I've spent the day finalising my story idea and playing around with the introduction, but I felt I needed a bit of a break from storyboards so I started work on my first concept piece. After a bit of research into the train stations of Colorado, USA and watching a few early 20th century films featuring railways, I had a clear idea in my head of what I wanted my station to look like. I'd like to add more detail to this piece to make it seem more neglected, but I think the isolation and 'dustiness' is starting to come across. I'll post up a final version soon. I plan to complete a few similar pieces along with thumbnails and final storyboards by the end of the week.

I've found the head modelling on this character far easier after a bit of practice in Narrative, although Low-poly head modelling seems to be an entirely different process, the results still seem to be visually pleasing without being smoothed.

Below are the first week of Dyanamic tasks. I've used the particle effects in Maya before, but not to the quality and depth as these tutorials. Some really impressive results can seem to be generated from  some careful settings in the particle controls.

Buster Keaton, along with Charlie Chaplin, is one of the most well-known pioneers of silent comedy from the early 20th Century. I've been recently looking at the work of these actors for influence and inspiration in my own animated short's character. Buster Keaton's silent movements and exaggerated action-comedy is perfect to study  in preparation for animating my suitcase.



Specifically, I watched Buster Keaton's film 'The General'. Released in 1926 it tells the story of a stolen locomotive train in the mid-west, where Keaton's character chases it alone, through the country desert across enemy lines. This film was very helpful in resolving my story, as it includes a lot of gags and uses for wild-west environments, a couple of which I am adapting into my own short. A lot of the film takes place on a steam train also, which gives great references.



One such scene which I am taking inspiration for is this one pictured below. Keaton's character catches up with the stolen train by riding on a handcar (or a pump trolley) Something which I am determined to make my character do in a more heroic moment. I still have a few more shorts of his to watch along with some other comedy, but I think I am closer to a resolved story.

After a discussion tutorial with Phil yesterday, I was advised to find and watch some early silent comedy films to find inspiration for my story. In my head (and storyboarded) I currently have an idea for the opening of the animation, and after going over it, I think it works quite well. The real challenge is in the next two acts, where the story and character movements become more exaggerated and ridiculous as he tries to board the train.


Harold Lloyd was a suggested name, I found a nice selection of his short films which were re-released on DVD by New Line Cinema in 2005 ( from countless other releases before). I recognised Lloyd's name but assumed I hadn't seen any of his films, yet I still recognised many famous scenes as he is such a iconic comedian. I've spent the entire morning watching his comedy, which is leaving a huge impression on my story and character design.


Harold Lloyd became a household name from 1915 after starring as the glasses-wearing 'buffoon' usually named 'The Boy' in many silent short-length comedy films. Lloyd formed a partnership with Hal Roach who directed the majority of films that he starred in. In each film he has a love interest who he stars opposite, in the films I've watched so far, it has been a mix of Bebe Daniels and Mildred Davis (In his later shorts) Even though the earliest of his films are almost a hundred years old, they still are incredibly funny and I would say that they are arguably as funny as anything created since. After watching Billy Blazes Esq (1937) and An Eastern Westerner (1920), which are both set in a western frontier town I saw  a lot of opportunities for gags and actions in my own animation. Also after watching some of his others, such as Bumping into Broadway (1919) and Ask Father (1919) I realised how important comic timing and exaggeration of movement is when your film has no dialogue.

I'm going to watch many more of these to try and find more gags and I'm considering using certain scenes to animate my suitcase from, I'd love to attempt to give him Harold Lloyd character's personality, as a 'brave' fool. This afternoon I'm going to watch some of Buster Keaton's work, which I think will be just as beneficial.

Despite having the piece of music for quite some time, since getting assigned it for my summer project, I haven't researched much into it. I'm now at the stage where I need to analyse the music thoroughly, which also means researching into its author and original use.

The classical track I'm transcribing is 'Hoe-Down', a action-oriented piece from Aaron Copland - a film and ballet composer. The piece is a compilation of several different folk-tunes from Ireland with a mid-western twist, to feature in a ballet named 'Rodeo' - a love story between a cowgirl and a rancher. The song is essentially formed of entirely Irish tunes and influence, but it has been adapted to the 'Wild-West' environment, and I think that in this case, it's where it belongs. I'm going to split the music up into sections, which will correlate to different scenes in my animation. The song accommodates the following tunes:

William H. Steppe's 'Bonaparte's Retreat'
Originally an Irish marching tune - "The Eagle's Charge" played on the fiddle.

McLeod's Reel 
A traditional Irish Jig, used for river dance.