Family Portraits

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

A very serious post.

Let's start this post off right.





Good. Now that all that nonsense is out of the way, let me present you with something.

An.... ANIMATIC.

"The Tiger" (New Animatic) from Ezra Edmond on Vimeo.

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.

Rember, Rember, It's F'nally November

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.

Come on Tiana - we're ALMOST THERE. (I will overuse this link- so be prepared)

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.