Walk Cycles

While I was doing background and key frames I was having some difficulty with the characters due to lack of practice and understanding of the way they move. So I thought now would be a really good time to do some walk cycles and turnarounds.  I’m just going to update this post as I go, as I test various characters out. Then I’ll resume key framing hopefully a little easier.

First of is the bear walk cycle. It needs more in-betweens, but as a rough it works alright. The back legs of real bears seem to move a little faster than the front which was hard to get my head round at first.

Second is just the keys for the Old Blind Lady. Not working particulary well the arms seem to be mucking up and shrinkage but I'll fix that.

Current Animatic

Here is the animatic as it currently stands. Still lacking in sound. What I will probably do is make a mock up of the sound using samples off the internet and perhaps some mumbling noises from friends (as theres no speech as the bear can't understand humans) to show what I want then work with a musician as I have no experience with recording and adding sound proffesionally for a film.

Designs continued

Character Designs

Some more designs. One is the clown that I didn't have on me to scan last time, the other is another drawing of the bear. I was trying to emphasise the bears weight more by increasing the size of the hump on his back. I may increase his weight a fraction, but at the moment I'm still running with the first designs.

 

Vehicles Designs

The following are designs for the transport in the film.

Location Designs

Plans and rough designs for locations.

Basic Animatic

This is my first, very rough animatic. Various timings and the addition of a few more shots would improve it. However I've spent long enough on this version and feel I've reached a point were I can move onto tidying it and making the layered animatic.

Character Designs (Almost Final)

These are the character designs that have been completed so far. I may slightly alter or tweek them, but there will be no drastic changes from these current models. I may largen the hump on the bears back, to make him more like a real bear and fatten him slightly. The blind old lady is pretty much set in stone. I need to practise the guide dog more as my drawings arn't completely consistent for him yet. I have two different designs for the clown as I was originally going to clone the same clown over and over for the scene when the clowns pursue the bear at the end. However I have come up with two designs, the first one is my favourite, but I like the other one two so I may use both. I seem to have misplaced the other one for the moment, but when I find it I will just update this post and add him on the end.

Character and Prop Drafts

I have a small backlog of things to upload. So I'll start first with the rough drafts of characters, props and vehicles. I’m not entirely sure which decade I’m setting this in. So am going to try and copy midsummer murders. I don’t like midsummer murders at all but they do have a good technique of making their episodes hard to date, by using the English countryside, and a mix of classic cars. Hence my use of 50’s and 60’s vehicles. However I may use an Arriva Bus from the present day as it would be easier to animate in due to having side in facing seats in the pushchair and disabled area, then a cramped classic style bus. The bus driver is really an animated shadow behind glass and I still need to sit down and properly design the truck driver. I might go back and alter one or two very slightly, but otherwise all the others are set in stone. I’ll upload them in best in my next post.

Abridged Script

Summary: 

An abused circus bear falls out the back of a truck and is left behind, separated from his beloved bicycle. Confused he travels through unfamiliar surroundings and meets a blind old lady who mistakes him for her guide dog before finding familiarity in a scooter. After re-finding the circus, he finds his bicycle and is pursued by clowns, who crash into the scooter left in the road, leaving him to cycle off. After the credits we see that he is living with the old blind lady and jealous guide dog.  

Characters:

Bear: a tamed innocent creature. He lives in the moment. Curious and childlike.  

Blind Old Lady: Mistakes the bear to be her guide dog.

Guide Dog: playful. In the end becomes jealous of the bear.

Bus Driver: (a shadowed out figure) (brief) does not turn to notice the bear and he hears the guide dog’s bark so just presumes it was the dog getting on the bus.

Frightened Pedestrians: (brief) run out of the bear’s way when he mounts the pavement.

Van Driver: (brief) wonders if he’s been drinking when he sees the bear

Clowns: (all look the same) try to recapture bear

Act 1: Beginning

There is a shot of a circus tent slowly zooming in, fading into the next shot we see a bear performing inside the ring riding a bicycle.

The next shot is of the circus trucks going along a bumpy country road. The bear being thrown about inside the truck. It goes over a bump, the lock on the door breaks so it slings open, he grabs at his bicycle, but let’s go at another bump in the road and roles out.

He ends up wandering down the road to a bus stop. There’s a blind old lady and her guide dog. She’s completely un-phased by the bear’s presence and stands still unaware. The three in a line while the bear copies as if to see what they could be staring at or waiting for. The dog then playfully sniffs and interacts with the curious bear before a bus pulls up.

The old lady then grabs the bear by the scruff of the neck thinking he’s the guide dog and pulls him onto the bus. The bear’s rather taken aback by this. The bus doors close, the guide dogs face hits the door as he tries to follow, and is left somewhat confused at the bus stop. The bear and the old lady sit together on the bus and she pats him somewhat comically on the head and shoves a biscuit in his mouth.

Fade to Black

Act 2: Middle

The bear gets dragged off the bus by the old lady when it pulls into a small town. They head towards a bakery.

As the old lady goes to buy some bread she looks through the shop window. He can see and smell it so tries to get at it. Though ends up knocking his face against the window. When he does this he notices a light blue scooter reflected in the window with a little red helmet on top of the handle bars.

A look of excitement goes across his face and he paces over to the bike and puts the helmet on. Grabbing the handle bars he braces his face pushing it forward into the wind enthusiastically, and begins to pedal. He peddles air for a few seconds accidently knocking the kick start.

Looking about confused he turns the handle by accident and the scooter speeds about in an S- shape onto the path frightening pedestrian’s then back onto the road.

After a few seconds he calms down and enjoys the fact he doesn’t have to pedal. He then goes level with a van window.

The driver double takes when he sees a bear riding happily along next to him. The bear then accelerates off. 

The driver swerves crashing into a hedge.

The driver puts his hand in front of his mouth to see if he’s had too much to drink. (Though this may be cut out depending if it works in the animatic or not).

Fade to black

Act 3: End

We see him riding the scooter that’s coughing low on petrol and the circus appearing in a nearby field.

The music beckoning him, he goes down to it leaving the scooter behind in the middle of the road. He sees his bicycle propped up against a circus truck. He grasps it happily, climbing on and peddles off.

A clown notices him points, the other clowns join him and they pile into their miniature clown car and chase after him, only to crash into the scooter sitting in the middle of the road. The bear having easily pedalled around it, endlessly off into the sunset.

Queue Credits

Fade to Black

After the credits the audience then realises he’s gone to live with the blind old lady as she sits in her worn armchair watching TV while he awkwardly knocks biscuits off the saucer on the arm of the armchair into his mouth (like when a dog nicks a biscuit). Much to her dog’s jealous disapproval.

Treatment

The story is about a circus bear being separated from his beloved bicycle when he falls out the back of a circus truck, the characters and objects he interacts with on the way to being reunited with it and his escape.

The story begins with a shot of a circus tent, and we see a bear lapping the ring inside on a bicycle. It then cuts to the circus trucks travelling along a bumpy country road. The bear gets thrown around inside and hits the back of the door, breaking the weak lock and tumbling out onto the road. We see a shot of the bicycle in the truck as it disappears off, he looks up to it, in shock not wanting to be parted from it.

He wanders down the road and ends up at a bus stop where he meets a blind old lady and her guide dog. She mistakes him for the guide dog and drags him into the bus that is heading into town; the guide dog tries to follow but the bus doors close in his face.

When they arrive in the town they end up outside a bakery. The bear looks longingly at the bread and hits his head on the window trying to get at it, before noticing a scooter reflected in the glass. He goes up to it thinking it’s a bicycle and treats it accordingly, comically peddling air, accidently kicking the kick start and riding away, scaring people in the town and a truck driver further down the road.

After driving along for a while the scooter begins to stutter as its fuel runs low. The circus tent reappears having pitched outside another town further up from the last. The bear gets off the scooter leaving it in the road and walks down the circus. He finds his bicycle and happily begins to ride it away. The clowns notice him and pursue but crash into the scooter left in the middle of the road and the bear cycles away free. After brief credits shown at the bottom of the animation. We see he has gone to live with the blind old lady, much to the guide dogs disapproval as the bear knocks biscuits off the saucer into his mouth.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog about my final year film. The current working title is The Bear but that will be subject to change later. My story is about the escape of a cycling bear from the circus.