CoF - Animated Scenes 2

This scene is taking place after the character has woken up in a forest and took a walk through it only to find that she was surrounded by dead soldiers. In this scene she looks back and reflects on what she passed and covers her face.
Like a lot of scenes, i decided to animate both frame by frame and through tweens.in this scene, the only animated elements are the head and her left arm. the rest of her body is still. i already coloured it and added a shadow to it, but judging the pace of which i am animating the scenes, i am not sure i will be able to add shadows to all of the scenes.


In this scene the protagonist will notice a daffodil at her feet and uncover her face to look at it. At the present state it's unpresent but it shall be added soon. Like the previous scene, only two elements are animated here, her face and her hand.


This scene will take place after a close up shot of the daffodil. She kneels in front of it in order to pick it up. This scene was animated with a lot of symbols in order to keep the same proportions of the character, but they were not tweened. Her left hand reaching towards the daffodil will be followed in the next scene, but it looks like it's going too fast.


This scene is a point of view shot. The protagonist will be looking at the daffodil and reaching her arm to it. The first part of the motion is tweened, as there wasn't a great deal to animate. Once the daffodil will start to glow bright (when it will be added in the scene) the hand retreats. That second part of the motion is animated frame by frame - the forearm is an animated symbol in order to keep proportions.

CoF - Keyframes 2

This post will include scenes  in progress that will be part of the major flashback sequence of the animated short. Unlike the rest of the film, this sequence will not be animated frame by frame but simply with keys and dissolving transitions.
Scene 41 - This will be a long shot of the farm, with Blodwen (the main character, the fairy) playing with her dragon in the yard while her father enjoys his pipe. I've decided to draw the characters in a larger scale so that their resolution won't be altered too much in the final export.

Scene 42 - A medium close up of Blodwen, playing with her dragon, creating bubbles with her wand. The dragon will be partially off screen, but i've decided to draw his entire body as i will make him jump every now and then.

 Scene 43 - A medium close up of her father enjoying his pipe and smiling back at her. Not much of a motion in this scene other than his pipe's smoke. It shall be animated using a bone tool in Adobe After Effects.

 Scene 44 - Is the same as Scene 42 except here the character's attention is drawn off screen to some marching soldiers part of the next scene (Scene incomplete of which progress will be posted soon). The dragon in this scene will keep on playing with Blodwen's conjured bubbles, but her head will turn to her left, simply with a timed dissolve transition.

 Scene 47 - In scene 46, Blodwen will get excited from noticing some soldiers marching and out of fascination she will turn her wand into a sword.
Her father does not want her to have anything to do with the military, so he comes close to her and puts his hand on her shoulder to grab her attention.

In this scene (47), we'll have a close up of her father, looking down at her with a concern look and giving her a discouraging head shake.

In my first attempt to make the keys for this scene, i wanted to show a bit of motion, even if the animation would be minimal. So i decided to show that his hair was affected by the motion of his head. Unfortunately, the drawings of his hair was too exaggerated, that when put in the animatic, instead of shaking his head in disappointment, it looked like he shook his hair graciously (because he's worth it).

I've redrawn his hair on that scene and since, the scene looks good in the animatic.

More posts to come. 

CoF - Animated Scenes

A series of colourless scenes for my upcoming short.



Grabbing her sword, and picking it up, the action will continue in a future scene.






I've been a bit lazy with these scenes, in order to catch up with the schedule. In these scenes, the character is walking towards the camera. The animated background will be added later. Only her right arm is animated frame by frame. The rest of her body is tweened.

Looking out there - h5

In my future animation career i do have plans to make animated music videos.
I am sure there are quite a number of them out there but i haven't stumbled on many of them yet. My experience is not that great with it.

However, H5 has quite the experience in making animated music videos.
I have seen some of them and i could say that they really know what they are doing and i would like to learn from them.

If i could make animated music videos, it would be from H5.

CoF - Keyframes

These scenes will be key frames animated in After Effects. Scene 35 is where the protagonist stares at the daffodils in her hands from a first person perspective. The hands need to be redrawn and the daffodils to be coloured.

 Scene 37, where her mother leaves the baby protagonist on a door step. The background is incomplete.

 Scene 38, the mother waves goodbye to her baby. her hand will be animated in Aftereffect. Background will come.

 Scene 39, a slow zoom towards the baby.

Scene 40 without a background. This scene will be animated through After Effects as well. Movements will be slight, bubbles will move a little faster, and the dragon will be a bit out of frame, jumping at the bubbles.

CoF - Lyrics

The lyrics for the song for the animated short have been finished, all with the help of Dan Harvey .
These are the final version in Welsh.

Yn y niwl,

Yr unig bywyd dwi’n gweld,

Yn disgleirio dim-

ond ewyllys da i chi,

Cof i cadw chi yn fy mhyd.

Cof i cadw chi yn fy mhyd,

Cof i cadw chi yn fy mhyd,

Er mwyn eich tywys trwy’r gwaed,

Cof i cadw chi yn fy mhyd.

Ddeilen, petal,

Bob yn dipyn, cam wrth gam, gwraidd,

Ddeilen,  petal,

Gobeithiwch yn gweld y gwir.

Cof i cadw chi yn fy mhyd

Cof i cadw chi yn fy mhyd, (Yr unig bywyd dwi’n gweld)

Cof i cadw chi yn fy mhyd, (---)

Cof i cadw chi yn fy mhyd, (---)

Cof i cadw chi yn fy mhyd, (Er mwyn eich tywys trwy’r gwaed)

Cof i cadw chi, Cof i cadw chi yn fy mhyd.

Ddeilen, petal,

Bydded yr holl wir’n amlygu i chi,

Ddeilen, petal,

Ei’n amseroedd gyda’n gilydd

Ddeilen,  petal,

Rhydw i eisiau chi’n saff,

Ddeilen, petal,

Peidiwch anghofio eich hun,

Peidiwch anghofio eich gwraidd.

Gwaed, tân, rhyfel,

Beth roeddwn i eisiau cadw chi o

Gwaed, tân, rhyfel

Nid hun yw’r anghenfil codais,

Atal hyn, nghariad,

Erfyniaf arnoch, cofiwch.

Yn y niwl,

Mae’r unig bywyd dwi’n gweld,

Byddwch beunydd yn fy merch.

The word by word translation from Welsh into English are below. They will not be used, but they are posted here to understand the them.

In the mist,

The only life I see,

Is shining

only good will to you,

A memory to keep you in my world.

A memory to keep you in my world,

A memory to keep you in my world,

To guide you through the blood,

A memory to keep you in my world.

A leaf, a petal,

Bit by bit, step by step, roots,

A leaf and petal,

Hoping you’ll see the truth.

A memory to keep you in my world,

A memory to keep you in my world, (The only life I see)

A memory to keep you in my world,

A memory to keep you in my world,

A memory to keep you in my world, (To guide you through the blood)

A memory to keep you, a memory to keep you in my world.

A leaf, a petal,

The whole truth will be revealed to you,

A leaf, a petal,

Our times together,

A leaf, a petal,

I want you safe,

A leaf, a petal,

Never forget yourself,

Never forget your roots.

Blood, fire, war,

What I wanted to keep you from,

Blood, fire, war,

This isn’t the monster I raised,

Stop this, love,

I beg you, remember.

In the mist,

The only life I see,

You will always be my daughter. 

The first version of the lyrics were written by me, but their structure and words were modified by Dan Harvey in order to keep up with the tempo of the song and to sound better in Welsh. The first lyrics:

In these mist

The only life I see

Shines you only good will

A memory to keep you in my world

A memory to keep you in my world

To guide you through the crimson/bloody mist

A memory to keep you in my world

A leaf, a petal

Piece by piece, pace by pace, home

A leaf, a petal

Hope you will soon see truth/memory

A memory to keep you in my world

A memory to keep you in my world

(backing) The only life I see

A memory to keep you in my world

A memory to keep you in my world

(backing) To guide you through the crimson/bloody mist

A leaf, a petal

May the whole truth be shown to you

A leaf, a petal

All the times we shared once

A leaf, a petal

All I ever wanted was to keep you safe

A leaf, a petal

Never forget who you are

Never forget where you came from

Blood, fire, war,

The only things I wanted to keep you away from

Blood, fire, war,

This is not the monster I raised

Please stop now/Please just stop/My love, stop

I know that you loved me, but stop/remember

In these mists

The only life I see

You will always be my girl/child