First light productions

Over the last 7 months i have been helping Sam Gainsborough with his animation for first light productions. It is the 4th, and final, episode in the series about a human boy who was accidentally injected with lizard DNA which turned him into half human, half Lizard. He also gained super strength. Throughout the episodes he turns from a social outcast into a superhero. People then try to take this admiration away from him, turning him evil.
Firstly i had to design signs to be used in a city street, Sam liked the idea of lots of signs and lights- Kind of like you would imagine Tokyo but with recognisable English brand names. Our first attempts were on the Computer using photoshop, however following discussion with Sam, he said he would prefer a hand drawn effect. I started printing images and logos from the internet, i then copied these and coloured them using colouring pencils. I scanned the finished drawings into the computer, using photoshop, for further editing. These were then passed onto Sam.
I also had to make banners for the characters for a scene in the film, showing the village people love for Lizardo. Sam wanted these to look hand-made. To create this effect we painted paper banners (Cut in proportion to the characters) and used art straws as wooden posts. We used 'typical' banner slogans often seen on TV programmes such as Big Brother, for example 'Will you marry me?' and 'Hello Mum' as well as slogans suited to the scene such as 'Go Green' and 'We love the Green Man'. These were later photographed being held by the Characters for slotting into the scene. To do this we used deedo lights and a homemade lightbox. We used three lights to shoot the images: Key light, Fill light and Back light.
Sam also approached me about making clothes for two of the main Characters, Lizardo and his Dad. For Lizardo, made using an armature, i had to make a jacket and a coat. Sam gave me images of the style he wanted, and i made these for the characters. I made the Dad Pajamas and a Suit, including a shirt and tie. The clothes for the Dad were more complicated because he was based on a polystyrene ball.
We also came up with a couple of ideas for buildings in the city, as well as making a sky. Sam really liked the idea of having everything looking handmade and imperfect. This was a style that i had to incorporate into each task i was set.