Last night I looked up how the auto white balance works on the camera, and learned that setting the camera to "manual" doesn't actually set it to manual at all. Armed with this knowledge, I managed to get everything set up right this morning and reshot yesterday's scene. It still looks a little bit flickery to me but nowhere near as bad as yesterday's shot.
This afternoon, I will be mostly animating close-ups of minifigs bending slightly at the waist and moving their arms a bit. Yay.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
At the end of the day
A disappointing day. It took longer than planned to record the dialogue, clean it up, pick the best takes and string it all out along the timeline, so I didn't get to start thinking about animating until after lunch. When I finally sat down and put the set together, I couldn't light it properly, then I spent an hour animating a walk cycle that looked more like a hobble than a military march. I scrapped that and started over but, having just watched it through, the camera appears to have reset itself to automatic aperture/iris/whatever mode, so there's flicker all the way through and it looks awful.
What really annoys me is that that was probably the most tedious shot in the whole film, and I specifically chose to do it on the first day so it would be out of the way. I think I'll leave it now and come back to it at the end when I've forgotten how tiresome it is. And worked out how to use my camera.
Stupid cameras.
What really annoys me is that that was probably the most tedious shot in the whole film, and I specifically chose to do it on the first day so it would be out of the way. I think I'll leave it now and come back to it at the end when I've forgotten how tiresome it is. And worked out how to use my camera.
Stupid cameras.
And so it begins... again
About to re-record some dialogue before kicking off the first day of filming on the new project. The mighty Edwyn Tiong (Frank the cop from Tough Questions) has done an awesome job of recording some parts at very short notice and now the stuff that I'd recorded before sounds a bit flat.
Not particularly looking forward to shooting four minutes of talking heads but at least there's a gun battle in there now to break things up a bit.
Not particularly looking forward to shooting four minutes of talking heads but at least there's a gun battle in there now to break things up a bit.
Friday, 23 January 2009
Or maybe not
Heh, I always get over-excited after finishing one film and start coming up with all kinds of ideas for new stuff. Then I almost always lose interest within a couple of weeks and find something else to do.
Time has passed now, though, and I'm gearing up to get back in the saddle. I'm digging out an old film that I got part way through making a couple of years ago and I'm planning to give it another try. Right now it's looking like I might need to reshoot the four minutes of footage that I already have, which is unfortunate. At least now I have an idea for how to start and end it though.
The current plan is to start shooting on January 28th, which gives me less than a week to finish writing, record the new dialogue, build the new sets, etc, etc.
Time has passed now, though, and I'm gearing up to get back in the saddle. I'm digging out an old film that I got part way through making a couple of years ago and I'm planning to give it another try. Right now it's looking like I might need to reshoot the four minutes of footage that I already have, which is unfortunate. At least now I have an idea for how to start and end it though.
The current plan is to start shooting on January 28th, which gives me less than a week to finish writing, record the new dialogue, build the new sets, etc, etc.
Sunday, 10 August 2008
Something's brewing
It's been a little over a month since I finished Jane's Brain and already I'm thinking of entering another competition. This one is being run by NickToons and has a grand prize of a commission for an original animated short to be broadcast on the network. As usual, though, I've left myself very little time to do anything.
I've been through a few ideas over the course of the last week or so and I think I've settled on one that has potential. It'll be set in a non-specific era of the middle ages and boasts a cast that might be good for a few more stories beyond this one. Can't really say much about it at this stage or it'll spoil the surprise. If I hit my deadline, it should be done by the beginning of September, so not long to wait.
Now to go and build a mediaeval walled city.
I've been through a few ideas over the course of the last week or so and I think I've settled on one that has potential. It'll be set in a non-specific era of the middle ages and boasts a cast that might be good for a few more stories beyond this one. Can't really say much about it at this stage or it'll spoil the surprise. If I hit my deadline, it should be done by the beginning of September, so not long to wait.
Now to go and build a mediaeval walled city.
Friday, 4 July 2008
Finished!
It's all done. The billboard shot ended up taking about eight hours in total, not counting the endless rebuilding of the set yesterday trying to get it looking right. Once that was done, I had to do a quick and dirty mouth animation, some spinning wheels, and a bit of correction to some wobbles where I knocked things that weren't secured properly.
Now I just need to convert it and upload it and I can sleep for a week.
Now I just need to convert it and upload it and I can sleep for a week.
Billboard hell
I am trapped in a hell of my own making. When this is finished, look out for the billboard shot. 24 frames long and I think it's going to take me a whole day to do based on how long it's taken so far. It had better end up looking good.
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