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.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
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!)
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.
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.
Monday, October 3, 2011
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!
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
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!)
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!)
Monday, September 26, 2011
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).
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).
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