I wanted to see what this effect would look like, so I saved individual pictures, three or four of the same name but each with different letters added. Quickly imported them into CVS and rendered out this short clip. The quality isn't great and to be honest I'm not too keen on the effect. It was supposed to look like the letters were being added gradually but it kind of looks like it's taking a while to load.

Soooo we scrapped this and myself and Liam decided that a 'scrolling' credits was best. But to quirk it up a bit it should linger on the names a tad longer, both to give the audience enough time to read and to not bore them. Now it's Liam's job to create this look in AE. Should look good.

Here's a quick view of how the credits will look. I decided to do them in the style of as if the Imp had written them himself. The best way I could think to do this was to create a crayon/chalk look to it. To jazz it up a bit I thought it would be nice to add a few simple 'child-like' doodles in the corners. Drawing like a toddler is definately more difficult then the drawings in this animation! Even if it doesn't look like it.

I downloaded a demo of ArtRage3 after trying out many types of brushes in Sketchbook and PS, because I remember using it last year on my Sting, and liked the texture of the brushes. On here I found the pastel brush and created these chalk board-style images. When saved as png's it came up with the yellow text in the corners, but no worries, a quick cover up in PS and it's all done.

Ok, so this is the coloured and close to finished version of when Charlie is about to lose his umbrella. With hands!! I'm fairly happy with it. Althought looking back I should have put more emphasis on the 'struggle' maybe allowed him to linger (hands up in the air) longer. Maybe emphasised the strength of the wind too by using his hat. It could have been difficuly for him to keep it on. Not sure, but it's always something I can change for the Odeon.

Just a rough version still... added the umbrella so I can see where i need the hands to grab and follow etc.

Right then, this is the coloured piece of when the umbrella escapes from his hands, I like the swishing and overlapping of the tie and blazer, think it works well. I recently showed this to Paul and Neil, they said it's fine but the hip needed to swing out a little more. I agree, and so if there's time after the credits and sound I'll be coming back to change it.

I think in the actual film we're going to cut a few frames at the beginning (until you see the umbrella)

Sooooo, I've been working on this for a while. After animating the umbrella I had to get into the swing of animating a human. I'm finding it pretty difficult and I certainly know I'm not the best animator. I thought I'd include the flapping of his jacket and tie to show the wind. The wind will be added in AE, but there's no point in having it if it's not affecting anything. I think that when the colour is added it will help this little shot out.

An updated Birds-eye background, ready for the final film, I've added Charlie, again he's not going to be moving to add to the 'toy' idea. The tracks are going to be added in the centre of the shot by Laim as well as the slowing rain.

This is just half of the coloured birds-eye shot, simply because all of the umbrellas have been saved as png's, and putting them into CVS it taking forever at the minute.

The saved png's are ready for Liam to put the train tracks on a layer in between it and the background, but I think it's coming along well. This section will have rain slowing, also dont in AE over the top. I have also added some other people underneath their umbrellas into the background because before it was looking rather odd. All i need to include is Charlie himself and a few on the other side of the tracks.

Et Voila! This is the finished coloured version of the umbrella in the cathedral shot. I'm quite proud of this, I think it looks elegant. Hopefully this is the part where the mood changes within the film to a bit more relaxed.

Erica has painted some clouds to go over the top on a seperate layer, and they will be put into AE by Liam to move out to reveal the cathedral.

I thought I'd post this; just to show the spacing of the animation, plus with the umbrellas coloured and layered up it makes quite an interesting image.

Just an update to show how the colouring is going... half way there and so far so good. Taking a lot longer than I thought because I'm having to neaten up to block colour and add a black and light grey outline over the top of each umbrella, so I'm technically drawing each three times. Whether I'm making life difficult for myself I dont know but I think it will look very nice when it's finished.