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

Brune Kager

Above: A test render of the storyteller by Aaron in Bangkok. We have been using combustion, and after fx for our composites. This part of the production has been put on hold until I return from Denmark, and Aaron returns from his honeymoon. -tod

Brunkage

Been a while since the last post... things are moving forward however. Our pal Aaron is busy compositing in the land of the free (that's what the name "Thailand" means) . Kaywood Foos is whacking away (whatever that means) on the final shot there in Krunthep... and our man In DK... Nicolai Slothuus is helping on the atlantic side of things. Hope to have a few images from the film up soon! Here I am in my "new" old office in Viborg. The animation workshop allowed me to decorate a bit... lights, chairs... in the color scheme of the old "ship wreck inn" from that delighful short film "Escape of the Gingerbread Man!!!" Now if only I could find a leather wing back chair. -tod

Run Ginger Run away

Above: Inspirational sketches by my two good pals Nate, and Ean Moretti.

The above animals are for the infamous race/ chase sequence of the film... I wanted a different look for this sequence... something creative and fun... Nate and Ean didn't let me down. We just finished the animation, and it's really fun to watch... Thanks fellahs! -tod

Visitors from far lands

Above:Poul, Salvador, and Ingo at "The Monk"

Salvador came for a month earlier this year to help with boards and layout. Now he is directing the other project in the studio... a 60 min commercial! He just returned from Spain this week... his paddle pop in hand. All three of these fine gentleman have added so much to the Gingerbread Man. It's been a fun time. -tod

Background Sprinkles

Above: The matchmaking festival poster by Chanya "Pu"

Both Chanya and Susanne finished up the BGs this last weekend... it was great to have them both involved... and they added so much to the production. Susanne finished up around 70 or so backgrounds... giving a nice graphic artsy look to my keys... and Chanya focused on logos, prop textures... and all the other bits and bobs that needed designing. Thanks to both of you! - Tod

Title wave

-Susanne and I are working on the title sequence of the film... trying to get a more "water-colory" style... above are two "tests" ... basically not finished art... just taking stabs trying to get the right feel... mixing her painting, my painting... and borrowing examples of things for inspiration. Still a ways to go... but getting there... tod

Shaw This

Above: George Bernard Shaw

-GBS was a huge inspiration for the storyteller character in GBM. He was such a character himself... and had such charisma, confidence, and was such a great storyteller. Below are some more development sketches by the fantastic Maahir Pandie. The storyteller uses his hands a lot in the film... so it was important that they have character as well. - Tod

Picture this

Above: More sketches for the pub... things to be hung on the wall to warm up the overall atmosphere. I imagine the pub to have been built around 1850 or so... the story takes place in 1950... so various artifacts from different periods littler the room. The old part of the pub is mostly stone and timber. The newer section of the pub ... made during the Victorian era... reflects a slightly different more ornate style. tod

Brewing Away in GingerLand

Above: A color key for one of the portraits hanging in the old Pub. Arthur is reacting to Paul and his silly ways.

In Production! Animation has started and looking good ... models are being textured... the pub is coming along well. In Ireland... a band is cooking up some "New pub songs" for the film... in a traditional style.

Putting the Ingredients Together

It's been a long while since I posted here... mostly it's because the whole team has been busy finishing up the pre-production on the film. A lot of final art... keys... character models and designs... tightening the timing on the animatic... working on 3D layout... But it's all coming together and looking good... I will be posting more frequently now that I am through the hardest part of pre-production... tod

NobleTales Re- Re Post

Above: Only a few of the stories that have been in development for the NobleTales series... there are many more at various stages... and a lot more blanks on the map to fill in.


Above: Part of the NobleTales TV series pitch... But originally designed to be a series of theatrical shorts... inspired by the classic shorts that Maurice himself helped create. The Pumpkinlove website is not working at the time of this post... but I am hoping to get it back up and running soon.

This post has a lot less to do with Gingerbread, and more to do with the series Gingerbread is a part of... Noble Tales. I posted some of the presentation material from the series a while back... but for some reason the images were too small. So I have been asked to re-post the images at a larger size. You can see a few more examples of art from the series here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/todpolson/ and can read more about the project, and Maurice Noble himself here: http://www.nobletales.com/ Enjoy! tod

Kenny in the Can

We haven't posted here in a while... but January and February have been busy months... working on design, script, boards... and most importantly recording Jon Kenny. The animation workshop brought Jon all the way to Denmark for a 3 hour recording session... and he did a fantastic job... bringing new ideas, along with his talent. The night before the recording session, Jon, Michelle Nardone, and Tod stayed up until 6am... sharing song, stories, and Irish whiskey... just to "get to know each other a bit better". Seemed fitting. Tired during the recording session... but a much better vision of what we were actually doing.

Congratulations as well to Susanne, Jannick, Jeppe, and Maahir on graduating, and getting your bachelors degrees. Thank you for sharing your talents, and humor... I hope we cal all work together again soon. tod

A little Pandie- monium

The internship is over, but a few of the students are still helping out with the short... Including Mr. Maahir Pandie. He has spent the last week or so trying to come up with a final design for the "story teller" character. We've all taken a crack at him... but nothing has been quite right. He's difficult... because he is the main character in the film... and he has a fairly deep and complex personality. Getting closer though... and I expect Maahir will nail the thing down this week. tod