i'm sleepy.

On Monday and Tuesday night as i'm pretty sure most of you all know i had Stocktake at work and I am so damn tired! Because of this i have missed two days of doing work!
But the good news is, i actually don't have much to do now!
On Tuesday i said to myself "I am going to finish off all my moodboard work today" and you know what i did? i finished it all off! I have changed a little in the way i work, when i say to myself "I am going to finish ...... today" I actually get it done! i dont know what happened...

So three sheets of moodboard pictures are done and one sheet of the moodboard colours are done.

Looking at my check list the last things i have to complete are.

- front cover
- content page
- comparison sheet
- layouts x4
- concept art x4
- animatic sound

(also note that some of my layouts and concept art i have been working on, mostly pencil work i just need to colour them in.) I am happy where i am with my work and with only a week and a bit left i know i will get it all done in time to hand in. 

moodboards&check list.

On the weekend i worked on my moodboards they are not yet finished but are coming a lot really well. I have put them all together in Photoshop and have three pages in total. I will be making another page which will be a Colour Sampler. I will be grabbing colours that i like from the pictures in my moodboards and place them on my Colour Sample page. I have also already done a Colour Palette using mediums i have at home, but i would like to have two because colours on the computer can be altered very quickly and I can find a new colour that I like. This took me some time as i had a lot of pictures i will continue to finish it off and then work on my Colour Sample page.

Another thing I did was make a check list of all the work i have left to do. It is really good having this as i know exactly what i have left to do and I also know what i have to get done straight away and what isn't really a rush to finish.

That is all i did on the weekend. I would have gotten a lot more done on Sunday but i had work and i was really tired and just couldn't concentrate and fell asleep really early. So I am a little upset about that as i could of had my moodboards and colour sample finished.

I have a really big problem that is happening on Monday and Tuesday night, which is Stocktake at work. I am losing a lot of time because of this!! because i have work straight after Uni and only finish around 1am. So i want to say sorry now if I'm all spaz  and tired on Tuesday. I'm glad i have Wednesday off so i can rest but i still have work to do and I'm going to try really hard to get it done.

That is all for now.

animatic&video block.

Last Wednesday I forgot to blog... sorry, I did a lot of work!
I finished cutting up my storyboards (the ones that have movement) in Photoshop and put my animatic together in After Effects. It took some time as I animated a few of my shots and I wanted to get the timing right. That was the one thing that i had a problem with last year. After i finished off my animatic i had a look for some music. I went on a free music site called 'Incomptech' and found a few songs but I'm not really sold on them yet. For last years animation i knew straight away I wanted a solo violin piece, and I went out and found someone to do it. This animation I'm not too sure if I want someone to do music for me or if I want to find something for free on the web. I'm still working on it.
So the only thing i have to do for my animatic is add the music and the render.

Next I worked on my video block, I had two lots of footage because my shots had changed so I needed to go through both of them with my storyboards and make sure they matched perfectly. There are a few shots that I didn't film because I didn't need much reference for them. I worked and concentrated more on the shots that I knew i would have some problems with. We did multiple takes and i choose the footage that i thought where the best and that captured the emotion i was after.
The only thing i need to do is render my video block and add it to a disc.

After this I then worked on my Comparison sheet. I have put the seed, Edgar and the Tree together so you know when looking how high each are. I have also added a CM (centre meter) side bar. The only thing i have to do for the comparison sheet it to finish off the Tree. I have a basic shape of how i want it to look. The problem is that i haven't really designed the Tree, I know you might think "shouldn't this be the first thing you should design" and i say yeah it is but I have been trying to design it since the start and I'm just having a bit of a problem doing it. I'm still trying I haven't left it and i haven't said "I'll figure it out later" because i know i need to do it now! I think about it every time.

Since i got frustrated with the Tree i went on and finished off my timing in my shot list, i had left the timing till i did my animatic so i could try and keep it together. I then made sure everything in my shot list was right so i could print it.

All of this work took the whole of Wednesday to do, and I am very proud of myself for getting it all done. I am slightly getting better on my time management.      

WEEK 12 – Pre-Production Process Review.

aim: 500 word review of the pre-production process.

My pre-production work for horologium arborium (time of trees) started back before semester one started. I got the idea when I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep and I imagined from beginning to end how a man created a seed and made a tree.  So I wrote it all down and pitched it in class. Since then I worked on my script and got help from Jarrod who made sure my spelling was correct, this is because I have a problem where I put full stops and commas in the wrong place when I’m writing. My idea has changed a bit for the best, mostly cutting down some shots and making things simpler.

For my Thumbnails I had started working from scene 2 onwards. I was having a problem where I wasn’t too sure how to view my starting. My original idea was to have newspapers on the wall and it pans down to the floor to show a bin with scrap paper everywhere. This has changed to each newspaper on its own with dissolve too between each shot, and then at the end of the newspapers I decided to have piles of paper that showed my characters previous work.

For my character design I was having a really big problem trying to see my characters face. I could picture his clothes and hands but I never saw his face and drew my thumbnails without ever seeing his face. During classes I would search up actors, scientist and other characters that I thought would help me for designing my character. I was getting help from my boyfriend Matthew who gave me many names of scientist that he thought would help me design my character. Another thing that helped me out was that I have been waiting for a new movie to come out called ‘The Raven’ which is based on Edgar Allen Poe’s poems. John Cusack plays Poe in the movie, the costume design and the facial features of John Cusack in the film is exactly the way I wanted my character to look. When I was finding pictures I got a lot of help from Darren who asked me a lot of questions on how I wanted the clothes to look? How old is my character? And does he have facial hair? The questions helped me out a lot and I showed him the pictures of John Cusack, Darren helped me by drawing up some concept art that I could reference for my character. I’m really grateful for it and it helped me out a lot for when it was time for me to draw my character.

I am also getting a lot of help from Jack as he is making the seed and tree for me in 3D. He offered to help me because he said that he also likes the steampunk genre. We have had many discussions about what the seed is going to look like, how it opens, what comes out of it, what the final tree looks like, what are my storyboards like for showing the seed growing. I am very confident with Jack working on the seed/tree as he has been showing me his progress of work he has done. Each time we find something new or something that we both think will work better. I have showed him concept art for the seed/tree and I have also been taking his word into consideration to help things work.

The look of the outside world is based on the game ‘Machinarium’ which Jack also showed me. I have used it as a guide for my design for the outside world. For my characters study room I have also put together many photos of libraries and study rooms that Sean has also helped me with. I have also gone through magazines and cut out pictures that will help me design and the way I want items to look in my animation.

For the Model sheet of my character I was having some problems drawing him on the side and the back views. I know this was because my character wears a long jacket which goes down a bit pass his knees and I was finding it hard to draw him in different angles. Darren helped me by saying that I should block out and just draw my character without his jacket first and the add it in after. So I did that and it worked out perfectly.  My Action sheet was fine for me to do as I really enjoy doing simple structure action movements for my character. My Expression sheet at the start I was a little worried about because I found it hard finding picture references of facial expressions I wanted to use. I had no idea how to make an ‘intrigued’ facial expression. So Jack spoke to us about facial expressions and gave us a sheet which had a blank face in the middle with branching out of different facial expressions that can be done. This helped me as I could reference the picture and understand the slight differences that can show different emotions.

My Video Block and Animatic are coming a long all I need to do is find music that I like for my rough scratch track for the Animatic. I have been searching around but I’m still not sure what I’m looking for.  I have also made a Colour Palette of colours that I want in my animation and it’s a big help for me because I now know what each colour looks like and what will work for the textures. I still like the Tea Bag look and I am thinking of having the tea bag look for the background and having solid colours for the character.

I have been backing up my files every few days and writing down and checking off work that I want to complete. I get help from my fellow class mates when I ask for it and I always help back as much as I can. I really enjoy helping others. I am fine working with my class mates but to be honest I do get a little bit distracted, I have started to concentrate more as I push myself to do more work and have the mind set of “if I finish it early I have time to do other things”.

During pre-production I did feel that I was behind, I started to slowly catching up until I got sad news that some one hit my cat and he passed away. I was really upset because he wasn’t just a pet we had him for almost 8 years. Because of this I was finding it hard to concentrate and didn’t feel in the mood to work. I tried my best and I had support from Bounnong and my other fellow class mates. After a few days I felt stronger and started to work more and now I have a lot more work done.

In week 13 I have Stocktake with work on Monday and Tuesday night. This is a set back for me as I’m losing two days of work. I’m glad that Wednesday is a day off because I will try and get more work done but I will also be really tired on Tuesday for classes. I’m going to work hard and try and get work done as much as I can.

word to your mother…                  

thumbnails scene one&draft two updated.

I have updated scene one of my animation in the 'thumbnails' page. so now you can have a look at it.
I have also put in the 2nd draft of my thumbnails.

This is what it looks like. Okay cool. look at 2nd draft in page thingy. 

I forgot to write before that I'm working on my Comparison Sheet for the seed, tree and Edgar. I will hopefully get that done soon.  

Edgar.

This is the Model, Action and Expression sheet of my character Edgar. This will also be in the Page titled 'Edgar'. There is also the Face and Clothes design in this page. 

Scan All The Things.

On Saturday i decided to scan all my work in so that:
1. I have a back up copy
2. i can post things on my blog
3. i have a copy for over the holidays and
4. So Sean can leave me alone.

I had 55 pages to scan in and it took forever!! But after that I cropped each of my shots so i could work on my animatic. I have 54 shots in total!!!! I worked on my first scene, trying to get the timing right and adding in shadow/light effects to see how it looks. i like it so far but still need to work on my other scenes/shots.

I am now in the library about to work more on my animatic. I also need to capture my video block footage (the new footage I recorded) I need Jarrod's help with that as i don't know how to do it, I shall learn how to when he helps me.

Action&Expression.

On Wednesday I worked on my Action sheet and go it complete. I decided to add in the simple structure lines of the actions that my character does. I also started my Expression sheet and used the emotion and facial expression sheet that Jack gave to us. I found it really useful and I now can draw emotions/expression that i didn't know how to draw before.
On Thursday Jack had a look at my expression sheet and said i just needed to fix up his eyes when he becomes hopeful. He also had a look at my design for his face and said that the long face design is a lot more attractive and that he should look like that. So I'm going to redraw him and see if i like it. I do like his roundish face but i don't mind changing it.

With production class last week i finished off my simple animation and now it is time to take the next step of animating in 3D. Jack found a free rigged character and then imported it into Maya2008 and then I had to import my simple animation into Maya and then animate the 3D character to my simple animation. It takes a long time but i am very happy with the way it turned out. I have only done a few movements but it still looks good.

Team Jack.

This is the work that Jack did on the Seed opening. It looks so nice and I'm happy with it. The only thing is that the movement of the roots/piping is too smooth and needs to be more jagged and rough. But over all its amazing!!!!  

Model Sheet.

So I have finished off my Model sheets and I am now up to my action sheet and then expression sheets.
Jack had a look at my storyboards and has said that some of my shots are very flat and that I should give my shots a bit of an angle to give it more appeal.

I have been a bit slack I'm sorry!!!!!! I will upload my storyboards and thumbnails. also my model sheet and my colour palette up here too.


week 11.... ehhh

Simple Animation Test.

This is the simple animation test that i did in Jack's class.

I really enjoyed working on this.

Jack did the acting for me and as he moved to the main contact points I drew them in and then I added the in between movements. Jack helped me with the balancing movement after my character places the seed on the ground.

What's Going On.

So I thought I would just explain a bit about what's going on.
On Thursday morning someone hit my cat and left him dead on the side of the road. We had him for almost 8years. I am still really upset and I'm finding it really hard to concentrate and get work done. Over the weekend I tried really hard to get my model sheet done and try and get other work done too. It just didn't work out the way i planned it and only got half of my model sheet finished.
Saturday was different I had to do mother day thing because on Sunday i had work all day.

So i know i am behind, like really behind i should have had more work done by now and i don't.
Now i am in the library until 12pm when class starts. I'm going to get my model sheets done. It is already the starting of week 11, its not long now till holidays start and animation beings.

So I'm sorry if I'm sad, i just miss him so much.  
:(

Colour Palette.

On Wednesday I tried working on my Model sheet for my character. I was having some issues and I was finding it hard to draw his face, Every time I draw his face there is always a slight change in the way he looks.

I then decided to work on a Colour Palette for the colours I wanted in my animation. I got all the mediums I have and chose the colour range of yellows to browns. I named each colour and if they had a number code on them as well so it can be easier for me to go back to a colour that i really like. I also did a tea bag colour which is just dabbing a wet tea bag on the paper. Over all of the colours i still find the tea bag look more attractive then the others.

I don't have a picture yet i will put it up soon a long with my storyboards.

In Jack's class on Thursday we all chose a shot in our animation to do simple animation to. I chose the shot where Edgar places the seed on the ground. I really enjoyed working on simple structure animating. I will also put this up on here for everyone to look at. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.

Tuesday Work.

In the morning I acted out the new shots and they turned out well. Jarrod helped me out with filming and making sure that the shots looked good and you could see everything that had to be shown.
I then have to capture this footage and work on my video block.

On Monday night I finished off my storyboards, I have a lot of pages. Around 19 of them.
Anyway Darren has looked at my storyboard and he says there fine and that having the characters face in it gives us more of a connection. So I'm happy with that. He said that in one of the shots where the man sees the outside world his little house and him should be in the shot, just to show his one small person and the outside world is bigger.

Right now Neale is looking at my storyboards and there is a lot of pencil movement so I hope there not too bad!!!!!!
In Darren's class I made a list of things I have to do for my animation bible and I started my shot list, hopefully i can get that finished in class, I just have to wait for my storyboards.

I AM THE DIRECTOR!!!
Neale said I was.  

Okay I got my storyboards back and spoke with Neale and they are fine. It's mostly just adding some extra shots of close ups of the man's face . I'm happy to work on them and figure out the new shots.

ALSO!!! I gave my character a name :) its Edgar.
So his name is Edgar. If you don't like it then..... shut up.    

Storyboards Almost Done.

Today is Monday, the beginning of week 10! only 4 more weeks left and its holidays. Over the weekend i did a lot of my storyboards. They are almost done i have a few shots to draw. They will be completed tonight. With my second thumbnails i have only changed a few things and i have added his face and body in, it has more of a flow to it now.

 When i finish off my storyboards i will show Neale, Jack and Darren to see if it makes sense and if i have to change anything around. Then after that i will then go over the pencil in black fine line and also add in the movements in red. I will then scan them in and make my animatic with added music.

Also now that i have changed things around i will need to re-film my video block on Tuesday. I then have to organise my video block in order.
After this i will need to work on my Model sheets, expression sheets, action sheets and maybe a comparison sheet of the man and the tree. I will also need to put on my blog
 - 1st draft, scene 1
- 2nd draft thumbnails
- storyboards