The Heresy Saga

Another character design

2008-06-19T18:54:00.001-07:00

AFC funding!

2008-06-17T01:58:00.000-07:00

We recently got word that the Australian Film Commission would be funding development of a 12-15 minute short film of the Heresy Saga. This is great news, as we will be able to devote some serious time to the project, rather than trying to find time in between our paid gigs to work on it.

Our original script was far too big to fit into such a short amount of screen time, so we are currently writing a new script which is well under way.

I have been working on some Character designs, so here they are.

Cheers,

Tui Studios website excuse

2008-04-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Since we haven't posted for a while thought I'd throw out one possible explanation:
Check out the Tui Studios website upgrade- its so fresh and so clean, compliments to Jonathan.

Enter The Tui

Storyboards

2008-03-19T23:14:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Thought we'd show you some examples of our most recent storyboards. We are currently using Flash 8 as it is more convenient than Photoshop in some ways. Both programs have their benefits, but we decided on Flash primarily as a time saver.
As far as our progress goes, we have more or less finished boarding the first episode. Now we have to get the Audio recorded.

Downloads Away

2008-02-13T19:32:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! It was good day for the Heresy Saga website. Jonathan tore himself away from sick kids, knights and ogres for a moment to find the faulty script on the download page and fix it.

...Which means downloads are now fully operational.

Thanks Jonno!

Enter the Website

2008-02-11T23:24:00.000-08:00

After much blood, sweat and tears; Kelly's, Jonathan's and Amy's- in that order, we have released the website for the Heresy Saga.

Unfortunately the downloadable files are currently not downloadable so many apologies for that- we will have that rectified soonish...
This week we are finishing work on a TV Commmercial for charity. It's actually for the Sydney Children's Hospital, so your patient inconvenience is for a worthy cause.

www.heresysaga.com

cheers everyone

Title

2008-01-17T20:33:00.001-08:00

Just finishing up the job of schmick-ifying the title. There's a wee bit of black at the front and a slow fade-up so be patient, other than that it seems to be working ok. Animated in Anime Studio, comped in After Effects.
Without the audio it doesn't have quite the same effect but you get the gist.

WIP Background

2008-01-10T21:50:00.000-08:00

Been a bit quiet around here lately (our apologies!) so- thought I'd post a BG I'm in the process of painting up. All our BG's are done in Photoshop. We are still defining the overall look of the show, so this one may not feature in the project. I think the style is lacking a bit of character, so will probably get a bit more graphic with the actual production BGs.
We have been flat out on commercial work recently, so haven't had as much time to dedicate to Heresy. Having said that, we are in the last stages of comping up the main title and should have a version up on the blog in the next few days.

Kelly.

...And another Colour Script page.

2007-11-08T20:43:00.000-08:00

Some of the colours still need a bit of work, but it's a start.

A completed Colour Script Page

2007-11-07T17:16:00.000-08:00

Here is some of our latest work. You wont see them in the final film as they are what we call Sequence Colour Scripts. We use them to give us an idea of colours, Time of Day, Special Effects, Lighting, etc. We deliberately paint them small and avoid lots of details as they are only there to give a "vibe" of the scenes.

What do you think?...

Done! (well almost)

2007-10-31T16:47:00.000-07:00

Here is the almost final comp from the scene posted below. The Background and colours are all temporary. The animation is pretty subtle - so not the best example to post at such a small scale.

Apart from the snow that lands on him, all the other flakes are created using Anime Studios particle thing.

Episode One begins...

2007-10-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

OK ... here is the screen capture of an Ep 01 scene. The shot is only half finished. After we have built the character, which seems be the longest process, we begin animation.

As well as Flash we use - Anime Studio Pro - (seen below) formerly known as 'Moho'.

Not much animation in this shot - breathing, hair blowing in slight breeze, and snow falling. The important and tricky things are to make the breathing feel natural and the hair blowing to be subtle.

Compositing makes it look good.

2007-10-24T17:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a shot from the trailer half way through compositing. We used 'dummy grids' to work out what parts of the BG we had to paint and how it all fits together. We used After Effects 3D camera to move through the shot - but all the elements (trees, rocks, ground etc...) are all 2D elements ... come on 2D you can do it!

So for the final comp, we just replaced the dummies with the painted BG elements - did some colour tweaks - bit of fog here and there - some lights and gradients - and you're done!

... and here are the movies

Ep01 Storyboards

2007-10-24T16:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a small storyboard section from the first Episode. All the camera and shot information is stored in the file. After this stage we break the shots down - adding more information with rough animation poses. We like to tone all our boards. It creates an early solid reference for the scene so Animators, Background Artists and Compositors are all clear on what the director wants.

Colour Keys (in black and white?)

2007-10-22T16:50:00.001-07:00

Coming up to the release of The Heresy Saga trailer, we are finishing off the final audio and tweaking the comps. While that is wrapping up we are commencing pre-production on the first episode.

Here are some roughs for colour keys. These are not storyboard panels. We will use these to decide on the colour scheme for each sequence and to help map out the storyboard.

Tui Studios Title

2007-10-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a rough cut of our brand new Tui Studios title. This will go at the beginning of The Heresy Saga. It was animated with Anime Studio Pro (one of our favourite animation programs) and comped in After Effects.

There is still some tweaking to do. Listen to it with good speakers to get the full '808' sound.

Design

2007-10-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

Here ya go. Here are some of our early model sheets. Warning .... some images may contain blood.

A couple of shots

2007-10-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

To kick things off here are a couple of shots from Heresy Saga trailer. The top example has incidently been cut!? (hate that!) ... We liked the shot but it just wasn't moving the story forward. Maybe we can use it later?

Background example

2007-10-14T17:38:00.001-07:00

The Heresy Blog

2007-10-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Ok so here is the first post on this - The Heresy Saga - blog

The Heresy Saga is an animated web-based series created by Kelly Baigent and Tui Studios

It is a full in house production... Which means we work on it when ever we can.

This blog is designed to share with you guys our ideas and work processes.

Please feel free to leave comments or ask questions.

Soon we will be posting a link to the official Heresy Saga site. We are in the final stages of the trailer production. Until then we will be doing our best to fill you in on what we are doing and how we do it.

Cheers

Tui Studios