Behanced Stills

So there are are crazy amount of these--just warning you now... So I'm going to do them by project:


Bad Day:

Butterflies & Rainbows

Elimination State

Kitty Blues

Love Sock

The Mouse Awards

The Race

Teddy Bear Wars

If you made it all the way to the bottom of this post, congrats. :)

Logo sketch pt2

Logo sketches... Dunno about some of these.... I had some trouble trying to come up with anything creative....

Logo Sketching

So remembering back that we were supposed to start logo sketching, I pulled out a letter that I had made for a previous non-school related project.  And then I added to it.  Here's what I came up with... hopefully more to come:

 

Being set back again

So, instead of working on my characters like I had originally planned, I was told to make a color rending of the background... which I had originally wanted to paint over christmas....  which is fine, but it puts me back a while... I also don't know if I actually like the result--can't decide whether I love it or hate it with her current look.  Which means, that if it doesn't work, I'm going to have to change her.  Because of how quickly I had to throw it together, I'm going to have to do it over.  But let me make one thing absolutely clear, the hand made backgrounds stay, if I have to go back and redraw each individual character by hand, line by line and piece by piece.  And no one is going to stop me unless hell freezes over.

That said, I'll deal with the animatic over the next few days if possible, and the rest of what is due Thursday.  I will be back with another revised calendar when I figure out exactly how long everything is going to delay me again.

Self-Critique

So here we are again.

I'll be honest... in my head this project went a lot smoother before I started on it.  I feel like I'm always trying to smooth out bumps in the road.  One thing I did notice about myself is that I need to work smarter.  Another is that I have to give myself at least a little time off or I go insane, and trust me that isn't pretty.  I also noticed that I get caught up in small details and just sit there and keep hammering away at them until I think they're good enough to move on, making the bigger work take ten times longer than it should.  Ideally, I would be almost halfway through animating at this point, but unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world, so I'm doing multiple things at once, trying to get to the point where I can start animating.

I began to make the views for the assets of the main character.  And as I began to make the side view with a photo reference, I noticed that I need to go back and change the curvature in her chest and butt area.

Unfortunately, my version of Illustrator isn't compatible with CS5, which I was using at the school during class for the back view, so I'm going to have to go back there and change the settings so I can work on her again.

People take me forever to draw for me, which is probably why I haven't even gotten all of her views done yet.  So that's not good.  My drawing skill is something that can always use improvement.

Considering where I started though, the current sketch of Lisa is a huge improvement:

Sketch #1

Sketch #2

Sketch #3

Sketch #4

Sketch #5

So, if there's anything I can say for myself... it's that I've improved greatly. 

The animatic is one of those things I'm not accustomed to dealing with. I'm still having issues with it, mostly because I'm tired of messing with it, and I'm ready to move on.  I'm also not digging the bus thing.  I tried an alternate scene that I thought would be a good way to try and bring out more of personality, but I still don't feel happy with it.  So I'd say, at this point, I'm frustrated, and I'm about ready to throw my hands up in the air.

But by far the reason why I'm the most unhappy at the moment has to do with a complete throw-away of the original goal of this BFA.  It was supposed to be a short (30 - 45 second) animation that focused mostly on fine detail.  Now, it's almost 2 mins, and fine detail is pretty much impossible because I'm working with a rigged character in after effects.  So yeah, I'm still unhappy about that... probably will be forever... but you know.

Another thing that I'm unhappy with, is that there were times when I should've put my foot down and said, "I'm not fucking doing that," but I still made the change anyway.  And then I would find out later that the change wasn't working.  That annoys me to no end.  And what kills me is that I knew better than to follow what I knew was going to end up sinking the boat.  So, while some of the class's ideas were extremely helpful, some were not so helpful.  And being constantly bombarded with my roommates & boyfriend's opinions too, who were more often than not on my side, made things even harder.  So, my problem is and always has been--since I got into this school, the very first day--my self-esteem.  I don't ever feel like any of my work is up to par. It makes me want to hide my work in a glove compartment rather than show it to a professional audience.

So where I'm at right now, I need to find some inspiration to keep a steady pace going.  

From here, I'm going to try and create something that I'd actually like to show to someone.  That's the new goal of this BFA.  It's the reason why I want to hand-paint my backgrounds, and why I want to send time on lighting and coloring.

So, while, I'm sort of losing my mind over BFA, I've been slacking in the rest of my professional practices.  I find myself not really finding the time to get back to potential internships, and my demo reel still hasn't been edited again since it was last seen.  The resume has been approved.  There was one or two things that I wanted to reword for the film industry's sake, but the rest is fine.  So, I need to get back to demo reels and internships.  Need to do better with professional practices.

I need more time in a day...

So all together, BFA is slowly coming along with a few hiccups along the way, and I need to work more on the professional stuff.

Revised Calendar - Nov.3

November 3rd - have list of potential voice actors

8th - have demo reels completed & finished revising resume, sketch two more backgrounds (8/10 total)

10th - Have all main characters completed, and begin basic loop animations

15th - Begin basic loop animation, revised demo reels, have all backgrounds sketched

17th - Continue loop animation

22nd - Have all assets done, Begin main animation

24th Thanksgiving Break- Thanksgiving (Not working on Senior Studio today...)

29th - continue animation

December 1st - Confirm & start recording voices

6th - continue animation

8th - demo reels finished, and resume finished, have DVD portfolio ready

Winter Break - Hand Paint All Background Panels

January 17th - Have organized presentation to show on first/second day.

19th - continue animation, begin drafting cover letters

24th - continue animation

26th - continue animation

31st - continue animation

February 2nd - continue animation

7th - Finish animation

9th - Finish Coloring any uncolored assets, Rerecord voices to animation

14th - Begin animation revision animation revision, begin sending out for job positions

16th - continue animation revision, add revised voices to animation

21st - continue animation revision, and begin adding any effects deemed necessary

23rd - continue animation revision and cleaning, continue effects

28th - continue animation and cleaning, finish effects

March 1st - Record sound, continue animation cleaning

6th - Begin sound mixing, continue animation cleaning

8th - Mix sound, finish animation cleaning

13th - Mix sound

15th - Mix sound

20th - Finished Product - Draft

22nd - 1st Revision - Finished Product

27th - 2nd Revision Finished Product

29th - Finished animation, be ready to turn in.

For class 11/1/11

So, no surprise, I'm still behind.  I wanted to get all the views of her done this weekend.  I only managed to get one view done.  So, that isn't fantastic.  I did, however, get all four backgrounds done.  I think a couple of them came out nicely.

Street - side view from sidewalk to skyline

Dry cleaners - interior - towards clerk

alleyway - side of wall

alleyway - towards road