Procrastination Issues 30. a reply

This is a reply to Li's great little cartoons over on her Blog I Want a Cat.

http://taigongwang4090.blogspot.com/

I have work to do, we mix on wednesday and I need to get al I can done.

Procrastination Issues 29.

on another note a rushed image whilst waiting for a render.

grr's and growls 2

So this time may I will show you The cat walking into Victors flat its only rough, for movement and timing.


Yep you guessed it, painter screwed the file again. woo!

grr's and growls

This is one of the problems with Painter. Below is a an almost fully animated character after Corel Painter has decided to chew it up.

This is almost the equivalent of a vcr chewing up the only recording of your child being born.

For some unknown reason, after working on this today and saving frequently (painter has been crashing unexpectedly) this image is all that remains of 70 layers of a characters movement in a scene.

This is not a good day. I have a back up that is missing one days work. I suppose I'll have to it again.

please insert as many four letter words here as you think I may have used.

...

Procrastination Issues 28.

Oscar and Lani. pt 2.

I have also worked worked quite hard today. But still managed to do these. This one is rushed, so rough, deal with it.

Procrastination Issues 27.

If the Cat in the film (Today Only) was more human/cartoony, I'm sure this would be a very different film. His relationships with the other characters could be so much fun.

I present Oscar and Lani.
So the edit is going well and the film is picking up a pace. We have made a few changes but all for the better. It does mean though that I haven't been able to work straight as I had been on the animation and spend time roughing out shots to try something in the edit. Nothing too big though most of the large shots are done these are mostly smaller shots.

in other news...

I'm going to make an effort to not draw myself so much. So just wait for long-haired beardy characters being thoughtful and depressed about film. As well as very bad caricatures of everyone else.

Lets see how long it lasts.

Oh now the edit

Yeah don't tell Lawrence this is on here. It doesn't look like him and then if anything makes him look about 12.


But we are starting to edit now. Making a few bold changes and then seeing a couple that I had in mind starting to work on the page.


oh, it's looking good. Hazarr.

I have returned.

To all of you not reading this, I am back.

I'm not recovered, I'm not relaxed, I'm still neck deep in it and strangely enjoying it.

The diss is handed in, although it took time away from the film. It should be ok, this is an animators impression of how I looked whilst writing my diss. So here as promised are a couple of knocked together frames from the film, to give people visiting this who haven't been working on it and idea of what we are aiming for.

yeah you get the story from that don't ya?

gaps in the posts, is anybody reading this?

So I am currently trying to finish as much of the keyframing as possible for a review of our work on Tuesday. so I haven't been procrastinating too much (apart from playing my Ukulele). I will add more stuff soon. Still not sure about what I can post so won't put too much of the film here.

Oh oh!! saw Zsolt and Emmauel the other day, they are the Vis Effects guys who are making, texturing and moving the 3D street that will be used in the first shot of the film. Its looks so good. I may be cheeky and see if i can use it more within the film as well just as it could make life a little easier.

And you know what this film still excites me. Each day I am enjoying what i'm doing no matter about how much i moan.

Just to say the ending is yet to be drawn but apart from that i only have 9 shots left to layout. Getting so close now!!!

Procrastination Issues 26.

The same thoughts most nights.

Procrastination Issues 25.

After a few good weeks I had one of the most unproductive days ever. This was infact about as productive as it gets. Grr

Procrastination Issues 24

I had to illustrate this. Its Stuart the Teddy Bears first report. I don't know if I caught the action as Rich Guy Stuart described quite right, there's a bit of story to go with the action. I can't be asked to type it up. You'll have to ask Rich Guy Stuart to tell you if you ever meet him.

Procrastination Issues 23.

Meet Stuart the Teddy Bear, he's a big cuddly ball of brummy bear. Facing each new day with a smile.

Actually Stuart is Rich/Guy re-invented by HyeBin now he is working for her. If we get bored we may write stories of his adventures with the Police breaking down his door each week, near stabbings and muggings in the magical land of Shepards Bush (yes not Sheperds Bush) . In the mean time here's a visual I knocked up to wet your appetite.

Bye Bye, well not really

He's off to work with HyeBin and then with Phil after! So I could say he will be missed but to be honest he's still here. So I won't say goodbye yet, just see you monday.

Oh Procrastination issues 22

Yeah this is my Tiki that sits on my monitor and watches over me. Thanks to Vicky Mather it also has a pair of large boobs with heart shaped nipple tassles.

On with the work!

I'll try posting some stills soon.

Colour Palette

Another visitor

Today I had another visitor, Christian Bird the lovely fella who will be attempting to put the end credits on this lovely film. Here's a little video of his visit.



Lovely Christians web site is; www.delabelled.co.uk

Procrastination issues 21.

So I haven't posted for a while and I haven't doodled for a while, but then I found myself working on a completely unrealted image 5 minutes ago so thought I would post it here.


On another note Rich/Guy has worked on a couple of films recently that have been recieving awards all over the shop. Namely Joyets by Magda Osinska and Stand Up by Joe Pierce. Stand Up just beat Run Wrake and the Bravia Bunnies at the Rushes Soho Shorts Fest. Woo hopefully that means he has some sort of magical power that helps the film. Here's hoping :D By the way they are both great films so that does help.

days off

I'm off to my folks se ya later

no procrastination just work

ok so another couple of seconds of animation.

Its a bit of cat for ya.



3 seconds I think!

again quick stuff. The walk after this needs working on so I don't include it.

So lets back in the Habit

Yeah I know. Its been ages since my last post but as I say you know it means that I'm working hard.

So here is a small video of some keys for kyla jumping around in bubbles that I'm quite happy with. Why is it that it's always the things that take you no time that you love and the one you labour over sometimes are just... bleh?



This isn't procrastination, its actually work. My procrastination levels have dropped. Good or Bad I don't know.

I'm going away this weekend and we have the lovely summer party to enjoy tomorrow here. so will Post soon I promise.

Post Gaps

Yeah its been a bad week.

I'll fill you in later.

but I just need to try and work now, but Painter and AfterEffects keep crashing on me.

Procrastination Issues 20.

From a conversation. It could be done better but I'm off for a pint.

Procrastination issues 19.

It's been a hard day. I fear I may have to rein back on the coffee drinking as I am unable to concentrate. Although I have been struggling with a shot that is winding me up as well, so I haven't been at my best. A bit tetchy and low. Don't get me wrong I love it and the struggle is fun but sometimes I just want it to fall into place!

I am working on shots at the moment where I have two or more characters in close up on screen at one time. Oh dear. who would decide to do that to themselves? Me. Wally!

Ok so I needed a wind down so here's s couple of pics of the animators so far and then a little extra that I hope they don't kill me for!



Then there's a pic from a while ago from Phil's animation. Well actually its me, Phil and Leigh Alner, Phil's Cinematographer mucking about in the costumes. The fil itself is looking good. Nothing like this pic. I hashed this together. The film looks alot better as you'd expect from Mr Bacon.

Goodnight my eyes are just retreating again.

A Visit today

So as I working away today we had some visitors. A couple of prospective students looking at the school and being given the tour of the animation department. This is the work of one of them, Bianca from the netherlands. Haven't seen her film yet but it look amazing from the blog.

http://theflyingdiary.blogspot.com/

Procrastination Issues 18.

I thought I would get the new animator on my team, Little Li , into the purposeful doodles of Procrastination Issues. As you saw previous post she is already feeling the weight.

She is happier than she seems in these pics. I hope.

And So Left to right, Toby, Little Li and Rich/Guy
....and also Ness was bored and so finally came in to doodle a pic of herself for the Blog (after moaning that she wasn't on here for ages) ans she isn't even working on the film at the moment!

She is currently standing in for Sara Deane shooting Li's (Animation Director) stop motion film and had to be out of the room whilst Aardmans David Sproxton was shown the sets.
I have also added links to sites where you can find the work of my lovely assistants , if you would care to check them out.

Introducing..

... a new member of the team.

Huiyuan Li or just Li as I know her.
She has been animating for a couple of days in a windowless and this is already the result!
Sadly there are no rooms with windows that we can put assistant animators in. I know how it is as I had to assist on one of these films a couple of years ago. Drives you mad!

Plans are failing.

Ok so schedule wise I'm looking good but I had an aim to finish a scene by tomorrow and I can tell you now, two hours before I go home tonight, that it ain't gonna be done. Damn. So do I work on Saturday or try and go to the RCA grad show as I planned if I finished? It looks great and the animation of the characters is coming across so well. Rich/guy has been doing what I believe is more than inbetweening of my keyed characters.

Ok, so on with it now. No pictures of myself today (what a shame, maybe a picture of something besides myself? No chance Sonny Jim) had no time, I want to get this scene done!

Procrastination Issues 17.

So this is usually how I present my work to visitors unfortunately. Dignitaries, Students, Careers Advisers all get the same lovely angle. I don't know why but it just feels odd to be sitting in my chair facing people when they are standing at close quarters, so I am either looking up from under them or talking to crotch. This position says I am taliking to you but have work that I can't turn my back on.

Once the visitors have moved on to other areas I have to play Ping Pong to stretch the back again of course.

Procrastination Issues 16.

So another day of Fairies, but this time in colour! Woo. Thai and Custard are coming to life I don't know if I am working fast enough but the film is looking fantastic. If I can get one scene, the fairies scene finished ( keyed at least) by friday I will be a very happy man and may even treat myself.

So Posture 02 normally when I'm tired, mid afternoon and I'm inbetween coffee's or when I have lost the idea of what I'm doing. This is not a good position, but seems to be how I talk to people when they come in my room as well. I must make the best impression! oh dear.

So confident and self assured or lazy and uninterested?

Procrastination Issues 15

Damn, missed posts this weekend, well in all fairness its actually a good sign as I have been piling on with the work and so not had time to write or doodle much else apart from my work!

I have a scene with a couple of fairies appearing for a little girl and I am having so much fun with it at the moment. The fairies are nice fat fairies and so I can play around with them alot. Tyring to give each one a distinct personality and character is so much fun as I can see them straight away. I'll find out about issues of putting images of my film on here and hopefully show you them soon.

For the moment though here is another issues getting to me that will not please my dad. My posture, I find my self shrinking into different bends and twists as I work it isn't going to be doing my back any good, so to stretch it out every now and then guess what, I play a nice little game of Ping Pong. For health reasons you understand of course.

Procrastination Issues 14; A catch-up

There have been a few doodles and scratchings the past few days here are a couple,

Anglo-Spanish discussion about underwear on cardboardA Madness of animators,

Last Night and Yesterday. Procrastination/ aggravation issues 13.

The frustrating thing about Aftereffects is the fact that if you are using large files it will keep crashing and then if you start to put blurs and rotations on top of that it's even worse. But when you come to render the project, all 8 seconds of it, it misleads you with a mild estimate for the render and takes hours more. Crippling your computer and making it impossible to work, pacing, ping pong and aggressive bass playing are my methods of dealing with the render hours. Sugar does not help so I try to stay clear of it during these periods.

ah the First gap.

So there hasn't been a post since this time last week but mainly because we have been so busy, but also as I have been celebrating my 30th birthday. Damn

In the last few days however I have started acting out and lip syncing the fairies which look amazing. Rich/guy is inbetweening now and doing a fantastic job. I have also been trying to test out my lines on the cinema screen and finding that unfortunately they seem to be breaking up quite badly(well as I notice anyway) and this is not a line thickness issue. Grr.

I have a procrastination issue sitting next to me but as Phil has stolen the camera I can't scan it in. Grr.

More soon

Procrastination Issues 12.

Moments from Animation Room 4. Click to enlarge, so it's readable.

Featuring from the beggining; Toby, Rich/Guy aka Ricky, HyeBin aka Binny, Vicky, Elena, Alberto, Avgousta, Phil Bacon, Magda and then the blank space for everyone who can't draw or find inspiration in the moment {;P

Victor's booty

Wow, this is kind of Procrastination but related to the film pretty directly. Although it won't be used in the film. So has no real purpose.

One of the Characters in Today Only is an elderly Jamaican gentleman called Victor. So how does he dance? Here's one possibility if his hip doesn't give out. It's a quick 6 frame rough, I have work to do so I couldn't spend all day on it!

I'll try and get Rich/Guy to try and do one tomorrow for competition but he is actually animating the real dance for a scene toward the end of the film. So I don't know if he'll get tired of old men trying to dance.

Procrastination Issues 11.

So I found a time lapse function on this computer and so thought I would give it ago. Procrastination Ahoy!

Procrastination Issues 10.

Hello, another long day here in the room, but as today's procrastination shows I am feeling good and positive about the project. Like I have found a new breath. I do still have the issue that my images are just too big. Rendering out is taking ages and Aftereffects is still crashing every 5 mins. Hopefully tomorrow I get CS3 and then I can try using Premier to preview, but we will see.Today I have Key'd the sign painter flick. Working on the cat running under the camera hopefully this will look fantastic. The cat is larger than I originally thought at the bottom of the ladder but this will add to the action.

Its a shame I can't put any previews on here. So instead you get me drawing myself again and again. Luck you, whoever reads this.

Fathers day

One for my Dad. I know its a commercial card selling day but I would just like to say thank you to the biggest influence in my life and work.
I think this is one of the first times I've actually tried to draw my dad as a character and it dubious weather you think it looks like him. Let me know.

Under all this hair I look just like him, just a little bit younger.

Procrastination Issues 09.

Ping Pong.

Its essential and important to look away from the computer screen every now and then. Stretch the legs and straighten the back. Look at something in the middle distance and to relax.

Procrastination Issues 08.

One for John Osbourne and Doug.
Its late, I'm tired from the sugar high of a whole bag of Dairy Milk Shots, but I'm happy with what I've done today, yay!

Procrastination Issues 07.

So life is getting busy round here and we are finding less time for procrastinations of the doodle kind. Today again its just Rich /Guy and I, as everybody is busy busy busy.You know you can click on the images and they are huge so you can read them as well?

I spent the day realising that long lenses mean extreme distortion and sizes change, morph and warp through out the space. So now I am getting my head round this and putting in a two and four legged walk to push myself a bit more.

I don't want to look at how many frames a day I need to do at this moment in time. The calendar is getting smaller. Days are falling away all too quickly and we ( the second year animators) are realising what we have to do.

Procrastination Issues 06.

The gaunlet was thrown and a draw off started.


But we were working quite hard so we just did these little bits.

The Pigeon in pictures

You can see how intense the situation was by how much James was shaking. Pictures of a couple of poo locations included.

Note all Poo locations have been disinfected.




Michelle and pigeon.

Drama drama

So today starts well, I am admittedly late starting but the weather is great, the birds are singing and my hay fever hasn't started playing up yet. Next follows my thoughts and actions as I enter my room...

'ah, such a nice day. Mmm coffee. oh the alarm is set again. Chris the security guard must have been here. Right Lets work. Oh, ew! whats this under my mouse and wacom? Milk? did I spill milk yesterday? No there's green in it, Pesto Humus?!! No this is too runny! It looks like bird poo! But no a bird couldn't have got in here, how could it?'

I grab a tissue and start to clean up when I notice a huge white mess under Alberto's desk.

'Oh my god, there must have been a bird in here look at that!'

I then notice some more white/green lumps on the coffee table and decide to take this curious situation to HyeBin and crew filming next door.

'You want to know something weird' I say, 'I think a bird has been in my room'

So Michelle and James follow to my room,

'Look' I say 'Look at this mess'

Gasps and awe's come from James and Michelle. Then Michelle asks the only question I hadn't thought of 'So where is it now?'

A simple and practical question.

Then it dawns on me, I look around and there fat as a chicken sitting on top of a tatty copy of Homers Odyssey is a dirty great pigeon. Its orange eye buried in its neck as it looks bloated with fear and stress. It doesn't move apart from the occational blink.

After several loud swear words of shock, we stop and James takes some pictures. HyeBin, after being dragged round by Michelle tries to shut us in and I chase it out skillfully, with a 5' piece of foam board. It left happily without too much hassle, but in its night here managed to crap on every side of the room.

My Desk is now disinfected, but the mess under Alberto's desk is too much for tissues alone. Plus I want him too see something to prove that I'm not making this up.

I will try to get the pictures off James as well.

How and when did it get in? I'll ask Alberto later if he saw this at all.

Ok, I'll start my day now. But I'm worried I'm going to find some more poo in an unexpected place. ew!

Procrastination Issues 05.

Its very quiet at the weekend.

Er... Just so you know

I was in yesterday but didn't post anything as i was a bit too busy. Believe it. Look I only got a chance to draw this.

Procrastination issues 04

Whitney Issues. So I think you can tell we were not so into this today.

But in order, today we have; Alberto, Rich/Guy, Vicky, Elena, Toby.

Friday-yay

So bought some coffee, biscuits and will work work work once I stop sneezing from the Hay Fever. Achoo. Coffee and cookies yay. Achoo.

As I feel

Procrastination Issues 03.

Today, in order; Toby, Rich/Guy, HyeBin, Jens and Alberto.

The loss of coffee today had a big effect on pace and work flow. I may try a Caffine free day tomorrow and see how far I can get. Maybe even sleeping tonight may help.

itunes continues to convert all my wma's. zzzzzzz.