Background Test

It's a bit shit. I'm going to do it again a bit different. I thought you might like to see colour wise what I was thinking. I think it's too bright though.

Curtains Flailing

Dudley Boys 3D Smash

0:08->0:14
0:53->0:58
1:02->1:08
1:40->1:45
2:08->2:13

Poker Scene Establishing Shot in Saloon

Horse Run Test

http://www.faithistorment.com/2016/03/rotoscoped-horse-by-carnegie-mellon-university-school-of-art.html

Using Eadward Muybridge Horse Run Plates, students were asked to rotoscope the horse. I thought this would be a good task to do to get used to the Tools on TV and have an experiment with the visuals. I would have like to have undergone several of these but I only did one as I'd rather spend more time animating said shots as I'm a little worried about time.

Although the horses don't run in the animation, they do walk so I think that this will make this easier. Also this won't go to waste as I'm going to get Rosy to replace her running horses with this one in the title sequence as I think it's pretty. I did also try it with an eye but I didn't get the placement right so I just turned that layer off.

Looking at other horse animations, this recently came on twitter and it's a really cool gif:

http://twitter.com/seanbuckelew/status/725455891743416320


Gif Below with Dodgy Eye:

TV Paint Animation Examples

Song of The Sea


Orchestra

Royal Rumble

I find the Royal Rumble event to be one of the most exciting wrestling events for a few reasons. The first reason is that with 30 competitors, entering the ring one at a time every two minutes, it's difficult to get a feel for who may win which builds tension and excitement. Another reason for this is that due to the high number of wrestlers involved, there are always a few surprise entrances (such as AJ Styles, a wrestler many believe would never work for the WWE, entering into the tournament as his debut match) and a few comedy segments (such as R Truth entering the match with a ladder, confusing the match for a ladders match (in which you have to climb a ladder and grab a title belt hanging from the ceiling) and instantly being eliminated due to his confusion). The match relies heavily on explosive entrances and theme songs as the wrestlers enter the match, causing great excitement in the audience when their favourite wrestler's music is played (as they wont know at which position they will enter into the match when they start watching).

Tag Teams

The Dudley Brothers

The Vaudevillians

Please listen to Audio blog, basically what I wanted to cover on tag teams is covered there!

ECW

This is ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling), and probably one of the most outrageous matches in wrestling history. Sabu comes out chained up like an animal they release him and he's a high flyer with a lot of fast moves gets slammed against the railings and continues to fight even with broken ribs. It's matches like this that break the fourth wall of wrestling being set up because the injuries are so real but the wrestlers fight through the pain to put on a good show.


CCW

- A lot of the indie circuit is more believable because of the lower production budget, so because it looks like a home video it's less sports entertainment and is more cut throat. Also they seem to take less regard especially in CCW the wrestlers are crazy, sometime they get noticed by WWE but more often than not they have too many screws loose to be taken on and trained to be a WWE wrestler as WWE is a lot "Softer" theres not crazy weapons. However Dean Ambrose is an exception to this and because of this it makes him an excellent wrestler for WWE as he doesn't mind having the crap beaten out of him for the sake of a good show. Sometimes it's worrying how many concussions and injuries wrestlers get, and there was one wrestler, Chris Renoir, who suffered so many concussion's they think it is what caused him to murder his wife and child. It was generally shots to the head, including being hit by a chair, a famous case of a head injury is when Stone Cold Austin was dropped on his head by Owen Hart and couldn't move and was almost paralysed due a piledriver. So even though it's fake the matches are still dangerous. (Summer Slam '97).


The main reason I looked at ECW

The Rocks Birthday

I have to admit, I have a huge crush on the Rock. I mean who doesn't?? So so excited for the remake of BayWatch to come out. The reason I have included the WWE Raw episode broadcast in 1999 with Mankind (Mick Foley) hosting an in ring birthday part for The Rock (who was in a tag team with Mankind at the time), is because of the humour and change of pace from the regular format. This episode had ground breaking numbers of viewers for the show, to this day it's the most viewed episode in WWE history bringing in over 8 million viewers by the end of the segment. The reason for this large figure is because of how funny and unexpected it was. They were scalded heavily by Vince McMahon (the owner of the WWE) for how long the segment ran, however were later applauded for just how well the segment did with the viewers. Mick Foley brings in different guests, introducing one as The Rock's English teacher, and then the mograph flashes up and it says history teacher because it's all completely adlibbed and Mick Foley had forgotten what he had requested to be entered on the title cards. It's this kind of humour I wanted to portray in my animation, I just want people to have a little chuckle at the ridiculousness but also have a bit of emotion towards the characters, I think my final piece will do this.

So other ways in which the rock has inspired bits in this project, in honour to him the most noticeable thing is the shot with the people's eyebrow and blue nineties sunglasses, an absolutely outrageous look, he really should of known better. Also we have the Smackdown Hotel which comes from a saying of the Rock's. Other possible sayings I thought of using were: Candy Ass Roody Poo, Jabroni, Can you smell what the Rock is cooking? and All the millions... and millions..  There's literally loads. Another one of my favourite episodes is when he spends twenty minutes with a guitar singing a song smack talking to John Cena, he's just so charismatic, it's hypnotising. I did manage to also get in "It Doesn't Matter what your name is!" Which he uses loads around the time this episode aired. I think if this animation was to have a sequel I'd do a lot more with Mick Foley's character, because before the Rock and Sock he had a wrestling ego called dude love which was really funny. But I'd rather mention some other wrestler's to give a broader range of ridiculousness.

The Monday Night War

During the mid 90's wrestling organisations were struggling to maintain their audiences. Viewers of the 80's clean cut style of wrestling were growing tired of regurgitated story lines and lacklustre characters, and began turning away from wrestling. During this time Ted Turner (a billionaire media mogul) purchased a struggling wrestling promotion (known at the time as Jim Crockett Promotions) and rebranded it as World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Ted wanted to bring WCW into the forefront of the wrestling world and hired a man by the name of Eric Bischoff, who through questionable business practice and a great vision for where to take the brand, brought WCW into direct competition with the industry leader WWF (now known as WWE). Due to the increased competition, and changing fan base, both organisations began introducing more realistic characters, instead of the grandly exaggerated ones of the earlier eras. With the heightened sense of realism came a more hardcore style of wrestling (with heavy use of weapons and stunts) as well as more adult themes. The change in style drove viewership to never before seen heights, which I believe is partially due to the competition driving each organisation to think outside the box, and create matches and story lines that really hit home with their viewers. Where as WCW focused on stealing away WWE's established and older wrestlers, the WWE focused on promoting their younger upstart wrestlers, showcasing new talent. WCW ended up losing the war and was bought out by Vince McMahon in 2001, but not before they had brought a new thinking to the business, as well as showcasing many high flyers (which WWF struggled to hire and show correctly).


If this sounds interesting to you the made a tv show about it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4009520/episodes

It's good definitely worth watching!

Sports Entertainment

So I only really got into wrestling this year when I got a new flatmate because he is a little bit obsessed. His favorite wrestler is old school Kane, up to the 2000's. So although we watch what's going on in the WWE world now, with NXT and RAW, (his favourites are AJ Styles and Sacha Banks. AJ Styles wrestled on the indie circuit for years and years and is now finally part of WWE and has a huge following as most wrestling fans have seen him on the indie circuit, hence the great train robbery of santa "Styles" because it's been a long journey for him. And Sacha Banks is a female wrestler who is the cousin of snoop dogg, she's good but my favourite female wrestler is Bayley, She's a hugger - that's her chant anyways.) I have also persevered through a lot of the best nineties episodes. And it did used to be a lot more brutal, this will be discussed in other posts.

When you think about it though, it's quite a sadistic interest to have, watching people beat each other up and getting excited when it crosses the border of fake fighting and real pain, which is why I think animation is the right medium for it because then there's more focus on the other elements. That and the fact that I'm infusing it with the western genre of cowboys to parody it, because also I have to remember that all of WWE universe is heavily copy writed, but I've looked into it and as long as your not making money off it - which I'm not because it's a student project, and it's for entertainment then they can't do anything. You never know they might actually quite like it. I hope they do.

What I didn't realise for the first 21 years of my life that the winner is predetermined to favour the narrative of the wrestling. I think that what makes a match so gripping is the fact that there is always multiple stories going on and you root for the good characters to be defeated again and again by all the heel wrestlers and then when they finally do win it's like a triumph for the universe making it entertaining. Which is why it's really important that my animation has a really strong animation. It wasn't actually announced until the late eighties when sports and entertainment fell into different tax bands in America so they had to declare it as being fixed.

http://www.wwe.com/

The Magnificent Seven

This western is really interesting, because it's actually a Hollywood remake of a samurai film by Akira Kurosawa called Seven Samurai, which is actually one of my favourite films. Although I don't know now because I also really like Hari Kuri by him. The cinematography by him is just impeccable and the characters are just so loveable, kind of like the Japanese Grandad you'd always want, because really who wouldn't want a Japanese Grandad to drink Sake with?

So I love the concept of this being a cowboy film and I do think it works, they adapted really well, however I think at times it is a little bit too Hollywood-ised. A little over done. But at the same time I think this is why it did so well at box office, it was always supposed to be a commercial film, and you have to remember that in context to the time period indie films weren't really popular because all the art house films where about swirly patterns by fine artists, so it's completely understandable, but I think they could have made it a bit quirkier.

I'm going to take some of the shot composition from this film, because what I do really like is how none of the shots are flat straight on, they are all slightly below. I think this particularly works well with the horse, and I don't know if you notice with my storyboard I actually used this film as reference. I don't know whether this infringes copy write if it's too heavily inspired, but I've also used a lot of John Wayne shots. I think to make it a bit more modern I'm also going to do shots from slightly above but I'm going to try and avoid any flat shots.

I don't think western's can get much classic than this, it's a perfect example of your traditional western even if the story is one based off Samurai's!

Wild Wild West

I remember watching this film a long time ago, I have no idea why but my mum bought it on DVD. It's actually an awful film. Will Smith wonders why he's never won an oscar but he stars in utter drivel like this.

The main reason this film is terrible is the script writing and general plot of the film. It's very "American", and pretty much slaps the comedy in your face there's no subtlety. The way the oriental side is portrayed is very clichéd also. However there's something about it's ridiculousness that made me want to revisit it, because at the end of the day it's what I'm aiming for, so I guess it's good to look at an example that's taken it too far, yet remained to try to be serious and got it wrong. This is why I haven't pushed mine a lot further. In theory I really could have done, I mean maybe if it's successful and I feel like making a follow up in the future I will do but I'd keep in mind that it should be like Blazing Saddles rather than like this. But I think for this it's good that I'm not going all out ridiculous because there's also a skill in holding back, and I think I've got the right amount of holding back for people to question it and be like I don't know whether that's supposed to be serious or not and leave people entertained and slightly confused as to why they just watched it.

I don't like to just slate a film outright so what I will say is for the time this came out, it was very well put together, I imagine this was because they had such a large budget though. Some of the shot framing is actually quite good, it inspired some of my close up shots, like the horse hooves etc. Anyways I'll keep this short as I think I've mentioned everything that relates to my project, I could discuss about Will Smith and him being black in a "western-esque" film, however like I said in my post on The Hateful Eight I just don't think it's a subject that needs discussing.

Calamity Jane

It's been a long time since I've watched this film, not since I was a kid, I didn't realise how dated it was.  Also I did not remember so much singing, but it is Doris Day. I thought when I put it on, oh I'm surprised there's never been a remake, but then I realised that actually the story is overly sexist and if you take that away there is no story and there's such a huge emphasis on marriage it's actually really ridiculous. I thought this was a western? It's not a western it's just set in that time period. I don't really know of any westerns with female leads, not that it matters. I guess you have Jesse from Toy Story, and there's that film coming out in April with Natalie Portman that's a western, upon a glimpse at the trailer the colour grading looks impeccable.




But back to Calamity Jane, the reason I included it was that although the plot is beyond astounding with such emphasis on marriage and what it means to be a woman, I really like the aesthetics of it. I love the town and costumes. It's clear they spent a lot of money on making this have a real western feel, but it's almost in a cartoon manner with the clean lines of everyone's outfits and set design. The design of the bar in my film is an imitation of Calamity Janes with the round tables, balcony and piano player. I also like how it show's that the show's are a typical theme. I think it'd be really cool to do a spin off of my story of one of the show girls doing incredible things instead of the predictable marriage etc storyline. It doesn't really bother me though how women are portrayed at the end of the day it's not real life it's just a film with pretty songs it doesn't really mean much, I think it's widely accepted that life is different now so it might to be like the race point I made earlier.

The Assassination of Jesse James

This film is more like the Hateful Eight than the traditional westerns. I watched this review after and it sums up perfectly how long and slow it is just like The Hateful Eight. It's for this reason a lot of my shot's are slower than normal, because it's not an action-y western.

The great thing about this film is that the shot composition is brilliant. There's never a "flat" shot, you're either looking down or up at character and if it's straight on the lighting adds to the shot so it looks a bit more magical. Like they said in the film it is quite arty, but it could have been edited down to be a lot shorter. What has influenced my project is mainly the close up shots of the characters, as well as the John Wayne films, looking down or up at characters is really important and if it flat on I'm going to make sure the colouring adds depth to it.

I don't think I'd recommend this film because even though Brad Pitt and Casey Afleck do some incredible acting I just didn't feel any appeal towards their characters and I think that's what the movie lacked, and made it seem longer than it actually is, there's a load of better of films out there rather than watching this.

Rio Bravo

John Wayne, creepy relationship with young woman who refuses to get on the train.

This film symbolises everything that is a traditional western. There's a slow build up to the action, then the action and then it's slow again. It's a slow film. It's all set around a few scenes, of which one of them is the sheriff's office, which conicidently looks a lot like the sheriff's office in Cowboys vs Aliens.




I'm going to use the same sheriff's office. #artisticlicence.

I also really like the darkness of the bar, and how the guy hides in the bar, that inspired the storyline of my narrative, and my bar scene is going to be super dark. And then you can have fun with the lighting too.

I also really like the necktie, I don't know if you noticed but my character wears a necktie too. and I've dressed Tommy and Verne like the two main guys out of Cowboy's vs Aliens. I guess it's better than them shooting native americans.

And there's a lot of sleeping and drinking in the Sheriff's office so this has inspired my end scene, this is a common thing with westerns, it also happens in Blazing Saddles.


I originally chose to watch this film because I read a review that it was "Warm and Absolutely Essential." http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rio-bravo-1959
I'm not sure I would use this description of it, but in context to the time, the fifties, it's a family film so it isn't supposed to be cutting edge which is probably why it's a little bland as to not to offend anyone and appeal to all the people that survived the war. At the time pride of your homeland was a massive thing and in this film when the "bad" who are frankly not bad just a little mean the town cower and John Wayne saves the day, and at the time people had pride of their home they probably knew or had fought in the war and could respect John Wayne's character and be antagonised by the "yellow-bellied" townsfolk. This is something that we can't really relate to as a storyline because it is quite weak and not really dramatic enough for a modern day audience. Give John Wayne's character lung cancer, and the boy save the day and maybe have an air strike and the remake might do alright. It's a historic and traditional piece of film-making but would I recommend you to watch it? Probably not, I need more depth, not some hot headed mansplainers on screen.

The Hateful Eight

I really enjoy Tarantino's films. I really wanted to attempt at writing the script in Iambic Pentameter after Pulp Fiction. However I didn't realise how challenging writing the script would be. Just getting a clear idea of the story was really difficult. Really it was perfect timing that this film came out when it did, as a modern western I thought it vital to watch in research.

For me this film although this film is a western, and is in the right time period, is more of a 'whodoneit'. I think although some of the shots are very slow and it is generally a slow film, much of a Tarantino signature the similarities end there.

I think the use of race is interesting in this film, because it was such a big thing back in this time period. And maybe this has somewhat influenced my project, I don't really know why I decided to make the Verne character black, mainly because it fascinates me, however I have stayed clear of having any reason of making a point of his skin tone, because I think in this day and age it's just not an issue that's noteworthy so it's completely ignored. Racism is a key theme in this film and there's a lot of dialogue that is quite rich in slander and I felt like that it was interesting Tarantino chose the good guy capturing the bad guys to be Samuel L Jackson, I felt this is a turning point for our society and it's good that we still raise awareness about what it was like in the past, it just shouldn't be a big deal in today's cinema and I think that's something that let the film down because there's so much more Tarantino could have done with the character development in this film.

Another interesting factor about this film is the setting, a lot of the film is inside a cabin, in a small space, encapsulating the claustrophobia of it. This meant there was more emphasis on the character development and is why i made note of it in the point above.

Overall it's a good film, worth watching the extras Zoe Bell and Channing Tatum play their parts in the film really well:

Seven out of Ten Would Tarantino Again!

Blazing Saddles

This kind of film isn't usually to my cup of tea, and there's something about Gene Wilder that often just grinds my gears, except for in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. However in this he was bearable. What I thought was really interesting is the way they portrayed the Sheriff, often quite racist, however he is accepted by the end of the film. Now one of my characters is African American, but I don't want that to be a subject I just want it to be accepted. Like skin colour doesn't matter, which is why I've chosen to watch a few films with a black guy in, (now I use the term black not in a racist way but because when I was at the pub the other day a black guy said a person of colour was more offensive, at the end of the day though I'm not wanting to be offensive it doesn't matter what the skin colour is.) However I feel it's important to recognise that it once did matter, a lot. This film attempts to mock the views in history and I think that sometimes they go a bit over the top with the slapstick comedy, but it is kind of the point so fair play to them.

What I thought was really effective was the sound effects, so over the top and outrageous, a guy falls through wood and they accidently put a shattering glass effect which was quite funny and the accents are very over the top. I think this is something I could take onto my project, especially when the wrestling commences and it all gets over the top, so I had this idea that one guy could do what sandman did in ECW :




Where he smashes a drink on his forehead till he bleeds and spits alcohol everywhere. This would be quite Blazing Saddles-esque.

If I wanted to take this further I might also look at Carry on Cowboys, I'm still undecided, maybe over easter I might do.

El Topo

What an outrageous film. Is there even a plot to it? Why do they use so much red paint? Was Alejandro Jodorowsky on drugs? I always think strange things of directors who star in the lead role of their film, do the score and produce it. I think it says a lot about them, some good but some bad. Why did he use his own son in it? Also why does he dress the monks up as women and rape them? Does this even class as a western? I'm not sure of the answer to any of these questions. And this film does hurt my head just thinking about it. However it does follow the western tradition of being achingly slow with shots that are outrageously long. The sound effects are beyond strange which does just add to the strangeness of the plot. Why did he feel the need to use so many vertically challenged people and people with missing limbs? And then they all die by the townsfolk? Maybe this inspired the Backwater Gospel. Revelation.

As well as the slow shots this film does follow a three act plot which I did really like. Even though there wasn't a plot it was just a bit weird. I don't know if I would recommend this film, it's very artsy and still baffles people to this day. Until I understand this film I don't know what I'll take from it to apply to my project, I just thought I had to mention it because it blew my mind.

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

The Good The Bad And The Ugly 1966 by Alice-Bauer


The world's greatest soundtrack. No more words are needed to cover that. Me and my flatmate came up with an idea for a drinking game towards the start of the film where every time the "wah wah waaaah" was on you'd have to take a shot and an hour and a half in the count was fourteen and we decided that was a ridiculous idea because you'd probably have alcohol poisoning by the end of the film.

An incredible film such a strong performance by Clint Eastwood. I originally wanted Tommy to be Clint Eastwood cool, I said that to the voice actor but it just wasn't working, it worked when I said it to the guy who Voiced Verne, but no one can do the Clint thing like Clint does. I also think that Tommy has his own character where he's cool but he has emotions, and he needs to express them and still be the hero at the same time, he's also a bit like me, actually I think I might of subconsciously based the hero on myself, how egotistical, with the one line about being a lean mean grilling machine, I literally laughed by myself for forty minutes after thinking of calling the bad guy Roy Foreman after George Foremans brother and sticking those two lines in.

What amazed me about this film, is when I was watching it I thought there was some really bad voice synchage to footage but it turns out that because it's a sketty western, some of the actors are actually speaking italian so some of the actors are dubbed. I decided I didn't know much about sketty westerns so I researched into them. Thought I'd mention it, to be honest I've tried to look at as many as possible different types of western's because there is so many, so that I can put together a classification of what makes a western. With this being the first one my findings will come later.

http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Introduction

What is a Spaghetti Western?
The spaghetti western was born in the first half of the sixties and lasted until the second half of the seventies. It got its name from the fact that most of them were directed and produced by Italians, often in collaboration with other European countries, especially Spain and Germany. The name ‘spaghetti western’ originally was a depreciative term, given by foreign critics to these films because they thought they were inferior to American westerns. Most of the films were made with low budgets, but several still managed to be innovative and artistic, although at the time they didn’t get much recognition, even in Europe. In the eighties the reputation of the genre grew and today the term is no longer used disparagingly, although some Italians still prefer to call the films western all’italiana (westerns Italian style). In Japan they are called Macaroni westerns, in GermanyItalowestern.

NB: This film inspired the Graveyard Scene, and when animating and designing I will refer back to this film. I also really want to watch more Clint Eastwood films so they will also come along in the Research and Development section.

Ready Steady Bang

Motion Graphics in a Cowboy Animation how unusual. What I love about it is the way the Cowboy's arm flail literally everywhere when he runs, character animation is what the studio focuses on. What I would like to take forward from this is keeping my work as simple as possible until the animation is perfect. and gradually build on top of it, because I know what I'm like and if I'm impatient with it, the aesthetics of it will be amazing but the basics will be wrong and it'll be really difficult to go back and change it, which is why I'm not aiming to have it all coloured by May the 6th, I don't want to force it I'd rather have amazing animation then it all coloured in, because I know I can get that done for the end of year show.

Tumbleweed Tango

Now I also looked at this animation when we did the 3D module last year, so I'm not going to discuss the characters, they are balloons and not particularly western anyways, what's ridiculously cool about this, is the camera angles, from interesting perspectives. The colour scheme is a similar palette to what I would like to use although i'm torn between pastels and muted colours and darker richer environment, but the mix of bright colours and pastelly background works really well in this animation. And finally the music which I really need to work on. I've not too much more to say about this short as I covered it really well in the other module therefore please refer back to that post if you would like to know more about this animation.

Yosemite Sam

Yosemite Sam a childhood cartoon who gave me nightmares even though he's probably the smallest cowboy around town with the largest hat. Kind of like when short men buy expensive cars, Yosemite Sam bought a really big hat to compensate for it. What I really like about his character is the fact that he's a bit different from the other Looney tunes because he's so angry all the time he has clenched fists and he gestures a lot with his arms. In my shot list I have a few bits where the characters are acting quite tough and do arm gestures and especially in the wrestling segment the characters will need to have really tough body language so it will be good to come back to this character when I cross that bridge for more development.

Rob 'N' Ron

Now I know I've looked at this animation before very briefly last year when learning Maya, because it is an excellent example of 3D characters. I also found a video of the rigs which blew my mind there just so charming. They don't even have eyes and they are still amazing. However for this project I'm looking at it as a western. It has been very difficult finding Western Animations, they just aren't that common. But what makes this successful is that there isn't any dialogue, and I was so close to having dialogue but when my friends offered to do voices I had to take them up because they are amazing actors, and that's a decision I do not regret having the recordings. However I know script writing is not my thing because it took so many attempts and I am well aware that the story is weak, so I am going to have to do some serious work to get it up into shape to be worth being an undergrad film.

But back to Rob 'n' Ron what I like about this short is that it's really simple a lot simpler than my project, which is probably where I've gone wrong, I've tried to make a lot of elements work that just might not. But the story of these cowboys is quite silly therefore it makes me feel better the fact that wrestling in a cowboy film WWE style is outrageous. The way I justify it in my head is that this is probably going to be the last time for a long time where I will be able to make something for myself therefore I'm going to use this time and space to make something for me that I'm proud of.

What I've also noted from this animation is the music, I think this is also going to have to in my R&D I need to sort that out asap.

The Backwater Gospel

So I put a call out on twitter for Cowboy animations and this was one sent back to me. I was super impressed by the high quality aesthetics. It kind of has a dark feel to it, almost like walking dead esque across with Corpse Bride and Nightmare before Christmas, macabre some might say.  I think they went a bit heavy with the filters at times and it looks like for the lip syncing they used the puppet tool on the drawings, I got this from the way the father talks. I really need to do a lip sync test as part of my research and development.

I thought that the character design of the guitar player was really unusual, he just has such a big mouth. The voices are amazing especially with the music and for a college production it's outstanding, although I thought the credits rolled a little fast on the coffins that could have been a bit slower so we could read their names, however they were repeated at the end. I thought it was a simple but effective touch. Overall it's a lot darker that what I would like my story to be, however I think I can take a lot from the character animation with the lipsyncing and the spindly fingers.

10/10 would definitely recommend.

Bill Plympton

Beautiful hand drawn animation. With a line quality and frame by framework that is outstanding. Obvious to have inspired so many animators out there, for example the first one that comes to mind is Joanna Quinn. The boiling is perfect, which is something I really need to work on since my animation test, what I noticed was that there is quite a lot of repetition in frames, I think considering the time and the amount of shots I have, might be something I should consider, however I would hate to lose charm from my project doing this. But it's something I could take on board, I don't things should repeat more than three times. I'll just have to go with it and work my socks off to get it done.

What I also noticed is the voice recording sounds like it's been done in a bathroom yet it doesn't deter because the visuals are so strong, so I'm hoping that once my project is paired together the slight plate on my voice recordings won't be as noticeable.

I'm so worried about animating horses so I think his work will also be useful for this, I might also have to get the animator's survival kit out, because I tried doing a horsey walk cycle, and I feel a flat one just isn't acceptable for a third year animation student, so in the storyboard I've really tried to push edgy angles but I'm actually dreading doing them, I think they may take several attempts and some serious R&D.

Initial Story Board

Initial Background Sketches

Shot List

SHOT LIST

1. Sky shot that pans onto the town with tumbleweed rolling through
2. Hooves on the ground (only two horses, Tommy and Verne share a horse)
3. Town vista with signage, some wanted posters on the sign that are torn and not 100% legible. The two horse and three main characters come into shot.
4. When they get into town they stop by the water vat.
5. Close up of the water in the vat that shows the father’s horse bending down to drink the water water ripples.
6. Father splashes face with water from a flask that is empty.
7. Tommy and verne get of the horse and verne washes his face whilst tommy stretches, this pans out to a group shot that holds one them then it fades to black. - Timing wise 30 seconds
8. Enter a room with curtains waving and silhouetted figure stood behind a long barrelled gun, the man is finishing a cigarette.

fades to black. - Timing wise 20 seconds

9. Shot of roy looking down barrel of shotgun.

10. From the perspective of that window, barrel of the gun pointing down at the father at the water vat. - Timing wise 10 seconds

fades to black - gun shot.

11. Swirling camera pan of the horse bucking and the father falling off the horse starts fast but goes into slow motion as he falls off ends on a hold of the father bleeding on the ground.

12. Tommy running over bending down line goes “Pa no! Don’t Die!

Cuts to black begin title sequence.

Cuts to black begin title sequence.

13. Verne swinging his arm up as he says this ain’t right he didn’t deserve this blahblah

14.Close up of tommy with his hand on his face zooms out to the next shot

15. Tommy above father clutching shoulders verne above Tommy, on vernes line he puts his hand on his shoulder

16. Zooms into Verne’s face / cuts to / help me get pa onto the back of the horse we’ve got to see the undertaker

17. The sun sets, silhouetted figures of Tommy and Verne put the dad’s body on the back of the horse.

18. Tommy leads the horse with the dad’s body on top, verne following playing a sorrowful tune on the harmonica they walk out of town to the graveyard.

19. Orange sky more pink ex. Graveyard pan across

20.graveyard from a different angle with verne playing harmonica while it pans round as tommy is digging.

21.cuts to verne pausing and the two of them throwing handfuls of soil on the grave

22. Close up of the soil landing on the coffin

23. Verne etches a cross with a piece of flint and tommy covers it with soil, Sheriff walks in says first half of line.

24. Cuts to sheriff’s face, when he says his name is roy foreman he’s wanted for …

25. Cut’s to just tommy and sheriff as the sheriff hands tommy a wanted poster and Tommy says I heard he’s a lean mean killing machine.

26. Cuts to midshot of verne as he fists one hand onto the other and says i’ll pay for the day he gets up in my grill.

27 back to sheriff for “he’s a dangerous man. Nawh I don’t know what your pa did t’ upset this fella, but you better be careful round the town,”

28. Shot of tommy showing verne the poster as sheriff continues and then tommy says he must of known something about the train robbery.

29. Cuts back to sheriff: probably kiddo… waggles finger when he says you better keep your wits about you.

30. Long shot of the silhouetted characters and the sheriff leaves the scene verne plays the harmonica fades/cuts to black harmonica continues but gets quieter as we move into the distance and digging noises and clanging of coins starts.

31. Fat sam buries money in a grave on the other side of the graveyard Medium shot.

32. Long shot of the graveyard fat sam scurries out and verne taps tommy they stop and watch and follow him back to town.

Black.

33. Tommy and Verne tie up horses camera moves round to reveal

34. Friday stood outside the saloon

35. Close up of friday for dialogue “Howdy Fellas what you boys saying’”

36.cuts to tommy with verne with horse in background

37. Group shot as friday moves tommy away from the saloon door

38. Cuts back to friday with maybe i can

39. On “maybe I can’t” reaction shot of tommy and verne.

40. Group shot as she finishes her dialogue and tommy tips his hat as she goes inside.

41. Verne Shuffling around moving towards horses as he says I don’t think she knows anything buddy, holds on him as tommy starts with not so fast buddy, Tommy puts his arm on verne as the back of him comes into shot.

42. Cuts to a shot of tommy getting a dollar out of his pocket as he says he’s willing to bet his bottom dollar..

43. Possible cut it shot of a close up of the hand with the coin before flicking it depending on timing of the line will still draw.

44. He smiles cannily at verne before thumbing to the door.

45. Shot of Verne rolling his eyes and shaking his head walking toward the saloon door.

Fades to black.

46. Shot of a piano being played honky tonk saloon esque music.

47. Girls legs can can on stage

48. Close up of glasses clunking together on a table // 49. or could have drink sliding down bar top.

50. Man asleep in the corner

51. Honky tonk music ends and the girls go down the steps at the side of the stage and join the piano man

52. Poker Shot, wide shot of saloon door in background

53. Hand on saloon door swinging open - silence

54. Boots and spurs on wooden floor.

55. Pan round the interior of the bar ends on the bar tender what you fellas drinking, some background noise re begins but is very tense.

56. Tommy points at beers makes two sign

57. Close up of two pints being poured roy foreman is behind the two boys shiftily comes out the shadows of the back of the bar and pulls his guns out

58. Close up of his face as he says time for you little bitches to meet your pop.

59. From behind roy camera of tommy and verne jokingly knocking knees.

60. Shot of Roy foreman has he tries the guns but realises he has no ammo in them.

61. Close up of tommy and vernes faces with blue sunglasses on like the rock doing the people’s eyebrow, verne fist pumps other hand, tommy crosses arms.. BarTender in background mic drop from ceiling. // If this doesn’t work try it with his own shot.

62. Shot of bartender climbing onto the bit behind the bar not quite on the bar top stood doing the start of his announcement grabs hold of mic and swings around raucously.

63. One of the poker players over at the bar, takes a sip, smashes a drink into his forehead, and sprays it everywhere.

64. Back to close up of Bartender as he continues introducing the deadly brothers.

65. Roy Foreman closeup angry face.

66. Tommy and Verne shot revelling in their introduction.

67. Back to barman as he begins Roy’s introduction

68. Medium shot of Roy

69. Shot of Verne and tommy setting up a table.

70. Shot of Roy getting in a wrestling stance on Roy the Bullet forman.

71. Shot looking up at Tommy on the table as he says it doesn’t matter what your name is!!! He points at roy.

72. Piano man rings bells on his piano

73. Shot of Roy and Fat Sam as fat sam tries to creep to the exit and get away

74. Shot of Tommy jumping off the table leading into

75. Shot of Tommy and Verne doing dudley brothers 3D Smash on Roy

76. Shot of Roy on floor rolling through table debris

77. Friday cheering for tommy with whiskey drinkers and saloon girls

78. Sam stood next to Roy looks towards to door then down at roy and back to door

79. Close up of sam helping roy up

80. Shot of verne or filler or something

81. Then shot of sam creeping back to door as roy lurches at verne at which point

82. Moonsault shot rotoscoped off Seth Rollins video

83. Roy laying on floor, sam in background sneaking off.

84. Tommy and Verne Hi-Five

85. Sheriff walks in

86. Shot of Man asleep in corner waking up oblivious to everything that’s just occurred

87. Shot looking up at Sheriff from Roy’s perspective as he says Looks like you’re not getting the train back to santa styles as he chuckles does a little dance.

88. Shot of bartenders wiping down bar top.

89. Shot of Whiskey drinkers and sheriff taking Roy out of the saloon to jail.

Cut to Black

90. Tommy verne and Friday ride off into the sunrise credits roll.

End of Credits scene:

91. Roy sat in jail cell

92. Sheriff with feet up on desk snoring empty bottle of whiskey next to him, door creaks open and footsteps on wooden floor.

93. Shot of a chubby hand taking the keys from the sheriff

94. Roy stand up in jails cell and walks towards the door footsteps again

95. Hand Turning key in jail cell. Fades to black.

To be continued.

96. Final shot: Roy Foreman stood over Fat Sam as they dig up the gold from the graveyard.

Roy Test in TV Paint

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