Coming Soon...

And now, some early concept art of my next project, The Self.

And now, ladies & gentlemen, we proudly present...

Lefty & Boomer

Lefty & Boomer from Caleb Jackson on Vimeo.

Concept Art

Here's some concept art I just realized that I never posted.

 

For Lefty, being the logical side of the brain, I wanted him to look cold and calculating, but with enough appeal to find likable. So I went with a chrome, space-age robot look, but with an enlarged head and eyes to give him a sense of child-like curiosity. I was watching a lot of Doctor Who when I designed Boomer, so he naturally ended up looking like a steampunk British dandy.

 

For the live-action segments, I wanted their real-world manifestation, Tom, to be deceptively unassuming, while the romantic interest, Ava, would be more lively and vibrant. I gave the actor playing Tom a grey hoodie and pants, and the actress playing Ava a red coat and teal scarf (which also mirrored Boomer's red pants and teal tie).

 For Lefty's room, I wanted a space-age rocket chamber with an LCD screen displaying his visual feed, and a computer displaying other information in wingdings, so that it could look meaningful without me actually having to write anything.

 

Boomer's room, being more cluttered, required me to get a little deeper into the nitty-gritty of the details. I went for more of a steampunk look to match Boomer's stylistic sensibilities, and a glass container of color-changing smoke to add mood.

Lefty & Boomer @ The Stark Gallery

The version of the short that showed in the Stark Education gallery from November 9th to the 22nd. It's near complete, but I still wanna fine-tune some lights and animation, find some missing effects, and render higher-quality passes before I unleash it upon the world.

Shot 1: Second Pass

Beauty

(Frame 1) We start with a mandala-esque top-down shot of Boomer's room.

 

 (F48) Crane down to get a better view of the dream machine illuminating the room.

 (F92) Continue craning until we see the screen that allows him to see the outside world.

 (F157) Settle behind the dream machine as he pulls a rope.

 (F192) Whip-pan under the stairs as he pulls a higher rope.

 (F220)

(F265) Whip-pan behind the projector as he freaks out.

 (F305) Settle on the eye feed as we cut to our next shot.

 Dream Light
This light provides most of our lighting, except for frames 192-220 as Boomer ascends into shadow.

 Top Light
That's what this light is for; sillhouetting Boomer so that he can be seen in frames 192-220.

 (These ones)

Story Reel

Shot 140: 2nd Pass

I animated the lights moving into more favorable positions on the whip pans, upped the contrast on Boomer, and downed the contrast on the background.