And this children, is called an update...

This blog has been needing an update for a while, and now, I finally deliver...

I got my animatic handed in on time. It required two days of solid, non-stop work, and a rather substantial argument between my scanner and myself, but it happened. Wow, it really does make it seem like a long time since I've posted if I still had to talk about the animatic...

A lot has happened with our group project, but first of all, I would like to take a moment to reflect on that which was lost very early on in the project; namely, Kick-arse Red Riding Hood. This was an idea that we came up with before we were seperated into different groups. It was decided that the concept was getting too far away from the original for the purposes of this project though, so it was scrapped.

This is Red. Say hi Red! Her job is to protect the now desolate Earth against the invading alien enemy, which happen to look a lot like wolves.


This is her boss, Nana (her codename). We won't mention the debate about whether or not Nana should be showing her knees. (Yes, her knees... Ignore the fact that her breasts aren't really covered.)
























At one stage we had an acronym for GRANDMA, which became the name of the organisation Red worked for. There was also a bulky guy known as Mum, an axe wielding guy named Hunter and mutant wolves from outer space.

Even though nothing happened with it for this assignment, Caryn and I are discussing doing something with this concept for a final year, (or something else) animation. GRANDMA shall rise again!




Have I mentioned the fact that I love art books? Well, now I have. Stacey was lucky to walk away with her Treasure Planet art book still in tact last Wednesday. So pretty! I've already gushed about Treasure Planet however, so I shall hold back for the time being.

Back on topic, it's now time for pictures! They have relevance too. :)

We decided early on that the princess in our story (there's always a princess in these stories. Always...) wasn't going to be a typical Disney (sorry, have nothing against Disney, but it does get a little predictable) princess. We ended up deciding that she would be a warrior princess. Here are some early designs...

The top left is my favorite, I think. It's also the drawing that took us in a certain direction as far as her physical design goes; things like dress etc. came later. Now though I think we're going for straighter hair. The other two are just experimenting with costume design.

We've got her pretty well under control.











Next up is the boatman. We did a few drawings of the boatman looking a little more normal, and a couple of him with facial hair, but at the moment we're leaning towards something a little more like this...

He doesn't look too healthy, does he? Well, you wouldn't either if you spent all of your days ferrying people across a river (possibly of lava) in a cave (no sunlight) with very little to eat. Poor boatman...

I'm really becoming attached to the boatman and his design now though, which is odd; he's not exactly the sort of character that I would have thought I would enjoy designing, but I am.







Here's a couple of sketches of possible designs for the devil's grandma. (Yes, he has a grandma.) We're still working on her.















































And now on to the devil.

I could possibly write an entire post on the devil's design and all of the phases and debates that have centered around him, but I won't; at least, not now. For a title character, he's not in the story for very long, and for a character that's not in it very long, he's sure created a lot of problems.

At the moment, we're thinking that the devil's powers will come from a mask (hence the one he's holding in the picture on the right). The mask would transform both his face and his body, giving the devil the fearsome appearance that he's renowned for in all the surrounding villages, but when he returns to dear old grandma, the mask comes off and he looks a little more normal. This was the result of a compromise as to whether the devil would be good-looking or completely monstrous. I think at the moment we're still deciding whether or not he'll have black (ridiculously, like blue-black) or normal coloured skin.


And now, to put a little bit of colour into this post, I leave you with a random picture of a city from Gankutsuou; a gorgeously designed anime based on The Count of Monte Cristo. Beautifully designed, and worth checking out, if only for the 'shiny' factor.