"There Be Monsters"-3rd Year Film

So you're probably wondering where I've been these past few weeks, I have been gone for a long time haven't I?
Well it's a long story, there was a lot of action and mystery, there was an epic battle on a train at one point, Liam Neeson had to rescue his daughter AGAIN and I went to the Dagobah system for a while to learn the ways of the force and become a true Jedi...but I'll spare you the details.

The real reason I updated my blog was to announce the online release of this:



Yes, it's finally here, my final film at the University of South Wales. "There Be Monsters."
Follow Audrey and Gizzard as they search for the monsters in her room, and discover whether or not it really is a figment of this little girls imagination.

I'm so pleased to finally get this out in the open and show all of you, this was a real labor of love and it wouldn't have been possible without the dedicated team behind it (my music men, graphics girl and voice actors, who are actually father and daughter in real life!)
A whopping great thank you is also in order for my lecturers, family and friends for supporting me, guiding me and putting up with my...me-ness.

Enjoy! And take care

Until next time.

Poster child...or just posters

So while touching up the last few of my backgrounds, meaning a few more shots are completely finished ready for After Effects (my old nemesis!), I created some posters for Audrey's bedroom.

These are incredibly important as they are the primary focus in the establishing shot. I created a set which can be easily transferred for consistency across different shots, which is a huge time-saver as these are rather detailed compared to the basic colouring of the backgrounds.

The whole film is a homage to the horror genre, especially the classic monster movies, which are a favorite of mine, so I had a whale of a time creating these parodies of classics, both in title and the monsters themselves.

The signatures aren't included in the final film obviously!

The hand-written text irks me, and I wish I had time to go back and neaten it; but I can take comfort in the fact that most of the time it will be too small to see and the main focus is on the images.

I don't know about you, but I would totally watch "Kids of the Yeast,"if it was the "children of the corn"/"village of the damned" crossover I made it appear to be.

There Be Monsters in colour!

So cleanup and colouring has begun on my final film at long last, with some shots finalized, so I thought it fit to show you a coloured version of a pre-existing shot

So here's Big Bad, snapping and snarling

There be Monsters concept art-The Big Bad

This one is slightly smaller than Audrey's and Gizzards (which I have to apologize for as this fella has a rather major role) but many of his action poses could lead to potential spoilers (as they had him interacting with other characters). So apologies for this, they will be up on this post after the film is up.

But for now let's have a talk about The Big Bad

This lumbering beast (who in reality is nameless) was probably the last monster I designed, solely because his role was so important and he had to leave the biggest impact out of all of the five monsters. As a result, he needed to have the most dynamic construction, colour scheme and overall presence.

Okay, I'll admit, these poses were kind of a joke!

His appearance was originally much more wolf like and mangy, which sadly made him come across as more pathetic than threatening; so his final design is instead based on three creatures in particular; a rat, a bear and a vulture. Considering his primary purpose was to appear frightening, his body consisted of the features of each animals which people often find the most intimidating/squeamish. So for the rat he has the long tail and fingers, for the vulture he has the sharp beak and eyes, and for the bear, it was the general bulk, and even the voice to an extent. This also gave him a wider variety of movements and expressions (for example, the three tufts on the back of his head act like how ears would for many other animals, pinning back when he's angry and fluffing up when he's pleased).

I wanted his colour scheme to stand out compared to the other characters, as while Audrey had a distinct colour scheme that should have made things easy, most of the monsters were already bright, eye-catching colours (blue, purple, green and...then there's Doug who is the color of snot, but that was the point). After experimenting with pretty much every colour on the spectrum, I finalized a pinkish red, as it still connotes how dangerous he is while not being blinding.

This may also be a good time to talk about the voice. While the human characters are voiced by other people, I had a hard time finding people willing to attempt any of the monster voices. So, being an aspiring voice actress when I'm not animating, I had a go myself...at all 5!
Luckily with the magic of pitch shifting, The Big Bad was able to sound animalistic and it's now unrecognizable, while the other 4 came out with enough variety for me to give them a pass without editing.  But we'll see how they sound all together in the final product, then we can all have a good laugh at my expense.

Now next week, we can see more of this guy as we look at my first colour preview from the film.

There be Monsters concept art-Willard

Now let's take a look at Audrey's father, Willard

Willard's design was finalized shortly after Audrey's, as I wanted them to appear relatively similar. Most of his colours when it comes to hair, skin and even eyes are muted versions of her own colour scheme. His body-shape, clothes and hairstyle on the other hand was heavily influenced by Seymour Krelborn from "Little Shop of Horrors" (which may explain his daughters name).

Of course, both his and Audrey's designs changed alongside the voices provided by their actors (a real-life father and daughter) such as Willard also wearing glasses and having a slightly more narrow face. His original design was much more angular and skeletal, which was incredibly unsettling, so having a voice to help me was a real advantage.




The intention was to have a character who seemed relatively reserved and "boring" to a child, but he was clearly exhausted from trying to keep his daughter under control.
That said, the short is merely a small part of a much larger story, and features such as the grey stripe and Willards seemingly nervous personality in the concept art has much greater significance in the bigger picture; which makes his rather calm attitude while discouraging his daughter a litle more suspicious in the grand sceme of things, but also strong enough as a stand-alone character trait in the short.

It was also while creating Willard that I came up with the idea of naming many of my characters after actors or characters within the horror genre, while also keeping their names canon within the films time period. Willard is named after the titular character of the 1971 film, Audrey, while primarily being named after my grandmother, is also a subtle reference to the "Little Shop of Horrors" character (both human and plant), and the four monsters Nicholas, Doug, Grace and Simon, share their names with the cenobite actors in "Hellraiser."

The only characters who break the trend are Gizzard (who is instead a reference to an organ, which I thought would reflect Audrey's strange personality if she named her pet something disgusting) and the largest monster, who I call "Big Bad," but in reality has no actual name as I felt keeping him nameless would give him a greater sens of mystery and fear.

Speaking of which, we'll take a look at the big bad tomorrow!

See you then!

There be Monster concept art-Gizzard

And now a look at the character model pack for the panicky pooch, Gizzard

Dogs are often the go-to animal sidekick for obvious resons. Man's best friend is a pack animal, so they're more inclined to follow and defend their owners (can you tell I'm a dog person?). So when it comes to a fantasy story where the protagonist is thrown into constant danger, it's fun to play around with this concept. On the one hand you have a genuine protector such as Jake the Dog, or you can have him be a coward such as Scooby Doo and Courage.

As for Gizzard, I decided to portray him as a devoted pet who is keeping Audrey out of danger for her own sake rather than his supposed cowardice. You get a sense that he's fully aware of the potential danger his owner keeps searching for, but is more afraid for her safety than the danger itself.

His design is based loosely on a beagle, which was the most common breed of dog owned in the 1950's (the time period which my film is set in). Though he isn't supposed to be any specific breed. I intended to have him share Audrey's scruffy appearance, but to indicate he's often received most of the damage, hence his battered ear and odd pupils (the hollow eye is also lazy, which you will see in the final film).

Gizzard appearance is also supposed to give the impression that there's something...off, about him. His character clearly knows more than he is letting on, and to convey that his characteristics are out of the ordinary, so he isn't perceived as merely a nervous dog. It adds much more tension to the film when you see he clearly knows something Audrey doesn't.

Tomorrow (or later today if the fates allow), we'll take a look at Willard, Audrey's father.

There be monsters concept art-Audrey

So my final film is about 3 weeks away from hand-in; so for your viewing pleasure, I will be posting the expressions, action, and turnaround pages for the 4 main characters (as well as the colour ref pages once again so they are all together).

First up, Audrey McMarro.
Audrey is a 9 year old girl with an obsession for all things frightening; often searching her room for the fabled monsters with her poor dog in tow!

I intended for Audrey's design to differ greatly from most child characters in film and television, to stand out (hence why I made her rather lanky and changed her color scheme to bright, complimenting colours). The primary reason I researched the portrayal of children in animated media for my dissertation was to benefit this, and I am incredibly satisfied with the final result.

I wanted her to look like a child who grew up in a town where she was expected to be a little lady, but is constantly exploring places she shouldn't, hence her rather messy hair and missing teeth. She's rather scrappy. Plus all those late nights staying up monster hunting has put a terrible strain on her eyes!

One of her biggest inspirations personality-wise was Finn the Human from "Adventure Time" (who also has a dog-sidekick oddly enough), because he's the prime example of a character who is out of the ordinary and "weird", but is still sociable, active, and has a sense for danger. I didn't want Audrey to fall into the stereotypes of the geek or the tomboy, when children can quite easily be both.

 Tomorrow we'll get a look at her animal accomplice, Gizzard