A Gritty Western, animatic

Starting to look good.  Comments?

"A Gritty Western" animatic from brotherboxer on Vimeo.

Blast Off! The Beginnings

I had just finished doing a film with very human proportioned characters and a more serious theme. So Ryan and I were looking to do something cute and lighthearted, but also with an overall message. With jobs in the industry coming up in the near future, we didn't want to bite off more than we could chew. The result was a story about how if you're not careful, your ambitions for the future can slip away from you. I was in charge of creating character designs and Ryan was in charge of designing the backgrounds. Here's one of the first sketches I put together that helped shape what our film looks like today.

Blast Off BGs

Hey People, Lately I have been working on a new short film with my awesome partner Kaitlyn Shepley. We are just getting into the animating part of it and I am almost done the backgrounds. After we finish moving into our new apartment this weekend we hope to start animating in full force and aim to get it done before the end of the summer. Anyways, for now I figured I could post a couple of the BGs that are pretty much done and hopefully soon there will some animation on top of them.

Dreamworld, by Kat Shepley

Another Grad film from this past year, by Kat Shepley.

Dreamworld from Kaitlyn Shepley on Vimeo.

Gritty Western update, with production art

Here's some artwork from "A Gritty Western".  This film may be the most ambitious of the bunch, and it's required a lot of retooling as we go.  Making it all work in 30 seconds has been tricky, but each time we figure out a more economical way to tell this story, it feels like a breakthrough.
With a western, there's a lot of cinematic language to work with.  We've all seen them, we have a common language we can take advantage of.  It's using that common language, playing with the cliches, without falling into just that, cliche, that's really tricky.

villain design by Tabitha Lambert

stanger, design by Brittany Whittington

Here's what Christina had to say about working on this film: After spending a year on a comedic film “Beam” which had energetic and exaggerated character animation, one day I thought “ I want to do a revenge story”.  I decided a western is a good set up for a new experience.  And it is. Suddenly we’re taking a more serious, dramatic and cinematic approach that is demanded for the film. Because this story has much much more subtle character acting, it requires more attention to storyboarding; triggering SO many feelings! Ultimately I’m glad I took this opportunity to forward my progress in creating stories. “A Gritty Western” is challenging and CERTAINLY a learning experience! 

Brittany, Christina, and Tabitha are really busting their asses to make this film and to make it work.  The board's been worked and reworked a few times over, but we're finally getting somewhere that I think everyone is happy and confident about it.  I'll try to get the animatic posted for you soon.

title animation

My pal Jason McArthur is animating the title card for this year's film challenge.
Here's some rough animation:

30 Second Films, title card from brotherboxer on Vimeo.

Classy, no?

introduction: Caitlin Bourbonnais

Bio: Caitlin Bourbonnais was raised on a farm with other forms of livestock, and trained to read, write, draw and sing. Upon leaving the farm, she worked in many Ottawa restaurants, cooking the very friends she had left behind years ago. The terrible discovery of this fact led her to back to Algonquin College to learn the art of animation. She enjoys fresh carrots and grapes, but please do not feed directly from your hand.

Synopsis: What the Duck? Pt I

The first installment in a series. Our main character – Barkington Fitzroy – is introduced alongside some easily scared costars, and we are given a small window into a truly tortured soul.

Caitlin can be found online here.

grad films: One Less... by Tabitha Lambert

Here's Tabitha Lambert's grad film.  She's working on a very ambitious 30 second western now, but you can see she's got some solid foundations to build on.  Tabitha is known for taking on very ambitious projects, and I haven't tried to dissuade her of that.  The trick has been to take the big, ambitious project, and distill it down to something do-able.


ONE LESS... from Tab Lambert on Vimeo.

Introduction: Brittany Whittington

BIO: Brittany Whittington is a recent grad of the Algonquin College animation program. She has been known to moonlight as an arch-nemesis for hire, but had to stop due to a sudden outbreak of superstitious driven cowardism. Will work for rocket boots.

Brittany is working with Tabitha Lambert and Christina Chin on: A Gritty Western

You can see more of her stuff here.

Including her grad film, which was part of a larger film, done kinda jam-style.

Final Film from Brittany Whittington on Vimeo.