Summer Layout Shennanigans

As I get ready to enter my new semester at AAU, I'll be sailing full speed ahead into animation on my short film Talarom.

In honor of the new semester, I will post a few layouts that I did this summer.  I'll be spacing them out a bit (maybe posting 2 a day?).  They are enormously big so that when they scale down for the animation they don't lose any quality.

These two aren't anything extraordinary.  The top is a close-up shot of the doorway Amras is near when he finds the magical fount of water.  The bottom is used twice, and is the layout for when Amras first enters the temple.

Layout Progress - Ramping to End of Semester

Now that colors are all set, I've gone ahead and done some effects texting in After Effects.  So far I've been able to figure out how I will be doing the water swirl when Amras's shadow changes into the monster.

I've also done a few more layouts, one being the same layout with three different color versions due to the glow from the water pool.  The purple is a CBB (could be better) but I'm leaving it for now to push forward.

Goal for after the weekend is to knock out a few more layouts, as well as thumbing the remaining shots now that colors are picked for those shots.

Been a long time since I made a production post, which I feel awful about as I've done so much.  I've since finished my workbook and am almost at 100% completion on my color script.  I've also completed my first layout, which is a throwback to "Raiders of the Lost Ark".  Enjoy --- more posts, more often, I promise!

Slightly more Workbooking

Today class time was cut short on workbook because we presented our animatics to two students who showed up from the music production department interested in scoring and doing foley artist work for our films.

Only two, but it was still nice.

Managed to get some ideas of the temple hallways fleshed out, and discovered a few more layouts that will be reused.  I even think one might need to be animated on 16 field just because of how small Amras starts out.

I also purchased 3 tutorials from ctrlpaint.com with Christmas money to help get into painting in photoshop as I think I can use the help.  I recently learned on reddit that adventure time uses photoshop and not flash to get their layouts, so Im interested in doing the same.

Also, looking at old reference of temples/ruins/castle stones from living lines library and animationbackgrounds.com, really inspires me to make the layouts as good as I can.

Will post some more by this weekend of actual content.

Note to self --- save the workbook pages as groups without being flattened, so if I have to move something I'm not redrawing.

Keep things on separate layers.  Just learned that lesson the hard way.  Redrawing one of the backgrounds.

Slacking on the posts.  I need to get in the habit of keeping this up to date as it will serve as my production journal also!

Today is 2/19/2014, and I am knee-deep in designing my layouts.  I scrapped a bunch of work today, though this is a good thing.

Sherrie helped me think about attempting the workbook in a different way that has proven to be quite easier than the way I had been doing it.  Not to mention Sherrie also reminded me that The Jungle Book had an abandoned temple in it.

How could I have forgotten!  It has proven to be an invaluable source of reference for overgrown tree roots, moss, and vegetation!

I'll post what I have so far (Only the first five shots - though 2 of they layouts will be re-used, so that's a plus).

So far I am learning to always remember ALL the tools I have available to complete the task at hand.  Tunnel vision does not help for working smart.

Also, after having a huge artist block on designing some of the pieces, I've finally been able to break through thanks to some sketching.  Now I seem to know exactly what I'm looking for when it comes to reference and my prop/layout designs!

For anyone wondering what the blue drawings are...they serve as proportional markers for pieces that will be animated ( the character Amras, the cloud, lightning, his hand, etc.)

First Post!

Today is my first day of directed study after being approved for my thesis film a midpoint production. And so, this blog will serve as a production journal to document as I travel through the remaining preproduction stages all the way to my final film.

Our first assignment is to make a workbook using our animatic.  The workbook serves as the place where we finalize our rough layout design, and also document camera movements.  Characters are also added in to make sure they are the correct size relative to the background.  This ensures that once we start animating we don't have to edit the backgrounds, and take away time from animating.