Escape Zone 3000 VFX/Video Ageing

Whilst I await the arrival of the final soundtrack for Escape 'Zone 3000' I wanted to show a quick breakdown of the FX used to make the animation look like a VHS tape.

Shadows...Before and After

To keep my blog a bit more active I wanted to show a quick change I've made during the post-production period of my project. The picture above is an example of one of these changes. This shot had been rendered about a week or more ago and overtime I looked at it I felt like something looked odd...the shadows! So, I went back into the file and re-rendered a new set of shadows and voilà an updated scene that looks, in my opinion much better!

Escape Zone 3000 - Final Look Development

Over the past few weeks I have been rendering my animation and I have also started compositing some scenes together. I have taken some stills of certain parts of the film to give a glimpse into the current look of 'Escape Zone 3000'

However, this is still not the definitive look. I plan on working on some colour grading and some other added VFX to tie everything together in the end.

C-13's P.O.V

The Holo-Cell

Zone 3000 Corridor

Making Movie Posters!

As well as practicing some animating on my character, I have decided to make a few movie posters for the film. I wanted them to have an 80s-esque look whilst also having a nice modern vibe to them.

I also decided that I wanted to pay tribute to the film that has inspired most of the 'Escape Zone 3000' story throughout this project so far...'Footloose' (1984) see below.

Creating A Colour Script

To give myself a better sense of my animation, I wanted to create a colour script. I've always enjoyed it when a studio add these in their 'art of' books.
My main goal with this was to see how the colours I have chosen work with one another and how they change the tone/mood of specific scenes.
I feel that it has worked and I enjoy both the vibrance and the darkness of each scene.
Below are larger images of the colour script.

C-13 Character Development

Since my last design post I have been working on my main, and only character, C-13. Below is the first page of development.

Whist working on this page of designs I was trying to figure out the shape of my character. I like my characters to be bold shapes that are nice to look at and will be fun to animate in the future.
From the set of body designs my favourite was No.3 because I liked the torso being quite round like a ball, so when it comes to animating I like having the sense of his body being a bouncy ball.
I also played with the idea of C-13 having a mouth. I liked it, but I didn't feel that I needed or wanted the character to have one, my reason for this was I felt that with the animation being a silent film, driven by diegetic and non-diegetic sounds,  I wanted to get across the emotion of the character through his eyes and body language. So from this I developed it further into C-13's final concept.

The Final Title Design

Designing The Titles

In my previous design post I showed early designs for the titles of my animation. The look will be inspired by 1980's movie titles but will tie in with the overall design of the story itself. Below are a set of new designs. A comment I got from phil was to maybe take away the colon from one of the designs I had done, the new take on this idea can be seen as number 1. in the concepts below.

For me, there are a few that stand out, 7, 8 and 9. Personally, I feel number 9 stands out because when looking at it, it has the look of a floor pan for a building/maze and the way in which it is boxed in acknowledges the characters confinement. Also, I wanted to try out a neon light look as this is already a factor in the design work for the environments (the neon arrows). Feedback for these designs is welcome. 

Designing 'Escape Zone 3000'

For my animation I've always had a sense of how I want it to look, The character, who is now known as C-13 (inspired by a Buster Keaton movie called 'Convict 13') being the aspect I have looked at the most. Below are my initial scribbles trying to find something from the rubble of drawings.

The picture above is, in a way, an evolution of the character from the first doodles on the left to the newest on the right. From here I began to develop a particular sketch that I liked, as seen below.

What I liked most about this design was it's simplicity, which is something that I was aiming for. There is also a sense of the Kubrick in the sketches within the shape of the head. 

I was also looking at Marvin the Martian when it came to the actual facial features or lack of,  I liked the idea of the eyes looking like they were floating in the middle of this head.

He currently has no mouth, which I am still not sure about, however,  I was thinking of giving him a small L.E.D screen mouth, which I may still do when I take these designs further. 

Next, I moved on to the environment. I have always had the idea that the character and the environment would contrast off of one another. Like many films I wanted to use what could be considered a cliche set of colours, specifically the orange of C-13's suit and the teal/blue of the environment. With this in mind I wanted particular things to stand out, mainly the red, neon arrows that point C-13 in the direction he needs to go, I chose red because of the ominous feel I want the viewer to have. There is also the green of C-13's eyes.

Zone 3000 is an island prison, it's big and in the middle of the sea, there is a bridge that leads in to the building but leading out I want it to seem endless, as if nobody knows where it connects to because nobody has travelled far enough. At the top of the island I plan on having a large holographic sign that revolves above, projecting the ominous, red glow. this is also the case with the designs below, the cell, which is where he begins his journey is illuminated by holographic cell bars.

I also had a look at designing the title, I wanted it to have an 80's vibe, like the rest of the film. I'm drawn towards the design in the bottom right corner of the image below, but looking back I feel there are a couple of others that stand out more. Feedback on this is more than welcome. 

With all this in mind, I plan on moving forward with the designs to something more finalised.