Till I Reach the End

Just one more week. One more week and I can move on with my life.

This week is pre-finals in more or less every class. That means this one too. For those few of you reading this blog that aren’t actually in my class that means that you get to see the almost done version. Unfortunately since some shows require the video not available online I will not be giving public access to the actual final.

Without further ado here is the pre-final video.

https://youtu.be/3qpjUGYeobU

Now several things still need to happen:

—Opening title next re-vamp

—Fix the transition from FW to EW

—Finish coloring Pepper (EW) <I have been working on this, just takes for ever>

—Re-export Evil without boarder (EW)

—Add texture to Evil (CW)

—Add Pepper’s face (CW)

—Add corruption (CW)

—Add particles (CW)

—Add particles (MW2)

—Ending credits need re-vamp

There are probably a bunch of other little things that I just can’t think of at the moment too.

On another note I found a cool app this week that lets me turn my iPad Pro into a little mini cintiqu (aka a tablet that shows what is happening on the screen). Its an app called “Astropad” and it’s a bit pricy for an app ($25) but still way cheeper than a tablet. I was able to get all of Evil in MW2 drawn this way since the other computers where full.

Very much worth it.

(*I’m not advertising this thing, I just think its really cool*)

Since next week is the final week which also means that I will be adding onto the post the list of where the blog titles came from this semester. If you're thinking about it each week, the ‘game’ is coming to a close real soon.

Now I just have to survive until then……

Let's get Down to Business

Yeah, I didn’t get this up last night when I normally do. But by the time I realized that it was 2am (wasn’t up doing this class for once) and I didn’t feel like spending the hour I normally do to type words that only a handful of people in my class, and a few international lookers, actually read.

So I’m updating it now.

Things went really well from where I’m sitting. Yeah, I only got Pepper in CW mostly animated - but considering that I had to first learn how to rig a figure, then actually rig and animate - lot done. (Sure I’ve rigged before but that was a fish and they have completely different structures.)

And I’m quite happy with it right now. Actually I’m really happy. Animating a rigged character makes it so easy - and when I finally got it cut to the music I was so surprised how good it was looking that I forgot everything else for a bit.

Still though, a lot of things have to happen. Clean up animation for CW Pepper, color compositing, getting Evil in, getting his particles in, the environment has to get corrupt… lots to do and no time to do it.

Next week is pre-finals. That means that everything is suppose to be as close to finished as possible. ….That means that I most likely wont be sleeping.

Fun.

Miracle of Miracles

This week really is a miracle I feel simply by the amount of work I was actually able to do.

Not only did I get WW done I also got Evil drawn for it. I had planned to get the models done for CW and I did that, pulse got them all with basic texture and the cameras in with blocked animation.

That is a lot of stuff.

So here is the video of what I have so far-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8F4dTLTiHQ

There is a lot that still needs to happen:

Opening
--needs to be re-done
Main World
--background needs to be re-considered
Fantasy World
--opening wide shot camera needs something
Charcoal World
--Pepper needs to be colored
--leaf needs to be colored
--more anticipation with Evil's main entrance
Water World
--I want to add bubbles to her motions
--Evil needs his partial dust
Cliff World

--rigg Pepper

--animation needs to get done
--Evil needs to be added
--Evil needs his partials
--backgrounds need to be added
--shots need to be composited
Main World 2
--Pepper on the floor needs more shadow
--Evil needs to be added
--Evil needs his partials
Credits
--need to be re-done
General
--audio needs to be more smoothly transitioned between 2+3
--flashes need to be re-done

Total there are 3 weeks left with is one week left before pre-final. The list is long, but its do-able. Here's to hopefully surviving till then.

Under the Sea

This week has been the beginnings of Water World….and I’m wondering if it’s possible for a world that I made up to hate me.

The idea was that WW would be stop motion animation - but that isn’t going to happen exactly like I planned.

I had brought everything with me to the labs: the paper model of Pepper that took over a day to create, the tissue paper and paint for the background, tin foil and tape to make it so there was no way of the paint leaking onto the stop motion table. I got to the labs, set things up so I would do the background first and started to film the ‘water’ moving.

I was in a groove when the camera went out on me. It started flashing me several weird errors at once. I couldn’t even read what they where saying.

I tried turning off the camera and turning it back on. 

Zip.

I tried un-plugging the camera from the computer and plugging it back in.

Nada.

I tried shutting down the computer and re-starting it.

Nothing.

…

I was not impressed.

It was late at night. I didn’t have time to wait for someone and go a different day. So I went to plan B.

Basically plan B is where I take a stop motioned background and put a “stop motion” Pepper over top. In actuality Pepper is scanned paper masked into the different shapes then animated to look more hand made. The process is a bit annoying, but I was able to get something done after the - what turned out to be - 2 day set back.

For now I have 2 clips to show you.

First up the the water background. I looped the frames I was able to save and make something decent. I might re-shoot it later on it I have time.

Second we have a bit of Paper Pepper. This is NOT done. There is a lot left to do with her basic motion to make it look jittery. I also need to animate everything else that is, at the moment, not yet moving.

The plan form here is this: there are 3 weeks until the pre-final. By Saturday Paper Pepper has to be done and Water Evil put in. By next class (-1) the models of Cliff World need to be done and ready.

By -2 Cliff World needs to be fully animated and rendered.

By -3 major animation issues from the past needs to be fixed.

Then there is one more week for final final edits. Last composite stuff will be added for this week.

Any planned changes due to time? Clif World might change styles - but only if I am backed into a corner and I’m not there yet. If by Sunday I am corner - then on Sunday I’ll change the style.