Chew TV

I'm working with Kat on the Chew TV ident project. Today we pitched our two ideas to Andy, Kathy and two guys from Chew TV. I was pretty nervous, I was sure I wouldn't be able to get any words out, but I was surprised how well we handled it.

We came up with our ideas by sitting down together in the studio, and just throwing random ideas at each other. We came up with things like werewolves to pizza delivery men. This was a great way to do this because we could expand on one of our ideas with two different points of view. We had loads of detailed ideas that we had to narrow down to the two that we pitched today.

Our first idea is an ident set in a space station canteen full of aliens getting their equivalent of lunch. The machine malfunctions... its as if its clogged with something...

As the pressure builds it blasts whatever was blocking it onto the tray, and the alien get covered in the goo...

The room fills with steam from the broken machine and the camera pans over the aliens shoulders as they gather around the tray...

...to reveal that the chew logo was the thing causing the problem. And the background fades to black.

I'm really looking forward to getting started on animating and creating the sound for this ident. We will have to capture and create all sorts of sound effects, from alien to machinery.

Our second idea is of animated speech bubbles floating up the screen... boring and ordinary. Which are then suddenly knocked out of the way by the chew logo. Its all going to be hard work, but I think the outcomes will be worth it. As soon as we've learnt how to use flash a bit more we can get a move on.

Backgrounds!

I finally finished my last 2D background. I went for a monochromatic fantasy forest setting, and I really like the beams of moonlight shining through the trees and the growing mushrooms. The main problem with this image is that when I came to print it out, no matter how bright I made it, the printer printed it the same darkness every time. You couldn't see the detail in the distance because it looked black. I don't know how to solve that problem really... except print it somewhere else...

These are a couple of renders from my Maya project. I was quite proud with my little 'bedsit' environment, but I've seen other people work and they look so detailed and amazing. I took most of my time getting the lighting right for the mood and the detail on the texture. I ended up getting frustrated with Maya and came to write my blog instead. But its back to it now to improve it some more.

Finally, One Thing Crossed Off My List...

So I've finally finished and handed in my essay so I can focus on a few other things. I really am not a writing kind of person, I'd rather be inventing some fantastic worlds to create backgrounds for. It felt like an age of worry when I had half the word count and nothing more to say, but its done. No more essay-ness until the mega horrible dissertation...

I've done two of my 2D backgrounds and just have the colour scheme and the Maya ones left to do this week. I think Ill work on these without really realising because its what I enjoy doing. Here my room background. I enjoyed painting each part differently on Photoshop. However, I could of created more contrast between light and dark, but then again you would loose the detail.

I have some ideas for the next ones... But you'll have to wait until they're finished.