Working on the Wacom Cintiq

This week I got the project set up on a wacom cintiq 24HD at St Joost. It is a great tool and makes animating and roto-scoping more comfortable. At the beginging of the week I counted I had 32 actual animating days left till the final product must be complete. At that rate I calculated I need to animate 3 and half seconds a day at the very least. That got me a little worried until I started working on the Wacom Cintiq this week. I have animated 44 seconds over 4 days which is a better result than expected. Although the scenes I am working on are simpler and with less detail. I expect the wide shots and the lip syncing scenes to slow me down to perhaps 2 seconds a day. However using TV Paint animated brushes and being smart about using loops might also save some time later on.

The above images are of roto-scoping on the Wacom with the reference material I shot with a friends very obliging 2 and half year old and my partner who is acting the main character for me.

I also go some feedback from lecturers at St Joost on the first scenes. I think feedback as I go along can bring me fresh perspective and help in the choices I make during animating. They liked the way the first scenes are taking shape and suggested more line drawing in the later car sequences to create a unified look. They also suggested to cut back on my layers for ease of use or worse a corrupt project!  So as a safety precaution I have reduced the project size and will now animate in shorter scenes and then edit them together when they are complete. Below is a video of all the layers used to make the first 44 seconds.

Using the moving story body (which is timed to the actual sound track) helps me know for sure I am only animating what I need and in sync with the sound. It gives me more confidence that story and edits work before I commit hours and hours to drawing. At this stage I have a pretty good idea how the first scene is working so next week I look forward to beginning the car sequences keeping in mind the notes from the feedback session.

Sydney back grounds

Over the last week I have been making the background animation sequences for the film. It has been fun to see the film come to life by working on the art direction of the apartment and the motion of the car. After a week of working on this stage I get a hint of the what the atmosphere of the film might become. I was lucky to find some great footage of Sydney from the perspective of the a car taken in Sydney in the 1960s. I contacted the publisher on youtube and was very grateful to get confirmation that I could use this footage. I am a little concerned about the low resolution and hopeful I can get a better resolution later but for now I am very happy with the texture and authenticity that the super 8 footage of Sydney brings to the film.