It has been a long and productive summer in many areas. Although I have not been working directly on the film, modeling, animating, and rendering, I have had the opportunity to solve a couple of major production issues. First, I have settled on a 3D software package. I had been using Lightwave 3D for a very long time, 8 to 9 years, but with the lack of major updates and a questionable move to a subscription based model I could not continue with Lightwave. Looking at other packages was daunting. From an economic standpoint justifying the cost of buying any of them was impossible considering Lightwave is still the least expensive at around 900 bucks. Where the Adobe Production Suite is downright essential, Photoshop and Illustrator are indispensable, a 3D package is not necessary as I am not looking to make money with current short and I have not pursued 3D work for sometime. Fortunately this area is one where open-source software has come through. Blender is a fantastic 3D solution for what I need. Where rigging is quite cumbersome in Lightwave, Blender can switch from modeling to setup with ease.

I will be posting more on Blender and the short film soon, stay tuned!

After pulling together most of my storyboards on paper in my sketchbook I have moved on to building out the frames in Photoshop because I left my sketchbook in another state. Brilliant I know, but it was time to move into the digital realm. I was able to trace over the storyboards I have completed and separate out the actions into individual frames.

I have completed about half of the storyboards and I’ll begin plugging them into Animatic Builder so I can edit the film as I go through my day.

The most important part of a large scale project, especially one undertaken solo, is a break. The constant drum beat of, “I need to finish this and send it out tomorrow!” takes a massive toll. Stepping back for a day without thinking about the project makes you realize that your life will continue even if you don’t finish this film, painting, etc. Even better? When you start working again you will come with fresh ideas and a renewed drive. Continue reading →

Opening Shot

It has been a busy week but I managed to get through most of the storyboards for the film. Rather than try and make a series of thumbnails, a bad idea by the way, I decided to commandeer one of the sketchbooks I hadn’t used yet for the task. Although index cards are normally preferred, I’ve been running around too much to make a proper storyboarding wall. Instead I’ll scan the pages and put them into my app so I can edit the animatic on my phone.

The most difficult parts of the film to conceptualize are two “story within a story” sequences which need to be bold graphically and have very simple story arcs. The shot setup is a bit odd in that the doll has to flip the pages off then have the wind carry the pages behind the foreground so they can be framed over the doll’s shoulder. Then once framed the pages need to continue flipping through even when they are not being torn off the stack. I don’t have this sequence shown here, but I’ll make sure my animatic is shared at some point. Continue reading →