Sounds of Baking Bread

I've taken some time away from the short to get married to a wonderful girl, and work on some paying jobs. Now that my schedule is freeing up ... I am planning to devote more time to the film. One thing I have been thinking about recently is the music.

Above: Revisiting some of my old instrument designs for the "Band" of sheep in my short film ".Escape of the Gingerbread Man.!!! ".

The actual music for the film was recorded at Doon Studio, Waterford Ireland. All arranged and played by squeezebox man Benny McCarthy and a few of his friends. I am a huge fan of Bennys traditional Irish bands Danu, and. Rattle the Boards.. Fantastic stuff!!! I hope he's pleased with what I've done with his delightful music.

I've asked my pal Billy "Keys" Benson to help with the film score this summer. Bill is an amazing artist, and has scored several of my personal films, working with Maurice Noble and I in the early days developing our "NobleTales" project. I'll write about Bill in a later post ... but I am very excited to be working with him again.

Until then ... tod.

Sweet goodness from the land of Danes

I am pleased to share with you the reels of 5 young talented animators. I worked with them over the winter in Viborg... and now they will be joining me this summer in Thailand. -should make for a great animated time. tod


Untitled from angel aguirregomozcorta on Vimeo.


showreel from jan rybka on Vimeo.


Showreel from Henrik Sønniksen on Vimeo.


Showreel-Animation from Thomas Huusmann on Vimeo.


Showreel 2009 from Benjamin Nielsen on Vimeo.

Colorful confection

Above: Some of the color script for Ginger.  The main focus of the color script is really making sure the characters read on the backgrounds... and making sure that there is a artistic progression in the film... making sure each sequence and place feels unique from one another... yet still tie together in some way. For Ginger I have used mostly variations of green and red... for some reason this feels Irish to me.

The color scripts start out as boards... then I fill them in with rough color passes... then eventually more finished backgrounds. This board is a combination of my, and Susanne's bgs... all based on my layout and color sketches.  The more 3d looking scenes are keyed by going over frames from maya... and early render tests. For some sequences of the short,  I lean the red more towards orange or yellow... and the green to blues depending on the mood. I keep the yellows and whites  primarily as accent colors in all the sequences... using them to help focus the eye to specific parts of the screen. Of course I try to keep the orange of the Ginger cookie reading... depending on what's happening in the story -tod

Kanome cookie

Above: A small handbill made by one of the artists at "The Monk".  The studio is helping promote "Escape of the Gingerbread Man!!!"  at various events. Showing clips, and artwork... drumming up interest in the project. As we get closer to finishing... we hope to enter the short in the film festival circuit.  - tod

Monk-ees

Above: Animation wrap at "The Monk Studio": Every person here has contributed in some way in the production of Gingerbread man. I owe a great deal to Juck, and the gang. Thank you all! Now on to render and post production!

Fresh baked to your door

Above: A rough design for Grannies delivery truck. I say rough because this design will be translated to work in 3D... and sometimes certain lines in the design have to change slightly in order to work. The main thing is keeping the "feeling" of the design.

Below: A sketch by Jannick Grool... In the long version of the story I had imagined Granny being a sort of heavy metal momma... dressed in black leather. Heavy Metal versions of traditional Irish folk songs would boom out of her ride. The big plow on front isn't for snow... it's to clear the sheep out of the way. Granny is one of my favorite characters in the film... but unfortunately I had to cut some of her best bits early for time sake. Hopefully someday I can make the complete long version of the story.

Small Bites

Uploading a few of Aarons test renders from the famous race sequence. The gag being that there wasn't enough of a budget to paint proper backgrounds, or do proper animation in this section of the film. The back story being that school children were employed. The truth is... two school children designed the animals for this sequence... Nate and Ean Moretti... but I never actually paid them. Though I will probably take them out for an ice cream, or a glass of water once I have save enough money to actually go home. Hope they like the end result. -tod