Show Me How to Rise Up High

Just another short little thing about how this video is progressing through the various festivals I’ve sent it too.

Last time it had only gotten into 3 different shows…..but at this point it is in SEVEN!

After lest time it was in Barcelona Planet Film Festival (Sep 2016) in, yup, Barcelona Spain. (Of course I forgot to tell my friend who lives there about it until it was too late…)

Then it was in IndieWise FREE Virtual Festival (Sep 2016) which was….online? Not really sure how it worked out, but hey, it was another show.

Next was London Golden Scout (Autumn 2016) in London, UK - which, seriously, this video keeps getting into festivals in the UK.

Lastly, it got into Hollywood Screenings Film Festival which is actually not screening until March. But not only did it get in, it’s a SEMI-FINALIST! Sure, I don’t have too high a hope for it, but I’m still happy for it.

(No - you can’t see it yet. In May at some point I’ll unlock the video since it will have been a year, but no sooner.)

So here is the latest version of the poster because of all the laurels.

PS. Show Me How to Rise Up High - from “Rise Up” by J2 featuring Tori Letzler

This is the Morning Report

Don’t get to excited people - this is just an update.

So over the summer “Puzzle Piece” was accepted to THREE different festivals! 

First up: International Monthly Film Festival - Copenhagen, Denmark

The festival has already happened with my video in it but you can still check out their site.

http://monthlyfilmfestival.com/official-selection-july-2016/ 

Second: Starburst International Film Festival - Manchester, UK

This one is happening THIS WEEKEND (Aug 26-28, 2016). If your in the area you should defiantly check it out.

http://www.starburstfilmfest.co.uk/festival-screenings

Finally: The Monthly Film Festival - Glasgow, UK

Event date is AUG 31 (2016). For this one you can actually check out most of the videos (yes you can watch mine too) on their site and give them a start rating- which you should totally do. (Added bonus—my fall thesis video from Ringling also got in so you can check that out too)

http://tmff.net

I also created a poster for “Puzzle Piece.” Reason - FilmFreeway (the site I’ve been applying through) has a area where you upload a poster and most festivals take it and put it on their website. At first I had nothing, so they put up their festival logo. Then I put up just the screen shot of the title, but it was either cut off on the sides or stretched.

So, yeah, I made a poster….and if you’re looking at this Claudia it should be a new submission requirement.

PS - This is the Morning Report - “The Morning Report” from Lion King (DVD version)

——I’m actually not a fan of this song but it was appropriate I thought ——

It's Been Fun But Now I've Got to Go

To those of you that have made it to this point with me: Congratulations.

Finally -FINALLY- this animation is done. It’s pretty darn close to what I had first imagined so I’m happy with that. 

<Shout out to my friend Victoria who rendered the Cinema 4D files for me when there was nowhere on campus to do it myself>

https://vimeo.com/165118319

Unfortunately those of you not in my class won't be able to see the final thing for a while. Eventually though the video will be made public. Till then you’ll have to amuse yourselves with some stills.

(At some point I would also like to make a “Making Of” video…..but not at this moment)

Now…did you get some of the lyrics this time?

Have You Forgotten What You Have and What is Yours?

-“King” by Lauren Aquilina

Circus of Your Mind

-“Circus of Your Mind” the musical Finding Neverland

I Make it Look Easy But Honey Believe Me It’s Hard

-“Hard to Be the Bard” the musical Something Rotten

We Had Some Guts and Some Luck

-“Movies Where Movies” the musical Mac and Mabel

There is Trouble With the Trees

-“The Trees” by Rush

No Time to Stay, Hello, Goodbye

-“I’m Late” in Alice in Wonderland

So Over Due I Owe Then

-“Skyfall” by Adele

7 am the Usual Morning Line Up

-“When Will My Life Begin” in Tangled

For if the Dark Returns

-“I See Fire” by Ed Sheeran in The Hobbit (pt2)

Under the Sea

-“Under the Sea” in The Little Mermaid

Miracle of Miracles

-“Wonder of Wonders” in Fiddler on the Roof

Let’s Get Down to Business

-“I’ll Make a Man Out of You” in Mulan

Till I Reach the End

-“Try Everything” by Shakira in Zootopia

It’s Been Fun But Now I’ve Got to Go

-“When Can I See You Again?” by Owl City in Wreck it Ralph

With that: Good Bye All

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.