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…
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