Minor Project - Atom Pancakes- The Final Chapter

With the minor project basically wrapped up, I thought I would write evaluation of the time spent with my colleagues at Atom Pancakes and share any of the latest animation work.

The 15 to 18 week period spent with my 2 colleagues Jordan Buckner and Ethan Shilling, on our latest project was an amazing experience. It definitely taught me a lot of things about collaboration, work ethic and friendship. When we set up for this project we had a main goal, that in 15 weeks from that time we would have an animation, which the three of us would be happy with. Although in times, it wasn't as easy as it seems, we all learnt a valuable lesson, that in order to succeed in this industry, you have to work as a community, accepting and giving feedback, negotiating and compromising. Our task to create this animation was immense, as we from the beginning decided to create a story from scratch, however after a few weeks of not being sure, the group worked very well together to overcome this problem, always giving and receiving input. With the foundation of the project, laid out the rest was a very enjoyable trip, where me and my colleagues shared and worked well together, to design the world of 'The Final Chapter', from character to environment design, every single member's opinion was taken into account and used in favour of the project.
While at production, stage, everything ran smoothly, as we decided to distribute the tasks according to each individuals strengths. Animation was a very insightful task, as we had time to explore it we were able to further develop our skills.
In the end everything came together nicely, and despite a few last minutes hazard, the group was ejected with enough adrenaline to overcome them rapidly and successfully.

I would like to thank Jordan Buckner and Ethan Shilling, for the great experience, but also the tutors, Phil Gomm and Alan Postings, for allowing this group to form.

Surely, I used this experience to build by confidence when attempting to get a job after my degree.

After an emotional ending for a my evaluation, here is the promised latest work I have done in The Final Chapter.

Animation: 

Finished Scene

Prepare scene

( The Typing Scene)

Dynamics: 

Bubbles

Smoke

Supporting Documents: 

Making of - The Final Chapter

The Final Chapter - Character Bible

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'The Final Chapter' by Atom pancakes

Atom Pancakes proudly presents 'The Final Chapter'. Our short animation finally finished.

directed by:
       Jordan Buckner
       Ethan Shilling
       Ruben Martins

Synopsis:

"The story follows our crime writer, Arthur Winters, as he attempts to write the ending of his book. As he thinks through possible ideas, things begin to go wrong around him. While having these ideas, Winters enters his dream space and starts to act like the suspects. When he finally realises an idea that works, he burst into motion to finish his book, however the simplest of the tasks is not so simple after all."

Enjoy!!

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The Final Chapter Supporting Documents

Atom pancakes would like to share the documents supporting our animation, they feature the behind-the-scenes which helped us produce our final short.

Making of - The Final Chapter

If you like the character Arthur Winters, this document will explain how our studio decided upon the design and show some of the early stage drawings of him .

The Final Chapter - Character Bible

Enjoy!

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Animation at Atom Pancakes IV

Lately, I have been spending time and more time animating and tweaking any animation previously done. It has been a very enjoyable journey with a lot learnt. With only one more scene to tweak. What follows is an animation "dump" of all the scenes I have been working on.

Animation Finished Scene

Animation Finished Scene- Cameras

Animation Prepare Scene- Cameras

Montage Scene

One of the things I have been working was the dynamics for some of the scenes, here is a bubble test done and which will be added on the glass in one of the scenes. 

Bubble Dynamics Test Render

The final animation is almost approaching keep tuned. 

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Final Chapter- Teaser Poster

Follow our official blog for all the progress at:

http://atompancakes.blogspot.com

Or our Facebook page or twitter at: (respectively)

More updates will land on here very soon! 

Keep Tuned!

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Animation at Atom Pancakes III

Animation and rendering is going well at Atom pancakes, we almost done with all the scenes to animate however, is still a few bits to tweak.

Here are the scenes I have been working on:

Tension Playblast Edit

After Credits Scene- Blocking

                                                              After Credits Scene- Final

Dream Detective- Blocking

Prepare Scene- Blocking

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Busy Times at Atom Pancakes Studio

Lately, At Atom Pancakes I have been with my fingers in many pies, as we trying to finalise production and set everything to render. As I said I have mentioned in charge of some more scenes to animate, painting the background matte paintings and testing dynamics such as smoke and fire.

Animation

Butler Scene

Firstly, I tweaked the butler scene on the laughing jumps, I have made them just so they are more subtle and are a movement around the chest area rather than the pelvis.

On this scene, I just have to animate the props, such as the tray, the ice cube and the drink mesh. Apart from that, it is ready for rendering.

I am also animating other scenes, at the moment they are at the blocking out stages. but they will be finished as soon as possible.


Prepare Scene

Progress 1

Progress 2

Also I have blocked the investigation scene, but it is not uploaded yet. 

Test Dynamics

I have been playing around with dynamics, in order to get a smoke effect for the burning paper. after fiddling around I came to something that seems to be the right track. further tweaks will be on the particle size, colour, turbulence and conserve attributes.

Matte Paintings

As I said I have been working on the matte paintings for the interior and exterior environment. I have tried to conserve the painterly style.

Outside Matte Painting

Interior Night Matte Painting

Interior Day Matte Painting

Note that this not Moon or Sun on the Matte Paintings, it is because I have created them separately, in which I will render and animate in AE. 

It is all for now, more updates coming soon... Stay Tuned

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The Final Chapter is Coming Soon...

Follow our official blog for all the progress at:

http://atompancakes.blogspot.com

Or our Facebook page or twitter at: (respectively)

More updates will land on here very soon! 

Keep Tuned!

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Atom Pancakes Work- Arthur Winters Character Development

With the initial sketches done, I brought them to a meeting and each of our studio members decided which would work the best. Taking on their feedback I began to develop the character.

Arthur Winters- Face Development

With the final head shape done, I began to develop the facial features on the character. Though first, I want to check our art direction and how much of stylisation I could give to the character.

Arthur Winters- Different Character Stylisation

At the same time I have began working on the body of the character. Using the same technique I used on the face I began by creating a few silhouettes of body shapes and then play around with them.

Initial Body Silhouettes

Final Body Silhouette

On the head with the right stylisation decided, i began to explore possibilities of the character. By creating a few assets I created variation of the head by mixing them up. 

Character Face Variations

After another studio meeting, it was finally decided how ultimately the character would look like.

Arthur Winters - Character Face 

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Atom Pancakes Work- Character

With my 3rd year just starting I have embarked on a journey to the fictional Atom Pancake Studios. Just like a normal studio we have divided tasks, just so the work load won't be too much on one person. Based on people strengths each one of us has a few tasks in pre-production stage. For now here is the proposal of the project which will also give more information about what we want to produce and achieve.

Atom Pancakes- Project Proposal

For our project, we decided to create a 2 to 3 minutes animation, revolving the events of one specific character in his environment.

Our animation ‘Final Chapter’ follows Arthur Winters, a 1930’s accomplished crime writer, who is writing his next crime masterpiece. With the editor’s deadline approaching, he is pressured to finish the book. Although it seems like a easy task for a well-known writer, all that the pressure leads him to have ‘writer’s block’ and getting stuck on the ending of his book. With a matter of luck he finds the lost piece of the puzzle which helps him to finish the chapter. However the real struggle, begins when he tries to write it down.

With this animation, our objective as a studio is to emphasize on the importance of a story based on one character and one environment. We want to achieve a short film with great art direction, amazing computer generated work and ultimately beautiful animation. Throughout the animation we will also want to explore different 3D and 2D techniques, to help us tell the story more intuitively.

Finally, the final goal is to hopefully be able to feature our work in an animation festival, this will only be able with good marketing campaign, either online or at university, with the aim to publish our studio and our work to the world.

Although it only started this week, our studio gathered a few weeks back and tried to get our project slightly ahead. With the different tasks divided for pre-production, my job is to work on the character designs and draw storyboards. 

What follows is the initial creative work and research that I have done for the character. on the following post I will feature the development of the character and final designs and informative sheets.

Hope you like it!! 

Character Profile Sheet & Research 

Name: Arthur Winters

Biography: Arthur Winters is a recognised novel author, however when he prepares to write his new book, ideas slip his mind and he is left with nothing. For an accomplished writer not having ideas is like a crime. After some time of reflection and gathering thoughts, he thinks he has yet another masterpiece, though the real struggle begins when he tries to write his ideas for the new book.

Age: 45

Race: Human

Height: 1.70 m.

Body Type: Skinny, Average Height, Waistline Above Normal,Long Hands and Feet.

Face Type: Skinny Body Face With Salient Cheek Bones, Small Eyes and Big Nose.

Complexion: Pale Colour With little Wrinkles, and a Mole ( Not Dark)

Eyes: Hazelnut Colour Eyes and Often Uses a Monocle

Hair: 1920's to 1940's Hairstyle, Full Hair with Bald Sides.

Facial Hair: Well Trimmed Moustache, but as the animation progresses he gets also a stubble.

Clothing Style: On His Torso, He Wears a Well- Ironed Long Sleeve White Shirt a Tie Covered with a Sleeveless (Dark Green) Polo. (Maybe w/ Braces). His Trousers Are Beige and Slightly Short with Polished Brown Shoes.

Speaking Style: Calm, Polite, Formal (Academic Level).

General Demeanour: When normal he is excited about his books, when he has an idea he overreacts and becomes silly.

Career: An Acclaimed Novel Writer

Prejudices: Loves to write books, but unfortunately he is not lucky enough to have an idea.

Best Qualities: enthusiastic, determined, polite, has common sense.

Worst Qualities: melodramatic, silly, sometimes frustrated.

Weaknesses: when overreacting he behaves silly, allowing gags to play on him.

Initial Character Sketches

For in-depth information about the project, check our studio blog at: 

 http://atompancakes.blogspot.com/

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