Week 22 and counting down

pic from animating the fly/bee for my intro

Monday and I haven't done as much work as I planned this weekend, I have re - done the massage scene 3 times, so many layers and keys that it has been two days work, sorting out her shoulder, her hair and then her hands keep moving although i keyed them and the puppet pin tool that i used to animate her hair affected her eyes so i have gone in and tried to sort that out. I am exporting a version of her now that i hope is the last!! I don't really like massage Ruth any more..

Been looking at animation show reels online and that put me down a lot, how the hell should I be able to do so much in just 2-3 weeks? Naa, not possible, but I guess my project will not be shown at RSA as its not a film, so then I can carry on and work on it until the exhibition and give it away on a dvd. So much I want to have in my show reel! I know that making 16 mm films wont give you a job but still I would really like to stick my old 16 mm film in from foundation as a lot of people really liked it - BUT - Brian who helped me shoot it on film shot it in a to small size and i don't have a projector and the equipment to re shoot it so I don't know.

Madness, madness. Started my own website and will finish it off before the exhibition so that I can have a link on my business cards - that I also have to do before the exhibition :) But right now I have to stop hating my work and trying to be a bit more positive cos it not getting better then this right now - atleast I am much better on after effects and drawing then i were a year ago so that feels good to see that atleast I am developing!

Here is the spa so far, NOT happy, will try other floors and walls.




Wednesday and today I had fun looking for sound effects online, i dont want to spend time on recording them myself, rather improve my work instead, i found really good shower sounds, burps, farts, drinking, jacuzzi sound and brush sound so that will be fun to add in the end!

After Effects had been a real cunt. All of a sudden it changes the content of locked layers- so I spend time animating and then when i start to pram preview - some layers has changed so all of a sudden i have five shoulders but no legs and feet..hmm.. i start wondering if my computer gat a virus or if my version of After Effects has a fault- its like with the rendering as well, same fault no matter what composition and what files that has been used, shouldn't really happen.. I finished the new Shower room yesterday and started to import the monsters- realized that i wanted to animate toe room a bit to make it more interesting so then I needed more Monsters to put into more booths so I created Flexter and the tale of another monster.



Flexter and annoying after effects- i need to change his belly so that he don't have a gap between his legs. I animated him today, put some animation on a shower curtain and animated a candle ruffly, I wish i had another computer to work on while waiting for renders cos my renders take loooooong time, anyway, tomorrow I 'm going into college to give Mike a heart attack.



Shower scene in development - need to add showers, fix the walls and shower curtains so they dont cover characters heads, need to delay animation so that we actually see it and the candle stops to early, to floor is moving etc etc but atleast I finally like the environment so I need to adapt the other ones so that they have the same style as this one and give all props watercolor textures.

Friday and I am tired after few hours sleep. My After Effects files still don't render- spent hours with Alex in college yesterday trying to sort it out, now i have renamed and replaced all the layers in ALL the monster files so last time I tried, the green monster, the brush monster and the monster teacher rendered - but still not the massage and the shampo monster so i am trying to figure out why the hell not right now while waiting to get locked out from my house so can get on a bus and see Alex again. If this doesn't work then its just my computer that can't handle the big files- but I have a killer computer now, 2.83 processor, 2Gb RAM- should try and get 4 I guess. Anyway - I still have environments that needs changes, animation that needs improvement etc etc so ofcourse I am a bit worried of all this. I will export the film and hand it in if worse comes to worse but hopefully we can sort it out. I can't see how I would fail if I did not hand in a finished showreel- I have still done more work this 5 weeks then some have done in an entire year and they will not fail.



here's the monster with the tail added, showers and candle fixed, bench added - needs much more improvement and I am working on it. Here are some stills as the resolution of the films is so low to be able to upload;




I created another new character, Olga, will show her later. She's a bug monster.

Here she is in the reception lobby, gave her a rocking chair;




peace n luv,
asa

Week 20 - getting all the monster scenes done

aaaargh, she was going to be the easiest monster to animate haha, but NO, I will try and sort this out, slow it down a bit, make it smoother later - but there is so much stuff i want to stick into my reel - and ITS NOT ANIMATION - so I don't want to spend to much time on it, I am having lots of fun though :) Unfortunately the plug in for soundkeys didn't work- it doesn't install properly, will ask Aminata if she knows some tricks.

I have developed my idea quite a lot - but I don't know if I am being realistic and actually can do it in time- but I am really trying to. Started my intro sequence yesterday , I LOVE after effects!! Trying to animate a bee now, I wish there was a shake effect so that I didn't have to go in and key every frame cos the be should move up and down as well as forward.

Well, I am getting back to work.

Started animating the Smoking Monster - he is really really boring but I do want him to be arrogant and just smoke so I changed the rest of the scene instead of him and added the Dog Monster that will stand by his side and be afraid of getting in the water, started animating him,




Would be fun to add a fat little Monster jumping up and down on a trampoline and make the Dog Monster + the Smoking Monster cue for it - but I don't know if I am realistic and can do that in time - we'll see, still have problems drawing the shower corridor and the pool room as my perspective drawing is really bad. And none of the Monsters animation looks really good so maybe I should focus on shaping it up - BUT - why? I have tried for hours and days, I AM NOT AN ANIMATOR.


Hmm,for some weird reason Blogger doesn't want to show my films anymore... weird, hope that its just temporarily )

Today its friday, went in to college yesterday and did absolutely nothing- I can't work in there, prefer to work at home. I have realized that I have to change the Spa scene completely, the pool that I planned to had look really bad and i have tried 3 other designs but it doesn't look good so I finally decided to go google and find what I was looking for;



Tried to draw it yesterday but messed up the lines several times so I will have to re do it today. I want to try and make a nice tile texture for the pool as well. The octopuss, the Dog Monster and Smoky did not fit together - my housemates really like the octopuss monster but I don't - I have decided to slaughter all of them and stick the Sleepy Monster in and make a better octopuss. I want it done this weekend. Or I NEED it done this weekend.

Now I am fixing ( hopefully for the better ha ha) the massage scene - you could hardly see that the monster that is being massaged is breathing so I need to over exaggerate it more and her arms, shoulder, body and head as well. Thinking about having a monster moving the curtain and looking in - will see if I have the time.


I didn't explain my new idea... but I can show it very ruff here - in my title sequence there's a fly/bee, we will follow it to a coffee shop and circulate around the tables and peoples food until we come to the girl with the glasses who is reading a magazine that has an image that brings us to the monster world. Thats my idea - but I am finishing the Monsters Spa first to see if I have the time- I really want to do it though as I want to show something that feels like me and that I think represents me. And I will do as Jared said and stick in some 3D environments, he is right- I don't think it is very fun with 3D but I should show that I can do it. I will do that this summer though, I have some old environments but I feel that I have developed a lot and rather would fix them up or do something new. Anyway, I did some of the cafe characters last week;



need to give him separate forks and pieces of food so that he can eat properly, you'll never see his mouth - only his mustache moving cos I didn't like him when I gave him a mouth.





I took a look at Tripplettes de Belleville and all the backgrounds, props etc are very nicely textured with watercolors etc but the characters are actually in solid colors- so I want to do the same thing and make the environment and props in watercolors.



I am happy with the hat shop - but the cafe could be nicer. Need to make the back street that you would see through the tunnel as well. But first- the Monsters!

I am going insane, trying to design the spa and the shower rooms and the corridor- it has to fit with the other designs and the postcard - a 4 window postcard would be the nicest but do i have time to do a forth window? this is just ruff- the showeers and the receptions should NOT look like that - just a test so i know where I'm going, i will use more watercolor textured things from now on, gets boring when everything is flat colors and its not illustrator but hand drawn stuff. I



peace out,
asa

Week 19 - trying to animate..

Well, I am not really an animator so what I am doing now is trying to animate and it looks quite shit so this week is dedicated to changes and tweaking and being stubborn - after this week, fuck it, the animation will be what it is but I am trying to sort it out, to start with,



The green monster farting - had to re do this animation and the brush monster from scratch - atleast AE renders the file now but the animation needs work, the only interesting part of this scene is these few seconds where he is farting - the entire scene is actually 10-15 sec longer but it wasn't very fun watching him sitting and eating in a bathtub so i have to make something more with it so I think I am going to make him Smeagol from Lord of the rings and give him a precious plastic duck that he can play a bit with in the bath tub, just to try to make it more interesting cos there's not much happening right now as I don't want to take on to much animation as I am not a strong animator. I have found the Puppet Pin Tool though and is doesn't work for everything but it is a brilliant tool in After Effects that I love!

Here is the new Horn Monster animation and after it is the old, i have animated the arms completely differently and on the new one the head is animated as well- but i hardly see any difference and almost like the old one more..


problems with the uploading of the films - soooon - i hope.. )


Testing how the shower room should look like - i will go for the new blue and purple one but will change the background to orange cos now it has the same color as the postcard. I want to use the receptionist as well but i don't know where to stick her in cos i want to keep the card quite graphic and not to messy.



I am not happy, will sort out the perspective on this one so that its shot more straight on. Need to ask Alex about maya, when i came up with the monster spa idea like a year ago i did a quick test with 2d in 3d in maya 7 - it looked great- so what am i doing wrong now when it looks shit? anyway- i have already done most of the environments in 2D but it would be more fun with my original idea and would save me animation work. Oh yes, the blue monsters eyes decided to change anchor point eventhough the layer is locked so - no, the eyes should not float around like that and etc - this is just a test to see what shower environment i should go for.



Gave the green monster a ugly bird, was thinking that he could eat it for a while but I don't want to get stuck doing to much animation, anyway - i don't like this, its more fun when he just sits in the bath tub and looks stupid, atleast I tried.



I am trying to get the shampo monster right, lots of tweaking to get the outlines right as i have cheated with the animation and used the puppet pin tool - i have done lots of changes, tried to have him feeling the beat with his feet but it was to much and just gat messy but i changed him and made him start of with a closed mouth.



As this is not a film but more a showreel and its short, gat cut down from 40 sec to 22 now - I need something more to put in there so I want to put in two of my favorite characters, Super intendent Claude and his dog and The Mad painter and have Claude driving fast in his car as he is answering to a call - he comes to the crime scene and there is the mad painter, caught in action. I started doing all the cut out parts, trying to do parts so that the dog nervously can turn his head in the car as well and look at the driver and the road constantly but I am really bad at perspective drawing but I am trying.



and here is the car ( if i don't change my mind) - I am not sure about the backseats though, looks better without them I think.



I tried to record the shower sound and did the brush sound with a ( NEW straight from ikea ok? ) toilet brush but I live on a high street now + the heater for the shower sounds like a nuclear projector so..it didn't work. Will try and brush with a real bathroom brush and brush furry fabric - OR - save my self the hassle and look for sound effects online.

trying to animate haha..



Asked Aminata about something she told me about long time ago, that there is a plug in for After Effects that helps u animate to sound, that easily helps to key your objects to a certain part of the music that u have chosen, she gave me this link and here's a good tutorial so I am gonna see if that can help my monsters to move with the music:

http://trapcode.com/in_action/soundkeys_intro.html



When I finally gat her hands to work alright and gat started with the left side- all the LOCKED right hand layers have chosen to change their anchor point..so about 85 hands are now floating about that took me hours and hours to set up. So, I have to re do it again..

Anyway, finished it now and animated her hair - can't render it, same fault as always, makes me a bit nervous, there is no time for me to re do all this animation. I will go in and see Alex next week, he knows about this problem.




peace n luv,
asa

week 18

I am going back and forth between not giving a shit any more and giving up - or struggling and working really hard these last weeks, for me- I will work hard, but this year was really shit, so I need to make this happen for my own sake so that I didn't waste a year. Waste and waste, I learned a lot but at the end of they day its about what u have to show. Anyway, not much to do about it now but ofcourse I am disappointed about it.

This week I will animate the green stinky Monster, the teacher and the postcard and the HornMonster who is brushing himself. I have started all of them but can't get the animation smooth and natural so thats what i need to sort out this week, add frames- maybe even 2d animate it frame by frame. Testing things now to see what i need to change with layout and environments,



Wednesday: trying not to panic, I am moving house this week and it all happened kind of sudden so I am trying to pack while rendering maya on my lap top and AE on my computer. I didn't like the look of the class room so I added corners on it and has animated the real postcard and rendered it out in Maya so I will finish the teacher sequence hopefully tonight. The animation of the horn monster has taken much more time that I could have imaging- his eyes are a fucking problem so i have re- drawn the in-betweens several times and tried different timing etc in AE but he still looks really weird when he blinks, blinking is fucking simple to animate though so I am well annoyed - another mission for tonight :) I had this idea of making Wunderbaums out of three of my Monster designs to give away on the final year exhibition so I did some research online and found the biggest producer of Wunderbaums in Sweden, Yngve Niklasson AB - I called them but they don't have time to produce other designs then the Wunderbaums- they have been asked this question many times. I then found a company in China that does different kinds of car fresheners BUt their contact detail website is not working..hmm..well, I am not giving up on the idea yet but I will make sure I have a film first :) I have asked to meet Jared tomorrow and will see if I can meet up with Dan as well to see what they think of what I have done so far and my idea etc, I would like Alex or Dan's animation help as they might no some AE tricks that I have missed out on. I designed an octopus for the pool area last night that I want to animate with the puppet pin tool cos I watched an tutorial about how to use it and it looks really fun but doesn't work for all kinds of characters and animation.

Finished the Horn Monster - just ONE problem, it doesn't want to render the file.. it always does this around 9 minutes, I will e-mail Alex about it. I am using quite big files so i am making a smaller version now but it i think it might be something else.
Annoying.



Okej, After Effects doesn't want to render my Horn Monster file - it always stops at the same place so I booked an appointment with Alex, his suggestion was that I render it to other locations- I have tried that and it doesn't work. No file is missing but it doesn't want me to render one of the files- now I need to test about 600 layers of shower drops and shit to see - what layer it is? Hmm..fun. Did a quick test of my shower corridor - I don't like it, I want the monsters to be bigger on the screen so that u see them better so I will do more test - but this is how far it lets me render.. I have e-mailed Alex about it again to see if he has any other suggestion about how to find the fault.



I had a chat with Jared yesterday, wanted to talk to Dan as well and asked him if he had time, stayed and waited for him but he went home so I didn't see him, will try again next week. Checked my moodle and I haven't gat any feedback from my summative yet so I think I have to remind Mike about that. I asked him before if he wanted me to do more for my folders OR do this showreel, he said I should focus on this. Well, now I need to find that fault so I can move on with the rest of my work!

Started the Shampo Monster, need to fix it - timing is wrong - the back hand is wrong cos i wasn't going to use it like this so i need to change that + u can see the corner of the body sticking out sometimes and i need to smooth out between face expression, another hour or two and he should be done. Unless something goes terrible wrong..should never say never..
I'm gonna make a test when he moves the boy more as well. But now I am going to move house..



Peace n Luv,
asa