It's been 6 months but I'm back working on the Panda Girls anime / manga pretty much full-time now. I was helping out a friend of mine, Dave Royer, with his business called SAGE Creatives, and we may see more developments with Dave and Panda Girls in the near future.
Jumping back into the Panda Girls project was a little odd and exciting. Odd in the way that I felt distanced visually, (Crom and I have maintained story meetings consistently during my hiatus), and exciting in that sense where you know time away always brings with it a new perspective. For my first post, I didn't want to make a splash. More just easing into it again, and giving myself time to find my stride.
Here's a couple of thumbnails, (in no particular order), to help me feel out the 10 page teaser. Jumping around to events/moments that inspired, and tried to catch them with the simplest shapes.
So, I was generally unhappy with my first attempt at the first few shots. I’ve been working with a good friend, and painter, Art Marion, and he did up some wonderful comps based on the Panda Girls Teaser script. He did this one with the mountain peaks breaching the clouds / heavens. I’m sure we’ll post Art’s work soon - it’s too impressive not to.
Art and I had an audio chat, (he lives closer to the west coast), and discussed some directions we could go. I feel this second attempt is MUCH stronger than the first:
Click for larger version.
Collaboration is the way, I truly believe that. We haven’t actively promoted the Panda Girls Production Blog Network as of yet, but my hope is that when we do, people will get involved, and offer their opinions on how to make a good idea great.
I’m also excited to hand Dan, our cinematographer/DoP, a complete set of boards so that he can masterfully bring them to life in a Story Reel format using Adobe After FX. Put some music to it, and we’ll see if these shots actually “play”.
We’re still in the thick of getting these blogs ready for our public launch so my time has been, as often it is, divided. We’re making some real strides, especially with the content on our combined blogs - you should go check them all out (Blogroll Links). I will be updating with more quantity of art and story very shortly.
Continuing with the visual development for the opening shots of Panda Girls Teaser script I chose to keep my approach as simple as possible. Flat tones and basic shapes. This approach forces me to deal with composition imediatly, and ultimately forces me to make choices of what the focus of a particular shot really is - how am I going to call attention to that focal point - and the way I call attention will invariably express the tone and mood. Here are a few shots, some of which should be familiar:
Early sketch ideas for the Panda Girls Teaser script.
Only the essentials here. (The arrows indicate camera moves, the circles are stops.) Each tone of grey is on a seperate layer for control. This way I can move objects around with ease and speed. I can also adjust the value readily, to push things farther or closer to the lens.
Really, anyone can do this. All you need is a basic understanding of perspective, and you just drop blobs in the frame, concentrating on the focal points you’ve set out for the shot.
The important thing to note is the speed of which these can be produced, and that this approach asks of you the difficult questions of composition WELL before you flesh out your idea in a rendered painting. That, and I don’t mind abandoning a shot and trying something else, knowing it will only take minutes to see many visual alternatives.
PRE-PRODUCTION 
