The White Rabbit
Mar. 13th, 2003 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pasitheaBwah,
I inked the corrections to the finger waggling last night. I haven't touched this animation in a couple weeks, but there's only two weeks of animation class remaining this quarter and I'd like to have at least one finished project and realistically, this is the only large project I can get done in that amount of time.
I've come to really hate the White Rabbit. Everything about it. I shot all the video from a 'flat' perspective to hide the distance between the portal matte and the back of the couch, so I'm trapped in this full-on to 3/4ths view of the character and the same for the actress. There's no good reaction shots or anything. Cinematically, it's awful.
I hate my character design. Somehow he became very stiff and his head is off center, giving him a crinked neck look, and his hair is stupid. It doesn't help that I finished all the keyframes and now just need to slog through a bunch of keyframes, witch a stupid character design that it's too late to change. This is probably the single biggest factor holding up completion of this project. *sigh* I know I should just bull through it and get it done, even if I hate it, just so I can move on.
I guess that's all for this post. Any tips/suggestions/etc would be appreciated.
I inked the corrections to the finger waggling last night. I haven't touched this animation in a couple weeks, but there's only two weeks of animation class remaining this quarter and I'd like to have at least one finished project and realistically, this is the only large project I can get done in that amount of time.
Things I hate
I've come to really hate the White Rabbit. Everything about it. I shot all the video from a 'flat' perspective to hide the distance between the portal matte and the back of the couch, so I'm trapped in this full-on to 3/4ths view of the character and the same for the actress. There's no good reaction shots or anything. Cinematically, it's awful.
I hate my character design. Somehow he became very stiff and his head is off center, giving him a crinked neck look, and his hair is stupid. It doesn't help that I finished all the keyframes and now just need to slog through a bunch of keyframes, witch a stupid character design that it's too late to change. This is probably the single biggest factor holding up completion of this project. *sigh* I know I should just bull through it and get it done, even if I hate it, just so I can move on.
Things I've learned
- How to draw cartoon hands! Yay! It finally clicked. Somehow I'm suddenly able to draw simple, understandable hands from most any angle. I guess all I needed was a LOT of repetition.
- Do pencil-tests first as raw forms with as few possible distracting character features.
- Do a preliminary story-board before putting heavy amounts of design into the character.
- Make DOZENS of character design sketches before doing a single piece of animation, not just 2 or 3. Add sketches which present character and relate to the story, not just proportions.
- Pencil test a couple of simple actions. Test them, flesh them out as the character, then test them again.
- Make more character sketches based off pencil test results, refining the character.
- Refine and clean up story board. Add in the real characters
- When working with video and animation mix, work out desired timing BEFORE shooting video. Make actors act to desired timing as best possible, then study timing of video and create accurate animation timing.
- When working out timing, trust your own math, not Premiere's timeline!!!!
I guess that's all for this post. Any tips/suggestions/etc would be appreciated.
