About trees

I have been thinking a lot about trees lately. I assumed going into this project that I'd be doing everything in 3D. But I've been wondering ... if I want a certain look for my trees, would it be easiest to build them in Maya, or to build models of them in real life, photograph them in high definition, and composite them into my piece? Or draw them. I could probably just draw trees and scan them.

Anyway, that's what I've been thinking about lately: trees. If you have any opinions on my options, I'd be glad to hear them. I haven't really worked with Paint Effects before, and I assumed I'd be building my own trees in Maya. I'll try to post some animatic stuff (or maybe some tree drawings) soon.

I keep forgetting, but with my revised story, my working title, "the Goose Girl," really doesn't quite fit anymore. But I'm really bad at naming things, so I've just been leaving it. Does anybody have a better idea? Help?

Script

I didn't want to work on my animatic until I had a workable script, so ... I've been working on my script. Here's my current draft.

I'm not in love with my formatting. I wanted to have information about my shots along the side of the the action. And I only have one line of dialogue, so I wasn't sure how to stick it in. But in general, I think this is giving me a better sense of what I want to accomplish in each scene, so I'm really glad I did it.

My next job is going to be going back to the animatic, and separating out my back-plates so that I can show action.

I'm still looking for ways to cut back on animation.

I also kind of think that I want to start working on style and mood images. I'm inclined to think that if I do a good job on the back-plates for my next round of animatic, I can get a lot of use out of them in terms of helping me set up a color palate....

So that's what I've been up to. Writing and trying to focus. No drawing, no modeling, just writing.

It's the end!

My beautiful dream of going to my local farm and video taping chickens walking around (for reference!) clearly has not come true this Spring Break! I am crushed.

Spring Break!

I've started modeling. I was thinking about it, and I decided that I don't want to refine my animatic without first having a written draft of my story. But I know what my characters are going to look like, more or less, and the way that I model? I'm going to need all the time I can get.

Anyway! For posterity's sake, I'm gonna put my baby beginning models up here. The heads are both supposed to be low poly, but are probably a little heavy for where they are now. Baba Yaga is coming along okay. I still have some major issues to work out with Vasilisa. But. She does look like a girl, and that's a start. No, neither of them has hair yet! Or ... y'know ... bodies. But I've started! And that has to count for something.

I went to see the presentation from Blue Sky today and it was really awesome. It made me want to do a super-good job on texturing these characters. I think if anything, I'll be looking for ways to cut back on animation with this project so I can rig less and texture more. How can I cheat with that? Any suggestions?

I keep forgetting that I'm taking other classes. I haven't done any work for any of them! I think I need a whole nother Spring Break now. Can I get a do-over? No? Okay.

More storyboards

Somehow, these look even more pixelated after I uploaded them!
(Click on "these" and you will see my pixelated storyboards.)

Vasilisa

Everything looks different after scanning. It's weird. Anyway! This sketch is, like my last Baba Yaga, undone! But I figured it was good enough to post. Basically -- I hate drawing young people. Damn smooth faces. No character! So I was kind of stuck on how to go about this for a while. Then I decided to try to make her look vaguely like a young version of Baba Yaga -- not that close, just some of the bone structure -- and that's where I started with this sketch.

Then I put both this one and Baba Yaga to the side in favor of another round of storyboards. I'll be posting those soon. Since I'm presenting this week and all. Yeeks. Kinda don't feel ready for that at all. :(

Meanwhile! Vasilisa! Baba Yaga. Storyboards. Soon.

T-shirts

I should have posted this yesterday. Or last week, lol.
Here's a link to a website that will make t-shirts for you. A little pricier than just getting printer paper, but if you, like me, don't have a spare t-shirt lying around, or the time to run to Staples, or an iron, this is a little more convenient.
http://www.cafepress.com