Production Journal Review 2

At the moment, with 2 and a half weeks left to finish Moon Cheese, I'm feeling confident.  I've finished a fair few shots, with only a few more to go.

I made a few decisions in the last couple of weeks regarding difficult things to animate.  I decided to scrap the 3 dots on Herberts nose, as I felt they wouldn't look right frame to frame.  Like they would change position and size.  So I got rid of it, and it's been much easier.  I also decided to go the "Mickey Mouse" route, and keep both Herbert's ears visible even when turned sideways.  It looks pretty good.  I'll have some screen caps up here shortly.

Everyone in the class have been really positive and helpful with any ideas and tips.  Sean is a lovely man for getting me Toon Boom, and Josie has been good to talk to about the program because she's using it as well.  Bruno's just positive towards everything, so that boosts my confidence.  Nils is barely here, but he's good, Tai gives his nod of approval, which makes the world a better place, and Alex always has a look when it's all done.

Teachers are helpful too.  Kirrily always has good advice and is up for a chat about it all.  Darren's the Toon Boom expert and is helping me with Particle Illusion.  Jack is just tops, and always wats to help and wants to know what's going on.  I've missed a few of his classes, but I'll be there tomorrow!

I'm confident I'll get this done, and I've got family and friends on my ass to help me get it done.  If I can't focus at home, my best friend has offered her house, so that she can sit there and yell at me every time I try to stop and procrastinate!  Now that's friendship!

Production Report - Week 11

Hey hey kids.

I enjoy accounting.  It's ever so much fun to play with abacus'.

Well Toon Boom works, and I've already done the White House scene.  A frame of it is up on the blog.
I've done the animation and coloring for the crying shot, but I'm yet to put the background behind it.
I'm currently doing the sound, and I have to in the next few days, hopefully by the end of the week, book myself into the recording booth and do a few recordings, mainly "MOON MADE  OF CHEESE" etc.

I'm thinking of changing it a little.  There's a great distant space explosion sound which would work well.  So I'm thinking of a shot after his head expands, with the moon reasonably far away, and a small explosion seen, then cutting back to Herbert falling on his knees then front with no head.  But I don't know.  I probably should.

I'm doing the rough animation for the walking then planting the flag scene.  I should just put in my pencil test and go by that, but I tried to do it by memory and it looked SHIT!  The rest of the animation is fairly simple, small movements etc.  So I'm getting the hard stuff done first!  After this sequence comes the head expand.  I've got some Simpsons episodes to watch which have their heads expand, so I can look at them.

Speaking of Simpsons, I had a bit of a bitch fit at the end of semester 1 when Huni said my design was too much like Itchy.  Playing around in Toon Boom, I colored him blue for a sec, and sure enough, it looked like Itchy.  To which I smiled and said "God dammit, Huni"

Wish me luuuuuuuck!

3 Seconds - Done and Done

It's important to celebrate the little things.  So I am celebrating the completion of 3 seconds worth of the animation finished.  Here's a frame of it:

It's weird to be happy over 3 seconds.  And it may not look like much.  But let me tell you from experience.  Just because something only lasts 3 seconds, doesn't mean it isn't spectacular!

127 Hours

The next few weeks are going to resemble a bad parody of 127 Hours.  Instead of my arm being stuck in rocks, it'll be stuck holding a WACOM pen, and I'll have hallucinations of rain coming to save me.

Darren managed to help me with the exporting and alpha channels etc.  I have promised to give him a job as the head animator on the TV show I will have one day.  Except I get to just credit him as "Daz-Dawg"
In Moon Cheese he has agreed to let me credit him as Darren "Daz-Dawg" Bell.  I will have to ask Jack if I can credit him as Jack "Jack Attack" Parry.

Tonight I begin the rough animation.  Let's do this, mofo.

What I'm Thinking...

I'm thinking of getting rid of Herbert's 3 dots on his nose.  I'm just having nightmares of being up at 4am with them not looking right, jumping around the place...

I'll have a test and see.

HALLELUJAH!

In the words of the incomperable Professor Farnsworth - Good News Everyone!

Sean has managed to get a totally legal copy of Toon Boom Animate Pro.  That's like the full on version, the creme de le creme, the program they use for like Simpsons and Family Guy and stuff.

The only thing now is the exporting.  It works, but we're a little confused with the quality and bringing the thing into After Effects, and editing the compasition settings with the frame rate etc.

Hopefully Darren can help us tomorrow!

Turns out that PENCIL thing wouldn't have worked anyway.

But I'm much happier, much more confident than I was 48 hours ago!

FGH JK

I have a pointy forehead.  I just smooshed the keyboard with my forehead, and it was in a perfect line.  FGHJK.  I think my nose hit the spacebar.

ANYWAY.

First day of accounting school today.  It's so fun.  We're learning about the history of the 5c coin!  Did you know that in 1926 a man by the name of Frank Doyle consumed 10 pounds worth of 5c coins?  He died.

...

Anyway.  I'm actually still in animation.  Daz-Dawg thinks we may be able to sort it out in PENCIL, so we're gonna have a play on Thursday.  BUT if that doesn't work, Toon Boom is on sale through their website, so if we havn't sorted it out on Thursday, I might just buy it.  That way I know I have it, and I won't have this problem next year.

I bought a new laptop last night, sp I really can't afford this.  But ah well, you gotta spend money to lose money...  That's not the right saying.

This Is Starting To Get Ridiculous

Remember a week ago I said I could see this all actually happening?  Yeah, that's starting to fade off now, and the feeling of "OH FOR F***S SAKE" is starting to creep in.  After we thought we'd fixed the problem yesterday, Josie messages me today with an extension of that problem (see her blog for details).

Toon Boom sucks.  And I really don't want to animate in Flash.  But it's starting to look like I'm going to have to.  Darren hasn't e-mailed me back, and Josie's literally just messaged me telling me she's asked Sean if he has anymore ideas.

Panic's starting to set in, all I wanna do is start the proper animation, and yet shit has begun to hit the fan.  Bloody "ghost in the machine".  I think it's Steve Jobs, punishing us all for using PCs...

Too soon?

I Hope You Like Sausages

Coz we've hit a snag!

I wrote that joke.  Just then.  I'm funny...

SO Josie calls me this morning.  I didn't answer because I was busy.  Then she messages me to tell me that Toon Boom hates us.  Apparently the version we THOUGHT was the full one is not it at all, and therefore when we export there is a watermark of the word DIGITAL on it.  I checked it out, and sure enough, there's the word DIGITAL in BIG RED LETTERS!  Therefore, snag.  Josie, get me an application for accountant school!

I've messaged Darren to see if he has any ideas, and I'm about to Facebook Mundy-Man to see if he has any ideas as well.

Wish us luck!  Otherwise we're fuc---  No, unnecessary!