs more work for it to look more dramatic and exciting. The pace needs alot of work also. I will try to get more tutorials to find out how to make this look good and more realistic. It may be that I just need to work more on the texturing than the dynamics. Overall I am pleased with how this is going to look and I think it can be developed to look very professional and interesting.

Nickelodeon Pitch

Today I received confirmation that my idea for Nickelodeon had reached the next stage. I will now be working on more development for my idea and taking this to the next stage by presenting it at Nickelodeon's studios. Before then I will need to develop my storyboards more, work on my character design and narrative and I may start to work on some work in Maya to accompany my pre-production work.

Week 2: Production Schedule

For Week 2 this was the production schedule I made. I highlighted the progress of Week 1 showing the areas I had worked on already and some of those aspects I actually completed. I will do the same in Week 3 when I update my schedule again. Overall I was pleased with my early work in Week 1 but I felt Week 2 would be very testing in terms of getting big stages of individual projects completed.

Nickelodeon Internal Pitch

This is the storyboard of the idea I will be presenting for the pitch. I have decided to go with the robot in Customs idea and him trying to get through the metal detector. As part of my pitch I will be suggesting other ways in which the character could further be exploited in other animations and short fillers.

The animation itself will be a 30 second piece and will show Wez trying to get through the metal detector and then jumping onto the conveyor belt instead in order to get through.



This is my actual character design for my robot. I have called him Wez and the main idea behind this character is that his is a lost robot in an alien world and he has to learn to adjust to the way of life here and get used to doing alien things.

Robot Inspirations

The images above show some robot inspirations that have influenced my design, I didn't want my robot to feel like a retro toy and I really liked the idea of not really having a mouth and making the face seem too human so I liked the idea of just having eyes from things like Wall E and Johnny Five. Also the idea of rolling around on wheels seems like a classic trait for the humourous kind of robots that have been designed in the past.

Veronica Storyboard

This is a more detailed storyboard for the Veronica Magazine idea. I have gone with more pouring of liquid over surfaces on this idea. I have basically setup the front covers or pages from the magazine having water poured over them and then for the water to trickle down each level quite intensely and quick to then get down to the logo and emphasise that.

Veronica Ideas

This is a rough sketch thumbnail of an idea for Veronica Magazine's 10 Second advert. I wanted to use the idea of water flowing and here I have used the idea of blocks floating along water and then the water pouring onto the magazine logo. I think that the water theme would work quite well but I think there needs to be more pace with the water pouring and flowing quickly rather than it just flowing along gently and being quite slow. I imagine that the brand will want to appear more dynamic....especially to their readers.

Nickelodeon Initial Character Ideas

These are some rough sketches I have started to come up with. After having a lot of robot themed ideas I have made this the central focus of my character. I think animating this will be quite interesting and I would quite like to undertake a character with a different kind of personality to what I have created previously. These ideas are very basic and rough but I really like the idea of the characters eyes representing alot of the animation and emotion. Also I don't feel it is necessary for my character to have a mouth or use dialogue as he can maybe just make noises or movements to show his feelings rather than saying them.

Also the fact that he is on wheels means he can whizz around pretty quickly and potentially be animated in a different way to someone that would have legs.

Initial Ideas - Nickelodeon

This project is really open and I have had quite alot of random ideas and that is the beauty of Nickelodeon is that it can be very random and weird.

These are some of the ideas I am weighing up at the moment and I hope to have made a final decision on which one to develop further as a final idea by the end of the week

1) Kids in a classroom with chicken pox going around and the kids are afraid to touch as they might catch it, eventually one kid gets it and chaos breaks loose.

2) Robot has a cold and keeps sneezing oil and then he sneezes really hard, explodes and loses a panel which makes him feel naked and he runs for cover.

3) Robot going through customs and keeps setting off alarm no matter what he takes off. Eventually puts himself on conveyor belt.

4) Robots playing with magnets and distracting each other at school. Keeps stealing things in a test and then other robot sets up contraption and magnet pulls it, sets off sequence of knock on effect and big weight crushes other robot.

5) Girl sneezes and head explodes into lots of tiny aliens and monsters which run away and escape.

6) Monkey with suckers escapes from bedroom window and attempts to fly.....and fails!

I will roughly storyboard these ideas later in the week and then work from there to see which ideas work best and most successfully.

Initial Ideas - Veronica Magazine

I will be storyboarding my ideas later in the week but I will get down the emphasis of my ideas for Veronica's down here as a starting point.

Veronica Magazine's logo is a big identity of how the Magazine has come about. Originally Veronica's was a pirate radio station that was broadcast from out on an oil rig at sea. The wave symbol is a key aspect of the company logo that represents this idea. I want to put emphasis on this element in the form of water and liquids.

What I want to animate potentially is water pouring through an environment or around shapes and past imagery from the magazine and then eventually for it to pour into the logo design and make up Veronica! I think this will be fitting with the brand in the fact that the brand is very clean and clear like water. I also think the way the water is animated could be very dramatic or dynamic to give the animation a certain pace and this in turn will give a different feel to the brand and maybe make it more exciting with a faster pace.

I have started working with particle effects and dynamics in Maya in preparation for this and I feel I could develop something quite successful for SCI FI that will look effective and represent the brand in the way that they want it to.

Production Scheduling

This is the production schedule I will be working off in the coming weeks. I will update this weekly in accordance with what I have achieved and what new tasks have come abut. I have tried to break down the main areas of each project in order to plan my time successfully. This clearly lists out the 5 main projects which are Nickelodeon, Veronica Magazine, Rave On Air, Showreel and my personal elements which will be required at the show.

As well as this I also need to keep in mind PPD studies and Contextual Studies work which will have to slot in around this. Any new tasks that arise will be added to this schedule as it is updated weekly and I will re evaluate tasks that have been done ahead of schedule or that have taken longer.

Start of Term

This blog will be covering a lot of the work I complete throughout my 3rd term. I will be undertaking a series of projects as well as having some massive commitments to Rave On Air. I will be documenting a lot of this as I feel it will reinforce the production scheduling aspect of the unit.

So these are the following projects I will be undertaking this term: -

- CVA 205 - Nickelodeon Brief
- CVA 205 - Branding for a Product - Veronica Magazine Animation for SCI FI Channel BENELUX
- Rave On Air Exhibition PIXEL
- CVA 206 Showreel Unit
- Framestore Internship Application
- Contextual Studies Essay
- Contextual Studies Presentation
- PPD File

I will obviously have to plan out my time very carefully this term. These are some the keys dates I need to bear in mind: -
- 30th April - Framestore Application Deadline
- 18th April - BA Progression Interviews
- 4th and 5th June - Rave On Air 2008
- 3rd June - CVA 206 Submission
- 6th June - CVA 205 Submission

So the first things I really need to work on are my initial ideas for CVA 205 projects including Veronica and Nickelodeon and I also need to draw up a full production schedule to plan my time well.