Materials

Just some inspirational stuff

Black goo

Horns

Crow feathers

Obsidian

idk what that is but it creeps me out

Cutesy Monster Ideas

Very rough ideas for creature designs. I'm not sure if the right direction is here but well, it's the brainstorming phase.

I'll be drawing loads and loads of these in the future; do tell if any of them look like they could become something with further development, or if you feel like a particular type of creature would be right for what we want to do.
I myself think the optimal style would be slightly more cartoonish or "heightened" than purely realistic, stretched as far as possible while still fitting the live action plate; shapes concealed in the shadows, odd limbs sticking from behind the benches, beings that would look silly in daylight but seem moody at night.

Notes for future designs (just to write them down somewhere):
- someone with a glowy thing in the chest (but tries to hide it)
- fog monster creeping on the floor
- a flock of little ghost fellas that float straight through the bus
- a creepier take on the masked one

First Concept Art

Rough concept, with colour variations for different atmospheres.

A concept for a creature that nobody wants to sit next to. (Didn't mean to do such a cartoony sketch but my realist painting skills are on holiday.)

Tagging System

So the idea is that everyone can post all the helpful material they come across and by tagging it we can find it all without any fuss even when it starts to accumulate next year. Nuthin' big, just whatever we think we might need in order to find the correct references when working.

The general tags will probably be:

notice for info dumps
meeting for meeting notes
inspiration for all the stuff not created by us but that communicates the idea
concept for concept art
reference for technical drawings, real-world accuracy refs
writing for ideas and story stuff in written form

http://creaturecam.blogspot.com/search/label/NameOfTheTag is how the tags can be found, but I'm gonna try and put up some links on the page.

Camera Ref Vids

A video pointing to the direction the cameras and cuts would work; as well as a indication of the non-linear narrative and silently humorous atmosphere.



CCTV footage that has nothing to do with this project whatsoever except the setting reference but there's a guy lighting a bus on fire, who would not want to watch that

Startup

Heya folks, I'm putting up this blog as a means of tracking progress and sharing work, following the clever suggestion from Janine.

Laying down some basic information:

The Pitch
A visual effects short film.
What do security cameras capture at night? The film looks like cut-together CCTV footage of night-time public transport in London - except we start seeing these weird creatures going about. A big shadowy monster sits down nonchalantly in a bus seat. A creepy critter pays for a ticket and crawls to the ceiling. In some buses there are people, but they don't seem to mind the creatures at all; they're living together in harmony. Maybe a monster gets stuck of its giant horns in a doorway, and some kind soul comes to free him, et cetera.
Dark in tone but not in story, minimalist, atmospheric.

--

The (Current) Crew
We're still on lookout for a compositor. Possibly a second TD and/or animator. The exact roles can be discussed further.

Milena: Director/AD/Producer (possible secondary modeler)
Janine: Modeler/Texturer
Siobhan: Rigger/Animator
Tomas: TD/Lighting/Pipeline

--

What Is Happening Now
A. I'm trying to get some simple concept art to get everyone's imagination rolling in the same direction. I'll also post a few videos that might be an inspiration as soon as I can figure out where in the world I found them.

B. There are a few compositor calls brewing, namely Melissa and Adam. If anyone finds more people interested in compositing, feel free to send them the pitch. Hopefully one of them will come back to us with a positive answer.

C. I'll inquire First about how a bus shoot would work.

D. Once this groundwork is put down we'll have a first meeting. (In fb chat, probably, since we're not all in Bournemouth anymore.) The idea is to get the story to a point - with everyone's input - where every one of us knows exactly what they need to do next year, and thus can do what they want to prepare over the summer.

Sound good? We're not in any hurry but if we get the ball rolling now we can be confident and stress-free when the time to work actually comes.

--

About This Blog
I'm planning on sharing all the concept art and director's notes here, as well as short meeting notes once we start having them so that anyone who misses a meeting can get the gist. I'm gonna add all you team members as contributors so you can also post whatever progress you wish.