Digital Concept Designs

Here are some concept designs of the exterior arctic digitally created in Photoshop.

Here is a concept of the Environmentalist camp where Cal and his father take camp. This is where Cal will leave from when he goes exploring.

This is where the blizzard is starting to set in as Cal is wondering out on his own.

This is the entrance to the ice cave where Cal discovers the frozen body of Omm.

Influences/Inspirations for Omm

I really like the work of Gianluigi Toccafondo. He uses painting over rotoscoped techniques. He created the indent for 'Scott Free Productions' as seen in the still below.

http://www.acmefilmworks.com/director/1/13/toccafondo.html

Another artist whose animation style I really liked was Leonie Savvides title sequence for the television series, 'Top of the Lake'. 

http://leoniesavvides.com/2013/04/29/1583/

She used paint to create her animation.

I recently viewed a short film that has a very similar aesthetic to how I want my animation to look. The short film is called, 'Requiem for Romance' and centers around to characters having a lovers quarrel. Find the animation in the link below

http://vimeo.com/35699279

I really like this aesthetic with the watercolour background and the ink drawn characters. I think this kind of style will suit my story.

Initial Production Schedule

Here is a rough production schedule. I will aim to begin production of my animation in mid January and this will go on until late March. During March I will begin to add in sound production and will have to sought out a sound designer before this point. All the pre-production should hopefully be done by mid January; storyboarding, script, character and concept designs etc. Production blog will be going on throughout the entire production and towards the second half of production I will begin to do promotional work for the film.

Initial Concept Designs

Here are some very basic concept designs of the ice cave in which Cal takes refuge from the strom and discovers Omm.

Character Aesthetics

Although I have the majority of my story and the personality of my characters worked out, I still need to decide on an aesthetic for the background and how my characters should be drawn in the final animation.

After receiving feedback from my initial pitch, it was pointed out that the characters I had drawn in my initial character design of Cal and Omm and the ones above, were not very translatable in =to animation. The designs were too intricate and complicated to make effective animation, especially in the time I have dedicated to creating the film.
I also put forth more simplistic designs:

 These were favoured over the more complex designs.

Character Development

For the Character of Cal I looked at various examples of boys in other stories of a similar age and a similar mentality to what I wanted to represent Cal as. Examples I looked at were James from James and the Giant Peach, Hogarth from The Iron Giant, Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Hiccup from How to Train you Dragon and finally the young boy from The Snowman. 

I wanted him to have qualities that aided his ability to take the journey he takes in my story. I felt he need to be adventurous, lonely, stubborn and feels somewhat rejected and alienated from his father. I also wanted him to be at an age where he was young enough to be taken into the fantastical idea of a 5,000 year old caveman awakening and coming alive. This meant he had to be around the pre-teen age of around 10 - 12.

I felt the background story behind Cal and his Father is quite important in realising and understanding why Cal decides to wonder off.
This is subject to change but roughly, Cal is sent to live with his father as his mother has either passed away or is unable to care for him anymore for what ever reason. Cal has a very distant relationship with his father in that they have seen very little of one another throughout Cal's life. When they are faced with the position of having to spend everyday together, both Cal and his father are uncomfortable and ill equipped to deal with the situation, leading to an alienated, awkward and difficult relationship; Cal doesn't know how to act around his father and misses his mother. His father doesn't know how to look after an 11 year old and doesn't know how to aid his needs.

 For the character of the father I looked at various characters in film that are in a similar predicament and are in a reluctant position with trying to bring up a child that they are unfamiliar with. For example I looked at Tom hank's character in The Road to Perdition and how he is forced to take care of his son when his youngest son and wife are murdered. I also looked at Will in About A Boy, Ray Ferrier in War of the Worlds and Jacob Pederson in the Danish film,  Efter Brylluppet (After the Wedding). 
I also looked at various animation characters that I wanted to emanate the fathers aesthetic, so the character designs for the King in Tangled, Roger in  101 Dalmatians (1961) and Milo from Atlantis. He should embody the characteristics; distant, caring, inexperienced, estranged and uncomfortable. 

Finally for the character of Omm I took great inspiration from the real-life 5,000 year old Iceman; Ötzi, who was found in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps on the Austrian–Italian border. I also looked at various other examples of Neanderthal man to get a feel for how he should look. I want his character to look primitive, scrawny, scruffy, lost, friendly and confused.

Initial Story Idea

Own Story/Project Final Project Idea

Omm

Here are two initial character designs for my animation that I wish to do as my final film. The story revolves around three characters; A boy of 10 or 11 years called Cal, his father, an Environmentalist working in the Arctic Circle and a Frozen caveman from around 5,000 years ago.

The story goes as Cal's father is sent to work in the Arctic to investigate the melting of the icecaps as he is an Environmentalist. Cal is forced to go with, but is extremely reluctant to go as he and his father have a distant relationship.
As Cal's father is working and is distracted, Cal takes the opportunity to wonder. In doing so he gets lost as a storm descends and takes refuge in an ice cave. This is where he discovers the frozen body of Omm trapped in the ice.
Night begins to fall and the blizzard sees no chance of it easing up so Cal lights a fire next to the iceman, finding comfort from the frozen body as he is alone and scared. Cal eventually falls asleep next to the fire.
We get a close up of Omm's face as the ice around him begins to crack from the heat of the fire.
We then come to the morning, Cal wakes up to find the iceman gone and all that is left is a puddle of water. Cal begins to think he has imagined the iceman, until he turns around where Omm is standing, scratching his head, looking very confused. Cal is initially scared by him but eventually they begin to communicate through miming various actions. Omm stomach rumbles furiously, leading to why his name is Omm.

Eventually, the two become friends and Omm uses his prehistoric tracking skills to help Cal find his way back to his father. Cal is worried that his father will be burning with rage that he ran off and so is nervous about returning to his father, however, eventually when they are reunited his father is so relieved to see him that he forgets all his rage, and their relationship is the better for it.

I haven't worked out the ending in it's entirety as yet, but this is the basis for my story.

This is the character Cal and above is Iceman Omm.