Tracking Doc

A few things have changed since the production plan.

Document Naming System

Once I got down to do the assets list I came across an ideal naming system that might work for this years animation. I will be separating every shot, and in every shot it will have either Johns frames of Alice's or both.

Storage

I am still to make a backup, which I will have to do now!.

Backgrounds

I will be doing everything in water color, so no marbling this year. It turned out to be time consuming.

Animation

Nothing much has changed regarding the way I will be animating. I will be going with my first option which was inking everything on the paper and not on the pc. I am considering coloring it on paper also, I am still to decide.

peace.

After 11 tests I think I have finally nail down the motion. During the process I have learnt some valuable lessons regarding timing and spacing, and of course the process in general. This has expanded my way on how I will be working on the animation. KEYS>EXTREMES>STRAIGHT AHEAD.

Starting on Monday I will be planning out the amount of work I should be doing over the break.

Journal Update!

Been through quite a few changes in the past weeks.

First off, I have been using my animatic and video block to time and flesh out some of the movements in the film, it has been very useful. I plan the animation in small with all the main keys and extremes which I then later scan in the pc and time it with the video block then dropped into the animatic. Next step I use these poses and go through rough tests of the animation until I get the final one. This has proven to be the most effective way to work.

In the thumbnails I work out the weight and flow of each pose so that the final animation can look dynamic and not stiff, so far so good, working with character arcs and action line on the poses has given a great turn to the tests.

The tests I have posted have resulted to be quite successful, but I still think I am lacking on body exaggeration, just because it’s a cartoon, but will stick to what I am doing for the moment and learn as I go.
I finally understand and can apply the 2's and 1's concept without burning my brain out and guess that what ever I did last year was the correct way, well apparently not. I have been able to plan and to number my pages as I animate. Thanks Jack and Seamus for pointing me in the right direction!
The naming system I have some up with has blended in well with the way I am going to work and makes more sense than last year, so I don’t expect on searching for a single frame mixed up with another 600 frames in one file.
I am still to paint some of my backgrounds in watercolour; I agree with Jack that the x depth will take away the original feel of a comic page. So decided that I will paint everything as a whole.
Oh! And wont be doing any marbling…not for now at least.

I have come to the conclusion that I won’t be able to do the texture feel to my character because it will mean that I have to reanimate each part of the characters texture. Decided I will ink each frame by hand and paint it on paper. So no digital this year, also because I a more traditionally driven illustrator and I want to keep this by doing it all on paper.

Spoke to the musician last week about the music and understands the idea of the animation being a gag. The soundtrack will be a similar concept to that of the pick panther or the Pixar shorts in general. I might have another sound guy to put all the sounds into the animation.

I feel that the animation is going on a steady path at this point.

First Pencil Test

So here goes the first pencil test for one of the sequences. I timed the animation with the video, did my KEYS then the extremes and then all the inbetweens, and I am loving the result.

Video/pencil Test

So i haven't updated my blog for almost a month...not good...
but have been working on a sequence which is when John picks up Alice and walks off the grass and onto the path away from the sprinkler, so far so good, did a few tests and found that video reference is of great help,"it's saved animation!".
focused on the weight and arcs around the character, after this I will be drawing the poses for john and Alice and eventually the inbetweens.
In the meantime I am drawing the extremes for the walk.

The idea is to have all the extremes and work on the timing before going in and animating everything, this I hope to finish during the winter holidays.



it's raining outside :S...