I'm never gonna get this blogthing right, am I?.... -_-'

anyway, our renders (after Michael has worked his composit magic) is looking like the awesome visual porn it should. I've requested of Michael to harvest out this frame from the render:


and make a wallpaper out of it.

But we all got stuff to do, so that can wait. Andreas says that it kinda looks like GRID

Anyways, I'm animating right now. The work flow of having your group members approve of your animation before it gets properly rendered, has got more than one positive effect. We'd of course give feedback to each other regardless, but the sense of approval is motivating to me. It's like saying "Your work is decent. Way to go." And I think that means a lot. You do not only seek to please your inner eye, but meet the standards of the people around you. And you achieve it. It's awesome. We're still hauling ass to make the deadline, and the standards might be ever so slightly lowered, but it's a lot easier with this little push.

That's all I have to say for now. I'm about to grab lunch, and then I'll make K9 into a ballerina dancer. I'm (too) slowly compiling some topics for a new videoblog-thingie, and you'd think it would be the easiest thing in the world just to rant, but it takes some work. It'l be done when it's done.

Long time, no update... bad bad habits needs weedwacking.

Sooo... The vacation is well and over. Last week we wrapped up most final tidbits that needed fixing before we could begin animation. Some rigging, some modeling, some texturing and a LOT of troubleshooting (which haunts us continually, as if the software got nothing better to do that make it hard on us).

The sheep got a much needed redesign, and v2.0 was surprisingly more charismatic. Goes to show that practice makes perfect.





D'aaaawww, ain't he just adorable.
Some consideration of texturing the ears the same as the bunny is in the air.

Anyways, TODAY we finally started animating. Yeah, we're behind schedule. According to the original schedule we made some months ago, we're 3 weeks or so behind :P. But the group (myself no exception) remains optimistic. It's gonna be a crunch, but hey! We're animators! Working under deadlinepressures is what we live for.

It's just hard to kickstart the damn process.

On a diffrent note, people seem'd to enjoy my videoblog-thingie to some degree. So I will make more of those. Dunno when, but I'm hoping to have one done this weekend.

Videoblog Thingie #1

so.... experimenting with media is a good thing, right?



Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollen_allergy#Hay_fever

http://www.ashleywitter.com/

http://www.drunkduck.com/No_Shutup/

me and Andreas cut all the clips together yesterday (except on shot, we put in a placeholder until the last shot was rendered). It went well all things considered, and we've got some ideas to improve the film as a whole already.

When we got to the point of adding music, we first considered to not have any sound at all. We haven't found a lot of fitting music, and what little we had was sparse. It only distracted from the movie itself, when it was only music from time to time. But then we found a excelent track called Shetland. Andreas just put it in, and the track was pretty much timed right to all the action imideatly. the awesomeness is hard to describe.

Now Michael is doing the final rendering and such, and everything should be ready for tomorrow.

We also realized that our movie is quite long 0_0

still not updating enough. even though I really should, as I was told we'll need links to blogposts related to previz work in the delivery come monday.

right now I'm puking up one shot after another to make the previz deadline. It's strained and unfunny (<--might not be safe). In theory I could do all major actionposes, time it right and be off, happily knowing what to do when real animation pushes up.
Thruth is a harsh mistress however, and when working on these shots, it's impossible to feel the animation. I don't know what small actions will break up the poses, cause diffrent timing and change the general of empathy. And I shure as hell don't have time (or desire) to sit and plan these things out.

the way I'm doing it now is simple; put the storyboard in motion and colours, so that it shows the individual situations and jokes of each shot, and take a leap of faith in the direction of timing, so that the previz won't be boring. Let's face it, if the previz is reasonably amusing, we're on to something. If not, we're off. I'm not claiming that "real" animation will turn the story from a crudly drawn penis in a bathroom stall to the roof of the sistine chapel. I am well aware that a previz shows the story as much as anything. But it won't look like a roadkill in July. We'll just have to take the critique on monday with a pinch of salt and realism.

although it might not look like it right now, I have a lot of faith in the story. I just can't whait 'till I get to do it properly.

Maybe I'll update with some pics tomorrow. We'll be finishing the last shots then, and we'll cut it all together on saturday.

Oh yeah, I have but a single link in this post. I strongly DISADVISE to browse through encyclopedia dramatica. For people who're very naive to what freedom of speech really is, it might be permanently scarring... strike that. It is permanently scarring to all people who doesn't realize that noone cares about your opinions, morals or mental health. You have been warned. Maybe way too late, but that's how the internets work.

Most bugs and issiues have been solved over the weekend and today I was able to begin properly on previz work. Right down and dirty with it. It feels good to get some of it done, although I'll admit it, it was a hard haul. I'm haven't gotten into überdelicious animationmood just yet (also, it's previz, not awesome animating). Between that and some pollen allergies thats starting early this year, I'm pretty spent for today. 7 or 8 shots, cannae remember. no pictures for you today, it'll have to whait for another day. The first half-quality renders are looking pretty sweet tho.

If we keep this up (and we will =^_^=) we should be on steady course.

(I have a lot of different pollen allergies, so I've learned to deal. Still, winter is the only time I can feel free from it's horrid grasp)

It might be ignorance talking, but I swear that ToonBoom is way harder to work with than Flash...

http://www.simensasylum.com/ithos/rawr.swf
(rightclick 'n save if the link won't work)

Once again I'm not pleased with this blogs userfriendliness in terms of embedding videos and sich. The YouTube-file worked swell, but thats because they have a link with embedding code for copypasta ready... no Idea how to put in flash files....