There is Trouble With the Trees

Another week, another post….a little more insane.

First off lets go over some of the notes from last week, shall we?

-Fan shot

—good

-On the floor shot

—floor is the wrong angle

—need more shadows

-Rack focus shot

—louder ‘grunt’ sound

—better timing on hitting piece

—…some other stuff I don’t quite remember

For the most part MW2 is done. Yeah, the fixes need to be made, Evil need to still pop out in the end - but I can move on now.

So….moving on.

Next that I decided to tackle is Evil World (EW) - which means a lot of trees……again. (Have I mentioned how much I dislike making trees and forests? I really don’t like it)

I’m budgeting myself 3-4 weeks to get this world done. Basically by half-way through spring break I want to move to Water World (WW).

This was week 1.

The idea was that I would work on the <insert word of you choice> trees. I really, really, would prefer to do this on the computer. Why? Charcoal gets all over me, it will get all over the scanner, and ever since a teacher told me to never touch it again I’ve been off the medium.

Well, anyway, I did make a bunch of trees and here are some of them.

I’m playing a bit with the texture. It will look nice alone on white, but then get a bit bland when composed, so I’ve been trying to find a way I like while playing with some new brushes. I'm also trying to decide if it's easier/nicer looking to 2.5D composite it, or to just make layers of pre-composed tree layers....

Other than that there isn’t much else to post. Theoretically I was going to work on Pepper week 2, Evil week 3, then composing it all together week 4. That plan has a 80% chance of changing. My grandma’s birthday party is on Sunday and while I budgeted not working that day everyone wants me there Saturday meaning the weekend is completely shot. Load on all the homework for other classes that have to get done and this project is not my number 1 issue. 

Annoying to toss a plan, but that’s life.

We Had Some Guts and Some Luck

A lot has happened this past week, and most of what had to get done did - somehow.

Now 2 weeks ago when we as a class looked at everyone’s blog I told my teacher that the plan was to have 90% of the animation done for MW2 done by today - that main part not to be animated would the the entrance of Evil since I’ll add him when I add him everywhere else.

Last week, if you bothered to look, I posted a test video of a fan - such a shot was needed for the beginning of MW2. If you haven’t looked at it you should, it was kind of cool.

So everything else had to be done today. I took out a shot of Pepper’s disgruntled face looking down on the piece mainly because I didn’t feel like creating it….though I also realized that it just wasn’t 100% necessary which was a bonus.

Without further ado, MW2...........pass 1.

There are a few things that need to be fixed: the shot looking down it too high on the screen at first, the animation can be smoothed a bit more, the audio - particularly the ‘grunt’ - needs to be flushed out…..and of course Evil needs to be added.

I’ll tell you though, that head turn……2 frames and the rest is luck.

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

Seriously? Didn’t I just post something the other day? 

Wait. What? That was a week ago already?! Geez Louise that was fast.

Well, I guess you still want a post, huh.

So this week was spent doing a couple of different things that might seem unrelated to you, but makes total ‘linear’ sense to me.

First off I did some color and design corrections on Pepper in MW2. Last week she was a bit pale and I realized later that her face didn’t really match up with the beginning of the animation. In my defense I was using the color codes that I had written down in my notebook…..but I didn’t note the new numbers after I changed some last semester due to a similar comment.

(AN: How I feel sometimes looking at what still needs to get done)

Next there was building more of the assets needed for MW2 that I couldn’t repurpose. Yeah….no, you can’t really see them. They are mostly Illustrator files that you won’t be able to make heads or tails of since it is all in white. You’ll see it next week when, in theory, ~90% of the animation in MW2 will be done.

For now you can entertain yourselves on this bit of animation - a fan going round. And, yes, it is planned to go in the animation. The boards have it being the first shot of MW2 but we shall see if it stays in. For now it is cool to look at though.

Last but not lest I started prepping for the next World I’m going to take on - Evil World (EW). Since it is entirely corrupted into charcoal I decided to do some tests on what could work as back drops. The trick is going to be that all the layers will be various shades of black…..

There you have it. Another post. Now wait patently for next week because I have lots to do, and not just for this animation.

Circus of Your Mind

Here we are again. On my site for a class you aren’t taking. Looking at what I did for homework. 

Don’t you have anything better to do?

Well anyway, let’s get to it.

This week most of the stuff that has been happening you can’t really see and even though I’ll try showing it to you, you most likely won’t appreciate it as much as I do.

Most of the time was spent making this beauty - a calendar of the rest of semester. On it I have/will have: school dates (days off, registertion days….), work hours, holidays, internship deadlines, family related stuff (people visiting, family functions…), class deadlines/homework, personal deadlines for this class, personal deadlines for seminar class.

Most is stuff to be filled out as it gets assigned, but I find it extremely helpful to see everything together with the final deadline on the same page. Not a lot for this class has been written down yet, but I do know that I want MW2 nearly done in 2 weeks and all the animation done a week before pre-finals. I also know that I want 2-3 days to work exclusively on the opening and closing titles.

What else….what else…..

Right.

I also made these nifty lists for each world on the basic assets needed for each. Some need a lot of pre-stuff. Others have a longer list of difficult stuff to do in the animation itself.

Okay, okay. I’ll show you some actual stuff.

So because I could us some of the assets from MW1 in MW2 (the floor, wall……that’s about it) I decided to start doing some work there….at least up to the point where Evil appears - I’ll do that around the time I start making Evil.

If anyone bothered to look at the sketches made last week (talking to you classmates since we didn't have a crit last week) you would have seen some designs for Pepper when laying down. I took that scene and ran with it. (I even captured some process video but wont post it….planing on making a video of it at the end)

So this is what it shot looked in the storyboard……

….and now with the proper assets - minus shadows……

….and now……with the rack focus!

You have no idea how excited I was when this worked.

Now there you go you vultures. Another post that most of you most likely don’t actually read, but oh well.

Till next week’s feeding.

Have You Forgotten What You Have and What is Yours?

Hello again everyone!

So it has been a month since school paused for Christmas - and it was glorious! 4 weeks of no animating, no painting dozens of squirrels, no touching a computer at all!

But, alas, it had to end….and so we are here together once more.

You’ll notice that this is being posted on Monday night and not Wednesday. The class period is now on Tuesday mornings now so in keeping with the tradition of posting the night before….here.

First a recap. 

This was/is the plan for all 3 vignettes:

This is what was created last semester…..part 1. Unfortunately you are only able to look at it if you have the password since I might want to submit it places later:

https://vimeo.com/148499352

Now some new stuff:

Notes from last term……

• title should look more handmade
• back wall in Main World is odd (pictures are cut off)
• touching the piece should me more magical
• flash needs work
• need more time in setting up of Fantasy World
• They all love the shadows!

So what has been happening in the past week, because really this is the second class now.

Well a lot of what needs to happen first is getting more detailed designs of the locations for each scene and angles of Pepper. Therefore all you can see today is a few sketches of what Pepper’s face and body will be like during the final World (back to Main) since the sketches next have to be created in Illustrator before being re-attached in After Effects and finally colored and animated. Thankfully that scene isn’t starting from scratch since several of the assets created for Main World pt1 can be re-utilized here.

Laying on the floor looking over....not 100% on which angle

For when she is looking down on the piece

And that is where we’re at people. Just a reminder: all of the titles for the posts are either song titles or parts of lyrics. Try and name them all this time. I won’t remind you again until the end.

Till next week!

And Soon You'll be Walking Out the Door

Finally Done!!

...with the first part at least.

It took forever to render the camera moves with the trees. And when you are waiting for the render on a crunch for time it seems even longer.

Anyway here is the move. It's on vimeo now, so you have to follow the link....

https://vimeo.com/148499352

Now I get a few weeks to not work....or at lest not stress over work.

And now a test. 

Did you notice the blog post titles? Each one was a line, or title, of a song. Did you get them all? If not, here they are again.

And That's What It's All About

-'Hokey Pokey' by Brooks & Dunn

What's the Story Morning Glory?

-from the movie "Bye Bye Birdie"

And Soon You'll be Walking Cross the Floor

-from the movie "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" (1970)

World of Pure Imagination

-from the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"

76 Trombones

-from the movie "Music Man"

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

-from "Mary Poppins"

10% Luck, 20% Skill

-from the song 'Remember the Name' by Fort Minor

It's Been One Week Since You Looked at Me

-from the song 'One Week' by Bare Naked Ladies

If Your Happy and You Know It

-'If Your Happy and You Know it'

Just a Matter of Time Before We Learn How to Fly

-from the song 'When Can I See You Again?' by Owl City (in Wreck-it-Ralph)

Everything is Satisfactual

-from the song 'Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah'

Tops are Made Out of Rubber, Bottoms are Made Out of Springs

-Tigger's song from "Winnie the Pooh"

Drip, Drip, Drop

-'April Shower' in the movie "Bambi"

It's the Final Countdown

-'The Final Countdown' by Europe

And Soon You'll be Walking Out the Door

-again from the movie "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" (1970)

Make sure to pay attention next semester!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's the Final Countdown

Hello again! Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving last week, but now it is time to move to the main stuff we’re all here for.

Finals are coming up fast, actually a week from today. Meaning by then everything for this first part has to be done. To prep for that, today we have a kind for Pre-Finals day. Showing what we have (hopefully it is nearly done) and critique things that are fixable within the next week.

So for you, my Pre-Final:

(You might have noticed that I’m back on YouTube. I didn't want to, but the video is too big for blogger. I will be coming up with something different -in time- for the finals.)

What still needs to be done:

-Title Page

-Temp credits

-add shadow to couch

-add foreshadowing pictures

-better transition between worlds

-fix camera/trees in turn-around

-create 2nd “portal”

-cutout ‘squirrel’

-cutout Pepper

-add particles?

Alright….that might seem like a lot, and it will take time, but it isn’t too bad. Not exactly where I wanted to be today, but I’ll live.

1 MORE WEEK!