First Update of the New Year

Here we are a couple of weeks into January and things are moving along fairly smoothly. At the beginning of this week, I had my first version of layout pretty much done and began sending it out to a few of my trusted peers and professors. Most of them gave me some great feedback to help the film flow much easier as well as telegraph the right idea or emotion. With that being said, here's the link to the most up to date version of the layout; once again, the password is "thesis."

Since I've taken the layout pretty much as far as it can go for the time being, it's now time to dive into the real bulk of the work which is animating! Coming in at just under four minutes, it's a bit more than I had originally envisioned but I think it is possible to pull off. It will be hard, but not impossible. Earlier today, I went ahead and ordered Jason Osipa's book "Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right," so hopefully I can pick up a few tips and tricks from that to help me along the way.

Outside of my own work, Patrick and Jonathan have been really working hard lately as well! Pat recently finished up a rough version of Boris with near-final re-topologized geometry and Jonathan has put in a simple rig to test whether or not the geometry will provide decent deformations as well as switching between quadruped and biped. I must say, it's really something to watch a character move from a description in a script to concept drawings to a moving 3D character! As of right now, Jonathan is thinking that Boris will most likely wind up using a muscle system and/or corrective blendshapes to get more accurate deformations. I know also that Pat is looking to use Maya Hair or Fur to give the little guy a nice, fuzzy look. Who knew a hamster would require so much detail!

In addition to Pat working on finishing up Boris, he has also started providing the hi-res models of my proxy geometry (used mostly for layout and in order to keep scenes moving more quickly). One more bit of good news, it looks like another of my colleagues might be able to help out with the modeling. The Spanish arena seen in the bullfight sequence is one of the more geometry-intense environments other than Marvin's house/neighborhood; my friend Megan is a modeler focusing more on environments and might just be able to squeeze the arena into her schedule.

So far, 2012 has been full of good news and some really great strides in progress. Hopefully this trend continues and I can keep posting updates to the film with some nice and polished animation. Here's to progress!

End of the Year

So this isn't exactly a bi-weekly update but it is a lot better than last time! With classes being out for the time being, I have gotten a decent amount of work done as well as spending some good quality time with my wife and the rest of the family. As of right now, I have the first of three sequences laid out and cut to time with sound. Rather than post it in sections, I am probably going to wait until I get the other two sequences blocked out and cut together so I can post the layout work in it's entirety. I know that I definitely have my work cut out for me especially if I want to get these shots laid out before classes start up again on January 9th. Nevertheless, I'll be sure to post my work up as soon as I have a full working-cut.

Well, So Much For That...

It's been about four months since my last post, four months! I really do wish I would have updated sooner, and it was my naive understanding that my storyboards would be done soon after that last post. However, with starting the fall semester, I was introduced to a new faculty member, John Ludwick. I wasn't too sure about him at first, but he's a really great guy who really knows what he's talking about. I started showing him my early storyboards, and, while they were okay, they weren't really telling the audience what they needed to know about the characters. So, they were mostly scrapped in order to start anew.

Several months down the road and a few revisions later, not only have I finished the storyboards, I also have a rough cut animatic! I've really been trying to develop this according to my own vision while taking guidance from John to make sure I am hitting the important beats of the story without missing what makes the tale unique. Here's the link to the animatic: it's password protected so anyone interested can only get to it through this blog (or word of mouth); the password is "thesis." I am about to launch myself into the world of layout over winter break. I know I've said I'll do something over various breaks before, but I really can't beat around the bush with this anymore; I've got some friends of mine who are starting to invest their time and effort into this, and it really is incredibly reassuring to know that I have their support in this incredible endeavor.

In an effort to build a stronger online presence, as well as document my progress, it is my goal to more regularly update this blog from at least a bi-weekly standpoint with hopefully some videos on Vimeo.com with my progress. If you have any feedback or questions at any stage of this, please feel free to drop me a line.

Long Time, No Update

Well, it's definitely been a good bit of time since my last update. Things got a little hectic with working on the summer film project at Ball State so I put the storyboards on hold. Good news on that front though: we met our animation goals with completing the main sequence by the end of summer and have just a little bit more to do when classes start up again.

Here it is the beginning of August with only a few more short weeks until classes begin anew; in these last weeks before all the busy comes back again, I'm going to try and get as much storyboarding done as possible. My goal is to have most if not all of them done before or as classes are starting and hopefully send them off to a few associates for some feedback. It's also my goal this week to have some of what I've been working on posted here on the site!

Now fingers crossed it won't be nearly as much time in between posts!

Weekend Update

One week after this blog was started and already there's more things happening with the film!

Marvin

With this film being a thesis project with limited resources, we have to pick and choose which technical hurdles to tackle straight on and which to find other solutions. Thankfully one of these issues has already been solved! Animator Josh Burton has graciously allowed us to use his wonderful Morpheus rig in the film. For those of you not familiar with Morpheus, its an awesome rig with terrific skinning and facial controls as well as the option to fully customize the physical appearance of the character. With this permission, it looks like Morpheus will be playing the part of Marvin!

Boris the Hamster

Another aspect of the film that looks to be an interesting challenge is Boris, the hamster. After speaking with a couple of my colleagues, it looks like we will definitely find a way to get him modeled and possibly even textured to have fur! It may not sound like much to some, but believe you me, it really is exciting! Of course, after modeling we still need to get him rigged...

Last but not least, we have finally started storyboarding for the film! Granted, there are only a few frames done but it is definitely progress and more than we had a week ago. Once there is a bit more of them, I'll make sure there's a smattering of them here on the blog. 

All in all, things are looking good and hopefully things only get better from here!

Up and Running

Well here goes nothing!

Basically, this site is designed to keep track of the progress (and hopefully inspire some progress to keep being made!) of the short film, "Escape." As of right now, there isn't a whole lot on the blog to be too terribly excited about. I've uploaded all of the Concept Art that I currently have. Before long I hope to have the "Crew" and "About the Film" pages updated as well.

As far as production on the overall film is going, I am about to start the storyboarding process after looking over the script a few more times, pondering different technical endeavors and how they might affect the story. I do need to make sure as well that we have permission from a couple of different parties to use assets they have created.

Here's to more posts down the road and hopefully a wonderful film in less than a year's time!