What Did I Learn From The Over World and What Does That Mean fo Xam and Power Dog?

Forgive me ahead of time. This post is rather long...

So, I've viewed my newly completed short film several times and now it's time to look back and see what I learned.

For me, the first thing that comes to mind it is took me four months to complete the film. I spent the first month designing, building, rigging and testing the characters as well as building the set and the props. I then spent the next three months recording dialogue, learning how to put it all together and rendering a five minute film. Let me say that again. Three months to render five minutes of film!

The next thing I think about is the film itself. Let's start with what I think worked.

Character Design: It's safe to say this is up for debate, but I feel that the character design worked. Sure, Xam and Power Dog are prettier characters (in my humble opinion) but I have to admit I really enjoyed working with this laid back design approach. I wanted it simple and that is what I got. There isn't anything fancy about these characters. Their eyes don't rival that of Pixar's. I only created 10 phonemes for their speech and only 16 other shape keys for their facial expressions. Believe me when I say I could have easily doubled or tripled those numbers. Their clothing, with the exception of Dr. Huffenagle trench coat, are not separate from their mesh. Their rigging doesn't have any fancy controls or constraints. I painstakingly had to move each individual bone separately to position them and this was never more of a pain then when I had Jimmy walk or crawl. Still, when I look at the finished film I believe what I see on the screen. Sure, the walk cycle could have been cleaner. Sure, I took many shortcuts with the speech controls and facial expressions, but none of that stands out to me. None of that detracts from the overall appearance of the film.

The Set: When I envisioned Huffenagle Hill, the house and the valley below, I wasn't sure how it was going to work. Although I've done a lot of character design I had never set down to build a set. Xam and Power Dog has so many sets, interior and exterior but I never sat down to design them. One of the many reasons I chose the scene I selected was because it was a big set, set outside and at night. In the end, I think I pulled of a pretty nice, night scene. I think the set is nice to look at and fits very well within the world of the characters.

The Acting: I hate saying this because I did all the voices and had to direct myself but I think the acting isn't bad. It is very well documented on this blog that I don't like my voice and the thought of acting and putting myself in front on the camera (or behind the voices anyway) was daunting for me. Luckily, I do have a little experience in front of the camera and on stage and I was able to fall back on what very limited training I've had in the past to bring something to this part of the project. Also, thanks to some very clever software, I was able to hide enough of my voice to the point I don't really hear myself in the characters.  Overall, I don't cringe during many parts of the film.

The Script: Based on the reaction of those few who have seen my film, I'm going to say the script works.  Granted, the story is something that I've been able to flush out over the years and I, for the most part, know what is motivating every character in the film. This made writing the script incredibly easy. In the end, I genuinely believe you can't take one line out of the film without changing the context of the entire scene. That means no line is wasted and that is important to me. I've even had the occasional comment that it sucks that this is only a side project and I have no plan at this time to make this a feature film, which in my mind is exactly what this story is. I seem to have attracted some attention to this story and that could only have happen because the the script worked.

Now, let's look at what didn't work.

Character Design: Honestly, I think everything about this was good.  I have tried to find something about it that doesn't work but these characters are exactly what I envisioned when I sat down to create them.  This is one of only a couple of things about the project I am completely happy with.

The Set: One thing I did to speed up rendering time was to use back drops instead of rendering every character, building, tree and blade of grass individually.  Still, I needed it to look like the characters were actually standing in the valley so I designed a patch of grass for them to stand on and that patch of grass sat in front of the back drop. One thing that stands out in the film in some scenes is the blending of the foreground with the background.  Simply put, in some scenes you can see the line separating the foreground and the background. For the Xam and Power Dog movie I will need to make this line seamless.

The Acting: I know I said above that I think this works but the truth is that I think this works only for the most part. There are two versions of the final film on the blog and that is because I wanted to go back and work on Nathan's voice. Although I am happy with the sound in the final-final version I don't like Nathan's cadence. My plan when I recorded his dialogue was that I wanted to make him sound ghostly and that affected the cadence by maaakkkiiinnng hhhiiimmm tttaaalllkkk ssslllooowwwlllyyy.  In retrospect, I would prefer his cadence match a young boys, like Jimmy's.  Nathan's slowed down speech pattern just made some of the scene drag on a little longer than I would like. The other thing I'm not exactly happy about is Huffenagle's voice. When I finished designing Huffenagle I realised he looked a lot like Patrick Stewart! Once I noticed that I wanted him to sound like Patrick. Of course, I couldn't get Patrick Stewart although in all fairness to the man, I never reached out to him and asked. The problem is that I don't even come close to sounding like Patrick Stewart.  I can't even do a bad impression of him.  Apparently, what I can do is a very, very, very bad impression of Sean Connery (and if I'm being honest, who can't).  My wife thinks he sounds like Dr. Dugong (for all you Venture Bros. fans out there) or, more recently, kind of like Bane in the new Dark Knight Rises movie. Still, this is more of a voice thing than an acting thing so I'll move on.

The Script: Again, honestly, I'm pretty happy with the script. I can't really find anything I don't like.  Now, sure, viewers won't understand every thing they see.  It is, after all, a scene from a much larger story and therefore the viewers of this scene aren't meant to understand everything.  Hopefully, it leaves you wanting more.  :)

So, what does all of this mean for Xam and Power Dog? Actually, this means quite a lot. I now have a better idea of what exactly it will take to make Xam and Power Dog at least as good as my short. 

I've learned that if I continue to have trouble creating the advanced rig I'm trying to make work for those characters I can always fall back on the classic approach I used to rig these guys.  Sure, to do that will mean I won't get the kind of quality I'm hoping to achieve for Xam and Power Dog but perhaps I'm not meant to.  If, at the end of the day, the movement of Xam and Power Dog looks only as good as Jimmy, Nathan and Huffenagle then that will truthfully be alright with me. I could live with that.

I've also learned that I am definitely going to need to get my server farm up and running. This short was created using only a laptop and when I was rendering the scenes I was locked out from continuing any work on the rest of the movie. Also, the longest scene in the short was 14 seconds and that took the laptop 1.5 - 2 hours to render.  That's right.  1.5 - 2 hours to render 14 seconds of film!  A server farm, in my case, will be one server at first with plans to add a second down the road. This server will be beefed up to render movies which will, in design at least, speed up render times.  But, if for some reason renders aren't any faster then they are on my laptop (and I can't imagine this being the case) then at least I won't tie down my laptop when rendering and I will at least be able to continue working on the movie during renders.

The last thing I learned was that I can continue to work on my models to get them ready for filming but I won't be able to film one scene until I get all the dialogue recorded and perfected.  This means that I'm not only going to have to make sure the script is exactly how I want it but also bring the cast into the studio to lay down their dialogue tracks.

But, the most important thing in all of this is that the short is finished and now it's time to start working on Xam and Power Dog again!

Check back next week.  I'll keep you updated as always.

Later

The Rabmlings of a Man Fresh off the High of Having Completed a Goal!

Back in May of 2009 I decided to film a little movie about a group of animals, based on my dogs and cats, who have super powers bestowed upon them. It stared off as a live action film. That idea is hilarious to me now. I made costumes and even filmed some scenes before I realized I wasn’t going to be able to make that work.

Then I had the idea to animate my little movie. Mind you, I had never once tried to animate anything. I didn’t even know how or if I could, but I set out to learn and I honestly have never stopped learning.

That said, you’d think I’d be a freaking animating genius by now. Sadly, that is not the case. I’m not a kid and my tales of youth keep reaching further and further back in time. Heck, I have a son who is a sophomore in high school and a daughter who is a freshman in college. When was I going to find the time to learn how to animate a movie?

Three and a half years and 200 blog entries later and, in a lot of ways, I’m still at the starting point of making my movie. Pre-production as they call it in the biz.

Four months ago, I was ready to throw in the towel. The effort proving more herculean then I could have imagined and I was ready to post my last entry on the Xam and Power Blog. But I hate succumbing to defeat. In fact, I loath it and before I gave up completely I decided instead of clawing my way forward to go the other way and take a few steps back.

That is when I thought I’d take one of the many ideas floating around in my head and make a simple, animated short film. The film would be simple because I wouldn’t have as much invested as I do Xam and Power Dog. Simple, because the film would only be 5 (although originally I thought I’d make it 10) minutes long. Simple, because I would do all the voices and not need to schedule around other actors. Simple, because the characters would be less complicate in design and rigging. Simple, because if I couldn’t make this 5 minute short then I had no business trying to make a 90 minute film.

And that is what I did. I made my 5 minute short. And with the films completion I am renewed in my desire to tell the story of Xam and Power Dog.

So sit back and prepare to check back on this blog as often as you can for the foreseeable future. I have a feeling there are at least 200 more blog entries to come!

My 200th Post is an Update: New Over World Clip!

Hey guys,

As I mentioned in the last post, I've been working on a few updates to the Over World clip.

And, here it is...



The updates are a couple of subtle changes and one noticeable change.

The noticeable change is I've updated Nathan's voice. It was difficult at times to understand what he was saying so I tweaked it and I think this makes him more clear when he speaks.

The not-so-noticeable changes deal with the editing and the watering well the boys hide behind before confronting Huffenagle. As far as the editing goes, I quickened the cuts at the beginning of the film. I was new to editing when I started and I learned to edit tighter as I went on. Now the dialogue exchange is more consistent. For the watering well, it was pointed out to me the roof was facing the wrong way and no self respecting well would have a roof line like the original film.

So, now, no matter what, I am considering the film finished.

I will share my experience of what it was to make this film later. I'm too tired to worry about it now.

Check back in a couple of days and I'll share my experience as well as let you know what's next for Xam and Power Dog!

Later.

I Posted the Short Too Soon!

Hey guys,

I know I posted the "final" version of the short yesterday but after viewing it several times I noticed some things I missed.

Not to sound like George Lucas, but I'm just not happy with what I released yesterday.  There are a couple of things I need to fix before I'm truly pleased with it.

So, I'm going to take the next couple of days and fix some of the things I don't like.  I'll go into more detail on what those things are later.

Check back in the next couple of days to see what has been changed.


Later.

Over World: A 5 Minute Clip!

Hello everyone!

As I promised, I have finished my side project.



I will share my opinion of this project later.

In the meantime.  I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you for your patience and I'll talk to you later.

Putting the Finishing Touches on the Short!

Wow, it has been a while since I posted anything.

That said, I've been moving right along on the short and I plan on having it finished later today!

It's been an amazing time working on this project.  Looking back at the blog, I see I officially announced putting Xam and Power Dog on hold to work on this side project back on October 24th of last year!  Since today is February 20th that means my brief break to work on my animation skills has taken me 4 months to complete.  I have to admit, that is twice as long as I thought it would.

Putting that aside, it occurred to me that I never really expanded on this other world I am creating.  So, what is it?

Right now, the working title of the project is The Over World.  The more I worked on it the more I realized I would need to come up with a better name.  Who knows what I will call it if I ever decide to try and make it a feature film like Xam and Power Dog.

The Over World starts in the late 1880's when something happens to block the barrier separating the living from the dead and causing everyone who dies from that point forward to continue existing among the living in ghost form.

Moving forward to the 1950's, the world has gotten used to living with ghosts and it is as common as anything else.  Ghosts exist along side the living.  They work, play and go to school in perfect harmony.  

But old, eccentric millionaire Dr. Mortimer Huffenagle remembers what it was like before the ghosts came to live among us and has vowed to put things right, to return things back to the way of the natural world.  This doesn't sit well with two young friends, Jimmy, a human and Nathan, a ghost, who stumble upon Huffenagle right as he is putting his plan into action.  When the town chooses not to listen to the boys warnings, they decide they are the only people who can stop Huffenagle, no matter the cost.

The short will be around 5 minutes long and will come toward the end of the story.  Don't worry.  It doesn't really give a lot away but does allow you to meet the three main characters.

So, hang around.  I hope to be posting it some time later today.

See ya!

Not Nearly As Far Along As I Had Hoped!

Hey guys,

I've been working hard on the short.  I'm sitting at about 3:25 minutes but I'm not nearly as far along as I anticipated this time last week.  I was hoping to be finishing up in the next day or two but now I don't feel I'll be complete until the end of this week or beginning of next.

So, hang in there for now.  I will hopefully have a video to post this time next week!

Later.

Moving into the Final Scene of the Short!

Hey guys,

Well, been working pretty hard on the short this last week and now I'm finally working on the final scene of the project.

This is exciting for me because finally, you get to meet Dr. Huffenagle.  OK, actually, you get to see him for a split second in scene two, but you really don't get introduced to him until scene four.

I figure I'll be on this for about another week.  I'm still holding off on posting any more video until I'm done, but here is a picture to hold you over until then...

Alright.  Time to get back to it. 

I'll talk to you later.