I feel like I'm a mushroom

Hello.

This week we [BDM Honours Class] were supposed to have a meeting . . . but it’s been postponed to the 22^nd July. Hmm . . .

Painting digitally has been interesting . . . I’ve learned that the smudge tool does a good job of making digital painting appear more like real paint. For a while I was airbrushing and whilst it was quicker, it looked pretty fake. So I’m smudging away . . . I will probably need some help though . . . I’ve discovered (or accepted?) that whatever I choose to do will take time.

I’ve animated about 7-8 seconds now? This year I feel more confident with animating – in that I have an improved sense of timing. I just couldn’t make the connection between frames and time last year . . . I knew the logic i.e 12 frames = 1 second (I'm animating in 2s - so each frame is doubled . . 24 frames per sec). . . but I couldn’t put it into practice somehow.

This year it’s clicked. Not sure how or why, but now that I understand timing better I can plan my animation better. I just hope my animation doesn’t come out too robotic . . . I tend to be hitting key frames at 6, 12, 18, 24 etc . . . the line tests will reveal all . . . speaking of which, I haven’t done any yet . . . partially out of fear . . and partially out of confusion as I don’t know who to consult over them with.

Simon has taught me to understand the weight sound design carries on a piece and he’s also been a great help in the editing of my script from a long and fuzzy notion of a story to something shorter and more concise. But he doesn’t have a background in animation so can’t help me with it. Also, Simon mentioned to me when I last saw him that he plans to take annual leave during next semester. . . so soon he won’t even be my supervisor. That was about a month ago and I haven't had any news since. Wish I knew what was going on . .. I don't like being kept in the dark.

A White Flag and a Wacom

I spent the afternoon painting backgrounds today . . . and came to the conclusion that it was not a good idea for several reasons, but the main one being that it takes a long, long, long time.

It’s not that I’m impatient – but I can’t afford to spend the time these backgrounds require. Each background needs several layers of paint and each layer needs time to dry (otherwise painting over wet paint runs the risk of scraping back to the canvas). Then there are the issues of mixing enough paint, mixing the right colours . . . not to mention there is no undo function when things go a little astray.

Hijacking the family dining table in the name of art.

So I’m surrendering. I’m packing up my canvas and paints for sometime post Honours and reacquainting myself with my Wacom (which is pretty nice actually) tablet. I am a Digital Media student after all . . . and I do aspire to work with a Cintiq one day (http://thinkinganimationbook.blogspot.com/2006/08/new-and-improved-animation-desk.html) haha . . .

To avoid the garish colours I’ll use my Derwent Pencils as a colour palette reference. As for my painting skills . . . they’re just something I’ll have to work at.

Planes, Paper and Paint

I had a little aeroplane of an idea for my paper last week – why not write a comparison between the short animations of then (1930s) and now (2000s)? I flew her over to Simon so that he could have a look at her. He took her into a hanger and pulled her apart. But he said some of her parts could be useful.

I rewrote and submitted another Preliminary Outline of my Honours Paper on Friday (13^th) built on something Simon suggested when he critiqued my proposed paper ideas. I hope that this time I’m on the right track or at least a lot closer to it. I’m especially hopeful as when I was researching this new idea, I actually found a lot of material.

Now that my paper is temporarily out of the way, I’m refocusing on the project again. Since I’ve last posted I’ve animated a little more and started work on my backgrounds.

The plans for my backgrounds have changed several times since I’ve started. Initially I thought I’d just paint them digitally - - then it occurred to me that I don’t paint very well digitally. I tend to end up choosing the really garish colours.

Then I considered building making my backgrounds out of photographs.

And though I really liked the idea conceptually, aesthetically it (I had to reluctantly admit) kinda jarred with the look of my animation.

Finally . . . and what I’ve currently (and invested about $40 in canvas into) settled on is PAINTING my backgrounds – with paint. And a brush. Not photoshop, not my wacom. But good old acrylic and whatever poor animal they plucked to get brush bristles.

It’s messy, but something different to distract me from (and still remain contributive to) my project. I haven’t composited it with my animation (the characters) yet but I am fairly confident that they won’t clash aesthetically. Hands painted backgrounds were used in 2D Disney stuff and it worked for them. I reckon I can make it work.

Reality check

I had a look at this yesterday . . .

I came up with this in April . . . and now looking at it about 2 months on . . . it was a bit disheartening. But it’s just a guide . . . so I tell myself.

Regardless, it frustrated me enough to pull up my brand spanking new drafting chair (a beautiful bargain at $65 from my wonderful work . . .) to my beloved old animating desk (well, it’s not that old, but it sounds more poetic if I describe it that way) and animated about 15 frames. It’s been a while since I’ve animated, so I picked an easy shot for starters.

It feels good to animate. It feels good when I produce a good drawing. I don’t know how long these fuzzy feelings will last, but hopefully for a while yet.

I need to rewrite a Preliminary Outline for my paper . . . but everything’s been so paper oriented lately I just need to take a break from it and work on my project for a while.

Toto is a dog

I haven’t progressed a great deal since I last wrote. One thing I’ve done though is re sketched the Stork.

I played around a little with the design, distorting proportions a little (but not as much as the Wizard of Oz examples Althea suggested – but thanks Al, I enjoyed looking at it.) etc. What I settled for was this:

It’s a “cleaner” look. I think I was mistaken when I said anthropomorphic. I didn’t intend anthropomorphic as dressing up the Stork in clothes. What I meant was that I want the Stork to display a paternal nature – but this will be more apparent through the animation – the way the Stork behaves. Even then, I’m not even keen on having the Stork use its wings as arm/hands.

Anyway, I hope to progress more this week . . .