Essetially I built a rough of each background in MAYA for everything in the film that takes place before they go through the portal. Then in photoshop I paint it as if it was a normal background. Then I add the lighting. It's adding a very cool sense of depth I feel. I really like how these are coming. There are a lot more coming soon!
I have one for the Tiger too, but it's drawn on paper, so I have to scan it when I get home to my scanner. Then I'll color it in the Lab tomorrow. Other than that, Tomorrow is a day for backgrounds, lighting sheets, doing more CG layouts (Explanation for that coming soon), and making a few important calls.
Also - I would like to meet with Tom Sito and fix some of my layouts for the exorcism action scenes.
I realize the Panther's hands are a little weird. But here are some turnarounds, a size comparison for our 3 'main character's' and a lil bit of prop design.
Tomorrow what I would like to accomplish besides completing a plethora of backgrounds, would be 'expression sheets' for Panther and Tiger, and lighting/color charts of using one pose from the model sheet of each and lighting it as I feel they would be lit in each different location and setting, so we can get a good idea of the color feels. There is 'outside', 'exorcism room', 'lab', and 'other universe/dimension. So expect 4 lighting styles for each character. Just idea's though, in final composite it's bound to change a little.
Like they did for Princess and the Frog, I am going to flat shade all characters with the same colors, and then hue/saturation/light/shading/glow adjust them in After Effects for each different locale. Should make transitions easier too.
Then I need to re-cut my animatic, making the few changes that I have made and incorporating MARK DONICA's brilliant dialogue as the father. Then it's really just backgrounds and animation from here on out. At least.... I hope.
So over the past few days I have been knocking out backgrounds like crazy. I've figured out a new method that I will explain more in the next post which will be much much larger and feature a lot of cool new work and process's.
In the meantime, the Tiger's fathers desk requires some family photos and such. I did four of them, to put on his desk, to establish a past and a world a bit. They will hardly be seen, but I'm still proud of them. Here they are.
Now stop reading this and get your bum to the theater to see Tangled, which is fantastic and opened yesterday. If you've seen it already - go see it again. How's that sound?
As to the animatic - I've cut the scene where the Panther inhales the castle - so now they just find the Dad tied up, sitting on the cliff, and I've changed the ending because in pre-screenings, people didn't understand the importance of the ring. You'll see all those changes reflected soon. Also, some staging and other random stuff has changed too. All will be made clear soon!
Huge post about backgrounds, shots, and world design to follow soon. This is all super exciting- look forward to it! :D
I've been meeting with Mistah Tom Sito a lot this week and we've been going over my shots and refining them, making them more dynamic. I think most of it is at a place that I like now. There's a lot of shots that are just pan's or stills, no animation involved, which is good, and then a lot of shots that have lots of animation. SO this will be a task, but I'm ever so excited.
I started using MAYA to help me layout my shots and it is really making them much more dynamic. Essentially, I place 3 cylinders where the characters would be if the shot was in actual 3d space, then i move the 3d camera around until I find a good composition, then I draw that in my boards. It really really has made them SO much more dynamic, as I don't tend to think in 3d space. I will do this for everything in the future with out a doubt.
Also I just realized that my story is very very very influenced by 'The Phantom Tollbooth', and 'A Wrinkle in Time', which were two of my favorite books growing up. The Lab, swallowing of the fortress (like moving the atoms) and father rescue are all resonant of 'A Wrinkle in Time' and the portal (tollbooth), mountainous adventure for a rescue (the rescue of Rhyme and Reason), and being chased down a mountain by a group of monsters after completing said rescue is all very much straight out of 'The Phantom Tollbooth". One of my favorite things is to figure out what has inspired a piece that I am doing, so it's very interesting to me to be so sub-consciously influenced by these two books for the film. "Phantom Tollbooth usually influences most epic fantasies I do, but "Wrinkle" doesn't show up as much. I suppose that was a little tangent, but I just find that all super interesting. At least I know where all my wordplay comes from now. If you read the book I wrote that this film is based on "Ezra the Tiger", you'll see 'Phantom-esque' wordplay at its most extreme,
Anyway..... Hardest part about this week - finishing animatic. Best part about this week, finishing animatic. I guess that's really it for now. Now just on to finishing animation and getting those 2 lines recorded for the Father.
So I've been watching "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride" lately. "Why?" The 1 devoted reader asks. Well, because, the animation isn't that great and it sets me a slight goal to shoot for, since it has less of an "OMG HOW WAS THSI MADE!?!??!" that the Lion King (1) offers. Secondly because I like the music. Third, all my animals are cats, so it is kind of giving me ways to go about doing things. and Fourth(ly)because THIS SONG IS LEGIT.
Poor Kovu. He's a lil lion yet he has to grow up to kill Simba, even though he doesn't want to.
But I digress.
Besides watching TLK2:SP - I FIXED MY CINTIQ so I am BACK. ON. TRACK.
Boy, what a pain in the @$$ process that was. I've told the story many times so what it essentially boiled down to was I bought an S-video cable - and a USB cable - then I snipped the head off the S-video and the USB and I soldered the two together matching the wires by colors. Then I wrapped in in electrical tape, prayed - then turned it on.
It worked perfectly.
Now if only I didn't also blow 100$+ bucks on crap that didn't work in this process.
**NOTE** If anyone stumbles on this blog looking for info on how to make this S-Video to USB cable for a CINTIQ 15x email me @ Ezra.Edmond@gmail.com and I will be happy to go into full detail so you can get you cintiq up n running again**
So then I threw out the previous stuff I had animated - the roughs that I never posted because they were awful, and after watching them again - I realized they were still awful. But I've been animating like a BEAST lately. Animating and coloring and I'm about 6 shots deep already - animated and colored - with just shading and Bg's left to go.
I'll post them soon.
I've begun working on an animatic (yay, right?) So when that's done I'll post the animatic with the completed animation cut in already.
I still need to find someone to provide the 2 lines that the Father says - but that's not a HUGE PRESSING ISSUE right now. Other than that all is well. Next update will contain a lot more.
