Well, it's time to start structuring my posts a bit, I think. I spend far too much time waffling aimlessly and miss things out... so here goes.
First, the SMART target thing.
S - Produce a walk cycle and a run cycle to go with my walk-run transition
M - By Tuesday I should be starting to colour up my line tests (or the best existing one)
A - Completely polish up my character sheets and, if I have spare time, produce some concepts of nameless characters. I might just add cat-cameos in. Easy way to differentiate background characters, and I get to draw my cats!
R - Finalize script. This may sound a bit odd since it should have been finalized ages ago, but the reason it's dragged on so long is basically because I just couldn't decide whether to have dialogue or not. Pros: It's easier to exposit on world backstory and character motivations, thus avoiding plotholes. Cons: it makes the animation seem like it could end up overtly mainstream and I think that silent characters that communicate purely with expressions and (cat!) body language could add a more natural feel to the story. And prevent them from being too... Humanized? Personified? Anthropomoromorphorizedificated? I don't know. I'll probably go with silent characters at this point, though, I just think it sort of suits me better. And it'll be a healthy challenge to see how much of the backstory I can reveal with image alone.
T - Just make sure the finalized storyboard matches the final script and check continuity before continuing line tests appropriate to that script.
Current Line Tests!
I have two line tests so far, both for my protagonist, Okri. Sorry that they're so faint.
This one is based on one of Muybridge's studies and I think it looks alright, but it's the one I need a walk cycle and run cycle for.
If you squint reeeeeeally carefully, you can see it's a sort of 3/4 view of Okri walking over and sitting down. I did extend this test so that once she's comfy she begins to clean herself, but I haven't actually line tested the rest yet. I'll upload when I do.
Critique
Had a critique too, it went fairly well. Well... if you ignore the fact that I got my Youtube accounts mixed up, tried to log into the wrong one, couldn't get the password right and so reset the password of that account to the wrong email account which I'd also lost the password for, so I reset the password for that email account so that I could get the reset password for my Youtube account, logged in to find it was the wrong one, so then I tried to log in using a different email but the password was wrong for that too, logged into the second email to check that it was the right Youtube account and eventually started chucking random emails and passwords at the Youtube login to discover ages later that both accounts were wrong, it was actually a third account I was after.
What a faff.
But anyway, I think it went okay other than that, but I've been warned to focus on the bigger picture and not get lost in details. What a load of rubbish, don't you think? Why, someone with a concise and accurate, completely organized mind like mine couldn't possibly become distracted by trivial detail and fail to cross the finish line! Right? Right?
...right?
D:
Friday 21 October 2011
Friday 14 October 2011
The 'I Have Been Doing Crap But Can't Prove It' Post
Hello again! It's been a bit, but that's because I forget everything (if I don't, there's a risk my brain could melt from too much rubbish floating around in it) so I forgot to update when I should have... typical of me eh?
Luckily I haven't been forgetting to do some work. Though I've been a bit sluggish getting to my line tests (which, from today and over the weekend hopefully will be caught up on a tad) that's because I've been trying to get my character sheets done. It's not so much as I've got a lot of characters (there's 4 main characters, but one of them has two forms, and there's a heck of a lot of nameless and background characters) but because, as usual, I just CAN'T STOP CHANGING THEM. But I've finally decided to draw the line, for my own sanity later down the line, and I'm finalizing the characters in this last batch of character sheets. I did have character sheets for my protagonist and antagonist already, but the protagonist changed a bit too much to salvage anything but the background picture from the original character sheet. The antagonist might be a different matter because when I originally designed him, I guess I knew what I wanted him to look like. So I'll probably salvage him, but he does still need two more turnarounds finished. Each sheet has the characters on all fours (if applicable) AND on two feet, and the antagonist will need one on his hind feet in cat form (finished already, nabbed from the original sheet), one on all fours, and one as his owl form. Not too much of a problem but y'know... it takes me a while. A long, long while.
I need to remember to do a size chart too. Size MATTERS *is slapped* Okay, okay, bad joke.
I forgot what I was talking about.
Oh yeah! Character sheets. I actually uploaded the latest ones to my personal gallery, and well... it's out there somewhere, floating in the internet. Too bad I can't find the damn thing. Ah well. I tried to upload them to deviantART, but stupid college system is stupid, and it's blocked me before I could even upload one. Helpful, eh? So, yep, been working, can't prove it.
Next on the list is to do my line tests then, I'll polish off the character sheets in my own time. Really nothing else to talk about. Going to see the Lion King in 3D later today, it's 'educational research' into how Disney tackles the movement of 'large cats that are totally related to what I'm doing' and not just 'I want to see this classic revisited'. Honest! Just like those kittens we bought on Saturday. Those two adorable but up until yesterday very loppy 8-week old kittens were for 'research' and not 'those kittens are so adorable we have enough space and money to get them and I'm sure company would bring our older cat out of his moping so let's buy them'. Honestly though, they're adorable, we named them Jindo the Dogbreaker and Todd. Todd looks like a little fox and he's a perfect mix of mischevious and shy, with a proper babyface to boot. Jindo the Dogbreaker (if you've ever played World of Warcraft, you might get the joke) really suits his name... at the vets the other day our young dog Izzi came to sniff him in his cage, and did he hiss and shy away like normal cats? Did he hide? Try to run? Hell no. He LUNGED AT THE SIDE OF THE CAGE TO RIP OFF IZZI'S FACE.
I also saw a cat on Youtube while touching up my research that just boggled my mind... see, my older cat, Sunny, is obese, at about 6.5 kilos of weight. I'm taking measures to try and make sure no one else is feeding him while I put him on Royal Canin Obesity Management food, but even at his weight, you can't really notice any difficulty in general movement (he has a greasy lower back though because he can't clean it properly. Cat shampoo~) but he can get up, lie down, jump around, and he's still perfectly happy to go out and night and brawl with other cats and chase them around and all that territorial stuff. He's a big cat though. Now imagine my horror, when I thought my cat was honestly about as big as a cat would get, when I find a cat on Youtube TWICE SUNNY'S WEIGHT at over 12 kilos? This cat... honestly... it could barely get up. Watching it struggle just to stand up from lying down was horrifying. You know, I'm going to try and find a video of it, just do everyone can share my horror.
And I don't even think that was the fattest one I've seen... that's horrid. Put the poor thing on a diet.
Sorry about my rant though.
Luckily I haven't been forgetting to do some work. Though I've been a bit sluggish getting to my line tests (which, from today and over the weekend hopefully will be caught up on a tad) that's because I've been trying to get my character sheets done. It's not so much as I've got a lot of characters (there's 4 main characters, but one of them has two forms, and there's a heck of a lot of nameless and background characters) but because, as usual, I just CAN'T STOP CHANGING THEM. But I've finally decided to draw the line, for my own sanity later down the line, and I'm finalizing the characters in this last batch of character sheets. I did have character sheets for my protagonist and antagonist already, but the protagonist changed a bit too much to salvage anything but the background picture from the original character sheet. The antagonist might be a different matter because when I originally designed him, I guess I knew what I wanted him to look like. So I'll probably salvage him, but he does still need two more turnarounds finished. Each sheet has the characters on all fours (if applicable) AND on two feet, and the antagonist will need one on his hind feet in cat form (finished already, nabbed from the original sheet), one on all fours, and one as his owl form. Not too much of a problem but y'know... it takes me a while. A long, long while.
I need to remember to do a size chart too. Size MATTERS *is slapped* Okay, okay, bad joke.
I forgot what I was talking about.
Oh yeah! Character sheets. I actually uploaded the latest ones to my personal gallery, and well... it's out there somewhere, floating in the internet. Too bad I can't find the damn thing. Ah well. I tried to upload them to deviantART, but stupid college system is stupid, and it's blocked me before I could even upload one. Helpful, eh? So, yep, been working, can't prove it.
Next on the list is to do my line tests then, I'll polish off the character sheets in my own time. Really nothing else to talk about. Going to see the Lion King in 3D later today, it's 'educational research' into how Disney tackles the movement of 'large cats that are totally related to what I'm doing' and not just 'I want to see this classic revisited'. Honest! Just like those kittens we bought on Saturday. Those two adorable but up until yesterday very loppy 8-week old kittens were for 'research' and not 'those kittens are so adorable we have enough space and money to get them and I'm sure company would bring our older cat out of his moping so let's buy them'. Honestly though, they're adorable, we named them Jindo the Dogbreaker and Todd. Todd looks like a little fox and he's a perfect mix of mischevious and shy, with a proper babyface to boot. Jindo the Dogbreaker (if you've ever played World of Warcraft, you might get the joke) really suits his name... at the vets the other day our young dog Izzi came to sniff him in his cage, and did he hiss and shy away like normal cats? Did he hide? Try to run? Hell no. He LUNGED AT THE SIDE OF THE CAGE TO RIP OFF IZZI'S FACE.
I also saw a cat on Youtube while touching up my research that just boggled my mind... see, my older cat, Sunny, is obese, at about 6.5 kilos of weight. I'm taking measures to try and make sure no one else is feeding him while I put him on Royal Canin Obesity Management food, but even at his weight, you can't really notice any difficulty in general movement (he has a greasy lower back though because he can't clean it properly. Cat shampoo~) but he can get up, lie down, jump around, and he's still perfectly happy to go out and night and brawl with other cats and chase them around and all that territorial stuff. He's a big cat though. Now imagine my horror, when I thought my cat was honestly about as big as a cat would get, when I find a cat on Youtube TWICE SUNNY'S WEIGHT at over 12 kilos? This cat... honestly... it could barely get up. Watching it struggle just to stand up from lying down was horrifying. You know, I'm going to try and find a video of it, just do everyone can share my horror.
And I don't even think that was the fattest one I've seen... that's horrid. Put the poor thing on a diet.
Sorry about my rant though.
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