BSA324, pitch bible cover, 23 August, 2017

Our exhibition dates have been changed!  Hooray!  Installation is 14 September.  This should give me plenty of time to get my pitch bible (versions?) back from the printers.  Now that I have more time, I'm wondering if Girl and Goldie should swap places on the front cover.  Egad!  Endless tinkering, endless options.  I have worked out a game plan for a 10-page (including front and back covers, I think) lean machine pitch bible machine version in A4.  It will be interesting to see how they turn out and what the reactions are to the two styles.  Opening night is the 15th and Danielle and I will be doing catering again.  Excellent!   This time I will do as Danielle and Chanel and get something to eat BEFORE the opening.  There's just no time if you're serving drinks.  The exhibition runs until the 29th when the animators have to break the whole thing down from 4-5 so the fashion students can get their stuff up.

BSA324, pitch bible covers, 22 August, 2017

First final designs of front and back covers.  The second and final designs have desaturated rugs and a whiter box for legibility.  We'll see how legibility in general goes when the book comes back from the printers.  

It took 4.5 hours to do the front cover and .5 hours to do the back cover.  Even when I am recycling images and making small adjustments to line and position, these illustrations are not quick.

BS306, 3D modelling of Girl, 22-24 August, 2017

Finally!  I am doing something for my 3D modelling/printing research toy design project.  I have been lax- even when I have admitted in class that I haven't done anything, I still go away and don't get caught up. Being reminded that we are in week 7 and our body of work is due in week 14 and we REALLY SHOULD be over 50% of the way done has helped light a fire.  

 I'm getting the basic in, done nicely, and will refine her in Zbrush.  With that plan, I am probably being too particular with trying to get her dress fixed up in Maya but I can't help it. When I take this into Maya, I will keep the head and body separated so I can refine the collar and really get around her jaw line in Zbrush.  For my third toy character, I may do Prickles.  He's super easy and they're all in a scene together.  Then I can pose them individually and as a group.  Prickles will be mounted on a "pole" in the scene so he looks like he's swimming through the air.

BSA324, pitch bible advice, 21 August, 2017

I got some new tips, and reminded of some old ones, on putting together a pitch bible.  Now that I'm "done" and can do some editing, they'll come in handy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-7FEsCmxMU
specify up front tone, genre, length of episodes so people know what the bare bones of the show are.
coming of age, problem solving, tweens, 11 minutes, comic characters,
give examples of how the characters are instead of a list of adjectives. especially if that description runs against what the character looks like.  get people wanting to know more
what are the twists that make them characters we haven't seen before?
episode springboards should have beginning, middle and end.  don't leave it on a question.
do think cross platform and talk about where else this can show up.
less is more- edit it and keep it tight.  she says roughly 10 pages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0oL6L5KKZk
broadcasters buy years in advance of when it will be screened so the makers have time to produce it.
they have to say no 499 times out of 500 because everybody has limits. give them a reason to say maybe or yes
stats show girls leave animation at 11 because they want to know about real world social stuff
if you want to make stuff in Australia, you have to work to ACMA guidelines.
6-9 year olds have a stronger sense of identity, know who they are, know what they like, like stuff that's made for them.
10-12 aspirational looking ahead to adulthood,learning process looking at adult stuff, but still feel safe with younger shows.

BSA324, End of episode illustration pt 2, 21 August, 2017

Rachel knew just what to do: create white layers underneath girl to fake 3 point lighting and desaturate everybody in the background to make her pop even more.  Here's the dialogue sheet that goes with that illustration:

Chris MacDonald went over the project looking for punctuation and word sense issues.  In the more formal writing bits, contractions were expanded and dashes replaced with semi colons.  I was able to export it as a pdf that A. wasn't a zillion MB and could be attached to emails, and B. was a spread rather than individual pages.  The separation of my centrefold has been fixed and the uneven margins (that are there for the binding in the finished print) no longer look like glaring errors.   I've sent it off for feedback from Kathryn and Rachel and maybe Nicky from the NZIFF will be able to give me some pointers, too.  Next and final step before printing: the front and back covers.  Will I recycle images from inside, rescale them?  Add a title?  Or just stick with the pitch bible prototype cover I used last time?

BSA324, The End of the Episode illustration, 20 August, 2017

Two possibilities of ending off the pitch bible: Girl reaching for a cookie with the group and Girl, front and center, winking at the audience and telling us what she thinks as the transitions back to the real world.  I will decide tomorrow!  They both have pros and cons: standing girl has some dead space on the floor but a nice rainbow of characters.  Girl up front has no dead space but has no separation between her and the folks sitting behind her.  So many choices!  And I still need to write the dialogue for that scene and spell check everything in to book to conform with kiwi english.  and maybe Dr. Picklesniffer's legs need to  lift off the floor in the standing Girl choice to look like he's reaching for the tray.  And is there anyway to make Prickles look a little happier?  Still the tough one, but not looking like he's being forced to eat a jar of tacks?

Dialogue page: As part of their sharing agreeent, PRICKLES is using one sock as a sleeping bag and JELLYBEAN is wearing the other as a nightcap. Flash hands around Goldie's Sunflower Surprise cookies.  
Now everybody is ready for a sleep over! They sit down and GIRL snuggles up next to JELLYBEAN.

                  

GIRL:

I’ve been thinking, and I understand what happened today.  My friend wanted to use my favourite pencil, and that was frustrating and I got mad.  Next time, I COULD hide it, but that would make her feel sad.  Or I could put away my pencils and neither of us use them, but that would make ME feel sad. Or we could find a way for us to take turns and draw together so we BOTH feel happy.  What do you think?

                   JELLYBEAN:

          Honk, honk.  (thinks)  Honk, honk, honk.

GIRL:

Yeah, you guys are smart:  that is the right solution for this problem.  I’m ready to talk to my friend. 

JELLYBEAN has moved into position and turned back into a beanbag. 

  GIRL: to CAMERA

But don’t worry, I’ll be back. 

(Sings) Sometimes I’m Mad!  Or Sad! 

My feelings are real, I know! 

I'll be back again tomorrow

’cause I’ve got room to grow!

BSA303, Tale Enders Internship, 19 August, 2017

10.30 to 2, lunch, 3-4.30
Tony, Hamish's dad, has been modelled and rigged.  The chubby big stand-in model has been replaced with the real thing.

They're going to work full-tilt to have a 30-second promo done for a show 'n' tell in September.  That's going to require some scenes to be fully modelled and animated and rendered.

https://www.the-blueprints.com/ for car, gun, and more blueprints.

Ha ha! LOOK!  My old car!

They have furniture, too.
I animated Tony looking for his keys at the door.  At first it was too long and slow, so Ruby had me shorten it.  Then it needed more time with him hollering through the door, so I added 50 frames onto that.  I tried for a door kick to show he's super pissed.  In the end, it's the camera that decides what goes in: These two camera angles together gave Rachel the drama she was looking for in the scene.

camera 2 (s17_01)

camera1 (s17_02)

Rendering of Tony shouting through the door in the animatic

I set Tony into the Hilux and put it on the road for scene 20.  Now it's ready for Jan and their daughter to go into it. Kirsty went into the back seat and Jan will go in as soon as she's ready.  Then I'll get to animate them next week!