Drumroll....ANIMATION!

Some lovely people in 2nd and 3rd year have decided that they'd like to help get this film going! Thank you to all of them. I'll update the blog with a full list of names and their potential credits when I know what's going on.

Also, so many thanks to Mark Haldane, Joe McMahon, Jamie Keddie, Lynsey Schaschke and Sarah Dargie for all the vocals and background noises for the film - we've now got over an hour of audio that we can use :)

The first animation isn't really anything exciting, but it's a basic run cycle on a skeleton frame with John's proportions - I'll be using this mirrored in one scene (and that's all the animation for that scene done!) and using it as a reference for two others. It's also the first time I've done a proper test on my linetester setup - and I'm quite pleased! The lighting needs a bit of work, but it's early days yet.

Run Cycle on Vimeo

Recommended Viewing No.4

Big Bang Big Boom – BLUBLU (2010)

Trust me - just watch it. You'll see why!

Big Bang Big Boom on Vimeo

Animatic and audio galore!

Thanks to Sarah's keen eye for timing, we've now got a lovely animatic!

The timing is open to change, but right now, it's running at 2mins 7secs, which is a good length for a graduate film - short enough to be catchy and appealing, long enough to show off our talents!

The vocals, kindly provided by Sarah Gillespie, Mark Haldane and Joe McMahon, are also going to change due to small script changes, and they'll be better composited/combined with each other for consistency and general aural pleasure :)

Please, please, please - leave a comment and tell me how to make it better - that's what the blog is for.

A Sweet Disposition Animatic

on Vimeo - http://vimeo.com/15280234

Updates!

So - as I'm back in uni, working almost full-time on my film, I thought I should probably add another post on here!

The wonderful multi-tasker Sarah Dargie is officially onboard with the project :) She's mainly working on backgrounds just now, and giving me some much needed perspective on what I've done so far - as well as sticking useful postits around the place to keep us all sane.

In short, I've got the almost final storyboards done (and have gotten the Wayne stamp of approval). The actual story, camera angles and movements are all planned, and are all ready for layouts! I'm excited. I'm hoping that some more vocals can be recorded soon, courtesy of Mark Haldane - and this means we could start getting some exact timings down on xsheets, and that's the beginning of keyframing.

Exciting stuff, huh? I'm attaching the schedule, which so far only goes up till the christmas break, but I'm hoping to get the majority of the actual animation done by then, so we should be set to go for 2011! Ambitious? Me? Nope. Mostly just a little crazy.

Recommended Viewing No.5

Mon(s)tre – Geoffroi Ridel (2009)

This is very relevant to my film - a small child, a big surreal monster...
It also combines 2D and 3D well (not perfectly, but very nicely all the same) and, contrary to animation standards of making objects live in time - this film makes objects stop in animation.

Note: On the vimeo page, he states it took 15 weeks to make - plus coffee!

Mon(s)tre on Vimeo (in HD!)