Little Bits Of Paper

I’m back to animating.

Not much else in my life has been resolve, but I am back to animating. Well, that’s something at least.

So, this week I have started to work on the secondary animation for sequence one and five – the void. Somehow that seems apropos, but I digress. What I’m doing is filling the space with all the floating pages of the script, and honestly it looks really good (if I do say so myself).

What this entails is a lot of tedious work. I have to draw all the paper (with writing on it and without), scan all the images, clean them up, bring them into After Effects and animate them in multiple compositions (for length). If that sounds like a lot, you are correct. Every piece of paper has to move and rotate, and it needs to be the right length for the shot it goes into. Some of these shots are incredibly long as well.

It’s dull, boring, and tedious work. But, it looks beautiful when it’s done.

I think that’s the metaphor for this film. Well, stay tuned…

Triple Witching Hour

I accomplished nothing this week.

Nothing. Zip. Nada.

Why? Well, because of Murphy’s Law. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Oh, and it did go wrong. In the financial world there is a thing called “Triple Witching Hour” in which three very important reports all come due on the same day and that can lead to either a massive amount of new capital or – and this is how I am referring to it – it can lead to the market crashing.

In my case, I have had to deal with a crisis in my marriage, a crisis of debt, and a crisis of employment. I’m not going to go into detail here, but if you really want to know the particulars, please ask me in person. What these things have caused is a crash in me. I have been so stressed out that I have not been the least bit creative, the least bit focused, nor have I been the least bit interested in life in general. I’ve been lost, alone, frustrated, and very, very upset.

On top of that, I have a cold. So, I’ve crashed physically as well as mentally and emotionally.

Here’s hoping next week will be better. Stay tuned…

Finding Something I Enjoy Doing

Another week, another round of work on this animation. Kind of the same grind over again, or as a friend of mine would say, “same song, different verse.” Although, there was something a little different this week. I got to do something that I haven't done in years, and I loved it.

I got to work in Illustrator.

There is – for me at least – a certain thrill in using Adobe Illustrator. For one, it's the very first graphics program that I ever worked with. Way back in 1993 I picked up a book on Illustrator and read it cover to cover. I then went out and rented time on a Macintosh (that's a Mac Classic for you young ones out there) at Kinko's and learned how to use it. It was incredible! Producing perfectly sharp, crisp, clear illustrations was intoxicating – and lead me directly to where I am today. So, it was with great joy that I sat down and designed a series of posters that were to be used in the subway sequence of my film. I really, really enjoyed it.

I will definitely be doing more illustrating in the future.

But for right now, I need to finish recapping the week. To that end, I have completed all the shots for sequence three: the black and white subway sequence. I think it looks really good. The “wiggler” motion that I have added to two of the shots really help to sell the feel of the subway, and the passing imagery and posters that I put in seal the deal. I think these shots are ready for final rendering, though I will leave that for review with my instructor and peers. Hopefully everything gets their stamp of approval and I can to a final render. I would be so nice to finally gets some shots in the can.

Of course, on the same token I'm still behind. I did no work on revised animation for the pull back shot at the beginning of the final sequence. I'll bring some materials with me to class tomorrow and see if I cannot start on that, and continue it through Thursday – that should put that annoyance to bed finally. Coming up next is all the floating paper for the first and final sequences. That won't be a difficult process, it will however be tedious. I'm not looking forward to it, but I am looking forward to being done with it.

I think I can actually begin to see the end of this project.

Wow, I honestly didn't think that I'm say that. Well, at least not as of last week. I think I've turned a corner here. Hopefully I have anyway. So, stay tuned...