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.
Showing posts with label major project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label major project. Show all posts
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Tuesday, 25 February 2014
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.
Thursday, 30 January 2014
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.
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, 27 November 2013
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 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"
Friday, 15 November 2013
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.
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 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.
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Friends are like umbrellas 3
Thinking and pondering....
I have tried doing smooth transitions using the umbrella as different tools, like parachute and boat, but that had me ending up with a gigantic sea monster which would have made it a completely different story. Also it have given me great problems on how to include the patch that is supposed to go on the umbrella before the crash. Ai suggested that I have the patch belong to the girl and it would be an equal exchange, kids trade things all the time, it's how they make friends. So my head have started playing with the thought that the patch might originally be hers, he takes it and the umbrella rips in the process, she gets upset and he realizes he's been stupid and gives it back by patching up the umbrella.
I have now started to think in much simpler terms on how to do the transitions. Maybe a white backgrounds with a few panels on them which the characters interact with, going from one to the other, doing different things in them, almost like the typical "background changing as characters walk along" but in a more interesting way. Not just acting within the colored space, but also with the white space.
Talking and working
Had a little chat with Darren today.
I had done some storyboards for a part between the crash and the hospital visit where you can see the girl getting rushed into hospital and the typical heart blip going in the background. He pointed out that it would make it too long so I decided to cut it. Also, now that I look back on it, I don't really need it since I was blacking her out at the end of the crash. It is actually a nicer transaction just to have the camera black out and then blurredly pull back into focus in the hospital room.
I am having Yan have a go at my characters since my teacher told me to push the illustration style for them. I can't seem to do anything but the storyboard versions of the characters, I guess that's because I have already changed them multiple times before I properly started this project, and now my brain is just going "nope" since I have already had 3-4 hairstyles and colors on the girl and 2-3 on the boy, and about 3 different umbrellas. (-__-')
Anyhow I have started to write down the script, but I think I am doing it a bit wrong so I'll have to go over it again some other time when I'm done writing down the story as it is now.
Tuesday, 22 October 2013
Lone Wolf 1
I have been working a little bit together with my classmate Yasmin on her project "Lone Wolf".
These sketches and storyboards were done before her project went through and was told to change it by making it shorter, hence cutting out the scene I had originally started to storyboard. It is the original opening scene where Arty chases a butterfly and his older brother Mile gets told off by their father for not looking after him.
I had a quick knack at trying to do a little with her characters designs as she was told to change them. It is fairly close to what she already had since she had already modelled a wolf which she was planning to use and didn't seem very much up for spending another three weeks re-modelleing her entire character.
These sketches and storyboards were done before her project went through and was told to change it by making it shorter, hence cutting out the scene I had originally started to storyboard. It is the original opening scene where Arty chases a butterfly and his older brother Mile gets told off by their father for not looking after him.
I had a quick knack at trying to do a little with her characters designs as she was told to change them. It is fairly close to what she already had since she had already modelled a wolf which she was planning to use and didn't seem very much up for spending another three weeks re-modelleing her entire character.
Friends are like umbrellas 2
My story passed the first stage and it seems like I have stuck with my working title.
I have been trying to work out the storyboards, I have done the beginning and from after the scene that shows their friendship being built, but I still need to deal with that one scene and work it out. I find that one to be a bit hard as it needs to flow from one thing into another while using the umbrella as a key feature - which makes it some sort of "1001 uses for an umbrella." I want to use symbolism as well, but it all depends on how abstract I can go with it before people don't understand it's their friendship in the shape of an umbrella.
First scene is pretty straight forward. She is bullied and he defends her using the umbrella as a bat/shield and sword.
Traffic accident. Ended up a bit shorter with fewer pictures than what it plays in my head. I might have the rain come down from her perspective - seen from the ground up, but then it would make less sense to show the people standing around unless I turned the camera which I don't really want to do as she is turning her head the other way to find her broken umbrella. Also I thought it might be a nice little nudge to repeat the way it pans down from a rainy sky onto a circled crowd, like when something bad happened to her the first time, and now something bad has happened again.
Another little piece of a problem I am running into is how to deal with the hospital scene. I know I need to have her ask the people visiting her about the boy by using the umbrella, but I am a bit unsure on how to deal with it. I'm not entirely happy with the way I have solved it in the following page.
I'm not sure if I should have a black fadeout or a white after the umbrella drops since it's fading in black from the hospital scene it's probably better to use white.
Now off I go to find out how to deal with the hospital and the friendship scene.
I have been trying to work out the storyboards, I have done the beginning and from after the scene that shows their friendship being built, but I still need to deal with that one scene and work it out. I find that one to be a bit hard as it needs to flow from one thing into another while using the umbrella as a key feature - which makes it some sort of "1001 uses for an umbrella." I want to use symbolism as well, but it all depends on how abstract I can go with it before people don't understand it's their friendship in the shape of an umbrella.
First scene is pretty straight forward. She is bullied and he defends her using the umbrella as a bat/shield and sword.
Traffic accident. Ended up a bit shorter with fewer pictures than what it plays in my head. I might have the rain come down from her perspective - seen from the ground up, but then it would make less sense to show the people standing around unless I turned the camera which I don't really want to do as she is turning her head the other way to find her broken umbrella. Also I thought it might be a nice little nudge to repeat the way it pans down from a rainy sky onto a circled crowd, like when something bad happened to her the first time, and now something bad has happened again.
Another little piece of a problem I am running into is how to deal with the hospital scene. I know I need to have her ask the people visiting her about the boy by using the umbrella, but I am a bit unsure on how to deal with it. I'm not entirely happy with the way I have solved it in the following page.
I'm not sure if I should have a black fadeout or a white after the umbrella drops since it's fading in black from the hospital scene it's probably better to use white.
Now off I go to find out how to deal with the hospital and the friendship scene.
Thursday, 3 October 2013
Friends are like umbrellas 1
Nevermind my brilliant current working title for this. I don't really have a title at the moment and "friends are like umbrellas" sounds like one of the titles you'd get from the anime Gintama so I will most likely find something else on the way.
I'm making my own story for the third year film, it is about a friendship represented by an umbrella.
The first page is the main part of the story, or rather the first sketches I did for the story so it gave an general overview of the story.
The second page is the first storyboards where the guy picks up the girl on his scooter, the bottom part is bits and pieces of an idea for the ending after I had a talk though the story with one of my lecturers - after having some quite obvious stuff pointed out. Like the story missing a character arc the first time around.
After the talk I came up with something slightly longer than what I had first intended, but looking back I think it looks a bit more solid than just "scooter + traffic accident + dead"
The breakdown of the story is:
Guy gives girl umbrella
-still have to figure why and how he does it-
I have however decided that she wears black to represent her being depressed one way or another
Collage of how the umbrella is the thing keeping them as friends
See the umbrella getting battered and worn over time, but it's still in one piece and getting patched up when it gets torn, being a physical representation of their friendship (always involved as a tool to pry open doors, sword fencing and baseball bat when they are fighting, or used as an actual umbrella -sun or rain in all the clips)
Guy picks girl up on scooter
girl is waiting outside in the rain, guy come to pick her up
Traffic accident
see the girl on ground, surrounded by bystanders, all with umbrellas because of the rain, looking to her side seeing her own umbrella broken beyond repair
Girl rushed into hospital
medics rushing her through a hallway on a stretcher with this heart meter sound in the background
Girl in hospital with friends
The girl is sitting in her hospital bed, her friends have some to cheer her up, when she nods to her broken umbrella on the chair next to her, her friends shy away, not wanting to answer her
Funeral
The girl is standing in a lineup in front of a coffin with her broken umbrella in a white dress, she drops the umbrella into the hole
Another Rainy day
The girl is dressed back in black walking past a person in the rain, looks down at her hands where she has the patch that used to be on the umbrella, stops and stands still in the rain, returns to hold her umbrella over the stranger she just passed.
She was supposed to just drop the broken umbrella down into the hole with the coffin at the funeral, I don't know if to keep it or not though, my lecturer suggested putting it on top of the grave. I kind of like the idea that she gives up for a while, letting go of the umbrella itself, but keeps this one little piece of it - the patch that got stitched on, then passes by anther person that is who she used to be, she stops and thinks for a bit before realizing that just because that person that meant a lot to her is gone doesn't mean her life is over, and she can mean something for someone else just like he did to her.
Sort of a "pay it forward" thing.
I'm making my own story for the third year film, it is about a friendship represented by an umbrella.
The first page is the main part of the story, or rather the first sketches I did for the story so it gave an general overview of the story.
The second page is the first storyboards where the guy picks up the girl on his scooter, the bottom part is bits and pieces of an idea for the ending after I had a talk though the story with one of my lecturers - after having some quite obvious stuff pointed out. Like the story missing a character arc the first time around.
After the talk I came up with something slightly longer than what I had first intended, but looking back I think it looks a bit more solid than just "scooter + traffic accident + dead"
The breakdown of the story is:
Guy gives girl umbrella
-still have to figure why and how he does it-
I have however decided that she wears black to represent her being depressed one way or another
Collage of how the umbrella is the thing keeping them as friends
See the umbrella getting battered and worn over time, but it's still in one piece and getting patched up when it gets torn, being a physical representation of their friendship (always involved as a tool to pry open doors, sword fencing and baseball bat when they are fighting, or used as an actual umbrella -sun or rain in all the clips)
Guy picks girl up on scooter
girl is waiting outside in the rain, guy come to pick her up
Traffic accident
see the girl on ground, surrounded by bystanders, all with umbrellas because of the rain, looking to her side seeing her own umbrella broken beyond repair
Girl rushed into hospital
medics rushing her through a hallway on a stretcher with this heart meter sound in the background
Girl in hospital with friends
The girl is sitting in her hospital bed, her friends have some to cheer her up, when she nods to her broken umbrella on the chair next to her, her friends shy away, not wanting to answer her
Funeral
The girl is standing in a lineup in front of a coffin with her broken umbrella in a white dress, she drops the umbrella into the hole
Another Rainy day
The girl is dressed back in black walking past a person in the rain, looks down at her hands where she has the patch that used to be on the umbrella, stops and stands still in the rain, returns to hold her umbrella over the stranger she just passed.
She was supposed to just drop the broken umbrella down into the hole with the coffin at the funeral, I don't know if to keep it or not though, my lecturer suggested putting it on top of the grave. I kind of like the idea that she gives up for a while, letting go of the umbrella itself, but keeps this one little piece of it - the patch that got stitched on, then passes by anther person that is who she used to be, she stops and thinks for a bit before realizing that just because that person that meant a lot to her is gone doesn't mean her life is over, and she can mean something for someone else just like he did to her.
Sort of a "pay it forward" thing.
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