Not sure exactly what I'm updating about, really. I'm pretty much in the same boat as before: trudging along with the works. my scene 2 is less inspired for some reason, I think I'll just wrap it up best I can and move the heck on.
Peace out!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Scene still
For your viewing pleasure, here's a still from the first scene. All thats left to do in this scene is some touch-up inbetweening for the rougher transitions and a final color key, otherwise we're one down and 25 to go!
whaddya all think? i hope this is a taste of just how intense I like my backgrounds to be. thats why they're taking all this dang time. But I'm totally digging the intersection of a sketchier animation style to the fairly polished backgrounds. woo.
enjoy, and thanks in advance for any critique!
whaddya all think? i hope this is a taste of just how intense I like my backgrounds to be. thats why they're taking all this dang time. But I'm totally digging the intersection of a sketchier animation style to the fairly polished backgrounds. woo.
enjoy, and thanks in advance for any critique!
Overcoming Obstacles
Despite saving every few keyframes, Flash decided 45 minutes ago that it would no longer save my file. Apparently it was in use by another program that did not exist. I could not save it under another name nor in another directory, the temp file, or an external hard drive.
that file contained my completed first scene and the rough animation for my second. this is not the first time flash crashed on me. the first time it was "still responding", although was taking up 45% of the computers' operating power for no reason. it was unresponsive. luckily i only lost a few frames of progress and the original file remained intact.
when it stopped allowing me to save i was able to copy-paste the frames from the open scene into a new file and save it firmly in 4 different places, but i lost the entire first scene.
the entire file disappeared. it no longer exists and there is no record of it in my M space or the temp drive, which i was working off of. this was following a typical system crash which also wiped out internet use for the duration.
i have now lost cumulatively over 20 hours of work and effort in this project. Congratulations, Murphy. You almost had me. Now watch while I kick your ass.
that file contained my completed first scene and the rough animation for my second. this is not the first time flash crashed on me. the first time it was "still responding", although was taking up 45% of the computers' operating power for no reason. it was unresponsive. luckily i only lost a few frames of progress and the original file remained intact.
when it stopped allowing me to save i was able to copy-paste the frames from the open scene into a new file and save it firmly in 4 different places, but i lost the entire first scene.
the entire file disappeared. it no longer exists and there is no record of it in my M space or the temp drive, which i was working off of. this was following a typical system crash which also wiped out internet use for the duration.
i have now lost cumulatively over 20 hours of work and effort in this project. Congratulations, Murphy. You almost had me. Now watch while I kick your ass.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Animation
OK, guys... that time has come! I started the frame-by-frame animation on the long pan (only finished background so far) and it is amazing to get back into '2D' animation. I did the blocking and am now going back in to do inbetweens. its all rough, uncolored, un-lined animation at this point, although I do kind of like the style so I may continue with it. The shapes are easy to work with and flow well, I guess I cant ask for an easier character unless I want to go with an oldschool flour sack, haha!
anywho, there's really no content so far except to be all like "ohmygosh, i get to animate again!!"
Just for kicks, here's the EXTREMELY ROUGH first pass of the long pan scene. the animation 'flashes' after the first half because i haven't gone in and done the rough inbetweening yet. this is not the final animation, dont worry. the greyed out background helps me see the character, it won't be like that when the movie is finished.
so this is what the next 35 days will be for me. animation! *dance dance dance*
anywho, there's really no content so far except to be all like "ohmygosh, i get to animate again!!"
Just for kicks, here's the EXTREMELY ROUGH first pass of the long pan scene. the animation 'flashes' after the first half because i haven't gone in and done the rough inbetweening yet. this is not the final animation, dont worry. the greyed out background helps me see the character, it won't be like that when the movie is finished.
so this is what the next 35 days will be for me. animation! *dance dance dance*
Backgrounds, Backgrounds, Backgrounds!!
Argh! So many backgrounds!!
Now I know why so many people choose to do minimalist scenes; every scene in my piece has to be cluttered in some way. thats a lot of background time. really there's no file setup involved since I'm not doing cutout; all my time is in rendering backgrounds and frame-by-framing the final animation.
luckily I got all the tutorials done over last weekend so I'm homefree with that. Now its all this project from here on out in this class. Coupled with the rigging class and I have a decent workload. Not that I'm complaining (I missed not having 12 hours of work a day), but after a few weeks of relative downtime its a bit of a chore getting back into the swing of things.
Now I know why so many people choose to do minimalist scenes; every scene in my piece has to be cluttered in some way. thats a lot of background time. really there's no file setup involved since I'm not doing cutout; all my time is in rendering backgrounds and frame-by-framing the final animation.
luckily I got all the tutorials done over last weekend so I'm homefree with that. Now its all this project from here on out in this class. Coupled with the rigging class and I have a decent workload. Not that I'm complaining (I missed not having 12 hours of work a day), but after a few weeks of relative downtime its a bit of a chore getting back into the swing of things.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Glurg
Ugh... backgrounds. so many to do, so little time to do 'em! these high-res texture based backgrounds are killer 'cause you have to recreate everything from a flat matte and shade it to create the object.
here's what i have so far for the big pan. its still extremely empty, obviously, and I'm working for the most part from the top down. its sad 'cause all the rat environments have to be cluttered 'cause he's a packrat. d'oy.
here's what i have so far for the big pan. its still extremely empty, obviously, and I'm working for the most part from the top down. its sad 'cause all the rat environments have to be cluttered 'cause he's a packrat. d'oy.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Troubles in Ratland...
Well, the good news is that i've finally gotten the hang of rat faces. the bad news is that the body isn't so solid. the worse news is that i'm having difficulties making flash do what i want it to.
at the moment my flash handicap is much more significant that i had originally thought. as a result i'm going to do a heavy styalization piece instead of a realistic one. backgrounds high res images, foregrounds practically b/w. i have to start background painting immediately if i want to have any hope of getting it done in time.
i think i'll head over to monty for a few hours to knock some of this out. i have a MAJOR case of put-it-off blues right now. it can't be healthy.
at the moment my flash handicap is much more significant that i had originally thought. as a result i'm going to do a heavy styalization piece instead of a realistic one. backgrounds high res images, foregrounds practically b/w. i have to start background painting immediately if i want to have any hope of getting it done in time.
i think i'll head over to monty for a few hours to knock some of this out. i have a MAJOR case of put-it-off blues right now. it can't be healthy.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Character Turnarounds: Mr. & Mrs. Rat
the heinously still-unnamed Mr. Rat's character sheet is for all intents and purposes complete. i dont think color is exceptionally important ATM so I'll deal with that later. I actually did this sheet in vectors but it looked too 'put together' for the animation style i'll be doing the characters in.
EDIT: Added Mrs. Rat! (dang, they need names)
EDIT: Added Mrs. Rat! (dang, they need names)
Monday, April 13, 2009
New Character Sketches
Still working on nailing down this character from all angles. here's some studies i did. sadly, no reference (done in class) but nonetheless rather cuddly and adorable.
More Updates
Well, here's to updating!
I'm not quite sure what the purpose of this update is intended to be, so I'll just toss some general stuff up. To be honest I didn't get much of a chance to work on this project over the weekend due to a combination of filming and fundrasing. My week included lots of prosthetics, sword fighting, drag queens, and pizza. it was that awesome. The only time i could spend on homework was sunday, when i instead took care of the 5 loads of laundry that had been steadily threatening to consume both my laundry baskets AND a small portion of my bed and caught up on the 19+ hours of sleep I'd been missing. Turns out I only got 10 hours that night, but whatever. Its better than the usual 5.
unfortunately, 4 of the 5 models i've been using for my ratty reference have to go into the vet today. they're looking so sad about it, too. They know what it means when the travel cage comes out. Hopefully all will be better soon. Still, a vet visit for all 5 is a pretty penny and quite a chunk of time. A healthy model is a happy model!
Project-wise, I've fallen behind my personal comfort level. I don't have any completely final backgrounds and since i had my heart broken by my animatic i haven't been back to polish the storyboards. but hey, judging by some (read: most) of the other blogs i'm still ahead of the game by median standards.
well, peace out yo. I'm off to learn the symbol switch button. :)
(Oho, forgot the jolly fat businessman I promised!)
I'm not quite sure what the purpose of this update is intended to be, so I'll just toss some general stuff up. To be honest I didn't get much of a chance to work on this project over the weekend due to a combination of filming and fundrasing. My week included lots of prosthetics, sword fighting, drag queens, and pizza. it was that awesome. The only time i could spend on homework was sunday, when i instead took care of the 5 loads of laundry that had been steadily threatening to consume both my laundry baskets AND a small portion of my bed and caught up on the 19+ hours of sleep I'd been missing. Turns out I only got 10 hours that night, but whatever. Its better than the usual 5.
unfortunately, 4 of the 5 models i've been using for my ratty reference have to go into the vet today. they're looking so sad about it, too. They know what it means when the travel cage comes out. Hopefully all will be better soon. Still, a vet visit for all 5 is a pretty penny and quite a chunk of time. A healthy model is a happy model!
Project-wise, I've fallen behind my personal comfort level. I don't have any completely final backgrounds and since i had my heart broken by my animatic i haven't been back to polish the storyboards. but hey, judging by some (read: most) of the other blogs i'm still ahead of the game by median standards.
well, peace out yo. I'm off to learn the symbol switch button. :)
(Oho, forgot the jolly fat businessman I promised!)
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Updates and Such
Well, its been a pretty productive few days! I'm currently planning and beginning to execute 2 shorts simultaneously. as fun as that sounds, its just as challenging. So balancing the work for both (one in flash, one in 3d) is tricky.
But since last class I started doing the final backgrounds for my scenes. i'm doing cutout backgrounds integrated into a single composition like the Halu games, my source of inspiration. it pulls it away from my original theme a bit, but it also affords some leeway when it comes to animating the characters in terms of the style.
I'm having trouble with rotoscoping the flythru using static objects. i may just export the maya file as a toon shader and use that raw if I can, it would save me about 3 days of work, haha!
Just starting on the walk cycle animation for the tutorial today. I'm gonna try and do a jolly fat businessman! what glee.
But since last class I started doing the final backgrounds for my scenes. i'm doing cutout backgrounds integrated into a single composition like the Halu games, my source of inspiration. it pulls it away from my original theme a bit, but it also affords some leeway when it comes to animating the characters in terms of the style.
I'm having trouble with rotoscoping the flythru using static objects. i may just export the maya file as a toon shader and use that raw if I can, it would save me about 3 days of work, haha!
Just starting on the walk cycle animation for the tutorial today. I'm gonna try and do a jolly fat businessman! what glee.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Rotoscoping, Muybridge style!
Bwaha! Rotoscoping is SUPER FUN! I really love it. I can see so much possibility for some really tweaked-out experimental animation with this method.
Anywho, I'm going to do some reference video of the rats and rotoscope it for the second half of the project. not only will it be impossibly awesomely fun but it'll also help me get more of the motion down on rat-style.
Clearly I should start drinking caffeine in the mornings. Otherwise extreme randomness like this happens. D'oy!
Anywho, I'm going to do some reference video of the rats and rotoscope it for the second half of the project. not only will it be impossibly awesomely fun but it'll also help me get more of the motion down on rat-style.
Clearly I should start drinking caffeine in the mornings. Otherwise extreme randomness like this happens. D'oy!
Attempt at Blogger-style tables
Well, Professor Delao said it would work... here's hopin'! :)
| Speaker | Sound Effect | Action |
| X | Soundtrack start [:The Kiss] | Camera pan to waking RAT, RAT yawns (slow back truck) |
| X | * | RAT greets family, slt rt pan |
| X | * | CU t/t ECU on BABY RAT |
| X | * | CU on RAT (smiles) |
| X | * | LS on family, push to BABY RAT/RAT |
| X | Soundtrack 2 start, drips, feet on pipes | Long downward pan, follow RAT |
| X | * | Push/fly follow RAT, OTS follow up/push thru fly |
| X | Soundtrack 3 start, ambiance | LS (static) RAT [climbing to floor] |
| X | * | LS pan right RAT [crossing floor] |
| X | * | C-LS/spy RAT [from under couch] |
| X | * | OTS w/FOCUS CHANGE pan up [sees target] |
| X | * | HOLD static W/E view for RAT climb |
| X | Soundtrack 4 start | LS RAT [reaching for target] |
| X | * | Tight/LS [slips] |
| X | * | B/E view fly follow [fall] |
| X | :soundtrack cut: | Blackout |
| X | X | Slow fade in, eye view RAT |
| X | Soundtrack 5 start (fade in) | C-LS/spy RAT [from under couch] |
| X | * | LS pan left RAT [crossing floor] |
| X | * | LS(static) RAT [struggling up] |
| X | * | LS fRAT (foreground) FOCUS CHANGE t/window |
| X | * :soundtrack fade out: | EXT window, in to fRAT [looks worried] |
| X | X | ECU/RAT [passes] (slow fade out) |
| X | Soundtrack 6 start | Slow fade in, slow pull from target |
| X | * | Fade out |
| X | * | CREDITS (END) |
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Frustration, AKA beating on Macs
So the M:\ drive has been a complete waste of everyone's time recently and appears to have a personal glutton for making my life a living pit of death.
Today (because *shock and horror* the M space was down and because macs are too retarded to have a temp drive) I was forced to work off the desktop to do my polished animatic. Well, 3 hours later and I'm thinking of calling it an afternoon and heading off to dinner.
I save my file and quit photoshop, happy with the progress I'd made and what I'd accomplished. My buddy showed up so we could eat together and as I logged off I was hit with the sickening realization of what I'd just done.
I hadn't moved the file from the desktop to any other folder and the desktop is not a D:\ accessable drive. It was gone.
Excuse my french, but CRAP.
So I will not be doing a final animatic for this project. forget it. it is not required and I see no reason to re-expend an additional 3 hours of my life doing something that is not neccessary. My luck and murphy gave me a sound beating.
For the first time in my life I took out my anger physically and there is now a very sorry trashcan lying on its side at Dyson. I have lost many things in my dealings with computers, but none of it equal to three hours of my intense labor.
Hope your day is better than mine.
Today (because *shock and horror* the M space was down and because macs are too retarded to have a temp drive) I was forced to work off the desktop to do my polished animatic. Well, 3 hours later and I'm thinking of calling it an afternoon and heading off to dinner.
I save my file and quit photoshop, happy with the progress I'd made and what I'd accomplished. My buddy showed up so we could eat together and as I logged off I was hit with the sickening realization of what I'd just done.
I hadn't moved the file from the desktop to any other folder and the desktop is not a D:\ accessable drive. It was gone.
Excuse my french, but CRAP.
So I will not be doing a final animatic for this project. forget it. it is not required and I see no reason to re-expend an additional 3 hours of my life doing something that is not neccessary. My luck and murphy gave me a sound beating.
For the first time in my life I took out my anger physically and there is now a very sorry trashcan lying on its side at Dyson. I have lost many things in my dealings with computers, but none of it equal to three hours of my intense labor.
Hope your day is better than mine.
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