Been a while

I just checked and ... I haven't blogged since September. Scary.

Since we have to have up-to-date blogs for mid-term and I can't post-date entries (I don't think), I'm just going to do a quick synopsis of all the exciting things that have happened.

1) September 7: Shortly after my last entry, I met with Patricia, explained all of my many problems and was very happy to hear that I don't actually have to DO animation for my thesis. Thank goodness. That means I might pass after all.

2) September 14: Story revisions. Vasilisa walks through forest looking for lost goose, gets eaten by house. Baba Yaga shows up and growls at house, prompting it to spit out Vasilisa's skull. Story at this point involves complicated thing with Baba Yaga taking the Hut for a walk. This will be cut by October 8th.

3) September 21: Look and feel. I'm presenting a 3D animatic by this point, and I painted some placeholder trees. I put them on NURBS planes and stuck them into the scene to give it some mood, thinking that if I use planes, my painted trees will have to be far more intricate. I have a painted tree with approximately the right level of detail. But surprise! Everyone in class loves my placeholder trees. I can keep them. Just means I have to paint everything else to match. They're kind of blotchy. I think I can do this. Making things blotchy shouldn't take as long as making things neat, right? ... Someone tell that to my OCD ...

4) September 28: Story. Am adding camera moves to my 3D cameras, have added mid shot to opening sequence. Have put border around frame, like a stylized page. Have also added page turn transitions. Story still isn't working and I'm starting to get nervous about production. Haven't done anything on production since summer. Wrote up production schedule and almost cried. Have not posted production schedule here for obvious reasons.

Also, watched Snow White. Curse Disney, the animation in there is beautiful. There's a nice camera move, with Snow White lying in the forest crying, where the camera pulls through some 2D trees. It's lovely, and I think it's a good reference for the look I'm going for.

5) October 4: Made model of skull. Have to change it up a little for Vasilisa's skull and the skull fence, but for now, have skull! Yay! Have redone animatic. Story still isn't working, but camera angles are starting to feel good. Workflow is also improving. Have made background file to reference into all of my scenes, so I can make sweeping changes to, let's say, skull fence. Or sky. And everything will update all at once. Have started sky painting, since I can do that while things render. And I need to render things, because Faculty Review is coming up. SCARY.

6) October 8: FACULTY REVIEW. Omg, so much better than I thought! Finally took out stupid thing with leash. Story seems much clearer. Panel all got everything except for the end when Baba Yaga comes out, but I think positioning characters differently will help. Useful suggestion: have Baba Yaga and Vasilisa on screen at same time, so we know they're not the same person. Have to find camera angle for that.

Other useful suggestion: my border is pretty but not useful and page turn transitions are cliche. My border should animate. It should move and it can help tell the story, since I'm not moving the characters. For serious, why did I not think of that?

Other other useful suggestion: Add sound. Have been using stupid song from previs that I don't intend to use but like. Should add ambient noises, chewing after Vasilisa walks into house. HAVE to do this.

7) October 16: Haven't made many changes to animatic. Changed a shot of Baba Yaga and added Vasilisa's feet sticking out of Hut when Baba Yaga enters. Bad camera angle; they are barely visible. HOWEVER. Have started recording audio. NEED TO DIGITIZE IT. Also, have started animating border. Am using tedious 2D cell animation-y things. Is tedious.

Sadly, everyone in class seems to like it. Must continue. Have to get whole border to swirl. Is there any chance I can do this within the next two weeks? I'm feeling the necessity of getting my 3D and 2D to match now.... Have to add that to production schedule, animating swirls as well.

8) October 20: Am animating border. I think I might switch to a black background behind the border -- looks like the painted boxes I was using for reference at the very beginning of this whole process. Purely coincidence! ... erm ... It's good to work with your reference in front of you all the time. Sometimes you end up with what you thought you'd get at the beginning. :) Still, border animation tedious. Also, can't tell if it's good or bad.

Have painted new face texture for Vasilisa to relax. I don't think it's blotchy enough to match my trees. We'll see. I'm thinking about running a quick test with surface shaders instead of the phongs I've been using. This is probably a horrible idea. I tried toon shaders over the summer and didn't like them, but that doesn't mean I won't like them again, does it?

Also, a friend sent me to look at the opening sequence of an anime called Monster, where a woman reads a storybook about a Monster With No Name. It's a great look for storybook style animation, with very little movement on the characters. Still more than I am going to do, but the style of the animation is interesting. It looks very collage-y. Which is interesting for me because of my blotchy trees. Maybe I can use this with toon shaders. Gah. Also have to finish up the second part of my story so that I can move into production!