"It's a small step for . . . a small girl"

I met up with Lynne today just before class to discuss my Honours Paper. I was tempted to say “dreaded” Honours Paper or something of the like . . . but really, it is not that bad. I think it may even be working out now – not that I’ve exactly typed a word of it yet (just masses of things that can be part of it). I’m very hesitant to declare an epiphany of any sort. I don’t think epiphanies are frequent . . . mostly we just take steps here and there in life. But there, I’m getting too philosophical now . . haha.

My paper right now is looking at “HOW the story of a piece is affected by the way in which it is produced” – only I have to think of a much better sounding title and rephrase my title into a statement which I then have to try prove or at least debate throughout my paper.

The three main sub headings that I’ll be exploring this under are money (which Lynne reckons should be rephrased somehow), time and the cast/crew/customs. I’ll be using case studies to explore this – I’m looking at Terry Gilliam (he did the little cut out animations in Monty Python and is a fine example of how money/time/crew constraints made his work – though memorable – without story), Adam Elliot’s Harvie Krumpet (the claymation about the odd, unlucky Harvie – an example of how a story that seems risky could be crafted into something successful) and Disney’s Meet the Robinsons (the movie was based on a book and then expanded by Disney story artists as well as their cast and crew during production. Interestingly, John Lassester’s influence – as chief creative officer – was apparently strong enough to cause the revision of 60% of the film 10 months out from release. Why did the MTR crew care so much what he thought – finance reasons?!)

I’m meeting up again with Lynne next week . . . by then I’m meant to have written something. She is also wanting me to include some history of animation (waaaaaaaaay back to cave paintings – to contextualize my paper) but that doesn’t seem too hard a thing to do.

Other Honours things . . . I bought 4 reams of Animation 12” Field Paper. It is so particular – a specific gsm and size – and as far as I know, only Artlink in Brookvale sells it. The price has gone up from last year . . . I was relieved that they gave students a 10% discount. Still burnt a small hole in my pocket though . . .

A page out of my revised Scene 4 storyboard. The stork's cameo has been replaced with a kitten . . .

The replacement Scene 4 - - I storyboarded it instead. I sent it to Will to have a look. He is suspicious that it may actually be an increase on my workload. I’m not too sure – so currently I am piecing an animatic in hope that the technical flaws in it will be exposed.

Winsor McCay and other things to say

ARgh … too much has happened over the last week (including the Honours Meeting) so this’ll be a summary.

PROCESS: The main thing that has been coming along in regards to my project is HOW I will be processing my drawings. When I saw Will the other week he was pretty sure that there was some sort of trace function on something like Flash or Illustrator. At the end of the Honours Meeting, Tanya (who’s also in the class) offered to help me find a solution. We discovered a live trace function in illustrator that gives reasonable results. Over the last few days Tanya (Will and Phil) and myself have been figuring out ways to batch this process . . . it’s a long story . . . I guess the main point is that we’ve seemed to have found a way of doing this in Adobe Bridge. I just need to get the software now so I can test it on my own machine.

A frame that has been 'live traced' in Illustrator then slightly touched up by hand.

STORY: This had not been something I expected to have revisit as Simon and I had worked to get my story working well. However, personal things have caused me to revisit my story. About a month ago my uncle took his own life by jumping from a building. I did not know my uncle personally so the event has not impacted me in a great way, but it has for my dad and aunt. For their sakes I am removing the scene in which the Baby falls from a building. I’ve rewritten the last scene – I mean to make it an animatic this week.

AESTHETIC: One comment that came out of the Honours Meeting when I was showing my line tests was that my animation had the quality of the old animation that influenced me (which was pretty cool!). It was commented that perhaps I shouldn’t try and emulate the coloured work of today. I am leaning now towards a line drawing style of Winsor McCay (an early animator famous for shorts like ‘Gertie the Dinosaur’). As I read more about McCay I found that he is best known for the quality of his animation and that his tools were very simple ones (he drew on rice paper).

Winsor McCay's 'Gertie the Dinosaur' (1914)

I’m somehow drawn to his work . . . ultimately, after story, I want my work to be about the quality of my animation (whatever that may be). As Will reiterated to me what I’ve told him – I want to be an animator, not a colour artist. So perhaps a Winsor McCay avenue is where I should head.

SOUNDTRACK: Though McCay is 1910s, the style of animation I’ve been inspired a lot by is that of the 1930s and the soundtracks of those pieces . . . the jazz, the swing . . . I really like them. I’ve been trawling a few places now and have a small handful of CDs of that eras music. I’m pretty sure I can find a soundtrack out of my collection.

That’s about all for now.

Revived

I think I made a few break throughs with the paper . . . but I’ll talk about that later. I’ve got about 15 minutes to kill before I have to get ready for work. :P

I talked to my head manager on Saturday about the possibility of leaving – how much notice I needed to give if I was going to quit. He said that they much rather keep me as an employee than lose me and were open to working out a roster that suited me, whether that be giving me annual once a week (so I only work 2 instead of 3 days a week) or combining annual leave with unpaid leave (I pretty much killed my annual leave when I went on holidays in the summer) so I can have a month off when things get really hectic. I am thinking I will probably opt for that . . . my manager said that as long as I’m open and honest with them about my needs they could help figure out something workable for me. I really appreciate this.

Another good thing was that I actually stuck to my resolution to make Sunday a rest day. Even though it was only but a handful of hours in around the things that happen on Sunday I felt refreshed to have that time. I noticed I had to consciously block thoughts of my animation and paper constantly . . . I didn’t realize it consumed me so much. I’m going to try and give myself these few hours every week . . . it gives me something to look forward to and hopefully makes me less restless during the rest of the week.

This afternoon I have to prepare for the Honours Meeting tomorrow. I mean to present an animatic (with line tests dropped in + some sort of dud soundtrack to imply what I hope to have in the finished version), background sketches, timeline progress/adjustments and comments on work practice plans and possible needs for story revisions.

Some resolutions

The last few days have been relatively productive, though I am still slightly behind schedule. This past week I’ve been making a point to wake up and sleep earlier so that I have more time and am well rested. Or reasonably so. It seems to be working.

Being held accountable is also helping . . . I am keeping a google document log, and though I haven’t been asked to, I’m starting to log how many frames I’ve drawn each day. I don’t know how frequently Will will look at it, but knowing that he could look at it keeps me on my toes.

I have almost finished animating Scene 1, with an exception of the Stork playing with the Baby. But I’m pretty sure that I’ll be coming back to it for a while yet. I showed one of the line tests to Will the other day and he commented “That doesn’t read at all”, which didn’t really offend me because I thought the same. It was one of those shots I pushed to meet quota. :P

For the time being I’ve decided not to quit work . . . I tackled Orville with a worse load. My attitude plays a big part in how I handle this, I believe. I’m not going to rule out leaving – but just not now.

My dear mum has kindly volunteered to be a background artist for me to help relieve my workload . . . I trust her as she does have a sense of artistic judgment . . . I don’t know how else to describe it. I taught her to use Photoshop – the basics of using layers, brushes, the smudge tool and the eraser. She’s picked it up – and relatively fast too – which is incredible for someone who freaks out at the sight of a computer update. I’m proud of her.

This is the first background mum worked on. I drew the foreground and mum did the rest. It’s not quite finished yet . . I copy/pasted the foreground from a different psd file so it looks grainy/pixelly . . but yeah, it’s not too bad.

Okay, I’m off to work on my paper now . . before I have to go to work. I’ve decided Sunday WILL be my rest day though . . . when I come home from work on Sunday night I will just relax and leave this all for the rest of the week.

One, two, three

I met up with Will today for a consult over all this . . . the paper and project and all.

We concluded three things needed to happen:

1. I need to read my paper again.

Simon finally got back to me about my preliminary outline, his last service to me. My paper is still not quite right . . . my topic can work, but I’m missing an element of analysis in my paper.

To recap, my current topic is to analyse how different work practices (e.g. studios compared to independents) impact the story of a piece. Will suggested I go find 3 examples of this and focus on them. In regards to the paper feeding the project and vise versa, Will believes that can only be applied so far in the case of cell animation where the production is tight. I need to contact Lynne over this.

2. I need figure out HOW I’m inking my frames.

This really, is my fault. Althea has been helpful in sending me links about how this could be done. And I’ve looked at some of it and experimented with it a little - - but I really need to sit down and set the process in metaphorical stone.

3. I need to quit my part time work.

This . . . is a tough one. On one hand I don’t want to let go of it (I can remember how dodgy it was not to have an income) but on the other hand I could do with the relief. Currently it demands about 15 hours (the minimum I have to work) a week of me. Time I could do with back, not only to work, but to also have a break. Or in Will’s words “take yourself on an art date”. At the moment my weekdays are tainted with pressure to work on my animation and my weekends to work for work.

I’m coping somewhat currently – but I know I need to step up the production somehow and it’s difficult as the hours I have to spend on my project are not changing (unless I quit work) and working as I currently am (slaving to the project and work) - I’m starting to burn out – or at least my enthusiasm is.

I want to make the cut, but I need to talk this through a bit more with the people it *may* impact.

Other things . . . I gave Will a file with all the line tests, backgrounds, schedules, animatic etc to date. We scrubbed through the animatic and talked a bit about shots that can possibly be changed, replaced, moved. There is one section in particular that has in the last few weeks has become more personal to me, or rather, people I care about. I cannot disclose details, it’s sensitive and not for me to disclose anyway. But I wanted to mention it, because as Will pointed out; this ‘event’ (if you could call it that) is impacting the way I deal with the story of my animation . . . material for my paper?

On a lighter note, I found this pigeon on Oxford Street . . . it was abnormally unafraid of anything. Cars, motorbikes and a strange Chinese girl taking a picture of it with her phone. I need that pigeon's fearlessness . . .

Again, again and again

Thursday and Friday were almost a repeat of Tuesday and Thursday. Unfortunately.

One day of work, the other, an abandon of schedule. Not that I regret it, per se. This project is important, but there is more to life than this.

On Thursday I was looking through my shot list and realized I forgot to factor in one of the shots. So reluctant to attempt the shot of the Stork playing with the Baby, I spent the day working on the shot I had missed – a shot of the Stork flying from the Baby’s point of view.

I took Althea's advice and got rid of the Stork's chest feathers . . an unnecessary headache!

As flying is a cycle, even though the shot is about 5 seconds (60 frames) I only had to animate 23 as they’d loop. Each drawing took about 20-30 minutes. I’m glad I have a schedule; it makes me push myself a bit harder. I reckon – no, I know I can push myself even harder though . . . I don’t feel like I’ve reached my limits yet.

The cold weather makes me so lazy sometimes (it was 6 degrees outside this morning . . . 6 degrees! That’s a big deal in Sydney! That’s a big deal for my weak, little Australian body! I am typing this with purple fingernails . . and I'm not wearing polish!). I need to have a more disciplined attitude to this all . . . there is a lot to do.

Thinking Big

I dropped into COFA yesterday to return some books . . . my ability to perpetually renew books has started coming to an end. I ditched the bus back to the station for a walk instead. I find walks interesting. Walking through Hyde Park I noticed this chalked on the side of some steps . . .

I don’t know who did it; I don’t know what they meant by it . . . but I’m choosing to take it as a reminder of some sort of the bigger picture of things. The bigger picture of this project. The bigger picture of life in general.

Over the weekend I listed my backgrounds (approx 27 in total, but only 5 of these are really detailed) and created psd files for most of them. I’ve decided to make them 15 by 20cm at 300 dpi – that is big enough for what I need them for.

On Monday I reached my scheduled quota. Ditto Tuesday. But yesterday I had other things I had to attend to . . . so now I’m kinda a day set back. Or not quite . . . I assigned yesterday, today and tomorrow to working on a shot of the Stork playing with the Baby in midair.

I’m considering postponing this shot until I can talk to Will (who is my supervisor now) about it as I have NO IDEA how to animate it without making the Stork look like it’s trying to harm the Baby. I’m also concerned that the Stork, though improved in design, still isn’t expressive enough. I animated a shot of the Stork looking shocked the other day and I’m not convinced it worked . . . sure it has a pulse, but does it have a soul? I don’t know.

Anyway, got to just keep working now . . . and think big . . . keep the big picture in mind.

Simon says . . .

Goodbye.

Thanks Simon for your supervision over the last semester. I don’t think I can say much more than I did in the email I sent . . . so just thanks again and I wish you the best.

Simon got back to me soon after I shot him an email regarding the details of his leave. His leave kicks in today . . . and apparently he’ll be replaced by Will.

Will helped me out a lot last year with Orville . . . I resent having to use a cliché, but I couldn’t have done it without him. I’m stoked at the idea of working with him again.

My animating is coming along gradually . . . I have a small pile of drawings now . . . which is nice.
But they probably account for only about 1/16^th of what I have to do in total??

My little pile of animation. I thought it'd be nice to stick a photo in so this entry isn't so boring.

I’ve been finding my work progress, though somewhat productive - - aimless. This morning I decided to deal with that by mapping out a schedule. I went through the list of shots I have to complete and scheduled it into specific dates. I tried to be realistic – like not assigning things to weekends (as they’re usually hectic with other stuff . . . like work. Also, keeping them free means they can be catch up periods if need be).

If all goes to plan, I’m due to complete the animation by the end of the first week of September, which is not too bad. That gives me a little under two months to wrap up/work on the other things like inking, compositing, sound (some which will hopefully be underway already during animation) . . . I know too well from last year they need their own share of attention!

It moves!

I finally located F Check on my computer and did some line tests today. In lieu of a real copy stand I blu tacked a web cam to my bookshelf and shot my drawings with that. The only thing is that the camera slowly slipped, so some of my line tests slide in the playback. But I don’t really care . . . I’m reasonably happy with the line tests.

I should probably try this next time though --> http://www.videomaker.com/article/6807/