Final render of the Teamwork production Project

Annnnd here is the final render of our project, with all shots put together.

All in all it was a good experience, and I think we were alright with how we proceeded, and at least everyone had something to do. The Pre-Production was mostly done all-together, we only separated in "tasks" after we started working in Flash and Photoshop. Cleaning up the roughs was fun, if we forget about Flash messing up  the lines and colouring things all black out of nowhere. And of course the background was nice to work on as well, I like Digital painting/drawing \o/

I think we all did bits and bits here and there as in, helped each other out in production phase. 

It is nice to have it fully rendered before the Deadline, because we can edit a few things here and there if necessary and re-submit it then.
This post needs to be edited eventually because some changes were made!~

Production Clean Ups and pre-final render

 Shot 02

 Shot 03

Shot 04

Moar clean ups for the group project, just one shot remaining which we practically worked together on because TIME BLARGH
Shot 02 had to be partially coloured to give a starting point for Jazzy to colour next

Shot 03 with all characters in colours (just missing text)
Background was edited as well to fit Mr.Chad's ideas

And the render video, which is not yet the final product!

Production Teamwork - Doodle Dragons Day 1 and 2

Here is some of the things done for the Production Team Project, from Monday and Tuesday. 

We had to come up with a Commercial idea and ended up making it a wizard selling potions to "help" people. 

I am in charge mostly of Background and Clean-up \o/

Here are the quick little designs I came up with, most of them being quite random, especially the two last ones.

 

 Background concepts which included Statues of Dragons to go with our Team's name but...welp, they got taken out.

I refined two of them, but eventually, the middle shot statues got replaced by wizard statues, which would later be the final background idea for our animation.

This is what the background looks like so far. IF we have enough time I may end up fixing a few things, but that is how it will look for now. 

As for clean up stuff, I have done one really simple shot today which was given to me, and tested some quick colouring to make sure it fills in properly~

And thankfully it does! 

And that is about it for today!~

Darth Vader Redesign Concepts (Incomplete)

Firstly was going to go for a Cowboy/Western type of character, and then perhaps a necromancer type, though I honestly did not have many ideas, and things were pretty much set in stone already; I wanted to draw him as a dragon.
He would wear a helmet as the main asset to reflect Vader from the movies, and would have black colour overall for his body. Red was also going to be put in somewhere, first only one tail spikes, but I was not sure where to put it next. And so it sort of developed into a more magical design than flesh-y.

He ended up with a more or less shattered body, sustained for most part by the Force itself, has red transparent wing membranes, no more arms, and a visible rib cage (of sorts)
I kept a few things from the previous idea, namely the helmet, though I believe he wouldn't need the lens to open like in the other design.

I am still missing the creative Illustration for this, but I must say I am truly happy with the final concept so far!

2D Integration exercise Follow-up

The "Final" file for the 2D Integration exercise

Must say I am truly not happy with consistency in this as well as some of the movement, especially towards the end. Head changes in size even though I tried to keep it the same, Dragon himself changes in size in some places and aaaaaaaaargh

Buuuut I guess it's "okay" for a first try? BLAH
Also no timing char PFFFF

Tuesday movie pls

And this concludes the original trilogy of Star Wars, as we watched Star Wars Episode VI : Return of the Jedi on Wednesday.

In this episode, I could not help seeing Darth Vader as someone who is afraid of his master, and obeys mostly for fear of being eliminated as the Emperor has great power. It is interesting to see how he came to become "softer" when he found out about Luke, and while he still tries to get Luke to join the Dark side, it is not something he truly wishes for his son to do. At least the way I see it, it looks more like Vader hopes to defeat the Emperor with the help of Luke eventually. Granted, Vader may not be completely good at that time, but this is the good part of him that speaks. Luke tries to convince his father that there is still good in him, though Vader sounded like he paid it no mind, until Luke was led away by the Clones, mentioning that his father was truly dead, judging by Vader's words. Vader did not answer to that, and yet, even though we cannot see his face, it felt like he might have had a look of regret on his face then. A thought, perhaps, a doubt, that he is actually as bad as he himself thought in the first place.
As Luke is finally brought to the Emperor, he refuses to heel to the Emperor's attempts to make him feel hate and anger, and watches as the Rebel fleet endures a difficult assault from the Empire's forces. He eventually grabs his light saber but is blocked by Vader when he tries to attack the Emperor. Vader and Luke fight, although Luke says from time to time that he wishes not to fight his father. Vader knows how to bring Luke's anger up, and mentions that if he would not join them, perhaps Leia will. He was able to read through Luke's feelings and figure out that his sister was still alive, and Luke immediately went on the offensive, slashing repeatedly at Vader, eventually cutting off his hand which he was holding his saber with. After doing so, refusing to join the Dark side still and realising his mistake in reacting with anger, the Emperor decides he has to die, and starts shooting Luke with electricity which he probably draws from the Force itself. Vader walks up closer to the Emperor as his son is suffering, and he watches, while Luke begs for his Father's help. Eventually, and with what strength is left in him after the battle, Vader grabs the Emperor and throws him down into a deadly fall, killing the Empire leader. From then on, Vader was good once more, and we could say he was back to being Anakin, though this redemption came at the price of his life. He later asks to see his son with his own eyes, and admits to Luke, who wanted to save him, that he was already saved, thanks to Luke.
His dead body, still in the Vader armor, is then burnt like they would a king of old times, which I found was a really nice touch, a fitting ending for a great character.

Although I still wish he could have lived, buuut I guess it's better than him dying as a villain.
This was a really interesting way of watching the Original Trilogy, and I understood a lot more than when I watched it long ago...looong ago. xD

Monday Movie Pls

On Monday, it was time to watch Star Wars Episode V : Empire Strikes Back

There are a lot of things that could be said if we had to study all characters but we are mostly focusing on Darth Vader, and I must say he is still as cool as ever.
What I especially like with Vader is the fact we cannot see his face and thus, his expression. His mood is translated into gestures and stances, words and tone of voice, and I suppose this must be one of the things that make him so "scary" to his men. In this movie he was the one in control, after the Death Star got destroyed. From his Star Destroyer, he gives commands as he tries to find the heroes, and seems to be unforgiving. He did not tolerate failure to a certain point, and did not exactly appreciate an apology for failure either, all who did so were "strangled" and killed for disappointing him. Though this may as well be Vader making sure the Emperor is satisfied and has capable men to serve him, as he is under the latter's rule after all. Vader seems to still be in touch with his former Jedi self in a sense, as he is seen meditating in several scenes, though always in his own meditation chamber. He managed to trick Luke into a trap using Leia and Han as baits, making a "deal" with the head of the City he lured Luke in, Lando, who knew Han. Vader made changes to the deal little by little as things happened quite accordingly to his plan so far, which displeased Lando, but Vader's imposing presence prevented him from doing something directly, and he had to be careful as he decided to lead Leia and the others out of the city, to safety.

In the fight between Luke and Vader, at first it appeared like Vader slightly underestimated Luke as he thought he had him frozen, yet Luke had jumped out and saved himself from the freeze. Throughout the fight however, Vader seems to go stronger and stronger on Luke, and Luke held on, until Vader cut his hand off and part of his arm as well, rendering Luke incapable to fight, with no light saber available to him anymore. Now, Vader mentions that it is Luke's destiny to defeat the Emperor, and then asks Luke to join him. We know the Emperor and Vader discussed that Luke could become a powerful ally to the Empire if he joined them, but the way Vader put it when speaking to Luke nearly makes you believe he does not like being under the Emperor's rule any longer, and would rather reign himself. It is almost as if Vader fears the Emperor, just as his men fear Vader. He also spoke of restoring order to the galaxy to Luke, which again, may or may not be a lie to make him join their side.
Does Vader have plans of defeating the Emperor? Does he mean to reign with his son or would he just kill him after? Was it just a trick (a rather nicely worded one), to get Luke to join the Empire? I cannot be certain, but that is what makes it so interesting in my opinion. Black and white characters, one purely evil and one purely just is quite a common thing and so it is nice to have a mix of both somewhere in a story, and Vader seems to be just that. A feared and respected Lord, with a huge amount of power both in command and fight, yet struggling to find peace in himself, most likely secretly.

So in this Episode, Vader was shown to be an unforgiving Lord, ready to do anything to fulfill his master's request, yet with a touch of his own (he was the one to suggest that Luke joined their side, rather than killing him right away as the Emperor inferred).