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?
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.
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 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.
