Wrap on lighting is imminent!
All posts tagged the making of “Otter + Lemur”
“Almost” is a slippery slope.
Almost there.
Almost.
I could say “almost” everyday. And, here’s my “almost” today. Currently working on a bit of lighting and refining the animation some more…
At least digital lights won’t chop your fingers off.
When I was taking a cinematography class at NYU, we heard a horrific film set story (or urban legend?) from our professor. This lighting man was setting up one of those ginormous, monstrous studio lights up on a super tall stand, when, oops, he lost grip of the stand. The stand had not yet been tightened, and it (along with the weight of the ginormous, monstrous studio light) came crashing down on the webbing of his hand between his thumb and index finger. The resulting bloody mess is up to your imagination.
On that note, here is a quick preview of the lighting that I’m working on for Otter + Lemur. As with real world lighting, lighting wide areas is so much harder than lighting small areas and close-ups. Keep on going Rahnie.
When I’m finally done with Otter + Lemur, I think my next project, in collaboration with my eternal partner Shaina Koval, will be a motion graphics 90-second personal-branding spot. Stay tuned for updates on that and the long-lost live action film, A Pre-Existing Condition, soon to be rediscovered and wrapped up!
Color Re-design
Before I started lighting Otter + Lemur, Shaina and I decided to re-work the color of the submarine interior. This before/after image is the result of super quick Photoshop patchwork. I felt that the original was not cohesive enough due to its conflicting styles & patterns, and the lack of emphases. The revised version is designed to feel darker and a little more industrial. Yes, indeed, the outcome is less “homey” but the changes will hopefully result in a more atmospheric scene, providing a slightly gritty, interesting, textured environmental contrast to the more exuberent tone of acting and animation.
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My deadline for the completion of pass 2 is March 4, which is less than one month away! Clocking in at 43 seconds, this clip is a little short of 50% of the entire piece. I’m now about to launch into the exciting but grueling animation of the tango.
Looking back at the year that I have been animating, it’s both enlightening and frightening to see my development. A peek into my train of thought: 1) gosh, wow, (hysterical laughter), this old stuff really looked like crap, didn’t it? 2) But it does look much better now, huh? 3) Crap, does that mean this is how I’m gonna feel about my current work in 3 months? 4) OMG (panic mode). 5) (consecutive days and weeks of nightmares about Maya).
You could call it the rocky journey from n00b to not-so-n00b-animator. Thank you for accompanying me, my professor Greg Lemon, and dropping by, Hans at Reel Feedback, who, despite having briefly met only once, was very inspiring. And of course, Shaina Koval, my partner, who lives with, and soothes my daily crises.
Otter + Lemur, Animation Pass 1
The first pass of Otter + Lemur* is finally complete! Some parts are wonkier than others, some are more beautiful than others, but fixing that is what Pass 2 is going to be all about.
For the second animation pass, I will be bringing some of the snappiness back to the actions in the beginning that feel somewhat lazy. The pancake walk needs to be smoothed out, and it needs some follow-through in the upper body. The middle part of the animation could use some general refinement. The worst part is probably the falling broom, which should be very simple to fix. I have been procrastinating precisely because I know it’s going to be so easy to fix! Ironic, isn’t it? The tail actions in Lemur’s solo dance and the partner dance do need to be followed through and overlapped better. The beginning of the partner dance with their hands clasping needs to be detailed with finger movement and overlapping. I’m planning to do more major facial animation and tertiary actions in Pass 3, possibly constructing eyebrow controls that are separate from eye controls. That way, I will be able to have more accurate control over the facial movements, for more dynamic animation. I’m also contemplating a device (most likely a blendshape, in Maya speak) for expanding their tummies, i.e. breathing movement. It might be a nice touch to the shots on the floor.
*defaulted back to the original title following the abandonment of the short-lived title, “Habitat of Home.”
