A Little Night Music

Por} {tals.... and more!

So I rendered that today. Obviously in HD. That is what will be seen when the portal door opens. It's a long clip, so it won't seem repetitive, and will cut down on render time later, since it is already compressed into a single video. It didn't take too long to make, and I am very happy with it.

So, as we speak I am FINALLY rendering the shot I've been working on almost non-stop for the past couple of days. It's the longest shot in my film. The shot where the Father gets pulled through the portal. Here's a still from it.

The black edge is because you are seeing it through the

young Tiger's eye/perspective.

Anyway, that looks really cool, and turned out great. I'd say its some of my personal best animation so far. At about 10 seconds long, its the longest shot in my film, and it also has some of the most movement/ action, as well as its pretty much a 6 character interaction scene, with tons of lighting and perspective. So difficulty of drawing, as well as time spent rendering is probably the longest/hardest stuff I have to do in the whole film. I love how this turned out, so by proxy, every scene after this should be pretty darn easy to do. That's what I say right now anyway. (Well, I know one shot that's gonna be a huge pain). 

Pretty much, tomorrow I will jump into animating the world through the portal. I have a pretty good idea of how I want the sky and earth to work, and it should all be pretty easy to do the backgrounds and sort it all out. Lots'a greens n purples, weee! Still, I'm a little pressed for time I think, so I'm not going to do anything leisurely till after picture-lock on the 31st of March, at least I'll try my hardest.

There's going to be a lot of cool stuff coming up soon, and I'm gonna post screen caps of all of it! 

GET EXCITED. I KNOW I AM!

Ooooh, my render's done! See y'all later!

:D

No I don't work for the CIA.... (But why do you ask?)

Because I shall not be uploading any completed scenes to this blog. "WHATS THAT?!" you bellow (in disgust), "I COME TO THIS BLOG FOR UPDATES, NOT NOT UPDATES. WHAT GIVES?"

"Well, dearly devoted reader," I coolly reply, "Because two things; 1. A lot of these scenes are going to look awesome, and I don't want to ruin the surprise by having you, the dearly devoted reader/fan of The Tiger, see the great scenes out of order and not feeling the full effect when the film is completed that a viewer should have, and 2. Because if too much finished film comes up to this blog, then I might lose the chance to enter it in a lot of festivals, and I don't want that to happen, but, run-on-sentences aside, I will of course continue to post fully-rendered screen shots of the film, so your excited momentum does not falter away like the fat on Peter O'Toole's body -

Oh, old age. Still's got them blue eyes though (wink wink ladies)!

- and trust me, it will not because I have a slew of shots to render tomorrow and then I will have more and more after that and I will sit in my ivory tower watching finished clips bellowing with 'awe' so loudly that you will hear and your interest will remain in my grasp; but of course I must tell you new things I have done this week - 1st, I changed my work schedule a bit, because I was getting quite bored animating the laboratory, so I decided to do some more fun things for a bit and then I'll get back to it; example A) I am working on the 'flashback' sequence that I talked about last week, and then I am going to move into working on the shots in 'The Nether', and all those will come out soon and be super neat I hope- also my animation has new found life and for (you got it!) two reasons; 1) Andreas Deja came to talk the other day and watching him draw always inspires me, and 2) I have decided to do all my animation straight-ahead, instead of pose-to-pose ( I started animation with stop motion, which is straight ahead, and that is how I learned to emulate movement, so naturally working in my 'native tongue' makes it all look much better) and its true, because my new scenes I've been doing move with much more 'acting' than the previous ones - sure it takes more time to clean up and I have to watch masses more, but the animation will be much better, maybe I'll be kind (rewind) and post one finished shot with my upgraded technique soon - all I know is I'm having so much more fun and finding so much more motivation doing all my animation straight ahead; and any ways on that note, I have nothing much else to say this week (except for 2 things, duh), 1) Peep the picture at the top of the post, thats from the flashback, that I am working on right now, and 2) run on sentences this long are REALLY HARD TO WRITE.

Peas.

Undah Pressuh Pressuh.....

The Tiger (Jan 18th Animatic) from Ezra Edmond on Vimeo.

An updated version of my thesis animatic, featuring some alternate lines (not mixed to the right levels yet), some pencil tests and rough animation, and an alternate car scene and rescue of the father. 

Now besides that, there is a flashback scene that will be included in the animatic at the end of the week. I just wanted to wait till I have some more pencil tests so it can be a big update all in one go. These next few days, I have a lot of work ahead of me because I will be attempting to complete the entire first two minutes of the film (sans flashback) leaving me two months to do the next three-and-a-half minutes, which are much more animation intensive. Hopefully all goes according to plan.

Tonight, I'll be venturing out with my own personal camera to shoot a few live action plates for the driving scene (see if my theory works), and then I'll just be animating with a big compositing and rendering day either Saturday or Sunday. For the smoke, since this film is rather smoke heavy, I will be compositing live action smoke on the screen from a folder of elements and particle effects I have, so that should add a nice touch as well as make everything much easier. Right now its just like I'm staring at a giant puzzle of 1000 pieces trying to figure out where to begin, so many elements to make and put together. But, you have to start somewhere, so okay, deep breath, here I go!

Art is for wimps.

I say this because this week I have no art to show you.

If you wish to see art, please consult the last two posts. One is a parody and one is a legitimate screen capture.

Anyways.

Greetings Men and Men-of-Woe (or as they insist I call you, women),

Over the past few weeks I have been working on animation galore, as well as minor story changes and such. Since I am not in a terribly humorous mood, but instead a terribly tired one; I will outline what I have done and what changes I have made in the most boring way possible. Binary Code.

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Ok. I'm done with that. As I was saying....

I have simplified the story a decent amount. Mainly, I have dropped the ring, and coughing from the Panthers character, because stuff like that is best suited in a feature film, and too much to develop in a short. Likewise, I have also dropped the 1st exorcism scene. It wasn't lending anything to the story and literally made me bored the last time I watched it.

So now. Tiger picks up Panther. They get in the Car n talk. Lil' flashback showing the Dad getting dragged away. Get to the lab. Go through Portal. Find Dad. He is submerged in a goop/gas. Take him out. Ghosts come. They run. Panther is lost. The remaining two are safe. End credits. Button. There. That is my film. Why wasn't it ALWAYS that simple!? When I think about how complicated it was before it makes me feel like this a little.

So now. I recently finished the backgrounds that are for the interior of the car sequence. I am going to shoot the stuff that is moving outside of the windows as they drive on some night in RL and then add some filters so it looks animated n saves me some time as soon as I get a chance. I think that will make a cool look, and push the 'real' look of the world I'm going for before they enter the portal.

I've officially completed TWO shots, meaning they are ready to render, and likely have been already. These are the opening. Then 50% of the Car scene has been roughed out fully and just needs refinements, and I should be done with the rest of the car scene soon. Then it's just color and lighting so it feels like they really are in a moving car. Not sure how I'll do the lighting moving over them yet, but I'll figure it out soon. Any Ideas? Please comment below.

I have 4 shots ready to render out in full color from the Lab Scene at this point, and the only reason I have not is because I need to make sure the Lab is EXACTLY how I want it before I start as to save time later. Pretty much, what lighting per shot (green or normal) and is there damage leftover on the portal since dear old Dad was taken by brute force on that beautiful and haunting December evening. Also one shot has the absolute shittiest mass control I have ever animated and I simply won't stand for it. So as soon as that is dealt you'll see a great deal more shots finished.

I'm about to begin backgrounds for the Nether (thanks Notch) aka the Spirit Zone, and that will be sorted soon too. I've started getting a bit of a nice work flow going on, and hopefully it will continue at that pace and if anything, just get even faster and better. Like a growing Kanye.

Until then... aka next week - Peace Out you Jive Turkeys.

A Thought....

Not that there are any similarities. Because there aren't. Any similarities. At all.



Not even one.

First Production Still

Wow, look. The characters are here. The effects are here. All is as it should be and all done. Perhaps I'll upload it with sound later.... or maybe I'll just cut a trailer. Either way, this shot is done, and plenty more will be popping up this week.

Looks like the semester is off to a good start. If the whole film looks like this frame or better I'll sure be pleased.

(PS. Click on it to make it real-size)