My Journal 2007-2008: 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;