Birthday! MFA! Animation Reel!!!

So, today is MY BIRTHDAY and it's hard to believe this 22 year old (not my real age) was blessed upon this world a mere 13 years ago (lost all concept of time).

Not only this but after an EXHAUSTING submission process my thesis was APPROVED meaning I have now officially earned my MFA in ANIMATION from SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN - ATLANTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, as a thank you to all my followers (hi ted!) here is the current animation reel for HEARD! There's still a great deal to do and one of the major critiques is that the aesthetic evolution just isn't working so I'm gonna be going back into the roughs but as far as a narrative it's pretty well all there. So, I will be finishing the animation with color and shading and then going back to the beginning to make sure the aesthetic play out as they should. Sorta finishing the end and working back to the beginning. Anyway I will be posting this on the story reel page as well so enjoy:

Shots, Shots, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS!

I've been working tirelessly to get on clean-up and thought I'd share one big bundle of the linework.

Here Ya Go:

(more after the jump)

Update A-Coming

I haven't slept since Friday morning.

There will be a MASSIVE post later today.

Get ready for an animation overload!

Updates and Screen Effects

I've been rather entrenched in editing a story reel with animation and some rough FX. I wish I had more I could show you but a lot of stuff in simply in the middle of the process with nothing really so show. I'm nearing the end of my MFA program and though it looks like the film will not be as complete as I would hope, I know we're on track with the overall film. Actually, one of my greatest stresses is having to continually postpone updating the reel for my Sound Guru to put his talents to use. He's already done a fair bit but there's little point in creating the whole sound design until all timing is finalized.

Given all this, I spent some time working on the screen FX with the new design by Elizabeth Brockman. It took a fair bit of compositing in After Effects but I think the overall result is really cool. Enjoy!

What I'm Currently Wrapped Up In

So, these past few days I've been killing myself to get this paper edited and into 2nd Draft Mode. Just thought I'd give you a taste of my sleepless nights:

Around 25 pages plus citation, table of contents, etc.

FINALLY Clean-up Animation

I'm getting around to finally diving into linework and I decided to start with two of the more difficult and one of the easiest shots. I went back and forth on the line weight a bit but I think I'm at a comfortable spot with it.

Storyboard Test

I've decided to divide the storyboard section of the film into two sections: Storyboards and Animatic. The animatic section is all digital and looks pretty much like it would as a animatic shown to directors, producers, etc. The storyboard section looks like digital storyboards, as they are created digitally, that have been printed out and shown to directors, producers, etc.

So, I did this test where I took the storyboards from ToonBoom Storyboard Pro where I draw all my boards and printed them out. I then wrote the notes I've gotten about the boards and changes on the printed out storyboard sheets. There's actually things I didn't change in the boards but wrote the notes down as what needed to change. I then scanned the pages back in and comp'd them back together using the animatic as a guide. I originally started sticking in the 1 frame transitions as I did in the thumbnail board test but given the faster edits in sections of the storyboards it just made everything too jarring visually to follow.

Overall I like the feel of it and I think within the context of the film it will really bridge the gap between the rough, hand drawn feel of the thumbnails and the more vector-digital animatic.