Updated Work Reel: Winter 2011

It's not perfect by any means, but this is my updated work reel for the beginning of the Winter 2011 semester.  It shows a few tweaks I've made to timing and the changes I've made to the last scene of the film.  There are also a few shots that have been cut for redundancy and time's sake. 

Second Semester...FINAL Semester

So winter break wasn't the most productive time for my film, but I had some well needed relaxation and spent time with family so it was nice.  Now that school has started back up, I'm pushing to finish revisions on scene 3 (formerly scene 4).  Once the revisions are where I want them, I will finish the backgrounds that go with them and begin keys for that scene, and then on to in-betweens and tie downs.

I've updated my production schedule to reflect where everything is currently at.

The Passage of Shadow

Production Schedule

Date	Things to Accomplish
1.10 – 1.16 Week 1	o   Finish revisions for Scene 4 o   Finish backgrounds/layouts for scene 4
1.17 – 1.23 Week 2	o   Keys for Scene 4
1.24 – 1.30 Week 3	o   Finish Keys for Scene 4 o   Begin In-betweens for Scene 3: Fight Shots
1.31 – 2.6 Week 4	o   In-between/Tie Down Scene 3: Fight Shots o   Work on editing final sound effects/audio
2.7 – 2.13 Week 5	o   In-between/Tie Down Scene 3: Fight Shots o   Work on editing final sound effects/audio
2.14 – 2.20 Week 6	o   In-between/Tie Down Scene 4 o   First Look at the Press Kit/Electronic Press Kit & Demo Reel o   Finish final audio track
2.21- 2.27 (Mid Terms) Week 7	o   In-between/Tie Down Scene 4 o   Phase 4B Presentation/Critiques o   Work Reel w/ final sound edit o   Production Blog/Book o   Updated Production Schedule, Demo Reel, Web Presence o   Press Kit/Electronic Press Kit (in progress)
2.28 – 3.6 Week 8	o   In-between/Tie Down Scene 2 o   Updated Resume/Cover Letter Due
3.7 – 3.13 Spring Break	o   In-Between/Tie Down Scene 2 o   Wrap up any remaining In-Betweens
3.14 – 3.20 Week 9	o   Clean up Scene 2
3.21 – 3.27 Week 10 (AAFF)	o   Clean Up Scene 3 o   Demo Reel & Trailer Check-Up
3.28 – 4.3 Week 11	o   Clean Up Scene 3
4.4 – 4.10 Week 12	o   Clean Up Scene 4 o   Demo Reel & Trailer Rough Cuts Critique
4.11 – 4.17 Week 13	o   Begin compositing in After Effects o   Demo Reel, Website & Trailer Check-Up
4.18 – 4.24 Week 14	o   Finish compositing and editing in After Effects o   Finish Demo Reel Final Cut o   Finish Production Blog Final Updates o   Finish Press Kits
4.25 – 5.1 Week 15 (FINALS)	o   Finish anything that needs to be finished!!!!!!!!
5.2 – 5.8 Reviews	o   Final Review in Auditorium: Wednesday, May 4th at 9:00 am o   Phase 4C Presentation/Critique o   Present work to class o   Production Book/Blog o   Data disk containing thesis project (hi-res, full version) o   Playable disc for presentation o   Press Kit/Electronic Press Kit o   Demo Reel & Written Components o   Web Presence o   Prepare materials/artwork for senior exhibition
5.9 – 5.14 Student Exhibition	o   Prepare for Senior Exhibition o   Prepare for Graduation

After presentations today I will post the updated version of my work reel.  

End of the First Semester

As we enter the final week of the semester, I take a step back and look at everything I've accomplished thus far. 

• I've trimmed my film to roughly 3.5 minutes
• I've completed the rough animation for scenes 2-3 save for a few effects shots
• I've recorded my final audio and have received the rough soundtrack from Rachael Milobar (she did an incredible job)

But more importantly, I'm much more confident in my traditional animation and am very excited to begin inbetweening and cleaning everything up.

While there is still a long road ahead, I'm sure that it will be exciting.  So now I prepare to start tackling scene 4 and I look forward to a bit of relaxation over the holidays with family and friends. 

I will post my most recent work reel on Wednesday after our presentations so I don't spoil the surprise. 

New Work Reel...again

Here's my latest work reel as of December 2nd.  I'm still keying away on scene 3 and have only about 24 more shots to finish and then I can move on to scene 4. 

So, after putting this shot off as long as I could, I finally decided to tackle the shot in Scene 3 of the ghosts running to attack Izumar and Korra.  I found some awesome video reference of track runners and that helped immensely.  I'd appreciate any feedback too.  These are just keys at this point. 

Updated Work Reel

Here is the updated version of my work reel with more shots from scene 3. 

Finally

After struggling with this shot for 3 days now, I finally got something that will work.  The problem was that the shot's initial composition broke the 180 rule, so Josh suggested adding another move at the beginning of the fight to correct the issue.  So, after much frustration, I shot some video reference which helped immensely.  So, here is the shot, feedback is much appreciated.  There is a small jump that I'm aware of and I will fix that now, but I still wanted to post it as is to show the progress.

Pencil Tests

So today I focused on reworking Korra's walk from the tent to the rock by the campfire from scene 2.  The old version was very stiff.  There are more breakdowns at the beginning of the test and then I mainly stuck to keys to make sure I got the positioning correct and she got to where she needed to on the rock.  I will continue to tweak this shot further down the road, but I'm much happier with how this one is turning out.

 This is the fight from shot 9 of scene 3 where Korra is fighting the ghost.  I need more breakdowns for the ghost at the end and the proportions are a bit wacky at this point, but I really like the motion.  I took video reference for this shot and it really has helped my animation a lot. 

This is another of the fight scene shots that I took video reference for.  It was very helpful yet again.  I'm really happy with the motion that I'm getting out of just the keys so far.  The fight scenes have been my favorite thing to work on so far.  

Finally, I got the keys done for 03_020: where Korra cries out in pain when she is struck by the ghost at the end of the fight.  Just keys at this point.

More pencil tests to come throughout the week I'm sure.  My main focus at this point is getting the entire film in rough key form so I can go back and begin to polish and tweak everything.  By doing it this way, I hope that my drawing of the characters will continue to become more consistent. 

New Work Reel

Here is my new work reel with more animation roughs. 

Making Progress

It's been a while since I've updated everyone, so there's a lot to cover!

First, I'm almost done with all the keys for scene 2, just a little tweaking, polishing, and adding a few breakdowns  before I start on any of the in-betweens.  I did a little color test of one of the shots from scene 2 as well so I could test out my clean up and color process.  Scene 3 is well on it's way in the key stage as well.  I've shot a lot of video reference which is really helping with the fight shots. 


The way I will be cleaning, coloring, and compositing my film begins by shooting all of my tests in iStopMotion and then exporting them as images instead of as a video file. I will then take those images into Photoshop where I will do my final linework and color.  Once colored, the images will be taken into After Effects where they will be placed into the scenes. 


I also hired Rachael Milobar to create the music for my film.  I was impressed with the music she composed for her senior film last year and am very excited to have her working on my film. 

Over the weekend, I will continue to work on keys, both on new shots and tweaking the ones I've already done so that I can add them to my work reel.  I will post the updated animatic with the keys as soon as it is done.