This was an opening project starting in my third year in collaboration with two other members of my year Izzie Kokuti and Lukas Bilek. Although the competition was closed from the time in which this project was set, it was a good test to see how we might work well in a team with others and there disciplines. From the outset we decided this was going to be done with 3D models put on a live action plate. Izzie was set to be our 3d modeller, Lukas was going to be rigging and scripting and myself concepting storyboarding and animating. Finally we’d all have a bash at editing and compositing.
Here is the outline of the brief:
Once again, E4 and are giving you the chance to get your work on TV via our E STINGS competition.
As ever, it works likes this: we want you to take the E4 logo and create an original brand sting that can be played out on the E4 channel. It can be live action, it can be animated, it can be 2D, 3D, 4D. It can be hi-fi, lo-fi, big-budget or no-budget. Simply download the E4 logo and a selection of sound beds and get going. The only rules we are cruelly forcing upon you are thusly:
• (a) it has to be something E4 can show in the daytime. So ease up on the exploding heads, guts, animal torture, toilet-based unpleasantness, full frontal nudity, etc. We won’t be able to show it, which makes all of your lovely effort unfortunately a bit…pointless.
• (b) It HAS to be EXACTLY 10 seconds long. (with this rule it had to be adjusted to fit our brief, being as their were three of us working on this project we had to extend it to 15 seconds recommended by our tutor) If it’s not 10 seconds long IT WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED BY THE JUDGES. Sorry, but we’re feeling a bit strict this year. To make things easier we’re providing you with a choice of 10 second audio beds which you are welcome to use in your E STING (but feel free to use something of your own if you prefer!)
• (c) It HAS to have the E4 logo in it… But you probably knew that.
First step was to look at existing entries over the years to look at their approach. Here are a few examples.
So starting off we all had a meeting around a not so quiet cup of coffee :-). Izzie suggested a coffee table scene with small humanoid creatures/aliens could be seen scuttling around the table causing havoc. So the idea at this stage was to create two characters of possibly same race but with different personalities. So first stop was to possible think what they might look like so I began some very quick concepting.
Just looking at various avenues we could possibly take, from humanoid to bizarre looking creatures.
At this point I was scribbling some ideas down for alien/monster like characters.
It was about this time we all agreed that the thought of half alien half chicken would be quite an interesting mix of characteristics. So the sketches on the right were starting to get close, giving Izzie a rough shape to work with. A simple way of seperating the two personalities would be the adjustment of the fins the teeth and the brow of each character. The teeth being sharp on the grumpy alien and rounded off on the shy reserved character, just one example.
As these characters were going to be very active and full of life I simply drew out some very quick thumbnails/poses so Lukas could get an idea of how flexible these chaps would be when it came to rigging them and checking defamation when making extreme posing.
This was pretty much near to what we wanted by this stage, This was the rough sheet given to Izzie to go ahead with the first model of the grumpy character which we nicknamed Cocklien. Sharp teeth, sharp shark like fins and a grimace to set him apart from his brother.
Some possible movements our little aggressive friend would be performing in the finished short. Once again this was to assist Lukas in knowing how the character would move and pose like. 
Much like his evil counterpart this chap is of same scale just minor differences.
Again some more reference for Lukas before rigging the bashful creature.
STORYBOARD/ANIMATICS
Above are the very first initial thumbnail pencils drawings I did for Izzie, very basic but nonetheless gave us a rough idea which direction to take.
At the next stage of pre-production I drew some storyboards by hand then transferred them into adobe premiere, where the use of movement gave us a good idea how things might pan out.
Once we were happy about the movement of the characters I thought it would be best to just do a basic 3D previz animatic to see how it looked within a 3D environment, giving the characters some additional life compared to the 2D version.
Above we see Izzie and her initial models from the drawings provided, already it was taking shape this early on. Then as a test Izzie did a basic composite of the two characters in a simular scene, face to face on a coffee table.
Modelling and Texturing done by Izzie Kokuti
Now fully rigged and skinned by Lukas it was now time to start some a walk cycle to see how these little chaps might move. Above was an early stage of movement and needed a considerable amount more done to it, with more overlapping needed and the main body needed more of a sway, with the legs needing to swing out more. But for a start it wasn’t to bad.
An example above of the stages gone through to reach the final shot, this is from shot 2 of the short and it sees the little chicklien running into shot looking for his friend. From storyboard to animatic to blocking to final render.
Here is the Final Composite of the entire sting handed in for our deadline. Their we many things we’d liked to have improved and our intentions are to re-visit this project after our year is done. However as a project I found it really interesting, learning so much in the weeks we had on this. coupled with the fact we were all dependent on each other to work as a solid team in order to get it finished. From my viewpoint about the animation, I believe I could have done better in a number of areas and will tweak it in the future.
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