week 9 is here.

*complain about time going fast*

Anyway I have been working on my 2nd draft of thumbnails but its taking me a very long time to do it! I dont know why, i think it could be that i have to organise his face and other body actions in it. I was happy with my first draft and i guess having to change it around is making me take a little time! BUT i know im the director and im changing my thumbnails because I find it weird not having his face in it. Everyone, including myself thinks that having a face seen gives you more of a connection to the character.

I have kept a few things from my first draft and changed a few ideas around. Like having the book pan start on the desk rather then start it on the floor. I have also changed when the character opens the hourglass drawer only one hourglass is in the drawer and the other five spots are empty.

Last week i have also completed my thumbnials for scene one, they are simple fade in to fade out shots of the newspapers and then the last shot is of the characters fail works.

Today in class Jack showed me the work he did on the seed and its looking amazing! He also showed me a Music Video clip called "Turn Me On" by David Guetta. The song is so crap i hate it, but the footage is really amazing and there is just so much reference that i can use for my animation.

This is the video please watch it on mute :) take notice of the steampunk starting the rest of the video clip doesnt matter. After i finish my 2nd draft of thumbnailing i will work on my storyboards and then i need to begin my model sheet, expression sheet and action sheet.

3D Is Coming Back to Me.

So today in Jacks class, Jack showed me the work that he has done on the seed and the pipe work that comes out from under the seed. It looks great!
we went through the process of different ways to make the pipe work move out from each other, like a constatine. With many trials and errors in the end it turned out great and Jack has put the piperoots to the seed. The thing that i love about Maya is that you can rather the information of the work and then make it into a script, with extra "*( ) + = { }" (<--this stuff) in the script it can then control the pipe roots and by adding a random key so that when each 10 pipes grow they have a random value each and therefore all look unique and fully sick. They look amazing! and when animating the roots to start out from the seed it looks so beautiful. With the seed and the roots complete out of it, it reminds me of a octopus! I LOVE OCTOPUSES!!! THEY ARE THE BEST.
 The only thing that needs to be fixed but isnt a problem is that some of the roots finish facing up in the sky so all that needs to be done is moving and key frame the root to be in the ground or lying on the ground.

Im so happy with what Jack has acheieved today and teaching me how it is done.

Week 8 - ALREADY!

Damn you time!!! Why must you rush by!?
In Neales class i asked him to look over my thumbnails and help me place in face shots of my character. I got some pictures by Neales and they help out alot! i also thought about my starting and i have changed the titles of some of the newspaper just to get to the point.

I need to work on my 2nd draft of my thumbnails and i also need to do a model sheet of my character.
I am also up to organising my Video Block.
I have been working on other assignments today so i havent worked on my pre-production.
Tomorrow i will work on my animation in Jacks class.

Show Me Your Face.

Since i worked on my character design over the holidays I have finally showed Darren what i have come up with. He has given me some help with adding a few shots of his face in my thumbnails. I want to show my thumbnails to Neale and then i will need to do a second draft.

I wanted to have my character in 3D blocked out, animate it and then render it out to put into Toonboom. while talking about this to darren it seems that it might be best to keep my character as 3D. He said that i should find a stock standard rigged character and do some rough animating and then render that out and put it into toonboom and see how i go with drawing frame by frame over. if i can handle it and think i will be okay with it then i will continue to do my character in 2D. If im finding it hard and im just putting too much time into it where i can use that time somewhere else then ill stick to my character being 3D.

I want to draw a bit more of my character and work on a model sheet and i also want to finish off my layouts since i never finished it off a few days ago.
I have also today captured my video block footage today in Jacks class and i will need to set it up in after effects. AND i also need to work on my Production Proof, i will work on this in Thursdays class. Jack has also kindly worked on the seed and tree over the 2 weeks holidays. it looks amazing!! there are only a few things that we spoke about to change and make a lot easier for the seed and tree. Over all its fantastic and im happy with the way it is going :)

Tomorrow is Wednesday which is our day off so i should be able to get more things done.

Holidays Day Fourteen. 15/04/12

Tomorrow I return to Uni!
2 weeks have gone so fast and it always feel like i could of had more work done. But some things just dont go to plan.

I had work today and it sucks when you are working the full day and you think 'i could be getting work done' But i guess a break is a must. I think thats why i may have been sick on the Saturday.
I feel kinda of glad that were back now, because i can now show my teachers the work i have done so far and get feedback. Also i find that i may get destracted with things at home.

Tomorrow I have Darrens class which is Visual Effects. The work we have to do is involving the green screen and if we dont get the studio then im hoping we can work on our pre-production.
I also still have to complete my Production Proof. i will work on this aswell since it is due in week 8.

Fun times.

Holidays Day Thirteen. 14/04/12

On Saturday I wasnt feeling to well. I sat at my desk for 3hours and realised that i was drawing detail on the same picture! I had a really sore head and i just couldnt concentarte on any work.

So all i got done, well i only got half done is one layout picture.
I had planned to do all three pictures and write out/draw up a rough montage starting!
Hate it when plans dont work out.

Stupid being sick.

Holidays Day Twelve. 13/04/12

Today I set up my light box and made good copys of my rough layouts i did a few days ago. I had origianlly did them in my drawing book and i wanted another copy for my animation bible.
I mostly went over my roughs with basic outline so i could have the basic lines i needed and then later add in the rest of the detail i need.

That was mostly what i did. I thought about my starting montage but i still havent had many ideas come yet. I will be concentrating on the montage and will hopefully paint my 3 layouts i have now.

Holidays Day Eleven. 12/04/12

So like i had said in my last post i wasnt really planning on getting any work done today.


Nothing was done.

Holidays Day Ten. 11/04/12

ehhhhh..

So im not going to make the old papers for my character designs and all. I came to the conclusion of: I dont think its something that should be done and if i want work and show them my animation bible they might think its very not business like.
So instead i am going to just do my work on plain paper that has the title of my animation and what the work is such as 'Model sheet' and so on.

I also feel that im just waisting time on making papers. blahh
anyway, i did 3 rough thumbnail layouts, only in pencil i still need to paint/colour them. I need to do one more which is from scene one, guess what that still hasent been done. and i KNOW i need to do it, im still working on it!!!!

I have a rough idea of what i want for scene one, im going to have each newspaper on its own with an item that represents something to my character or to whats happening in the newspaper.
So newspaper one is that there is a new speices of tree found. Next to this i will show my characters Degree Certificate or something about him finding the new tree (something like that)

So what im going to do is list down all the newspapers(only 5) and then write next to each one what should be with it. I think that will help me.

Im just saying now i dont think ill be doing much work tomorrow, i got things to do and i have work. ill try my best.

Holidays Day Nine. 10/04/12

Today i made 3 pages of the landscape templates that i have for my style guide. I just need to burn a few of the edges. I have decided to cut out whatever drawings i have done and stick them on the old papers that i have made. It will look the same as my picture referencing pages.
So when i do my rotation sheet, model sheet etc.. i will cut them out and stick them on. This is so all my work has a continue flow.
However not all my work will look like the old pages, as my script, storyboard etc.. will be normal paper.

I have also tried drawing my character and not getting anything that looks like Darrens, but its okay im still trying and im getting a different look. I also did a bit of sketch of my outside background. it still needs work but im just working out where i want things placed.

Thats all i have done today I know its not much, but when i do more work i start to not concentarte. so im just taking it easy and letting the work flow as much as i can.

Holidays Day Eight. 09/04/12

Monday.

Today i scanned in my Thumbnails and script breakdown, i will be putting them in there own page after this post, so make sure to check them out.
First, my thumbnails are not fully complete because the whole of scene one is missing. this is because it is the montage and i havent figurd it out yet.
My script breakdown has writing all over it with a few extra ideas and other things for me to remember.

A while ago i started to block out a rough design of the study room for my animation, i had stopped doing it because i had other work that need to be complete. Today i completed it in 3D and assigned random colours to each object so it is a lot clearer to see what everything is. AND i also named everything and put them into folders.











after finishing the basic structure of what i wanted in the room and where i wanted things to go, i realised that i need more items everywhere so it looks like this is everything he has, his life is all about making this seed. I feel that i need to show that more. There are just areas of too much open space!

For my animation bible I have already made old looking paper. I'm using it not only for the look that i would like for my animation but also for the style to present my work. I am up to the stage of designing my character and trying to get the right look for him, but i am a little stuck because i dont know if i should design him on the old looking papers that i make. I know its not a big deal, but i like my work to have continuity. But is doing the whole old paper thing professinal? If i was to show my animation bible to get work will they think its professinal?
Teachers help me.

Holidays Day Seven. 08/04/12

Sunday i had work for the whole day and didnt end up doing any work.
I did however do some drawings of my character face while i was bored at work. So I'm always thinking about my animation.

Tomorrow is Monday which means i have one week of doing work before going back to uni. Time has gone way to fast and it feels like i havent done anything.
I'll try and smash more work down, so i can feel like im moving forward instead of standing still.

Holidays Day Six. 07/04/12

I havent been feeling to well today so i have been taking it easy and did some work today.
Darren had showed us a royalty free website called "Incopetech" I decided to check it out to see if i could find any music that i liked. I found a few that i really enjoy and when listening to them i could imagine what scene/shot i wanted them to play with.
The name of the songs i found were:
Danse Macabre (final), Industrial Revolution, Wounded, Our Story Begins and Lone Harvest.
I really want to get a rough sound started early.

I then next went onto youtube and found two really nice time lapse of a seed growing.





There is a PC game thats out called "Machinarium" the look of the game is amazing and its the type of look i would really like for my animation. I found a picture of a city in a no tree environment and the way everything is placed is how i imagined my outside world to look. A big city on the right, massive open rocky space with rocky rounds and mountains. The sky is the perfect colour and just imagine electricity poles everywhere!

Hoildays Day Five. 06/04/12

So the plan to draw and watch Lord of the Rings didnt happen!

Kinda annoyed with myself for not doing anything. There were many times that i could of done something but didnt. I havent really had a break or a sleep in since holidays started so i guess i needed it.

I will do work tomorrow.

Holidays Day Four. 05/04/12

Damn you Darren and your drawing skills! :)
I have been working on my character and yeah almost cried because i couldnt draw his face!
Well i was trying to copy Darrens picture and i almost cried!
So i just stopped looking at Darrens picture and looked at pics of John Cusack, i came up with a few faces, even tho they all look the same but i was mostly doodling.

please dont compare mine to Darrens. I'LL CRYYY!!

So as you can see i dont really draw humans much, and when it comes to drawing the body im going to struggle. But i will keep trying and im happy with what i got today.

I have work later on today so i wont be able to do any more work. I will try and do some more work tomorrow but i do have a Lord of the Rings marathon which starts at 11:30am hahaha its going to be a lonnnnnggggggggggggggg day. I might just take my drawing stuff with me.

I'll watch and draw :)

Holidays Day Three. 04/04/12

So today i completed my shot list. I have ALOT of shots! But i only have so many because one shot has many actions so im just showing it in there own shot. I have only done my shot list from scene two till the end. I still need to figure out the first scene!!

So really my shot list is only half done the rest is in scene one.
I also went through my script breakdown and made sure i didnt forget anything. so it seems to be good.

I'm not sure if i am to start working on my storyboards as only Neale has looked at them while i was still doing my roughts. I think i will wait till we get back to uni to show Neale the updated thumbnails so that he can talk me through if i need changing or anything else.

For tomorrow i will work on my Character Design. As i have said to my teachers i can't see my characters face so i never showed his face in my thumbnails or just showed his face ever in my animation. From the help of Darren drawing a character with a face, which looks amazing, im hoping to get the same effect in my own drawing. I would like mine to look like Darrens character.

The only thing is I dont have any face views of my character in my animation. The only thing that could show his face in my animation is when he picks up the hourglass and looks at it. so we see his reflection in the hourglass. Jack came up with that idea and i really like it but couldnt use it because i couldnt see his face. So maybe that will change tomorrow.
That means i would need to change thumbnails and other things. I guess i just have to wait and see.

Holidays Day Two. 03/04/12

Today i was super productive and finished off my thumbnails. I however still havent figured out my montage starting yet, I have been thinking about it but im still not having any luck. I will continue to try and figure it out.
I have also finished off 5 old paper making, and stuck pictures down and wrote about each item.

I did check out the 'Army of Darkness' montage and its pretty cool! there are bigs in there that remind me of things i want in my animation. So it helps out a lot.

http://youtu.be/leKDfxkBa0c

this is the link to the montage.

I have also worked on my script breakdown and organised my shots and figured out what i want on each newspaper. I have only wrote on the print out i did at uni and i will re-type out the new script breakdown when i have figured out the montage.

Right now i am going to work on my shot list with the thumbnails that i have. Hopefully i finish it tonight, well in an hour because its 9pm now and i want to sleep at 10pm.

yeah whatever i have a bed time!

Holidays Day One. 02/04/12

It is now the two weeks holiday! Bloody time going so fast!

So today i worked on a few shots in my thumbnails, i didnt do much work today due to my boyfriend Matt being sick, so i wanted to look after him.
I will make up for it tomorrow and finish off my thumbnails. I also want to finish off some of my old page making. They are two main things i want to finish tomorrow.

I will also try and figure out the starting montage of my animation. I found out that the movie 'Army of Darkness' has a really good montage so i will check it out tomorrow and get some inspiration.

That is all for now, I had my Friday, Saturday and Sunday as my 'not do any work days' and start doing work on Monday. So no more days off for me.
I will blog everyday about the work I have done.