You're TEARING me APART, Lisa!

This week makes me feel like:

This.


and


Like this.


But mostly.


Like this.

Well, the week began with a wondrous start. I recorded Mr. Rocky Collins and Mr. Wilder Shaw (Shan't link to them again. I've linked to them enough in past posts). The recording went swimmingly. I've got Wilder in two roles and it's impossible to tell - and on top of that, Rocky gave his own wild performance that I can't WAIT to animate to, because it's just so damn quirky.

"What?" You, the loyal and consistent reader of this blog says, "I thought you were handsome and ready to go in every way!"

And the answer is. I WAS. (Well, I'm still handsome). But, after all the recording I hurried up to my cubicle to begin work. And I did this. It took a few hours but I love it.

Ps. The sync is a lil' off, but that has since been fixed.

"Is it gone? For good?" Roughs from Ezra Edmond on Vimeo.

So. I love that. And I wanted to do more and more. BUT MY CINTIQ CABLE BROKE. UGH. AND IT HAS BEEN UDDER HELL TRYING TO GET A NEW "S-video to USB" or a "Mini din 8 to USB". Like. Bloody. Impossible.

SO. I ordered an S-Video cable off amazon and adapter. Should have arrived already, but Amazon lost it. So, they are sending it again. Hopefully it gets here. Then I ordered an 8 pin Din and USB adapter off some other site. But that still hasn't arrived. I went to 3 electronic stores, including FRYS (Which has never been helpful in my experience), and this is just plain frustrating now. I have more to rant about, but hopefully in the next 2 days I will have my Cintiq working again, and nothing to complain about - at least for a while.

So in the meantime, I've been working out shots, and editing all of my audio. That is going well. Just wish I could have been animating all this week instead of watching time drip through my hands like those artificial hands dripped through Edward Scissorhands blades.

I'll post the sound cut / with some animation n such for y'all soon.


I feel like I'm the little kid here and this counter is the thesis which I am attempting to work on. It is difficult to reach when these guys keep getting in my way.

Maquettes and Other Things That Amuse

Hey Everyone,

So this week I was focusing on building a maquette of the Panther head (See below) because he is a little bit of a pain-in-da-bum to draw. I'm actually quite happy how the maquette turned out. Except for the fact that he is slightly off model, and looks a lil like Joe Camel - he will be very helpful for me to reference. I hadn't built anything out of clay in a while, but now I'm almost tempted to do one of the Tiger too, just because he was so much fun to make.






Now on top of that. This week I retyped the script, because the copy I was working with got way too out of hand with improper formatting and well... all my storyboards in the margins.

I.e:



Now, while I will keep boarding on the printed one, the rewritten one will be much better for my own reference, as well as the references of the actor that I am recording on Saturday. Which is to break the news to y'all that Wilder Shaw (Who is also doing my score as of now), will be providing the voice of THE TIGER and THE OLD MAN. We will be recording on Saturday, and then you will be able to hear the lines applied to the new animatic that will be up and running properly soon (I apologize for not having one already).

Also, I've begun doing PRINCIPAL ANIMATION. Mainly rough key-frames. I think I'll go through the whole film in roughs and then tween it all, and then clean it all up/color - and as soon as the school gets the GenArts Sapphire plugins working for After Effects, I will be doing shading and all other sorts of lovely touches like that.

I'll post roughs eventually. As soon as I have a sequence roughed out and it's something worth all your time in watching.

As far as difficulties go, I am still trying to kick the MineCraft addiction, and other school work, as well as editing Single (My feature live-action film). Those things are just occupying my time - and all of them have business being there, that is except for the Minecraft chore. That game has got to go.

I also met with Tom Sito this week to touch up a part in my story that wasn't anywhere near as dramatic as it should be. Changes have been made.

So now. Finally. For your reading pleasure, I present the new and improved script for 'THE TIGER'.

Enjoy. (Download Link - Too much text to include in this post)

THE TIGER: SHOOTING SCRIPT


Now, Enjoy something completely different and still totally wonderful.

Color Script

Though you have not yet read the real script... why not just stare at it for a while?

IN COLOR!



See if you can figure it out!

A TYPICAL Tuesday

Hello folks it is Tuesday.


Sorry this post is a little late. This week, I worked on Panther expressions which was neither easy nor hard, and then got pretty much distracted the rest of the weekend. A wasted weekend is a terrible thing to have.

I'm trying to work on some backgrounds or concept are right now - which should be up tonight. At least a color script and some concept at will be up soon.

Then I am working on final animation as well as boarding out unfinished scenes and working here n there on the animatic. You should be seeing some cool stuff on here in the next couple of hours - especially since the WACOM tablet is now calibrated to work on this computer I can get some stuff done, and give the cintiq a lil rest.

THE HARDEST THING NOW is not to get distracted. I downloaded this video game the other day. Minecraft And I haven't been able to stop playing. which is not good news. I MUST PUT THIS GAME DOWN MORE OFTEN SO THAT I CAN work. Otherwise - there will be big problems in the future of thesis production.

But this world is perfect. and in a perfect world, everything gets done perfectly - on time - and is met with thunderous applause and jobs handed out like candy corn after Halloween.

perfect world, right?

no?

Just ask Tom Jones.

Nah, I'll have some art for y'all to feed your eyes on later.

giggle.

MORE CHARACTERS (have been designed)....

Alright. Without further ado, here is the rest of the characters in the film! Like before these are the character's heads/faces with the exception of "The Beasts" (1&2), which are full body right here. The Nurse has just one expression 'cause she is literally there only for a shot (and an establishing one). As to "The Beasts", they all run in a pack and will be surrounded by dust and other particles (see previous post). They are also transparent, spectral like creatures, and the tail on the 4-legged one, as well as the 'hair'/ 'tail' on the bird, will be represented with green fire - not shoddy line work. the water around the sharks fin might also be done with particles. Whichever is easier when the time comes to it.

Enjoy.

Partial Particles!

Well, I got my Particle effects software up n running. Meaning I don't have to animate EVERY DARN cloud of dust in this film, which really is a miracle, as there is a lot.

Well. That's all for now.

No picz.

Sorry, sports.

A car that drives and a snake that ... runs?

So, surprise! There is another shot of the car driving! I love moving camera shots so essentially this shot is the same 3D Maya car model, rendered with a 'Toon Shader', and the entire world around it was constructed after in After Effects. I used all of the same assets that I had made in Photoshop for the previous shot, with the inclusion of the yellow road lines now.

It was extremely difficult to transition from an above 2D, to a 3D driving shot, especially making the rain and snow particles transition in a pseudo 3D environment. It would likely have been easier to do the whole shot in Maya, but the car model is broken, so it can't actually move. Every shot of it moving, is actually a camera moving around a still model, making it 'look' like it is actually going somewhere. I am very happy how it turned out -even though it is still in progress - I need to do a few touch ups here and there, when I've got time (small things to be dealt with after the bulk of the rest of the film is animated n finished). However, I think I'm finally done with this bloody 3D car model. It's really been a pain in the bum, and now I can start moving on to 2D character animation and effects.

Panning Over the Car from Ezra Edmond on Vimeo.

(P.s. In the final film, after the camera zooms into the car, it will fade into the next scene, right now, the continued animation after the camera passes through the car window is just material waiting to be cut).

SO. A RUNNING SNAKE.

Here's a gif. As with the other, right click --> save as and then drag it into your browser or ... gif player (do those exist) to play it properly. I guess this is technically the first piece of finished character animation. It's a snake, as part of the group of ghostly animals that chase Tiger and Panther towards the climax of the film. In the next coming days, you will see the other spectral animals, as well as final rendered shots of them.



(P.s. The red lines around the snake are just construction lines that will not be present in the final shots. Ignore them.)

As far as I'm concerned that's enough to update you all with now, but I am trying to work a few more CG influenced shots into the ending to really kick the climax up to the next level. There will DEFINITELY be one or two epic camera moves that just need to be figured out plausibly. Can't live just on Pan's and Zoom's alone, right?