Not Now But Soon

Over these past few months, everything that has been going into this film has been ideas coming to life - pieces of enthusiasm, creativity, and hard work shared between some very dedicated individuals. Now that we're in the final stretch of the film, all that fruit is ripening. In fact, I'm getting some roughs down while communicating with my compositor. I wanted to share what work we've been doing in these final weeks of production.



For those who didn't know, my senior film has a deadline given to me by SCAD for May 31. The film's debut to the public will be June 2nd in the Lucas Theater. Some students might recognize this poster floating around Montgomery Hall:


I'm really excited to have the film this close to completion! I feel like it's within arm's length and I know everyone is working their hardest to push this film through the finish line!

I hope everyone enjoyed making this film as much as I did!

To the last two weeks of production!

Senior Soiree - Spring 2011

As many of you know, this past Saturday was another Senior Soiree - the last official one before the completion of our humble film! The turn out was small, but it left more time for bonding and it was a lot more personal. We already have a hand full of people who showed up working and diligent about the project, so I think everything worked out for the better!

Jenny and I got a little sentimental about it. Seeing how people respond to the project as it's progressing into it's final stages is really making me feel good about the final showing in June.

Other seniors were there, including the makers of the graduate film Rain Dance and the maker of Test Flight. Even just among the seniors/graduates participating in the Soiree, there was a very rich community. Rain Dance was even giving away stickers - which my friend, Jay, quickly put to good use.

Happy belated Easter, everyone!

Visual Goodies

As we are entering the home stretch, I thought it would be appropriate to give previews of what the crew is presently working on! Right now, the we are cleaning up rough animation and coloring like mad crazy (producer & director included). The film is looking beautiful with our first colored shots nearing completion and all layouts to be completed in two weeks. Insane times are ahead but our crew is fantastic and working really hard to produce something absolutely beautiful! We can't wait for everyone to see the results. A hearty thank you and congratulations to our most patient and talented crew!

If you are a SCAD animation student and are interested in helping Robin finish up her senior film this quarter, please feel free to shoot me, the producer, an email (jplyle20@student.scad.edu). We will be more than happy to get you on board!

Next Phase

Bravo again, everyone, for finishing up the rough animation section of production! The next phase is going into production immediately starting this Sunday at 5pm specifically! That is when the first meeting for clean up with start and everyone who's been waiting patiently can finally jump up and get to work! (for more information on this meeting email me, Robin Stanberry, at robinpants@gmail.com)

Some other meetings that simultaneously happened this weekend have been Painting Layout meeting and Sound Design meeting! These two teams are the smallest teams in the production (Sound Design winning with an impressive 1 person), but are some of the most important departments! The layout department even has a rough color test screen shot of what the film is aspiring to be:

I am thrilled to see everything coming together. As a director, this is one of my favorite parts. But it doesn't come without some hard work! So let's give it our best, everyone!

Community Spirit

The past few weeks have been pretty hectic, trying to get all the scenes animated for keyframing and making sure everyone has time to work on their scenes. All-in-all, despite being a little behind, everyone is in good spirits that we can get the rough animation done on schedule.

On what days I'm not animating effects, I've been keyframing like the wind. And in good spirits for the production staff, I'd like to broadcast and encourage visual tomfoolery!

I'm pretty sure 19th century Ireland didn't have gangsters. Nonetheless, this made me glee. As did this:

Another wonderful piece by Kyle O'Neill, featuring one of the original concepts for the banshee.


Speaking of original concepts, this paniting of Aidan in the forest was one of the first concept pieces by the crew for how Aidan will look in the dark of the canopy! Matthew Luck did a series of these images for the film!


And this little doodle was sitting on Flash waiting for me when reviewing an animator's scene. It made my day!






















Alex Burslem has had a lot of patience with me, since I keep giving him a lot of the appendage-based scenes. Little did I know he could draw Aidan's face! Go Alex!

This is another one I found hiding off stage in Flash. I might have to ask Rachel Proctor what this is exactly. I think it's Aidan having a heart attack.





















These hilarious drawings are done by Caitlin Geels. Leave it to the washer woman to catch Aidan without his lasso of truth.

I wish I could remember who had this hiding next to the stage in one of the animations! I screen saved it for the blog and now I can't find their name!


If only things had turned out differently for Aidan - or he might have grown up to be a (bumBumBUM) secret agent.


I know there are more works by other staff members out there! I've seen them! And I've been trying to get a hold of them. If there are any members that would like to submit some great or even just derpy images of the film, I'd love to put them up on this blog!

Looking

The going is getting tough looking for a sound designer. It seems like everyone is too busy or just doesn't want to compose music. I've been getting the word out, but waiting for people to respond is killing me. I wish there was an easy "yes/no" button on people instead of getting wishy-washy answers all the time.

In other news, because of the sudden increase in the group of volunteers, the credits on the blog probably won't been updated. Keeping track of who did what might have to come later on in the process than I thought. But I'm really fortunate to have the group that I have.

Final Design Layout

As many of you may know, Sunday was the deadline for me to pick a solid design (provided by my wonderful layout crew) for the trees in the forest for the film. Pretty much everyone tackled the challenge, but only one could be chosen.

Everyone pulled a good run, but I had to go with the idea that followed the directions I gave the closest and shared my vision for the film. The design is by Kyle O'Neill.


Ignoring the color, this was basically what I was going for. It is simple without being too distracting and is strong and solid enough to be repeated and overlapped.

Through the process of submissions, I couldn't help but feel like the communication between the layout crew and I could have been stronger. So to keep everyone on the same page, I drew this sketchy, unofficial representation on how I would like everyone to deal with the layouts as they play in perspective:
Note that the layouts for the film are going to just be line art. I did this in color so you all will have a rough idea of how your layouts will be treated, complete with a little Aidan (note: it is not correctly to scale). Also note how the bottoms of the trees fade into the ground, but still receed as the trees go back. In case you cannot see it due to the knots, here is an idea of how the layering will work:


Most of you will only have 2-4 layers to your scenes. Do not draw in the fog, but if there is water in your scene you should show how the layers recede into space the same way you would the trees (remember water will be animated, but it is for the benefit of the animators).

A few of you at the meeting were asking me about branches. I was worried about it becoming too busy if each layer had branches, so I discovered this could be avoided (and still have the visual success the branches give) if only the first layer of trees had branches. In the example, they are designed to make Aidan the focus, and I would encourage all my layout artists to think along those lines with composition in mind. Remember: your layout (though extremely important) is not the star. The characters are the stars.

Normally I wouldn't put art-related announcements for the crew on this blog, but I would like to keep all of this in one simple package so we can refer back to it later.