Ta-daaaa!

Stretch and Scare

Hurray! The finished piece!

Basically we have a partonising safety video that also has a bit of propaganda towards the nazis. It also plays up to the aspect of how gullible and naive the public were in those days (believe it or not more so than now) by offering useless suggestions towards how to get rid of a monster. But hey, surely stretch and scare will frighten off a 50 foot monster!... Right?

As you can see, my animation doesn't play a HUGE role in it, just a cheesy cartoon mascot for the overall message. The rest of the animation was done by (director) Tom and Sam. Sam also did the video editing and sound work, along with (average) Tom. Yeah, we had a few Toms in our group.

This could also be considered my debut of voice acting! I voiced a little boy... now I know how Tara Strong and Nancy Cartwright feel!

There was supposed to be another video from another group but it was never shown. Maybe they never finished in time to present? Pity... my face was added to an olive in that one! Perhaps I'll upload and share my thoughts on it here if they every manage to complete it.

Well, thats pretty much it for the B Movie part of the project. It'll be idents next week... well for everyone else, I'll be in Tenerife... but if anyone in my future group is reading this, feel free to send me stuff on progress and I'll help in any way I can. I'll be taking my laptop with me and the villa has free wi-fi! As for right now I'll probably head home in a few, scan my passport and medical form to email to Dave for Pictoplasma purposes (yep, I'm going again!) and then collapse in a heap... till Mum drags me by the ear to continue packing.

Although I've just remembered... we were supposed to present our animation progress (remember my pigeons?) on monday and tuesday next week... bugger. Guess I'll have to email those as well. Better not deduct 10% off my final grade or heads will roll!

Premiere of the B Movies

It was such a glamorous ceremony. A bunch of adults buzzing off of caffeine in the computer room all gathered around the interactive board which would be the screen for our cinematic masterpieces. The directors were there, actors, animators, editors and so on, all there to see the fruits of their labour and everyone's reactions to it.

I was really looking forward to seeing everyone's final piece as I was curious about how everyone handled the project and their roles within said project. I know for a fact that everyone in my group had a role to play and would offer feedback to edits and so on. I'm really happy with how ours went. But before I get to our finished piece, I think I should show other groups as well as they are quite impressive.

 When Darkness Wakes

The first one is a horror movie trailer that is quite interesting. It seems normal enough at first, where Linsey is walking along the road. However, the ground starts to crack and the animation interacting with the real world really comes into play. I really like the 'darkness' and how it is portrayed, the shots were well thought out and the security cameras going out is very cleverly done. All in all, very creative.

The Page

The next video is also a horror movie trailer but plays more towards a humorous side. The villain is a piece of paper, The Page, that seems to enjoy tormenting and killing people. I have to admit I am intrigued about its motives. Revenge on animators for defacing its family and friends with drawings perhaps?

Everything works brilliantly; the music, voicework, animation and cuts, all working to make a creative B movie. Plus, I have a small role in the video! My acting days have not gone to waste!

And last but definitely not least, our own creation... which will go on a seperate blog entry. Won't upload to this one for some reason.

Almost there...

This title is quite accurate.

1. I've finished all of the main Underdog character models and only now need to fix their finished descriptions.

2. Stretch and Scare only needs to have the clips edited right and the sound arranged correctly. By then, it'll be complete!

We've all been especially busy on this project. And urgh, I for one am certainly starting to feel the burn. I haven't gotten my usual lie ins, I went in early on my day off... not to mention I accidentally left my laptop charger at home and so had to go aaaaaaall the way back home to fetch it and then aaaaaaall the way back to college. Spitting feathers isn't even the right term here.

But eh, no harm done, although it did cost me another return ticket.

Oh and I'm not the narrator of the animation anymore, we gave that role to Callum. Much better suited to it I think. Can't wait to see the final result of the video tomorrow.

Anyhow, I think if anything I should show you BF's new model for the character sheet. MUCH better than the old one and Brandon agreed when I sent it to him.

And now to collapse for the rest of the night and whinge about why there's no Baileys in the house. Or start packing for Tenerife where I will be heading with family on Saturday. Oh, I didn't mention that? Yeah, I'm going to Tenerife. I think the most thing I'm looking forward to about it is the fact that I won't need to get up at dawns ugly crack for a week. That'll be nice...

Cautiously Optimistic... Again...

Well I'm actually surprised at how fast I managed to get my sequences done. I forgot that a lot of my frames were duplicated and therefore in some cases I only needed to colour the one and copy/paste it to the appropriate frames so that cut the time in half.

And we had a group discussion today, deciding that the animated Timmy himself wouldn't always be seen but his voice would be so that means even less animation needing to be done. All that's really needed is the walk cycle and the narrator interaction, both of which I have completed. When I get home, I'm going to do some drawings that will fade into a 'stretch and scare' pose and also lineart mouth shapes that could be used for when the camera does see Timmy talking.

As of now, here are the fruits of my labour.

I'm feeling pretty damn good about this, especially after seeing the rest of the groups work. Tomorrow, we'll be editing and recording voices... my voices to be exact.

My apparently manly voices.

Which is either really good or really bad.

Getting There...

Here we have the basic background. It's not too detailed, just an outside area for Timmy to walk and whistle in.

And here's Timmy with a close up version of the background. It's so big so that I can move it as he walks in the sequence, as he'd be walking in place otherwise.

It's really starting to come together now. I'm hoping that I'll have it complete today, maybe even the Timmy and narrator interaction sequence.

*sees deadline looming* ... *gulps*

Snaps Complete, BF Under Construction.

Just finished Snaps' character sheet. Now to present you all with the finished coloured character model.

I had INTENDED to do BF after Ruby but every time I've sketched him out, it just hasn't looked right. I showed the design of BF to Brandon as I just wasn't happy with it. The main problems seem to be how I'm drawing his hair, which is too big, eyes, same problem, and snout which needs to be slimmer. I've included the design for me to look back on for development.

Now that I'm looking at him with fresh eyes after a few hours, the ears are also too sharp and his fgure has been drawn too feminine. He's slim but it looks like he's wearing girls jeans or something. Then again, that could just be how I drew the jeans. Either way, nuh uh. Not using this picture.

As you can see, its unfinished. At least here you can see a WIP, some of the lines being uncoloured and whatnot.

Anyway, that's my last entry of the day. Now to sleep so I can recharge and be just as productive tomorrow!

... *thud*

Timmy Meets Narrator Sequence Linearted!

... again, basically that.

I'm getting pretty lazy with my titles nowadays, aren't I.

Ah well. Now to (probably) work on more Underdog character sheets!

... probably.