Complete Revised Animatic!

Hi folks,

For the first time in months, I've uploaded a complete animatic -- the whole film from start to finish! Check it out at this Vimeo link! (Password: knightly)

It runs an unwieldy 9 minutes including credits. This is about a minute longer  than I had expected. I'll be looking for places to make cuts, especially in places where the story is lagging. (Keep in mind that the intervals between songs may seem a little extra tedious, lacking music or animation.)

A couple of lines are still missing. They will be recorded on Thursday.


Changes to the story include the removal of Elixir at Wixor, as well as an overhauled ending. What do you think of the story changes? Are they working? It's getting close to picture lock, so speak now or forever hold your peace!


The credits are just a start. They may need significant adjustment in both in form and content. If I have time at the end, I'll illustrate the pages of the credits. Let me know if you know of any changes needed in the credits. Also, I am still deciding whether to go by "Joe" or "Joseph."

Thanks for watching, those of you who can endure the entire 9 minutes! I welcome your helpful suggestions!

Schedule Tweaking

Hi folks,

This week, I finished revising the animatic to remove Elixir at Wixor and punch up the ending a bit. Unfortunately, this added about 80 points to my already-packed schedule.

Additionally, my composer made the very reasonable request that I finish at least one underscoring section before Spring Break so that he could work out the underscoring style before crunch time.

I was planning to finish all the songs before Spring Break, but instead, I'll animate the interlude between Song 1 and Song 2. There may also be time to finish animating Song 6 before Spring Break, but I'll work on Song 5 during it. That leaves only about 3 weeks to finish the remaining dialogue portions. It will be a busy 3 weeks.

On the plus side, I finished the backgrounds for Song 6 this weekend.

The good news is that the revised animatic will be ready by class time on Wednesday.

Here are some fun stills from the latest animation and backgrounds...

 

Everything goes red for Knightly's final battle with the Dragon. (This replaces Knightly giving the Princess the Elixir in the original version.)

The Dragon's castle is quite transformed during the Princess' song.

 The poor Dragon's castle is reduced to rubble at the end of the film.

Song 2 & 3 Vimeo Uploads!

Hi folks!

I've uploaded Songs 2 & 3 to Vimeo. Here's a link to Song 2, and here's a link to Song 3. Password: "knightly"

Please let me know your thoughts!

Also, animation is officially 51% complete! It's all downhill from here!

Joe Dreams of Knightly

Hi folks,

By class time on Wednesday, Ladies Knight will be 50% animated, point-wise.

Songs 1 and 3 are finished, and Song 2 is close. At my current pace, I'm on schedule to finish all of the songs by spring break, leaving me about 3 weeks to complete the surrounding dialogue scenes (which are generally less difficult).

I need to be considerate of my composer, who needs time to underscore the dialogue, so I'll probably self-enforce an early picture lock for his sake.

Since Friday, I've been animating 24 points per day instead of my usual 14 in order to catch up from Song 3's undervalued tap-dance shots. In theory, that's 24 hours of work, but in practice, it's maybe half that. The workload is definitely taking its toll -- when I sleep, I tend to dream that I'm working -- but I'm also gaining confidence that I can finish the film on time with few or no more edits.

I'll upload exports of Songs 2 & 3 before class on Wednesday, so stay tuned!

End of an era

Hi folks,

Fantastic news -- Song 3 (not including the surrounding dialogue) is completely animated! Tap-dancing, singing, finale, et al! One minute and forty-five seconds  of uninterrupted, complete animation.

However, I don't present in class until next week, and as I'd like the class' reaction to be fresh, I'll wait to export & upload next week. I hope nobody's terribly disappointed.

By next week, I should have plenty more to show, as well. Tonight I'll start animation on Song 2, and during the week I'll do backgrounds to catch up on points.

Stay tuned for the video upload next week!

Tap Dancing Complete!

Hi folks,

I finished all the tap-dancing shots!! Hooray! Here's a link to the youtube video of the export.

Compared to tap-dance animation, everything should be a cakewalk from here on. (Famous last words...)

Song 5 Backgrounds

Hi folks,

This weekend I took a break from tap-dancing (my legs are tired) and finished many of the backgrounds for Song 5, "Kissin' Spree."

(I did return to tap-dance animation on Sunday, and I should be done with all of the tap-dancing by classtime on Wednesday. I'll upload a video before class.)

Here are the new backgrounds.

Before the song starts, during the dialogue, the castle is gray and yellow.

During the song, the color scheme transitions to bright purples and reds. Why? I have no idea.

This one's an overhead view of Knightly and the Princess dangling from the ledge.

Looking down on the Dragon as he flies upward toward camera during the song's climax.

The reverse shot, looking up at the Dragon.

Since backgrounds don't take me nearly as long as animation, they're a great way to catch up on points after a long tap-dance shot. There may be another batch of backgrounds coming this weekend.

Stay tuned for new animation Wednesday!

Latest Animation & BGs

Hi folks,

The bear shot rages on, but it's almost finished. I've been working on BGs to keep my point count up.

Here's a youtube link to the latest animation, including most of the bear shot. I'm aware that there are still tap sounds playing while Doofus is flying in the air -- they won't be there in the final.

Here are some new backgrounds from Song 3 and Song 5.

Dragons and horses and bears, oy vey

Hi folks,

This week, we re-recorded Song 2, "Dragon's Song," at a slower tempo, and it no longer sounds rushed. Malcolm gave a hilarious top-notch performance as the Dragon.

Animation is progressing nicely. Aside from completing the flying segment of Song 3, I'm working on the longest shot of the film, Shot 39, clocking in at just under 15 seconds. This is the shot where Doofus tap-dances with the Bear. It should be complete by tomorrow.

I'll upload the latest animation right after I finish this shot. Stay tuned!

The Money Shot

Hi folks,

This week I finished the most challenging shot of Ladies Knight: Shot 3-19, in which Doofus tap-dances up a tree as it falls into a river, then is joined by a quartet of tap-dancing frogs. This shot took me an estimated 50 hours to animate, and it's only 8 seconds long. Such is the life of an animator. Amazingly, I am still on schedule.

There are, of course, things I wish I could fix about this shot -- for example, the frogs sort of blend in with the bright scenery -- but it looks good enough, and fulfills its purpose, and I'd better get to other shots if I want to finish this film on time.

Just a screenshot for now -- I'll upload a video when I have time for an export...

Song 3 Animation!

Hi folks,

Check out the new backgrounds and animation in Song 3 at this youtube link! So far, about 1/3 of the shots are finished. Enjoy!

Chugging along

Hi folks,

This has been a busy, busy week of animation. I've completed 11 shots from Song 3, including the Busby Berkeley-esque shot pictured. I expect to finish a couple more shots by classtime on Wednesday. Point-wise, Song 3 is 32% done, and that was in less than 2 weeks! I'll bring the new animation to class on Wednesday, and post it here on the blog as soon as I get a chance.

This week I enjoyed an hour of socializing with friends, plus a trip to Yogurtland (which is directly below my apartment). I also enjoyed various fantasies about playing video games or reading books. Finally, I indulged in writing this paragraph exaggerating my intense work schedule. But now, back to work.

Disaster Averted

Hi folks!

This week, thanks to my trusty roommates, I narrowly avoided what could have been a waste of an entire week. My laptop charger gave up and died on Saturday, leaving me stranded. I rushed to RadioShack and bought a new one, but it proved incompatible. Luckily, one of my roommates found me a new, compatible charger online, and while that's shipping, my other roommate is letting me use his computer for animation. This isn't the first time my roommates have bailed me out, and I owe them a big thanks in the credits.

Thus, this week I've been productive. Song 2 has run into a slight hitch (needs re-recording) so I've begun Song 3. Below you'll find the puppets for Tap-Dance Doofus and Classy Sword, as well as several backgrounds. Many of the backgrounds have animated components which I'll show next week, along with any new animation.

New Animation & More Updates

Hi folks!

Here is a link to the latest animation progress!

Hope you had a great break. Mine was mixed. At first it was relaxing and productive and family-filled, but then I got sick for a week, which was neither relaxing nor productive nor family-filled.

However, I got a lot done before then, including the Dragon puppet, several backgrounds for Song 2 (including FX animation), and most of Song 1.

I also found a way to write Song 4, Elixir at Wixor, out of the script. This is a sad farewell, but we all saw it coming, and story-wise and schedule-wise, I think it's for the best. I will try to work one of the Wizard's lines in as an owl at the end of Song 3.

Also over the break I upgraded the RAM in my computer, which has sped up the animation process.

Here is the Dragon's puppet sheet. He's now ready for animation!

These BGs transition from the bright blues & greens of Song 1 to the sinister purples (and later yellows) of Song 2...

Shot 13 has a lot of FX animation in it which, luckily, can be reused in almost every shot of the song.

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!