#production log
I’m trying Mr Dot! I’m trying!
I definitely tend to get stuck in that overthinking phase where I can’t think of solution to potential problem so I don’t get anything done and give up, or just go around in circles and theh eventually give up.
But I’m making it a point to remind myself that to solve certain problems I must actually try them out in some capacity. Only then I can get clarity for what might work - or not. I am visual thinker for the most part after all and I always learned best from experience.
I pretty much have character designs decided on, I just have to stylistically unify them, make myself reference sheets and do some test animations to see what kinds of brushes I want to use and figure out pipeline for coloring that will be as painless as possible and easy to replicate for potential coloring assistant
I feel like I’m on the good way with background style too. Since I can separate my short into 3 “acts”, I figured I can make them different and more experimental depending on what I need. Especially third one, but I have yet to do anything for that since background will be more animated in that one and that will be explored more in animation tests I plan to do.
By the way, I recommend watching that video at the top of this post, I really like that dude’s work ethic and philosophy.
Other than this I will start working on sound design and music. I fiddled around with Cakewalk for a bit, it’s not that scary xD and I found some good music writing class on Skillshare(notsponsored) that is simple enough for me to understand, so I feel like I’m set for starting on that.
Other thing is I plan to break down and revise my animatic even more, like, I want to make it as close to finished product as possible so that when I start animating final thing I’d have most problems solved, and hopefully music by the end too xD
That much for this update! Deadline is approaching, less than 7 months left and fire is lit under my ass to pick up the pace, so more frequent updates might be expected :)
Except ain’t nobody take me out of it that easily (like in gif)
It’s(not surprisingly) difficult to get substantial progress done with only small patches of time during the week after work when I’m too exhausted and stressed out to deal with anything, let alone what’s supposed to be “passion” project. And by the weekend I’m just SO done, I need to take a break.
With that said I did, get something done, though not as much as I hoped I would. The main reason I’m having such hard time getting this new version of animatik off the ground is that I haven’t decided what my objectives for it are.
When I said I want to “tighten it up” visually, I accidentally put too big expectations of how close to the final I want it to look, which took me away from what should actually be the point which is acting and base sound design, not backgrounds.
Seeing as they are based on actual location, I’m already familiar with what I want in it. I can get away with just written notes for now. I don’t really need to come up with anything “new”, just find the best way to interpret it, and to me that’s….Not as important right now xD
Another thing this animatik is supposed to do is help me figure out techniques and ways in which I will put together the final product — final compositing. Which I plan to do either in DaVinci 15orBlender. I have feeling I might pick up Blender much faster, but DaVinci may be more suited for my needs?
And also, I may be bit masochistic, because I started trying to figure out logic behind node system in fusion, and by brain is melting through my ears and I love it xD
I findCasey Faris channel to be very informative when it comes to DaVinci resolve 15 and Skyline Motions has some neat tutorials. His accent may be confusing at times and he goes fast and doesn’t really explain often why he does certain things, but if you follow along (he does leave resources for that) surely you can pick up the logic behind it as you go. In fact, that’s one of his tutorials on the left monitor that was closest to what I need in the workflow I remember from my animatic-making days in After Efects.
And this tutorial from Casey really helped me understand the logic behind nodes better. You really can explain everything with cookies
Other than that I scribbled some character designs on my breaks at work, again, no special stylization in mind. Probably some generic-ish anime, perhaps bit more cartoony, idk, we’ll see.
My strategy (lol “strategy”) for nextweek is to get up few hours earlier before work and get stuff done then, but that’s a tall order since I sure do love my sleep hahah…But I’ll still try.
Cya next week then~
