A Look Back

    I changed my mind and decided to post on Mondays instead of Saturdays. Maybe. I'm not sure if that's a smarter idea, but for me, it's easier to keep track of things and I know at this time I'm most likely to be less busy on Mondays than Saturdays.

    Anywho, progress is still slow going, but I'm almost done with boarding out Act I of Shift (aside from going back and making some adjustments.) If all goes well, I may even provide a little sneak peak animatic of Act I by my next post! Act II is pretty much all thumbed out and ready to go, Act III on the other hand is still a bit shaky but I have a general idea of where it's headed. It's just ironing out some details, maybe tweaking some designs.

    I don't have a whole lot of new stuff to show at the moment, but I realized I haven't shown my "Beat Boards" for the film yet so....

    These were from earlier this year, around April I believe, so some scenes have since been removed or changed. The opening chase scene is generally the same, but I changed the staging of some scenes and what prompts the wolf to chase Oliver has changed. The mouse scene though, as cute as that mouse was, was taken out as it didn't add much to the story. 

    Originally, I wanted to take a look at Oliver's "human side" and show him living in an old cabin..as humans do...and further emphasize how he's just..starving, the poor thing. No food, little resources..and to top it off a mouse has helped itself to whatever scraps Oliver had left. Angry and hungry, Oliver tries to catch the mouse but fails again, as he did trying to catch the hare earlier. It would've then transitioned into the next scene, Act II. 

    As pointed out by friends, it was already established that Oliver was not the best hunter after the run-in with the wolves, so struggling with that mouse felt redundant and added more time than was necessary. His cabin will stay in the film, but I don't know if you'll see as much of it. 

    On another note, I thought I'd share the original "attempt" at making this film too before continuing on with more progress and development:

    Mmmm-mmmm, look at that 720 x 480. I did this 4 years ago, wayyyy back when I was a wee little sophomore. I definitely took on more than I could handle but I gave it my best. I look back on it from time to time though to reflect on where I was and where I am now and it really boosts my confidence. If I can give one piece of advice to any new and even more seasoned animators and artists, it would be this: You can only move forward. You will only get better. Don't give up! It's simple and it doesn't sound like much, but it really does sink in, trust me.

    As much as I still struggle to believe in my own abilities I am much better at picking myself up now than I was only a few years ago. I am determined and at least confident enough now to work hard and keep my promise I made at the end of my sophomore year to revamp and complete this film.

Pencil Tests - Rough Stages

So, another semester is coming to an end and I just have to say....when did that happen?? It went by so quickly I barely had time to realize I have a ton of finals piled up. With that said though, I figured I would put up the rough animations, some just in the key and breakdown stages, that I've done so far.

This was the first animation assignment I did for my junior year. I had to practice showing weight by having a character lift a heavy object. It came out fuzzy and dark for some reason. Definitely going to reshoot once it's fully inbetweened. You may have to view it larger for now. Good old technology...

For this, we had to have one character passing an object to another character. I already decided I wanted to use Kit and Christian, but originally I was going to have him give her his necklace. However, it snowed the day I started and I just got in the mood for doing a winter theme...and a snuggly one. This is also just in the rough stages.

More roughs! This time of an expression change. I was going to try a funny gag, but I thought it'd be more of a challenge to animate deeper emotions. I feel like I wasn't at my best for this one. It looked a lot better in my head, but my classmates knew what the emotions were so that's good. 

I really am going to push inbetweening at least the passing one before the semester's end and hopefully the bear. Next time, I hear I am going to be animating 2 lip synchs and a finished film! Seeing as how last year went, expect this year's film to be a lot simpler, but more animated!

Anywho, back to work!

More Animations!

I really should've put these up a while ago. Woops! Some more animations I did my first year:

A dog walk cycle we FINALLY got to do! I was waiting for this assignment the entire year. I was happy with the outcome. The assignment was only to use 8 drawings (16 frames) but being the perfectionist I am...I added inbetweens as well. =P

This was my segment from our class Anijam. Each of us did a few seconds of animation and the next person had to pick up from there and continue it. I was the third one to go for this.