And Breathe.......Just Breathe

This week has been……stressful.

I really have to mention that Thesis is not my only concern - no matter what my department head might wish.

On top of thesis class I take 4 other classes…..TA twice a week at school…..do the homework for those classes…..help teach stop motion animation to 5th graders once a week…….and am trying figure out my life for after school - with added pressure from parents.

Not that I’m saying things didn’t get done this week for thesis - just letting you all understand that - yes, thesis is hard, stressful, and time consuming……but add that with everything else I have to juggle and this week was a mess of stress.

Breathe.

Just breathe.

……

Okay. Thesis.

Things have been moving - but not without setbacks.

Of course I opened the file with the piano and pool scene only to find it corrupted. I had an auto-save file that was useable - but it was from before the piano was made so I had to re-make all that.

Joy.

I did get it done and animated - and I really like it.

A good portion of a day was also spent creating the airport interior that they pass through briefly. It still needs to be populated but its coming along. (I even got the luggage conveyer to move right! ……no seen in this post though)

The rest of the weekend was doing a bit of a lot of things.

Starting off with the graduation scene was my plan. Of course it took several variations before the stage was the right perspective and file format. Then there is the fact that there are a TON of people that have to get designed and placed……not looking forward to that. So far I’ve kind-of designed one person, but I need several unique people before I can copy-past-changeColors. 

I also got part way through designing this shot in the scene before realizing I want a bit of a different angle.

The clone people are just place holders

Then the last thing I did for graduation was the individual Wish Flower going though. It could be a bit longer, but I didn’t want to extend the amount on that shot by more than I already did. Of course this might change after I get everything else in and actually cut it together.

What else…….

I tried getting done most of the second part of the failing scene done - the portion of him getting in the car and ride home. The part that I’m worried about the the outside world as it passes by. Ideally I would just create one long canvas and scroll it past the window….but will the angles be okay? I’ll run it past my advisor.

Alright, last thing.

Sound.

Last week I posted a video with my brother doing a voice over for it based on the - very strong - suggestions from my classmates either before break.

So I played it last week to everyone and once it was done then where silent….thinking….then, “Yeah, no.”

Okay, they didn’t exactly say that, but it what it boiled down to.

Specifically they though the inflections where dull (which I disagree with), that the VO was so different from the pictures that it dictated from the animation (fine), and that the whole thing was designed to work without a narration so forcing one wont do any good.

Sure, I’ll take that last one.

“So if you’re not using a voice-over narration, what are you doing for sound?” my advisor asked as I started leaving the presenter’s chair and I turn to her, abashed.

“I’ll figure something out.”

Me figuring something out is getting a composer to write music for the animation. Turned out my advisor’s babysitter did music work and recommended her. So I reached out last week and we hashed out some details and deadlines - and reached an accord.

So next week…..

I really want to be done with all my main animation by next Monday. This means that background characters don’t ‘have’ to be done but I want all Kramer, boy, and trainer animation done. Then a week of secondary, a week of color and lighting, then a week of cleaning….and done? Something like that.

Scary.

Breathe.

Till next time folks!

I Had the Week That Came From Hell

This week has been……ug.

To start, shortly after I updated last week I went into the file for the classroom only to find that I had lost a good 4 hours of work including 2 children, the boy’s back and leash, and the shadows.

Fun.

It didn’t take too long to remake them since I imported the saved photo from before and copied the characters from that. But still it was not a good way to kick off a week of working.

Admittedly I did’t work for 2 days. One was always planned - my sister’s birthday - so I went to Jersey for a day. Then there was the surprise day off when we had a snow day and campus closed down. Some might be able to work in their apartments but you need a computer to do that - and all I have is an iPad.

Now getting stuff done for thesis, when I was finally in the labs, was like pulling teeth at times. I had 8 crashes, 30 errors, missing objects, and a corrupt file.

So. Not. fun.

Now a few things have been going well - and others, again, not so much.

I spent 3 hours working on S9 - Leaf only to question if I should have it in anymore. (Still in the animatic until I make a decision.

I’m not happy with the way Kramer leaves the for training but still want to emphasize the bond they share. To do this I have started creating snap-shot scenes down by the pool and just being together. They are based off of actual photos I have so there wasn’t much effort in terms of layout - but it still takes a while to ‘draw’ it all out.

I’ve also changed the way the graduation scenes functions so Kramer is a viewer in the audience rather than on stage an never getting called. While I don’t have the animation for it I was able to draw some quick sketches to help convey what I want. 

A few other things got done too:

The major animation for S4- Meeting is finished (though the backgrounds still need work.)

S14 - Return got done (love the shadow moment.

 Things still not done:

Animation fixes for S1-3

Lighting

Leaving, Obsticals, and Graduation/Failing are not touched

BACKGROUNDS

Huh.

I have basics done then I thought I did.

Great!

The major part of the week was spent fiddling with sound.

After the last class presentation it was suggested to record my brother talking about Kramer and include it into the animation as a voice over.

So I said I would try it.

That meant that I had to come up with questions and a script outline, record my brother, review the tracks, edit the responses, the edit it with the background audio.

Did I mention my brother lives in North Carolina for school?

My only saving grace was the it was just after spring break for him so he wasn’t swamped. Plus he had some recording equipment at his house for his pod-casts.

So I didn’t have to physically be there, but that meant what I got was a surprise and took a lot longer to weed though.

But, yeah, I kind of like the way its come out so far. I’ll see what everyone else thinks though.

In the end this week really was killer. I spent nearly every day in the labs for at least 12 hours but some how managed to get a lot of work done even with all the crashes.

Only 5 weeks left. I can do this.

Let's Get Down to Business

Let's do this fast because I really want to just go back to working on….well, everything.

It’s officially Spring Break and I’ve been in the labs every day so far. (Meaning Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of last week.) And of course with the snowstorm coming tomorrow I most likely will not be able to work in the labs.....fun.

Not a crazy ton of animation has been done yet since I was working on designs for the children that sit in a classroom listening to a ‘raiser presentation.’ The shot lasts -maybe- 4 seconds, 5 at the most, yet it’s taken ages to get these kids in. More need to be added to make the room feel full, but at this point I can maybe get away with just coloring them differently and changing minor things to get the desired results. I also want every kid to have ‘life motion’ which will be minor but time consuming.

There are some minor animations that I got done including sending a bowl of kibble flying, and picking up a steady bear……but I really don’t feel like uploading them and showing them off because they are maybe a second each, have no backgrounds and are missing stationary body parts at the moment. You’ll have to wait until next week to see it all.

Sorry - not sorry.

I will show you one thing that I’ve animated so far this break.

Its the second half of S11 - Trainer Walk where Kramer sneezes and sends the Wish Flower into the air.

Now the conclusion of this scene is unfinished. I keep getting notes that the current ‘graduation’ scene with Kramer on stage but not participating is confusing and hard to read. To fix this I’ve decided to create a ‘graduation’ scene similar to that in Happy Feet when Mumble doesn’t graduate and just watches from the audience. 

To get there I’m going to follow a wish seed from one scene to the other. When it enters the graduation scene it will float in front of the proceedings at which point the focus will shift from one to the other.

…yeah, that transition is going to need some planning.

Other than that I am currently working on another suggestion given to me from last week’s presentation.

It was suggested that I should have a voice-over of my brother talking about raising Kramer. Not strictly doing a see-say, but enough to give more context and interest.

Of course he had his break last week and is now in North Carolina. Thankfully he has a sound studio at his school and recording equipment at his house for his vlog. Yeah, that means I won’t be there for the recording but I think it can work. I going to be sending him different prompts to talk about, plus maybe even a ‘script’ that I think will work. The trick would be for him to not look at the suggested script until after recording the prompt answers and then not to make it sound scripted.

Okay, maybe this will be a bit hard - and I’m not convinced that it is even going to work. But it has potential and could make the whole thing awesome so I’ll give it a try. If its horrible then I’ll just scrap it.

Right. This is already longer than I intended. Really have to get back to work now.

See you after ‘break.’

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

Let's start off the the drama that wasn't part of animating.

First you need some background information;

Twice a week I 'work' with another teacher in teaching his 2D animation class to sophomores. It's kind of like a TA thing but I don't do as much as in the movies.

Anyway, he was telling the kids (because that's what they are - 19/20 year old little kids) that they should watch some of the Seniors later that day when they give their capstone/thesis presentations. That the seniors still had some time but it would be due April 20.

Wait, WHAT?!

So I asked, "Do graduates and undergraduates have different deadlines, because we where told the 24."

"Not that I'm aware of they shouldn't."

Oh this is just great.

I did track down my advisor to ask her what was up. Basically, its due the 20th for Thursday classes, then 24th for Mondays....which is us.

But, yeah, great way to kick off the work cycle.

So the plan was to finish S1- Arrive, and animate S8-Arrive2 and S11-TrainerWalk. 2 out of 3 is fine, right?

Okay, the beginning.

S1 - Arrive.

Things actually came together with this fairly easily the second time around. I have to come up with something for the backgrounds because its a little bland, and the motion at points needs a bit more sparkle, but still I like the falling over. (Which if you saw last week took a few tries to do.)

You will see all the videos in the latest animatic below, so just enjoy the stills for now.

.....And you would see one here from S1 if anything looked pretty enough, but with the backgrounds still in progress the style look isn't all that new for you.....

Now S8 - Arrive2

This was a good portion of my week (outside of classes, other homework, and job fair) and I personally love the interior of the car.

Some background things need to be animated still, his cycle in the first shot bugs me, the sniffing is just - no -, and the timing is a bit fast - but its done for the most part.

.....

Can I take a moment to pause here and say how obnoxious the computers in our labs are at times. Not only have I started screen-shooting the errors I get but this weekend it was having a really hard time just previewing. 

Don't believe me?

Here is a screen shot of the view I had to try working from while creating the interior of the van. It is at full resolution and has a play back timeline of one frame - so why the issue computer?!

Why? Seriously?

Okay rant over.......

S11 - Training Walk didn't get completely done.

Why?

Wish Flowers.

There is a stupid Wish Flower as a central part of the scene and I started making it - then 4 hours later started animating it, and another 2 before saying "forget it!" and moving on to actually show you something. But it did look cool working on it.

So there is this little nugget: the first shot of the scene but without the trainer. I then realized that the fence gives a flattening effect since it doesn't move perspectively and will have to re-design that....plus other fixes to the shot.

....which you can fin in the animatic because I don't want to upload it twice....

Now, I spent ages on that Wish Flower - and it still needs more work.

Last a little mock-up of on of the shots.

So before I leave you, I'm giving you an updated version of the animatic - mostly because we are doing a presentation today and have o have one rather than I think its time to aline everything an take a look.......

And that's a cap on the week people. Don't know if there will be an update next week, or at least on time, since next Monday starts Spring Break. I'm planning on more-or-less living in the labs for a good portion of it. I do have to go home for a few days, but it shouldn't be too much a bother.

Till Next Time!

And All Belongings

Sorry this is coming a few days late. I really did mean to post this on Monday…..

So this week has been…..full. But not in a way you all would probably prefer.

It was always the plan to have a light amount of stuff to do for this week. Before it was because I would be going home for my mom’s fundraiser. Later it was because of the fundraiser, getting my Grandma places, and a doctors appointment that was to take over 3 hours - which did not go as planed unfortunately, but moving on.

Like you saw last week in the breakdown this past week I should have fixed S3 and S15 while also finishing the animation for S1.

Good new or Bad?

Lets start with the bad this time.

I did not finish S1.

Though I was ready to change the beginning of the story, effectively cutting out the shot of baby Kramer falling over when scratching himself, I was told that I absolutely can’t cut that because it tells so much setup information about his character and relationships.

Great. So I just have to animate the dog falling over right?

So much easier said than done.

The only good thing about this shot right now is that I fixed the monstrosity that was the front view design.

I’ve gone through 3 different versions of him falling over. This one was scrapped quickly because I realized I didn’t like him turning.

Then I had him falling forward… Then sideways…..

….I like sideways the most right now.

Another thing that did get done for S1 is the title shot - it now has animation.

But yeah, S1 still isn’t done.

The good news?

The other scenes are fixed in design.

For example, here are some comparison shots from S15. He might be slimed down too, but I like the idea that over the course of the animation he is not only growing tall but filling out - which is something that really happens during the training period at the Seeing Eye since they are still young.

Before

After

Before

After

S3 is done animation wise. I still need to change the background for a part of it, and fixing everything after re-arranging the pipeline was a bear, but that’s all done now.

So, okay, it doesn’t look like much. And I was planning on having a bit more. But this was always planned - has been since December when the fundraiser was scheduled. Yeah, S1 still isn’t done, but its not like I didn’t work on it. Each of those fall versions might only last a second but took hours of work.

The life of an animator. …..fun.

Next week’s post should will have S1 done, as well as S8 - Arrive2 and S11 - Walk with Trainer.