The motel background

This is the background of the motel. The camera won't move in this shot. On the top view, you can see some black planes. These are the matte paintings: some trees and props that are far away, so I don't need to model them, it's just some textures with alpha for the transparency. I will composite these layers later with composition nodes.

The Principal Character

This is one of the character, in a very simple style. Materials are just here to show the colors, I'll UVmap him later.

For the moment he has no fingers and probably won't, which will simplify the rig and the animation. I had the same decision for his face: the beard will hide his mouth (but subsurf has made a weird shape that I need to fix). All these tricks are due to the short time I have to complete the animation, but not only. That's the way I'll design every character, background, or props in the video.

That's why I was hesitating between Smooth and Solid rendering. I really love the Solid aspect, it reminds me the beginning of the CGI, back in the 80's. I will certainly use that in another project, but not for this animation.

First models

Here are the first models. The black car is the one of the principal character, so it's more detailed than the other two, and furthermore, we can see the inside. I'm really not a specialist in cars, but I like the style of these.

Backgrounds sketches

Three other sketches for the different backgrounds. I've done a third version of the script, and there will be 7 different backgrounds at the moment, each one will combine modelisation and matte painting.

Sketches

Here are the firsts badly drawn sketches of some backgrounds and of the principal character.

Story

The story is really the part I find the most difficult, because I don't really know how to proceed. So I've decided to find something intriguing, and I hope, a bit interesting. It's based upon guilt and responsability. I won't say the whole plot (because it could evolve) but if I have to sum up it would be: 

During a rainy night a man is forced to commit curious acts, that may change his life forever. (Yes, that sounds a little arrogant and ridiculous, but that the only way I can describe it now).

The mood is dark, “film noir”. I'll work the light in a theatrical type, very contrasted. The rain will be very important too, and will certainly be a technical issue with the reflects, the mist …

Technical details

Some details about the movie: as I said before, it will be in black & white, rendered in HD 1280x720. All 3D made, but the style I want to achieve is a bit “graphic”. Modelisation and textures here are less important than the mood I want to carry. I'll put more work in the editing, compositing and directing parts.

On my schedule it must be finished for the end of the year (2008, I guess). I've started on the begining of october, so it's really short, because I can work on it just during my spare time. See you in 3 months to see if my expectations were right.

Al

This blog will be dedicated to the realisation of a short animation: Al (title in progress), from the beginning to the end. I'll will show here all the stages of the process, just because I like visiting blogs which deal with it.

Al is a 3D CG animated short in black & white, made with the package Blender, with a little bit of After Effects for the post-processing (not sure about that, right now). The movie may be divided in several short episodes (less than two minutes).