Gecko's Gamble Animatic

This is the current animatic for my thesis animation. It's about 3 1/2 minutes, and blends a lot of heavy chase-sequence action with emotional character performance. I'm still looking to tighten it some more and add sound, but the basic story is there.

Gecko's Gamble from Matthew Steidl on Vimeo.

Shed Concept Art

Here's an idea of what the inside of the shed will look like. It's old, dark, and dilapidated, full of dust and sharp tools and cold metal cages. Most of the light will come from a side window and a small incandescent light above the center table, supplemented by lighting leaking in through cracks in the wood slat walls.

Hawk Design

Here is the latest version of the Hawk for Gecko's Gamble. He's pretty mean-spirited, but straightforward as models go. No feathers explicitly, but he'll have intense red eyes that you can see clearly in total darkness.

Mouse Character Design

Here is the newest edition of the design for the Mouse in Gecko's Gamble. She's fairly timid, and cute but not too distracting for our hero. When still or performing via facial expressions, she will stand upright. But when running across the shed, she'll be down on all fours.

Gecko Character Design

I've been revising character designs over the past several weeks; here is the Gecko. His design will draw heavily on Oktapodi and Madagascar for shape and movement, and a little from How to Train your Dragon for eye expressiveness. And of course, I coudn't ignore the most famous CG reptile out there: the Geico Gecko.