Animation Final ~ Starting to Sketch

As soon as I had my base idea I was ready to start to flesh out my ideas.

I made a few rough notes:

Did some quick sketches (won’t add them as they’re so quick you probably won’t be able to tell what’s going on in them) and made the decision not to spend too long preparing and to let the idea flow as I work (which is how I normally work)!

So I began on what I knew would be the first scene and found some reference images:

https://www.offset.com/photos/tokyo-japan-november-20-2015-low-angle-view-of-businessman-with-303140

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tokyo-japan-march-21st-2016-typical-1155991963

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/651544271073926301/

Basing mostly off of the first reference image, I began to lay out a scene in Maya to use as a base for my background drawing. After messing around with lighting and objects for a few hours I had a final background ready to render! Here are the maya outline images and the final background:

I took the initial Inspiration video of Cowboy Bebop into an editing programme and created stills from it to use as pose reference when I begin drawing the animation. 

Other scenes I’m currently thinking of including are: 
Mid-Close up of Main Character’s feet as he walks down a street at the far side of a road, through the moving background you see an alien burst from a building, a female screams. Main Character comes to a standstill and feet turn to face the scene as police come in through the left and gunshots are fired, bringing the alien to fall. Rest for 3 seconds as the alien bleeds out. Main character turns and begins walking again. 
Close up of shopping bags being put on a counter. 
Mid shot of a cat waking up after sleeping on a newspaper with some titles of articles such as: “Exposing the Aliens in your Neighborhood” and “How to defend yourself against Aliens should one attack you”. After the cat stretches the hand of the main character comes into frame and strokes the cat. The cat looks happy. 
Mid shot from behind the main character, the cat is in background sat on the table licking its paw. The main character reaches and takes off his hat and then reaches to the bottom of his hairline and begins unzipping skin suit. Zip sounds. Sound of china breaking. Clatter like someone falling over. Now Main Character’s face is fully unzipped and he turns to look over his shoulder quickly.
Mid-Long shot of his window where his blinds are open and a young boy is on the Main Character’s deck with a broken plant pot next to him and a scared shocked look on his face. 

Assets I’ll need in order to animate these scenes: 
x City backdrop for Scene 1 
x Reference for animation for Scene 1
The street backdrop for Scene 2 spanning at least 4 frames length
x Walking reference for animation Scene 2
3d Model of Counter for reference Scene 3
3d Model of Table and Window for reference Scene 4
Cat movement reference for Scene 4
Hand reference for Scene 4
x Alien look reference 
Head-turning and unzipping reference for Scene 5
Reference of Boy animation

Forementioned Alien reference includes:

https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/151/590x/alien-theory-are-extraterrestrials-humans-time-travelling-ufo-sighting-1248461.webp?r=1583390316152

https://www.google.com/search?q=abe+sapien&sxsrf=ALeKk01QOWFefYL_yD-esZpvONskgecEzA:1594738291603&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjxsoWL_8zqAhVCThUIHVcKDkYQ_AUoAXoECBgQAw&biw=1920&bih=969