Ruben
[3rd Year Animation Student]
Week... i've really really lost count (June 2015 onwards)
Really now Ruben, where have you been?!?!
Hey blog, I’ve now completed my film but as shown by my blog I've been a little too busy to keep up with all my work as well as writing an up to date blog.
So now I'm now going to write a super intensive post containing every little thing! So go get yourself a coffee, we're going to be here a while.
Scene 1: Storyteller land
I had multiple issues in regards to animating, as I spoke about in a few on of my earlier post I had planned to do all my lip syncing in CelAction 2D to save time. But after spending hours and hours planning and animating on CelAction after rendering the finial scene nothing was lining up. Which put me in a horrible place only weeks before my deadline. So after talking to Mario I decided to reanimate everything in AfterEffects. AfterEffect is software that I’m not as similar with as Id like to be with so this big challenge for me to take on, but after seeing finial results I think was worth taking.
This background has been spoken about before here and here. Once beginning to animate I decided to redo this background, as it just wasn’t up to scratch when seen with the other backgrounds I had produced for the other scenes.
scene 1:1 Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate
I've already spoken about this backgound in a previous post. Click here to check it out.
Scene 1:2 Storytellers land
Scene 2: Grave digger in the street
scene 2:1 Body pick up
The background used in this scene has already been spoke about here.
This was the first scene I animated towards this film around 2 weeks after surgery, I used it as a little exercise to get be use to moving slightly again. The whole scene is drawn and animated in Photoshop, I really enjoy animating in Photoshop, though drawing and filling each frame does become a bit of a pain once you've been at it a few hours.
To try and work out the movement I used reference from this video on YouTube. I found this really difficult, just because it a motion that I’ve never attempted before. Its a bit more hard-core you see and though I had confidence in myself I did worry I wouldn’t be able to work it out.
I’m happy with the finial outcome, though I wish that id be able to spend a little more time making the character look more like he does in the rest of the film but as I said before it was a very difficult scene to do.
scene 2: 2&3 Body toss
Both again using the street background above these are just two very simply photoshop animated scene requiring very little movement. Also being such short scene i feel as it they did the job they where created to do.
scene 2:4 Shadowed figures
Background once again the Street background spoke about 2 places up.
I've used silhouettes quite a lot throughout, with it already being such a dark film I didn’t want to any distraction to be taken away from the focus point Id created. I also think it works really well because silhouettes are quite creepy themselves. I animated this as if the silhouettes themself to attempt to mimic the style animated that was available at the time of the plague. Which would have all have been using light, a white sheet and anything that could used to create shapes, such as paper.
Scene 3: The pub
Scene 3:1&3 Grave digger speaks
Like scene 1 I had a lot of difficulty with this scene because of CelAction meaning that I had to reanimate it. I’m happy with the outcome of this though, I found animating in After affects really simple and time effective which has really made me wish that I’d taken it up sooner in earlier projects.
The background from this scene has already been spoken about here.
Scene 3:2&4 Man in pub
The pub background has already been spoken about here.
This scene was a lot more difficult than I’d originally planned it to be, if anything I thought it would have been to easiest of them all, but I just couldn’t get that head movement right, in the finial edit I had to add a voice track because you just couldn’t get a grasp of what I was trying to achieve, which is quite upsetting but it's a short scene so hopefully it wont have too much of an impact on the rest of the film.
Silhouettes have been used again in the scene in the background.
scene 4: Return to storyteller land
All the scene featuring the storyteller are very very similar as they're all just speaking scene. Please refere to Scene 1:1 Storyteller land if you'd like to have another read of the process and issues i faced.
Scene 5: 3 years into the future.
Scene 5:1 Seasons change
I've already spoken in detail about the mannor seen in the scene, click here to have a read of that.
The rolling background in this scene was created and then later animated in Photoshop. I attempted to create a long that background that would be able to loop for this scene. Its was really rather challenging and required me to attempt it a few times as it just was lining up at all.
After several attempts I got an outcome that I was somewhat happy with.
Scene 5:2 Dig the grave
The background used in this scene has been talken about in detail here.
(Sorry about all these, but it must be done)
Another scene drawn and animated in Photoshop a lot like the body toss from scene 2 this was massive challenge. Using references from this video found on YouTube. I really need to work more on my hand drawn body movements because again a lot like scene 2 this doesn’t look as much like the character as I'd like it too. All in all I’m really happy with the movement achieved.
Scene 5:3 Down she goes
Into the ground she goes!!
The background once again has been spoke about and can be found here.
Really simple scene animated in Photoshop, I spent a lot of time researching into coffins for this scene. Just to see what would have been suitable for the time considering what money she had. With it being set around the time of the plague she should have really just been tossed in a pit with everyone else. But because she does have money the option could have potently been there.
Scene 7: Storyteller speaks
Again all the scene featuring the storyteller are very very similar as they're all just speaking scene. Please refere to Scene 1:1 Storyteller land if you'd like to have another read of the process and issues i faced.
Scene 8: Grave digger returns
Scene 8:1 In the grave
No animation at all here, its just a still that has already been spoken about here.
Scene 8:2&4 Grave digger speaks
Surprise surprise, i've already spoken about this background which be found on this page.
These are yet again scene that I had to reanimate because of CelAction. Of all the scene that required lip sync this is the one I’m most disappointed with. I really imagined this scene having quite a lot of movement in it seeing as he's robbing her but I just didn’t know how to animate that effectively in After Effects, which really really sucks. But the are really short cut scene so hopefully it wont have too much of an impact.
Scene 8:3 Ruby ring
A another still scene, this was drawn and textured in photoshop using the orginal charecter sheet as refernce.
Scene 8:4 Ring Pull
This is my favourite hand drawn scene simply because I genuinely believe that I pulled off an almost perfect copy of the hands. Which is great! For this scene I had to get my camera out and do some filming because no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t find anything that even came close.
This scene was a lot of fun, it was also one of the last scene I animated before the CelAction hiccup so i could put the time into it that i wanted too, which made it really fun to do.
Once again all the scene featuring the storyteller are very very similar as they're all just speaking scene. Please refere to Scene 1:1 Storyteller land if you'd like to have another read of the process and issues i faced.
Scene 9: Storyteller speaks
Scene 10: Grave diggers end.
Scene 10:1,2,3,4 &6
All the images in the slide show about are all still created in photoshop using background already spoken about. This sequince of images is the lead up the Scene 10:5. In the finial edit there are cut and sperated to create a creepy flickering light effect to build surpence.
Scene 10:5 The cut
Drawn and animated in Photoshop, a lot of planning went into this shot, just because I didn’t know how to execute it at first and I couldn’t find anything that even came close when researching. So I filmed the action from multiple different angels until finding what I believe what the most effect. I think its ok, I'm really happy with the hands again and how well adapted they are until the other hand drawn scene. If I was do something like this again I'd defiantly just work in only one style inside of swapping and changing as it just looks a bit odd in places.
Scene 10:6 She Wakens
Created again using the orginal reference sheet this scene is a simple eye opening created using only 4 layers in photoshop. Simple but effective.
Scene 11: Awaken the world
Scene 10:1,2,3&4
Again all the images in the slide show about are all still created in photoshop using background already spoken about. This sequince of images is the lead up the Scene 10:5. In the finial edit there are cut and sperated to create a creepy flickering light effect to build surpence.
Once again all the scene featuring the storyteller are very very similar as they're all just speaking scene. Please refere to Scene 1:1 Storyteller land if you'd like to have another read of the process and issues i faced.
Scene 11: Storyteller speaks finail time
The finial 2 stills!!
And for the last time all the images in the slide show about are all still created in photoshop using background already spoken about. In the finial edit theses are left for slightly long that the other stills. I really like the ending of my film, I feel as though it is very simple but yet affective and honestly wouldnt have been right if animated.
FIN!
And with finishing the last blog post almost means that I'm done with my degree and this is the last bit of writing i have to do. 3rd year has been great and though its been a very difficult year for me both phyically and medially I'm happy with how its ended.
So is goodbye from me 3rd year blog. It been great and I look forward to what ahead.
Ruben.