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.

Friends are like umbrellas 3

Thinking and pondering....

I have spent a little while now trying to come up with some smart way of telling the collage part of the story, but it's really the hardest part for me. I think it is because the original story has them being friends from the very beginning, and is just one paragraph long and doesn't go into any detail.....

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.