The Animatic Builder timeline.
For this update I am going to give an overview of a new online application I have developed over he past couple of weeks to aid in pre-production, Animatic Builder. If you are unfamiliar with storyboards or animatics there are overviews here. Essentially where storyboards are the first visual organization of a film idea, an animatic is the next step adding a duration to each storyboard so the pacing of a film can be developed. Animatic Builder is designed to make creating storyboard and animatic sequences easier by keeping a sequence and it’s associated content in a central location accessible from virtually anywhere within an intuitive user interface.
The core idea of Animatic Builder is that a sequence can be timed out, played back and updated from a web browser without the need for movie compression, emailing large files and maintaining timeline files. With a concept and a set of images, a timed out sequence can be arranged and played back in just a few minutes. Animatic Builder is not meant to replace a non-linear editor such as Final Cut Pro but for planning out a scene or short movie during pre-production. The functionality of the app will be focused on building sequences with only pre-production information, keeping the app lightweight and accessible from any modern browser. Animatic Builder keeps a sequence and it’s necessary files contained for easy access.
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I have been very busy the past couple weeks, unfortunately not on my personal animation. On slow weeks such as this, rather than trying to stretch out a few scattered drawings, I will go into the techniques I am using to make the film. First I’d like to go over a recent addition to Photoshop, the timeline. It seemed rather odd to add a timeline but looking at the whole scope of Adobe’s product line, Photoshop is fast becoming the hub of Adobe’s catalog. The program you need to get any type of media done, which makes sense, the essential element of any piece of a graphic, film or software is the layout of the frame.
Down to the basics, why not Flash or After Effects?
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This update is the first weekly update on my short film “Relax.” Whether I will update once a week remains to be seen, but setting the goal is a good start.
Above is the construction of first shot from the film. The film will open on a black screen with the sounds of the city in the background then cut up from black to the main character stepping forward. The image shows the first and second steps in the process, layout and rough animation.
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A little concept art to take in. This image I designed as a test for the look of the rioters in my upcoming short. I wanted the rioters to look sketchy and unfinished next to the clean 3D animated Police but ultimately I rejected this design as being too detailed and time intensive.
Makes for a nice promotional still though.
I thought I would post a small update while I’m around the scanner and do a little introduction. This is the main character from my new short film Relax.
The Kid
The pre-production is going slow and steady. I have completed designing the major portions of the film; the two main characters, the set, and the “look and feel.” The final step is to put together an animatic. In normal production there would a series of storyboards, as seen on many a Pixar DVD, but with a project this small I don’t need to produce as much conceptual artwork.
The Animatic Builder timeline.
The Kid
Whitney Krape
