Kanika Andrew - El Bandito

JERRY SPRINGERS FINAL THOUGHT......

2009-06-23T05:02:00.000-07:00

OK so we are finished, and I must say I am relieved!!! It has been a hard year but I am very pleased with the outcome of the film. So let me take you back to how it all began.......

"And the films are......Matt Fidler 'El Bandito'......Kanika Andrew 'Glitched'.....IM SORRY WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!!! mmmmm decisions decisions.

I was extremely taken back at the fact that my film had been picked, and was very humble at the fact that Mike Smith believed in my ideas and thought it had the potential to become a good short film. However me and the other members of El Bandito had always wanted to work together for the final 3rd year film. We spent the whole summer before meeting, coming up with various amounts of ideas and we had already made a decision based on what we would do if a scenario like this occurred (i just didn't think it would be me that would have to make the hard decision!!). Matt was very understanding in the sense that even though we had spoken about what we would do in a situation like this before, he made it clear that if I did want to change my mind and work on my own film he would not hold me to our previous agreement.

In the end I decided that I wanted to drop my film and work with the guys of El Bandito, and told Mike in the very first week that I would not be doing my film. However there were a few people who initially wanted to work on Glithched, Alex Bedminister, Principe Short, Natasha Monk and Mehmet Izmen. I let these people know immeadiatley that I would not be making my film, and I would be working on El Bandito; however in a strange turn of events they still wanted to make the film. I was pleased to here this and said that I would supply them with all the work which I had done for the pitch but I would not be the director of the film. So in the second week of the first term Alex took the role of Director. Throughout the year Alex had been updating as to the progress of the film and had let me know of the vast changes they had made to the story to make the filmic language receive better to the audience. I was delighted to hear that they had incorporated their own story ideas, and cared enough to make the story even better. I would just like to say thankyou to the guys at glitch (what they renamed it) and Kanika AndrewS, cannot wait to see the finish product.

So back to the Banditos! The first term was very much about getting the story right, we had everyone look over the anamatic!! Dan Dali (about 5 times), Mike Smith, even the industry lecturer from Aardman. We wanted to make sure that the story was right before we took further steps to start modelling.

Second term, this was the hardest term, mainly because of the dissertation. It took alot out of the film making process, but as a group we had timetabled in when we were going to focus on the film, and when we were going to focus on the dissertation. I don't think if it wasn't for the extreme organisational skills (particularly from Sam Harvey) and the group determination to not let the dissertation get in the way of our film, that we would have been in the moderately strong position we were in heading for term 3.

Third term, this term to was hard. Towards the end it got extremely stressful, and although there were a couple of disagreements, it never crippled the production of the film, we knew the show must go on and it showed how much passion we each had for the film we were producing. It would have been ludicrous to assume that we were all going to agree on everything all the time, and I feel that it made the final product much stronger than it would if we all sat there and did what was asked of us in silence.

All in all I had a blast working with the following guys...............Matt Fidler, Sam Harvey, Sam King, Joshua Collinson and Tony Trimmer thanks for making my last year at Ravensbourne hell...I mean a blessing!!!

Love you guys and I wish you the best in all that you do......Kaniks

URGENT: Forgot shot 49 on shot list!!!

2009-06-22T04:05:00.000-07:00

Animation: Marshals and Sheriff

Animated finalised by Joshua Collinson

El Bandito small compilation of three folders

2009-06-22T01:27:00.002-07:00

Technical

UV Mapping.....................

Artistic

Texturing.........................................

Artistic

Concept..................

Animation

This is the actual animation which was supposed to be on the sheriff for shot 29. As I explained in my shot list, there was a technical difficulty with the shot and will be re rendered in time for the degree show.

Glitich Artistic Folder

2009-06-22T01:27:00.001-07:00

Glitch concept work for artistic folder. These are the initial character designs I presented for my pitch.

Shot 49

2009-06-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

This shot has caused me so much stress and I am not that happy with the result, I have been trying to connect my animation with Matts, as Matt has voiced to me at a certain point of his animation one of the marshals need to be in the bandits way, so that when the bandit turns in the air it's because the Bandit has made contact with the marshal. In the end I had to hand the shot over to Josh to finish as it was stressing me out, so he took the work that I did and worked from there.

Here is the progress for shot 49.............

Shot 22: Development and Finalisation

2009-06-20T14:03:00.000-07:00

This was one of the most difficult shots to animate, it took me a long time to get the animation right, I am still not happy with it but I feel it does enough to again compliment the Sheriff (Matts animation) which is the main focus of the shot. The main problem was trying to get that traditional wild west feel in the marshals walk. Again I refered to the live action reference I had filmed with Harvey, to help me with this shot. But with the second marshal I kept on adding to many key frames which made it glitch out, then I had to go back and figure out which key frames I didn't need. So I actually made it much worse before making it better!!

Progress for shot 22......

Finalisation:

Shot 24 progress and finalisation

2009-06-14T04:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the progress for shot 24, I am currently animating to Matts Sheriff which he has already animated. Its a ver quick shot and quite simple animation, as the marshals are there just to compliment the sheriff animation.

Shot 20: Development and Finalisation

2009-06-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

Rendering: Shot 32a

2009-06-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

Now that the animation is finished for this shot and Josh has done the NCloth for it, Me and Harvey have now set up the render for it. Below is the screenshots of the render process. To get the best look for the shot we had to render 6 passes. The train AO, train RGB, Character AO, Character RGB, Depth, Shadow.

Shot 49:Setting up the sheriff in the scene

2009-06-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

The following screenshots show that I have now imported the sheriff in to shot 49, which has already been animated by Matt. I have used Matt's bandit animation to work out the best place to situate the sheriff.

After this screen shot I realised the sheriff needed to be more central......

Shot 29: Development and Finalisation

2009-06-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

This playblast is focusing on the secondary animation of the accessories on the marshal

Finalisation for shot 29

Camera Angle 1

Camera Angle 2

Not sure which camera angle to go with..............

Aim for today......................

2009-06-02T03:54:00.000-07:00

Today I plan to finish shot 29 as it is so close to finalisation, and start shot 49, so that they can be added to the block out.

Shot 27: Finalised

2009-06-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

My section in this shot is finally finished. After having to redo it, because a second year turned of my computer!! I am happy with the result and think it will complement Harvey and Matt's animation.

Degree Show and D&AD Preparation

2009-05-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

My two images which will be given to Harvey for the degree show and D&AD

The progress of shot 29

2009-05-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

I have now beeen working on the marshal animation for shot 29, I want to make sure that the two marshals look different when they stumble back. I also used a live action reference thanks to filming Harvey stumbiling back, to get a better hold on things.

Below is my progression through playblasts......

Shot 27 and 32c: Development and Finalisation

2009-05-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

Shot 27: Here are the playblasts and developments for shot 27

Shot 32c: This shot will be split with Harveys prisoners animation

Finalised Shot:

Shot 32a: finalised

2009-05-20T15:04:00.000-07:00

This is the final shot for shot 32a, I tried to incorporate the famous hand movement you always see in the westerns when the character is getting ready to reach for his gun. I like the shot however its a shame that it extreme close up and such a quick shot, but it needs to be this fast for the pace of the film.

The Trails and Tribulations of Shot 20a

2009-05-11T05:04:00.000-07:00

Ok so I had alot of problems with this shot. Its amazing how sometimes just the subtle movements can give you the most grief when It comes to animating. At first when I was animating the marshals in the shot, both Matt and I had different ways of looking at it. I saw it as more of a exaggerated shock, and Matt saw it as a glance up to back the sheriff. After much deliberation, we as our fellow group member Harvey. His opinion was to combine both our ideas together, so that the secondary characters wouldn't takeaway from the sheriff; but still have something more than just looking up.

This is one of the initial playblasts

The next playblast is the one I am working on now, I have pretty much finished the marshal on the right, since my group members last saw it I have added some secondary action to the hands, and made the head movement just a touch quicker. I have now moved on to animating the the other marshal,but I can't get it quite right. Fellow Banditos a lil help please!!!! would really appreciate your comments. It still in the early stages but I still want to see what you all think, what I could add or take out....... (personally I think he could be a little faster)

Blockout: adding shots

2009-04-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

Technical: I have put the shot which I have just animated in to the blockout below is the playblast for it.

Shot 29 with reference

2009-04-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

I have started to animate my shots for the film. This particular shot is after the driver has been shot which makes the train go faster, and causes the sheriff and the marshals to loose their balance.

For this shot Matt filmed myself attempting to stumble which actually turned into two very real stumbles!! perfect!! This Live action reference really helped when I referred back to it. I am extremely happy with how the sheriff has turned out. I don't think I would change much considering the time allocated for this shot.

Animation Test: Marshal Walk Test

2009-04-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

This third test is a walk cycle. I am not happy with it at all as the character looks like he has a limp, he looks quite rigid to me and quite glitchy. I like the head movement and the pace he is walking is fine, but it needs some work. However the time has come now where I need to stop doing tests and start focusing on animating shots for the film.

This is a screen shot of my shot list which Harvey has given me, to let me know what shots I am doing what they entail, and how long each shot is. I will be using this shot list throughout to remind myself of what I need to do.

Animation Test: Marshall Run Cycle

2009-04-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

This is the second test that I have done from the marshal rig. This test is a run, I am pleased with this test, as I think it loops well. I also tried to get some secondary action with the head, to make it look like he was driving himself to go on (Paula Radcliff inspired!). There is one problem with the rig at the moment, with his left hand, you can't really notice it (but now I have mentioned it your gonna look for it!) I have let Matt know and he knows how to fix it, and assures me it will be fixed by the time I start animating for the film

Animation test: Marshall Jump

2009-04-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

I HAVE THE MARSHAL RIG YAY!!!!! Thanks to Matt I have been supplied with the Marshal rig. I have no decided that it is in the best interest of the film considering the time we have left, if I start doing tests with the marshal rig. The test above is a jump test, I feel this test could be better, by putting more movement when he lands, and more momentum when he starts. If there is time to improve it I will put alot more anticipation at the beginning of the animation.

Texturing a Buiilding

2009-04-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

I have now started to texture one of my building models, however time is slipping away and the Character rigs are nearly finished. So I might have to abandon texturing to focus on the animation soon. But this is how far I have go so far, I have been texturing every single plank to make it look more authentic. I have also used the checkerboard texture to assign the right UVs to each part of the model.

Texturing: TNT and Gold Coins

2009-03-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

The coins were alot easier to texture, but getting the settings right for the reflective surface took some time to get right.

TNT Texturing and UV Mapping

2009-03-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Texturing for TNT. I definitely believe that the texturing makes all the difference. After I did the texture for my model I was really satisfied with the end result. The time I put in to making sure that the textures looked to their best has been well worth it. Because I was new to texturing I made alot of mistakes before I got it completely right, I had to texture each side separately because of the way I modelled it. I know I will make less mistakes next time, practice makes perfect!!!

Progress on TNT texturing..............

UV Plannar Maping and Photoshop............

Applying the texture in Maya..........

Bucket Texturing Finished (I think!)

2009-03-25T03:57:00.000-07:00

Now that I have some knowledge on texturing I have gone back to my previous props to texture them up. This is the progress for the bucket....

Basic Texturing

2009-03-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Today I mainly focused on developing my texturing skills. I had a tutorial on basic texturing by my fellow group member Sam King, and with that I was able to try out texturing a couple of my props.

Plannar Mapping...............

Photoshop.......................

Cylindrical Mapping................

Photoshop...............................

Cactus finished

2009-03-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

One of the items on the list which Harvey gave me was a cactus. I wasnt sure about my model as I didnt think it looked to much like a cactus but I do think if it was textured it would look so much better. Now that I have had this notion I asked Sam King to give me a tutorial on texturing and UV Mapping, which was really good. He broke it down into understandable terms and believe I can take the information he gave me and apply it to my work. Thanks Sam!!

Texturing test above (tutorial done by Sam King)

Back to the film: Modelling little trinckets

2009-03-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Finally the dissertation is over!!! and now I can get back to El Bandito!!! Harvey has given me more props to model for the film. They are small but valuable to the plot. Below are screen shots of coins that I have modelled. Harvey specified to me that the coins had to be very simple. So I decided to leave the usual detail on the face of the coin out. Each coin is a low poly and can be duplicated so it is easy to animate.

Developing Cactus:- The following pictures are of my first modelling developments of a cactus, as we need at least three varieties. Although not finished (needs the spikes) this is how far I have got so far.

The story so far.....

2009-03-02T05:28:00.000-08:00

My role right now consists of making the props to authenticate the environmental pieces of our film. So far I have enjoyed making the props and believe my efforts will make a solid contribution to the film. Right now I have decided to take a week out to fully focus on improving my dissertation, which my group has been supportive of. I will continue on my role in the next week.

Modelling props: Bucket

2009-02-26T08:15:00.000-08:00

I have now decided to model a bucket, this was suprisingly harder than I thought It was going to be, but I got there in the end and am very happy with the results.

Progress on bucket................

Prop Modelling: a wagon

2009-02-25T14:46:00.000-08:00

Well me and Harvey had a chat and he could see I was getting a little tired of modelling buildings, So I have changed my direction slightly and gone back to props as I cant start any animation yet until the rigs are finished. I love the way my wagon has come out, I feel it is stylised to the look of our film, and will compliment it perfectly. If I was to make the model again I would increase the detail, but because It is such a fast paced film, it would be a waist of time to make it too detailed as it would be lost on the viewer.

My progression in making a wagon...................

Experimenting (leave it to the professionals Kanika!!!)

2009-02-25T14:23:00.000-08:00

I spent a little time trying to master the program that is photoshop. I decided to look at trying to adapt the texture of a playing card, as we have a scene with cards in. I wanted to make it look alot older and more authentic.

I took an image from the Internet and tried to make it look older. I tried using the burn tool, it didn't really work that well in fact it hardly shows. I will try again later after I get a tutorial from one of my fellow members!!!

Yet another building!!!

2009-02-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

The last 2 weeks I have been focusing on buildings to build up our environments, and set the scene for our film. This is yet another building I have created to place in the background. I have not made it to complicated as it is not a crucial part of our film; and have made it as low poly as I can to avoid complications.

Below is the process and screen shots of the final product.......

The legendary doors......

Heres a Barrel I made earlier.......!!!

Modelling: Another Building

2009-02-17T15:04:00.000-08:00

OK so now that I have finished the saloon, I have moved on to my second building. Once again like before I have made all the attributes separately e.g. like the planks, just in case we might need to rip it apart for any reason. I like how it has turned out; but if I was to redo this model I would put more detail into the windows, maybe have some broken glass to give it a more olden day look, although I do think it looks quite themed anyway.

Below is my process....

Modelling: Town Building saloon

2009-02-17T08:07:00.000-08:00

I have currently been working on buildings which can be put into the background of the environment. One of the most memorable buildings which come to mind when thinking of the wild west is a saloon. So I have decided that it only right that I should make one!!!

I started of with the pillars and then carried on to the body of the building

I made the windows, pillars and balcony attributes separate and then combined them together to make the saloon.

Western toilet/Shack

2009-02-12T07:30:00.000-08:00

Below is my progress for modelling a western toilet, I am quite happy with how it has turned out. However it has taken me longer than I initially anticipated. This will be shown in the background to fill up the desert area, as we have 9 environments and we need different props to show the different areas of our film.

Marshall blendshapes vid

2009-02-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

Blend Shapes Marshall

2009-02-10T10:55:00.000-08:00

Today was blend shape day!!! Matt, Harvey and myself spent the day doing the blend shapes for all the secondary characters. I did the blend shapes for the Marshal whilst Harvey did the ones for the prisoners and Matt the sheriff. We all made suggestions to each other to better the blend shapes. Matt made some suggestions to try and get a nice cheeky smirk, which worked out really well.

Here are the blend shapes for the Marshall character at low poly. They are now ready to be smoothed and attached to the original model.

Environmental props

2009-01-19T05:59:00.000-08:00

I have started to make the props we need to authenticate our film. Harvey gave me a list of props that would be good to model for the film. So I modelled a barrel, I think it could look a bit smoother, but for the most part it looks like what its supposed to and does the trick!

I have then modelled a group of TNT crates, I am really happy with how they turned out. I took a while to get them right, because Harvey wanted each plank to be separate so that they can be dismantled if need be

Final Concept Boards

2008-12-04T11:20:00.000-08:00

These are the final concept boards for my work on El Bandito. The first is a colour scheme which I art attacked from carefully picked coloured card. The other two boards are my research and concept drawings for both inside and outside environments. Thanks to Harvey knocking up our brand look early, he has generously supplied us all with footers in which to present our work. Thanks Harv!!

Rough Window ideas and Interior concept

2008-12-04T02:25:00.000-08:00

Concept for El bandito

This was an exprimental concept piece, using fabrics and acrylics.

These are a few rough window ideas of what different types could be used for the train.

Train exterior research

2008-12-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

Here are some images I found from a very detailed train book in the LRC. The last two images in particular has been very helpful, so helpful that Matt has asked me to give the images to Adjin to model the train for the film.

Bandito Colour Strips

2008-11-11T03:10:00.001-08:00

I Have done these colour strips inspired by the style of the Incredibles. Each strip represents the main scenes within the film and what colour schemes we are going for.

Environment Concept

2008-10-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some environment concepts I have done of the landscapes and the Interior of the train.

Research - Film references

2008-10-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

Research - Big Thunder Mountain

2008-10-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

Train research

2008-10-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26103885@N06/2456841530/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_easy/2146921596/

Wanted Posters

2008-10-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of wanted posters that I thought would help with the look of our establishing shot.