Final Cut

My partner and I have finally prepared a final cut for our animation. We had some major time constraints on the animation witch resulted in what appears to be a half put together animation. Not only was there a time issue, neither of us have been trained to deal with large flash files. There are many areas that can be improved and if we were better prepared could have organized our plethora of layers in scenes. That was one of our approaches to speed up production but we couldn’t fully execute.

A lot of work has been put forth by both myself and my partner. We had a vision for the animation that seemed almost out of reach. We both agreed that executing a short movie was introduced too soon. I feel like we should have been better prepared before tackling a short movie.

My partner and I prefered to have much of our animation executed frame by frame considering our animation was a little complex. We were lucky to be able to turn in a finished piece. My partner and I could have focused more on the intricate work, but following through that plan of action could have resulted in a very rushed ending.

In the end we our both happy that we were able to pull off the animation, maybe not to the extent that we had hoped for, but we did finish.

Finishing Up the First Cut

The first cut has been so much work and it’s not even finished yet. My partner and I have met 3 times this past week aside from just working on the project ourselves. We have been meeting more often, because this first cut requires so much work and we need to stay constantly updated with eachother’s progress. The problem is that we are both full-time students and work part-time, so it is extremely hard to find a small gap in our schedules to meet. Well aside from our efforts, we are nearly complete.

We have animated and matte painted about 4/5 of our animation, and we are scheduled to meet again this morning to finish up. Our progress is decent and I wish we had more time to execute this project. When my partner and I met yesterday we focused matte paintings because I had finished a decent portion in animation already and I needed some of her paintings to fill some of the gaps I left open for her. The scene that we have to do is the sword fight, and it just so happens to be a busy scene in our animation that requires both our attention.

The First Cut

The first cut is currently underway and I’ve made significant progress. My partner and I will be meeting again later this week to put our animations together. We both agreed to execute certain portions of our short movie where our own character appears more often. I have completed the title screen, the scrolling background with the binocular movements, and when Scuttles makes his escape. It sounds like just a few portions, but at least half of the animation will be frame by frame if time allows.

There has been a little bit of a problem with how my partner and I have been executing our drawings. The way I’ve been carrying most of the matte painting is that I’ve been drawing in illustrator and then bringing my work into flash. I feel like I can draw much quicker in illustrator and I’m much more familiar with the tools for object drawing as opposed to using flash. My partner hasn’t had an illustrator class as of yet and draws in flash. There is nothing wrong with drawing in flash but our colors maybe slightly off considering we are both using different applications. That would be my main concern, also that we are not constantly working side by side to compare color usage.

When my partner and I meet, our main goal is to refine any uncertain animations then combining our separate scenes into one.

The Animated Taster

During class on Monday my partner and I have just about finished our drawings for the animated taster. We were doing some finishing up sketches that needed both of our attention. According to the feedback we received the past and current week, we needed to change the order or a couple of events and show the audience how Mr. Scuttles gains then looses the upper hand in the battle that leads to his defeat. But in order to show that we had to create a new scene or basically a more in depth action scene.

What we have planned is that Mr. Scuttles gains the upper hand by knocking Super Thimbles’ noodle aside and points the tip of his umbrella at the kill point or his neck. As Scuttles is starring at Thimbles in confidence, Thimbles takes advantage of his noodle weapon feature…the bend and snap. Thimbles bends back the noodle to snap it forward and hit the Evil Mr. Scuttles on the head. When the noodle meets Scuttles’ head, it knocks his top hat down over his eyes.

Scuttles begins to flail his arms up and down and Thimbles prods him with the noodle to back him up onto the end of the diving board. At this time Scuttles recovers and pulls his hat up off his eyes and realizes where he’s at and looks worried. During this brief moment a breeze picks up and Scuttles does an evil crackle. He opens his umbrella and the wind picks him up and sends him over the fence where the dog awaits. There will be audio for the dog to bark and then a smoke cloud to appear as the dog is attacking the runaway.

Thimbles and the hostages celebrate and then the boy comes in with the cannon ball, and sends the toys to the bottom of the pool. Thimbles sees that all the toys had sank and smacks his head resulting in the ending.

Story Edit and Animated Taster Progress

My partner and I have received feedback on our story. It is still lacking a bit because the climax isn’t completely there and the ending doesn’t occur where it should. It was suggested in class that the story be rearranged in a way that when Scuttles makes his escape, the toy hostages cheer to his retreat and then the boy comes and causes the tidal wave that sink the toys resulting in Super Thimbles smacking his head.

The story that my partner and I had originally developed was that Mr. Scuttles successfully escapes and then the boy comes and causes the tidal wave that sinks the toys. Once Super Thimbles would smack his head it would then go immediately to the alley where scuttles lands. Scuttles is supposed to look cheerful to his escape until the dog approaches then picks him up to carry him away. I do agree the story is lacking somewhere and my partner and I feel confident in the suggestions, so we have decided to follow through with the alternative ending.

Our next goal is to refine our story and storyboard. We both have planned to add more frames for the in-betweens and we’re setting it up for the animated taster. For this week I have focused on adding in-betweens in my portion of the storyboard that included my character. After some more refining we will add audio to our storyboard and play it through as if we were watching the animation itself.

Mid-Quarter Report

For this week, my partner and I have prepared a mid-quarter report. It is basically an extension of the inspiration report, but with progress and future plans. Developing the story has not been the easiest to do. My partner and I have many different view points on almost every frame but in the end we came out with a stronger story. After bouncing many ideas off of one another, we have finally designed the storyboard.
Along with the story, we have designed 3 hostages characters: a toy yoda, a robot, and a pig. We wanted to give the toys some contrast from one another sense the primary characters are toy animals. We have already made a minor edit to Evil Mr. Scuttles escape. Instead of having the propeller blades come out of his hat, we decided he use his umbrella and be picked up by the wind. We have had some other minor changes, but my partner and I have a firm grasp of what we want and when we are doing it.
The timeline that we have prepared for the remainder of the quarter has been layed out. As of week 6, we are going to rig our characters and our background and compositing done by week 7. For week 8, we are preparing the animated tester along with testing the audience. The revisions and production process will proceed form week 8 to presentation on week 11.

Preparing a Shot List to Execute a Story Board

My partner and I have finally planned out a shot list. We knew what we wanted in general, but the specifics were a little difficult to pin down. Without getting too detailed with the camera angles and movements, here is the shot list. The story begins with Super Thimbles looking through a pair of binoculars and watching over the backyard and the side alley where a dog is playing.

After scanning back and fourth Super Thimbles eyes stop on Evil Mr. Scuttles pushing an innertube with toy hostages out to the middle of the pool. Super Thimbles lowers his binoculars and drops his mouth with a gasp. He then springs into action and the batman theme song begins to play. We then see Thimbles grab the handle of the zip line and speeds down.

Waiting is Evil Mr. Scuttles as Thimbles lands in front of him. Super Thimbles throws a couple of chineese stars and Mr. Scuttles deflects them by opening his umbrella. Mr. Scuttles then points his umbrella at Super Thimbles for a dual. Thimbles looks around for a weapon and spots a funnoodle then a battle endures. After the first few strikes back and fourth you will see action word bubbles indicating impact, then the hostages will be viewed as there eyes shift watching the battle.

The battle comes to a close as Super Thimbles corners the Evil Mr. Scuttles at the end of the diving board. Mr. Scuttles does his evil laugh and raises his umbrella to be picked up by the wind. Super Thimbles grins as Mr. Scuttles makes his escape over the fence into the alley.

From a distance you here a boy scream “cannon ball”. When the boy jumps in the water it causes a tidal wave onto the innertube of toys and sends them to the bottom of the pool. Super Thimbles then and smacks his head.

The scene then heads to Evil Mr. Scuttles as he lands. A dog approaches him and picks him up and carries him away while chomping on him.