GIVE ME YOUR OPINION

So, as you might know, I'm changing the middle of my film to black and white. I've got the colors down like I want them, but I can't figure out what to do with the blood. I want it to be red, but what shade? Here's a little thing I whipped up:



What do you think works best?

Color things

Hi.

As you all know, figuring out color for this film has been a nuisance for me. Little did I know that actually coloring it would be more of a nuisance, and would take what I can only assume is years to fully complete. Averaging about 2 shots a day is not good when I have 77 to do by the end of the month. I think that math all adds up to not graduating.

So, I have a compromise: I'm going to color the two bookends of the film as planned. You know, all the stuff without zombies. Unless some miracle happens, and all that coloring gets done tomorrow or the next day, I'm going to leave the middle of my film black and white and gray. It'll be so much faster for me to just take out white backgrounds from my line drawings than to color them in fully and deal with the extra layers when compositing.

I'm actually totally fine with this - not that I'm referencing either of these films by doing this, but Night Of The Living Dead was in black and white, and Quentin Tarantino totally got away with making the most violent part of Kill Bill switch to black and white. I'd say I'm in pretty good company. The music in my film makes a really dramatic shift when the zombies come on screen, and I think the color switch would only complement that. It totally goes along with the tonal and genre switch. I think I even played with this idea early on, anyway. Let's say I did, and I'm bringing it back.

Anyway, it's almost 1 AM, and I'm about to fall asleep at my computer. This blog post is over. I'll try and remember to elaborate when I'm actually conscious.

Color Thing

Hi again.

This is just something...fun? It's just the main character color keys for the people who are helping me color my film. It was just supposed to be some stupid drawings of the characters with messy coloring, but I ended up rendering them more than I intended to. Meh, it's something to post. If the zombie skin tone is too jarring or something, post a comment. If the blood color (as seen by the "Rawhide" and Zombie Damsel intestines) doesn't stand out, post a comment. I'm colorblind, so what do I know?

Ok

I lied in my last(?) post - that wasn't the final cut of my film. I've been watching it over and over again, and the finale really bothered me with all that extra footage where nothing happened...so I got rid of it. Michael Patterson told me to do the same thing, so I'm pretty sure that was a good idea. There are other minor edits along the way, too, but nothing too drastic. Anyway, here it is. I'm really only putting this here for my composer. Hi Alex! I sure hope Bethany doesn't kill me when I tell her about this tomorrow.

Ok, the video is broken. I hate Premiere CS4!!! FIXED IT!

Final Edit, for real. from Carder Scholin on Vimeo.

Update number whatever - Compromises

Hi all,

I'm in the middle of cleaning up all of my film, and it's taking a lot longer than I thought it would. This is typical, as I generally have no concept of time. Anyway, I'm thinking of what this means, and I have two options: take longer than usual on the clean-up and don't fully color the film, or pull a string of all-nighters to get myself back on schedule (maybe). I think I choose the former.

This is actually probably a good thing considering my original idea for this film's color was to have it be like a tri-tone sepia and that was it. I tried to do that when doing my color keys, but I have limited knowledge of color (I blame it on the colorblindness), so more and more kept creeping in.

Anyway, this way the coloring will go faster, the people coloring for me will be less confused, and everything will generally be easier for me...I like it! Oh man, think about how much easier the backgrounds will be! I could even stylize the way they're colored, which sounds pretty fantastic.

Ok bye.

Actual picture lock

Here you go:


Rawhide Picture Lock from Carder Scholin on Vimeo.

I realize that the horse should turn more, and that there's a black spot, and that the sky shot should probably have birds reacting to the gun shots, and other things, but let's just enjoy this for now, shall we?

Picture locked!

So my film is finally picture locked. I'd have a sample of it up here for you, but the file is over a gig. I'll render out a new one before I leave the lab and then I guess upload it here tomorrow when I'm back down here to give my gig file to Bethany. Great! Time to start clean-up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh.

Animation - Done!

Remember this day, February 25, as the day I finished animating my senior thesis. Animating, not clean-up, color, backgrounds, or special effects, but animating. It's a big step. Hopefully the next portion of my life will go way more easily. It probably won't. I'm going to put up a picture locked version of my film on Saturday or something because I have to have it done anyway.

I realized Spring Break is like two and a half weeks away the other day and I freaked out. Where has this semester gone? Where has college gone? Did I live it up enough and make a decent amount of mistakes? Definitely not. This is not the place to wax about how I'd do college again, though, so let's just watch a small piece of animation I did this week instead. I realize the horse needs to turn more and stuff, but just live with it.


Untitled from Carder Scholin on Vimeo.

February 4th's update

So, guys, here's what I've done for the past two weeks. Not all the shots in this clip are new, but maybe you ("you" meaning the zero people who actually read this) will realize which shots are the newer ones. The run time is around 3:49 now, which is great for me. Three more weeks of actual animation left!! Picture lock by February 26!!!!!!!!!!! That's going to be so hard.

The reason I'm picture locking then is because Bethany Sparks has graciously agreed to do my sound for a paltry $500. That makes me nervous, but only because I'm anal retentive and that means I'm giving something major about my film over to someone else. I'll be happy about it later. My friend Alex has agreed to do the music (with the help of our friend Duncan) for $200 (or more depending on work load). That's also great. Wowee.

Anyway, here's the stuff. Note: I realize that there are two shots where the guy puts his hand on his head (when he sits up and then the shot where he runs his hand through his hair). During cleanup, the hand won't be there as he sits up.

0204 Segment from Carder Scholin on Vimeo.

1/21 Animatic

Here's my latest animatic. I'm not just posting individual clips because I've changed the story (sort of...not really), and I need any composers and sound designers I direct to the blog to see the latest version in its entirety. All I really did was have the cowboy grab for the hat instead of just dropping the damsel before the train wreck. I'll change his face to look less dumb when I'm doing cleanup. It's not worth the time right now.

Otherwise, I added a shot after the train wreck, too. The cowboy jumps back to the old position when the train goes by because I was too lazy to actually reshoot the entire thing (with all that debris flying around, I don't think I can be blamed), so just know that he'll stay in the same position the entire time. Cool. The transition is sloppy, but so was my editing job.

I guess I didn't export the entire thing because the last like 10 seconds are cut off from this. Oh well, all the new stuff is way earlier anyway . To any potential sound designers or composers, the last ten seconds are on the video two posts below this one. He just shows off his hat and then rides off into the sunset.

2009 Animatic from Carder Scholin on Vimeo.

Spring Semester Doings

Happy New Year, 18 days later.

So, here's what I've come up with for my schedule for the next semester:

RAWHIDE PRODUCTION SCHEDULE – Spring 2008

01/22/09
Shots 1, 3, 7

01/29/09
Shots 2, 5, 6

02/05/09
Shots 9, 10, 11, 12

02/12/09
Shots 13, 14

02/19/09
Shots 8, 4

02/26/09
Shots 15, 16

03/05/09
Clean-up

03/12/09
Clean-up, scan film, take out white backgrounds

03/19/09 (SPRING BREAK WOOOO!!!)
Scan film, take out white backgrounds

03/26/09 (SOUND SPOTTING SESSION)
Color, backgrounds, train stuff/lightning, extra effects

04/02/09
Color, backgrounds, train stuff/lightning, extra effects

04/09/09
Color, backgrounds, train stuff/lightning, extra effects

04/16/09
Color, backgrounds, train stuff/lightning, extra effects

04/23/09 (PICTURE LOCK, SOUND MIX WEEK)
Composite film

04/30/09
Final comp, minor fixes

05/07/09
Minor fixes?

05/12/09 (UPLOAD QUICKTIMES FOR SEMINAR)
DONE!



SHOT BREAKDOWN
1 – Train wreck redo, inc. new shot of him looking at wreck.
2 – Putting on the hat (2 variations)
3 – Looking up at hat
4 – Zombies walking by
5 – Feeling for hat
6 – Hat floating away
7 – Going after hat
8 – Chasing hat
9 – Successful hat grab
10 – Damsel head shot
11 – Damsel body fall/cowboy get up
12 – Raising guns
13 – Town clean-up (2 shots, all cycles)
14 – Cowboy rides by / two guys mock
15 – Turn around, tie hat, smile
16 – Various single frames/easy cycles.


That makes for a long post, doesn't it? I'm making it longer. That schedule is crazy tight. I'm assuming the scanning/taking out the white won't actually take two weeks. It took like 3 nights when Victor did it, I think. Anyway, I'll just start coloring earlier if it comes to that. Here are some things I can do to make it go faster: get someone to help me on the clean-up/scan portion (any volunteers...?), throw all my background coloring to Emily with notes on when it should get redder, and have people color for me (Lauren...Shawn?). Friends, let's come together for a goal -- helping me graduate.

Also, I've added a new shot to the list, and I think it goes something like this:


I'll try and add some kind of flair to it so it's not just him entering from the left and looking right. That's boring. It's between the part where the Damsel is hit by the train, and the actual shot of the wreckage. It's amazing how much I've forgotten about Flash. Where's my memory these days? I could also have a shot of him from the back (shoulders up) and have him turn around with similar facial expressions. I'm really trying to figure an easy fix so I don't have to go back and redraw the train stuff again. Also - I think this is better dramatically anyway.

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.

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?!

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.

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:

11/25 Animation

Ok, here's the stuff I got done for class tomorrow. The part that's storyboard is stuff that I should have had done, but didn't get to. That's alright though, because those two shots are fast and easy. I think my animation has gotten a lot better, but I'm also a whole lot slower. Them's the breaks, though.

You can't really see the damsel during part of the lunge sequence (the third shot) because they're all muddled together and her lines are so light, but trust me, she's there and she's pissed.

Also, the video seems to have gone insane and uploaded sound from the rest of the movie. It's supposed to stop after the cowboy looks up, so don't bother with the rest of it.

11/25 Segment from Carder Scholin on Vimeo.
The part where there's a zoom to the damsel's face is supposed to shake as if the cowboy is skidding to a halt. I'll either do that or cut it. I could also just have the cowboy jerk forward and back in the next shot to show him stopping in front of her. Whatever.

The Zombie Damsel's first appearance

OK so I did this shot today. It's right after the cowboy has run through the group of zombies after his hat, which has floated away because he fell down. I think the cowboy's animation is pretty good, but that the Damsel's needs some major cleanup and more frames later on.

Damsel Reappears from Carder Scholin on Vimeo.
After this shot, there's going to be a view of just the zombie damsel, and the camera is going to shake and zoom in as if the cowboy is still skidding to a halt in front of her.

Then she'll lunge, he'll fall, and things go from there.

Look at me! I updated without having to!

Some Color Keys

Ok, I'm doing this like six seconds before I have to go present my film to the grad students. Here are some color keys for the first and last portions of the film. I'll have the red (middle) portions up later, I guess. I'm just asking whether they like the film to be sepia or regular. What do you like? Tell me. The sepia is just a quickie Photoshop filter, and I think it could definitely use less shades of color. I'll see if I can whip something like that up later. Holy crap I'm late.

Another animatic...this time with sound! Kind of.

Ok, here's a new animatic. It's got really awful sound. Really awful. It's so bad, really, but I guess it's better than not having sound. This is actually the reason I'm hiring a sound designer - so I don't have to deal with this crap. But anyway, whatever. There are some timing issues going on with some of the more complicated shots because I was too lazy to actually shoot them with the timing I want. For example, the zombie chewing on the arm will be a few seconds longer. Also, I need to stagger the zombies on the train wreck. I'm burnt out, you guys, but I have to keep going. I guess I'm basically halfway done.

10/28 Animatic With Sound from Carder Scholin on Vimeo.
I don't really remember if I had something else to say.

New Segment

Hi.

Here's a segment with some animation I've done. It was cut down using iMovie because I'm an idiot and had it all set up in Premiere and exported it, but ended up exporting my entire animatic again. That may be why the quality is so shoddy right now.


10/13 Segment from Carder Scholin on Vimeo.


There are some timing issues, but just ignore that. I'll work out better timing later when I'm not feeling rushed in the lab. I was supposed to have the shot of him staring at his hat with zombies walking behind him done, but it's either getting cut, or it's being done at the end of this semester or next semester. I haven't decided which. I like the shot, and really all that's keeping it from being completed is the walk cycles, so it'll probably get done.

The shot after he takes off his hat, where his arms go wonky and the hat falls on the ground still feels wrong to me. I think I need to show his right hand falling into screen even though people didn't like that last week. His arm just doesn't completely go down in the previous shot. Also, timing. Also also, the shot of him looking over at his hat is probably cut. I didn't think switching him over to the right side of the screen would be an issue, but it really bothers me. I'm thinking I can just show the shot of the bottles after he misses the second time and keep the camera there until they're shot off. Then cut back to the cowboy staring up at his hat, which is now on his head. Did that description make sense? It did to me. Anyway, point is: I don't have time to animate that shot again, so I'm finding a creative way around it.

Which brings me to my worry - that there isn't enough time, ever. I know I should have been animating over the summer, but let's be honest, I'm a lazy, lazy person with no will power if I'm not regularly being watched. This leaves me with a year-ish to finish this film, and it's starting to get to me that if I want to go back and work a scene, I can't really. I can, but it'll either a) put me behind on my schedule if I work on it this semester, or b) cut into my compositing/coloring time if I do it next semester. I'm going to need a lot of compositing/coloring time. I just don't know what sacrifices to make.

I've thought about what I would do if I couldn't fully color in my film, and I've settled on having each character be one color, with a general sepia tone overall that would become redder as the film went on until the climax, where it would lighten up again. I was going to do the earth tones to red thing anyway with full color. But would it be better of me to have full color, or fuller animation? My reel says animation, but my eyes say color.