Friends are like umbrellas 12

Fixed up the colors that was supposed to go on the interior of the castle. Looking back at the old thing now I am kind of glad I never got to finish it the first time around. Someone should seriously have stopped me from using the colors I picked out back then. I know I was thinking of making the purple contrast against the orange, but I have still no idea why on earth I picked the green. It looks like I tried to make seaweed stew or something. Next time I do something like that I'd like someone to stop me.

Friends Are Like Umbrellas 11

Ahahahaha....Haven't touched this film since June. Might be a good thing. After all, now that time have passed and I have all the time in the world I realized that one section I didn't have time to have fun with is all mine to play around with as I please.

Next section to animate is the castle scene, and now that I had a second look....I don't like the old costumes so I redid them. Background colors will be the next on my overhaul list for this section. (aka. what was I thinking and why did no one stop me.)

And on another note:
It looks like if I want any music done for this I will have to get my own piano and magically become the master of sound. Or I will just wait until the film is over and done with completely before bothering with any kind of music at all.

Friends are like umbrellas 10

Round number brings on a long overdue rant and overall negative complaints....

I am really not sure if it is me not being clear, but I keep finding that I have to tell the people doing the cleanup that the lines are in fact, not black, they are dark grey. And the line color for the cheeks are the red one underneath the black one found underneath the label "lines".

I am amazed how everyone tends to ignore my reference sheets. I have gotten to the point where there is only one other team member besides me that I allow to do rough animation because I have enough to do keeping track of the people doing cleanup and color, I don't need the added work of telling people that they need to have the character being a consistent size, Lia's jacket is very long so you can't really see her legs much and other obvious things you can find out by looking at the reference sheet.

I did take the time to make a little tutorial on how to make tv paint for the people that are working with me so that they can go through the basic things if they forget what I told them the first time. It was only for the cleanup, but since the coloring works the same for the most part except the tools used, I figured I could just re-direct people to it. I might have to do a color one next since that is what I will have for people to do next.

The project seem to be lagging a bit behind on the production part.
Both because the main chunk of my team members are swamped with work as they are in the year below me, and because I spent the easter holidays being fed up with the project to the point that if someone mentioned it I would simply try not to talk about it. It's ridiculous that I'd have to spend so long to re-charge my drive, but then again it is not surprising considering I am not a fan of doing more than one job at a time - and in this production I have done every single role there is except playing instruments and finding the sound effects.

Wand

Just having some fun with a voice clip from my friend I found on my computer. I don't know if I should aim this to get finished at any point or whatnot - at least not with my major project going on. Though it would be fun though if I could have a little part of it done.

Not sure if I should bother with a pattern on the guy. It looks okey when he's just standing around but I'm not really wanting to animate patterns, and I can't stand cheating by having the pattern on a layer which is static under the animation. Also it might be needed at all in an animation where he's moving around anyway. He just looked a bit boring all flat colored.

Friends are like umbrellas 9

A long overdue teaser clip from the animation. Still a couple of things that needs to be done, the background was too saturated when put together with the animation, I will be dealing with that later on when I am not doing all the keyframes on everything else. I think this will be the last teaser that is put out in public before the film is done. Wouldn't want to spoil it all - though the entire animatic is available it's not the same as seeing the finished thing.

In other news I have gotten in touch with a music student who is doing a track for this film, he's already come up with some nice stuff. Admittedly it's really hard for me to let go of the track I have - but really, I don't have permission to use it and it is going to quickly for the animation so I have to do that.

Friends are like Umbrellas 8

Revisited the animatic as I got some feedback saying that some parts were a bit off.

Another tutor made me change the colors so that they all went along with one another, as well as making new costumes for the castle scene so it would look more like a party. I didn't want to confuse people by changing the outfits around too much, so I decided to not change the colors and overall shapes of them, also unfortunate as it is I do not have the luxury of spending a long time on doing pre production and play with things in a grand fashion unless I plan to kill off my animators during this production. I know they could be capable of animating something more complicated but we simply do not have the time to play as much as I'd like.

I managed to re color all the sheets I previously had as well as making a new one that is for the marry go round horses because I realized that I didn't have one.

Friends are like umbrellas 7, Crocodile tears 2

I decided to take a day away from the studio to do work, I find that I need a balance between being in and not being in. I simply can't be in constantly unless I plan to go insane.

I did inbetween animation and a background for Crocodile tears. It was supposed to have trees in it, but he said he didn't like it, although I think I might try to do another version with trees and not make them black, use colors instead, like the buildings - because to me it looks too empty, and especially when they are supposed to be in a park and the previous scene has tonnes of trees in it.

Then I tackled my own project. I didn't like my previous color key page so I made a new one which I like much better. Also I traced the 3D models Conner gave me so that I have a 2D reference people can work from on the props. I got the scooter and the umbrella, still need to do the broken umbrella, but for that I need to speak a bit with Conner again and ask him to tweak the 3D model and I need to check on the person that is supposed to design the water dragon since I am still missing that character - I'll also need a reference sheet for Roy, the boy at the end.

Friends are like umbreallas 6

I did a map over the main sequence so that I could put down the rules of the white space, and show the journey in one go. To me it was really clear what was going on, but I didn't know if it would work for everyone else, so I asked two people; one that is fully into the project and another that knows about it, but isn't really in the process. It made perfect sense to the person that was on the project, but the other person pointed out a few things that confused them - which I added in so that if I hand it to a brand new new crew member I don't have to explain everything A-B-C style. It was always meant to go together with the animatic and storyboards, but it was nice to get feedback from someone that didn't remember either so I could get what would be confusing to someone new as the map was bluntly obvious to me, and my team mate understood it just fine.

I got told that since my backgrounds are mainly white I don't have to do actual layouts for it, because really, what are you going to do about a white background than just hand someone a white paper?
I found that instead I have to treat the scenes as props, design them first then place them how I need them.

I started out with the merry-go-round since its the first object we get to see.
My tutor mentioned that amusement parks are more exciting at night, so I thought I'd add some more purple into the design so it hints more to a night scene and the lights on the merry go round stands out a little more. I will have a chat with my background artist about what to do with the colors.

Friends are like umbrellas 5

Gwah, trying to juggle everything at once. *dead*

I have found abandoning Photoshop and work in Sai gets everything done faster for me. I like rotating my canvas and flipping it at a button rather than dealing with clicking X amount of buttons before I can do any of that. SAI I love you, why are you not an industry standard?

I have gotten around to finish the costume changes for the main character. I am not entirely sure about the dress though. I need it to be white and simple, but still keep her overall shape and not have it look like her coat. I figured it had to have the fuzzy part since the rest of the film is put at autumn, and the funeral part is having a completely black and white environment it would be weird if it was summer dress.

I finally got the Character sheets done, some help from Darren to color one of
them.

 

I also did this test image using a background that Likem did to see what the style would look like. I got an overall better response on the one that didn't look fuzzy, like one of my tutor put it "looks out of focus"

 

Friends Are Like Umbrellas 4, Crocodile Tears 1

It have been a while since I last updated here.

I have been in contact with a second year that was initially going to be my producer, however she was unable to take it all on so I will have to find a new person for that job.

I finished the animatic for FALU

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, until it was about an hour left before hand in, because the hand in site wouldn't let me upload anything which was a real pain.

I got the drawings of the umbrella done so that it could be modelled as a 3D model by Conner, just like he did with Birger's scooter.

 I have done a test background just to see if I could emulate the looks of watercolor. I find it is quite easy to do in Paint Tool Sai, though I am not quite sure how smart a move it is to use this program since most people use Photoshop. However it is the program which makes it easiest to deal with the effect I am looking for. I know the tutors would prefer industry standard programs, but I wouldn't see the point if photoshop takes two days to finish something that could be done in four hours.

I am having Darren doing a rough little walk of Lia on the background so that I can see what it would look like when I put something on it. I will try out different ways of animating on top of it, I might end up going into photoshop with it if I can't find another way of doing it. Flash has such a distinct look to it unless you -really- know how to use it, so I will look into using TV Paint. However there is the issue of our studio being deemed a less important course by the university and we don't have enough licences at crunch time. So all in all I will try to do a draw over in photoshop instead to see if I can make something that I like. I think I will do that first, and just use it as an example of what I want the style to actually look like when it's finished and pick a program based on that. Or just be one of those weirdos that decide to do roughs in flash to get the time right, import it into Photoshop to do the clean up and coloring in there. At least I know we have enough program licences for those two programs when the deadline is coming up.

I have also gotten a start on the character turnarounds, noticed I am missing the 3/4 view so I think I might have to go and do that one next.


Crocodile Tears
Darren was told his original concept didn't seem to make the environment sizzling hot so I decided to do butt in and do a quick color test with what I have learned from watching CSI:Miami; drown everything in an orange filter at all times.

It was approved by Darren and I did a proper background for him based on the layout he provided me with.

Open Happiness II

The finished animation of Open Happiness.

I didn't really change anything on it, I found that making the map flat or oval shaped simply ended up confusing and looking pretty bad so I went with the round planet instead. There is an instance or two I would have liked the animation to be smoother - it seems a bit quick, but I only had 20 seconds to play with. The end was supposed to be animated, not still shots of them jumping all into a pile, but I simply didn't have the time to animate and color it all if I were to hand it in on time.

Either way I had fun doing this. Even though I worked alone on it I had a lot more fun than my initial project simply because I was making it not only for myself, but for my friends as well. It is a whole different feeling working on something when the people around you are positive to what you do.

ChickenFox

My blog has decided to hate my youtube today so I just have to link them instead.


ChickenFox_9A
This scene was a bit tricky for me as I had to do a run cycle with a basket, but without the basket since the prop wasn't finished. The director didn't like it too much the first time around, so I had to animate a run cycle on the spot and paste it back into the animation.
The bear wasn't difficult at all, and was given the green light the first time around.

ChickenFox_5C_wip
This scene was something I started, but didn't quite finish, so it mainly consist of keyframes, especially the tail since I like to do the individual movement on that later once I get the run cycle right.


Both of the backgrounds are the stand in version from the animatic as the finished version was not done when I was working on the scenes.

Pick and mix 3

Turnarounds of the two main characters, the angel and the demon.
A little height chart of the four most important characters; Angel, Mentor, Demon and Allotment victim.
Tried my best to make their shapes different at the same time as drawing in my artist's style. A bit difficult when all he seems to do is draw everyone, especially the men look the same.
So the mentor and the allotment victim (...this makes it sounds like he dies at some point, but I really just don't have a better thing to call him.) is based of  characters you wouldn't find as often in his drawings.

Pick and mix 2

Done a few concept things for the pick and mix.
The first one is an idea for the Angels/law firm office he works at. Was thinking of picking lighter colors from pictures to make them be the good guys at the same time as Georges Barbier seem to use a lot of pastels and blues in some pictures. There is a phoenix at his desk since I thought of picking that as their logo thing, also my artist seem to like to draw birds, especially phoenixes. I simply decided to name them Phoenix legal company for now.
I know he really loves his bright red, but I thought I'd save that and the heavy black/gold for the demons office/law firm and also use a dragon for their logo/mascot as he have drawn a couple of those, it will also symbolise more of a threat since dragons are big and scary. Not sure what to call them though....

Did a few concept drawings which I colored.
One for the city the law office is in (featuring the mentor and the angel), the train they have to take to get to the allotment area and a little part of an allotment. I left the sky white in the last one because my artist sometimes does that, but I will probably draw a new one with blue sky.

These pictures are mainly testing to see how things might work, so none of them are final, especially not the allotment one. I find it really hard to keep the style of my artist while trying to draw normal looking things, mainly because he only ever do single illustrations which means he get to play with just how much detail he want to, or lack thereof. I feel like I can't really do that when I need it to be a specific place, like the city. I can't just have a big open space with one building on it. So I'm trying my best to at least keep the shapes and the typical types of buildings that he does.

With the allotment I feel like I'm trying to draw an organized version of Alice in Wonderland. He's got lots of pieces of plants and nature in his work, the only thing is that he loves to make that the most detailed thing in the entire image, so it does take up a lot of the attention. I won't have much of a problem with my Phoenix lawyers as they are quite simple, but my demon might prove a problem as she is based on his more pattern crazy clothing he's done.

Backgrounds

Been doodling a few backgrounds of late, though I kind of think mine looks more like color test layouts or something rather than backgrounds.

 The two top ones are color tests for something I'm doing based on the Ranger Rick storyboards I had to do for storyboard class. I did the blue doodle first to get some idea where the characters would be so that I didn't do it too badly wrong with the placement.

 A picture I have tried to draw before, but never got quite happy with what I did the background in the previous version. I couldn't find the original picture to dig up, so I used the previous drawing as reference. Next time I'll be using the picture, because I do suspect I got a lot of things wrong, but still it was fun.

This last one is a background I have in mind for something I might use later, so it's more of a layout than anything else, testing the colors. I did the first digital one, but then I tried the same thing with watercolors in class, and I kind of liked that a lot better. I find the digital one to be kind of flat, and although the colors are correct to the environment it just doesn't really convey the feeling I want for it.

I liked the purple from the watercolor much better, though on the first one I went ahead and ruined it by adding yellow (at least I don't really like that part), though the water on the ground ended up just the way I wanted it.  So I did a second attempt, but did a more drippy water thingy on the wall, I do like that a lot. Will probably keep that look for it. It's more interesting to look at, and was actually a lot more fun to do than the digital one  :3