6 New Shots & Puppet Pondering

Hi folks!

Since the grad screening, I've finished 6 more shots, and 2 more are on the way! It's my goal to have as much of Song 1 done as possible for the faculty review, if not all of Song 1, so I've been animating like crazy.

Here's a link to the latest Song 1 animation on Youtube. As you can see, it's rapidly nearing completion!! (Please excuse the partially-animated shots, as usual.)

 Below are some reflections on the animation process so far...

I'm learning to grapple with the complexity of animating Sir Knightly and the Princess, the two most difficult characters to animate. Aside from reusing as much animation as possible (which isn't much), I've learned that certain body parts, such as the head and torso, can be tweened by the computer, but other body parts, including the neck and, surprisingly, the arms, are better inbetweened by hand.



If Sir Knightly looks simple, he isn't. Here's a list of the layers inside his symbol in my Flash timeline:
Sir Knightly's Body
-Head
-Neck
-Leg1
-Boot1
-Waist
-Shoulder1
-Forearm1
-Arm1
-Body
-Shoulder2
-Forearm2
-Arm2
-Leg2
-Boot2
Sir Knightly's Head
-Eyebrows
-Ear
-Glass1
-Nose
-Glass2
-Mouth
-Chin
-Visor
-Dome
-Feather

That's a combined total of 24 separate body parts to animate individually. You may wonder why I don't just switch to 100% traditional frame replacement animation, but in my experience that takes even longer, plus I'd risk going off-model.

By contrast, here are the layers in the Singing Sword's symbol:
-Arms
-Pupils
-Eyes
-Mouth
-Sword Lines
-Rim
-Pattern
-Handle

That's only 8 layers, including facial expressions, for full-body shots. I've decided my next movie will be exclusively about swords.

Thanksgiving Update

Hi folks!

Hope yall had a great Thanksgiving! I had a lot of fun hanging out with the family.

Luckily, I got a few chances to animate. I finished the character animation for shot 12 and got halfway through shot 14.  I don't have time for an export since I'm about to get on the plane back to LA, but I have something even better to share.

Below is the rough orchestration for "She's Not Into You" (which Ryan just sent me) and I can't resist sharing it. The tap-dance sounds and many of the instruments are placeholders, but it gives you an excellent preview of what the final recording will sound like. I do not plan to shorten it. With music like this, I think the number is going to be a blast to animate and a blast to watch. (As long as audiences can endure my singing, which will be pitch-corrected, reverbed, etc. etc. to make it tolerable.)

New BGs & 100 points

Hi folks,

This week I finished the backgrounds for song 1! I also finally passed the 100-point mark on my shot list! (Only 1,505 points to go!)

Here's the new backgrounds:

I was really encouraged by the Grad Screening this week. The audience gave Ladies Knight 13 solid laughs plus assorted chuckles. (I took notes.) Even in 90% animatic form, the story and characters seemed to read well with the audience. (But we shall see what they said on their comment cards.) I was relieved that both "She's Not Into You" and "Kissin' Spree" were well received -- in fact, the two songs with the most laughs. They are my favorites too.

I wish I could have stayed for the rest of the screenings. I heard they went really well!

This afternoon I'll be meeting with my composer, who is hard at work on orchestration. So far, everything is sounding amazing, and when I put the orchestration into the animatic, even in rough form, it's magic.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

More Animation (some polished, some not)

Hi folks!

This week, I've animated 1 new shot (shot 20), and I'm partway through several others. Here's the youtube link -- keep in mind that the in-progress shots look kinda strange for now.

The rest of the evening will be devoted to preparing my animatic for Wednesday's grad screening.

In other news, my composer has started the rough orchestration for 2 more songs: the Dragon's Song and Kissin' Spree. They sound fantastic!! I'll post those as soon as I get a chance.

More good news: I finally wrapped up my last sailing trip this weekend. No more animation days lost to sailing! (Though for non-thesis students I highly recommend the course!)

Enjoy the animatic! Let me know what you think!

Song 1 Update

Hi folks,

Here's a link to the latest animation in Song 1. Only shots 5 and 9 are new. Though both shots were high-ranked on my shot list, they took even longer than anticipated to finish. (Particularly shot 5, even though it's only 2 seconds long.) At this rate, I'll certainly have to cut the film, starting with Elixir at Wixor and, if needed, shortening She's Not Into You. I'd hate to make either of these cuts, but I'll go ahead and plan to, and if I miraculously have extra time next semester, I'll add them back in.

My biggest concern for Song 1 so far is whether or not all the action reads. This song in particular tries to cram a whole lot of exposition in a very short period of time. Even more will be crammed when I add the remaining 4 shots.

Thoughts/comments on Song 1 so far? Suggestions for the animation? How is it playing so far? What isn't working?

Song 1 Animation Update

Hi folks!

Here's a link to Song 1's latest animation progress! (Featuring a new MIDI mockup of the orchestral score!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xddSL2AhqnY

Many of the shots are still in progress and don't have characters (or have stationary characters).

As you know, Song 1 is supposed to be finished by tomorrow, and I'm currently just about at the two-thirds mark. I'll see what I can get done tonight, but this may put me up to a week behind schedule. Hopefully I can wrangle this midweek. Once the first song is finished I will compare my schedule to harsh reality and make adjustments.

Also this week, I filmed reference video of the music director, Ryan, performing Doofus' tap dance routine. (Yes, Ryan's also a choreographer and tap dancer. And an expert whistler.) The routine looks incredible, and I can't wait to animate it!

So, what do you think of the animation so far? Comments, thoughts, suggestions? Interjections?

BGs and Points

Hi folks,

So far, I've completed 26 points of animation and 17 more are in progress. By tonight I expect to have at least 50 points completed. That's a lot of points, but not enough to meet my quota of 100 per week. Losing 3 days to a sailing voyage this weekend didn't help. I'll have to play catchup over the next few days.

That said, a lot has happened this week. For example, on Thursday, I recorded my lines as the Singing Sword, marking the completion of all the vocal recording.

Here's a sampling of backgrounds I worked on this week. Many of the camera moves and effects are already animated, such as the book opening and the birds in flight. I've also started character animation; I'll upload an export of Song 1 this evening.

 Shot 1-1a

 Shot 1-1b

 Shot 1-2

 Shot 1-3 (just a closeup)

 

Shot 1-4 (in progress)

So far, I've worked pretty much chronologically. I'll upload more tonight.

I also finished the Princess' model sheet, used in many of the shots in this song. Her face is so abstract she's difficult to turn. I'll try to show her from the quarter-angle as much as possible.

My goal is to finish Song 1 and its surrounding material (200 points total) by November 1st. I'd better get back to work!

Recording Session Video

Hi folks,

Yesterday's recording session went incredibly well! With Bethany's expert sound engineering, Ryan's spot-on music direction, and unbelievable performances from all our voice talent, the whole day was a blast. The cast, including Matt Tyler (Sir Knightly), Afton Quast (Princess), Malcolm Devine (Dragon), Whit Spurgeon (Wizard), Adam Williams (Doofus), and Jade Johnson (chorus), seemed to gel immediately, and I couldn't be happier with the results.

But just describing the day doesn't do it justice...below is a video I composited from the footage we took for animation reference. These were some of my favorite moments. Enjoy!

The only parts left to record are some whistling and the Singing Sword (but I'm him, so that should be an easy wrangling job).

COMING SOON: An updated animatic with the real voices.

P.S. My shot list is now complete!

Ladies Knight First Complete Animatic!

Hi folks,

Here's a youtube link to the complete animatic from start to finish. (The file was too large for Blogger.) It seems to fly by much faster than I'd imagined! That's better than dragging on, though, so I'll take it!

What do yall think?

Finished Animatic!

Hi folks,

Here's the animatic for song 6, "I'm Not Into You!" This is the final animatic!! Hooray! I'll upload a continuous animatic of the whole film shortly. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

I've finally finished the shot list. I'll rate and schedule the shots this weekend. The official shot count is 191, not including credits or the possible Leonard Maltin intro.

This means I have to finish a minimum of 10 shots per week, which, as Careen has pointed out to me, is a lot. My backup plan is to cut Elixir at Wixor, which I really don't want to do, so I'll see how the first week of animation goes and adjust my schedule accordingly. If I can get 10 shots done next week -- and not just little ones -- I'll be off on the right foot.

(There are 42 B-priority shots, which means I can cobble together a film with only 149 shots plus 1 or 2 bridging shots if time runs out.)

Voice recording is on Saturday! I hope we get what we need! Wish us luck!

Song 6 Animatic

Hi folks,

Here's the animatic for Song 6, Kissin' Spree. Only one more song to go!

Some parts are still a bit confusing, but I'm on it...enjoy!

My latest update to the shot list leads me to believe there will be roughly 200 shots in Ladies Knight. With an estimated 20 weeks of animation, and about 5 days for animation per week, I need to animate 2 shots every day on average. That means: try for 3 shots every day just to be safe.

1st Animation!

Hi folks,

I'm proud to post the first animated shot of Ladies Knight!! It goes by quick, so keep your eyes peeled:

What do ya think? I'm really, really excited, because it took less than three hours to animate, and I had a lot of fun. Up until now, I didn't have a true test of Ladies Knight's "puppet" system of animation, and now I'm relieved to know that it works! I believe that even the full 8 1/2 minute film might be possible under this system.

What do you think?? Am I being overly optimistic here?

(See the previous post for my new animatics!)

Rehearsals, Recordings, and Animatics

Hi folks,

This past week I've been working on the animatic and scheduling rehearsals & recording sessions. Recording will take place on Saturday, and rehearsing is already underway!

Today we had our first rehearsals! Ryan and I rehearsed with Afton (the Princess) and Whit (the Wizard), and we had a blast. We are evolving the characters' voices and everyone is sounding phenomenal.

Below are the animatics for Songs 1-4. I'm working like a madman to finish the final two, Songs 5 & 6, by classtime tomorrow, but it might take me until Tuesday night or Wednesday at the latest so we'll see. Regardless, I'll start animation this week!

Here are the animatics! Note: some timing will be shifted; some parts play too fast and others too slow. But enjoy nevertheless and let me know what you think!

I've started my shot list using Google Docs. Here's a link to the spreadsheet so far. I've started naming & prioritizing shots, but I haven't rated for difficulty yet...that's coming soon. So far there are 130 shots in the first 4 songs, and an estimated 60-80 shots in the last 2 songs, bringing the total shot # to an estimated 200. Whew! And as noted in class, I will animate the "A" priority shots first in case I'm in a crisis next March and I need to make cuts. (I hope this doesn't happen, I want to keep everything!)

The length of the film is currently an estimated 8 minutes 30 seconds, a bit longer than desired. I'll look for places to trim once I grunt out the last two animatics.

Song #3 Animatic

Here's the animatic for song #3, "She's Not Into You!" See the previous post for more details about last week. More animatics coming soon, so stay tuned!

Song #3 will be by far the longest and most complicated song of "Ladies Knight." Enjoy!

Casting, Story Sketches & Animatic

Hi folks!

It's been a productive week.

First of all, we've secured the cast! We got all our top picks:
Sir Knightly - Matthew Tyler
Princess - Afton Quast
Dragon - Malcolm Devine
Wizard - Whit Spurgeon
Singing Sword - Joe Rothenberg (I worried we wouldn't get him...)

I'll schedule recording sessions this week, and I hope to finish all major voice recording by the end of next week. The script is locked, so we're ready to record!

Another big milestone is that I've drawn a story sketch for every moment in the film. Total number of sketchbook pages filled: 130. I'm currently converting these to an animatic.

I am almost finished with the animatic for the longest song, "She's Not Into You." I'll post that this evening. The next few days will be devoted to finishing the animatic one song at a time, and I'll keep this blog updated with each song completed.

By the end of this week, the animatic will be finished and I'll prepare my shot breakdown & schedule (including point ratings for each shot and # of points I have to do per day). I will start animating next week, 2 weeks ahead of schedule.

Stay tuned..."She's Not Into You" animatic coming tonight!

Ryan's Recordings & Audition Success!

Hi folks,

Just got home from a surprisingly successful audition and a fantastic recording session with Music Director Ryan O'Connell. That's right, music director -- not composer. Ryan explained that since I wrote the melodies for the songs, he's technically not the "composer." So his new title, reflecting his incredible talent & skill, is Music Director. You'll understand the superlatives when you hear tonight's piano recordings.


But back to the audition -- I called it surprisingly successful. This is because I didn't have an audition space until 11 this morning, at which time I scrambled to email the actors. Sitting in an empty audition room from 5-7 this evening, Ryan and I quickly realized that 6 hours notice is simply not enough. But amazingly, two actors did show up, and both nailed their auditions. Against all odds, I believe we have found a great voice for every part. Tomorrow I will notify the actors.

I am finally getting back on schedule. And now, without further ado, here are tonight's recordings. (The musical interlude you'll hear is the runaway tap-dance routine! I wish you could see the visuals!! Coming next week!)

Auditions, Story, and Set Design

Hi folks,

We held the first round of auditions Friday night! By we, I mean myself, my composer, and  Tom, who was immensely helpfully setting up/crowd managing/critiquing auditions. There wasn't a lot of crowd managing to do, since only 5 of our 14 invited performers showed up, so we are holding another audition tonight. (Hopefully the actors will find Monday night auditions more appealing than Friday night.)

I am crossing my fingers that we will find a great performer for all 5 speaking roles tonight. So far, we've found a Princess who we really like and a Dragon who is fantastic. We are still waiting on the other roles, and there is a possibility I will perform the Singing Sword myself if we can't find someone we like better.

After auditions tonight, I will record the composer's piano sketches to bring into class tomorrow.

This week I will lay out a story sequence for each song. (So far the tap-dance number is the only fleshed-out story sequence.) By story sequence, I mean story sketches. Right now we just need to lock timing; composition will come later. We hope to lock the timing of the songs next Monday, so that we can start voice recording.

Also this week I'll revise the script.

In other news, last week I met with Matt Galuppo, that famous jack-of-all-trades, to discuss set design in Ladies Knight. He gave me great ideas to work with, like playing up the relationship between each set and the character who lives there, and using "exploded feature" designs (which apparently I already use to an extent). We also brainstormed some great gags for the Dragon's castle during "Kissin' Spree."

And of course, what is a blog post without a picture? A blog post with no viewers. Here's a model of Doofus. This model was surprisingly difficult to get right, in spite of Doofus being mostly hidden under a shapeless frock. Like most of the characters, Doofus looks best in the three-quarters angle ("quarter-angle" in the drawing).

Casting & More

POST-5PM UPDATE: Just met with my composer & he played the first "piano sketches" of the songs. It sounded incredible!! He transformed my little tunes into full-on Broadway production numbers! Today was a blast and I'm incredibly lucky to be working with this guy. Most of the songs are developing rapidly, with the exception of "Dragon Song" which needs to be reworked in the tin pan alley style of the other songs.

Hi folks!

This week I created some new models, worked on the script, and started rough storyboarding.

Today I sent out my casting call, and the response is already overwhelming! So far, 10 Sir Knightlys, 12 Dragons, 12 Singing Swords, 4 Wizards, and 42 Princesses. Auditions will be held Friday!

Also today, I met with Brenda Goodman and Kenny Hall, who gave me much-needed insight into the world of creating animated musicals.

I'm about to go meet with my composer. There's been a mixup -- I thought the composer/director event was tomorrow; my composer thinks it's today -- so either we'll go to the event or meet about the score.

I'd better get going. In the meantime, here's those new models! Any thoughts or comments?

Sir Knightly Model Sheet

Here's the first Sir Knightly model sheet. It's more than just a model sheet -- these are the actual puppets I'll use in animation. The pose on the right is just a modified version of the quarter-angle puppet. Working from the puppet, the poses come quickly and are always on model.

What do you think? Does the puppet system work, or does it look too rigid?

Here's Knightly's silhouettes to test if his poses read. (Note: still need to make front, back and back-quarter-angle puppets for Sir Knightly.)

Meetings and Models

Hi folks,

This week I met with my composer. By next Monday he'll have a rough piano version of the score!

I also met with Elizabeth Brauer to help me punch up the script between songs. She helped me flesh out the characters and discover their motives. I'll revise the script this week and hopefully lock script by the end of the week.

I've found someone to consult with me on set design, and I'll meet with him later this week.

I'm also searching for a choreographer to help me visualize what the characters will be doing during the songs. I haven't found one yet, so let me know if you know anyone...

Tonight I'll be creating model sheets for Sir Knightly, Doofus and Tap-Dancing Doofus. The model sheets will not just be guides, but the actual puppets I'll be using in animation. Check out my cartoon "Unusual Business" to see an example of this approach (ignore the ridiculous introduction).

In Unusual Business, I drew assets for Frank and Mr. Bossman from five different angles, then reused those assets in nearly every shot. I'll be using a more fluid version of this for "Ladies Knight." (More drawings, less reliance on assets.)

I'm falling slightly behind my schedule, so I've arranged to take a short hiatus with my job while I get "Ladies Knight" back on track. Work will be over in a few weeks anyway but I don't want to take any chances on my thesis.

Composer Quest

Hi folks,

This past week I've been interviewing composers. Two interviews down, two more today. My leads are promising -- the Thornton school of Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television is overflowing with talent! I should have my final choice by class tomorrow.

I also attended the SAG casting seminar last week. This week I'll write up a casting call and start the casting quest! Also this week, the composer and I will get to work on the score...it'll be an exciting week!

Pretty in Pink?

In class last week, there was some debate about whether or not the Princess looked too much like Princess Peach from the Super Mario games. I maintain that I don't care; but to satiate the masses, here are some variations on a theme:

I still like the original pink dress best. Keep in mind that she is part of an ensemble cast, each featuring a different color (Knightly=blue, Sword=purple, Horse=orange, Dragon=red) and the Princess needs to fit in.

What do you think? Which variations are your favorites?

Lady's Knight

Hi folks,

Well, summer's over and my thesis is greatly improved...so improved, in fact, that it's a completely different project. My new thesis is called "Lady's Knight" and it's about Sir Knightly, a knight who is trying to track down his Princess who ran off with a macho Dragon. Oh, and it's a musical.

The songs are written already, and the story is more or less locked. So far it runs about 6 and a half minutes.

Here's some artwork to tantalize and amuse until my next post.

First Test Animation

Hi folks,

Here's my first test animation of Danny, to see if my process will work. Apparently, he's scared of something.

 

I used a layered approach. Danny's head, eyes, mouth, ears, hair, and body are all on separate layers. The movement of his head is motion-tweened but the rest is traditional. For hybrid animation, I think it turned out really good, and had a decent turnaround of about a day.

I'm happy with the result, but I'll need to streamline my process to get more than 3 seconds done per day. It's only going to take longer in multi-character shots, effects shots, etc.

More Concept Art

Here's some color tests for the kitchen. I will probably make the kitchen more spacious in the final film, since there's too much clutter right now to fit the characters in the scene.

I'm starting to like the blue hallway...it can start out as a calm, serene blue, then become a lonely, spooky blue like in this concept art below. I'm also discovering how important lighting will be to the mood of each scene.

Visual Development - Color Palettes

Here's a shot of Danny's hallway in a few different color schemes. I'm going for a simple, newspaper-cartoony style with a lot of black but also bright, solid colors. I think I'll avoid textures so that the characters, props, and backgrounds all fit together seamlessly.

 Blue Palette

 Pink Palette

Cartoony Palette

Neutral Palette

Blue Palette with Feathers' legs

Neutral Palette with Feathers' legs

I'm currently working on some color tests with the characters included in the shots, which I'll post soon. Stay tuned!

Storyboard Scans Part 3 of 3

Hi everyone! Here's the last 10 pages of the storyboard's 1st draft, bringing the grand total to 45 pages, or 346 storyboard panels, or 204 scenes. Think I'll need to do some cutting? Hmmm...maybe... 

Storyboard Part 2

Here's the next batch of 1st-draft storyboard scans! You'll notice my notes -- I marked gags that got a laugh when I presented in class.

My next post will be the storyboard pages I made since last class.

(The orange notes are all the suggestions I received in class.)