Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Animatic for Final Review (Kind of)

OK, I'm done animating for the semester. I have a final at 7, and my animation review is tomorrow at 2:30, so there's really nothing more I can do unless I pull an all-nighter...which I won't. I'm saving those for next semester. Animation has gotten slow, and I think it's because I've come to expect more out of myself, so when I produce something I think is sub-par, I get really discouraged and everything falls apart for the day. There are a bunch of shots I've done recently that I want to redo (the fall...), but oh well. The Damsel does need to move in the Alien 3 shot, but I'm going to work some After Effects magic on that one instead of actually animating it, so she's still for now.

I thought I had edited out all the shots I was cutting, but there are still some extraneous ones in the end, so I'll have to get rid of those tomorrow before my review. After the cowboy gets up, there will be no montage of him shooting zombies and their bodies hitting the ground. Stuff like that just takes up too much time, even if it is the most fun.

Edit: Oh, crap. I also forgot to put in the shot of the cowboy's boots backing up. That one is also done.

Anyway, here:

Final Review Animatic from Carder Scholin on Vimeo.

"You can't fight city hall." - Cliff Barnes.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Blurg

Hi, World.

This is me admitting to you that I won't be totally on schedule for my final review. Snags are happening everywhere. I think all I'm going to get done by the end of today is the zombie damsel's drool for the Alien 3 shot. That's 36 frames of drool. I just spent the first half of today trying to plan out a movement for her in this shot, but it all fell apart and she is now static.

Other snags: those stupid shots of the hand reaching for the hat. What on Earth was I thinking when I storyboarded shots that were just hands flailing around? Do I hate myself? I must, right? Those shots ruined like two or three days of animation for me, and I only ended up getting one of them done...kind of. I think it looks awful, but I have to keep it, anyway.

A lot of my shots seem to be terrible, lately. Like the one where the cowboy falls and hits the wall. I'm not proud of that one, at all, but I just have to keep telling myself that not all of these shots will be reel-worthy, and that it's more important to just bust through the story than have the animation look like a Disney film (none of it does, I'm just saying).

I've cut another shot, but it was just a still, so that really doesn't get me anywhere. I regret even getting myself excited about it. If I could go back and reboard this thing (which I won't, please don't have a heart-attack, Sheila), I would have done it so differently. More dramatic angles, different movements, no close-ups of hands...It would be wonderful.

Anyway, here's what I have left to do that I said I'd have done by the review:

Alien 3
the successful attempt at grabbing the hat
putting it on
shooting the damsel
her falling
him standing up

That's six shots. Putting on the hat through the end are all like...half-second to one-second shots, so hopefully those can fly by. I'll avoid that hand shot like the plague until I have to do it, I think. I'm doing Alien 3 now, and it will be done for sure by Wednesday. I should have at least half of those knocked out. Hopefully 5 of them, but I hesitate to get anyone's hopes up about that.

If I didn't have that final for Casper on Tuesday, I would feel more confident about what I can get done, but right now, I think tomorrow is really my last day of animating that I can afford, plus whatever I can do before 2:20 on Wednesday. I may have just lied about having 3 shots done. Maybe it'll be 2...1? No, 2...Oh man.

Worst case scenario: I just get Alien 3 done. That would leave...14 shots for next semester, not including stills or like 3-drawing cycles. Victor said he'd help me out on two of those shots (crowd scenes), so there's something. Nose to the grindstone next semester. At least 401B is my only serious class.

Hey, seniors, how are those animation hands feeling?!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Second pass at color keys

Okay guys. Here's my second (and third?) attempt at these color things. I warmed everything up, and (I think) made the difference more drastic in terms of just color alone. The second picture has a red overlay over the second and third panels. Is that even better, or is it too much? You have to tell me because I don't really trust myself to know. Is that sad? I think I'm leaning towards it being too much because it minimizes the contrast, but I could easily just up the transparency in the overlays if they do end up adding an additional oomph to everything.





Now, back to animating this beast. I just want to thank one Caitlin Craggs for saving everyone and bringing speakers down here. What a trooper.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Another color thing

Here's sort of what I want for color progression throughout the movie. I guess it's the four major parts of the film: the beginning, the zombie attack, the damsel confrontation, and the end. Keep in mind that I'm slightly red/green color blind, so don't be too mean if the reds look ridiculous. Why am I doing a movie in red if I'm colorblind to it? I've got no idea. I'm not sure the change in the color is drastic enough for me yet. Also, I'm still really wonky with background colors. I had to rush this in the end because I have class in 15 minutes, and I still haven't even had dinner. Whoops.

Looking at it now (a few hours later on my laptop, which admittedly washes out color like crazy), it seems a little bland. I need to warm it up a lot, and make sure the red really comes through in the middle. I'll try and revise it tomorrow. Maybe I'll darken the character lines so I can make some background designs and really get the colors down. It'd be nice to be able to (mostly) use the dropper tool on this thing when I'm actually coloring in my film. It'd save time.

Anyway, here goes: