[UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short - Concept Artists
michaelcawood | 01/28/2009 @062 | edit post

Wanted: Concept Artists, Storyboard Artists and general collaborators. http://michaelcawood.com/images/CGShort/DevilsAngelsAndDatingPoster.jpg What is this all about? I’m making a CG Short Film for the love of it as a hobby on the side of my day job. But it’s much more fun and creative if I can find some talented collaborators. So I’m posting this to see if there are any talented souls out there looking to get involved. Ideally I’m looking for people with some experience already, perhaps looking to diversify their skill set and portfolio. Or simply to act as a showcase for talents they know they have but have yet to have the opportunity to do working in a professional environment. You can see how the project is shaping up at my website MichaelCawood.com ( http://michaelcawood.com/CGShort.htm ). The target audience is the web surfer, it will look striking enough on almost every frame for most people to want to click on an image of it, while intriguing enough in its subject matter to keep people watching. Obviously it will be fired off to the festival circuit and I’ll knock on any other doors that are relevant (TV, Cinema, DVD, etc...) but the internet is our only guaranteed venue. Here’s the current WIP Animatic (storyboard): http://michaelcawood.com/CGshort/DevilsAngelsDating_Animatic.mov Who am I? My name is Michael Cawood. I’ve been an Animated Filmmaker since 1994, having worked on Animated Films, VFX Films, Commercials, Games and made numerous personal short films in my student days. You can check out my LinkedIn profile ( http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcawood )and my Filmography ( http://michaelcawood.com/movies.htm ) to get a flavour of my work. My last student film, Panda Pander picked up a few million viewings on one of the video portals. But having started as a 2D Animator, I’ve yet to make my own short film in full CG, and my film making skills have moved on a lot since then. I love making these things and I’ve done more than my fair share in the past but, for the last nine years I’ve been focused on making other people’s projects. I enjoy the process in any capacity whoever it’s for, but I felt it was time to get back to making something for myself. I’ve never stopped writing stories or creating characters over that time but this project is compact enough to actually get made. I have most of the skills necessary myself to make this thing so I have no fear that it can be done. What do you get? Not paid: Don’t be fooled. There is almost no market for making money out of this. It’s too easy to watch a CG Short on a video portal for free, so why should anyone pay for it? So I’m not offering money. I could tell you that I’ll divvy up any proceeds should that happen (and I would), but you really shouldn’t be doing this for the cash. Personally I’m quite sure I’ll spend more on this than I’ll ever get back financially. Credit: I have no particular need to sit back and say I did all of this, so I’m very happy to share the credit, where credit is due. I’ll deploy a similar system to the BBC, anyone that contributes over 10% in any given specialist area will be credited, most likely in order of contribution. I’ll also try to maintain a list of contributors on my website during production, once they start having something to show. Portfolio Material: This isn’t a secret project, as it unfolds you are welcome to use whatever you are contributing in your own portfolio to sell yourself to employers, as long as you are specific about what you’ve done. I’m relying on this to ensure a high quality of product. Reference: I’m more than happy to write worthy contributors a good reference. For professionals, I’d heartily recommend adding this project to your LinkedIn profile (only once you actually start working on it) where I can recommend you and employers can verify the legitimacy of it. You can also seek recommendations from other people you’ve worked with on this project. Promotion: I’ll happily cross link with strong contributors if they have websites they want people to see. Contacts: Anything you do like this is a good way to make contacts in the business. You never know who you’ll be working with in the future. How much of a commitment? Since I’m assuming people are doing this for their own portfolio, I would expect that most people will want to do a small number of images or sequences. What’s the film about? Synopsis: Mr. Cupid, Master Devil and a rather sexy young judge, jury and executioner in the form of Miss Death gather in the ‘After Life’ War Room to attend to their daily routine of manipulating our lives down on Earth with modern techniques that would put our iPod generation to shame. Each of them reluctantly compelled to play out their role in the game of life in order to maintain the balance. There's an unspoken attraction in the room as their true personalities are revealed to each other. Then someone gets a bright idea and re-purposes their high tech tools in a way that turns the tide of war and flips everything on its head. At the moment I’m not posting the full script/treatment to avoid direct copy cats, but that may change. I’ll reveal it to people that get in touch with me when it’s suitable. It’s still open to change at this time but it has settled into a decent story already, and it just needs a few talented eyeballs on it to really make it shine. But the goal is to keep it short and manageable. What do you need to do? I want to make one thing clear. My standards are quite high, and although I hate to exclude anyone, I’d rather work with people that can prove in some way that they are up to the job so that we don’t end up wasting each other’s time. So get in touch through my website’s contact page ( http://michaelcawood.com/Contact.htm ) and send me a link to your work (no attachments please, unless they’re only a few KB). Make sure you’ve thought through what talents you want to offer and prove to me you’re capable. You can also join in at the 11 Second Club, where other artists and animators are posting our progress. http://www.11secondclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3770 What does the project need? Initially I’m looking for: Concept Artists (Enviroments, Props, Colour work, promotional artwork, set pieces) Storyboard Artist I’ll post other specialist skills as and when it’s most appropriate, but at some stage in the project you can expect most animated film making skills to be of use. If you are interested and just want to discuss it please get in touch here http://michaelcawood.com/Contact.htm .

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 01/29/2009 @828 | edit post

On today’s animatic update I’ve reworked the intro for Devil and done Death’s mysterious reveal. It also establishes the character personalities and the dynamic of how the characters interact. Some of the drawings are a little bit rough to really tell what their expressions are, but it will be refined later. Animatic http://www.michaelcawood.com/CGshort/DevilsAngelsDating_Animatic.mov

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 01/31/2009 @879 | edit post

Another animatic update. This time most of the essentials are present and there’s a temporary audio track in place. I probably shouldn’t have done the audio yet but it was an interesting experiment. Unfortunately I had some technical issues that really made it rather painful to get done (Premiere didn’t seem to like speeded up mp3 files with fade offs). It also gives you the illusion that the action scene has finished before it actually has, since the music isn’t a perfect fit. But I figured one version of the animatic with sound would give a few people a taste of the mood... although I have to admit, this music is probably a little too big too soon! Anyway there’s more to refine yet, not least the added twist at the end. I’ve actually managed to skip about 30% of the script overall and keep it relatively logical, but it’s suffering from a lack of depth and character setup time that the script has. It’s always possible to add this stuff later, but I’m going to try and see how much I can get away without at first to keep the film short. I’ll layer in what I need in other passes until it feels right. The same link applies, as before.

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 04/23/2009 @998 | edit post

Here's a video introduction for all the newbies out there that want to know more. http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/project-introduction It's also available in larger HD here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XVPs8SWb70

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 07/31/2009 @743 | edit post

The character rigging has started. But we have three characters so we could still do with some more experience Character Riggers if anyone is interested. We also need a little character modeling work done, although we're 90% there. http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/photo/photo/show?id=2892810%3APhoto%3A8205 [Message edited on 07/31 @744]

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 09/10/2009 @687 | edit post

Keith Lango is now a Supporter of our film production. He'll be donating training videos to our strongest contributors as we go along. Check this out for details: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/forum/topics/gifts-for-the-team-official

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 11/02/2009 @752 | edit post

Episode 4 of the podcast is online now. In this one I talk to, team member, Iskander Mellakh and then go over a quick Filmography of my work before a status update of our short animated film ‘Devils Angels and Dating’. Blog Entry Direct

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 12/22/2009 @759 | edit post

We've had an exciting year with most of the asset creation out of the way we're currently in the early stages of animation, debugging rigs and looking for any other issues that we might trip us up going forward. I'm currently planning to roll out Animation on a larger scale early in 2010, so that we can have our 30 second teaser trailer ready in the first few months. I'm going to start working on a poster which should also be a good test case to get a 'close to final' look for our characters. While Devil and Death are having some more advanced functionality added to their rigs, Cupid is nearing an animation ready state. Devil and Death are already being animated in their first shots with only a few challenges, that our team members have gallantly concurred. We've had some support from Keith Lango, and Digicel's Flipbook which has been a nice touch. We have over 240 videos and 540 images to look through, with over 140 members on the website. All very exciting but I just want to say a huge thank you to our regulars who have made the project what it is today. Have a wonderful holiday period. In the mean time here's a few recent highlights: Render tests: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/sh0420dvltesting-2 Holograms and Peeps: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/couplemeetlovev01ms-1 Animation in progress: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/sh0460deathfakelovespliningv00-2 Colour Script in progress: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/photo/colorscript01-1?context=latest Animatic: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/animatic-v35 Don't forget you can follow our progress on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Devils-Angels-Dating/124683406303 And you can subscribe to most of our videos on YouTube as well: http://www.youtube.com/user/michaelcawood Merry Christmas!

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 01/29/2010 @879 | edit post

Here's our plan for the teaser trailer. Thanks to Stoyan for the Music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0YnvkwRNH8 Here's our new Video intro that tells you almost everything you need to know about the project to get you started: age:1232" target="_blank">http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/page/2892810age:1232

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 01/31/2010 @910 | edit post

Here's a set of Dailies for the 31st January 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmEBMIDQcWI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n9OrdxBXRo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxyQZnPvgzg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPiUsLotN2A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjd1LStBy4g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQnVZHAltBY

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 02/25/2010 @746 | edit post

Well what a month! We've been building up steam with the animation and I've been busy setting up shots for lots of new animators. We're actually at 25 active animators assigned to shots right now, but I've been trying to grow the team slowly in order to avoid over extending myself and neglecting anyone that's actually working on a task. There was a new edit a week ago: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/animatic-v43 I'm twittering the highlights of our progress and various other related musings here: https://twitter.com/michaelcawood I posted up our entry on IndieGoGo which is a fund raising website for Indie Filmmakers. We might not raise any funds but it's still a good site to have a presence on. http://www.indiegogo.com/DevilsAngelsAndDating It's really exciting to see the project progressing so well, thanks for the support everyone!

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 04/15/2010 @981 | edit post

Just a quick update. We're in pretty good shape for animation with over 20% in the can. We're on the lookout for strong animators to join the team. Check out the Animator's Handbook for a guide to what you need, and come prepared with some idea of what types of shots you'd like. http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/forum/topics/animators-handbook Shane Davis has recently started as a Production Coordinator. He'll be helping me to sort through the progress of all the tasks and keeping everything moving forward. If you're interested in doing any shader or rigging work please get in touch as we've got a couple of assets to finish off and any help would be greatly appreciated. We have some colour script images done, as you can see by the edit, but if anyone else would like to lend a hand and do some I'd really love to get some more done to flesh out the timeline. I'd just like to say the team is doing amazing things and it's incredible to see it coming together like this. I think we're well on track for completing the teaser trailer animation in the next few months and the rest of the film by early 2011, if not sooner.

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 06/03/2010 @701 | edit post

We've been doing incredibly well for an online team with no budget. I can't stress how impressive it is, and I'm in a huge debt to such an amazing community of artists persisting to perfect their craft. We're now 30% through the animation process, which only started animating back in January this year. You'd expect the first few months to have teething troubles while we worked out the kinks in the pipeline and the rigs, but we've moved into a decent routine pretty quickly and the process is very stable now. I've talked to a lot of other short film directors and they've all stressed how hard it was to get animators, so what we've achieved here is very unique. We're on the approach to getting the teaser trailer done. Most of the animation is done with just a few shots still in progress. I'll be spending the next month picking up the scraps and helping with the lighting and rendering setup. Then we can expect a large chunk of rendering and compositing time. If we have any team members with strong Maya Mental Ray experience we'd love to hear from you to assist. Hopefully we'll have it all done in time for Siggraph in LA, which I'll also be attending. Here's the latest Teaser Trailer edit: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/teaser-trailer-animatic-v54 If you know any Austin, Texas based generalists with strong Maya skills please send them our way as we can certainly use the extra on-site help over the next couple of months to get the teaser trailer done, while we're juggling the rest of the production. The latest full film animatic is here: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/animatic-v54 Thanks to everyone that's made the project what it is today!

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 08/10/2010 @781 | edit post

We've had a lot of different types of activity over the last month surrounding Siggraph including getting the first few decent rendered shots out, and they look great... even without being quite finished. Check out the shots in the teaser trailer: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/teaser-trailer-v58 We have a new Animatic with lots of new content: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/animatic-v60 I'll be working on the remaining 31% of the Layout that needs to be done soon in order to prepare for a push in the animation department. Part of that push is to re-assign some flagging shots and we've already been contacting animators to check on their progress. The color panels have really been making progress and we have samples of the color palettes for most of the time-line now. A big thanks to Danielle and Alex for their hard work on those. We'll try to bring them into a consistent color script soon. I'll try to make some sort of lighting guide, either written or possibly a video tutorial. We are close to being able to distribute lighting tasks to other team mates but there's a lot of notes to communicate in order to make the process easy and consistent for everyone. This may not happen until I'm done with Layout though, and... ... we have a number of remaining assets that need their final shaders refined. It's become a bit of a bottleneck so we need Shader Artists with experience that can help us out. Let us know you know anyone that would be interested. The list of assets is at the bottom of this tracker table: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1289261/DevilsAngelsAndDating_Asset_Tracker.htm If anyone is looking for a task to work on we maintain a list of available tasks here: age:1232" target="_blank">http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/page/2892810age:1232

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 12/19/2010 @803 | edit post

Seasons greetings! It's been an exciting year for us, as we've transitioned into full animation and started putting a lot more colour into the film. I anticipate us completing the animation within the next six months and putting out a polished looking trailer. YouAnimator.com did a feature on the film here: http://www.youanimator.com/news/devils We put out a new animatic a few days ago and it's exciting to see we're starting to get more and more renders into the timeline. If you haven't seen the film for a while you'll notice a lot of changes to the edit, shortening the overall screen length and a new ending. http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/animatic-v71 I've also taken the plunge to work on the film full time. You can read more about it here: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/profiles/blogs/im-working-on-the-film-full Rendered shots: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/sh0420dvldeciding-render-wip http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/sh0120cpdthrowwand-lighting-2 http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/death-takes-flight-animation http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/sh0470cpdworking-render-wip http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/sh0540dthbreastsa-lighting We're on the look out for a talented Lighting TD to help us get the teaser trailer rendered. We can also do with a 2D After Effects artist to help us with the special effects. Have a great holiday period, take it easy, and have enjoy the New Year!

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 03/30/2011 @592 | edit post

Our latest storyreel animatic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb8DLCESM6o http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/storyreel-v77 ...with this new and complex WIP rendered shot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyYOSD3X4p0 http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/sh0040dthhuff-render-wip-v01

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 03/30/2011 @709 | edit post

64% Complete! It's been a while since the last update. I've been busy on some paid work, but now that's done I'm back home and working full time on Devils again. I expect I'll be pretty focused on the film for at least the next couple of months, if not beyond that. I've been working on lighting a complex scene but we've also had lighting, rendering and effects done by numerous other team mates, check it out: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/sh0200cpdsmack-lighting-and http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/sh0110duckhalohaseebv6bmov-1 http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/sh0760dthblastpullout-effects-1 In fact rendering has been the fastest moving area of development recently as you can see by our progress chart: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/profiles/blogs/progress-over-time With me back in the saddle full time I should be able to pick up the slack in a few areas and pick up the pace of production across the board. I have to say a huge thank you to the team members that stuck with us through the last couple of months while things have gotten a bit quieter than usual. It's a sign of the dedication on show here that we're still going strong. But a project like this lives on the support of it's members and supporters so take a moment to 'Like' our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Devils-Angels-Dating/124683406303?v=wall ... and then invite your friends. Mike

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 03/31/2011 @759 | edit post

A teaser trailer update: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2EL4O6x30A http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/teaser-trailer-v77

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 07/03/2011 @712 | edit post

There is now a new full screen loading page for www.DevilsAngelsAndDating.com . Give it a go, try scaling the browser window to see what it does. It definitely prefers a big monitor (and a fast internet connection) as it's aimed at high end users, but it should cope fairly well with smaller monitors. It's better in a 16:9 aspect ratio but will adjust for vertical layouts, it just won't look as good. Let me know if you come across any serious issues and give details about what browser you're using and what computer platform. Eventually we'll need a mobile version of the page which should be fairly easy, but the trick is how to detect it's being loaded on a smaller device and make the switch. My next most immediate task is to make the next, and hopefully last version of the teaser trailer. All the shots in it are in a good state. If not completely finished they at least look strong enough to use in a trailer.

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 07/29/2011 @079 | edit post

Here's the final Teaser Trailer. Enjoy! http://youtu.be/HELfCnKmWtM http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/trailer Official Website: http://DevilsAngelsAndDating.com

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 09/28/2011 @455 | edit post

Storyreel A lot of things have come together over the past week in order to screen the film to an audience of 3D Animation Artists in Austin Texas. The goal was to get feedback from a large group, and while we wait for the results to be compiled, feel free to check out the latest version of the film. http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/storyreel-v106-76 http://youtu.be/15zRi-sD17o The animators have really been pulling their weight lately as a lot of shots have been upgraded and we're making steady but solid progress almost entirely across the board. I switched the animatic to full HD and 24fps (it was 23.975 drop frame before), while adding new voice over work from Justin Barrett and lots of new animated material. Aside from a very brief beam shot, there's now no more storyboard panels left that haven't been replaced by at least blocked in animation. But most of it is animated in some form. Progress At 76% complete, we're actually tracking the whole film's progress now including the sound departments and the effects (we were only tracking visuals before). WANTED The main area we're looking for talent now is in After Effects artists. Ideally people that can light, render and add a few custom 3D Maya effects as well, so that they can take ownership of an entire shot. But mostly we need 2D effects work and compositing experience to speed things up and spread the workload. Calendar There's a new calendar section so that you can see some of our key goals, events, festivals, and anything else that has a date attached to it. http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/events

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 11/25/2011 @645 | edit post

Here's an updated Storyreel. http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/storyreel-v113-94 We've also started a Campaign to help us fund the back end of the project including the festival run. If you're interested in seeing behind the scenes videos, getting signed artwork or your name in the credits check this out. http://www.indiegogo.com/devils Keep an eye out for the opportunity to pre-order our 'Art and Making of' eBook soon.

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 12/31/2011 @643 | edit post

Just four days to go until the release of the film online. Which also means that there's only four days to go to claim a Producer Credit on the film by helping us fund our festival run. Please take a moment to check out the perks available. http://igg.me/p/51211?a=11744

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 01/04/2012 @943 | edit post

The film is finished and online... http://DevilsAngelsAndDating.com - Main Website http://kck.st/tWsc6H - 'The Art & Making of Devils Angels & Dating' - eBook http://www.IndieGoGo.com/Devils - Exclusive Behind the Scenes Videos Devil wants Cupid's job, but a battle for Death's affections has cosmic ramifications below the Heavens. Directed by Michael Cawood, this computer animated short film is the work of a worldwide team of Artists and Animators. Entirely developed in the public eye online, it has also become a fantastic resource for Animation students and professionals alike. More information and expanded credits on the Director's website: http://MichaelCawood.com/CGShort.htm