May the Farce be with You

Not the most imaginative title...

The above are three potential posters for my piece. The first is a parody of a famous film, I wonder which, and the other two are based on lyrics from The Rogues and Phil Collins ("Voodoo Child" and "Coming in the Air Tonight.")

Preferred final poster choice would probably be the Phil Collins "Coming in the Air Tonight Poster", as it captures the essence of the film more, without using lightsabers!

Bron

Finally... ANIMATIC!!

Well, despite the ever looming feeling that it wasn't going to finish, the animatic was completed, in the nick of time!

Sean and I discussed the animatic the day it was finished. There are still ways of improving it, which shouldn't take long to rectify in Photoshop and After Effects. These changes will, I feel, add more character to the protagonist.

Bron

The Problems of Working Alone

Well, the animatic has become one of those things that takes longer than they first appear to. Having to cut out some poses towards the end to make ends meet.

Have also recruited Jo to help with the making of the animatic. Any poses I draw, Jo cleans up and colours. This has helped immensely so far, and I'm starting to feel more confident that it'll be completed to the standard I hope for.

Bron

Starting the Animatic

I want to begin the animatic making process as soon as possible, as I recall how time consuming it became last year on a 3 minute film. To add to the dynamics of the piece, and to help myself with the timing, I want to add as much of the key poses of the protagonist as possible.

To make the animatic, I will be using screen renders from my drum kit in Maya, and drawing my character over the top, using a Wacom Tablet in Photoshop.

Bron

Joining the Maya Tribe

My experience with Maya has, in the past, been nil. CGI has never interested me before, partly because of the appeal of traditional, and partly the mass of maths involved. I guess I was more intimidated than against it.

The suggestion of a Maya drumkit was the spark though. How much simplier animating would be if I didn't need to worry about all these round things at different perspectives. It made perfect sense.

So Laurie Priest made me a drum kit to my specifications. Better still, he showed me how to use the thing! So I now have a grasp of the basic controllers of Maya! I've written down the instructions though, I don't trust myself to remember them forever.

I can see a Rainbow

Just a brief note on the colours for my character.

My own pet guinea pig, who I referenced for life studies and movement, died not long ago. Although I hadn't based my character on my pet, the character did have similar colours to the real guinea pig I had. So they've stuck. This is in no way a means of dedicating any of my work to my pet, there are far greater things I could dedicate my film to.

As for the drums, red was the best choice for complimenting the colour of the character, as well as being a lively colour to emphasise the gayity of the piece.

Bron

Guinea Pig Walk - Complete and Unadulterated

The walk, finished and coloured. A useful asset for animatic making, me thinks, especially as it comes complete with alpha channel!

Guess the only problem looking at it now is that the back leg pops when the walk is copied and pasted. This can be resolved in the actually animating process.