BDM127, 2D assets, 29 and 30 September

I've been painting and rigging puppets.  The monkey's tail is going to animated cell to cell, and maybe more of his motions will be, too.  But just in case I can make his movements simple, I'm rigging as many of his views as I can.  I've finished Madame, the painter and the patron, so I can animate their scenes.  That's most of the easy stuff.

BMA243, Digital Illustration, Angel, 29 September

I can never decide once I start manipulating the images.  The bottom is the original with some filters on different layers.  The top is elongated with special attention paid to the feet.  Time to move on to another project.

BMA243, Digital Illustration, Robot Woman, 29 September

cyborg tutorial
using the linked tutorial, I took the image of the nude and gave her sculpted lines with the pen tool.  It's hard to use... I then added buttons, dials and machine parts from photos that I took while visiting my friend's post on an oil tanker. I added in a free-use image from the internet so she had an environment to ground her.  I did some darkening to take down the front light source on her body and used a smart blur to give her skin an inorganic sheen.

BMA124, stop motion, 28 september

We had a meeting outside of class!  Whoa!  And all four of us were there!

We went through the animatic and idenitfied shots, grouped them by camera angles, picked out the hardest ones, added a few over the shoulder shots to one scene, and then petered out.  We'll get back to it next Monday.We printed out all the panels for Ken's section, the flip motion paper stuff.  He now needs to label each shot with how many pictures needs to be taken so we get the same timing as the original animatic.

We still need to finish some things: shadow puppet, decoration on wall.

BMA243, final steampunk blueprint, 28 September

Compare to the first try:  The house is darker and more in keeping with the balloon and chimney pieces.  I've moved the ladies around and darkened up the child going in the front door.  On to the next task!

BMA243, Digital Illustration, final Joan of Arc, 24 September

Glass filters done, signed.

BMA115, Drawing, model studies, August and September

2 minute quick poses

 Drapery exercises

everything was in good proportion until I stepped back and discovered that I had a giant head due to the paper being hung over my head..

skeleton exercise

BDM115, comic refinement, 23 September

In Illustrator, David showed me how to use the Image Trace option.  It's on the top of the tool bar, so it's easy to find.  There are all sorts of options to choose from, and they'll clean up my lines, which is awesome!  I need to take the file in as a jpeg, so things move faster with the smaller file size, then export it into whatever file extension I need it to be. I have permission to expand it to a 12 page submission, including cover art, so the images and text have room to breathe. It's all feeling very cramped.

page 2, as it currently stands

silhouette option, Image Trace

tracing option, Image Trace

16 colour option, Image Trace

grayscale option, Image Trace

To Do List: 24 September to 5 October

Study break commences this Friday.  We've dropped all pretense that a "holiday" is involved.  HOWEVER.  The girls are out of the boarding house for the next two weeks so I will have time off in the evenings!  I will take advantage of this extra time.

Here's what's due and when:
BMA115 drawing, lips                                      7th October                Done
BMA243  5 eyes, Joan of Arc, Victor               7th October
Safonkin, Angel, steampunk blueprint,
 Robot Woman, nursery rhyme
BMA115 comic colour 1st draft?                     14th October
BMA243 Digital Illustration portfolio              27th October
BDM115 8-page comic and covers                 28th October  (Week 15)
BDM106  Essay assignment 4                         30th October
BDM124  Stop-motion finished animation       2nd November
BDM103  Event proposal                                  5th November
BDM127  2D finished animation                      6th November
blogs

BDM106, Assignment 4 research, 22 September

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-emmys-change-20150919-story.html

"Audiences are still much larger for network-originated shows, but the shows on streaming services have the attention of the entertainment establishment," said Jeffrey McCall, a media studies professor at DePauw University. "Non-network shows can be edgier, bawdier and take more risks than the major networks can, and the Emmy people want to reward that.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tina-fey-talks-unbreakable-kimmy-811524

"I don't know if we'll go past 30 [minutes], but they've definitely encouraged us to go past 21:15," said Fey, referring the current standard running time for a broadcast comedy. "We have to be our own guides here and not let things get too fat or too slow."

Fey, noting that many people had told her they were watching the show with their children, said she didn't want to stray from the more broadcast-friendly tone of the comedy. "I would hate to ruin that in season two," she said. I don't think you'll see any cursing or nudity. I think it does give us license to play with time and culture — or to potentially offend an advertiser or the NFL."

http://www.hulu.com/the-mindy-project

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/mindy-project-writers-hulus-split-801893

BDM124, stop-motion, Finishing assets, 21 September

I checked out a camera, remote control and tripod from Chris before class.  Anna worked on the shadow puppet of the monster, I finished the bed, Ryan tidied up the walls, and Ken did practice walk cycles of Bear and Monkey and I helped with the breathing "Keep Alive" motion of the kid puppet.  when it was time to download the pictures Ken took to my computer, I kept getting "file full" error messages.  I've sent a question to Chris and I'll try again tomorrow.

Holiday next week.  We've "agreed" to meet Monday from 1-5 to work stuff out with the animatic.

BDM127, 2D, animating stuff, 20 September

I've got 7 shots "animated" but there's no victory.  I suddenly can't use the correction layer function or move the camera.  URGH!!! ANGRY!!!

Then I remembered that I needed to hit F7 to animate the camera.  PBBBBT!!!  Back in business.  I jointed the sitting GG and installed her and Madame's back view in Scene 2 Panel 3, the beginning of a four? shot run.  She goes from a back view to a side view before walking off.  I think that I will have the camera go over her shoulder to look at GG then pull back to show her exiting rather than do a frame to frame of her turning to the side.  Or is that super lazy?

BDM127, 2D, organisation stuff, part 2, 19 September

I animated shot S3P2 and S3P3.  I figured out how to import my first Madame Le Snob figure into the scene I set up and to move the camera around.  It's by no means graceful or good looking, but it's  a start.

Then I went through my animatic and the list of shots I made and entered them into the checklist spreadsheet.  In terms of organisation, I need to hit the dope sheets next and plan things out so I've got a plan before I do things.  I also need to finish rigging my characters so I can animate them.  Lots to do!  Oh, and I don't have 71 shots, I have like 76?  Like the above shot, though, hopefully more of them will seamlessly combine into one so I may not have as much work as I think I do.  hahahahahhaaha!  Fat chance.

BDM127, More box work, 18 September

I finished cleaning up the building view of the set.  I've still got that weird pale blue "glow" around the assets.  Even when I cut into them in Photoshop, it's still there.  Oh, well for now.  I put Madame Le Snob and Graffiti Girl in to check scale and everything looks good.  I think I might need to put some buildings in the background that are taller to mix things up.  It's just not looking right.  

After that, I set up another set facing the Museum.  "Inside" the museum, I put a window layer and two walls of paintings.  Not sure if this is the way to do it.  I'm sure that I'll find out soon enough when I start animating these scenes.  After I finish animating all of my shots, I may go back in and add some more paintings so the museum walls look really full.   

 Upstairs set, but I have no idea how to move the camera so I'm up there.  Once I get that figured out, I'll be able to adjust the placement of the set so I have the best shot of Graffiti Girl out the window.

Downstairs set.  Again, need to adjust the camera angles.