Importance of Story

Break was not productive!

I had a slight breakdown first week coming back. Really felt the pressure of making this thesis. I kept saying to myself - It's ALL dependent on you! YOU need to get your stuff together. No one is waiting for you to go to the lab and whipping your back to get working. You are your own enemy. YOU need to graduate and get a job, not get deported etc etc.

This drained and intimidated me. But I realized through wise words and encouragement that I'm not only doing this for myself and my graduation. It is dependent on more people than me! I'm doing this for my friends and family... I wanna make them proud and excited by the end of all this and show them why I came all the way here to LA! I want to inspire even beyond that. People are rooting for me... so I'm not alone.

Thinking about it as a huge blob is intimidating... but breaking it down into small tasks makes it manageable. It's refreshing doing a production schedule because I can really start organizing my time. It's hard to know how much I'll finish every week and how to pace myself but to write it down is the first step.

This week I focused on completing more shots in my stop-motion segment. I managed to finish 3 shots with the worm. Some problems I faced was keeping the worm standing without any rigs. Also light pops were a constant issue. Apparently, if I kept the camera running too long, the light stops going into the lens as much. But these things I will fix in post.

I also asked myself: What is the most important part of my film that I should concentrate on?

The answer? The middle. That's where all the fun stuff happens. There was way too many distracting, confusing bits in the beginning so I cut them out and decided, all he really has to do is smoke the pipe and the brain explodes so why all the fuss with the vines?

So now, the worm just becomes the brain and the boy picks it up and smokes it. In the end, I'm keeping the dragonfruit head and all the vines covering him. It still makes sense!

I think I will end up using Photoshop to animate the middle just because I'm familiar with it already... even though it's not the best for efficiency.

I plan to finish my stop-motion entirely by next week and then the 2D excitement begins.

Stop-Mo Stills Animatic!

What I've realized is you just have to dive in and stop stressing. I was so hung up about a ladder that in the end i just scrapped it. The eye compositing has turned out nicely so far... haven't refined it fully yet... my friend Dan Chen helped me shoot the two animated shots with great lighting. I hope to shoot the opening pan shot before next Tuesday! And have transitions and better 2nd section done by Wednesday. Keep you all posted.

Sawdust all over my front porch.

^ This is a great reference to what I want for my roofs.

The set is very mobile! Separates into 3 parts so far.

Still not finished. Gotta make about 10 more dragonfruit plants and a few little roofs beside. Gonna do that these next few days.

under construction

... for real.

happy thanksgiving break!

Ahoy! Floating along...

Most of the critiques from the seminar were positive and a lot of people were confused about the beginning. I can understand since the animatic is pretty rough during the stop-mo parts. I also want that effect on people... I want them to be bedazzled in a confused way... later on they'll realize... or they'll just have to watch it again. :)

I've finished the rooster, all I need are it's feet T nuts. I took about 50 photos of my friend Nelson's eyes for testing Euclid and the feasibility of compositing it. I will do this once I finish building the set. It's looming over me - just like that section 2 map I had to do for while. I just have to dive in it seems to get going.

Here's what I did for seminar. Mike Patterson told me to do stills for each shot in my film to clarify my idea and make it easier for me to animate. Check it ooouuuut. Also, the music is in it!

This weeks goal:

FINISH SET

TEST SHOTS WITH EYES

REVISE ANIMATIC - ADD SHOTS/TAKE SOME OUT/MAKE COMPOSITIONS MORE CLEAR AND CONCISE

BLOCK OUT TRANSITIONS

Til Thursday.

- Rooster Armature and foamed - CHECK

- Roto Test Show - IN PROGRESS WILL BE MORE COMPLETE BY THURSDAY

- Build Real Set - NO MATERIALS :'(

- Get Materials: Super Sculpey (for more dragonfruit and the pipe), light metal and wood for the set. - NO CAR...

Ok. Today I'm biking to Home Depot so these problems will be remedied soon. Instead of metal I might spraypaint cardboard. I'll feel it out once I get there. I should be done the rooster puppet completely by tonight.

I completely a part of a shot at the oxberry last week. More progress will happen on Thursday.

GREAT PROGRESS on music! After an exchange of emails, my composer has sent me an amazing first pass at the score and once I time the animatic to it, you may hear it. It's super experimental, quirkly and I'm sure it will make the audience feel the strange uncertainty I want.

By Thursday I'll post more pictures, music, animatic and things... I just want to wrap up the things I'm doing. I'm picking up the pace...

Reworking

I'm having difficulty getting to a hardware store to get the final materials for my set. I'm thinking of biting my lip and biking it. I also need some structure. That's definitely stressing me out... the art of time management. My friend from Toronto was visiting this past weekend so I got little done, now it's time to go back to my groove. I booked the Oxberry for Friday.

Here are my specific goals for this coming week:

- Rooster Armature and foamed (at least)

- Roto Test Show

- Build Real Set (after talking to Musa tonight about it)

- Get Materials: Super Sculpey (for more dragonfruit and the pipe), light metal and wood for the set.

Here's another rough animatic of the stop-mo sections. The pipe no longer does the french horn twist (I think that was an add-in when I still thought it would be 2D). The rooster starts close to Euclid. Being pet by him and then flies away due to a fascination of the worm. Another big change is the dragonfruit that Euclid carries in the beginning, turns into the pipe.

Here it is:

In the section 2 Animatic... the first panoramic shot resembled the beginning of this (ignore everything after the cloud part):

This is how I want Euclid to transfer himself into the pipe's brain.