Last Post

So this blog has officially ended.  I've graduated and life is moving on.  If you like my work or want to keep following me, my new professional blog is called: Celia Mitchell Digital.

With that, goodbye, and enjoy this awesome image by Thomas Hawk.  : )

Calendar Updates 2-22-12

Up until this point, I didn't schedule anything over Spring Break, but as I fell so far behind on my previous calendar, I decided to finally do what was necessary and put it in there.  So far I'm actually on track.  As long as I keep my animating schedule, everything should be fine...

Revised BFA Calendar 2/2/12

Revisions will take place over the break...

Numbered Scene Animatic:

Revised Calendar

Semester 2 - Intro post

So, winter break was a bust, as it seemed to be for everyone. My goal might've been realistic had I really taken the time to think about the fact that my family would be here for three weeks... and take into account their personalities. That said, I won't make excuses. My lack of foresight both for scheduling and for the amount of time that character & asset creation would take is totally my fault and I take full responsibility for not getting that done (as I should).

That said, I have a better plan for getting things done this semester. Among taking a body of classes that will allow me a great deal of time to dedicate to Senior Studio, I've made a calendar that (as long as I've calculated it correctly and stick to the hours in it), will make it so that I get done with enough time to spare. I've divided my animation times into daily 2 hour blocks w/ 4 hour weekend blocks. This also means that if something comes up, I'll know how to make up the time. And keeping a routine like this should make it so that I get used to animating and don't have as many motivation problems. That said I revised some things with my elevator pitch, and I think it's finally something I'm okay with:

This story is a comedic approach to a woman who saves herself when she's loured into a dangerous alleyway by a purse thief, and a superhero who comes to save her is more interested in hearing himself talk than helping with the situation at hand. In the end, we learn that getting her purse back is her first priority, because it holds the key to her bigger secret. Truly no book can ever be judged by its cover.


Calendar:

Finals - 12-8-11

So, this semester was a series of objectives not met.  Part of that had to do with the amount of revisions the course required which kept me from moving on to bigger and better things, and part of that was simply all the things that went on with me this semester.  Towards the end, I feel like I finally started meeting my goals again, until I got to this week.  I actually would have made the deadline fine, except that I have to code three websites this weekend, which took a significant chunk out of my time to work on Senior Studio.  So, I've made peace with the fact that I haven't met my goals, and moved on.

What I have completed is all my backgrounds.  That was another aspect that put me back in the rest of my work.  The 4-5 hours I would spend making a single background (no matter the size) cut into my time that I got to work in Illustrator on the rest of the assets.  I still think working on the bulk of them over Christmas would have been a better idea, but what's past is past.

My goals for the break will be to round up what's left of the assets and get those finished.  Then I plan to get all the scenes with the news stand and the thief out of the way.  My main goals for the break is to have everything up to the fight scene done.  Preferably, I'd have the fight scene animated too, but I'm afraid the chase scene may take some time, especially since she's more active now.

I plan to deal with all the dialogue and the ending next semester.

I'm not sure how realistic this goal is because I've never had to animate in HD on my computer before, but I hope it works out.

As far as web presence goes, I just remade my youtube channel, and of course I also have a Professional Blog.  I won't post my vimeo account just yet because I haven't had a chance to clean it out yet, but I'll have it ready too eventually.

Here's the test animation:



I had some issues with getting her purse to show up the right way, even with the strap divided onto two layers, so that's something that I'm going to have to resolve when I have more time. Until then, I turned the layer off. Otherwise... little by little, I'm getting there.

More Delays

So, this weekend wasn't good.  I worked something like 35 hours on stuff for my classes and I still didn't get even close to what I wanted to get done.  I blame it mostly on web design.  So, I can tell you already, I don't have what's due today.

A) For the work-in-progress, honestly, I haven't even had a chance to touch the animation since I made it.  It worries me that I may not get a solid chance to touch it much even before next Saturday, which at this point would be completely meaningless for this semester.  On the plus side I now have every background done for this animation (a quite tedious task in itself, believe me).  The assets are the real problem at the point.  I planned to have the Illustrator files for all of the assets done by now, but I found that its just not going to happen before Tuesday night.

This is not the week to be behind... but when the shit hits the fan... well, you make due I guess.  I'm desperately hoping that things go faster on Tuesday and Wednesday.

B) Here's my outline for the presentation.  I plan to edit it a bit between now and Thursday.

At the start of my college education ->

-       Deeply influenced by the fantasy and science fiction genres because it gave room for imagination. – Willow, Lord of the Rings (first look at behind the scenes work and making behind the scenes seem more of an interesting journey than the film itself), Star Trek

-       Because of my wide imagination, I like to experiment.

-       Because of my love of film, I started to work with film. (film demo reel)

-       Because of my love of imagination,  I then began to work in animation. (animation demo reel)

-       Currently in my BFA, I am just beginning to animate.  I’m starting to locate where some of the potential issues may be as far as moving a character a certain way or framing them the same way as the animatic.  I finally have all the backgrounds done (in itself an extremely tedious process)

-       Show all assets

-       In the future I see myself in a few different places.  My first choice is video editing.  I like being able to affect how a story is told, based on a series of choices.  The next choice would lie inside the visual effects field.  As I said, I love imagination, so vfx would be a dream job.

C) Web Presence Development - This is a place I'm actually not doing too bad with.

I actually already have a:

- Professional blog

- vimeo

- Youtube

(obviously, they all need to be cleaned up a bit before I can claim them for professional purposes, but they're there.)

I also just got done coding my entire portfolio website.  All I need to do is get it on the web when I'm not broke.

Anyway, that's where I'm at.  Somehow... it'll all get done.  I'm not quite sure how yet... but it'll happen...