Osprey
Mixed Media Cel Exploration
A simple creative experiment. Make something interesting while using 2D vector, cel, and 3D.
Summer 2021 at Ringling college brought me to the bayou side housing with a nice window view. There was a good amount of time where one of the resident ospreys would roost and dive from a neighboring tree. This creative was inspired in part by that osprey diving.
The goal of this creative was to mesh a few different techniques together to create a simple and cohesive look. While saving time by using the right software for each approach.
This creative was pushed out in part with direction from Macauley Johnson, Krista Carpenter and Alex Bernas.
Tools Used Maxon Cinema 4D - Adobe Photoshop | Animate | Aftereffects - TVPaint
Initial Sketches
The initial sequence was meant to be dynamic, leveraging a few different match cuts and giving time to the development of both the osprey and its prey.
We decided that shortening and simplifying the creative from these frames while keeping the best compositions for the story would be best. Improving the interactions for social purposes while saving time on the animation end.
The boardo +
Cutting the animation down from 17-20 seconds to about a rough 15 with loop provided a lot for rewatching.
Boarding out the frames and creating a rough body motion allowed for us to more easily see the timing. "Does this feel right, or could it be longer/shorter?," "Does this feel like the right sequential order? How do we move between these compositions?"
Styleframes
How we got here
These are the initial styleframes created from the key moments in the roughs.
Color Explorations
…After some passes we felt the colors needed some further development. After a few general impressions the sweet spot was found to be somewhere in between v2 and A2.
Some more tweaking was necessary, but the palette was solidified and enhanced in AE with some more post effects added.
Final Rough
The last rough pass before tying down all of the bits and bobs. The challenge from here was how to maintain consistent forms, keep the animation smooth, and comp into the background elements in a way that was interesting.
3D blocks modeled by me in Cinema 4D and finessed with help from Gabe Nadel.
