So after everything from a day in A&E to a week of repairing and formatting my pc, i've finally comped the animation together for a complete run. Some things still need to be tidied up but as it stands it's complete. Timing may be out but without all the SFX i am not working too hard on that yet.
Enjoy!
29 Apr 2011
27 Apr 2011
Predictable and Murphy Strikes again;
So yeah, naturally, with 2 scenes left to complete, the rig (my pc) completely goes into melt down with corrupted sectors on the HDD, enough blue screens of death to leave an imprint on the monitor and 2 full formats and reinstalls later (the first one went horribly wrong with after effects and even adobe support couldn't fix it) So yeah. I'm just back on track.
Praise the lord for my external hdd backing up over 300Gb of stuff for this animation alone. Dont fancy doing that again.
Progress update:
Final scene left to animate, then comping it all into vegas *(which i need to reinstall - also i lost the file that was the animatic so i will be going from scratch but much of the scenes are to exact timings anyway so fairly straight forward for the most part) Final scene is SC16, the fat man and his arm chair. I've drawn everything out for it, coloured and waiting to be animated. Here's a sneak peak;
Time to crack on.
Praise the lord for my external hdd backing up over 300Gb of stuff for this animation alone. Dont fancy doing that again.
Progress update:
Final scene left to animate, then comping it all into vegas *(which i need to reinstall - also i lost the file that was the animatic so i will be going from scratch but much of the scenes are to exact timings anyway so fairly straight forward for the most part) Final scene is SC16, the fat man and his arm chair. I've drawn everything out for it, coloured and waiting to be animated. Here's a sneak peak;
20 Apr 2011
Progress report - 20.04.2011
So i have neglected this site for a little while now, but i have been busy working away.
I'm pleased to say that bar 2 practically static scenes, the animation is complete. Next step is applying the audio foley tracks and timing, then assessing the workload (thanks to visual culture essays, proposals, bibliographies and my incredibly high levels of intolerance to reading that wafty arty book [Philosophers on Art, from Kant, to the Postmodernists, 2010 Columbia University Press] - enjoy!) i am limited.
I'd hit a few snags in the animation, particular scenes coming out much smoother than others and i am making a list of to do's as i type this. Overall it's going well and I am on track to completing the entire animation in it's roughest state by the end of the weekend. Keep checking back or Subscribe for updates to see the new Animatic - final go live sunday night hopefully.
So the 'To Do' list:
Scene 5.5 - Stone falling (attempt one flopped, need to render nicer bg, stone looks ok)
Scene 14 - Fat guy in couch. (remember to enter in from smoke, simple scene otherwise)
To Tidy:
Scene 8 - Character coloured out of lines. Angle and proportions are skewed in last animated frame. BG all good. Colour filter working.
Scene 5.3 - Fish not 3D layer in After Effects (minor cosmetic, but does stand out)
Scene 15 - Credit Sequence far too quick (fitted to scene timing but looks awful - priority)
Scene 0 - Titles. - The drop, path of movement needs smoothing, but looks ok when music and flow are active.(minor cosmetic)
Scene 1 - Drop needs to fall faster, also, for longer. scene is 1/2 second too short to animatic (check script rev. 2) (still working but could get fixed quickly enough - Causing fade to black transition that makes no sense.)
Scene 4 - Monkey tree climb. Awful, knew it was going to be. Took too long to animate the motion of the hands, try with sfx to see if improved.
Scene 4.2 - Still using old flash animation. Could be replaced with new Gorilla model for consistancy but low priority as it's a very distant shot.
Scene 6 - Stood still. Looks nice, needs that 'ping' on the sun inserting. Easy job.
Scene 7 - Re-shoot if time, get better frame timings and reduce red filter to opacity 34% (production standard)
_____________
Think that should be enough to keep me busy while I slowly work myself into an early grave!
I'm pleased to say that bar 2 practically static scenes, the animation is complete. Next step is applying the audio foley tracks and timing, then assessing the workload (thanks to visual culture essays, proposals, bibliographies and my incredibly high levels of intolerance to reading that wafty arty book [Philosophers on Art, from Kant, to the Postmodernists, 2010 Columbia University Press] - enjoy!) i am limited.
I'd hit a few snags in the animation, particular scenes coming out much smoother than others and i am making a list of to do's as i type this. Overall it's going well and I am on track to completing the entire animation in it's roughest state by the end of the weekend. Keep checking back or Subscribe for updates to see the new Animatic - final go live sunday night hopefully.
So the 'To Do' list:
Scene 5.5 - Stone falling (attempt one flopped, need to render nicer bg, stone looks ok)
Scene 14 - Fat guy in couch. (remember to enter in from smoke, simple scene otherwise)
To Tidy:
Scene 8 - Character coloured out of lines. Angle and proportions are skewed in last animated frame. BG all good. Colour filter working.
Scene 5.3 - Fish not 3D layer in After Effects (minor cosmetic, but does stand out)
Scene 15 - Credit Sequence far too quick (fitted to scene timing but looks awful - priority)
Scene 0 - Titles. - The drop, path of movement needs smoothing, but looks ok when music and flow are active.(minor cosmetic)
Scene 1 - Drop needs to fall faster, also, for longer. scene is 1/2 second too short to animatic (check script rev. 2) (still working but could get fixed quickly enough - Causing fade to black transition that makes no sense.)
Scene 4 - Monkey tree climb. Awful, knew it was going to be. Took too long to animate the motion of the hands, try with sfx to see if improved.
Scene 4.2 - Still using old flash animation. Could be replaced with new Gorilla model for consistancy but low priority as it's a very distant shot.
Scene 6 - Stood still. Looks nice, needs that 'ping' on the sun inserting. Easy job.
Scene 7 - Re-shoot if time, get better frame timings and reduce red filter to opacity 34% (production standard)
_____________
Think that should be enough to keep me busy while I slowly work myself into an early grave!
13 Apr 2011
AFTER EFFECTS
Digital animation is now in effect, and taking longer to do than the handdrawn, whoever said computers were the future was mistaken.
Anyway. Enjoy.
Usual format, compression etc.
Scene 1 - roughly complete, need to tidy the flight path slightly.
Scene 4 - I knew this one was going to be a pain in the preverbial. It was. That is all. Put the little sweat wipe as an after thought to the 14 second scene being nothing but tree climbing hands. Think it breaks it up and is the only humour in the entire animation.
The final Scene 15. Now with 100% more credits. Let me know what you think!
Revised animatic coming soon!
Anyway. Enjoy.
Usual format, compression etc.
Scene 1 - roughly complete, need to tidy the flight path slightly.
Scene 4 - I knew this one was going to be a pain in the preverbial. It was. That is all. Put the little sweat wipe as an after thought to the 14 second scene being nothing but tree climbing hands. Think it breaks it up and is the only humour in the entire animation.
The final Scene 15. Now with 100% more credits. Let me know what you think!
Revised animatic coming soon!
5 Apr 2011
05.04.11 - progress so far
Made lots of progress lately, 100% complete in the hand drawing now i think, may be one or two more things to do/fix.
Scanned and am now comping the first few scenes (2-5) and they are looking great!
Redesigned scenes 10-11. New plot twist, and characters designed, scene animated but need to work out how to do smoke.
I've also produced a few testers after clean up to check they still run, here's a couple of compressed videos !
SC7 - full colour, pre comp.
grat 6
1050x576 16:9
25fps
2shots per frame, repeat on 12th frame and third shot on frame 8 to prolong the impact.
This has since been coloured, and is an overlay to a character shot that remains static. This is the scene which i need to add smoke that fills the screen.
A line test for the old scene 10.1, I decided to remove this shot as it really just didn't do the film justice and was a very predictable angle to take.
Feel free to give feed back on any of the scenes and any ideas you have, especially about the smoke effect!
Scanned and am now comping the first few scenes (2-5) and they are looking great!
Redesigned scenes 10-11. New plot twist, and characters designed, scene animated but need to work out how to do smoke.
I've also produced a few testers after clean up to check they still run, here's a couple of compressed videos !
SC7 - full colour, pre comp.
grat 6
1050x576 16:9
25fps
2shots per frame, repeat on 12th frame and third shot on frame 8 to prolong the impact.
This has since been coloured, and is an overlay to a character shot that remains static. This is the scene which i need to add smoke that fills the screen.
A line test for the old scene 10.1, I decided to remove this shot as it really just didn't do the film justice and was a very predictable angle to take.
Feel free to give feed back on any of the scenes and any ideas you have, especially about the smoke effect!
3 Apr 2011
2 Apr 2011
This is a little untidy,
Ignore the awful attempt at a flash transition between morph and plane flight, i can redo this in Vegas nice and easily. Otherwise, not a bad little scene for a rush job, change of angle, change of plot sudden decision made 2 days ago.
Enjoy!
usual details...
1050x576
25fps
square pixel
made in after effects cs5
Enjoy!
usual details...
1050x576
25fps
square pixel
made in after effects cs5
31 Mar 2011
Polish animation about a fly
Just thought this had great timing and pace and thought i'd chuck it up, although i understand vaguely that he said the F word atleast once at the end im not sure what he was saying.
Funny none the less. and nice use of mixed media in one scene i think.
And another...
Just finished scene 5.1-3's bg work, may aswell share it now...
Thought i should mention that these uploads are all compressed to MPeg 4 xvid codec so the sample rate is reduced slightly (pixelation) this isn't in the compressed video but in youtubes post upload compression doubling it up and really naffing it.
Thought i should mention that these uploads are all compressed to MPeg 4 xvid codec so the sample rate is reduced slightly (pixelation) this isn't in the compressed video but in youtubes post upload compression doubling it up and really naffing it.
After, After Effects...
So had a tutorial yesterday, what a big help! Thanks to Ian for his advice and hilarious stories, so here's what we made;
Bit of a daft one i know.
So then i went home, and i got to making something a bit more relevant and a lot more sexy...
Scene 7, without the character, timings have been an issue, the scene is originally designed to be around 6 seconds long, but the character animation is only 2 seconds, so some crafty editting and additional shots will need to be put in. Watch this space. And yes, it has an orange film filter over it, scene 8 will have a red.
Also did scene 8 which may now come somewhere in the middle of scene 7 ?! - yeah dont ask.
Bit of a daft one i know.
So then i went home, and i got to making something a bit more relevant and a lot more sexy...
Scene 7, without the character, timings have been an issue, the scene is originally designed to be around 6 seconds long, but the character animation is only 2 seconds, so some crafty editting and additional shots will need to be put in. Watch this space. And yes, it has an orange film filter over it, scene 8 will have a red.
Also did scene 8 which may now come somewhere in the middle of scene 7 ?! - yeah dont ask.
Scene 8, 1050x576, 25fps, 6 layers in 3D render. 2 Seconds or 50 frames. character layer missing.
26 Mar 2011
The 'to do' list
Production starts monday, after a fairly successful pitch, currently scoring a nice high 2:1 which i am fairly pleased with (want that 1st even more now). So here's the 'to do' list for monday, and provided i can always get to a computer i will be listing one for each day of production to keep track of what is and isn't getting done.
Character design for Scene 11 is already done, just need to discuss and edit now. Also consider the eye.
Digital backgrounding needs discussing in a technical aspect, what detail and layers to create for clouds and sky in black in white. and how to comp them.
- Consider layout and character layout.
- Line Test - Scene 10, 10.1 - 10.3 (Spear to Plane morphing)
- Digital backgrounding in the evening.
- Discuss with Rachel an idea for scene 11 where plane crashes, and the depth of focus control.
- 10.3 - consider Birds eye view angle as part of morph sequence (ie introduce a cut in the morph make life easy)
- Remember to breathe.
- Character design for Scene 11 - silhouette and detailing.
Character design for Scene 11 is already done, just need to discuss and edit now. Also consider the eye.
Digital backgrounding needs discussing in a technical aspect, what detail and layers to create for clouds and sky in black in white. and how to comp them.
24 Mar 2011
18 Mar 2011
Did some more LT's before todays tutorials...
Scene 6
Graticule 8
23 frames at double shot running 25fps.
(Compressed quality for sake of upload times)
Bit of an elaborate fix, i started the walk with him holding the spear in the wrong hand, inorder to move it other, i, well, i got a bit carried away and made him throw it up and do a forward roll before jumping to catch the spear.
Better than plain old running. Needs a frame to excentuate the throw at frame 13. May remove the first 6/7 frames as it's a slow step and replace with 3 frames or so for the run. Also need to put a few more on the end for the landing, but i am pleased with the motion smoothness and the weighting in the shot considering this is the first time i've ever animated anything like this.
Feel free to comment any suggestions or... ...comments.
15 Mar 2011
Nice and simple
I liked the look of this, something about it's simplicity appeals to me, however the part that caught my eye was the attention to detail when he draws the friend and the movement in the hand i thought was very well captured.
12 Mar 2011
for anyone who had trouble finding a working version
here's a legit black and white UWE Bristol Logo from them, i haven't editted it in anyway and thought i'd just share it up for anyone browsing as a reminder we need to use it on our production materials as and where we can.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Things taken from Cinematography talk 10MAR2011
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2008/02/24/pin-point/
Really liked the artwork and simple shots, often very close up to reduce strain on the animators - NICE TOUCH! - i liked the cinematography and use of colour filters, even though i've designed my piece to be black and white, colour filters or temperatures could give the piece a new depth and if i have time post production will definitely be something i consider trying.
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2011/01/09/stand-up/
I've seen this before, Stand Up has a huge similarity to the visual style i am approaching, slightly more surrealist than i am aiming for with some abstract situations that i dont feel would suit the more documentative angle i am taking with my running piece. But definitely like the use of lighting and reaction shots throughout and i am considering where i can make some of my morphing scenes react a bit more like this, as apposed to the static views they are. At the same time i dont want to bite off more than i can chew with such a short production period and to change too much now may prove costly to the final finish.
Things to follow up:
www.CeltX.com
www.Vimeo.com
www.Skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_1.asp
www.Delicious.com/rachel_robinson
Really liked the artwork and simple shots, often very close up to reduce strain on the animators - NICE TOUCH! - i liked the cinematography and use of colour filters, even though i've designed my piece to be black and white, colour filters or temperatures could give the piece a new depth and if i have time post production will definitely be something i consider trying.
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2011/01/09/stand-up/
I've seen this before, Stand Up has a huge similarity to the visual style i am approaching, slightly more surrealist than i am aiming for with some abstract situations that i dont feel would suit the more documentative angle i am taking with my running piece. But definitely like the use of lighting and reaction shots throughout and i am considering where i can make some of my morphing scenes react a bit more like this, as apposed to the static views they are. At the same time i dont want to bite off more than i can chew with such a short production period and to change too much now may prove costly to the final finish.
Things to follow up:
www.CeltX.com
www.Vimeo.com
www.Skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_1.asp
www.Delicious.com/rachel_robinson
11 Mar 2011
Scene 8 - Line Test - Inked and clean up first test.
Line Test - Coloured and inked.
Video compressed using virtual dub at this scale and size i lost a bit of quality but doesn't matter at this stage.
Also, the transfer from line test to my machine, to internet via compressor seems to have slowed down the movement ever so slightly.
Video compressed using virtual dub at this scale and size i lost a bit of quality but doesn't matter at this stage.
Also, the transfer from line test to my machine, to internet via compressor seems to have slowed down the movement ever so slightly.
10 Mar 2011
9 Mar 2011
Getting ahead of myself now...
Got tired of inking the pencil drawings so decided to get ahead of myself again and try a dvd case design, bit rough and probably all wrong as i dont have the brief, tightly based on the OneSheet, here it is;
And the disc:
And the disc:
5 Mar 2011
Limbo
My final indy game inspiration comes from Limbo, developed by Danish company, PlayDead.
Again the art style is very much the eery black and white environments i wish to create for parts of my animation.
Again the art style is very much the eery black and white environments i wish to create for parts of my animation.
Braid
The title screen from another Indy game, titled Braid. Developer: Jonathan Blow.
Background artwork for the game was created by David Hellman, artist of the critically-acclaimed webcomic A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible.
http://www.alessonislearned.com/
Background artwork for the game was created by David Hellman, artist of the critically-acclaimed webcomic A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible.
http://www.alessonislearned.com/
A trailer to a game called 'NightSky' from indy developers Nicalis.
A lot of the visual style of this game is similar to what i want to accomplish in my work. Something i am taking from this is the use of video capture for things like trees, digitally translated to silouhette and used as an animated background. Gorgeous effect i think you'll agree.
28 Feb 2011
LOSSLESS COMPRESSION
Now I know we've been told not to compress, and for those of you who have 4-5 hours to waste waiting to upload that 2 minute video, fine.
I have been using this old trick for a long time at 3CrowsStudio.net;
http://maketecheasier.com/how-to-compress-a-video-file-with-virtualdub/2009/05/31
This codec and software will compress both audio and video with what i would say is complete losslessness. :D
At least give it a go, if it doesn't work it's more likely you've missed a step than it has damaged the quality.
Took my 459mb file, turned it into 30mb file (129mins to upload 459mb to youtube) or (8mins to upload 30mb to youtube) and the quality, resolution etc is untouched.
Thank me later.
Also watch this space for the video! (actually watch Animatic, that's where it's going)
I have been using this old trick for a long time at 3CrowsStudio.net;
http://maketecheasier.com/how-to-compress-a-video-file-with-virtualdub/2009/05/31
This codec and software will compress both audio and video with what i would say is complete losslessness. :D
At least give it a go, if it doesn't work it's more likely you've missed a step than it has damaged the quality.
Took my 459mb file, turned it into 30mb file (129mins to upload 459mb to youtube) or (8mins to upload 30mb to youtube) and the quality, resolution etc is untouched.
Thank me later.
Also watch this space for the video! (actually watch Animatic, that's where it's going)
26 Feb 2011
FLASH Experimentations and animations
(I have created the video output as a Gif image to save on uploading times.)
Click to watch!
Title Sequence 1
Scene 5 - progression. Given him a right arm with animation. Corrected stone flight path to bounce...
21 Feb 2011
Line Testing - Scenes 3 and 6.
Scene 3
Prod: EVOLUTIONRatio: 16:9 (letter box missing)
FPS: 25
Cond: Unrendered
Scene: 3, 3.2, 3.3 (combined) - Evolutional Creature - Line Test
Scene 6
Prod: EVOLUTION
Ratio: 16:9 (letterbox missing)
FPS: 25
Cond: Unrendered
Scene: 6 - Caveman Reaction - Line Test
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