Character Design: The Son .01

The Son is about four or five years old enough to understand that strangers are dangerous but still at that age where his father could still cradle him in his arms if he were sick. To the left is the influence map for the son he is based on German children from the 1800's. 

The body shape that I think will work best for the son is no.4 or no.6 because the son should be small and look a little feeble.

We wanted the son to have an outfit that really represented the german romantic period. I really liked the lederhosen in E and with the boots of A which was combined in image F.

The head that I think best fits the son is A2 he looks as though he would want to stay with his father and would be a little pouty making his father ignore him when he complains. 

Character Design: The Erl King .01

After getting the first draft of the animatic done the time has come for figuring out and developing the characters, as the one's used in the animatic were only temporary. 

I (Samantha) started with the king himself as in my opinion he's the most challenging and also a leading character, which means he deserves a lot of time and attention. 

The theory behind the king is that he's the entity and somehow a personification of the forest, or it's rotting and decaying part rather. He's also an elf, more or less; he definitely posseses few of elvish values which makes him even tricker to design. 

The influence map has been done some time ago but it's still up-to-date. 

INITIAL SKETCHES 

& FIGURING OUT BODY SHAPES: 

The body of the king had to look royal yet slender at the same time. In few different sketches I tried different body shapes and the ones that looked the most promising had been taken into further development.  

DIFFERENT FACES & CROWNS: 

As the term "forest" is really broad, designing the crown was quite tricky. The amount of possibilities was quite overhelming; looking through branches and mushroom to flowers, horns and rocks. 

FULL-BODIES:

FINAL DESIGN (1):

For now the drawing below can be considered as the final design (however still a draft..in a weird way of saying "final design draft"). Me and PG both agreed that his face and the crown could actually remain in this state, however the outfit is yet to be discussed. 

Animatic SFX: Draft. 01

This is The Erlking draft one of the animatic, it still needs a sound track and a voice over and some of the sounds are temporary. It is just suppose to portray what we are aiming for which is creepy with growing tension . 

Minor Project: Proposal

The minor project is a collaboration between Samantha Niemczyk and Peta-Gaye Brown, which adapts the poem written by Johan Wolfgang von Goethe (1782) The Erl King, which will continue into animated short in the major project.

The minor project will be focused on the preparation for going into animation.

Both of us have different goals for the project and would like to gain distinctive abilities.
Peta-Gaye: improve pre-production skills, focus on modelling and texturing
Samantha: improve 2D skills, broaden Maya knowledge, focus on modelling

The style that we are aiming for has been influenced by a cinematic Ryse: Son of Rome (2013) made by Platige Image. We are aiming for a romantic and paintily style with an emphasis on dynamic brush strokes and creating an engaging story.

Minor Project Goal: 
- completed pre-production;
- character models ready to animate
- environments completed

Detailed view upon the Ryse:Son of Rome:
Platige Image - Ryse:Son of Rome on Behance
Ryse: Son of Rome - Cinematic

Storyboard Draft .01

The first draft of the storyboard.

Misty Road Studio - Start!

Misty Road Studio is a collaboration between Peta- Gaye Brown and Samantha Niemczyk working on the poem "The Erl King" written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The goal is to bring it to life as a full animation during the course of a year.

Below different ideas for the logo:

Peta-Gaye (Left), Samantha (Right) 

Collectively we have both been working on pre-production, creating influence maps, initial sketches and a storyboard to get the project moving forward.
We will soon post our progress both here and on our personal blogs!