Icepond's first short film: a WIP

[FloydBishop]

And here's a look at one of the characters, from initial concept art to final model.

We're trying to get a lot of character into the fish, but also keep them somewhat true to their real-life forms.

http://www.icepond.com/promo/catfish_compare.jpg

If anyone's interested, I can also put up some of the color studies for the character.

[FloydBishop]

I forgot to mention that the character designs were done by Andre Tardin, and this model was done by Dave Komorowski.

[Tumerboy]

very nice job staying true to the designs. . . no real critiques yet, just keep modeling and start texturing :P

Nice work!

[HieSpike]

Cool,
Realy nice work. I also hope to see more...
your other works on your website are exceptional as well.
I didn't read trough it to much, but what software do you use?
I'm currently working on a short w/Lightwave and it's great for modeling, texturing, lighting, and rendering,...but rigging, that's a whole other story.

Oh well, Good luck though, I like the design and the concept.
Now - release it before "Finding Nemo"!!! j/k

peace,
Kane
:buttrock:

[Magnusv]

Looks nice. Remember the incredible Mr.Limpet,with Don Knotts. ;)
Show us more,it's never enough these days. But what you have shown looks promising. Looking forward to more.Keep up the good work.:thumbsup:

[SheepFactory]

looks great ,

i would love to see the color studies!

Ali

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by Sheep Factory
looks great ,

i would love to see the color studies!


OK. Here are the color studies of two of the characters. We had two versions worked up for each character. Again, we're trying to add a bit more character to the fish, but at the same time, maintain some connection to their real world counterparts.

The two characters here are the Bluegill and the Eel. The Bluegill is high-strung while the Eel is laid back.

http://www.icepond.com/promo/Bluegill_A.jpg

http://www.icepond.com/promo/Bluegill_B.jpg

http://www.icepond.com/promo/Eel_A.jpg

http://www.icepond.com/promo/Eel_B.jpg

These were painted by Andre Tardin (same guy that designed them).

We're trying to achieve a style that fits the mood of the story and is appealing to the audience while also basing the thing in reality. The fish all have gills, scales, and move like fish, but are able to act and display a lot more emotion than your typical fish. We tried to saty on model with the fish you'd find in nature and stray from that design very little... for example our fish have eyelids, while real ones do not.

We're in the rigging and materials phase of production right now, getting the look and feel of everything just right. The world of a freshwater lake in the North Eastern US looks a lot different than the tropical waters of the open ocean, so this is going to look much different than "The Little Mermaid" or anything like that.

Being from Pennsylvania, I used to do a lot of fishing as a kid, and I've caught, cleaned, and eaten every animal in this short film, so it's no exaggeration when I tell you I know them inside and out. The story is also one that I and every other male who has been through high school can relate to. But I'm starting to give away too much.

For now, have a look at our WIP and feel free to comment away. We've been at this now since mid-summer, so it's nice to finally start to be able to so off what we've been working on.

[lildragon]

Very cool Floyd, good to finally see this here. After watching Scrat and Sid on Sid, I'm all up for seeing the animation on this ;)

salud

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by lildragon
Very cool Floyd, good to finally see this here. After watching Scrat and Sid on Sid, I'm all up for seeing the animation on this ;)

salud

Then watch "Bunny" while you're at it, because we've got some of those guys (and gal) on this piece as well.

Just to clear up things for those who don't know, this is NOT Blue Sky working on this, but Icepond. Many of us came from there though.

I don't know who animated Sid on Sid, but it wasn't any of us. It was pretty great though, huh? It added a nice bit of reality to the thing that I think the kids dug. Like the Muppets to some degree.

[lildragon]

oh yeah seen Bunny when it first became public, my fiancee loves the hell out of it... so do you thing for sure, can't wait...

salud

[FloydBishop]

We've got half the characters rigged, and some of them have gotten a first pass at materials, but we're a bit off from posting animation tests just yet.

We're also trying to totally nail the environment. There's a lot more going on than just environmental fog and volumetric lighting.

[Dragon]

Aaahhh... it's is nice to see this stuff finally hit the light. Now I can't wait to see those animation tests start a comin' through.

[KenM]

I love the watercolour renders. Can't wait to see this take shape.:applause:

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by KenM
I love the watercolour renders.

The watercolor images aren't 3D renders, but actual watercolor paintings.

We're going to render this out so it has a realistic look to it, but the color maps on the fish will retain the look of the watercolor paintings.

We've only got a few of the fish mapped at this point. I'll post some renders of them when we get a bit farther. They are true to the concept art though, so if you like what you're seeing thus far, you should dig the materials on the 3D models as well.

[KenM]

I'm a big fan of watercolors in 3D. I look forward to seeing this in action ! :thumbsup:

[lildragon]

bump bump, was wondering if you had anymore shots? would love to see more ;)

salud

[FloydBishop]

We're still rigging them up. Once we get one of the characters totally done (rig, materials, and such) we're going to animate a teaser piece that will show off the final look and environment.

Keep watching this space!!

Until then, here's a WIP image of the Bluegill character's materials...

http://www.icepond.com/promo/bluegill.jpg

[toce]

That s a great start!! nice designs and Dave's modeing is very neat as usual :)

maybe the colors should be a it more saturated?

[Jed]

Sweet materials!

he's even got the scrat's look! Can't wait to see that teaser piece .

[Eman597]

That stuff is awesome! If your animation is half as good as this work then you are a god.

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by Eman597
That stuff is awesome! If your animation is half as good as this work then you are a god.

Wow! No pressure on the animators now!!:eek:

[urgaffel]

There we go, subscribing to the thread so I won't miss any updates :)

Keep it up lads, it's looking real nice...

[Carina]

It's looking great.

Nice, clean and cute!

I love the texture in the last post, nice

[insect666]

Whow... This is great, amazing, wonderfull, gorgeus, interesting, totaly out of this world, brilliant, fascinating, genial, super, perfect, spectacular! ...Did I mention good? :D

Seriously, I really like the concept art and modeling/texturing so far. Good idea on going for the realistic-cartoon feeling, that's in fashion right about now. ;)
How about the animation? Will it look realistic or cartoony (lots of streches and deforms)?

...I'm so curious. I think I'm gonna' luv this short when it comes out.

*subscribes*

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by insect666

How about the animation? Will it look realistic or cartoony (lots of streches and deforms)?

...I'm so curious. I think I'm gonna' luv this short when it comes out.

Well, as you can see from the stuff we've posted so far, the fish are pretty much true in form to their real world counterparts. They are pretty much real fish in structure. We're taking some liberties with their surfaces, but keeping them based in reality as well. The fish who have scales in real life have scales in our short. The fish have gills. There are some moments in the short where there is some pretty zany action, where there will be a lot of cartoon physics.

It's a little quiet right now, as we're gearing up for the next big push, but keep watching this space... something cool is surfacing soon.

[FloydBishop]

http://www.icepond.com/promo/Frank.jpg

[lildragon]

My gawd Floyd, he's stunning!!! please send me a highres pic :)

salud

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by lildragon
My gawd Floyd, he's stunning!!! please send me a highres pic :)

salud

There will be some nice things next week...

[BrainFaucet]

Excellent work!
Wonderful concept art too!


I liked the animation in Ice Age (I admit I don't know exactly what scenes/characters you animated, but... yeah)

I'm really looking forward to seeing this short.:)

[taylor]

Mmm... Sweet turtle.....

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by taylor
Mmm... Sweet turtle.....

I forgot to mention with the turtle image I posted that the model was done by Tito Belgrave and textured by Albert Concepcion.

Keep watching this space for something cool...

[Nurb'd]

Very nice work Floyd

you got great design going on

[Iguiniz.X.]

Love the fishs and the expresions....Nice work and texturing:thumbsup:

, you also ate the turtle?

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by Iguiniz.X.
you also ate the turtle?

Yep. They taste a little like chicken, but they put up more of a fight.

I had it as part of a stew.

[FloydBishop]

A small "behind the scenes" type update:

http://www.icepond.com/voice_web.mov

Filmed during the first recording session back in the summer, recorded at Kessler Media in Katonah, New York.

http://www.kesslermedia.com

If you need any audio type stuff done, look them up and them them Icepond sent you!!

[FloydBishop]

Look for something new either this week or next...

[FloydBishop]

Direct your browsers to:

http://www.bassholemovie.com/

There you will find info on the short, wallpapers, and the first teaser for "Bass Hole".

Be sure and visit often, as we'll be adding more cool stuff to the site from time to time.

Big thanks to Eye Candy Studios for the cool site, and musician Junior Brown for the sound. If you don't know who Juior is, check out his music. If you like Hendrix, or surfer music, or country steel guitar (an odd mix, I know) you'll love his stuff.

[Per-Anders]

wow, what great characters! lovely work, i'm looking forward to this.

[mattregnier]

I don't want to come off as sarcastic, but isn't this already being done with disney/pixar finding nemo? The characters and the story sound strangely familiar to me. What you guys have is great looking, but it just seems like finding nemo. Maybe you can expand on what your story is about?

[edaddy]

where's the story posted?

[ga-analytics]

Thx Floyd and team,
its very exciting for me, to see this step by step work and whats behind this shortfilm - which will surely be stunning.
It doesn`t hit so hard as a fininshed work where you can`t imagine how it was done.
Motivates a lot to study and then work in a team, too.

Thx to cgtalk for this interesting forum.

Gregor

[Jeffo]

didnt know you were in on this tito, good job! that turtle looks sweet :thumbsup:

downloading the teaser now

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by mattregnier
I don't want to come off as sarcastic, but isn't this already being done with disney/pixar finding nemo? The characters and the story sound strangely familiar to me. What you guys have is great looking, but it just seems like finding nemo. Maybe you can expand on what your story is about?

This is nothing like those films, but I understand the comparison.

Those films are the reason that we're trying to get the word out about ours... so that people can start to see the differences. Both films have characters that swim in them. The similarities end there.

Since our film is a short, giving away too much of the story could ruin the piece. Keep watching the site for future updates. Everything will be revealed in due time.

How's that for a teaser?:)

[bentllama]

Nice stuff. I look forward to seeing the progress to final.
:beer:

[baby]

woowww...

so cool...

show us much more...I luvvvvvvvvvv it...


the only crit' if I can is...well...U know...a strange kind of Nemo feeling...after 10 years of Dino...fishes are coming :)))
but sure it's totally different...

plizzzzzz moooooooooooooore !!!!!

[buzzlightyr]

Great work love the fish Characteristics, what was used to texture your fish

[johngloid]

som really nice work there!

reminds me a lot of that Pixar Finding Nemo trailer

[mattregnier]

Sounds great. Thanks for the clarification. I'll just have to wait in anticipation :) *holds breath

[Larry_g1s]

Amazing. I love it! By the looks of the models, texture, etc. you guys could definitly pull of something great. I can't wait to see some animations. :thumbsup:

[elfling bard]

Need music for your short?
http://eonsounds.tripod.com

[John Lee]

hey Floyd

Hows it going? Nice work so far hhhmm.. For some reason the url you posted seems to be don bassholemovie.com. i can't down load it any chance you could send it me?

Thanks

John Lee

[Eman597]

I AM LOVING THIS!! keep it coming, this work is incredible

[the3DBEAST]

amazing stuff...i cant wait.

[FloydBishop]

Ok, ok, ok...

the server was hammered today. We had some download issues as a result. I think the average downlaod speed was around 4K/sec.:eek:

We're working on getting the issues fixed. I was really suprised at the amount of traffic that we saw today, as was our web guy:surprised .

If you didn't get a chance to check out the teaser, try again a few hours from now. We did some file shuffling and HTML editing and everything should be in working order directly.

Floyd

[pOiNtPuShEr]

Hey Floyd,

Congrats on getting everything going. You, Tom, and the whole Ice Pond Crew (including Rosie, Ben, and Becca:-) deserve all the success that this thing will surely generate. GREAT WORK!

-Danny W.

[lildragon]

Originally posted by Jeffo
didnt know you were in on this tito, good job! that turtle looks sweet :thumbsup:

Heheh yeah was kinda unexpected really, just happened to be the right place at the right time :)

And Floyd site is working great now! nice download speeds :thumbsup:

salud

[fxb]

Very an interesting picture ! Very beautiful ! :thumbsup:

[podoba]

good work with fish :o)

[Magnusv]

:thumbsup: :applause: Really nice.:beer:

[beaker]

Floyd:

You guys should reword that "from the same people that brought you bunny & ice age". Many people are assuming that this short is done by Blue Sky and not Icepond. Maybe just clarify or something. I have seen two other forums where people have made the same assumption.

[FloydBishop]

The line reads: "From some of the same people..."

I've been sending emails to the admins of the forums who got it wrong.

[baby]

Give me an idea for my short :

"From the guy who saw Ice Age, Shrek and Monster Inc and who wants to do the same..."

:scream:


what do u think ;)

[JONO]

hey floyd

glad we got in touch again.just wanted to make known publically how cool i think basshole is and is going to be.

this thread is great so as everybody can watch this idea grow and become great.keep up the brilliant work.

disney......watch out !!

:D

[kretin]

Great work Floyd, and everyone involved. The characters look great.

But I am SO bummed. I will soon be creating a bunch of fish characters for a video. When I first realised this promo material was just coming out about Finding Nemo. I expected I'd get comparisons from that. Then the other day I find out about Dreamworks Sharkslayer and BassHole, 2 more fishy movies.

I think it's funny how so often multiple studios create similarly themed movies all at the same time.

Oh well, I guess it can only push the bar higher for me :)

Again, great work guys, and please keep the updates coming, they're very inspiring :thumbsup:

[flamedevil]

Great:D

Cool to see new stuff from Icepond, I can't wait to see the short

:thumbsup:

[krl55]

Looking great guys! Can`t wait to see some more:thumbsup:

[Manicalavera15]

hum nice fishes :)

about the little teaser, i was sad : the rendering system, imo, is not really good..perhaps illumination..dunno.

great modeling and design btw

:rolleyes:

[Ryder]

NIce! i like the eal... looks goofy :)

[keithlango]

Nice work so far on the project, Floyd. I can see alot of heart and sweat is going into this. Do you have an estimate on a release date?
With all the (deserving) raves about the teaser I feel awkward pointing out some small issues that we noticed while watching it together at work. But I figure you'll want to hear them now rather than later. :)

I think the thing that was most commented on was the texturing. It seems overly busy. We felt that you could benefit from a design contrast: choose which will have more texture detail- the characters or the environment? They're all the same "volume" on the radio, if I may use an allegory. I think the turtle is going to most likely suffer from this the most, but the fish may as well. Some of this may stem from the kind of underwater world you're working in: shallow fresh water vs. deep expansive ocean. It's easy to take the detailed texture characters against the solid blue background of the ocean. But against the finely textured logs, flotsam and bottom dwelling aquatic plantlife they start to jumble a bit.

Anyhow, in the grand scheme of things those were just minor issues. The character designs, modeling, rigging and animation all looked really good. But I figure you're still looking for some constructive criticism at this stage. If I am wrong and I'm only supposed to write "Amaaaaazing!!!" and insert about a dozen bouncing smileys, then please accept my humble apologies for the breach in protocol. :)

Here's hoping the rest of the production goes well. I'll look forward to seeing it when it's done.
-k

[baby]

Amazing !!!!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:





nb : I agree about the textures...I would even say that the turtle has a kind of cartoon style...and the texture are maybe not enough stylised to match it...
but it's not such a big problem...if the animation is great...a lot of stuff won't be a problem...

nb2 : is it me or is the keith post making fun of us ?!?

[Guirnaldo]

hey guys,

It surely looks astonashing!! I like the paintings as they are now, and as I can see, you guys make every 3d exacly the same so the fish will look great! The texturing is been done precicely too! nice job on that one too

I really hope to see more of whats coming up. I'm intreseted in the story as well, did you guys put a copy on the net? maybe it could be a good commercial move to leave the ending out, so we have a emotional reason to wait for yours shit to come out...
The general environement should be sea or maybe the soils (to give it that modern touch?), are there shots available already?

I'm really bouncing my seat, hope to see more asap :bounce: :bounce:

:thumbsup: and up and up and up !

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by keithlango

I think the thing that was most commented on was the texturing. It seems overly busy. We felt that you could benefit from a design contrast: choose which will have more texture detail- the characters or the environment? They're all the same "volume" on the radio, if I may use an allegory.


Yes. I agree about the textures, but we're still in the early phases. Personally, I'd like to see a more realistic setting because of the subject matter. I'm from Pennsylvania and I've never seen a freshwater lake in a CG piece before. We're trying to capture enough realism so that people who know a bit about fishing can say "Yeah, that's a BlueGill" or "All the fins were in the right place".

That being said, there are things we can do to make the characters stand out more. We're planning on having a layer of muddy soil on the bottom as well as a lot more lake weed. Also, the characters are almost never this close to the bottom.

The teaser is as much for us (maybe more) than for the public. We're using them as a way to test each character in the environment (which is still very much a WIP) through every phase of production in an isolated "conrtol" setting. Very scientific, but these are very complicated characters and rigs. There is a lot that could go wrong. The next teaser will look stronger than this one, but not as strong as the one after that, etc. By the time we get to the short, we'll have a well polished piece for all to see.

Keep the comments coming!!

[keithlango]

Originally posted by baby
Amazing !!!!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:


nb2 : is it me or is the keith post making fun of us ?!?

Hey, you're still 7 short of a dozen. Hee-hee! :)

Heh, no not making fun, just having fun. :) You wanna make fun, folks should mock me. I'm so pathetic I don't even know HOW to make bouncing smileys.
-k

[Edouard]

I like the fishes...blub...blub...nice work!!
the fish is looking delicious:drool:

[FloydBishop]

We've added a bunch of new content to the website for "Bass Hole", including a gallery, notes on the story, and more.

http://www.bassholemovie.com

[lildragon]

Been almost a month, so here's a gentle bump ;)

salud

[FloydBishop]

Well I guess I should post some kind of update then, huh?

Four of the five main characters are still in rigging. We had some pretty big projects and meetings we had to do for other projects that pulled us away from "Bass Hole" for a little bit, but we're back on track now.

Look for an update to the "Bass Hole" site soon.

Until then, here's a look at one of the storyboard drawings. It was done by Ilya Skyroupsky (one of the story crew from "Ice Age")

http://www.icepond.com/promo/storybrd_1.jpg

[ofir3dvb]

Floyd Bishop this look like great short movie.
i not read all the post so i don't know if tell you that so...
the turtle look like land turtle and not like sea turtle
(sorry about my bad english) i hope that you understand....

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by ofir3dvb

the turtle look like land turtle and not like sea turtle
(sorry about my bad english) i hope that you understand....

Yes, the turtle is supposed to look like a land turtle rather than a sea turtle. This short film takes place in a freshwater lake. The turtle is supposed to be a snapping turtle. Thoose kinds of turtles often come out of the water to walk from lake to lake as food supplies dictate.

[ofir3dvb]

ok....if you say so....

[DAbuel]

Great work! cant wait to see the final Product! whats your ETA on Finishing the project? And I notice you did some GI Joe Characters do you plan to make a Movie or series?
well Again Great work And 4 :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: For Great 3D stuff!

[Joe Gosselin]

totally cool!!!! nice concept and would cool to animate
keep up the god stuff
cheers

[FloydBishop]

While we're polishing up the rigs and materials on the other characters, we've managed to put togeher an interview with Junior Brown, the musician for "Bass Hole".

http://www.bassholemovie.com/press_junior.htm

Also, you can visit Junior's website:

http://www.juniorbrown.com

Enjoy!

[overwrought]

Dude,


I'm diggin on that fish model. THe only advise I might put is that in the drawing the tail fin seems slightly more exagerated. You might want to translate that to the model.

[baby]

good interview, a pity he doesn't talk at all about the bassole short...

[FloydBishop]

Hey everyone,

Just a quick update. Tom and I just got back from a meeting with our consultants on "Bass Hole". We seem to be headed in the right direction with the short, according to these guys. Here's a photo from the meeting. I'm on the top left, Tom's on the top right, and on the bottom are the guys who killed Bambi's mother.

http://www.icepond.com/promo/frankanollie.jpg

[lildragon]

How's the short coming? need more Basshole ;)

-lil

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by lildragon
How's the short coming? need more Basshole ;)

-lil

We're still rigging up the characters and working on the environments. Look for another teaser soon...

http://www.icepond.com/promo/Frank.jpg

[FloydBishop]

Wow! It's been a little while since I posted anything about the short! We've been on hiatus a little bit. The summer was a crazy one, and we got pretty busy on other things.

Look for something cool in the next few days.

http://www.icepond.com/promo/catfish_compare.jpg

[FloydBishop]

Here it is, the first of a series of "Bass Hole" maquettes done by the guys over at 3D Art to Part. http://www.3darttopart.com/index.php

http://www.icepond.com/promo/Catfish_maquette.jpg

[Virtuoso]

The whole project is a very interesting and fun process to follow Floyd Bishop.It interests me a great deal.

I think the work is excellent,very well done,lot's of "character" in the characters. Nice style.I look forward to your progress,and hope to see more very soon.:beer:

I'll check out your dedicated site now.

Also that is a very interesting maquette....beautiful.3D Art to port has done great justice to your creation.I love his smile.Frank the turtle also I wanted to mention is one very fine creation.Keep it up,very nice work and fun too. :beer: :beer:

[baby]

I check those guyz website...

I want to have some of my models built in real :p


the fish is fuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnn !!!!

[pgp_protector]

Cool from ThisOriginally posted by Floyd Bishop
Wow! It's been a little while since I posted anything about the short! We've been on hiatus a little bit. The summer was a crazy one, and we got pretty busy on other things.

Look for something cool in the next few days.

http://www.icepond.com/promo/catfish_compare.jpg

To This

Originally posted by Floyd Bishop
Here it is, the first of a series of "Bass Hole" maquettes done by the guys over at 3D Art to Part. http://www.3darttopart.com/index.php

http://www.icepond.com/promo/Catfish_maquette.jpg

[mehdianim]

lost in the focused critiques forum...
Great stuff, the designs are beautiful and the models are pretty true to the original concepts.
And I can't believe you hang out with Frank and Ollie!!! I bet the animation will rock too now can't wait.

:buttrock:

[headengine]

Been following this for a looong time now, and it's still looking magic! Very excited to see the progress - maquette is looking ace :thumbsup:

Not sure what stage you guys are at with funding/ progress, but let's hope the news that the folks at shadedbox have a development deal with Disney motivates someone to snap you guys up for a feature deal (if they haven't already ;) )

Great :applause:

[buzzlightyr]

I want a lil fishy like that :(

[FloydBishop]

Hey guys and gals,

I just thought I'd post the image of the Frank the Turtle maquette we had made. You may have already seen it in the "Bringing 3D models to life... literally" article that ran on CGNetworks.

http://www.icepond.com/promo/Turtle_maquette.jpg

[KingMob]

Hey floyd, that is so great.

Do you guys have the whole cast 'printed' out?

talk to you later

:buttrock:

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by KingMob
Do you guys have the whole cast 'printed' out?

We will eventually. We've got two of the five characters sculpted. When we get the others done, I'll post those images as well.

[baby]

maybe one day you will even have a short film to show :))))


stop doing the merchandising and go animate guyzzzzzzzz :cool:

[FloydBishop]

Originally posted by baby
maybe one day you will even have a short film to show :))))


stop doing the merchandising and go animate guyzzzzzzzz :cool:

We're working on it. You know the story about the turtle... slow and steady wins the race.

[thesuit]

What happened to this? was this ever completed?

[baby]

I totally forgot I wrote that... :shrug:



Yeah...what happened to the short ?

Are U still doing it with the magician and the monkey or is it dead ?!?

[FloydBishop]

"Bass Hole" has not been completed... yet. The crew who was on it has now scattered to the corners of the CG world. We may pick it back up one day... who knows.

I'm still doing the monkey and magician short, "Paul and his Bananas". In fact, I recently added a quicktime of a wind test I did for the fur on the monkey. You can find that on our site (not Icepond): http://www.bishopanimation.com

[zenigeva]

those designs are very cool!

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