Friday, May 20, 2011

Week 6 and 7 - Dialog and GREEN.

Hey guys!






Missed last weeks post because I went home to visit the family....I got to feel our BED

- Our FOOD- and the GYM......Man I love our home

.....It was Hard to Leave....good thing i get to go back in 7 days....

so.....after the short flight back to Portland.....I was Back into the mix at work- since I last wrote I have gotten 2 more approved shots- this makes 3 -GREEN-




director approved shots are going to be up on that BIG screen as of todays date.


So first things first- Its HARD HARD work guys.....nothing comes easy in this medium. I am busting my arse every single day....and fighting for every single frame. I feel like I am in a constant state of struggle...ha!




as painfull as it can be and taxing to the mentals.....I keep telling my self that all this pain and uncomfort....is making me stronger and stronger every day.



This is the kind of experience that shows exactly what you are made of.


Somedays I feel like just running home to my comfy life

and getting right back into what I know how to do...

But then I think of how this moment of emotional weakness -struggle that

I am feeling is actually where I am growing the most ..... that kinda GROWTH only comes with hard Uncomfortable work.....

or Gamma Rays?...ha!



so....


I have finished the crowd scene and it was definitely the most challenging shot I have EVER done.........people seemed to like it.....but I think it came up a bit short....It was Director approved though so I am moving on...happily... Ha!.


One thing about that shot that I was told by some of the sr. animators....

If theres something in a shot that bugs you....do a cut back.....meaning- delete the frames you dont like and try again......



With Producers breathing down your back to finish by certain times thats a hard decision to make sometimes.


And In a case like my shot I was doing 3 frames an Hour!!!!.....so every frame was PAINFULLY achieved.


.....It was a hard decision but I am glad I did it.........I would have been cringing everytime I saw the shot for the rest of my life...ha!


the other approved shot was - a pretty simple POV....that had animated Dangers. I was very happy to add more green to the list.....


Last- Monday I was assigned 3 totally NEW shots .... and 2 Totally new sets.



I have worked on 4 Unique sets so far .....and every time I get a NEW one its like walking into a the Candy Trees and chocalate river room in Willy Wonka and the Chocalate factory.
Its jaw on the floor AWE!!.....so cool......Dorky Smile ear to ear.

Monday morning also came with my first 2 dialog scenes from another part of the film......these were a totaly suprise since I thought I was mainly going to be focusing on my Big ACTION sequence.


....after being briefed.....and the super talented rigger giving me a NEW amazing multi geared axis to control some set pieces that the character is interacts with.





I was off to do 2 dialog rehearsals- about 3 -4 seconds a piece.......

The rehearsals went well and were some GOOD Old fashion stopmotion animation FUN.

I wasn't as stressed on these shots for some reason- I just used what I know about animation and Dove right in....I went home at night and was really Happy and excited to get back in there the next day.

Ill find out next week if the one I actually Launched on is going to be approved? Fingers crossed.

{Something learned}-

In feature stop mo- we animate the faces seperately- in cg way before we get to the set- We actually go into a facial animation team- and sit down with them and go over the dialog.....we work out all the details on the computer . Then the performance has to get approved .

at that point it goes to the set and you get your exposure sheet. This is pretty exciting for me...because the face is where so much the magic happens ....and I am able to just focus on that part of animation before it gets all complicated....

After approvals....its off to the face KIT guys....and they deliver your replacement faces on set....ready to go.

Now....on set....while animating....you still improvise....if you posing doesnt quite read good enough with the expressions....they will provide you with some extra faces to mess with.

Lighting-

Posing - or levels of your extremes- in facial work can all call for change .....during a dialog.

This is very exciting to me...... when the character starts talking and expressing feelings before your very eyes its quite thrilling!


Tricks of the week-

















Jriggity

14 comments:

Craig Harris said...

Daggone man..congrats on the approvals!! Great info on the process too, really fun to read about.

Ben Whitehouse said...

Thanks for this post mate! It has made me realize just how much harder I need to work and JUST DO IT! Hahaha
Glad you got some time away to see the family.

Hope your good

Dean said...

I bet it feels great to get your shot approved. That crowd scene sounds OBscene! 3 frames an hour??! Kudos to Mr Patience!

After all this hard work and these struggles, you'll come out the other side ready to take on the world! The Hulk will have nothing on The Incredible Rasch. At least, that's how I reckon it'll feel! Best of luck.

stopmotionpete said...

Great work man. Glad you're getting stuck right in there!!! Challenges make us stronger and adapt more. Loving your posts. It's very inspiring :-)

Jeff Lafferty said...

Wow, the three frames and hour thing gives me a cold sweat, hang in there dude
Jeff

Mexican Viking said...

Thanks so much for the window into how all this works. 3 frames an hour is a pretty impressive mental feat. Animation machine.
If I can ask this, are all the faces unique or are any reused?

Anonymous said...

you're a warrior!! impressive how well you're keeping your chin up, sounds like the more appealing choice is to curl up in a ball ;)

you and your daughter should start playing capoeira :)

interesting that you go to a team to work out the facial, instead of just the animator working it out on their own. Seems like it must be odd to work out the facial seperately. That vid makes it seem that they choose from a library of faces, I had had the impression that the printing machine is always spitting out new faces, which makes me wonder why not just animate with blendshapes and have the machine spit out a new face for every frame?

Is it getting easier? I mean the art of animating and acting is always challenging, but is the extra hurdle of reaching the feature quality bar getting easier?

keep rockin!!

jriggity said...

Craig}So cool to see ya stop by craig! glad you dug the read.

Ben}Ha...yeah man...just one foot in front of the other right.HARD Work!!

yeah man...i get to go home agin this weekend...woo hoo!

Dean}aww man...its soooooo rewarding to have a shot approved. Yep 3 frames an hour man....very hard piece of animation.

Thanks for the support man!

Pete}thanks bro! cool to watch your new cartoon happenin too.

Jeff} hard core....id rather not do that kinda piece again. ha!

Mex Vike} yep....most are unique but we do reuse them for certain phonyms or expression sets.

Alonso}Ha! yeah man...it feels like a war more often than not.

you know me and shel and aedon have played with capoeira in our movement travels. I love the types of movements and its definitely something we can do again.

Working with a team on the facial isnt as wierd as you would think.....especially with soooo much going on in these stopmotion shots.

Its also educational just being able to focus on that one part.

and like I said when you get on the set....you can always change the way your doing it.

and to be clear- the eyeballs and eyelids are still all on set controlled- only the expressions and phonyms are replacement faces.

the animators do create from an expression library....but we can request new faces when ever we want.

and they will print them out for us.

as far as easier to reach feature quality - NO- not at all...ha!!

its just as hard as ever....the part that is easier is working with a great puppet-character.

just like in cg- a good rig- and expressive character are incredible to work with.

but achieving HIGH Level animation will always be HARD to do...and require alot of education and Practice.

I feel like such a baby in animation man...and I have been doing it for a good while now.

so far to go...to get where i want to be.

thanks again man!!

jriggity

tonychauzer said...

Few short months go by, come back to check up and you're working at the Laika house haha. Really awesome man, a huge congrats. Can't really say I'm surprised :)

Love the posts / stories of the journey. Makes me want to animate right now! And that's what I think I'll do - catch ya later. Keep on rockin' !

rich said...

killer news. congrats on the approved shots. i get the feeling stop motion animation never gets easy and when you are working at this level...you not only have to be a strong and confident animator but...you have to be a physically fit one. Standing up all day on those sets bending up and down can not be easy. Do you remember to eat?

Mike Adair said...

Keep racking up the green, man! So happy for you. And thanks for taking us along for the ride!!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Justin, well done!
we all know you can do fantastic work
3 frames an Hour! wow

What a lot of wise days, man :D
congrats again and keep fun!

BTW, your video jump is recommended for a novice, or is a kind of "don't practice at home" :P
Looks so fun!

Nice weekend J.

THE INSATIABLE said...

Sounds crazy cant wait to see the shot!

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