Finally got my animatic rendered!

After much hassle, I realized with the help of Matt Sheehan that I had been using the wrong pixel aspect ratio for everything in my film. I also figured out how to render my film without coming into a memory problem. I divided my large Aftereffects file into 5 different aftereffects files based on sequence number. I created a master aftereffects file to compile all of the mov files of the different sequences.

This week, I worked on shots 6, 7, and 8 of sequence 4 and 9, 5 of sequence 6. I was going to do 9 and 10 of sequence 4, but those are especially difficult scenes so I'm working on them separately next week.

I'm really afraid I'm going to come into a lot of problems in the comping stage, so I think next week I will be cleaning up and coloring one character for a shot moving 3D space as a test.

I'm still working on the shots, so I'm going to finish that up and post my animatic in this post then.

EDIT: apparently my animatic is too large to handle. So you will have to see it tomorrow.

Finished Sequence 3!

DUE TOMORROW:
Seq6 Layouts
Animation:
Seq3: 10, and 21
Seq4: 1, 12, 3, 4
Revise Seq3_sc8

I'm having rendering issues in aftereffects right now, so I won't be able to post a new animatic. I DID post one last week though, so hopefully that is enough? This week, I finished the last two shots of Sequence 3 animation! I need to go back and make some revisions on a couple of the shots that don't make any sense, namely the one with the shadow and the one after it.

I talked to my composer today, and I think its official that he will be joining me on this project. His name is Harrison Lee, a student of SMPTV. He does really awesome synth work, and has his own electronica duo back in Canada. He's excited by the project as much as I am! Here is a link to his SMPTV page and his soundlcoud:

http://soundcloud.com/secretsquares
http://www.smptv.net/student.php?id=77

As for the backgrounds, I've been meeting with Dom once a week on Sundays so that he can work on it at my cubicle. This week he worked on lighting the scene. It's coming together rather nicely, but we both think the store looks rather neat. We tried pushing polygons around to make the lines of the shelves not so straight, and it actually looks a lot better, more organic. It still definitely needs work. I'm glad we started the bgs way ahead of time.

next week the plan is to finish Sequence 4. This includes everything from the part where Ray grabs Helen to the part where Ray turns into a monster. The last two scenes are definitely going to be tricky because I want to make the transformation really cool. We'll see how it goes.

Need to start thinking about sound design....

DUE NEXT WEEK:
Sequence 4 Animation: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

moving along...

DUE TOMORROW:
Seq3: 7, 3, 23, 8, 9
Layouts: Sequence 5
Revised Animatic

DUE NEXT WEEK:
Seq3: 10, 16
Seq4: 1, 12, 3, 4
Layouts: Sequence 6

scatterbrained....

Due tomorrow:
Layouts: Sequence 3 and 4
Assets: Outside BG
Roughs: Seq2_sc00, Seq3_sc1, Seq3_sc24, Seq3_sc15

So I made some changes to my schedule this week in terms of animation. I moved 3 shots over to next week and switched it with the sequence 4 layouts because I felt that it would be better to wait on those shots for next week so I can get a better sense of their continuity with another shot I am doing next week. I DID, however, get the sequence 3 layouts done and the outside BG.

I am a little scatterbrained right now, and have been for the past week. I can't tell if I am working too hard to working too little.

At the moment I am writing this, I am in the midst of redoing the climax of my film.  I cut out the whole part where Ray monster picks up Jin monster and gets ready to finish him off. Instead, Helen trips Ray before he can even get to Jin. I don't know if I am making any sense at all because like I said before, I am feeling quite scatterbrained. I will show it tomorrow to see what people think.

PS: I changed Helen's design a while ago, but I haven't given her a model sheet yet.

The 3D background is also coming along nicely. Here are some images of it:

The following is a test I did with Darren Kiner to figure out how to put the 2d character in 3d space. I really want to be able to do this in some of the shots in my film. It'll be a good challenge.

Lastly, here is the lineart of the bg image.

Get ready to see my animation tomorrow! :)

Due Next week:

Layouts: Sequence 5

Rough Animation: Seq3_sc7, Seq3_sc3, Seq3_sc23, Seq3_sc9, Seq3_sc21

Sequence 2 almost completed!

DUE TOMORROW:
Roughs: Seq2_sc4, Seq2_sc11, Seq2_sc13, Seq2_sc16
Layouts: Sequence 2, Toy Shelf

This week I completed the rest of Sequence 2, including all of the layouts except for the exterior design in Seq2_sc00, which I will be doing next week. I talked to Bethany for the first time and we talked about sound design, which is probably one of the more daunting tasks I need to face. I will need to adjust my schedule to account for sound design/music because right now I don't really have anything.

While doing the layouts, I came across an issue with comping the 2D characters on the 3D bgs that were zooming in and out. I talked to Mike Fink and he said that I should put the 2D characters on a plate in 3D space so that the character will move with the bg. I'm meeting with Darren Kiner to help me work on that tonight.

Next week I'll be continuing Sequence 3 and making revisions on Sequence 2 animation. I'll also be drawing/designing the shot that shows the outside of the store.

DUE NEXT WEEK:
Assets: Outside BG image
roughs: Seq2_sc00, Seq3_sc1, Seq3_sc3, Seq3_sc23, Seq3_sc21, Seq3_sc15
Layouts: Sequence 3
Revisions: Seq2_sc7, Seq2_sc17
BG: create textures for floors and walls

This might be too much, but I'm going to try!

Progress...

DUE Tomorrow:
roughs: Seq2_sc3, Seq2_sc8, Seq2_sc14, seq3_sc20, seq3_sc12, seq3_sc13

I've been working on animation all week this week. I wanted to see if I could get 6 scenes out of the way, and it wasn't so bad. Then again, I'm still doing the easy scenes. I still have one more scene left to go which I need to work on today. My goal for my schedule is to create certain due dates for scenes and act as if they are hard deadlines. This way I can push my way forward without getting stuck on one scene. I am a little nervous, however, because there is not much room to do any editing/fixes on the animation. I really wanted to talk to some mentors on how to improve my work, but now I am scared to because if I do, I will want to make those changes and perhaps get behind on my production schedule. Not sure how to deal with this issue.

Next week I'm planning on finishing the layouts of sequence 2, and then the rough animation of sequence 2 (except for sc.00). This includes working on layout of the toy shelf, and getting a clear outline of what it should look like.

DUE next week:
Assets: Create the toy shelf layout
Roughs: Roughs Due: Seq2_sc9, Seq2_sc11, Seq2_sc13, Seq2_sc16
Layouts: finish layouts for Seq2

I talked to Trixy the other day, and she gave me some tips on things that are a little unclear. Most of it is because my storyboards are really rough, so I think once I get in the layouts I should be fine. I plan on finishing all the layouts by October 16th, as well as the rough animation of both seq2 and seq3.

Any thoughts?

Current Animatic

I have two versions of the film. Let me know which one you think is better/clearer.