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.
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3 comments:
Sorry to hear about your Uncle, but it's good to know you've got things sorted out and all =)
I found the drawing/animation part of the process the most hectic, the inking of lines most time consuming, and the colouring the easiest but most repetitive (I felt like a machine colouring XD)
I think colour could add a lot to the overall animation experience, but if it'll take over your whole project it's best to go with the next best choice- which you've done.
Good luck =)
Thanks for the condolences Jen.
I guess I'm still tossing up with the colour thing . . . :P It would look good . . but only if I did it well. .
Did you end up inking by hand? Do you remember how many weeks/months inkinf and colouring took?
Thanks!
I remember Louie being extremely surprised I did all the colour in a relatively short time ^^;; He thought it was impossible, and urged me to stick with black and white.
hmm..I can't remember exactly how long it took... but it was quicker than inking, just very very very repetitive (especially colouring frames that looked similar, but they weren't ^^;) I inked and coloured as I went though, so it's kinda all mixed up together.
But then, I remember wasting time by scrapping fully inked and coloured pics cause I didn't like the drawing in the end =.= I'm sure you're much more decisive than me XD
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