Yeah, this post is significantly shorter than the past few weeks. With Easter over the weekend I wasn’t in the labs as much as I would normally.
Things are still coming along though. This week the main focus was finishing the animation of the stuff I’ve only blocked in so far. For the most part it was successful:
Jumping into the car? Check.
Create a pole for the trainer to hit her head on? Yup..
Get the reflections into the floor during the growing shot? Got cha’.
Have the boy move when in the pool? Done.
Add people to the leaf scene? There you go.
I even fixed the meeting scene that everyone was having issues understanding.
Of course I got most of that scenes animation done and decided the interior space doesn’t work. So now I have to re-design all those interiors…. yet another thing to do on the list of things to finish.
With that, here is the animatic. For anyone new to my posts, the video posted next week will only be viewable by my advisor until a year has past so it can be submitted to festivals.
When we turn in the animation next week we also have to submit 5 still frames from the short at a high resolution. These are the 5 I think I’m going to go with (though 1 isn’t finished…)
Maybe?
Maybe?
Absolutly
If it looks like it does in my head when done
Absolutely
It really is crunch time now. Everything need to be finished Friday night to get things rendered out.
The finish line is approaching and the view is a bit terrifying.
I didn’t exactly get done everything that I wanted…….
My goal, wish, deadline, was that everything would be animated by today so there would only have to be clean-up and color correction/lighting.
……yeah, no.
Instead I was completely un-inspired to work on the scenes needed for the longest time, but I still got a lot of sh--stuff done for this week. Mostly I went to some of the ‘done’ scenes and did some lighting or background corrections.
That is NOT to say things didn’t get done that had to be.
The leaf scene (which my advisor said to keep) got backgrounds and most of the proper dog motion. (People still need to be added.)
I got more of the pool scene put together.
And I did my best to have no board drawings showing for this week.
Okay, that didn’t quite happen.
There is still drawings for Shop Rite and the end of the Obstacles scene…….
The Puppy Raiser exterior isn’t yet made…….
Then animation wise:
-The obstacles scene still needs the pole that she hits her head on. And a small scene at the end of her glaring at Kramer is needed.
-The Raiser Training Meeting needs work. Period.
-The scene where he leaves his boy is comically blocked in but obviously needs love.
-Background character animation is needed in several places.
…Alright, I’ll admit that when it’s listed like that it isn’t the most encouraging…..
But a lot of stuff also got made for this week, see!
Now there was a little hiccup in the past week with music:
It’s late Sunday night and I still hadn’t received the 2nd draft of the music which I should have gotten on Saturday so I shoot the composer an email.
She responds that the 2nd draft isn’t due till the 15th but she can send me what she has on the revision and will send something more clean in the morning.
I get the new rough soon after but felt compelled to tell her that 2nd was due the 8th and the final draft is the 15th.
There was a bit more words, but what it boiled down to was that she basically got the dates between my deadlines with her and the ones she has with a class mate. I guess that’s what happens when a few of you use the same person……
It worked out fine since I got the music. Like I said, a hiccup.
Oh, as a treat I’ll leave you this.
Sometimes, when I remember, I screen record as I work so I have material for a making-of video. For now I spend this up and threw on a temp song. (Music is absolutely NOT mine - from the anime show Haikyuu!!)
So there you have it people. Only 2 weeks left and we’re hitting the gas full throttle here on out!
First off, I got a draft version of the audio. Unfortunately you won’t be able to hear it in the latest animatic because I was given it as a .mov over top the previous animatic with the voice over, and I don’t want to confuse you - I’m confused enough.
Scenes are actually getting done and for the first time in a long while I’m starting to get excited about the animation.
The graduation scene is basically fully animated. The only bits of animation that are still needed is the life animation of those on stage (still need to make all those people) and the transition from the Wish Flowers to the beginning of the graduation scene in general.
So one of the things I started doing is lighting.
Yeah, I didn’t plan on doing it until the second-to-last week, but I needed to get some done for the hallway scene to know if the dimensional After Effects lights would work or if I would have to get fancy with some blending layers.
Thankfully the lights work well……kind of. The bright light from outside wouldn’t work as a dimensional light (it kept showing up inside the hall even when the door was shut.) So I ended up having to do some 2D ‘lights’ anyway.
The dilemma came when things where starting to look done and I realized I was getting banding again.
This is an issue I’ve had multiple times in the past, occasionally with just using gradients, but most always when 3D lights have been added in. Teachers have noticed it but never offered suggestions on how to get rid of it.
So I asked google.
For this fairly common issue only 3 options exist to help - and several commented that it still didn’t fix the issue completely. Me I went with number 3 since #1 would change the style of my animation and #2 only applies to gradients and not lights.
Basically its all about the bit-depth.
Turns out the default is 8-bit files, and to get rid of banding you need to be at least 16 if not 32. I’ve tried out all and here is my comparison.
8-bit
16-bit
32-bit
Okay, not sure how well you can see it - but I promise there is a difference. If your picture is clear then you’ll see that the first one has noticeable banding on the wall both left and right of the characters. (This is 8-bit) The second one, 16-bit, no longer has the banding behind the figures, and the other side is much better but still there a bit. However, when looking at the 32-bit image there isn’t too much of a change to really warrant the extra depth and render time.
So for now I’ll go with 16-bit unless some scenes still show lots of banding still. Trick will be remembering to change the setting on all the other scene files before rendering…… And I’m only going to change it before the final renders because I did it for this little scene and it took 20 minutes for just over 6 seconds.
Yeah, I should test the look all together, but I’ll work with only looking at test stills because I’m not going to sit there for 40 minutes to render something that I’m going to change.
The last thing that had to get animated, that hadn’t really been touched at all, was the obstacle course. Simple right? Just one scene.
Only I sat down to work on it and nothing.
Zip.
…..okay, not quite.
I got done the basics for the 3/4 person walk and the profile person walk — 2 things that are actually needed in other scenes as well.
I finished those, went to start laying out the different shots, and just started getting so frustrated by the different elements. Where the things I tried in the Hallway scene ended up working, nothing was really lining up here.
And I can NOT cut this scene. Its very important in his story and why he fails.
So I decided to just take a step back from it. I’ll finish it next week but I really just need to figure out the logistics of the elements for the scene. Instead I went back to the first shot and tried fixing the background compositions. just by adding some trees it looks sooooo much better. I ran out of time to get more in there but its coming along.
……I don’t have a still of this so you’ll have to just look at the animatic…….
Right. About the animatic….
I got the first draft of the music over the weekend so you can here that in there too. There are some transition issues and gaps, but for a first pass of music that is workable. Thoughts?
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.
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.
The beginning email note is being axed and the music needs to change, plus maybe changed some of the shot compositions to add dynamics…..
But basically, the story is based off the experience I’ve had with my family in raising puppies for The Seeing Eye (not that I will ever name them in the animation I think). The story follows our Golden Retriever, Kramer, has he grows and learns. Eventually he goes through all his training but is too goofy to pass and ends up returning home.
In short: a LOT of animating dogs.
….dogs are really hard to animate.
Why am I doing this again?
So over the past week I started working on one of the later shots known to me as “Leaf.” This involves Kramer, another dog, 2 trainers, a leaf and an evaluator? …not sure on that last part.
The leaf got made and animated without issue - though I might still tweak the timing here and there a bit.
The other dog, who I’m naming Kato since he will be in more of the story, got animated for the most part and I like him.
The trainers and evaluator (if I even have one) aren’t made yet. -_-
Then you have Kramer.
Things started rocky since I had yet to design a view of him head on as an adult. Plus I’m taking notes from last semester and giving a nose shine and more expressive eyes. All in all the design got to the point that I was like, “Okay, this might work but he still doesn’t look like his other angles.”
Why did I design the shot head on?
Next was actually animating him.
That was even more annoying, and took waaaay more time that I thought it would. It’s starting to come along but there where so may issues that came up and things that still need to be addressed that I’m not happy with it.
Seriously, why did I choose this story to get back into things?
Whatever.
If you want, here’s the latest version of the shot so far. The background is going to change so I don’t want to hear anything about that:
Well hopefully this next week goes better. I’m thinking of maybe doing the end scene next, not sure.
