13 Sep
Yeap, a re-run of the entire graduation film show. This time, it will be hosted in NTU ADM’s auditorium. For those interested, here are the details of the screening:
Date: 19th September 2012 (Wednesday)
Time: 1800 – 1900
Venue: Nanyang Technological University, School of Arts Design and Media’s Auditorium (Level 2)
And well, just a doodle to brighten up this blog a bit more. I’ve been looking into digital media these days, trying to master it.
27 Jul
Another Flight…
Yeap, the film was done sometime back and the industry screening had ended nicely last night. Regrettably, I didn’t manage to take photos of the night due to ushering duties… and the only photo I had was this taken by our photographer…
End of Screening
Thinking back this 1 year journey, it had been a hard long way, most often a lonely time at home with my mum reminding me occasionally of my meals and all. Truthfully, I didn’t believe this animation could be done at first. It was long and draggy, with feedback that it couldn’t be done despite the time I had. Besides, I wasn’t so confident with my animation skills to take on a four minute production… Despite my pre-pro tutor urging me forward, I was not confident about completing it, let alone lead any other animators to risk suffering grades for this production. But yea, things start falling in place once a decision is made. Solutions to my initial problems started appearing and I find myself on a smoother road. My parents were supportive of my project, lending me money to buy a license for a software which I myself had little knowledge of. My siblings were there to keep me sane and my boyfriend would pop by occasionally and pull me aside for some humorous finds and night walks. Towards the end, I had the opportunity to work in the cubicles alongside my course mates too. Indeed, life wasn’t so bad, it wasn’t after all…
Yea… I’ve made friends with ‘2D Animation’, maybe not very close friends as ‘Watercolors’, but it’s a new friend to discover more about. Also, since I’ve a TVP license now, I wish to continue playing with it. Have a few ideas in mind… but got to learn more about this software first. I’ve only touched the essential tools that would aid in my project so far, so the first step would be to explore more of it’s function and potential.
Apart from that, I’ve learned to honor the deadline. Although it really hurts to cut down and deviate from the original intentions, deadlines should be kept to to prevent damage down the pipeline. Somehow, I do like these deadlines too. With a limit comes a challenge to improve myself. And yea, if not for these deadlines, I wouldn’t have found better solutions. I wouldn’t have taken on TVP, and I wouldn’t have understood management as much as I do now. It’s has surprised me with the possibilities I did not see in the first place, both a friend and foe worthy of honor.
Although many things are finally coming to an end for ‘Play With Me!’, it isn’t going to stop here. There is still the sounds effects that I wish to touch up. There needs to be an adequate packaging for this film and some compiling and archiving to be done. Yeap, hopefully show the world this little creation… that would be another flight… 😀
1 Jun
Yeap, another reviewing of my progress so far:
I’m now down to 11 shots of the 52, of which, 4 requires a bit more tweaking to the animation before I can color. Quite happy with the month of productivity, managed to finish off 1:30 min of animation with every detail in. However… Nearing the end of May, I was getting tired and found myself nodding off halfway through cleaning up. Doubt I was physically tired, as I had enough sleep. Most probably I’m beginning to feel the jaded inside… after all, I’ve been keeping this project going at a consistent pace for six months straight. My drawing hand began to feel the strains of gripping too long onto a pen and I start to drag myself out of bed and start work later than the usual 9am. Wonder if this is what they meant by the engine running out of fuel?
But yea… can’t slack off too much. I have an entire post-production to handle and that needs at least two weeks. Have to buck up… Just 11 more and I can conclude the animation phase! Jia you!!!!
11 May
Yeap, still moving on. Just finished coloring another shot, making it 21 shots down and 31 more to go. Starting to get the hang of the coloring process, keeping my brush lines as loose as possible while making sure they don’t create a jumpy-line animation. So far, the Tigress is the most time consuming character to color…. and seems like I’ll have to keep to the ‘step-by-step’ philosophy to this rendering process. Tried to refine my animation and color at the same time, but it turns out to be more time consuming. I found myself trying to figure out the correct lines and movement on top of keeping these lines clean and final. It’s not a good way after all…so back to the basics!
Current plan is to color all shots that are done with the animation stage by late May and moving on to those that need some more refining to the animation. Most probably will finish this around the first or second week of June. The new calendar of deadlines are up too:
18th May: Animation details for screening
13th June: MDA Submission again
7th July: Final submission of film.
Wonder how am I gonna get my video into that Apple ProRes codec…. Don’t have a Mac nia… And now that I have no composer for my music, I’ll have to go out and find one my own or just dig the internet for some stock music. Should have taken my piano lessons seriously when I was a kid, haha.
1 May
Went back today to do my grad show duty. It was finally an opportunity to get a longer and closer look at all the works. Made my rounds around the hall, but it was still too fast for an eight hour shift. End up sketching and painting a bit.
Heard Old School is closing and making way for some other properties, so sketched a bit of the place too.
Will be returning on Sunday to get my stuff back and all. Till then ba!
28 Apr
Made by Huiying!!
Thank you Huiying for the cookies and rose!!! 😀
Yeap, opening day is over!! Many thanks to friends and family members who came down to see this and thanks to all who came by! Will be back on May 1st to do my duty… (gonna climb the stairs again… T_T) and will be bringing the originals and photobook along.
As for now… back to the animation work. Jia you jia you!
22 Apr
Yeap, it’s here.
Saw a 40 page hardcover photobook deal on Groupon six months back and decided to get one for the project. Rushed it out in the last days before it expired… well… call it the first draft of the final year project report, haha. I was quite worried that it’ll take a long time to print, but had a pleasant surprise when it came early this week.
The print quality is very good, but too bad that in my rush, I forgot to convert my images to CMYK color and ended up having duller images. Quite a few errors on my designing part too, but it’s quite minor. Pretty happy with it. Something to remember the project by.
Yeap, preparing for the grad show and final presentation while working on my animation at the same time. Got to buck up more, since I haven’t touched on the animation much for the past 1 week due to these preparations. Jia you!!!!
16 Apr
Yeap, poster design for the film. Had a few ideas in mind, but will be spoiling the film… so chose this design instead. Not very happy with it, but think I don’t wish to to get stuck in this for too long. Supposed to be writing my report today… T_T
Trailer’s done, will be uploading soon! :3 ::Updated! Go see the “Trailer” page!::
1 Apr
Just sometime back, while doing my trailer, I realised the logo needed some serious revamp. Aye, it doesn’t seem to fit in nicely now, with everything refined. I was looking for something that could suit the format of a film while retaining the cuteness of it. Looking at some movie posters, I realised most logos for films are simply just a play of typography. It felt as though one just need a font that suit the look and feel of the entire film and bingo. I tried going through my font library, playing with the different fonts while toying with size and kerning etc…. just not getting it…
Felt that no matter how I play with the fonts, it just doesn’t feel right. End up re-using what I had earlier on and started tweaking from there. Ended up with this:
Still a bit amateurish… and doesn’t suit the format too… But heck, some Chinese films had their logos in the vertical format and they still look good….
Guess will be sticking to this one.
And some further reduction…. haha.
Play With Me! 