The World Spins Madly On

The year has gotten off to an interesting start. Not quite sure how to describe 2012 to date, but I find it best at the moment to keep my head down and keep working. That being said, animation production is not exciting work. More often than not, it's just me working away on my laptop, checking scenes off my list as I complete them. There will not be much in the way of updates for awhile, as I am indeed animating away.

In the mean time, have some official "Really Bad Movie" trailer!

I don't really get around to updating this blog as much as I should, and find it much easier to throw up some production art here and there on Facebook. So if you want to see more goodies more often, come on over and like my "Really Bad Movie!" Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Really-Bad-Movie-The-Animated-Short/202523216457233

Oh Yeah, My Blog. Yeah.....

I did not forget about my blog, I swear. Determined to buck the annual fall depression I seem to latch onto every year, I have been working my butt off on some Really Bad Movie opening credits! Working so much to the extent that said credits are FINISHED credits!

That's just the cards themselves. Without giving too much away, there are giant robots, giant squids, slime monsters, flying saucers on string, zombies, and oh so much more. Next up on the production slate? The 5 scenes that make up our official trailer! Till then, enjoy the credit sequence eye candy!

Giant Robots Make a Crap Month Somewhat Better

Well there isn't much good I can say about the past month. Only halfway in and I can honestly say it's been the most challenging month of the year so far. All in all, my life has changed in a pretty big way and as far as the future goes, only time will tell. I'm still pulling for a positive and grown up outcome to the whole situation, though I sadly fear things will never be what they once were.

With chaos swirling around me, I have managed to get quite a few things done and learn a few things I've needed to pick up to complete the project. First of those things being Google Sketch-Up. Keeping in mind, this would mark my first experience with 3-D, as to this point I've been a staunch and hard lining 2-D man. Thinking in full 3 dimensions is far different than thinking in 3 dimensions for 2-D and I am proud to say I've made it through the other side. Needless to say there were nights where even a sailor would have blushed at the language I was using.

The green windows are for compositing purposes of course, and though this background is simple, it was the one that gave me my 3-D crash course. I followed this one up with a damn near authentic recreation of the White House's Eisenhower hallway. Heavily intricate and detailed, as it will be the background of 2 very long moving shots.

Next up, I'm getting reacquainted with Flash, and it's new toys. Now prior to the use of CS4, the last version of Flash I was using was MX 2004. A lot has changed, and thankfully one of the things that hasn't is the program's basic interface. Long and geeky story short, the bone tool works wonders, and the ability to move items with a bitmap fill without Flash crashing on you non-stop is a godsend.

Here is a test shot from my new opening credit sequence. All items drawn in flash with bitmap and texture fills. When it's done and composited in After Effects the whole thing will have a far more stop motion/paper cut out feel, but for now you can surely get the point.

As usual I will keep things short and sweet. Back with more as "Really Bad Movie" continues rolling, albeit slowly, along.

And Then There Were Five

Yeah lack of posting again, so shoot me. I've been busy trying to get the latest "Really Bad Movie" into animation ready shape. Final animatic edit, done! Main character Flash libraries as of tonight, done! I still have 6 to 7 other secondary characters to do, and hands for every character. Got my hands full that is for sure. (pun intended)

Anyway! Enough yapping! Onto what you're really here for:

Pretty snazzy, right? They all came out great this attempt. I've sure learned a hell of a lot about building libraries in Flash over the last year. These are fully workable Flash puppets, ready for some animating! Now to blast through the last of the busy work and get to the fun stuff!

The Case For "Paper"

Taking the time to ponder other contributing aspects of this new short film version of Really Bad Movie while awaiting opportunities to record with all my actors; I decided the updated version of this project needed an equally updated version of opening credits. So when our gifted new composer Ryan Brawders signed on to help transform the musical side of this short film, I took many angles into thought. Since this short is a celebration of the classic 50's b-movie, I wanted to incorporate as many b-movie monster scenarios as I could. Alien abduction, flying saucers, giant sea creatures, zombies, giant robots, slime creatures are what I set on and in passing this information onto Ryan I was totally blown away by what he returned with. Instantly I set to storyboarding and what I ended up with is far better than what I had envisioned. Still 2 weeks after completing the animatic I watch over and over in total amazement.

That being said, I must now set out to establish the visual aspects of my new credits. Currently I take inspiration from the classic early 60's paper animation credits from directors Bill Justice and X. Atencio. Their work can be seen in the opening credits of such Disney films as "The Mis-Adventures of Merlin Jones" and "The Parent Trap". Their style has come to find new found popularity with kitch artists of today.

Now there is no way I will have the time to do old school stop motion animation because, well if I'm gonna make 2012 film festival deadlines I've gotta have this thing in the can by December at the latest. What I am considering is using bitmap fills with my already constructed Flash animation character components. I played around with this idea all morning today and this is what I came up with:

Not finalized yet, but most assuredly in the running. Flash hates working with bitmap fills, and animating with them would prove to be a program crashing nightmare. The image you see above as a matter of fact is a second attempt as Flash crashed on my first attempt. Small update, but an update none the less. In a few short weeks I should have all my actors recorded, and a locked animatic in place. At that point it will be onto animation. A process that will consume at least the summer.

I Tried, and Now It's Bah! Humbug!

It officially set in last night. The holidays have severely slowed my progress on the latest installment of Really Bad Movie. It was at that moment I sunk back into my loathing for the holiday season. Till then I was doing great. Listening to the obligatory Christmas tunes, downing some egg nog when the chance presented, and shopping like a trophy wife with sugar daddy's credit card.

In the past I had been spoiled with numerous 1 day, all cast included recording sessions. This time around I've had to work within everyone's schedules, not to mention the holidays and set multiple sessions. I am VERY thankful for the wonderful Chris Kooreman at Beat Royalty who has already given up his studio space twice so that I may have cast members come in when time permits. So far the cast has performed with perfection and I look forward to getting the rest of the gang in to do their thing in early 2011. To that note I also have a theme song in the works and it's coming out great! Much thanks to my composer Ryan Brawders on that front! Next year is gonna be a lot of fun and I look forward to sharing my progress with you all.

Merry Christmas, Happy belated Hanukkah, Funky Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year to everyone.

Shaking Off the Rust

It's been a few weeks since I've updated, I know. At least this time my disappearance has been for pre-production reasons. Since finishing the first pass animatic about 3 weeks ago, I've been taking some time to A) Try out, develop and continue honing some new techniques, and B) shake off the rust that's accumulated over the last couple years in which I have been damn near close to inactive.

This is what I consider the fun time, all out trial and error. I touched upon it in my last post with that 10 second video of the scary, disembodied head of Professor Waxington: Now I get to use what I learned from those series of tests and apply them to actual character animation. This is all on a practice level of course, as I have not gotten my cast together to record just yet. (Though I was fortunate enough to have one of my cast members offer their services by way of crappy quality recording session on my MacBook Pro. Thank you Carlos!) Nor have I gotten my crew together to start animating. Before I can do either I have to figure out exactly what I want this show to look like. What to do, what not to do, and how to do it, will be much easier to explain to those involved once I get a clear understanding of what it is that I want this to be.

The video clip below has been how I've spent the day. It's not without it's issues, I know. (And yes the background I used is from the show "Archer". I in no way intend to use it beyond this test footage, nor do I claim to have had anything to do with it's creation.) All in all it's a very solid first attempt, and man does it have me excited to try out more things!

Again, it's not a finished piece, it's just a test. A very sexy test if you ask me!

Slight of Hand, Foot in Mouth

I'd be lying if I said the initial rough animatic editing process is moving along right on schedule. Fact of the matter is it's starting to drag on longer than I had hoped. I guess it's the way it goes when you've got a small handful of gags and one-liners to rework. Don't get me wrong, this is a solid project. Though like any project, some of my jokes just did not work in front of an audience. With rewrites and their corresponding storyboards behind me, I can at least say progress has been made in the last month. For the time being it's about as tight as it's gonna be till I can get my cast in the studio. It's been a bit of an internal up hill battle, and fatigue is setting in. I am very anxious to get onto the next step, but alas once the final dialogue track is recorded I will have a whole other edit to get though. The one edit I quite frankly hate the most. The final timing edit, and all the math and frame counting that applies.

As with all my posts I try to provide some eye candy. Though I don't have much by way of entertaining tidbits of production work to show quite yet, I have been playing with some new techniques in Flash.

Above you will see the quite stylish head of Really Bad Movie's very own Professor James Waxington. (Though his design may change in the months to come, lets just use this as a teaching example.) Subtle head turn not that exciting you say? Well you're right, BUT! This simple head turn will do wonders for the previously VERY limited animation I once used while pushing out past incarnations of this project. See, when doing limited animation, subtle usually translate to uncreative suit and money bozos as "time consuming" and therefor, expensive. Not so much here though! Notice the head never actually changes shape, but still gives the illusion of movement. That is because there are 4 moving parts that force your eye to think that the character is ever so slightly turning his head. In reality, it's only one drawing. Therein lies the magic of the whole thing. 1 drawing broken into multiple parts, moving together to give the illusion of full and subtle movement. I know it's not much, but damn it has me excited to get onto animation!