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.

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!