Beastly Roll Call

Cast roll call for my film (minus The Monster, who was posted previously, and The Pigeon, who is molting Photoshop layers). These sheets show the finalized look for rendering the characters, which is created through digitally painted flat colors under scanned ink linework, and dirtied up with textural overlays. It's similar in feel to my senior film from undergrad, but with some streamlining and important differences. Nothing wrong with getting back to your true nature, with improvements.

Spook, as a child

The Girl, one of the schoolchildren

Nasty brats from the local schoolyard

The Art Student, well-meaning adventurer

Spook as an adult, post Monstrous stage

I presented these to my thesis class yesterday, and received very positive feedback from my peers, with the sole doubting note being from our professor. As I have found her to be notoriously confused and/or dismissive of hand-drawn animation, or, indeed, any form of animation that is not her preferred medium (stop-motion and puppetry), I'm not taking her detractions to heart. Unfounded doubts about my ability to draw consistently like this are hardly appreciated. This style is a reflection of how my natural drawing inclinations are shifting, and I feel very comfortable repeatedly drawing these characters and working with them. I'm on a tight schedule, and I don't have time for people who are principally not on board, don't believe in me, and voice baseless discouragement.

Lesson here? I know myself and I know my limitations. Let me do the worrying, and sit back and watch the show.

Next up: animatic revisions, layout thumbnails for portfolio, and then? Animatin' time!