Backgrounds!!

A great background artist from France is doing some backgrounds for me...these are a couple of concepts she sent me ....

her blog: sarah-conceptart.blogspot.com

Final Running Comp #11

So I have finished all the animation and have fixed a few things here and there...If I have time after the coloring stage I will revisit a few details in the animation.

And another

And another....

Stress is overwhelming!

Ok, I know this is like 2 weeks off, but truth is didn't have much to upload. Since I have been working non stop on the scenes. Today I only have 3 Shots left and I am done with the animation. It will be complete!, but from next week I begin the coloring process.

Backgrounds are being a pain atm, coz don't have someone to do'em for me, so if I don't get anyone soon I'll have to speed things up and do them myself in a week.

Yesterday I got a new draft of the music, but went a bit off what I was hoping so they happily went and kept working on it.

Over the weekend I'll finish off another running comp, more complete with some new shots I finished.

goodbye for now...

I know how you feel john...I feel the same way about you...

Final Running Comp!

OK finally here is the final running comp!

Update!

This past week I have been busy with all the details, I have noticed that the more I do it the quicker and better it gets.

Here goes the DVD cover for Sprinkle me silly, most likely I will do a few vector art for the final credits of the animation...

"Educacion es un derecho, no un privilegio! (my sympathy for the students in Chile and their fight for their" rights)

Color test

So it has been impossible to upload the new running edit...internet is baaad...

here is the color test I did last week, which I am feeling it is very close to how i want it to look

I had a chat to Bernardo Tobias, the musician I am working with, on Friday and nailed down a few notes we had regarding the music... he's gone up to Sydney so it's gonna be a bit complicated to schedule and work but its possible...

Running Comp

I 've finished on Alice and on John all the main animation and some of the details... I finished off a running comp with all the timing checked, it works for me and to others to whom I have showed it to...

now that I have done the final running comp it's clearer now what things I have to tweak and change, nothing big...

*Having internet problems - will upload the running comp asap.

Ed

Alice Animation

80% done on Alice, I have done most of her detail work so once I enter the next stage of the detailing I wont need to go over her.

Color thinking:

I think if I paint everything in flash frame by frame will be quicker and easier, but how do you get the watercolor feel to a vectorized color?? hmmm...with an after effects effect of course.... Havent done a test yet, but will do in the coming week.

what I have done so far on Alice:

Ok so this is 2 weeks worth of posting...

I have been working nonstop on John's animation for the past 3 months, and I have almost finished it all. At the moment I am up to the stage where I am finishing off Alice's rough animation to later get into the detailing process.

According to my schedule I should finish everything by the end of October, giving me roughly a week or two to finish any details. At the moment I am running ahead of the schedule and should finish Alice in the next week or so.

Music and backgrounds begin on the last week of august.

Pretty happy how I have confronted this project compared to last year's.

I would like to add afew more camera shots, just as stills so it can be a bit more dynamic. but all in time really. So for now I am more concerned on having a nice and smooth running comp.

The mock up that I have uploaded has only some of the animation I have finished, next week I should have an updated version with alice and some new animation on John.

Mental Breakdown...

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Here's an update of what I decided to do, just because it will save me time. and I will be able to work quicker and save some trees along the track ;D.

1-I draw the keys and contacts on paper

2- Scan In

3-Paste each drawing on flash and time it with the animatic/video block

4- draw all the inbetweens, work my arcs and get the movement right

5- Draw the character over the skeleton made.

6- the result below...

I am quite happy about it. Plus I realized after inking the paper test I did, that the lines I want are very similar to the vector lines that flash generates and gives me the gitter on the lines that I was looking for. The other positive side of it is that I will be able paint each frame in photoshop and give it the watercolor look and each frame will come with an alpha channel that paper doesnt have (obviously).

So I will continue with this technique.

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...

With a little help from my friends...

My girlfriend (aka PNGNA) doing some further works on the backgrounds and some experiments with watercolor...

Production Pipeline Proof

So haven't blogged for some time, but will upload the work so far.

This concept for John's look in the animation is kinda what I am aiming for. Haven't been able to work out a way to make it work though, the idea is that the textures stick to the characters movements; so far we've been trying to work a way around it in after effects, but no textures can be assigned unless they are animated individually (which will take me a life time and most likely the texture will gitter when the character moves). I found out that maybe Anime Pro might do the job, but I am still to prove that. Will do next week.

Also done a test of the background I want for the animation. watercolors for the elements in the shot, the sky will be marbbled. I am still debating whether to trace ink over the composition or not.

Posing and General Design

Here are some of the poses i've been working on for John and some designs on the sprinkler. Some of the poses I need to improve.