GASTRONAUTS
A short film created at Hollowpixel Studios, and the first apprentice team project.
WATCH THE SHORT HERE:
How It Began
It began with a challenge from our director, Chris McFall, who tasked us with creating a pitch for a short film (approximately 1 minute 20 seconds long) that was based around a joke. Then out of those pitched, we would vote for one to be selected, and all of us would then work together and bring it to life. And thus GASTRONAUTS was born from the incredible mind of Rowan Halton, with the name later being perfected by Ariana Plesa.
My Part to Play
My presence is mainly felt during the layout and animation stages, as well as the lighting for some of the shots. I worked on SHOT030, SHOT090, SHOT180, and SHOT240, where I did the blocking and animation for all of them, as well as the lighting for shots 030 and 240.
Each shot contains assets created by the other apprentices and our director Chris McFall. With the storyboards, character models and rigs being done by Chris McFall, while the concept work, props and sets were created between Rowan Halton, Ariana Plesa, Owain Lewis, and Anthony Richards.
Our introduction to the no-nonsense astronaut of the month, Buzz Lightweight.
A lot of small things went into making this shot, from staggering the eyes opening, to the head nodding slightly during the blink, the gradual change of expression, and having Buzz tense as he is annoyed by the prop flying past.
This shot really tested my camera work as a lot of the movement is expressed through moving the camera. As well as timing the shift of focus a unique challenge itself.
Neil Fartstrong's first fart for mankind, but unfortunately not his last.
The shortest and simplest of my shots, with an... interesting camera angle. The first shot I finished, and the first shot of the project to have its animation signed off as done.
Tensions rise as Buzz's anger builds and his blood boils.
My favourite shot to work on, it took a lot of time to get that twitch right. With the head shake being my idea to better convey his anger.
Enough is enough, Buzz can't stand Neil any longer and smell has to escape someway.
This is the shot that I put the most work into and is the most expanded when compared to the original storyboard. The shot was the most challenging and rewarding to work on.
A fun fact about it is that I used reference videos of dogs sticking their heads out of car windows for the characters cheek movement.