Work in progress: Girl

Making progress on the model for Jasmine... this will be rendered NPR style.

Work in progress: Girl

Work in progress starts on the model of Jasmine.

Daily render: Rockface with little house

Daily render: Plant growth unit

Daily render: windmill at night

This is a windmill that I modeled some time ago. I decided to give it a little scene to star in.

Daily render: Dark metal on a bridge

I'm going through my old models, there's some nice stuff there, like this bridge which is based on a real bridge...

Daily render: Towers

Daily render: Building in snow

Daily render: A bunch of rocks

My goal is to create the habit of making something from start to finish every day (in about one hour). To keep the creative juices flowing, and build a library of assets for the movie. Today's render is a background piece, with using blended box mapping for the texture. Blended box mapping is a great way of texturing complex shapes without the need for UV unwrapping, using generated texture coordinates instead. Some dramatic lighting always helps. Needs some plants to make it more interesting...

Poster Color Test

Today I finally got around to testing out the Japanese poster color paints I bought in Taiwan last winter.

Farine market (background sketch)

Here is a background I designed for the "Farine" environment in the story.

Bench in Farine (background sketch)

Today's sketch is a background design, for a scene taking place in "Farine".

Papercraft: From 3D model to paper house (tutorial)

This tutorial deals with going from a simple 3D model to a full-color papercraft model, in this case a classical European-style house. At the end of the tutorial you can find the papercraft house to print out.

Wooden robot in trouble (concept art)

Today's storyboard has our wooden robot in trouble...

Wooden Robot on suspension bridge (concept art)

In this big storyboard, the wooden fighter robot is running accross a suspension bridge...

Caniton guards (concept art)

Today's sketch is another "big storyboard".

Wooden Robot workshop (concept art)

Today's sketch is another "wooden robot", in the workshop where it is being built.

Wooden Robot (Concept Art)

Today's sketch is of a wooden robot. He's a prototype that was never mass produced.

Robot designs from 2009

Today I found some really ancient files on my computer, concept art I made in 2009.

2D cutout animation in Blender - written tutorial

2D cutout is a fun, quick way to turn 2D art into moving images. Here is my workflow for doing this with the free 3D package Blender for the animation and some preparation work in Photoshop.

Photoshop painting - written tutorial

I wrote a little tutorial with tips about how to paint in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet.

Animation concept sketch: Caniton city entry hall

This is a sketch of the entry hall after passing the gate of Caniton.


Today I used two layers of paper, one for the background and one on tracing paper for the character on the bicycle.

That way it's easy to keep the background seperate for later use to start painting, and it makes working on the character easier as well without affecting the background drawing.

Animation concept art: Background design sketch of Caniton gates

As strange as it may sound, this design is based partially on a city in Europe. Can you guess which one?

This is a sketch of the gates of Caniton, which is an industrial city where they build giant robots. Part of the gate is based on a real stone gate I saw on vacation.

It's fun to use photo reference to start - it gives you some restrictions,

Animation concept sketch: Giant fighting robots

The perilous journey of the cacao salesman continues as he cycles past a couple of giant robots that are about to fight.

Animation concept sketch: Fighting robots in abandoned city

The story continues, as the cacao salesman encounters a couple of fighting robots...

Animation concept art sketch: motorcycle and robot

These are a couple of designs I did for a kind of motorcycle or scooter.

Animation concept art: Character designs

It's been a while since I did these character designs, but looking at them today I quite like them. Can you guess their occupation?

Animation concept art: Abandoned village

Today's big storyboard is a continuation of yesterday, as the cacao salesman is still on his way. This is an abandoned village he drives through.

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Animation concept art: Cacao salesman and old giant robot

Today's storyboard features the cacao salesman making his delivery on his bicycle, moving through a landscape which features a giant, old robot from an old battle. 

Animation concept art: Cacao salesman

Today's sketch is the first in a series of large storyboards that I'm making to illustrate the script.

About this project

Hey there!

If you are new to this blog, let me quickly tell you about it.

This blog chronicles with daily posts the making of a 2D-animated fantasy/scifi feature. Currently we are in "pre-pre-production", as it's just me and my partner making this. We are looking for a producer to help really kickstart development, and in the meantime are working on creating as much concept art as possible and fine-tuning the script.

What is it about?

It's about an innocent character who is forced to lead an invasion in the country he was born in. This so that his boss can feed his chocolate addiction, as the country they are invading is mostly made up of cacao farms. The world it is set in is a fantasy style world with a lot of robotics.

What is the style of the movie?

It will be hand-drawn 2D animation with painted backgrounds. Our "golden standard" is the movies of Studio Ghibli (The Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away etc). Although that is a big influence, having grown up in The Netherlands and Belgium I'm also influenced in terms of character design by Belgian comics (Spirou, Tintin, etc).

So when is this coming out?

Well, it depends on when we can really start development. Two people can only do so much. We are trying hard to make this happen, but sci-fi especially is not popular with European producers. This blog hopefully will help create a large enough group of interested followers to make the alternative of crowdfunding possible should we not be able to use the traditional way. If you want to help the project, please share it with a friend. Every time you do, you put some wind in our sails!

Thank you for reading!

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Kiki's Delivery Service and the difference between 2D and 3D animation

An early "Farine" design in 3D I made in Blender

Watching "Kiki's Delivery Service" again the other day, I noticed how it is a perfect metaphor for the difference between 2D and 3D animation...

Using photographic reference as a basis for animation background designs

"Farine" background sketch

When coming up with a design for a fantasy environment, it is very important that you respect the fundamental qualities like perspective of the scene.

Animation concept art: sketches of military mechs

Robot doodles

To continue yesterday's theme, here are a few more concept art sketches, also of more dangerous looking robots.

Animation concept art: How to design anthropomorphic robots

Caniton robots concept art

How should one go about designing anthropomorphic robots and still remain original?

Animation concept art: Farine sketches with Ghent-style houses and windmills

Farine concept art

Yesterday I talked a bit about Farine, one of the environments in the film. It's inhabited mostly by cacao farmers, and is built on steep mountainous terrain.

Animation concept art: Cacao with parachute

Cacao pod with parachute

One of the fun things about a story set in a fantasy setting, is that you get to do a lot of world-building, creating all the elements that make up the environment of the characters.

Animation pencil test: Jasmine blowing on some hot chocolate

Here's a quick pencil sketch test I did for the character "Jasmine", just to see her come to life a bit. 

Character sketches 30/03/2015

This weekend I finally found some 0.3 mm graphite refills and a pen that can actually use them.

Character sketches 29/03/2015

To be able to draw convincing character animation in 2D, you have to practice drawing the characters a lot. That way, you start to get a feeling for the "volumes" of their body.

Daily sketch: Thank you!

Today we want to say a big THANKS! to the awesome people who have supported our campaign so far.

Daily Sketch: 27/03/2015

Another background sketch. It's a mountain village with windmills. It's based a little bit on Corsica, except for the windmills. I visited Corsica a couple of years ago, and it left a big impression. There were mountains everywhere, and they all looked completely different. I'm from Holland originally, so I'm not used to any elevation at all. Perhaps I put the windmills in there to feel more at home... this environment is used to contrast against another environment in the film, which is more futuristic and technological. It will be fun to play out those differences.

Daily Sketch: 26/03/2015

Daily sketch: female robot

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Daily sketch: 25/03/2015

Today's daily sketch is a futuristic city with a giant mech in it. What makes it different is that the houses are still kind of normal, just arranged with a lot of "post-modern" stuff, like pipes and mysterious sci-fi greebles. The mech is standing there like they are  building it there, as if it is a kind of ship wharf and the people living there are laborers working on it.

If you like this sketch, please help us with our on-going campaign for making our film happen.

Daily sketch: 24/03/2015

We’ll be posting some daily sketches from now on. Might be fun, let us know what you think! These are some character sketches, different emotions.
Our campaign is still on-going, please help us donating even 1 dollar.

Our crowdfunding campaign is now live!

Do you remember your last time watching science fiction animation made in Europe? Unfortunately it is a non-existent genre here, and we want to change it! Please help us make this happen by donating even 1 dollar. Yes, 1 dollar helps. 
Go to Robots and Chocolates campaign