Phil Baxter

Music is something that is going to be very important for this film. The film is musically driven because it is essentially a silent film, I designed the film with the excellent Pixar shorts as a template. I want to move the story forward with character animation and music and even though I enjoy lip-sync animation, I am more concerned with emotion through movement and changes in environment.

This is where a certain young and talented musician comes in, Phil Baxter. Phil is a singer/song writer from Merseyside who currently resides in London. Phil has written many great songs and many of them can be found on his myspace page - Phil Baxter.



Phil's musical knowledge is incredible and has an amazing voice, his lyrics are thoughtful with riffs to match. Phil has been very kind in lending his services to this project and I think that this will give the film a much needed edge especially when trying to flesh out storyboards and animatics. Having Phil along with Matt, Christian and Rachel has made this project real and now has the makings of a proper team. It's all getting very exciting.

Early Character Designs

The first character has been envisioned. Herbert Jr or Herbie, is the young boy in the story. The sketches are all very simple and quick but I am still fleshing out so he will continue to change until I am 100% happy with the look. I have always been a massive fan of the way the Disney masters and so this what I am trying to recreate in these designs. The sketches were done while I have been at film school during renders using PF Track. I have neglected this film slightly over the last month and its a good feeling to have something on paper instead of living inside my head.




I have tried to design 'Herbie' with Maya in mind because the software will be the stalwart during production. The character is made up of simple shapes for instance his head is a rectangle and triangle for the mouth area and his body is stout similar to a box with thin arms and legs. I am looking forward to trying out material test for his clothes and designing the sets and locations the film will take place in. The next stage now will be simple mood sheets which will again help to character creation.