So long... for now

SO! I decided with all the changes going on and with the completion of my film that I should move on from this blog in favor of a new one about my new adventures in Los Angeles.

If anyone would like to see that it can be found here. If my film gets into major festivals or gets any other major recognition, I'll post about it back on here. Otherwise...

SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH!

SCREENINGS

It went the BEST. The screening for my film department went really well. My friends made awesome comments and everyone went awwwwwwww, almost immediately when the film started. It is so awesome to get the response you've been waiting over a year for. I still have a few tweeks to make, but those are all in compositing and color grading.

My little sister was even there! And My Dad! And My MOM and Step-dad! And Even my step-mom and step-brother came! Wish my older sisters could have been there but with one in ohio and the other with a baby, it is kind of hard.

In a few weeks I'll be sending it to festivals. WOOHOO

I AM DONE

I AM DONE. KINDof... I have finished my edit for school and graduation; however, I have work to do on this film still, first being going back and cleaning up a few frames where strands of glue reflect in the light. I also want to continue to work on the sound, maybe find a composer to flesh out my xylophone idea, make a good credit sequence, and color correct the s#%t out of it.

But besides that... I AM SO DONE! I graduate in a week and have plans to move out to LA only two weeks after that. I am SO excited to not be a part of academia anymore. I do have a couple of things to take care of quick before monday but I am just so excited. For this.

I DID IT GUYS!

Setup Example!

My thesis is done in the basement of my on-campus apartment so... it is ghetto-fabulous. I was doing this shot

And I thought to myself, "I should really show everyone what I am working in. That's always one of the big things that interest me about animated projects, especially stop motion." And so I give you an image of my set (during the same shot). Please excuse the quality. Since my camera is in use, I am using my iphone.

All in all, I do love my set. Especially my lighting rig. Made out of conduit and pipe, hanging from the ceiling by screws though the boards. Sounds ultra safe, right? I have it that way so it can be taken down at ease, when outside influences would require it.

I have 13 shots lefts and two and a half weeks to finish animation. If after May 6th I am still animating, expect a blog post where I curse myself for all eternity for not either getting more shots done in my allotted time or not starting earlier.

I have people working on my compositing and I have little sound work to do (three days worth, maybe) since my piece is so dialog driven (and I've had the final recording of dialog since the beginning). Now many would argue that sound should be almost half of your film and I guess I would to, but not on this schedule when I am the vast majority of the labor. I am not a sound guy. I can work with sound but that isn't my passion by far. Let's not forget I did technically work on getting that recording for six months so, yeah, plenty of time was spent on sound.

I should do a timelapse... I think I'll do one on my last shot. My last shot is REALLY hard for me and will take a couple days anyway. Just need to borrow a friend's camera and computer during it.

That's it for now. Obviously I am in a much better state of mind than I was last post. Next week is email LA week. I need to get pumped for that.

Ridiculous

Not blogging for almost four months is (insert title). So, if it bothers me so much, why haven't I??? Because things have been terrible for me.

Now of course I still have my health and no one has died and blah blah blah so I couldn't have that much to be upset about, right? Well, yeah kind of. I may be in a "bad" place but that is only relative. I should probably shut up and take it but it still hurts... Anyway, the crises of my life has been making it really hard to stay focused and work. Especially when it comes to animation...

I am not sure what I want from animation anymore. I mean, I use to just nerd out about it and get really excited about working on movies or tv shows that everyone will see. But with things that I have lost in the past few months... that doesn't seem as important anymore. So what am I getting out of it? I have sacrificed my time, money, energy, relationships, etc. for the sake of animation and what do I have to show for it?

Had I known what I would lose, this is not the path I would have gone down. But it's too late now. I have plans to move to LA with some the coolest cats I know and I am not going to let any more people down.

Hey, there is still one thing I can always look forward to. The Future. I don't know what this journey of animation will bring but it will probably be the most exciting roller-coaster ride I could ask for.

And if it isn't... I always have the memories of what could have been.

That sounded pretty pathetic right? So enough of that. How about some screen shots????

I'll cheer up in a few weeks. Maybe. Eh, it doesn't really matter. I've got work to do no matter the mood I am in.

I'M ANIMATING!!!

HEY INTERNET! Guess what I'm doing!

ANIMATIN'! (yeah, bet you didn't see that one coming)

It has been a long uphill battle but I finally got myself to doing a shot. It isn't that good but it's mine and I love it. I am so HAPPY to be animating but am still pretty nervous. I need to tie up some loose ends on the small puppet but the big puppet it fully operational.


Don't they look CUTE!




Would you like to see my first shot? OF COURSE YOU WOULD

As I said it's not that good, but it got me back into the swing of animating. You know? Made me remember all the things I need to think about between each shot. The next shot should be better, the next shot after that should be even better and so on and so forth.

I'll put up shots of my set and lighting rig later. For now, just let me bask in the knowledge that I finally made it to this point.

Building... Oh! Am I?! Nope... Still building...

As my title describes, I am still building. I am SO FAR behind it makes me want to commit hate crimes against an under-represented group of peoples... Well, maybe not THAT far behind but still...

The puppets are almost there. You can see in the picture there relative size and shape. I really like how they are coming out. I just want them FINISHED!!!

I decided to make my mouth pieces out of layered paper. I acually enjoy cutting small shapes out of paper so this has been going pretty well. The little girl mouths are SO VERY TINY and hard to set up without a reference. I decided to do the big versions first and then model the little girls after it.

And THE SET! Well... this is only a picture of one toy mountain. My set is suppose to be the inside of a toy chest, so it is made entirely of TOYS! These toys are all from my childhood. So many memories. It has been a little painful to hot glue them all together, as if to finally say, "I'm not playing with you anymore, so shut up and let me build my masterpiece from your corpses!"





So that's it, at least in picture form. I have another couple hills in progress and more parts of the puppets completed but nothing absolutely finished. I am spending from now till christmas with my family but I will probably head back to my basement on campus a day or so after we praise the birth of the newborn king. Watch out for the week of January Tenth, because I will start animation that week. Wish me luck till then.