Five to Midnight

There has always been something evocative about a clock whose hands are closing in on midnight - at least for me anyway. Maybe it's because I grew up during the height of the Cold War and remember the iconic imagery of the doomsday clock on the cover the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Perhaps it's because I was one of the first of my friends to run down to the comicbook store and buy the first issues of The Watchman, again recalling the vivid imagery of a clock whose hands crept closer and closer to midnight. Maybe it's just that I'm getting older and grumpier now and I'm not feeling like I fit in with my "peers" or with society in general - like my time on this planet is coming to an end.

Or, maybe I just like clocks.

In any event, this semester is coming to an end. All of us will be delivering our last goals for the semester, and next week there will be a simple wrap up of the project reviewing how far we've come during the course of the past fifteen weeks. I've got to finish off all of the initial animation on the clocks, the 3D background for the warehouse sequence, fix up some of the 2D animation from that same sequence, and bundle the whole thing up to ship off to Elliott so that he can get to work on the soundtrack - oh, and he gleefully accepted the project saying that he initially wanted to do a take of the Batman soundtracks for this short animation. I'm not exactly sure what he means by that, but I'm sure it's going to be interesting.

So, what else can I say?

I like to think that I've come a long way on this project, from having nothing but an idea in my head at the start of the semester to having a fully developed animatic with a complete set of rough animation in it. Looking forward, next semester will be interesting, and I do mean that in terms of a Chinese curse ("May you live in interesting times"). Cleaning up and colorizing the animation will take a lot of time, but I really need to spend time - perhaps over the semester break - to lock down much better sound effects. Beyond that is the 3D shots and animation of the warehouse, they need to be spot on or it will ruin the film. I still have other special effects shots to do as well, like the shaking of the train and the background imagery moving by in the same sequence.

Plenty to worry about.

But for right now, it's time to deal with the things that are immediately at hand. I'll put a scratch coat of plaster on everything for next week and give it a chance to dry before coming back to it. I'm tired and I've got other things to deal with. I'm hopeful that I can come back to this project refreshed and ready to go next semester. We'll see. Stay tuned...

Fail

I don't feel like and animator at all this week. Mainly because everything I touched this past weekend fell completely apart - and all I had to do was a "simple" walk cycle.

Seriously, I question whether I can do this now or not.

So, all I had to do was animate the Astronaut walking onto the train, then turn, and walk off. Simple, huh? Not for me. I just could not get it to look right. I'm not sure how many hourse I put in on it, but it was not enough. I'd start and restart this mess and it just never worked. I even took a day off and came back to it. The movements were all wrong, the shape of the character was all wrong. Everything was all wrong.

I failed, and was freaking out about it.

But, a client is never going to accept that you can't do what they want you to do. Sometimes you have to go around where you had intended and come up with something new. Well, Monday night was when I came up with the "something new." I cut the shot into three smaller shots - the Astronaut walking onto the train, the Astronaut pausing, and the Astronaut walking into the train. They are all close ups, except where he is standing which avoids me animating the walk cycle.

But I'm still not happy with it.

The timing is not right, I don't quite like the last shot in the sequence, and it looks rough. BUT - I do like the door closing the way it does. It says something to me about the previous part of the film being "closed off" or "being over." Hopefully, others will see that too.

We'll find out. Stay tuned...

Just Weird

Sigh.

It's been a weird week. Not in the sense of other weeks that were exercises in Murphy's Law, no. Just weird. Everything feels off to me. Maybe it's because the semester is winding down. Maybe it's because the two shots that were due this week were so very short. Maybe it's because the next animation due is a single complex shot. Maybe it's because it's been a month since I worked at a real job. Maybe it's because things are a little off in my personal life. Maybe it's everything and nothing all at once. I don't know.

It's just been a weird week.

Anyway. I completed shots 023 and 024 in what amounts to record time - though these shots are very uncomplicated. The only problem I ran into is the masking needed for an animated hand to grab a static clock. In the end, that wasn't very complex it just took a little thinking. The commentary at this week's review was good too, I've reworked the two shots a bit to make them much more effective. Of course, all of these end shots will be better once I get the animation of the clock in place along with all the floating paper.

On tap for next week is Shot 012. This is going to be one of the really difficult ones, primarily because it will require a fair amount of drawnings and skill on my part. Still, I shot reference video of the entire film and I intend to use that for this shot. I'm not simply going to draw over it frame for frame, but I will be studying it very, very carefully. It'll be complex and I'll be stressed but I'm not really that worried about it

I still feel weird though.

Maybe that's it. Maybe I'm feeling weird simply because I'm not stressed about the film - or this semester either. I really think that has to be it: I'm not stressed. At this point in the semester I should be freaking about about grades, projects, hitting deadlines, paying bills, and buying presents for the holidays.

But I'm not.

Weird. Oh well, we'll see what next week brings. Stay tuned...

Blarg...

So, last week was awesome. I finished everything I needed to do and then some, but this week has been an entirely different animal. Let me say at the outset that I am a bit of a procrastinator. If I have some time to take off, I will - mainly because I most of my time is spent working or thinking about this project, attempting to end my unemployment woes, spending some quality time with my wife, helping my mother and mother-in-law with lawnwork and computer problems, listening to my sister rant about my nephew while fixing her virus riddled computer, and dealing with housework and general maintenance of my old, old house.

Oh, and then there are the cats.

Orindarily, the cats are wonderful little things. They don't generally get into trouble, they respect my space, they're only noisey when they want food or if I've spend too much time at the computer. But not this week. This week it was time for yearly checkups with the vet, and my wife had the brilliant idea to make the whole vet visit easier on us, and less stressful on the cats by putting their carriers out for the week leading up to the visit.

This was NOT a well thought out plan.

Presenting the cats with objects that have bad memories for them - the last time they had been in the carriers was when they had been spayed and neutered - drove them into hyper-anxiety mode. They were into everything this week, and not in a happy, friendly, playful way. No, aside from running around and breaking stuff, their favorite thing to do became chewing on wires. ALL THE WIRES. We lost the Roku, my wife's computer's internet connection and speakers, my beard trimmer, a clock radio, and worst of all my scanner. The discovery of this last item sent me into a bit of a fit, spewing obscenities at the top of my lungs.

I calmed down after that though.

After all, you get done what you get done. That's all you can do. Hopefully next week will be better. Stay tuned...

Getting There

I had the most wonderful moment today, and it was due to this project. So often, then I work on a long term piece I get really down. I reach a point - usually around midway - when my enthusiasm, my artistic ability, and my resolve all come crashing down. I tend to freak out, drop the project, be miserable, and sulk for a while. Eventually (from weeks to hours depending on the deadline) I eventually come back to whatever I've been working on and realize that it's not that bad. In fact, usually with just a little work the piece will actually impress me, and I'll be stunned at what I have achieved.

I had that moment just a little while ago.

I have been grinding away on this project from quite some time now. Rushing to meet deadlines, not being entirely happy with what I have been doing, and getting ground down by it. But today, when I put in the new pieces of animation, fixed some old problems, and played everything out, I was impressed with the final output. Now, don't get me wrong. It's not perfect. It needs the right music, the right sound effects, cleaned up animation, and a some editing - but - it really is starting to look right. Right in the way that I had originally envisioned the piece. That is something that has always impressed me, that I can actually get the images out of my head and accurately reproduce them in a medium that can be shared with other.

I really feel like I accomplished something today.

So, more animating. I have to find time to work on the background and animations for the wharehouse scene - I think a quick and dirty build of a set in 3D is in order for this weekend to see if it will work better than one rendered by hand. More work on the clock, which I'm REALLY becoming happy with. And everything else...

It's getting there. It is really getting there. Stay tuned.