Title Sequence - Gladiator

T H E  B R I E F

The Brief:

Each group must choose a modern classic from the list below and
create an opening title sequence for that film.

Argo
Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind
Lost in Translation
Gladiator
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Wall E
Drive
True Grit
Moulin Rouge
In the Name of the Father
The Social Network
Crash
Silence of the Lambs
Amelie
Atonement
There will be Blood
The Pianist
Pulp Fiction
Black Swan
The Green Mile

I was assigned a group with Jack Browne and Jack Bowler and we decided on using Gladiator as our film as we felt it had the most potential when it came to gathering materials etc.. for example using sand for where they fight inside the arenas, muck for the dirt that they get into and ink for blood from their wounds.

We were told that the next two weeks would be mainly experimenting. Jack and Jack did a lot of experimenting together outside of college in the evening time where as I did bits of my own and research. 

I made up a PowerPoint presentation of all the things I thought would be relevant information for the project.

E X P E R I M E N T I N G

Some of the things we thought would come in handy for filming was fire, smoke, sand and ink so I did my own few experiments at home while Jack and Jack did theirs.

Fire
I burned a cardboard box and just

Smoke

I created smoke by doing something I had learned from my waitressing experience. I put dry ice into a large cup and boiled water, I then poured the boiling water onto the ice to create a foggy/smoke look. The video that i took will not upload due to some kind of error on my memory card so the following is just an example of what i mean done on YouTube. 

Sand

Ink

I just dropped some ink into a clear glass of water and watched what happened.

Jack Bowler did all of the cinema 4D work and myself and Jack Browne did the sketchbook drawings and rotoscoping.

here are the images that I drew for the animation....

F O N T

I was also in charge of doing the font for the producers and directors etc.. names.

I did out a Roman type alphabet on Photoshop but I ended up hand drawing it and scanning it into the computer and fixing it on Photoshop.

Photoshop Alphabet:

Hand-drawn:

Finished Piece

Treatment File

Concept:

We have chosen to represent the film gladiator using busts reminiscent of the time to portray the main characters in an heroic style. We will combine this with the writings and drawings of a sketch book from a sculptor at the time. We want to create a slow and atmospheric feel to the sequence.

Technique and approach:

For the busts we will use 3D modelling software, both Mudbox and Cinema. We will animate these with as series of sweeping, dramatic shots. We will create the sketchbook using use ink and watercolour for the drawing and animations which be created using stop motion, and calligraphy for the writings. We will merge these together along with old paper made using teabags in Photoshop.

We will cut and wipe between the two using After Effects.

MoodBoard:

 

 

 

1. Leather bound with engravings which we hope our book at the end of the sequence will resemble.

2. Another example of the book. This is the style we want for the interior of it.

3. This is the style of bust we have modelled ours on using similar poses and textures.

4. This is a similar image to what we want to start off the sequence with.

5. This is a more detailed image of the bust similar to those that we want to create. The orange tint to the marble matches our colour scheme.

6. this is an arrangement similar to the one we want for the busts in our project.

7-9. The images by Rodin found in his sketchbooks are along the kind of style we want to create in ours.

10. This is an experimental mock-up of our roman museum.

11.The outro. to Sherlock Holmes boasts the same colour scheme and a similar style to what we want in our intro.

Music:

the music we have chosen for it is calm, atmospheric and anthemic produced using orchestral instruments. It has a good flow and should work well with the overall feel of the sequence.

 

 

 

 

 

Sequence:

Shot 1:

slightly oblique shot of an old book sitting on a table.angle narrows and book opens. a page with a drawing of an old museum opens and the camera slowly zooms towards it.

Shot 2:

The drawing becomes the modelled, realistic museum portrayed while the page disappears (fades) around it. a slow zoom continues.

Shot 3:

The camera slowly pans towards the left till it reaches a head-on view of Maximus (Russell Crowe).

It stops briefly then continues until it shows the right hand side of the bust.

Shot 4:

A drawing forms around the sculpture , it then turns into part of the image whilst a page from the sketchbook forms.

Shot 5:

Page flips, animated scenes of maximus fighting and praying form with small analytical sketches scattered around the rest of the page.

Shot 6:

A stream of red ink runs down the page and falls off the edge of the book. This drop falls, hits off of a bust and scatters to reveal old Ceasars bust.

Shot 7:

Camera looks up towards the statue at an oblique lower angle. It slowly moves up until it is level with the centre of his face.

Shot 8:

Another drop of ink falls from this scene as it melts and splashes as it hits another page.

Shot 9:

An animation of him speaking to Maximus appears from the ink. Page flips to a drawing of the king.

Shot 10:

A page peals/falls out of the book. It flows downwards and flies past the screen, covering it. The page leaves the scene and the bust of Lucilla is revealed.

Shot 11:

A head on shot slowly zooms in and focuses on her brooch.

Shot 12:

The brooch turns into a drawing whilst a page builds up around it.

Shot 13:

Key scenes become animated and analytical drawings appear on the next couple of pages.

Shot 14:

A page turns over and reveals a zoomed in part of Juba. Slowly it zooms out so the camera is looking up towards him.

Shot 15:

A drop of ink hits the bust and runs down it until it drips off and splashes on the camera. The camera zooms out of the black fill which is some typography.

Shot 16:

Images and animations of Juba occur on the next couple of pages.

Shot 17:

The page burns out from the bottom right corner to reveal a poorly lit bust of commodus at the back of the museum.

Shot 18:

The lighting increases as smoke enters the screen from the bottom and fills the screen.

Shot 19:

Smoke clears to reveal the last page with an animation of him with his thumb down.

Shot 20:

Book closes to reveal the word 'Gladiator' on the originally blank cover.

fades to black.

Evolution of Man

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Story of a Square.

Sooooo.....got my place in Animation and now I'm super excited about starting the brief we've been given; ''The Story of a Square.''.

We must use the square as the starting point and endpoint of the animation. The square can become anything we want, in order to tell the story. It must return to the square after 10 seconds.

So, we saw a lot of examples of different animations and it came to my attention that the more simply, clever and funny they were, the more memorable they are to the viewer. I came up with the idea of using 'The Evolution of Man' except that I didn't want it to be just the boring idea of from ape to man. I decided I was going to try and incorporate some humour into it. So, my plan was that once the stage of evolution came to the usual ending of this muscley, ideal male, he would then transform into an over weight, lazy man holding a beer.

 

I thought that maybe he could make a burping sound then too.

 

 

After the overweight man, I got the idea for him to morph into the much dreading Gangnam Style dancer.

 

 

And then, a Charlie's Angels type woman would come out to shoot this much dreaded character to which she would then knock him back into his box, which will end it back on the square.

 

 

As my project involves the evolution of man and morphing into different things, I thought that Fatboy Slim's music video 'Right here, right now..' had relevance.

 

 

I began to start drawing the figures I need for my animation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stop Motion, Clay Animation

 

 

The line 'I told you so....' was what this video was based on. I decided I would do a clay animation because I thought it would be really fun to try out and would be really enjoyable. I also thought it would be a bit of a challange so that appealed to me too.

 

I began looking at episodes of Wallace and Gromit as it always puzzled me to how they actually made a film out of little clay characters. I found it amazing! The more I looked at, the more daunting the idea that I had to make one of these seemed.

 

Wallace and Gromit - A Matter of Loaf and Death (Part 1)

 

 

Wallace and Gromit - Fright of the Bumblebees (Part 1)

 

 

After doing the research I began to make my characters out of playdoh. I decided on a turtle as my main character because I love turtles. I named him Squirt, like out of Finding Nemo because I also love that film.

 

I then worked on the rest of my characters. My set was based around a pond so I figured I should do water-based animals.

However, I ran out of cute water animals so I put a mouse in a lifeguard buoy and a hedgehog on the bank of the pond.

After a long day of shooting each individual photo, I brought them into Adobe Premiere Pro and created my stop motion, clay animation.