Tuesday, April 16, 2013

also shot 11 got colored, i forgot,

What kind of a sound environment do you plan for your film? Realistic? More music-based? What will the role of sound be in your film?
My film relies heavily on dialogue, and that will make up the majority of my sound. Behind that there will be a music track, and other than that I hadn't planned on adding any ambient sound other than maybe some birds in the beginning, but I will if needed. The only sounds that really play a role in getting the point across are the voices, really(ex. the cat owner's voice plays an important role regarding what's going on.).
Yeah.

boop 
So, some of these were already done, but as my calender says I have shots 2-8 colored by now, so here they all are. Shot 2 remains uncolored.
Not all the backgrounds are finished yet.


003


004


005


006



007



008

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

journal - 4.2.13

What will you do with your film when you are done?
Regardless of how this turns out, I'll probably submit it to a few festivals- what's there to lose, eh? Except money. If they're not free.
BUT IF THEY ARE.

UHHHH I suppose it will also find its way on the internet as well. The internet likes cats. I'd put it on vimeo before youtube, anyways.


What is your biggest time management challenge, and what is your plan for dealing with it from here through the end of the semester?
I think the main thing I've been facing in the past few weeks that has really thrown my time management skills out the window is this big slump I've been trying to get past. I've been stuck in the "MY FILM SUCKS, EVERYTHING I DO SUCKS, I AM A TERRIBLE PERSON." mentality, and my fear of not having my film look the way I want it to is keeping from well...making my film look the way I want it to. It's not going to. But these things never really turn out exactly the same as how you picture them in your head, I guess. I've spent a few weeks wallowing in my frustration and self-deprecation, but I think I'm starting to come to my senses, finally, because this film isn't gonna make itself. I did a bit of a spring clean up with my computer, bought some new vitamins(so I can stay awake during the day like normal people, yeesh.), and am organizing to the best of my ability so I can regain control of my workload and conquer it.

Which of your classmates’ films do you particularly like? Why? What is the strongest element of their piece? Where would you make suggestions?
I think mostly everyone's doing a pretty great job, honestly.
I love Tracey and Eun Ock's defined senses of style, Karima has made an entertaining story out of something rather simple, Kait's backgrounds and characters are awesome- I can find something I like about everyone's film thus far, there's not a whole lot of helpful information I can give other than to keep going.




As a side note, my blog had 666 views when I checked it this morning. Spooky.





Tuesday, March 26, 2013

some things.


color test and walk cycle.


some screenshots with layouts.
What were the three most important points you absorbed from the mid-semester crit?

-keep everything organized or your life will be miserable.

-think carefully about where there characters are on screen.

-look at your animation as someone who's never seen it.
My animation has been a mess. I forgot to remind myself that even though I know how certain elements will come together, it is really really unclear to anyone else what is going on. I need to take this time to look at my film with a critical eye and pick and choose which things to keep and what to add.


In the meantime, I've been drawing rough layouts behind my characters and betweening keyframes that needed work.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

I think I work best when I am among other workers. I find that I get a lot of animation done when I'm at school because it is less comfortable and less distracting. I get distracted really easily. I like working while my friends are too, because my friends are all hard workers and we keep each other motivated. When I feel like I'm being distracted by people in general I usually just go home. Working in solitude helps too. I like working late at night. It's much less stressful when I stretch out my work time and divide it into chunks so I don't get overwhelmed.
As a side note, I got my toon boom working again, the day is saved.


shot014


shot016

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

What has been the most challenging aspect of getting work done on this project so far? How are you addressing this challenge?
Technology in general is presenting a challenge for me. I have been really, really, really unlucky with my technical devices as of late, so at the start of this I was prepared to face challenges in that area should they arise, and well, they've arisen. Right now my main problem is that toon boom crashes every time I open it on my computer, for some reason, and I have no idea how to fix it. I've tried deleting it and reinstalling it, but that hasn't been working. I've tried downloading some temporary programs to use until I can fix this issue, but those aren't giving me much help either, and my video files are full of watermarks and in general are not very good, hence why I don't have anything new up right now...yet. 

I've been working on still frames in the meantime, but for now it's looking like I ought to just use the toon boom program at school so I can get the rough animation out of the way first. Also, for some reason my wireless card(or something) just won't connect to any of the school's wifi anymore. I got a wire to plug into the phone jack in my dorm, so I finally have internet there again, but I am still limited to that and very specific locations of the school for wifi, and it makes it a pain to do work in class if I can't connect to the internet. That issue isn't really that big of a deal, though, because it's not too hard for me to work around it, so I'm doing what I can. I at least took the precaution of backing up my computer on an external driveway in case my computer explodes, which would not surprise me.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

2.19.2013

Bruxism had a strong sense of design. She used textures, sharp angled lines, and washed out reds and blues. There was enough fluidity in the animation to get the feeling across; her sharp movements fit the art style. The idea was entirely metaphorical but she conveyed it quite clearly, and as a artist it is definitely relatable. The idea is still flexible enough to be relatable to non-artists as well; it is a good representation of anxiety and the fear of being judged. The pacing was effective and overall had a nice flow. The only part I found to be a little slow was the part where she was grinding her teeth. I understand that it's sort of the point, but I feel like that shot could stand to be a couple beats shorter.

Finished two stills and a walk cycle.




Walk cycle herpaderpinderp
002. -- 2.12.2013

I would hope people would find this very very funny, or at least some kind of reaction. I want the audience to sympathize with Bos, but only enough to be able to laugh at her, too. I'd be disappointed if there were no reaction at all, and no laughs, or if people didn't understand what was going on, because then I'll have failed to tell the story in the correct way. The kind of review I'd like to see for this is that it's funny and well animated, above all things, but not one without the other. I can't appreciate a funny piece with terrible animation as much, and if it's unfunny the animation quality won't really matter to your audience if they're falling asleep.

__________________________________
Shots I've completed for this week.

shot005


shot007


shot018 - bos falling


001. -- 2.05.2013

What is your relationship to the main character? What experience of yours inspired you to create him/her?
Luce and Bos are based on my cats Lucifer and Bosley. When we moved we could only keep one cat in the house, so Bos became an outside cat. One day over the summer, I let Lucifer outside(well, took him outside because he's afraid of everything.) and he liked it a lot; so we started letting him out during the day. This turned out to be a really bad decision because Lucifer is well...rude, and kept lounging on our neighbor's porch and bothering them even though they hate cats. We stopped letting him out after that, but now every time the front door opens he attempts to bolt for it, and every once in a while he does get out...until I catch him, anyway.

Work completed this week:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38450530/shot001.swf - done.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38450530/shot004keys.swf -just a few messy keys.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38450530/shot007keys.swf - keys and some inbetweens.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38450530/shot008.swf - Luce needs a little animation, but Bos's is complete.
These aren't all in the order of my shot calendar, whoops. There are a couple shots I needed to skip because I don't have voices recorded yet, only a scratch track; I have the voice actor I need, so I'll do that ASAP.

001. -- 1.29.2013

What did your calender say would be done today by 9am? If this counts as week 1, the first three shots, a journal entry, and a blog set up.

How did you arrive at the "result"? My blog is a little late on the set up because I'm an idiot blogger was giving me issues. I've been messing around with a few programs to get a feel for whatever would be best for me to do this with and I'm leaning towards toonboom. I don't quite have anything to show yet as far as shots go but I'm aiming for at least two or three done by the end of the afternoon.

What's the plan for next week? Do double the work this week, and catch up in the areas needed.

I'm admittedly nervous about this project. From registering for classes late I'm starting out a little behind and I'm really afraid of this project not turning out the way I'd like. I'm pretty new to digital animation, I'll probably be teaching myself new things as I work on it. I'm pretty confident with my decision of how I'd like this to be animated, but I'm a little stuck on how I could color it, which is something I don't need to worry about this second, but something I need to experiment with.