Work reel- now with colors!

I haven't updated in a while, but this week I've been working on a bunch of color keys and cutting together a new reel. I've changed the story a lot since last semester, made it shorter, more concise, and hopefully it makes a lot more sense now. The colors are by no means final, I will be doing separate background paintings later. For the next few weeks, I will concentrate on getting all the shots animated.

Go here to see the new reel.

New year, same old project.

No progress on the film yet, but I've modified the design of the fox somewhat. There are now two versions I'm thinking about, thanks to Josh for suggesting the second. I like the look of both, even though I'm leaning more toward the second design, mainly because it is a bit less conventional than the traditional blue-glowing spirit. The fox is supposed to be an entirely otherworldly creature anyway. Please tell me what you think- the top drawings are more stylized, the bottom are what it would look like on a background.

The fox tail is supposed to have a smokey of billowing effect as it stays still. The white version would leave a sepia trail through the forest. I'll have to modify the design of the cave as well to fit with the new fox if I do go with the second version.

Also some tentative color schemes for Dot in various lighting situations. I still hope for my film to get to a colored stage by the end of the semester. Her design is also slightly different, as I'm trying to simplify everything for ease of animation and cleanup.

End of semester

So I've got quite a bit of progress with my film, even though it's not nearly where I thought I would be at this stage. I completed some rough animation and keys and have layouts for the entire film. It is at three minutes right now, way too long, I think. I will take the break to work on tightening the story to shorten the animation and get it to move faster. I know there were some questions about the clarity in my story. I'll also do some color keys and hope to complete the backgrounds as well. Next semester will require me to do a lot more work to get this film finished.

http://vimeo.com/33766358

Update

So I've been slightly reworking my film over the past week or so, re-drawing a lot of my initial layouts and trying to find better angles to give the animation more of the feel I want. It feels much better, to me at least. My main objective now is to complete the keys for all scenes, something I've been doing for the past couple of weeks. The goal is still to complete rough animation by the end of January, and I'm already feeling the crunch.

Here are some of the tests I've shot recently.

Cave concept

A concept painting for the cave environment. It's a very mystical place, hence the blue lighting and ethereal look. The walls are supposed to be covered with animal paintings.

Some art

This is the poster I used for my film before I changed the story and a piece of art I did to capture the feel of the forest.

The Animatic

This is version four of my story in animatic form. I've done away with a lot of the story and reworked it to be a little more magical and mysterious. The fox that was a regular predator looking for lunch is now a sort of spirit that gathers the dying animals to its cave. The squirrel may or may not be dead by the end of the film.