On Monday, I opted not to go into uni as I felt I didn’t have enough prepared for a tutorial, and I knew I wouldn’t get work done in the classroom as it is always too overstimulating during tutorial days.
I’ve been running into a lot of problems however working at home due to my computer not having enough storage, I spent the morning troubleshooting and eventually had to fork out some money for a new SSD (there goes all my extra hours from the break T^T). However, I have needed an upgrade anyway and now I should be able to run the programs I need to to keep working from home, when it arrives.
I finally managed to render my showreel which finished off another task I had been toiling over during the break, but by the time I finished all of this, including finishing off the last reflection post, it was time for our online class with Darren. He gave us feedback on our showreels, my main take away was to really consider the repetition in clips, if a clip wasn’t showing off a new/different skill, it’s probably not worth having in the reel. After that I spent the afternoon working on some layouts for the film.
On Tuesday I finished off my layouts. I’ve rerserved a few books in the library to reference for composition as I am struggling with the two backgrounds I want to create for panning shots. I really like layout and background design so I really want to work hard on these aspects of the film. I have been referencing Devin Elle Kurtz, as she is one of my favorite background artists, but many of her tutorials and books focus on illustration rather that layout for animation. I also want to use a simpler more shapey render style like Genndy Tartakovsky’s work so I have been looking at the art for Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Lab, as well as the references I presented at the first interim, especially Mystery Inc..
I don’t need the perspective to be perfect, as I am trying to tap into a very exaggerated uncanny vibe, like in Invader Zim, however I still need it to make sense for the pans. I am strugging to find reference online, so I started with a panoramic picture I took.
This helps me see where the warping takes place for that second image.
On Wednesday before class I put up a few posters calling for a composer and sound designer all over uni. I wrote up this treatment with all the details I think someone would need to help me out. I will also get my little brother to ask at his music school. We then had an animation skills session with Steve. He used the class to come around to each of us about our films. I had forgotten my flash drive, and for some reason the videos on MyBlog weren’t working (they are now though?), so I couldn’t show him anything, but I described the plot I have right now according to my beat sheet (see last post). He suggested I was trying to pack in too much exposition and I should narrow down the scope of the narrative even more. While I totally agree, I still don’t know how to find the right balance of exposition to action. One of the critiques I recieved in the first interim was about how my characters weren’t fleshed out, so I wrote long profiles for them, but I don’t know how to show all that characterization without my current exposition. Steve also suggested to pare down the narrative into more of a trailer focusing on little comedic bits, as I imagine this world as a more longform series. But other students who wanted to produce ‘trailers’ were quite negatively received by tutors so I’m not entirely sure what he meant by that. I wanted more help but he had to see other students so I’ve booked a tutorial with Su-Lynn to go over these points and see if I can clarify all of this for myself.
After uni I came home and immediately panicked because I don’t know how I will have a proof of concept by Wednesday. I planned out the rest of my week(end) however, and I should be able to produce something by Wednesday if I can muster up the energy. It is unfortunate that now we have classes on Tuesdays and DPS sessions on Thursdays because it means I can only work on weekends, and thus have no days off in the week, as I need to work two shifts a week, but I digress.
I checked out the books Setting the Scene by Fraser MacLean, Magic Color Flair by John Canemaker and Layout and Background from the Disney archive series. Looking through these books I am coming to a better understanding of layout and how I want to compose my scenes. While Mary Blair and Devin Elle Kurtz have been longstanding background inspirations for me, have I also put together a reference board pulling from Carol Wyatt, Scott Wills, and Stephen Nicodemus, as well as some other art and photography I found online.
I ultimately realized I have to focus the rest of my time leading up the the second interim on this proof of concept so I finished off the night by doing a value study on the background for my test scene.
Since I want to paint my backgrounds in a lineless style (à la Scott Wills, but digital), I’ll be skipping inking, and painting right over the sketch.
Finally, I’d like to apologize for the potential whiny-ness of the Wednesday section, I have been working extra shifts, working on the RCA films, been busy at home because my roommate broke her knee and had to go home to recover, and to top it all off, the day I go back to uni I wake up with a cold after having been fine all break. I half treat these reflections as a diary and it helps to get everything out in text LOL.
On Thursday, I had a tutorial with Su-Lynn. I discussed my questions with her and I was given a lot of good advice. We made some changes to the animatic. Firstly, cutting the opening sequence. Since Briggs (the ringleader) doesn’t have much story relevance, and doesn’t really serve any purpose other than as a literal guide, we thought it would be more effective to open the film right on the shadow puppet scene. He will still feature in the background, as a circus still needs its ringleader, but that scene doesn’t have much impact, and cutting it creates less production work for me. Su-Lynn suggested moving the order of the panels around, when Callie realizes her trapeze partner has changed to allow the audience a little more insiught into Callie’s reaction. I’ll also be adding a shot right before she plummets as she reaches out, pleading for Podge to catch her, to intensify the drama. There are more cuts in the scene now, which makes the pacing feel a lot faster and more dramatic. Su-Lynn also suggested this scene could be done in a sequence of split screens as we see both characters perspectives in the moment, however I think I probably won’t do that, as it makes the format feel a lot more comic-book-reminiscent, and I’d like to stick to a more theatrical staging, of having one scene in front of the camera. I may still try the split screen in my thumbnails though, just to test it.
The most significant suggestion was for the central scene where Podge and Petra plot their plan to win over Callie. Su-Lynn thought there could be more reinforcement on the point that Petra is jealous of Arlo and Callie, so adding them flirting in the background would help contextualize the plotting scene. However when trying to recompose that panel, I couldn’t figure out how to fit all of that in frame while also indicating that the camera was hiding as they listened in. So I positioned some legos to map out a camera movement, where the viewer would first see Petra watching Callie and Arlo flirt, then as Petra turns away, upset, the camera whips back behind the curtain, and then peeks again at the reflection of Podge and Petra whispering sinisterly in the dressing room mirror.
This will be the sequence I show as a proof of concept for the interim. I hope to at least have it keyframed and the background done.
Finally, Su-Lynn suggested I think about perhaps giving an indication of audience in the tent, by maybe situating the camera behind some heads when they sit to see the show. This could make it feel more immersive, and indicate the setting through the silhouettes of extra characters. However, I wasn’t sure if I wanted there to be any audience in the tent other than the camera (the viewer), so I don’t think I’ll be doing this. This comment did make me think however, as the camera is supposed to be the POV of the viewer themself entering the world, I may draw a generic, humanoid shadow being cast by the viewer/camera, for immersion.