I haven't looked at my calendar in at least a week. It was nice having a rough plan but it wasn't working for me so I started ignoring it. When I went back and marked off what I've done, the results were amusing.
Instead of a calendar, I've been using an excel file. I love the little bar graph and pie chart. This may not work for most people but reducing everything to numbers makes me more comfortable. I feel like I'm focusing more on the final goal instead of all the steps in between.
When I watch this, I'm torn between stomping around shouting RAAAAAWR like I'm godzilla and falling asleep. Is that how I'm supposed to feel?
The After Effects file that my previous animatic was in got really messy so I started over. This file is beautifully organized. I'm rather proud of it. Unfortunately, however, that means no sound for the time being.
The theme for this week is VERY VERY VERY ROUGH animation. Also, effects.
Earlier this week, I posted casting calls on Now Casting and LA Casting. It's been a lot of fun checking people out. There are some new ones I haven't looked at yet but, so far, there's only been one lady that I like for Rose and two guys who could both do an amazing tikbalang. It's hard to choose!
I'm nervous about the whole recording process. Out of everything this thesis needs sound intimidates me the most. Hopefully I'm worrying myself over nothing. One way or another, we're about to find out!
On a completely unrelated note, I've tried to leave comments on everyone's blogs but they aren't going through. I'll type out my comment, pick OpenID, type in my blog's URL, click Post Comment, then my comment disappears forever! It's getting annoying.
I'm trying to decide if After Effect's rain is good enough or if I should take the time to make my own rain. There are only two shots from outside in the rain looking in on the school. However, most of the indoor shots include windows.
Here are some tests using After Effects generated rain.
I'm forcing myself to be ridiculously clean because I'd really prefer not to have to go back later.
I remember someone in class talking about conversion issues when going from Photoshop to After Effects. What was that all about? My laptop has been fussy about exporting anything that's too big but I'm almost positive that's just my laptop.
Somehow, I forgot to post Rose's updated design. Whoops! Here she is.
Now that I'm animating, I've decided that I want to focus on the "real world" part of my thesis first. The backgrounds are easier, there are less characters, and I'm happy with those sections of my animatic. Hopefully, while I'm working, I'll be struck by inspiration for how to improve the bathroom scene!
I'm very happy with my backgrounds so far. They're coming along really nicely, if I do say so myself.
Surprisingly enough, I'm really enjoying my establishing shots. Who'd have thought?
Right now, I'm trying to decide how much effort should go into my backgrounds. I want to include grand establishing shots (since they are so much fun) but how much is too much when it comes to the lesser shots? I don't want the backgrounds to be distracting but I'm not sure if that means toning things down in places or maintaining a consistent amount of detail in every frame.
Ta-da! My updated animatic! I wanted to work on establishing the spaces we are in more. Hopefully that came through, despite the very rough artwork.
Not all of the drawings are new so there are some inconsistencies. For instance, the palm trees at the beginning should be bamboo and the bathroom stalls have been turned to face the magic door. Any time Rose wears a bucket hat is new.
My animatic is still very much a work in progress. Now that I'm happier with the beginning, the middle is starting to bug me. However, there is certainly enough for me to get working on animating!
I'm somewhat concerned about how little dialog there is. I don't want to add more, both because it'd feel like padding and because it'd be more work, but it feels odd to hunt down voice actors for such measly parts.
On the plus side, though, there are a lot of fun sound effects in my future!
