This was a bit of a sidetrack from what i should be doing, but after all the inspiration i got from the Studio AKA lecture, i just had to try doing some different paintings. I considered doing my new storyboards in this fashion, but these just take a little more time than i intend to spend on the storyboards. I think my time would be better spent quickly getting the new storyboards together and focusing on the large amount of matte painting work i have ahead.

These are just a bit of fun before i get fully stuck back into the storyboards again. I must admit, i really didnt want to go back to storyboards, but i think it will be for the best in the long run.

Direction Change

Well, after the great advice given to me by Andy Staveley from Studio AKA at Fridays university visit, i decided to completely change the direction I was going with this piece. I have now decided to make the trailer much more of a teaser, and not really show the actors much at all. This will give me the chance to focus more on the environments, and simultaneously eliminate all the problems involved with shooting multiple actors at multiple different locations up and down the country.
I am now working on a new set of storyboards and will update soon with a fresh animatic. Stay tuned...

Overpainted Frame

Here is one of the frame that was graded, with a bit more vegetation and growth very roughtly painted into the environment to add more of a jungle feel to it. Not long spent on this, just trying to see how easy or difficult it will be to add more of a tropical feel to a shot.

Grading Tests

Here are some tests into how much a colour grade can affect the overall atmosphere of stock film / photography. A big consideration for this project will be getting the location shooting to feel as tropical as possible whilst shooting through a UK winter.

Although there is no specific point that the intended location is mentioned in the trailer, the aesthetic that i am aiming for is something resembling a rainforest. In close up shots, the depth of field will help to hide the fact that the locations are not a real rainforest, and in the very wide shots that are mostly digital, i will have the freedom to make the setting as lush or as sparse as i choose. The main problem area will be mid length shots.

I intend to do a certain amount of matte painting to help add more vegetation to the shots, and will add fog to give more atmosphere, but these tests are just about how much difference simply shifting the colour of the shot can make to the feel of the environment. I also simulated a rough depth of field effect to mirror what i expect the camera to be doing on the day.

Shot 1, Before:

Shot 1, After:

Shot 2, Before:

Shot 2, After:

Shot 3, Before:

Shot 3, After:

Shot 3 does have some rudimentary matte painting in the fact that i quickly sketched out the overexposed sky, but other than that, these tests are all just colour tests.

Opening Shot Sketch

Working on the next shot now, another all digital shot, this time the very first opening shot of the trailer (as can be seen in the animatic). The colour pallette was the main issue in this one. I wanted quite a dramatic sky, but without all the land elements falling into complete silhouette. Struggled around with it for a bit before settling on this. Ill start breaking this up into its layers and do a test projection of the sketch just the make sure that the shot works before doing the full photoreal matte painting.

First Completed Shot

So here is my first comepleted shot for the project. The reason this shot came first is because I had all the details worked out in my head already, and as it was an entirely digital shot, it did not require going out to shoot any plates.

I included the initial sketch i did for this shot too. Just a very brief sketch in photoshop to work out the composition and make sure i really did know what i wanted. Just a 15 minute rough out that i could work the matte painting on top of basically.

After Effects was used to composite all the final matte elements together, add lightning, add some low rolling mist and for adding the breeze in the trees. The camera move was also added in After Effects, and is just a 2D camera move, kept subtle so as not to destroy the illusion.

I have rendered this as a 4 second shot, as that is what i have worked on it as, but this shot will only last approximately 1 second in the final production (check the animatic, about two thirds of the way in). I may make some minor tweaks before i cut this into the final production, but for now, im calling this one done.

Due to the dark nature of the shot and the compression that it recieves when being uploaded to this blog, i have set up a Vimeo account to post videos instead. Here is the link to the video:

Shot 41 Comp Test

This much closer represents what the uncompressed shot looks like, although still some detail is lost and the values a little flattened...

Animatic 01

Here is the first finished animatic for the project. Its a little hard to read as the drawings are very rough and the narrative is broken and mixed up as it is more important to have high impact in the trailer than easy to follow narrative. Some of the timing still needs tweking in places.
This is all still subject to change, including the text, but is close enough to the way i want to put the final trailer together. I felt it was important to work out the trailer, not because the narrative had to be strong, but because the timing is so important in delivering tension. Also, being on a shoestring budget and with limited time, i did not want to be shooting footage that will end up on the cutting room floor. I may post revisions of this as i start getting shots finished and cut them into the animatic.

Test Shooting

I decided to do some shot tests with the cameras that i will be using for shooting my project. This is just one of many done over the past few days, and was a test of the depth of field (DOF) capabilities.
The camera used in this test is the Panasonic AG HPX-500. This is the studio based camera that will be used for any green screen work, but possibly for location shooting as well, and retails at $14,000.00
The other camera that will be used for location shoots is the Panasonic AG HVX-200, which is the camera that was used to shoot some of the movie Cloverfield, which required a handheld look to the footage. This camera retails at around $5,000.00
In case there is any interest, this shot was wide open at F1.8, a 35mm focal length, low lighting to avoid overexposing, and the cone in the shot was approximately 30" from the cameras focal plane. Unfortunately this is a very small sample, and has been compressed 3 times by the time it is seen here, but hopefully it still gives some impression of the shallow DOF achievable with these cameras.

Conceptual Work

Here are a few concept paintings for the project. All environments at the moment as that is the main priority for the project. Character designs to come soon though. These are really just lighting and mood explorations. All done in Photoshop.

Uncharted Podcast 01

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Uncharted Podcast 01

To listen to this podcast, you can either click the link above and wait for it to load, or right-click the link and choose 'save as' or 'save target as'.

Running Length: 4:50