BDM127, 2D, compressing the video for internet uploading, 10 November

H.264 spatial quality=100
quicktime- animation to make 100 gig file.  makes beautiful file that won't play, but looks great.
won't be uploadable.
brings it out uncompressed, everything is read.  It's made to make sure the colour is pure.  master file at a studio will be in animation format.
then take it into adobe media encoder which only delivers the final project and nothing else.
load up what you want to output multiple times into encoder so you can put them out in the different formats (vimeo, youtube, etc.) all in one go.

BDM127, 2D, ready for assessment, 9 November

Big talk in the last post about making monkey see-through when he hit a painting (no), giving him "whoosh" lines (no), or doing a big edit (most definitely not). The process of putting it all together ran pretty smoothly thanks to my decision to test render everything I had and then doing a final render out of Harmony from start to finish.  It gave me the opportunity to check each scene, make any adjustments that needed to be made and to put it into After Effects.  The two longest and potentially hardest scenes, Monkey jumping from painting to painting, were left until today.  In the end, I had to put in the puppets I had and flip them around.  The first scene looks good because I was able to use his tail to grab things and swing him around and I drew his coat flapping around.  It looks good.  The second jumping scene doesn't have any bells and whistles, but more camera moves.  I'll go back to it tomorrow and experiment with attaching modules to monkey and key framing them in, as Kathryn suggested, to make him change colours or something as he goes from painting to painting.  In the meantime, I am happy to bask in the satisfaction of being done with everything turned in!

BDM127, animating monkey, 6 November

I'm looking at old Looney Tunes cartoons for ideas on how to speed up/simplify the monkey jumping out of hte painting scenes.  I talked to Kathryn yesterday, and she suggested that I make him transparent whenever he's not in the paintings.  That will indicate that something is happening when he's jumping around and will hopefully cut down on colouring.  I definitely won't be colouring him in for each painting he lands in.  I noticed in one of the Road Runner sequences, that the camera  moves faster than the characters.  Some creative camera work may get me through this sequence faster.

BDM127, 2D, final push! 5 November

50 Hours to work before turn in...
Here's what I need:

Assets
fireman and firetruck
little girl at cafe

sequences
S3P7     monkey jumps from painting to painting #1
S7P3     monkey jumps from painting to painting #2
S3P16   monkey looks out window #1 (sees fireman)
S4P3     monkey looks out window #2 (sees GG)
S9P1     monkey leaps from patron to curb
S9P2     monkey sees Madame spraying paint
S9P3     monkey doesn't know what to do/steals crayons from little girl
S9P8     monkey draws across the street
S10P3   monkey looks up/down/sees hydrant
S10P6   monkey remembers fireman
S10P6   monkey sets off hydrant
S10P8   water knocks madame and painter down
S10P11 water uncovers GG

special things
facial movements
transparency module attached to ALL GG's
is there anything else that's going to make this thing look good??

Obvious things
edit in After Effects
get the sound down in After Effects
Export properly from After Effects

Eat and hydrate properly over the weekend.  Can't get sick again or will get fired.

Excitement!  I have experimented with transparency modules on GG and have discovered a way to have her look transparent.  I discussed the issue with Jesse from class and Kathryn and discovered that a transparency module must be attached to EVERY SINGLE bit of GG in every scene and when that's done, any parts that overlap turn into opaque bits.  It looked terrible.  But if a transparency module is added to JUST the brick she's painted on, then it looks like you can see the pattern of the bricks through her body.  Hooray!  Much easier, and the effect is as I'd hoped it would be.

 

Film reviews, 8 October

http://madizzlee.deviantart.com/journal/The-Last-Witch-Hunter-557481957

Last Witch Hunter trailer, Anna black told me about these animations in support of the film.

The Martian
I went to the movies!  And it all looked real, so I'm not sure how to comment on the CGI or the environment creation when it all looks so seamless.

Film Reviews, 25 September

Bo-Jack Horseman

good title sequence.  pretty watercolour effects on Bojack. And everything looks delightfully low-key and easy.

BDM127, 2D animating, 23-24 October

28 shots to go.  Which is a lot, but definitely on the finishing end of things.  Thank God for the long weekend.

Breaking it down, I've got 7 sequences and 3 solo scenes to animate before I've got 100% coverage.  Then I can go back and add/fix/refine.

BDM127, 2D, stringing it together in After Effects, 20 October

Trying this last week was really intimidating, and sloooooowww, so I didn't touch it again until today.  And then it was actually very easy and fasssst!  Huzzah.   It took two hours instead of one, but it's still moving along, and that's great.  Each scene gets exported as a GL frame and saved in the frames folder of each scene.  I had to be careful that I had chosen the correct iteration of each scene and had to go back a few times because I stuffed up the naming conventions or saved it in the wrong folder or saved it with a scene element highlighted... you just have to constantly check things, over and over.  After layering the scenes over the original animatic in After Effects, I exported it to Adobe media Encoder, in Vimeo HD H264 and now we'll get to watch it in class.  Our due date has been pushed back to Monday at 5, 9 November!  Yay!!!

The bottom picture shows all of the scenes I've animated in light blue.  I might be halfway through!  That's pretty exciting.  These scenes are by no means done, though.  Plenty of them need facial expressions to be added and I encountered problems this weekend adding a corrections layer and painting on it in the big box scenes.

Right click on each light blue bar to bring up options,including time-time stretch, to change things.  Time can be stretched percentage or second-wise.  Scenes can be held or lengthened by importing the last frame of the scene and layering it over the scene that's being extended. T brings up opacity if you highight the scene name at the far left and a cross fade between the lengthened scene and the next can be achieved.

What's due and when, 20 October

BMA243 digital illustration blog                                   21 October
BDM106 essay                                                               27 October
BMA115 drawing portfolio due                                     28 October
BMA243 digital illustration portfolio/cards/jigsaw       28 October
BDM124 stop-motion short and blog                             2 November
BDM103 Event write up                                                5 November
BDM127 2D short and blog                                           6 November
BDM115 comic and cover                                             6 November




To do: compile best drawings for portfolio.  Finish tweaking 243 SIT 'n' spit.  Shore up 124 and 127 blogs.  Publish film review entries.  Finish stop motion and 2D animation shorts.

BDM127, 2D, shot work, 17 October

38 shots to go as of 1pm Saturday
35 done!

I'm playing with the painting that covers up GG.  It looked ok being rolled on, the spray looks lively, but the covering up with looking pretty flat.  And maybe that's just fine.

To Do List, 8 to 12 October

BDM124
What do we need to have done before starting to film Monday afternoon?
camera settings. review material

BDM127
finish animating "Green" scenes, tuck into "Amber"
Get all props and puppets into each scene so it's ready to animate.  Layout artist stuff!

BMA115
All day Friday.  Comic workshop.  Get story plugged into panels.  Get blacks inked.  Second round of colour.
Draw three noses for class Wednesday

BMA243
work on card and jigsaw puzzle ideas


Sunday night
BDM103
smooth up write up for animation film festival idea

BDM106
write first paragraph of paper.

BDM127, 2D, Rendering for After Effects, 6 October

four and a half weeks until hand in for assessment!! 5 weeks and 2 days until hand in for Flix.

From now on, all shots for critiques should be in the animatic for story context and sound.

Tif or TGA1
TGA's hold onto the colour.  don't use Jpg or PFDs
export: render network

use F check? to check on rendering
dock F check on your task bar

Alpha channel is necessary if you want to put Photoshop backgrounds directly into After Effects
sequencing shots and motion graphics but don't worry about it on this project as it makes the file sizes bigger unnecessarily.  Rachel can force an alpha channel if needed.

After effects: new composition HDTv 1920 x 1080 25 frames per second
import as footage and targa sequence option when bringing rendered frames into AE
interpret footage - frame rate- change to 25 frames ps

compression type H264


I'll have to do this a few dozen times before it makes sense, I think.

To Do list and itinerary, week of 5 to 12 October

Classes resume
Monday
9-11 BMA243 illustration work
BDM106 essay writing?
lunch check out camera
BDM124 stop motion  move assets to working space and start filming
5-9pm  5 eyes and nursery rhyme illustrations for BMA243

Tuesday
9-11 BDM103  project research
BDM106 essay writing?
lunch
BDM127 2D animation
5-9pm finish BMA243 work, if needed

Wednesday
BMA115 Drawing
11-1 BMA243 work, if needed
BMA243 class work
5-9 comic work and drinks with Alex

Thursday
9-11 BDM103 project research
11am-11pm

Friday
9am-11pm

Saturday
9am-9pm

Sunday
working at home on comic

BDM127, 2D, WTF monkey?, 2 October

I loaded monkey into a scene and animated him rolling his head around and stretching his arms, like he was yawning.  Then his left arm started flying around the screen like a boomerang.  I don't know why it isn't working.  When I look at monkey on his own and bend all of his limbs, everything is sticking together.  But is it?  I went into the network view of both scenes to look for differences.  The right side of his body is parented up the way I think it's supposed to be parented but the left has each leg part also attached to the composite box.  WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?  And I can't get the corrections layer to work, either.  All of the changes show up BEHIND the canvas.

The corrections layer doesn't work on the top photo.  At the far left, the corrections tab is connected to the composite master board.  In the bottom photo, the corrections tab is not connected to anything and DOES work.  But when I try to disconnect the corrections tab from the comp master board, I get a big red NO symbol and it disappears from my timeline menu.  If I continue setting up my shots, putting my characters into place and doing what animation I can, will it all be for nothing and I'll have to start again?  Or are these easily fixed hiccoughs?

I went back and came up with a solution.  Corrections is just a layer and since I was working with a large playing field, it was showing up well behind the characters.  I created two layers and moved them just in front of Madame and GG.

Still, is it too late to have a blob rolling around inside a grey box as my animation?

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.

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

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.  

BDM127, 2D, box work, 17 September

Box work:  I've plugged some holes but there are still things to work with.  for instance, you can see in screen shot two that there is a gap.  Except, it's not there.  It seems to be a reflection or a weird edge on the asset.  EXCEPT, when I go into photoshop to examine it, nothing is there.  I'll leave it for now and will have a go at animating some easy green shots tomorrow.