It’s certainly been a rollercoaster ride for these past two years. It’s in the stage where it’s hard not to feel strange.
As I began this project almost two years ago, I knew that it would be the most ambitious project that I had desired to do. I cannot put into words how proud I feel about managing to complete this project to a point of being able to hand it in for a final submission.
When the project first started it was in summer 2017. Jayden thought that it would be a good idea to introduce me to how the aliens were a menace. With that knowledge being basically forced upon me, I asked Jayden “so if these Aliens are such a menace, what did you do to stop them?”. Of course, with this became the beginnings of the Jayden Tapes.
I knew I had something funny to play with. Jayden’s crude, childish mannerisms and characteristics, and my reactions to his stories. It felt like I could show the world what mine and Jayden’s antics would be like but on the big screen.
Once I received back the recordings, I also received a green light. So I began trying to solidify an art style to make the project pop. I went through many different art styles. It was only after attempting to create myself and Jayden in these ways, it hit me. If it’s Jayden's project, why shouldn’t it be set within his imagination?
This was sort of a eureka moment for me. To commit to the idea of it being Jayden’s imagination and as we are experiencing the story within it, I wanted to use Jayden’s drawings as an influence for the designs that went into the animation.
These drawings were then recreated and made into Maya models. It was a different experience, as I was essentially inventing characters out of some scribbles. Nonetheless, I felt it was what gave stuff it’s character.
As the project went on, I developed the ‘scribble’ texture out of the idea that Jayden couldn’t colour within the lines properly. As we are in his imagination I felt it was right to represent the world this way.
Once the 3 environments had been created and the Jayden character had been made, it was time to animate.
Once the animation process had gotten underway, I hit a big snag. This problem came in the form of the Jayden model essentially exploding every time I tried to animate it.
It felt as though the project became dead in the water. It was also a week before the deadline, therefore I had no time to fix the issues and get the film done.
Fortunately, I was allowed to return the following year to have another go at getting my film finished.
The goals were simple upon returning to uni. Fix Jayden. Get the film done.
So I feel like I did well overcoming the obstacles thrown at me, as I managed to fix Jayden completely. This was liberating to have him working and not undoing my project, the only issue was that he no longer had a cape attached. This was shown in all of the concept art for Jayden but unfortunately, it had to be taken away as it was the main thing destroying the Jayden model last time. It's a shame to see such a key element gone but I feel it still works visually in 3D.
With the Jayden model working and animation technically ready to start, I felt that the project still needed something else in order to really work and achieve its purpose.
This was the 3D creation of myself. This came out of the idea that when I would make Jayden interact with me in the animation, it would look weird and feel really wooden. This was because my character was also set-up to be 2D within the world and it just didn't translate well from the animatic to screen.
Once I had been fully created, rigged, skinned and textured it felt as though the project was truly alive again. I was excited to see what I could do now. The Transformer was also made into 3D (a decision made as a 3D character being perched on top of a 2D character's shoulders felt wrong) and then the animating could truly begin.
I feel proud of some of the animation I have managed to do for this project. I feel I have managed to make an animation that has still kept its hilarity and childishness from the scratchy animatic to animated piece.
I do feel there are some weaknesses to the project. Timings being the main issue yet again. At points, it felt like I was trying to run away from the issues I had and trying to hide in a shell. Some of the parts of animation aren’t my finest either. Some scenes couldn’t have any secondary animation much as I wanted them too as I simply didn’t leave myself with enough time to do it.
Another weakness to the project I feel is the lack of animation of the 2D character. I feel that if the 2D characters had at least a few more different poses to work with then they would have worked better on screen. As for how it stands at the moment, they feel quite lifeless and don’t have the same feel as the 3D characters In the world.
Despite some flaws in the project, I do really look forward to seeing the project rendered and finished. Adding in a post credit scene and a proper ending will help it feel more complete. I feel over the moon that I actually succeeded in getting the film made to, in my mind, a satisfactory standard. Having the story remain the same was another thing that helped me throughout this project.
Overall, I am both happy with my piece and disheartened at the same time. I feel as though I have done Jayden's imagination justice visually but an artist is never truly happy with their work. With more time, I feel a few simple tweaks would set my mind at rest. Simple changes such as the secondary movements of the characters, more movement from the 2D characters and maybe even aliens appearing in scenes where they shouldn't be, just to add more depth to the piece.
I hope this project has brought joy to others as much as it has brought joy to myself. Jayden is such a creative young boy and I hope that people can laugh along and be as intrigued by it now as they first did when the animatic was presented.
