I've arrived in Ireland + another Animatic version!
Added 2018-09-16 18:31:34 +0000 UTCDear Patreons,
Yet another month has swiftly passed and we're already half-way into September. I hope you're still feeling well now that the colder autumn days are upon us.
As for what I've been up to it's the usual. For quite a while a lot of smaller details were my focus and I never thought it was quite enough for a proper full update.
On a personal level I moved out of my apartment (as there was no reason to pay for that while away on internship) and spent a lot of time cleaning my mom's place whereafter I rented my old room to a friend who needed a place to stay for her own internship. For the rest of the time I've basically been living underneath my mom's bunk bed, where I've been continuing work bit by bit. Unfortunately it wasn't the most pleasant workspace, and I would have to take a lot of breaks in-between as to not over-strain my back and alike. I used this as a good excuse to practice modelling with clay and writing my bachelor thesis, which I don't have to sit by that table to do. The latter I will try and share with you once the movie is released, in case you're curious about some of the behind-the-scenes going-ons.
Back to the present I just arrived in Ireland and am gearing up to starting my 3-month internship at Cartoon Saloon tomorrow. I'm a bit cautious about working in such a big studio, but I'm sure it'll be an interesting experience. The work-days will be 9-18, but at least there won't be homework to be had like there was in France. I expect to use whatever time I can find to keep to the plan of preparing Tales of Zale for proper production at The Open Workshop after I graduate.
Speaking of Tales of Zale, I've been continuing to tighten up the animatic for episode 3. I'm pretty close to having the 3 first scenes down to where I want them to be, although I still need to work out the scratch sound for two of those. As for the other one, it's the scene that I showed you in the last update as well, but I've made some adjustments to the latter half of it on top of adding the temporary sound. I'd be curious to hear what you think of the changes. As you can see I also got a basic Zale walkcycle down, which I've otherwise been having some trouble with!
To give an overview, here's the run-down of how the animatic's state is right now:
- Scene 1: Basically done, just needs scratch sound
- Scene 2: Basically done
- Scene 3: Basically done, just needs scratch sound - but it's a bit abstract, so it may still change
- Scene 4: A lot of animation done, just needs some line re-writes and a few shots replaced.
- Scene 5: Basically done, just needs to have the editing tightened and scratch sound.
- Scene 6: Basically done, just needs scratch sound
- Scene 7: This one is the main thing I'd like to re-board right now
- Scene 8: Basically done
- Scene 9: Almost done, but there are a couple of boards I'd like to replace
- Scene 10: Essence is there, but I'd like to re-board it to tighten it up
Of course there'll always be things that can be improved from there, but these are the priorities right now.
I'm sorry if this update is a bit more rambling and less structured than it should be. I've also been making head-way in further character development and interaction-schemes, but I just didn't know where to fit it in. Admittedly I'm still a bit tired from the flight, but I wanted to get the update out there before I start the internship. I hope I'll be able to keep you in the loop as much as my schedule will allow, and otherwise I look forward to soon see that schedule change.
Till next time, All the best,
- Sif
Comments
wow that is actually the exact impression i got from the changes and the scene in general, right down to the minutiae. can't overlook the minor things! thanks for the in-depth reply, i really appreciate it. yeah i sorta liked those little moments in the last version, like morpheus looking through the book on the ground or the more relatable camera angles because i thought they showed an interesting side to the characters, and i was a little sad to see them removed. but then i considered that maybe you thought moments like that would work better at a later point in the series, or that they wouldn't necessarily serve the plot of this episode (or maybe even that they weren't in line with the characterization you're going for at all). it's awesome that you're really committed to making this the best thing it can be. best wishes
itsdanfango
2018-09-24 11:21:20 +0000 UTCI Danfango, of course, I'd love to elaborate! This particular scene is one of the ones that I've re-worked the most times in this episode, as it's a pretty tricky one. As I think I touched briefly upon in a previous update one of the difficult things with this episode is that I need to follow up on the previous encounter with Morpheus before I can freely use the ruins as a setting again - but that follow-up was never meant to be at the core of this episode, so it shouldn't drag on too much. I've decided to use this obligatory scene as an inciting incident so it still serves to drive the plot forward. That's just to give a bit of background on what the scene is meant to do: set up a sort of poetic empty atmosphere in the ruins, have Zale and Morpheus meet establishing that the cats aren't as villainous as they tried to appear in the previous episode, and then have Morpheus remind Zale of how alone he actually feels with his whole missing-family-issue unresolved. Now I’ve gone through a lot of different versions trying to achieve this as best as possible; some more ambiguous and others more clear-cut. The versions we’re at now are close to being where I want them to be, and so it’s mostly a matter of fine-tuning. One driving factor for the current changes is trying to tell what needs to be told with as few shots as possible while still leaving some room for character and atmosphere. This scene ends at the 3-minute mark and at this point in the episode things have progressed pretty quietly. In general it’s a pretty quiet episode, which is definitely going to turn some people off - and is perfectly fine - but nonetheless the more efficiently I can get this scene done, the quicker I can get into the meat of the story, which I’m sure the viewer will appreciate in the end. That, and I’m trying to cut some fat so I can hit the 11-minute mark that I’m going for. Another thing that’s currently dictating a lot of the changes is that I’m further exploring the characters for the pitch I’m developing. I’ve learned a lot more about Zale these days – about his naivety, his playfulness, his stubbornness and how some things really get to him. He’s supposed to be a kid and I want to get better at depicting him as such, so I’m experimenting with his acting. The same with Morpheus, where I’m really in thought about who he’s going to be to Zale in the story down the line. I thought I knew, but there are some questions that I just realized that I have to find some clearer answers to. At this point in the story Morpheus recognizes Zale from his past and it brings up bad memories (though Zale has no idea about this). He’s conflicted about the fox’ presence, both being drawn to him, but also not wanting him to get too close. That’s why I in this newer version decided to position him on the fallen bookshelf, keeping him above Zale where he is most comfortable; in a position of control. This means that he can’t be flipping around in the book on the ground, but since he in these newer versions of the board just flat-out mentions Zale’s family the book isn’t as necessary as it was before, where it was the only thing to clue the viewer in on what’s on Zale’s mind. The main interaction that Zale and Morpheus are otherwise missing in this new version is that little shot where they were sitting next to each other and Morpheus became uncomfortable at Zale’s straight-forwardness. It’s still something similar that happens now, but the two close-ups on each character gives me more of a feeling that Morpheus is assessing Zale’s perceptiveness, and it doesn’t put him down as an equal to Zale just yet. I’ll save that kind of interaction for another time… I hope that elaborates a bit, even though it’s a lot of minor things. Whether or not these elements achieve what they are meant to is very subjective, but I’m just trying to get them to a place where I personally feel good about them! For the future I will try to elaborate a bit more on the thoughts behind these choices as well as we progress. Thank you very much for your kind words, I’m trying my best to improve on where I’ve left off and am super happy if that’s visible! Best wishes! - Sif
Sif
2018-09-23 22:51:44 +0000 UTChi sif. just wanted to say that i've really admired you and your growth as an artist over the last few years. everything you've shown from this new episode is so, so far ahead of what you showed in the first two it's kind of insane lol. and of course those were even leagues ahead of your older stuff and most other animators on youtube. and now you're traveling all over the world doing the real shit! really cool stuff. would you mind talking a bit about what you're thinking or what you're trying to do when you storyboard/rework storyboards? obviously this new version of the scene is a bit shorter and more consolidated, but i feel it leaves sort of a different impression of the characters with some of the little interactions removed. that kind of stuff? (don't worry about it if you're too busy, though, i'll understand) keep up the good work!!
itsdanfango
2018-09-21 10:10:58 +0000 UTC
