The_Ticket_Taker_Art_Book

8/7/2019 The_Ticket_Taker_Art_Book

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From the very beginning of the project I knew I¶d taken on a big task but I was so compelled by

the music and ideas of the animation that I was determined to complete it. After ten weeks of

hard work I¶m really happy with the work I¶ve produced and I¶m more confident now than ever

before. Of course, there are areas of it that I¶d love to change and it is far from perfect, but Iknow I¶ve achieved a lot for such a short project. It has pushed me further than previous work

and I feel confident that I can move forward into the third year of the course and push my work to

another level. The project was completely driven by the superb music by The Low Anthem. It

brought with it a whole set of images and ideas which slowly developed into my narrative and

pushed every decision. I hope that the final animation carries with it an emotional impact,

conveying a love story in the darkest days of mankind. The film depicts a large world that has

been destroyed but at it¶s very core is a simple story of love in a hopeless world. Within this book

I will show how The Ticket Taker was brought to life and take you through the process of bringingcharacters alive.

Jordan Buckner



The Ticket Taker tells the story of an apocalyptic world in which only money seems to be a

survival essential. The rich are boarding the last arks in the land, allowing them to travel to

what they hope to be safety, whilst the rest of the world is left to fend for themselves. In thesedays of destruction and lost hope a ticket taker is paid to allow entrance to one of the final

arks. A lady approaches in the desolated landscape, but without money he cannot allow her

to aboard. He watches as she walks away, knowing she will face certain death.





It is difficult to create a world and narrative that is rich and intelligent without thinking about every

detail. To really get an idea of where I wanted to take the animation I set about researching into

films, books, games and artwork that I felt suited my world. This broad base of research not only

gives one a broad understanding of other works but allows for one to develop ideas and discover

new possibilities. The world was very vivid in my mind from the beginning but by viewing other

works I pushed it further to a point that felt real and viable. The influence maps created below show

a selection of influences that I find utterly stunning. From the sublime The Road (book and film) tothe rich and textural world of Ark.



Lebbeus WoodsI studied the work of Lebbeus W ood s closely during my foundation year and di scovered a world of exqui site drawing

and architectural design. Hi s dy stopian vi sions have been hugely influential not only in the architectural industry but

in film. Famously he filed a law suit again the production of 12 Monkey s after he claimed the film resembled hi s work

a bit too closely, and you can see why he did so.

Hi s work i s incredible in it s design and approach, an architect who i s willing to embrace a darker future. Thi s really

allowed W ood s to produce unique and original work. I' d love to capture some of these ideas within my world, the

matte painting s I will use have to reflect thi s atmosphere. The ark it self need s to be designed carefully to describethe world. The ark represent s all that i s wrong with the world, a place for only the rich that carrie s them off away

from the problem.

W ood s i s a very interesting architect, he i sn' t bound by possibilities or commercial viability, but simply concerned

with creating spaces and world s that express and excite. I n thi s way, hi s work fit s perfectly for us animator s and film

maker s. W e have the opportunity to build anything, and it allow s us to produce environment s that are extraordinary

and completely engrossing.

The sheer boldness of W ood s' work i s what seems so inspirational to me. Above all architect s he i s alway s the one

that I think of fir st as someone who simply loves to explore new ideas and themes.



J.C Leyendecker I wanted to post about Leyendecker for a few reasons, not only because hi s work i s sublime and hopefully people

will look further into hi s hi story, but al so because the tone and illustrative quality that he used fit s perfectly with my

character s and the world they inhabit. Leyendecker was born in 1874 and went on to become one of the preeminent

American illustrator s of all time. Hi s work has an engrossing vi sual style hi s character render s have a stark and

brutal form to them.

The forms of each character have a real gravity to them, they seem to describe a weight and age. Hi s use of colour

i s subdued and very much seems to fit hi s time, whil st hi s brush mark s seem very exact despite how free and expressive they sometimes appear. I really want my own character s to have a similar gravity and I want to explore

the texturing process to emphasi se the painterly quality of the my work.



Cormac McCarthy¶s The Road

Cormac McCarthy 's The Road i s a key influence for me during thi s project. Hi s tale of a dying world and the relationship

between father and son struggling to survive i s truly heart breaking and typifies both hi s style and outlook. The Times

described the novel as " A work of such terrible beauty that you will struggle to look away s." I actually fir st came to the

work after seeing the film adaptation by John Hilcoat. I t was only until recently that I read the book, which hold s an

enormous power, every emotion i s heightened and every detail of a cold grey world described in it s beauty. The film

it self i s a brilliant adaptation, it follow s the book almost exactly and the slight changes only seem to make the film

stronger.Thi s work i s an inspiration for a number of reasons, the fir st being the world that it i s set in. The planet i s dying and most

of the population has died with it 's demi se. The few who fight on have to overcome the horror s that are left, whil st the

world offer s no food or energy. The film was shot with little CG, most of the devastation on screen i s from

the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. The towns have a dark and quiet beauty to them that definitely fit s in the world I want

to create. The other key reason why thi s film i s so influential i s the powerful relationship between father and son. I t i s thi s

power that I want to capture in my animation, the big problem i s creating thi s impact and connection in the short time I

have. The reason why the relationship hold s such weight i s due to the subtle nature of it. Both the book and film feel very

real, it i s thi s honesty that really has effect. The character s do not constantly state their love or express these emotions

in overacted actions, but instead show it in the slightest gesture.

The design of the film i s not only important because of it 's world, but al so how each shot i s set up. The story i sn' t really about the dying world, the real story i s just about a father and son trying to survive together. Thi s led to a lot of

di sappointment in America as audiences went to see a film about the apocalypse and instead got a close and per sonal

character study. Most of the film takes place in the foreground of the frame, the world around them i s cleverly created as

a backdrop. Thi s will be helpful in my own approach, the character s need to be the real animation, whil st the dying world

should be implied through clever use of modelling and matte painting.

The character design within the film also becomes important for my own project. Both the ticket taker and female need to





Can I ask you something? he said.

Yes. Of cour se.

Are we going to die?

Sometime. Not now.

Conversation between

father and sonThe Road ± Cormac

McCarthy



The process of research was still on going but I was keen to get my narrative down in some form. I

started with a set of thumbnails and from this produced a storyboard that would allow for critique

and discussion. This storyboard was far from the final thing, but by getting my ideas down early I

allowed time for the narrative to evolve and develop.



The apocalyptic world of the animation is obviously important, but the at the centre of the whole

story is a simple story between two people. It was crucial then, that the characters were thought

through and developed well. This was a big struggle for me and in the future it is something I wish

to push further. The characters did not start to come to life until after I continued research and the

influence maps below show some of the inspiration that went into them. The ticket taker had to look

somewhat militarize and destroyed by the elements. This would later be emphasised by the texture

of his face and clothing. The female also had to share a similar look but was somewhat harder tocapture. She needed to give the appearance of a strong woman who had survived on her own for

so long, but also look vulnerable and evoke a lot of emotion from a simple facial expression.



The characters developed slowly and

evolved through sketch after sketch. It

was a difficult process as they really

needed to emote and have life whilst

looking drained and exhausted. This

area was a weak point for me and in

future projects I¶d love to work on this.Both pushing design and style.



The final characters really came

together through all of these

drawings. There were selected

features that I found interesting and

they were put forward for the final

drawings. Unfortunately, time

constraints me it is hard to spend a

great length of time on any one thing

but I feel like I created characters that

worked well in context to their environment.



Ticket Taker costume design sketches. Digital Sketch 2011.





The female character had to convey a similar look, tired and tough but also fragile. Her short hair and head band give her a unique look of someone who has survived and isprepared to see everything to the end. Whilst her features are heavy around the eyes,emphasising her emotion and pain.





The Docks ± The Ticket Taker Concept Art ± Digital Painting ± Jordan Buckner 2011



This first piece of concept art depicts the environment in which the animation will take place. The scale anddestruction instantly tell the viewer that the world is at it¶s end. The golden gate bridge was used to immediately tell

this story. I wanted to push the concept art in a new direction to my previous pieces whilst still trying to keep apainterly style. The real challenge was colour. Creating an effective image in a world of cold and grey tones is noteasy but hopefully the sheer scale of the disaster makes an impression.



The Ark ± The Ticket Taker Concept Art ± Digital Painting ± Jordan Buckner 2011



The Ark (Recolour) ± The Ticket Taker Concept Art ± Digital Painting ± Jordan Buckner 2011



The Ark is really a representation of all that is wrong in the world. The rich get the right to live whilst the poor mustfend for themselves. The design had to reflect this whilst still feeling realists. It¶s sharp and cold exterior were puttogether in this concept and as the project developed, as too did the ark. The final ark has been pushed further,covered in graffiti it is an object of hate for those who must survive alone.



The Bridge ± The Ticket Taker Concept Art ± Digital Painting ± Jordan Buckner 2011



This piece took a lot of work and it was really a struggle to finish. I¶m still not too happy with it and it became a piecethat I just couldn¶t get right. With more time and a new approach I¶m sure I could fix it but I still feel it demonstratesthe dark decaying world instantly using the image of the golden gate bridge.



The final animatic can be found at«

http://vimeo.com/20266651





Character modelling is always a difficult task, it takes time to get the correct topology and get the face to lookcorrect. For a long time both characters looked rather alien, but with constant tweaking they started to come to life.The images below show both characters in their early stages.



The female character head took shape a lot quicker, my previous work had helped in this area. Normally femalemodels are more difficult to get correct as it takes a lot of work for them to start looking feminine but this character

did not pose such problems.



The final models took a lot of tweaking but at this stage I felt they were working well and I could move on tocomplete the bodies. They would really come to life when texturing started.



Modelling the bodies always seems to be an easier and quicker task, but it is important to keep in mind the detailsof a costume. The belt buckles, bandages and gun pouches all add to the believability of the character.



After putting the character together and rigging them it finally felt like they were really coming alive and fitted theworld nicely. The next few pages show the clay renders of the characters. Further information on the rigging and UVprocess can be seen within the technical paper.

















First ever Zbrush Study



Zbrush Character Study



With the characters ready to texture it was important that I started creating the world and in order to make it feel

real and expansive I had a lot to model. Here are a few of the props modelled for the environment.



The biggest problem I¶ve always had with scenes issetting up scale and making sure the integration of models is seamless. I therefore create this quick

previs environment to allow me to calculate certainscales and understand what props were needed for what areas. It was a quick process but reallybecame invaluable. The trouble with CG work isthat there is nothing to see in a physical sense andso create mocks up such as this become a greatreference.



It was at this stage that I also began towork on texturing at lighting. I found thebest approach was to work on all thesefinal stages at once, meaning that thetextures worked well with the lightingand modelling. Rather than having to fix

issues that had occurred in the previousstep.



As a prop, the ticket machine neededmore detail than others as it wouldoften be in shot and close to camera.

The small details and careful texturing

make this object fit the character. It hasto be just as developed in this sense.





From the beginning I thought the Ark would be rather easyto model. It is a fairly solid shape without much definitionand so how hard to it really be? Well, this model became

a bit of an issue for a long time. I didn¶t struggle duringthe modelling stage but for a long time it just didn¶t feelreal or believable. I continued to work on the form andstructure until I realised that I needed to look at reference.It was something that I should have done earlier, butimmediately it started to come together. The textureswould also become important and they would play a bigrole in bringing it to life.

A preview render of the ark after textures had been applied.



I had two characters and a lot of props that allneeded detailed textures. This was a process that Isomewhat underestimated and it ended up taking a

lot of my time. But now that it is all complete I¶mreally happy with the outcome. Texture painting isreally exciting as every object and character comesto life. The dystopian theme of my animation addedfurther complications however, as every objecthad to have layers and layers of dirt, age andgrime. It was a fun process but with such a shorttime to complete everything I was trying to moveforward quickly. The character textures really tookthe most time, the heads of each were exported

and saved as 4K maps and then over the course of days I digital painted every detail. The subtle tonechanges and dirt makes take the flat texture and

really bring it out to a living human face. This was areally exciting time as all the hard work that I hadput into modelling, rigging etc started to pay of as afully textured model was now able to move andemote.





















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