Collaborative Projects Post 4

This has been a rough week.

I filmed Amy as the astronaut like I intended on Friday and it went really well.  However, I have nothing really to show for it because on Saturday I effed up and broke the hard drive for the class - losing the footage.  Ironically, I broke it when I had every intention of transferring the footage to my own hard drive to work on it.  On the bright side - if there is a bright side - most everyone had a back up of their work except for one scene from Marina - who is kind of glad she gets to reshoot because it gives her more time to find props - and the footage of ink dispersing in water.

So in leu of my mistake, I don't have a ton of stuff to show you.  To make up for that, I rendered out the first scene that I have finished.  It's the close up of the rocket with the Pink Floyd name before and just as it starts taking off.

But now that I need to reshoot, it turns out that Amy is in Portland for a little more than a week - so I need to find a substitute astronaut.  Therefore my new astronaut will be Cameron and we'll be filming this Saturday with Karl's help.  This time I will back everything up on the spot.  But since the RED Scarlet is checked out, I will be borrowing Sean's awesome Sony A7S to shoot.

Please God, have everything go well.  I cannot afford to not have this footage.

Collaborative Projects Post 3

So I have an actress - Amy from Shadowbox - coming in to film tomorrow for my astronaut.  Woot!  I have my storyboards printed out and I'm going to film far to near starting with my wide shots and working toward those close ups.

However, in the meantime, I've been collecting images that I'll be using for the backgrounds.  I've been collecting those from the NASA site because they're free to the public to use.  So let me show you some great images I've found!

And while I was scouring the web for these great images.  I did come across a really awesome photo from NASA's time on the moon - and I find it definitely worth sharing.

And I plan on using this rocket as the spacecraft the astronauts use:

I edited out the stuff that I wouldn't use - such as NASA's name on it and the American flag (Pink Floyd's British) - and I've added the Pink Floyd name onto it like I planned in the animatic.

Collaborative Project Post 2

Alright, it's been a week.  So I have an animatic to show - really exciting news!

I have the time counter on the bottom for Shadowbox reference so they know when things are happening in the song - for when they need to know when performing live.  I also have annotations on each of the storyboards detailing what is supposed to be happening on screen.

Now I have started to figure out how this is going to look and Karl and I were filming my friend Haley in the space astronaut suit we borrowed from Phil.  And this is what we've got to show for it:

I am really happy with it and cannot wait until we start filming for real!  Now I just need to contact Shadowbox to get someone who will fit into the costume and borrow some of their instruments to get the ball rolling.

Collaborative Projects Post 1

Well, I guess this is my first post for Collaborative Project's Which One's Pink.  And in case you're new to the story, it's a CCAD collaboration with Shadowbox Live where we're producing the visual images for a Pink Floyd Musical.  So the show is divided into two acts, the first act following Syd Barrett and the second act focuses primarily on Dark Side of the Moon and its connection with the Wizard of Oz - The Dark Side of the Rainbow, as it is commonly known.

But enough about that, let me get to my part.  I have the song In The Flesh (Pt. 2 - because apparently there are two parts, this shows what little Pink Floyd I know!).

Now for In The Flesh, I have this crazy astronaut idea that is a reflection of how the band decided to kick Syd out of the group.  Where they're all playing on the moon and the "Syd" astronaut does something strange and weird - like destroying the moon base, so the rest of the astronauts decide to leave him there and go back to earth.

The style that I'm trying to go for would be along the lines of A Trip to the Moon and the main title sequence to Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll in which there is live-action footage that is green-screened on to flat images.

 

This ought to be interesting once it's done.  But on the bright side, I have the approval of the leader at Shadowbox to start production!

D4M Welcome Erasure ● Week 5 ● Final

Alright, so I finally finished it!!  It's not four in the morning, no.  Anyways, here it is.

It has been looped three times, otherwise it is roughly fifteen seconds long.

I'm just going to reiterate that the idea behind this video was to be an opening to a website or the likes (that's why it says welcome).

D4M Welcome Erasure ● Week 4

This is almost the last post of the project.  Whoa.  I'm not really sure how I feel about that.

This week I have been working on the hand.  I know it doesn't look like much.  It's because I'm not done yet, of course.  You'll get the finished goods next week.  Anyways, here it is.

And here's a GIF of it

I was originally trying to get it done in one go, but it took forever to shade in the hands the scratch way, so I began just showing the outlines.  It has not been ghosted yet.  Again, it's not finished.  This is only a sneak peek.

Until next time.

D4M Welcome Erasure ● Week 3

Alright, so I have been working on my little wisp creature this week.  I finished fleshing out all of the boards. I have yet to ghost them.  I'm not sure if my timing is up to snuff though.  I also would like to add a little more fluff when the wisp hits the wall.  Make it hold longer.

I'm trying to look at other videos for references to it.  Here's one that I have found:

I have a very rough video clip of what my hand erasing will look like.  But I think I'm going to retake it the next time I get a hold of a camera because it seems too shaky for me.

I'll be having an eraser in my hand when I draw it out.  I'm not a steady left-hand-camera-holder.  The tripod it'll be.

Until next time.

D4M Welcome Erasure ● Week 2

So this is the rough game plan for how I plan this erasure to go.

I will have a little wisp dance around.  It will then hit a wall.  I'm not sure whether powder of a liquid will drip down when it smacks into the wall, but it will zoom out and you'll see welcome spelled out.  Then my hand will erase it and the process will start again.

I wanted the wisp to look more like those in Avatar; however, because it's leading you to the welcome image, it's going to be similar to the ones in Brave as well.

Concept ideas for the wisp

Now, I've also done a little test animated piece of what the wisp will do.  The path you seen drawn out in the course of the wisp that I intend for it to take.

I have also been fiddling around with how I want the "Welcome" to look.  I have created my design based off of three other fonts.  I'm not positive if I want to keep it roughed out like it was drawn, or to give it a finished look like the fonts that I used in example.

D4M: Student Choice Project Proposal

This has been such a difficult concept for me to create.  There's so much out there; however, there isn't a whole lot of time.  So in consideration of all that, this is what I have in mind:

My goal is to create an animation, albeit it may be a rough one, that'll work as a welcome or introduction piece about me.  This would be something you may see at the beginning of a website, or maybe an opening to a biography.

However, I want to do a specific type of animation.  Erasures.  Now, I have dabbled with these before; you can see some of my examples below.

as well as

The first video was the first erasure animation I've ever done.  It's very simplistic, but I want to incorporate its ability to loop in my final project.  The second animation is a bit more stylized, which I want to be the main component in the animation.

Here is an animation that I found that use erasures in the typical charcoal medium.  I plan on using a more computer and graphic approach to the animation.

William Kentridge's "Automatic Writing"

I intend to work along this timeline:

I can't wait to see how this turns out. 

D4M: Project Lost Files Check-In [LAST]

So I spent last Tuesday doing a bit of touch ups in the end credits as per Director's orders.  She wanted me to add and remove a few people from the credits.  If you want to see them, you must come to our screening (see below).

This Thursday we'll be seeing our animation up on the big screen in case anyone wants to join.

In the meanwhile, I have been looking to see if we could submit our animation to anything.  This is what I have found so far:

http://movingimageart.wordpress.com/submissions/

http://www.wexarts.org/fv/index.php?eventid=6141

http://www.animatedexeter.co.uk/film-competitions

http://www.scriptfilmfest.in/rules.html

http://www.animac.cat/mostra-en/inscripcions

http://www.cinemadureel.org/en/festival-2013/regulations

http://www.nwanimationfest.com/

http://dasta.uowm.gr/career/files/2012/09/Rules-of-FIAV.pdf

http://www.motionfestivalcyprus.com/call-for-entries/

http://www.tmfilmfest.com/

http://www.betherefest.gr/index.php?option=com_rsform&Itemid=318&lang=en

http://www.palestinefilm.org/festivals.asp?s=submissions

http://www.emaf.de/english/application.html

http://www.haff.nl/en/professionals/application-form-competitions-2013/

http://www.tehran-animafestival.ir/8th/en/index.php/regulation

These places were selected under the impression that an animation could be considered as a film.

I hope you will attend our screening.  If you want more information about the time and location, please click here.

D4M: Project Lost Files Check-In 5

This week I finally finished the credits!  Yay!  It only took me 10+ tries to get it right.  But no matter.

We were a bit worried with getting rights to the music we wanted, but we asked the maker and they gave us permission, which is really exciting, because then we don't have to find some other music last minute.

Anyway, I have also worked on colouring scene 14 from our animation.  This is a scene has Lacie (the girl) and the good idea.

The screening for our animation will be taking place next Thursday at the Gateway Film Center.
For more information click here.

D4M: Project Lost Files Check-In 4

Hi!

I have still been working on the credits for the animation piece.  I've put a lot more in from previously.  I sped it up.  But after careful consideration, I really have not liked that it's sped up.  So I'll be slowing it back down.  Also, since we don't know exactly what music we'll be using, I've left that slot blank.   The credits are still uncompleted.  I need to readjust the roles that the crew members are contributing.

Since I have spent much of last Tuesday defining everyone's roles, I have come to the understanding that all is not as it seems....  Pretty much, we're not exactly following the the assignments we had signed up for.  That's not a bad thing.

Here's an example of the work that I did to identify what everyone should be doing.

If you want to see the more of the list, please click here.

I have also done the weekly Thursday recap, as always.

So, please, stay tuned.

D4M: Project Lost Files Check-In 3

I've been working for the most part this past week on the credits.  I've compiled the list of the people that have helped in the creation of this project and I've been adjusting and editing some of their roughs as parts of the credits.  It still isn't completed.  I am not sure how much I can do without the progress of other members in the project and having access to some of their animations or images.

These are the credits so far:
You should note that there are no more images/animations after 11 seconds.

I plan, when I have more images, to intersperse them between animations, so they're not clumped in patches throughout the credits.

I have also done the weekly Thursday recap.

Nothing new has been created, but we've been working on what we have and uploading our pieces bit by bit onto our dropbox account.

-Christine

D4M: Project Lost Files Check-In 2

So, now I'm recapping.  I've been the eavesdropper in the group by being the scribe and I know everything that's going on:

• Animators are beginning to play around with the characters and they produced a little demo reel.
• I, along with the head of editorial, created a website.  It wasn't that bad, but when we were editing the design of the website, we ran into a lot of technical difficulties to the point where when we finally succeeded creating the website we envisioned, we were quite ecstatic.
• You should also note that there's been a rough animatic created for the animation.
• Also, a Facebook page has been made, YouTube account, and the best of all, a logo.

All of these links are provided on our blog.  However, if you want to go now, they're down below.

Website
YouTube Account
Facebook Page

D4M: Project Lost Files Check-In

So now that all the voting has settled, I've teamed up with Project Emma!  Ha ha, but I have actually joined Emma's pipeline.  We'll be working to create a 2D animation.  If you'd like to see the original proposal, click here.

My role(s) in the team are as 

• scribe/pipeline (aka the secretary) - as of now, I organize and keep track of what is going on during the meetings.
• animator - self-explanatory
• publication - possible make a book once the process is done, like a "the art of...." kind of book.  Who knows?

Anyway... if you want to see the progress that I've contributed to the team so far, please check out our blog!  I have submitted the notes for everyone to see, published the director's goals and where she wants us to be by the next meeting, as well as set up a crew list with Renee.

I have also dabbled a bit into the festival aspect, if we were to submit and I have found this one festival that's deadline is shortly after our project is finished.  However, it is in Spain.  So if we get accepted, maybe a flight?  I'm not sure.  Anyway, this is the one: Libelula Animation Festival.

I am excited for this project.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.  I hope you're interested as well.

-Christine

D4M: Project 2 Proposal

Next on the Agenda, each person must create a proposal for a production.  There may be three winners and therefore three productions created in the class.

My idea consists of short, 2D animated film about small tree people.

The tree people are small, dark men that are born with masks on their face.  In the short, you'll see them performing a ritual dance until a comet falls from the sky and lands in their bonfire.  Smoke and ash rise up in clouds, and when dispersed, you see another tree person crouched where the bonfire used to be.  This is how they are born.  We continue to follow the tree people with their dance until the sun goes up and they morph into trees and rest.

Here are my initial concept sketches:

What a tree person looks like

Example of tree people masks

They circle around the campfire dancing

Example of a dance motion

Comet falling from the night sky towards bonfire

A new tree person is born from the comet and bonfire

Also, this is my organizational flowchart, as well as my timeline, for the said production:

Note that no positions other than Direct, myself, have been chosen.

Organizational Chart

Timeline

I would love to get some feedback.

New Blog

Alright guys!  I just want to let you know that I've created a whole separate blog which will be as a portfolio piece where I'll display all my finished works.  This blog will still be running as a process blog.

My new blog address is ChristinePearArt.blogspot.com

You can also reach it through the menu above and hitting "Art."

Thank you for your support and I would love to get some feedback!

Christine

D4M: Menagerie ● Week 4

Alright, so this is it.  I'm done.  And here it is:

I was attempting to blend the animals and their backgrounds all together while maintaining the colour scheme.

So what I did was I first drew the animals in their separate images with the hands and then added them into this rather long landscape and finally touched up with the background and altering the colour tone of the hands.  You can see below here.

Also, here are my last two characters in their final form before they were added to the menagerie composition.

And now I am done.  I hope that you enjoyed this process menagerie.

I wonder what I'll get to do next.

D4M: Menagerie ● Week 3

Alright people, so by this week I have narrowed down my ideas to one.  This was actually quite hard for me because while I really liked one idea more than the other, I loved the palette that I had for the rejected concept.  But I couldn't simply just combine the palettes because they would be such an astronomical contrast between the subject matter and the colour palette.  So now you may be asking (Will she ever get to the point?) which idea I chose.

Well, you'll see below that I chose the idea of the hands creating puppet shadows and those shadows come to life.  I'm still not exactly sure how I am going to set this up.  Should I have it so each puppet shadow is an individual image?  Should I have it so that they are all combined and portrayed in one single composition?  I see these choices as my two main options.  I'm just not exactly which way I want it to go.  However, below you may see what it might look like if they were all put together.

I kind of put in a rough colour scheme for the background.  I figured woods for the wolf, grass and greenery for the rabbit and the dark purple as a night sky for the bat.  I may need to re-shoot the wolf hand if I am to collage the images together into one rather long set (seen above) because the lighting seems really off since it's much brighter than the rabbit hand and that's supposedly closer to the light source.  Maybe I can edit it in Photoshop?  Anyway...

I've been working on the bat recently, so I'll give you a little visual of that.  I've been really trying hard to stick to the colour scheme.  But this is still, most definitely, not finished.  I've been working on the bat really close up, and now that I am seeing it smaller up there in the corner, it's really made me consider the lighting.  I'll definitely have to create some sort of depth because right now it seems really flat, which if you consider the wolf, has not been my intention.

I really haven't started much with the rabbit, just the basic positioning of the hand.  I've been mostly taking this one animal at a time.

If you have any feedback for me, I'd love to hear it.

D4M: Menagerie ● Week 2 Continued

I've been reworking my colour concepts after I finished that last post and I thought that I'd update my visual intentions.

So after a bit of critique today, I came to the understanding that rather than developing a colour scheme from  my artist I should create a palette inspired by the artist.  Not only that, but that the palette should apply continuously through to all of the characters.  It's tough for me to narrow a colour scheme to something that needs to incorporate a lot of things, but still be called a palette, rather than a rainbow.  Anyways...

This will be the palette inspire by Thomas Thesen's work that will be applied to the bird menagerie of characters:

While this next one will be used for my shadow hand puppet illustrations after considering Tom Whalen's scheme from the images of my last post:

After developing the above palette, I wanted to put it to the test immediately.  Since I wasn't very fond of my last scheme that I made for the wolf, I had to shade it greatly from the colour palette that I originally gave it, so I reworked it.  I think it works much better.  I also believe the way I illustrated the wolf conveys better in this piece than the previous one.

I'm not finished yet.  These are all works in progress.  Mistakes are just part of that process.