Minor Project: Beaks mechanism

Benny's beak mechanism

Bo's beak mechanism

Minor Project: Beaks

I've been looking at 3d and cartoon bird beaks to get a good idea of how my characters beaks will move when they talk and to understand how I will get them to open and close in maya.

Rio

Minor Project: Character development

Both completed characters

Minor Project: Character Development

Decided to sketch the characters from a 3/4 angle to get a better idea of what they would look like in 3d (and because Phil suggested it)

Maya: Posing character

 

Now spiderman!

 

 

Minor Project: Character development

I'm going to add various accessories to the two characters. I've been looking at generic litter like old bottle caps, sweet wrappers, food containers and other things to act as hats, necklaces or armbands just to give thecharacters more personality.

Litter

Minor project: Colour (Bo)

 I changed the shade of Bo's head to a higher saturated purple to contrast Benny's higher saturated green.

Minor Project: Colour Experimentation

I've  been experimenting with the colours of the pigeons beaks to see what best suits the character. I think the one I'm most fond of is the brownish one (lower right) or the yellowish one (top left).

 

I'm playing with the shade of the pigeons heads to make the colour design less dull and more stylized. The colours I'm experimenting with are inspired by the green and purple iridescent shine on pigeons necks. 

Examples of the glimmer on pigions necks caused by pigmentation in their feathers. I think I prefer the green shade for this character although I will tamper with the hue and saturation to find the right shade of green I'd like to go with.

Minor Project: Final Character Designs

 This is the chosen character style I'm going with. I've carefully chosen the shape and size of these characters based on the archetypes I have made them. The one on the left is the short but overly manly (or pigeonly in this case) character who acts like he knows it all but really acts this way to hide how unbright he really is, usually with a less bright character to feel smarter. And the one on the left is nothing more than the less bright chartacter the first one needs , the tall and lanky blithering idiot archetype who's catchphrase is best understood as a dopey "ohhh" of recognition.

Final Design of Benny and Bo

Benny and Bo in colour

Minor Project: Further Character designs

Minor Project: Character Influence Map

Minor Project: Background research

I went out and took some more pictures for inspiration on the background for my animation. I want the background to depict a gritty inner city scape so that means graffiti, old buildings and high rises in the distance.

 

 

Minor Project: Camera angle

I first pictured the animation having a simple front camera view which very slowly pans into the characters through the duration of the animation but I can imagine how that could get abit boring for the viewer so I sketched a variation of different angles that the camera could go through throughout the animation.

 

 

Minor project: Foreground

These are the options of what the characters will be sitting on through their conversation but I have to take into consideration that I originally wanted them in a public park and above a bench to go along with the script (person leaving subway scraps)

Drainage, Scaffolding, Park gate/fence and Lamppost  

Minor Project: Environment research

I've been looking at different places where my pigeon characters could be sitting while they have their conversation. Initially I thought a tree above the park they'll be in but I thought I should give other settings a try

 

Scaffolding

 

Roof drainage

Gates/fences

 

Lampost

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minor Project: Name change

 

To avoid any legalities of addressing rumors about an actual highstreet food chain in my animation as suggested by Phil I have made up a chicken shop that I will talk about in my animation. Introducing:

'CHICKEN COOP'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minor Project: First Dialogue script attempt

'Chicken cottage'

-so whats new

-met this new bird on Tuesday

-oh really, what bird

-a new one

-no I mean what bird is she

-she's a new bird I just met -on Tuesday

-no I mean- never mind

--Someone below leaves food on bench--

-oop looks like someones left some subway scraps

-I hate subway - the wet lettuce always leaves the bread all soggy and gross

-I hear you on that mate - tell you what I do like though - Chicken cottage - yesterday I found a whole wing untouched - I was stuffed that whole day

-mate you do know Chicken cottage is pigeon meat right?

-you what?

-Chicken cottage uses pigeon meat mate, you were eating pigeon!

-no way

-yes way mate (chuckles) everyone knows that

-wait, so does that make me a cannibal then

-no a cannibals a human that eats a human - your a pigeon -you numpty

-oh good, so its alright to eat pigeon then

-no its not

-what about chicken

-well that depends on how you view 'em really - personally I don't eat what I can potentially date or have kids with

-can pigeons even have kids with chickens

-s'pose so, we're all birds aint we

-yeah I guess so

-you ever wondered what came first then

-how dyou mean

-the chicken or the egg

-oh definitely the egg

-why dyou say that

-cos like who was there to make the chicken

-whoever was there to make the egg

-yeah but like an egg hatches and grows into a chicken that has more eggs which turn into more chickens

-but who put the egg here in the first place

-well I dunno, it wasnt me

-apparently what happened was there was an enormous bunny thousands of years ago that died for our sins

-bloody 'ell -why'd he do that

-dunno but I heard he layed the first egg in the world to symbolize how much he loved us - thats why we celebrate easter

-ohh -so thats why people run around the park looking for eggs with faces on 'em

-yup

-mad init

-yup

-you never did tell me about the bird you were seeing 

-oh yeah -so I met this new bird on Tuesday

-what bird -what bird is she

-ah she's a chicken.

THE END

Minor Project: Few Character Designs

Here are a few character designs of one of the pigeons I've done just to visually get a better idea of the characters personality to help me write the dialogue.

Minor Project: Dialogue direction

I've decided to make one of my two characters very simple minded with short term memory to bring in the humor and make the discussion more interesting.
I figured the two pigeons can kick their conversation off with what they've been up to like:

-so whats new
-met this new bird on Tuesday
-oh really, what bird
-a new one
-no I mean what bird is she
-she's a new bird I just started seeing - on Tuesday
-no I mean- never mind

For reference I'm looking at the 'Ricky Gervais show' to take notes on the conversational tone and also because I want the relationship between the two characters to be somewhat like Ricky and Karl Pilkington's, Karl being the slightly dimwitted one and Ricky the smarter one that corrects and jokingly mocks him.

The Ricky Gervais Show

Minor Project: Subject matter Research

Before I begin constructing the dialogue I thought it was best that I look up some useful facts about pigeons for reference on the type of things they would generally talk about. Some of the facts I found that can possibly useful are: 

Diets
Pigeons are herbivores so their diet is meant to consist of seeds, fruits and plants - meant to. 

Mating Habits
Pigeons can mate up to 8 times a year with 2 squabs (baby pigeons) each time - so they have alot of babies. 

Natural Predator
Pigeons natural predator is the Peregrine Falcon which is the fastest bird on the planet and although not naturally common to the pigeons city habitat, are being introduced as a 'natural' pigeon control.

General Habits
Pigeons are considered one of the most intelligent birds on the planet. They are able to differentiate between photographs and even between two different human beings in a photograph when rewarded - so if it wanted to remember a face to revenge-poop on for scaring it the week before, it could.

They are social birds and usually congregate in groups. 

How they Travel 
Pigeons use roads and motorways to navigate, even changing direction at motorway junctions according to studies at Oxford University - so they know and can discuss street names. 

Other Abilities
Pigeons have a very sensitive sense of hearing and exceptional eyesight.

Minor Project: Change in Idea

After speaking to Alan and thinking more into my initial ideas I've come up with a more solid storyline for my animation. Two pigeons fly in on a branch above a park and have a very casual 'human-like' conversation.

They talk about:

• The type of people that come to the park
• The type of food they leave
• Relations with other female pigeons or 'birds'
• Funny scenarios where they've poo'd on people

These common topics then lead to deeper and more thought provoking topics like whether the egg came before the chicken and so on. The humor will be that both pigeons are talking in such a colloquial human way but what they are talking about is something no human can discuss in that perspective.

I will start working on the order of the topics and how the dialogue will get from talking about one subject to another