Style!

This is the style image for the film, the look we are aiming for.

Check out the one of the backgrounds curtsey of Amanda Mullins!

Colors!

Finalized color scheme for characters.

Guard

It's the evil guard of doom design

Bird Monster

So the bird Monster Turn around with and without his saddle.

Ren update

Updated Ren's action poses and facial expressions with the new haircut.

Ren turn

Ren's turn around with a new hair cut and shape breakdown for animation.

Haircut

So Ren got new hair! It was pointed out to me that all the characters had bangs on the left side of their face soooo, Ren got a haircut which I think makes him look more boyish and younger than his previous design.

New Float Animatic

Added a couple more scenes, cleaned up the shots, and updated Rin's character design!
I do believe that there is now very little question as to what is going on and character motivation. Now to get animation underway!

Color Test 01

Ren Action

Liza Action

Birdy Action

Animatic

lineup

Size comparison between the characters

Ren emotions

various emotions of Ren

BirdRide

The bird monster that is a ride sidekick of sorts

Liza Heads

doing emotions for Liza

Nita

Last human character Turn. Nita the stongman of the group. In this turn she is not wearing her helment bu that is because I want to do a detailed turn of her head with it on.

Boat Turnaround

Boat Turnaround all worked out and detailed. The first two are the sides, then front, back, top, bottom, inside umbrella bottom, inside view.

Color Test Buildings

Did a color test on buildings based on patterning from greek works.

backgrounds

background sketches, Ive been trying to work out my aesthetic and these two sketches are pretty close to what I'm looking for. Ive realized that greco-roman and Asiatic architecture have the same basic architectural elements the difference is the types of decor. I'm defiantly getting the Asiatic feel across in these sketches but I think the greco-roman will have to incorporated through small decor details and coloring.
In the drawing style I am avoiding strait lines and parallels, fan of the curve. The backgrounds will also have a lot of skewed, fish eye perspectives.

referances

Reference imagery and notes for my Greco-roman/Asiatic fusion of architecture.

Ren turnaround

Finalized turn around of Ren's character design

Liza turnaround

Finalized the Liza turnaround

Nita's head without a helment

Nita

This is my third character Nita who is the older sister to Ren. I would define her as the stong man of the group. While she is strong and very skilled in the sword she does not flaunt it. She is calm and controlled most of the time. Her greatest fear is that her and ren will run out of money and have to sell the boat so she is a little obsessed with money. She doesn't really care what mess liza gets into but will go get her out of trouble. Nita's movements are very controlled and I would describer her gait as a swagger.

bird creature

along with Ren's redesign I came up with a new bird riding creature. I was actually thinking about dino birds and how certain dino's might look at points in their evolution. I like him alot better than Mumu's aesthetically. While I'm not dumping Mumu completely he will not be featured in my film component. Mostly because I feel that this is a speedier animal than Mumu and would work better with the chase sequence narrative of my film.

Mumu

Along with the early fisherman design I created a pack animal he travels around with. I like to loving call it a Mumu. I love making random creatures in stuff. I really would like to include alot of background stuff going on but I know that I might not have the time.

Color Test 2

So this is a recent color test that I really like. The colors a still saturated but not as intense as the last test. I still need to work architecture on development for the world but I think for color feel this is what Im going with

So feeling that Ren was also too asiatic feeling a redesigned him a bit. I kept the basic element and his coloring probably will not change. Mostly I changed his shoes and his shouldered shawl thing. I found just changing the cut made it feel alot different and created a better silhouette. I am keeping his hat but just didn't include it in this drawing because I was trying to figure out how his hair might look without the hat.

Ren's personality has also changed. He is not laid back and a little paranoid. He just wants to be left alone to fish. He tries to keep out of trouble and gets really annoyed that Liza tends to drag him into things. He kinda nags and is always worried. Ren is generally disgruntled and I would describe his gait as a plod. While he avoids fighting like the plague he can defend himself .

aesthetic

I like the idea of a greco-roman fused with asiatic elements for the aesthetic of the world. This is one of my first test for color and architecture. I felt it was too asiatic for what I was going for but I liked how the pillars an emphasis on the entablature.

Liza

My research indicated the female viewers valued relationships in there viewing habits. In response I decided that I wanted a team dynamic in my story and a female lead as that is generally and indicator as to what audience a show is targeted at.

This is an early concept for Liza. She is a generally curious character with an inventive streak. Tends to get into trouble alot because of her curiosity. She is very outgoing and wears her heart on her shoulder. Kinda of a hyper person and I would describe her gait as bouncy.

At this point in my sketches he had a tougher, don't mess with me personality.

I also though he would have a blind eye from the war with a scar he generally liked to hide and the fact that the world he lived in was kinda hob-cobbled together.

Had kind of a smart ass mouth and generally got himself into trouble alot because he wasn't very good at self editing.

fisherman

So this was a fisherman I designed later to go with the boat. I liked the idea of him being a drifter at the time with a dark and twisty back story about him in the war being a highly skilled warrior. Currently he is trying to live out a peaceful life with a lackluster career of fishing.

Visual Reference

This is kinda something I like to do when I start out is take all my refs for particular things and compile them into a single page. Helps me get a feel for what Im looking for in something and identify the homogenous elements of what Im looking at. This particular page being for my style and color refs. From this I can see Im looking for bright saturated color, strong contours, and an emphasis on basic shapes in the designs.

Umbrella boat

This kinda started the whole thing. Doodled it just kinda thinking of air vehicle with a lone fisherman. This has become the boat on which my characters drift about the world in. It is driven purely by wind, no motors or mechanized devices power it. Though sometimes they will light a fire to gain altitude.

Hello

This blog will be dedicated to production of my thesis film currently called "Float" . The idea is for a television show pitch based off my research for targeting teenage female audiences, through and emphasis on character relationships.

The story follow the adventures of a young girl name Liza and the brother sister duo of Nita and Ren as the make they discover the secrets behind the floating world they live in.

My film component of this will be a short little blurb that just introduces the characters and the setting that this show would feature, but not really get into the finer points of my overall story. Though it will feature the character dynamic between Liza and Ren.