Recording Voices!

Hey guys,

Just a quick update.  I wanted to let you know that I've spent the last couple of days recording the dailogue for the short.  I have to admit, it has actually been fun.

Still, I'm not really sure how it's going to turn out. If you've paid attention to the blog, you'll know I'm not exactly a fan of my voice.  In fact, for Xam and Power Dog I will not be doing the voices for any of the main characters. I really don't want my voice in it at all, but I fear I may have to make a cameo or two.  But, for the short, I will be doing all the voices.  It's just easier for me to do them but be warned now, they're gonna suck.  :)

Right now, I've got all of Jimmy's lines recorded and I plan on doing Nathan's and Dr. Huffenagles lines today.

I'll keep you informed. 

Holidays Keeping Me Busy!

Hey guys,

Merry Christmas everyone!

The holidays have been keeping me busy but I wanted to drop you all a note.

I haven't been working on any animation.  I really haven't had that kind of time.  I have, however, re-written the short scene with Jimmy, Nathan and Dr. Huffenagle. 

Basically, I wasn't very happy with it and that was becoming more and more obvious to me as I was recording the dialogue for the film.  I had re-worked it a couple of times but even after several draft changes I decided it was better just to scrap the whole thing and start over.  I find that a useful tactic from time to time and since it is only 8 pages long it literally was nothing to start over again.

I don't know how it is for other writers, and I'm not even certain I can count myself in that category, but sometimes I get bound by what is written on the page.  Even if I remove entire sections of something I still feel limited by what comes before and after.  That is when I find it better to start with an empty sheet of paper and start over.

So, I did that, and I have to say I like this script better.  It's funny, because I was still working off the same outline, and a lot of what was there to begin with still exists but I still managed to get something that is way different from what I had originally.  That isn't going to change the animation all that much but there are some differences.

The biggest difference is that Dr. Huffenagle has far fewer lines than he had originally.  That really is OK. He has the same impact and now I think he comes off more mysterious.  Time will tell I guess.

So, that's all that's been happening these last couple of days. 

I'll keep you posted, probably after New Years!

Happy New Years everyone!

Starting to Aminate the Short!

Hey guys,

Man, I can't believe it's been a week since my last post.

I have quite literally been working non-stop on trying to animate my short movie.  I have run into so many problems.

First off, when I first tried animating a 10 second video the rendering of it was going to take over 2 hours!  That was because I was trying to render the characters as well as the entire set all at once.  I quickly learned that is not the way to go.  What I was having trouble with was figuring out the many different ways to work around this, such a rendering in separate layers and using backdrops.

Rendering in different layers proved to be way over my head at this point.  Although I believe I understand the concept I still can't quite figure out how it's done.

So, I decided to use backdrops but, I had spent so much time building the set for the shoot I didn't want to throw all of that away. The solution was to create the backdrops of the set from the camera's point of view.  That sounded easy enough but I had to enter the world of using Nodes and although I don't want to get into what that means I will say that it is something I have avoided pretty much since I started animating 3 years ago.

Finally, after a week of trying to figure all this out, I finally have a test video that is 10 seconds long.  Ugh...

Still, the video does have two camera angles as well as some sound.  It's not perfect, but I'm actually excited.  I actually feel as though I'm animating!

Again, that probably was too terribly exciting, but I have to admit that I am pretty happy so far.  Sure, it has some problems, but it is a start.  I'm finally starting to animate something!

I also loaded this video on a popular video sharing website (if you think only a little it's probably the one you immediately think of) as apposed to loading it directly on the blog. I'm hoping the video quality is better than what I've had in the past.  It at least will offer some HD quality this way. Believe it or not, the videos I make look far better on my computer than they do on the blog and I'm hoping this resolves that.  Still, this particular video is way dark, it's my first night scene, so you may not be able to notice.

I know this isn't Xam and Power Dog, but believe me, this little side project is only going to help when it comes time to animating them.

Stay tuned for more...

A Test Pic!

Hey guys,

So, I've been plugging away at my short film.  Basically, what I've spent the last week doing is putting the finishing touches on the characters, building a few extra props and bringing it all together into one scene.

For the short, there are two scenes with most of the filming occurring on the valley floor next to an old, watering well.  So, basically, I wanted to set up a test image that incorporates all aspects of filming in order to test the lighting.

Here is what I got...

As you can see, the action is taking place on the valley floor next to the well.  Dr. Huffenagle has a couple pieces of his equipment and Jimmy and Nathan have "sneaked" their way to the well where the good doctor has discovered them.

This image will not actually be in the short. It really was setup just to test the lighting, which by the way, is done just like a real movie set.  It took four separate lights to get this shot, a moon light, a spot on the characters, a spot on the house in the background and a spot in the well to produce the red light which comes out of the well itself and ties directly into the story (even though it's not really explained in this scene).

So, basically, I think I'm pretty much ready to go.  I'm sure I'll have some more tweaks that I need to do but I feel confident enough to say I'm ready to start animating.

Of course, I say that while knowing I need to record the dialogue for the film first and, to tell the truth, I have no idea how I'm going to do that just yet.  But, I can't animate without at least knowing the timing of the dialogue.

OK.  That's really only true during the parts where the characters speak.  There are parts of the film where there is action without dialogue.  I suppose if I run into trouble recording dialogue I could always animate the non speaking parts.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Got The Script Done For The Side Project!

Hey guys,

Well, I banged out the script for my little side project yesterday. I was originally shooting for a 10 minutes scene but as I sat down to write it I thought 10 minutes was probably a little excessive. 

This little project is meant to give me some experience animating less complicated characters than Xam and Power Dog.  I designed the characters easily enough but then got bogged down in rigging them for animation.  That was frustrating but it taught me techniques I hadn't considered for Xam and Power Dog and now I think I will be able to model them better!

Still, I originally thought I would only spend a couple of months on this side project and I'm probably at around four or five weeks working on it.  I really only consider myself 1/3 of the way through so that is going to push my time frame for this project back quite a ways.  I know, big shock.

So, in the interest of moving along, I decided that I needed to shorten my movie short and writing a 5 minute scene seemed to make more sense than writing a 10 minute scene.  Less script means less animation which means less time to complete this project.  :)

As is, however, and this is seemingly always the case with me, the things I have mapped out in my head turn out a little different on paper.  I think it's because, for me, writing it out helps me focus what I'm thinking. 

The trouble is, as it was with Xam and Power Dog, once it's on paper you realize all the other little things you need to do.  In the case of the side project, I have a few more props I need to build.

The good news is that props are static!  I don't have to rig them!  Well, in this case I don't have to rig them since they don't have any moving parts.  OK.  That's not entirely true.  One of the props has moving parts.  Shoot.  It's alright.  It shouldn't be complicated.  Ugh.  Famous last words.

Alright then.  I need to build a few new props and rig one just a little bit.

I'll let you know how that goes.

One Final Test For The Good Doctor!

Hey guys,

I know, it's been a while since my last post.  A post I pretty much thought meant I was at the end of my modeling for the short and marked the point at which I could begin animating the scene.

Well, I was putting some final touches on the Doctor Huffenagle model when I realized there was a problem.  Yes, his trench coat moved beautifully in the wind but when you turned him in a twisting motion at the waist his trench coat passed through is protruding legs!

Now, I know I'm trying to build simple models to in order to do a 10 minute scene to improve my animating "skills" but I guess I really screwed that up by designing a character with a TRENCH COAT!!!

Alright, oh well.  I decided to just remove his trench coat and move on.  There was a small problem with that approach though.  Simply put, I didn't like the way he looked without the trench coat.

So, the trench coat had to stay and I needed to figure this out.  Turns out, the problem wasn't the coat.  I just hadn't baked it right before I animated it. Yes, that wasn't a typo.  You have to bake it.  I really won't go into it, just trust me and look what happens when you do it...

And, as you can see, the coat moves around his legs.

So, now I really, truly, honestly believe I am finished with the good Doctor. 

Oh, also, I changed his trench coat colors.  It used to be dull gray with a red liner.  Now it's brown with a deep, blue liner.  I have to admit, my calling him the good Doctor all this time made me think of the great Doctor, Doctor Who, so I chose to honor the 10th Doctor by giving my doctor his coat.  :)

Now, what's next?  Funnily enough, I know the scene I want to do and I've built the setting and characters to animate it but I don't have a script.

That's right.  I need to write the script for the 10 minute scene.  The good news is that it should be relatively easy.  I already have it mapped out in my head and it doesn't matter if it makes any sense to the viewer since you, the good people who follow my blog, really won't have any context of the scene since you'll just be jumping right in.  All I have to do is type it.

So, I'm off to write it.

I'll let you know when I'm done...

Doctor Mortimer Huffenagle Test!

Hey guys,

My work on my side project continues and, as promised, I continued my character test of Dr. Huffenagle.  I know, there's nothing ground breaking in this test, but I wanted to have one more go at lip syncing and animating.

Also, as with the other test videos, the voice you hear in this clip isn't the voice you'll hear in the movie.  I just needed a sound file to do the lip sync.  If you recognized the sound clip used to test Jimmy then you'll have no trouble recognizing this sound clip as it came from the same movie.

 And, since my last test video had a background I felt I had to do the same with this test.  

The keying of the good doctor against the background isn't the best, but I don't think I'll be keying in the movie short, so just ignore the faint green outline around the character and don't worry about the fact he's rough around the edges.

And now I need to regroup and figure out what to do next.

I'll certainly let you know.

Later!

Character Test 3!

Hey guys,

I've spent the last couple of days working on the third and final character for the side project I'm working on.  His name is Dr. Huffenagle and he is the villian of the movie.

The reason it has taken a couple of days is because the first day I spent cleaning up the model, fixing they eyebrows (like I had to do with Jimmy and Nathan) as well as figuring out a way to make his trench coat work.

Besides the fact trench coats are cool, I wanted him to wear a coat because Thomas/T-Boom wears shorts that are constructed the same way as Dr. Huffenagles jacket and I was having trouble getting the shorts to move with the characters legs.

Well, it turns out the fix for the jacket (and by default T-Boom's shorts) was staring me right in the face.  I won't go into boring details but trust me, it was a simple fix.

Back to Dr. Huffenagle.  Once I got his trench coat figured out the problem became how to make it blow in the wind (very important for Power Dog's cape) as well as how flexible do I make it?

The flexibility comes from the material modifier I use.  The first one I decided to try was cotton.  I  know, an odd choice for a trench coat, but I wanted something that would really blow in the wind.

So, here is a test video with a cotton modifier...

As you can see, this clearly looks like a cotton trench coat and although it blows very easily in the wind it looks really light weight and more like a robe than a jacket.

So, I decided to try a leather modifier.  The problem with that was that the jacket hardly moved in the wind.  It turns out I really had to try several different setting with the leather modifier until I finally found one I like. 

Here's a test for the final settings I chose...

I know, that is very subtle movement.  The truth is, I really had to lighten the leather's mass and stiffness as well as seriously kick up the wind to get it to blow that much.  The truth is, leather jackets really don't have that much give and by default don't really blow around in the wind.  I found that anything more than what is seen in the test video just didn't look like leather.  So, these are the setting I plan on using in the scene.

Now that I got that out of the way, I will probably do one final character test with the doctor.  I won't be breaking any new ground, but it will give me one more opportunity to practice my lip sync technique before I move on to my next problem.

I'll share that next problem with you after this last character test.  Today is Thanksgiving (Happy Thanksgiving by the way), so I have no idea when that final test will be completed.

Check back in a week...

Another Character Test!

Hey guys,

So, when I last left you, I had done a little test video for a character named Jimmy, who is going to be in a little side project video meant to give me some practice animating less complicated characters than Xam and Power Dog in an attempt to help me learn animation.

I'm still at it, and I've been working on a test for a character for this side project.  His name is Nathan and he is a ghost.  The test is another 10 second video that allows me to practice giving Nathan movement and lip syncing his dialogue.

I know, didn't I already practice that with the last test?  Yes, but Nathan, being a ghost, gave me an opportunity to test how I was going to make him look ghostly (or transparent) and therefore makes this a good test.

So, here is the Nathan test video.  Like the Jimmy test, this test is not Nathan's voice.  I needed a sound clip to set up the lip syncing and, once again, this comes from a pretty famous source.  Funnily enough, I've used this source (kinda) once before.  A while back I was testing my animation and I created a TARDIS (see Doctor Who for more information on a TARDIS) and now I'm using the Doctor himself.  We'll, the 10th Doctor, and this is a line from my absolute favorite episode, Blink.

Check it out...

So, pretty fun I think, and next I will do a character test for the third and final character, and old, crotchety fellow named Dr. Huffenagle.  He wears a trench coat and that is why I want to test him.

Stay tuned...
 

Updated, Updated Jimmy Test...

Hey guys,

Long time no talk! 

Sorry it's been a while since my last update. Of course, if you've been following the blog for a while then you know that October is an extremely busy time for my family.  And, just in case you don't know about my other blog, feel free to head on over to Hollinger Hollow and check out what takes up most of my time during Halloween!

But, as you no doubt are aware, we're halfway through November now and that means it's time to start focusing on my main passion, Xam and Power Dog.

So, when I last left off, I had told you about my plan to work on a small scene with different characters in an attempt to get better at animating.  The reason for the different characters is I wanted to try my hand at animating less complicated characters than the ones I designed for Xam and Power Dog.

Well, I was able to do a test video with a character named Jimmy to include some movement of the character but mainly to focus on lip syncing.

The first video (which is in a post below) looked pretty good to me, until I posted the video and on playback realized his eyebrows moved across his forehead when he turned his head.  The reason this was happening was because I made his eyebrows out of a separate mesh that I just "placed" on his forehead without rigging them or attaching them.

To fix this, I simply deleted the separate mesh eyebrows and colored parts of the mesh over Jimmy's eyes brown, made another video, posted that one as an update and called it a day.

Wouldn't you know, although it stopped the eyebrows from floating across Jimmy's head the truth is I hated the look.  It was flat and sharp at the edges and just didn't look very good.  I tried telling myself that the point to this was to make the characters simple and it simply couldn't get any more simple than that.

Still, I hated the look, and in my "spare" time this last month I would check back on the video to see if maybe it started looking better to me and at the end of the day, no, it didn't look any better.

Sometimes I am amazed at what a small break can do to restore your creativity.  I say this because when I opened the file today to work on Jimmy I decided I couldn't stand the flat, square eyebrows and immediately set about to fix it.  Well, that took me all but 5 minutes.  Seriously!  The fix was staring at me in the face and the only thing I can figure is that I was so burned out I didn't see it.

So, without further ado, here is the update to the updated video I last posted.  For those that don't remember, or who don't care to scroll down a little and refresh their memory, this is Jimmy borrowing a line from a very famous movie in order for me to test my ability to make him talk.  Enjoy...

And there you.  I swear, this will be the last update to this particular test video.  I am finally, honestly, 100% completely happy with this test. 

So now what?  Well, I really am not sure.

As soon as I figure that out, I will let you know!

Later!