Two opposite Characters

Captain Jacques Roberts

Colour Palettes

Silhouettes

 

 

Commander Walter

Colour Palettes

 

Silhouettes

Character Opposites

I have designed ten opposite character and I have to choose two of my ten characters to aniamte. I have decided on pirates and Royal Navy/Army. But these pirates are no ordinary. I have design the pirates to be Zombies; Zombie- pirates. I have used photoshop to create the characters making the zombie- pirates look real and the humans/ Royal Navy/ Army to be a more cartoon appeal about them.

 

18th Century History Piracy and Characters

The British Royal Navy was the naval armed force of the British Empire, in operation from the early 18th century. The main British Royal Navy base in the Caribbean was established at Fort Charles in Port Royal, Jamaica, the most powerful navy on the Seven Seas.

As its influence grew in the Caribbean, the East India Trading Company employed Royal Navy marines and ships to escort its vessels and defend against pirate attacks. During the times of war, the Royal Navy employed many pirates as privateers to harass the Spanish Treasure Fleets on behalf of England. But when the wars ended, the privateers found themselves unemployed, and many of them turned to piracy once again, mostly in the Caribbean Sea.

The era of piracy in the Caribbean began in the 16th century and was one of the biggest problems the Royal Navy. The best officers of the royal navy were often sent to hunt down the most notorious pirates in the caribbean.

By 1718 the British government was so alarmed by the rise in pirate attacks that it ordered the Admiralty to deal with the problem. As well as Royal Navy patrols of pirate-infested waters, ships were sent to actively hunt down the pirates in their lairs. During this anti-piracy offensive there were some spectacular successes, so piracy died out in the 1830s. The Royal Navy commander, marine and army guard the Caribbean and try to find a orphan child and woman who has been kidnapped, to destroy the five pirates that are lurking in the Caribbean seas.

Prep designs

Silhouettes and Sketches

Photoshop

Jacques Roberts

  Captain

As a Pirate, Jacques remains with a curse for eternity. He is alone with his crew and sails the lost seas. Now and again he returns to the Caribbean. The destruction in the Caribbean left many pirates dead and others who had escaped. Trying to find jewels and treasures his greed gets the better of him. The last time he returned he found an orphan child. Since he lost his life he has become a lost traveller. He envies life more. The orphan child reminded his of himself  otherwise he would have left her in the Caribbean. Captain Jacques Robert’s bad reputation keeps people in fear from stories of not leaving any survivors. Despite all that he has a kind heart. Jacques is a protector and if he senses he is under attack he will react for the sake of his crew and himself.

Jacob

Sceptical

One in the Royal Army is well disciplined, regimented and harsh. Volunteered to join the army, to escape the bleak conditions of life in the cities, for a chance to travel the world and earn a regular wage. Wealthy gentlemen fear invasion also persuaded many to serve, not so much to support the nation as a whole, but to preserve their own interests, money and property, which could be lost if the enemy succeeded.

Born in a wealthy family, Jacob is considered to be highly sceptical when it comes to anything involving  the supernatural. At an early age his younger sister went missing and has never been found. His family believe that she is dead. Jacob believed differently. He swore an oath to himself that he will find her and prove his family were wrong. Although he is well disciplined an orphan child can still distract him.

 

 Walter      

   Commander

As the Commander in the Royal Navy, Walter has high principles, dedication and commitment and relies on his courage, impartial justice and utter trustworthiness, remaining calm in the face of danger and dauntless in adversity, he would sacrifice repose for fame and fame to duty; his thoroughness in deliberation and mastery over his strong passions. When Walter was young he shadowed his father, as he was an Admiral who commanded the Royal Navy ship. Walter was a resemblance of his father as people kept saying. Although he wanted to be powerful and a commander of a ship. He was fascinated with pirates, but his father despised them for killing his wife and Walter’s mother and he made that very clear and Walter he knew that his father would disown him if he told him. After the death of his father he promised that he would remain his powerful name, reputation of determination and carry on his work destroying pirate ships. James the Royal Navy officer reminds him of himself as Walter had noticed that James is independent and tries to impress.                

 

 

 

 

 

Waren                  

Enthusiastic

One of the tall pirates which people have not come across before. Waren is the only one who is enthusiastic in the crew, he is the entertainer with his witty sense of humour. Most of the time he spends daydreaming he has help from his brother but is his best friend Waren enjoys life as long as he knows that he has Owen around. Waren is easily impressed but has a skill of a profiler as he can read people from their movements and motives. He has not had an easy life but he enjoys every little bit of life. Even if he is cursed by being a pirate. Waren has energy and power in the crew from his profiler skill and enthusiasm in life he knows what to say to his crew mates, but isn’t fond of Naomi as he knows that she can persuade the captain so he tries not to step out of line with both of them together.

 

 

  Ettore

 Loyal

Ettore has known the Captain a long time and his loyalty is very hard to come by. Before he became a pirate he was born from a wealthy family. Once he turned sixteen his father wanted him to take over the families business. He had different ambitions and ideas for his life Not many people had seen pirates but only heard about stories. Ettore was one of the few who had seen pirates in childhood and again years later when he is forced in to running the family business. It was only a few years later and Ettore was owning the family business as his father had a heart attack. After his fathers death his mother wanted nothing to do with the family business nor Ettore, so Ettore tried to run the family business alone without any help. He only managed to run the  business for a year until he realised he couldn’t do this for the rest of his life. His business went under and he became a peasant. Two years of a peasant he saw the pirates  and joined the crew and is eternally grateful to the captain.

 

 

   James Wedgewood

    Royal Naval Marine

One of the youngest in the Royal Navy, James had a sheltered life, until he was recruited in the Royal Navy. He hasn’t been in the Royal Navy for long and it didn’t take he long to realise how to survive when they’ve been attacked by pirates. James is independent, quiet and tries to impress by working hard and living to expectations and inspired by Walter the Commander. Although there is no time for him to daydream,he always imagines one day he will become a commander in the Royal Navy. James always tries to create a good reputation for himself but been in the royal navy. Individually he is not well known. But that doesn’t matter to him, his best interest at the moment is just to stay alive.

 

Owen

Intelligent

Owen is the smallest pirate in the crew. Just a little taller than the orphan child. Brother and best friend of Waren. When Waren starts to go side track with his daydreams Owen will help him come back to reality. Owen has had the harder life than Waren with both of them being peasants from childhood he is the eldest out of the two so he felt it was his responsibility to take care of Waren and protect him from harm, as he knows what the world is like when they revisit the Caribbean. Owen can be hot headed from time to time, his brother calms him down with his witty sense of humour and respect for the crew as he sails the seas with his brother he has a good life even with a curse of being an un-dead pirate. He uses Waren’s skills and his own skills to survive.

 

 

 

 

 Marzanna Jean-Marie

The Seducer

One of the only women would enjoyed life whilst she had it. Although her family were not so kind and believed that she was cursed so they named her after the Slavic goddess of death, winter and nightmares, and takes a person body after their death. Even though her family were wealthy they didn’t really acknowledge Marzanna but they  kept her around and attended every need.  So she couldn’t complain as she had a sheltered but lonely life. Until an attack and most of her family were murdered.  Marazanna will never know what happened to the rest of her family. Even though her family were not the kindest, they were still her family. Marzanna started to believe that she was cursed as her family always told her nothing good will come to her, Only death and destruction.

Kidnapped by pirates she sails with the Captain and crew of the dead. Marzanna has skills of seduction and charming charisma and she is only kept human as long as she seduces and corrupts the heart, mind and soul of men.

  

 

 

 Stuart

The Thief

The only one in the crew born on a pirate ship and is the son of the Captain. Stuart never knew his mother, as she died in birth. The only possession he has ever seen once is a locket that the captain holds on too. Which Stuart believes it belonged to his mother. Stuart will never ask the Captain about his mother as he knows the response that he will get. So he tries to impress the Captain by trying to be like him. Although his traits are quite different. Stuart has been a pirate his whole life and is a kleptomaniac. Eventually he will find out about the locket and maybe he will figure out why the Captain has been keeping  it away from him the entire time. Stuart doesn’t trust anyone and he dislikes the orphan child on the ship, as he has seen what she is like and tries to avoid her, as she is still human for now, but for how long.  While the guards are distracted by the orphan child, Stuart tends  to go for the high profile locations and does anything to stay alive resorting to a stealthy speed by dodging the guards and avoiding execution when he has stolen values.

 

    

Naomi

  The Curious One

Orphan in the Caribbean, adopted by Captain Jacques Roberts. She knows how to survive and she’s not even eight years old and does what she can to survive. Been the daughter to the Captain and been alone for most of her life, she knows how to persuade the captain in to getting what she wants. She is a restless soul who goes wondering and when there is

 danger she is not afraid. She has a delightful and pleasant nature about her but she has been alone for so long that she has forgotten similarly to the Captain. Naomi has never had a childhood and never will. She was found on the ship by one of the crew. This is the closest to family that she will come close to. But she will never understand.

Pirates of the Caribbean Analysis

Over the summer I designed ten opposite characters. I started with researching historical opposite characters and decided to base the research on 18th century. I came across piracy and related the project to Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl. Which had a big influence on the conept of the characters; especially with the costumes.

All of my characters are human so they are based on reality between pirates and Royal Navy/ army. But I have changed the names to my characters which can make the story a little bit different to what really happened and not all fact. Creating the same impact between pirates and Royal Navy/ army. Whilst researching the piracy era. I found that history was a big influence for Pirates of the Caribbean as they had kept many of the characters names the same. I have given names for all my characters that were popular in the 18th century era.

The facial expression and body language that I have drawn show the characters personality and give hints to how that would react in an animation. The hardest part is to choose two out of my ten characters to create a story and animate.

I analysed 30 seconds of this clip. The part I analysed was after Barbossa kicks Jack to the ground as this shows a live action animation as Jack as a skeleton and both Jack and Barbossa do not realise he has been cursed as well.

This shows the conflict between the two characters as Barbossa knows he can not be killed. Jack attempts by stabbing him. But when Jack is shocked, confused and curious about the curse. Barbossa retaliates and stabs jack and the impact of Jack facial expresson body language is like he is going to die. As Barbossa grins this also has an impact that he belives as well that he has defeated Jack. Until Jack steps back in to the light and that is when we see that they are both immortal.     

 

 

At the begining of what I anaylsed in this clip Barbossa is arrogant and knows he can not die by throwing his sword to the ground after kicking Jack. But we only see he in the flesh so he looks mortal. The camera shot of medium close up of Jack from a high angle so the amera is looking down at Jk from Barbossa's point of veiw symbolised the Barbossa is the more dominate than Jack.

As Jack quickly stands to attempt to stab Barbossa he leaves the shot suggesting that Barbossa will not die. When Jack does his attempt at killing him it shows that Barbossa is immortal and can not die. Barbossa looks down at the sword knowing that he will not die, maybe hopes that he is not immortal, as he has been cursed for a long time.    

The tilt of Barbossa's head suggests that he is bored of being stabbed and knowing that he can not die . The lighting in this scene is a dark contrast surround Barbossa symbolising death.

Another medium close up of Jack's expression of shock and curiosity to why Barbossa doesn't die after being stabbed.   

After Jack's attempt at stabbing Barbossa. Barbossa turns the blade of the sword and stabs Jack. Jack has not be delared that he is immortal just yet until we see him in the light. By his body language and facial expressions he himself believes that he will die, which also make Barbossa believe that Jack can die suggested by the grin of Barbossa's face.

The camera uses a low angle shot of the two characters which sets the scene with darkness and the light that is peering through the cave create an important sign in this scene. While Jack is stepped backwards in to the light, Barbossa remains in the centre of the shot, remaining in the darkness as he watch Jack with his sword in his chest.

The medium close up of Barbossa's expression of shock and confusion to how Jack got cursed and Barbossa realised Jack can not die as well. This creates a reverse in the situation of conflict that Jack seemed to be mortal.

Once again, the long shot of the two character with Barbossa centred in the scene makes the focus on Jack as a skeleton, standing in the light and Barbossa still in the darkness. The colours palette from Jack even when he has been cursed still look like he has life. Unlike Barbossa with dark, dull colours.This suggests life and death, mortality and immortality between the characters. The camera shot of the two characters also separate human and the undead. This shot can create a reverse we saw Barbossa as the undead one at the beginning and Jack as the alive one. This shot can give a sense of reverse that Jack is now dead and Barbossa is alive.

Barbossa being arrogant that he was immortal; he can not be beaten at the beginning of the clip. Until the end of the clip where Barbossa realises with confusion and shock that he can not defeat Jack, as  he is immortal aswell. Jack discovers himself to be cursed, but finds it interesting and seems to enjoy been cursed, a bit more than he should. The facial expression and body language from Jack as he raises his arm to look with trhe light surrounding him. Whereas Barbossa despises the curse as he 'has been cursed for too long.' This show with the medium close up of Babbossa expression of sock and confusion neither one of them realised that they were both cursed. Only Barbossa knew that he was cursed before Jack stabbed him. This allows Jack and the audience to see that Barbossa was cursed and can not die.       

         

Matchbox Animation

 

This was a group project to work in CGI using Maya 3D. Animating a matchstick trying to get back in to the matchbox. The group constisted of Martin, Rupa, Praveen and (Rachel) me. After long hours of thought we decided that our team name should be Ignite.
First we thought of an idea whether the matchstick would manage to get back in the box or not; would it be set of a light. We story boarded individual story boards to begin with and then discussed strengths and weaknesses within the story. We combined all of our stories together and decided we should have the matchbox come alive aswell as the matchstick; making them both characters. The matchbox torments the matchstick.
We decided to split the project in scenes and we all had a scene to animate. After long hours of animating we joined the scenes togeteher. Rupa scene 1, Rachel scene 2, Praveen scene 3, Martin scene 4. This was the first time that we used cameras in Maya.
Discovered interesting camera angles and techniques and that the camera is not animated only the character.
Our final animation of the matchbox after many attempts to get a little bit of perfection with the matchstick and box motion along with the camera angles. Overall I thought the project went well considering this was our first main Maya project.
Sadly I can't upload the Matchbox Animation, but you can click the link below:
https://vimeo.com/41787908
      

Maya 3D Animation

Animating with a Creative Crash goon rig. The synopis for this is that a brick has been smashed through a window and the focus is on the characters reaction and movement.

Stop motion

Just a few exercises with Stop motion using a wire frame puppet.

Random Character

Just a random character I have drawn in the weeks I've been back at University. Maybe I will animate this character at a later date.

 Also drawn the pose to pose action in photoshop using references as a guide to draw the dancer in proportion. 

Chocallow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was given a one week assignment to create a portmanteau animation. Ichose to animate Chocolate and Marshmallows so I combined them and created Chocallow. This is one animation that I never thought I would do for an assignment at university. After the 2D cut out torment for the pre-school animation on toon boom. I designed these basic marshmallows and the chocolate tidal wave
on photoshop and then imported them in to toonboom using the traditional 2D.
Synopis the white marshmallow doesn't realise there is a tidal wave of chocolate coming straight for them and just watches the pink marshmallow and wonders why its running/ jumping. Until the white marshmallow looks to where the pink marshmallow has come from and sees the chocolate. But the marshmallows can't get away from the chocolate tidal wave. Forming Chocallow.

Chocallow now has sound

 

Sam, Sally and Shadow's Adventure

This is the final animation for 2D cut out. The synopis for this animation is about a little boy, Sam.  His older sister, Sally and their cat, shadow go out to explore the weather. I found animating in 2D cut out challenging as toon boom does not work at its best with a lot of detail. The character were manageable. But when i applied the background toon boom became slow and unresponsive at times.This is shown with the side walk cycles as they are not at their best.
If I were to animate the 2D project I would consentrate on one character instead of three. As I was animating the weather as well as character I found there wasn't much time to animate as I was still learning how to use the software for 2D cut out.
I created the weather using different layers after all that, a day before the deadline I discovered a tutorial on how to control the weather on toonboom harmony using only one layer instead of several.
Designing the characters using photoshop gave the character detail it gave them appeal. If I knew what toonboom was like first I would have created less detail and I would have used toon boom's colour palette using gradients instead of photoshop. As photoshop created a blurred edge of the character. This may have made the character easier to animate with toonboom in the period of time to animate.

        

Character Development

I have modified my 2D cut out characters and tested them with animation loops. I have altered my characters because when I originally created the five character loops the joints were breaking in the legs and arms. I found when animating this character it had a lot of appeal. But was difficult to animate as it had many symbols in toonboom's library and made the character more complicated to work with, than how it looks. While I was testing my character I found that walk cycles from the front were easier to control than walk cycle to the front, as I found that toon boom did not manage very well with the amount of detail and started to slow down and crash.