Short Film: Update #8

Hello! Another productive week as far as the animation is concerned: I completed two shots which were hanging over from last week, finished another in full and almost finished the shot which has taken the longest thus far (16.5 hours at the time of writing). This one kind of took me by surprise to be honest- there’s not a whole lot of action going on and it’s not even full body (just torso and head), so I didn’t think it would take this long. But I suppose it’s a long shot in terms of duration (144 frames) and there’s a lot of hand and face detail- all the stuff which takes forever! Until she’s sat mainly still towards the end of the shot, there’s not a lot of lines I can repeat either, so most frames need to be drawn in full.

OK, update over, I thought I’d give a quick tip in how I’m drawing the faces/ more detailed aspects of some of the wider shots. I’ll use shot 35 as an example here as that’s one I worked on this week, so it’s fresh in my memory.

As the aspect ratio I’m using is 4:3 for this project, the canvas size I’m working on in TVPaint is 1440x1080 pixels. If it’s a zoom or anything, then I work on a bigger canvas size accordingly- but this shot has no camera movement, so it’s the exact amount of pixels required.

I do the majority of the lines in this project (as illustrated in the screen grab above) using various amounts of zooming in on the display, depending what section I’m drawing. More basic lines, I can be at 56.76%, but when it gets to more detail, I tend to zoom to 75% or 100% (anything past that becomes pixelated- see image below, which is zoomed in to 150%).

So, even when viewing this shot at 100%, the face is still quite small on screen:

Which means when it’s a fairly still shot like this, if I’m not drawing the lines fairly accurately, then it’s going to look odd with lines moving all over the place. I like my lines to ‘boil’, but when it happens too much, it stands out (and not in a good way)!

So, this is where my pro tip comes in: create a new project, but exactly double your pixel ratio, so in this case the canvas will be 2880x2160. Import the ref footage and make sure ‘stretch to project size’ is checked. Export the lines you’ve already completed from the original project file as a clear PNG seq and import those in to your new project (so you have them as a reference). They will be a bit pixelated, but that doesn’t matter as they’re only there as a guide and won’t be exported later. Create a new layer and draw the detailed sections you need to draw- so the face in this case. And also, make sure the brush size you’re using is exactly double what you are using in the original file. Then draw away!

In the image above, this is zoomed into 100%, which gives me a much clearer reference than the 100% zoom in the original file, being as I have doubled the size. Once you’re done drawing, then export only the layers you need (again as a clear PNG seq) and import into the original project file, again with ‘stretch to project size’ checked. And voila, you have a smooth looking finished shot (image beneath) ...Providing any of the above made the slightest bit of sense (I’m probably missing a vital step here)! Any questions, drop them below.

Right, that’s me out of here- time to watch some non league football in Coventry, living the high life, I know! There will not be one of these updates next week by the way, because I will of course be at the excellent Manchester Animation Festival all week. Do come and say hi if you see me- I’ll most likely be stood alone anyway!!

Short Film: Update #7 keeping on keeping on

Remember that 234 frame shot I was telling of last week? Well, completed it m8. And it only took 10.75 hours! I’m not even being sarcastic saying ‘only’- I honestly thought it would take a lot, lot longer. It was one of those shots which felt way more daunting before actually tackling it, so I guess the moral of the story here is things aren’t always as bad as you think they seem or imagine them to be. Note to self: apply this mindset to all aspects of life (especially skateboarding)!

Aside from that, I also in completed another shot (well four sub-shots to be precise) and made excellent headway on two others in the same sequence. Those should be finished early next week- I ‘just’ need to finish the faces on them. I always leave the faces until the end of each shot- my process is basically start with the lines I find easiest, such as the long/ straighter ones, then once those have all been drawn, I move to the next hardest/ detailed which are usually the hands (and feet in the case of these shots as she has bare feet- toes are not easy to draw)! Lastly I do the face, as by then I’m warmed up enough on said shot and the harder lines don’t feel as hard anymore.

I am also quite disciplined in not starting too many new shots at once, because a) I have to draw them all no matter what and there’s no getting out of it and b) it’s a nice relief to go back to easier feeling lines after completing the harder section of the previous shot. I also don’t want things to get out of hand. I will sometimes break this rule if I’m working on a really quite detailed or long shot (like I had been doing this week), where I’ll do say an hour first thing in the morning (when I work best) and then move onto the second shot for the remainder of the day. Tackling a shot in bitesize stages like this makes it feel easier and means I can work on it each day, without it feeling so overwhelming. Though a shot needs to start to feel super difficult before this process begins and no, I am not fun at parties!

Anyway, that’s basically an insight into my animation process. Sometimes when there’s no exterior forces or deadlines hanging over you, you need to come up with your own ways of pushing through when the going gets tough. On the whole my self motivation is strong (I always have the end goal of the finished film in mind), though I would be lying if I said every day was plain sailing. I struggle with insomnia so on the days I haven’t slept well, the work feels harder because I’m tired. Those days do feel a bit of a slog, but I just listen to a load of podcasts and music to power me through and work on easier sections of the animation. I also find playing back what you’re working on helps- when you can see the animation progressing and looking good, then it really gives you a boost. I’m sure I’ve covered this before on this blog, but it’s always good to mention every now and again incase it helps if you’re too working on a short film…

I should probably post another clip at some point soon, as the only one I’ve shared so far was at the very start. But at the same time, I don’t want to give too much of the film away and also, I don’t want to be faffing around wasting time exporting clips for the socials when I could be using that time to animate. Plus going on Instagram just drags me down mentally, so I can’t really be bothered with it right now- hardly been on it this week and life feels a lot calmer! There’s too much happening at once on it and feels impossible to ‘keep up’ (probably because it is). So yeah, find me on here and/ or in real life!

Image of tracker below, see you next time!

Short Film: Update #6 continuing momentum

Hello hello! Continuing the momentum from last week, this has been another great week in terms of both animating and filming. I was able to film a load more stuff as planned at the weekend (as well as a few extra shots for good measure)- including some pretty key scenes, some of which I’m super excited about. It was a big weight off my mind to have been able to have got so much filming completed as like I suggested in my previous post, filming is my least favourite part of the process (especially when I am not only behind the camera, but also in front). It feels like I can just get on with the animation now and not have to worry about filming for another few weeks (depending how fast I get through all this stuff). So combining everything I shot at the weekend plus the sections I shot the week prior, that’s a good chunk of the reference material chalked off, putting me in a comfortable position in terms of time scale.

Having got so much of the shoot completed, I’ve had a fresh injection of motivation and enthusiasm around my film. I’m really excited about it and can see it all coming together. I’m pleased about a lot of what I have both filmed and animated and can’t wait to see how it pans out.

The animating is continuing to go at a good pace and I finished a few big scenes this week. Though I still wish I had completed at least one more- the animation felt a bit stop start as some of the editing took a little longer than I’d have hoped and I had a few cheeky skate sessions when I probably should have been animating (but got to take advantage of the decent weather before it all turns to grey)! Despite me loving the edit side of production, I do find some decisions painfully hard. I have a real difficulty in choosing between two takes, getting bogged down in the minute details of the action. I mean, if I can’t decide between two takes which have extremely subtle differences, then I suppose it doesn’t really matter which one I actually choose and should just pick one and move on! If I don’t notice much difference, then the audience surely won’t… Anyway, I put the aforementioned into practise this morning when selecting the next couple of shots to animate and it felt quite liberating I tell you!

Hopefully next week the animation will go slightly more fluently and can have a similarly positive blog post this time next week… We shall see. Though if you look towards the bottom of the tracker (above) I have a bit of a monster to tackle in terms of the 234 frame shot, so yeah, wish me luck with that one please!

Below are a few images from the reference shoot: making this film is very much a cathartic process! See you in the next one xo

Short Film: Update #5 Getting Back on Track

It’s almost been a month since my last update, but I am very much still working on my film! In the time elapsed, I’ve been on holiday (to Great Yarmouth) for two weeks and had an obligatory existential crisis the week after. This week, is where I’ve really got going again.

holiday snap

Last week (crisis week) was the week I originally had identified as my filming week, but to be honest I really wasn’t feeling good about my body/ how I looked, as well as not sleeping that well and being on my period (and yes, these things should be spoken about). Making things even worse, was that I also had my Covid booster jab with a few not-so-nice side effects and I was still healing from a pretty nasty skate injury I picked up whilst on holiday. So, it’s safe to say last week wasn’t really ‘right’ for filming, hence the crisis! I think it sounds pretty understandable doesn’t it?

It wasn’t all bad though regarding progress on my film. I was able to crack on with a shot which I used Blender (3D software) for:

Obviously the above is not quite the final piece(!), but my idea is for some backgrounds/ shots which I can’t get the exact reference for, is to create/ model it in Blender and then use as a reference to create my 2D animation from. So in simpler terms, anything I make in Blender, I’ll redraw 2D in TVPaint. It’s currently left in this 3D stage though, as I haven’t yet decided how I’m going to draw the backgrounds, therefore don’t want to rush into anything without having thoroughly thought out how I’m going to go about it (in terms of style, medium and pipeline).

To be honest, I was kind of dreading using Blender again, as it’s not a software I’ve used that much and it’s been several years since doing so. And especially not on a week where I wasn’t feeling my best. But actually, once I got going it was really enjoyable and it was fun modelling the ceiling fan in the design I wanted. I used this tutorial as a general guide, but went off piste and created my own thing. It took a few attempts to get to a design I was happy with- below is my first iteration (soooo bad) and almost not worth sharing, but I like displaying both the ups and downs of animation in this blog as it shows progression/ development, persistence and realism, so here goes:

So, that was last week- phew, I’m pleased that’s over! This week has been almost a complete contrast: I got a load of filming done, including anything I needed to reshoot from previous sessions, animated a couple of shots and even secured a location to film a few more scenes in over the weekend. I’m back to feeling great about my film again and really motivated to carry on, especially when I can see the Premiere timeline filling out, as well as my project tracking spreadsheet:

I now have the big task of editing what I’ve shot and then getting on with the animation side of things again, something I can’t wait to get going with. Filming is always the part I find most stressful/ hardest out of the rotoscope process, especially when I’m not only filming, but also acting. The editing and the animating parts are easily my favourite- but I guess these are kind of like my reward for having completed the filming. Or, at least that’s how I look at it!

Below is an image from one of the shots, with a behind the scenes of the set up. I used a light box as the fill light, which you can actually see in the footage- not that it matters as it’ll all be drawn out in the rotoscope process. But I like sharing the interesting little bits of indie filmmaking and showing that you can create something with what you already have around you. That’s it for this one- see you in the next one! I’m off to watch ‘The Wild Robot’ and I can not wait!

More Embroidery!

Continuing the current abstract theme of my embroidered creations, here's one I (mainly) made on holiday, finished off this morning. Just a load of nice colours together, kind of inspired by the sunset/ sea! Note to self: must stop using cheap bamboo embroidery hoops esp. if the inner hoop is warped. This impacts how it holds the fabric- evident towards the top of the hoop where you can see the thread doesn't quite reach the sides of the fabric due to differentiation in tension.

Update on my short film coming towards the end of the week- for those wondering!

More 35mm Photography

A few I liked from my most recent roll of film:

Latest Embroidery

This one has taken a while, hence the lack of embroidery posts of late, but wanted to carry on the thread (pun very much intended) of doing more abstract pieces. Especially now that I'm back working on another short film, it's nice to have a project which isn't quite as 'ordered' and something that I can really just relax into. I like to have an embroidery piece on the go like this at all times- I tend to do some each morning for twenty minutes or so whilst my porridge cools (stay away, Goldilocks) and then occasionally throughout the day if I find a spare few minutes or want a break from animation.

I absolutely LOVE the result of this one. And I used all my favourite colours! More soon... Oh and for anyone wondering, it's a 5 inch hoop and used DMC thread.

Short Film: Update #4 Setbacks etc!

I’m not going to beat around the bush here: this week, very little progress has been made.

Very frustrating, even more so as other events means work on this project will cease until early October. So, what’s gone on this week or more accurately: what hasn’t gone on?

This was meant to be my week of filming, or at least a lot of it. If you’ve been following these updates, you will know that I have animated everything I have shot so far and can’t really progress with that side of things until I have shot more reference footage. I started shooting on Tuesday, edited what I had shot and even started animating some of it, all as planned. But whilst editing/ animating I still felt that the outfit was not ‘right’. The silhouette wasn’t very appealing and the whole outfit doesn’t have much style to it. I know this isn’t meant to be a fashion show(!), but no one would really wear what I had the character wearing- yes it’s something I would wear, but in the context of the film it didn’t look appropriate.

***Side note: the work I have completed up until now is other sections of the film in which the character isn’t wearing this outfit- some is bed clothes, some bikini and some close ups where you don’t see any outfit. So none of those sections are wasted- those are all staying in the film.

It’s extremely hard taking myself out of the character and looking objectively at it. This is why costume designers are used, aren’t they?! After this extra week of deliberation, I feel I have finally cracked it (I hope/ think). I did extensive research into what ‘normal’ (I.e. people other than me) might wear, by scrolling Pinterest, Google images and clothing retailers websites. I think what I have come up with now is much more fitting to the story and the character.

For some reason I thought it would be a lot easier and I wouldn’t need to think this hard about what the character might wear. You know, just throw on an outfit I feel comfortable in and that be it. But that is not the case. Costume/ character design is incredibly important in filmmaking and needs just as much thought as all the other elements which make up the picture. This is definitely something I’ll learn from and take into my projects going forward.

It has felt a bit of a waste of a week as far as this project is concerned (and in general actually), but it’s better to spend the time getting it how it needs to be, than rushing into it. Yes, the animation would be finished quicker, but forfeiting the correct look for the project. And I’d rather spend the time to get it to look how I want, because I don’t want to put all this time and effort into something, for the end result to look just a bit ‘off’. So although it feels frustrating and slow paced right now, I know once I get going with it properly, I can feel confident that it’s on the correct path, rather than feeling in the back of my mind it’s not quite ‘right’. I’m also thankful that I came to this realisation so early on and I hadn’t shot/ animated loads already. I spent 3 hours in total this week on one of the (now) discarded shots, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t all that bad.

Here’s a screen grab (with super rough temp background) from one of the rejected shots. It’s good to share both the lows and the highs of filmmaking on here, as that is the reality! See you in the next one xo

Short Film: Update #3

It’s only been a few days since the last one of these updates went out, but plans over the weekend means I need to get this out earlier. So, how have I got on since then? Very, very well.

I finished off a fairly big shot (016), as well as started and finished another couple of bigger ones, along with a few smaller bits. I have actually now completed the outlines for everything I have already shot, so I’m pleased to have got all that boxed off at this point. Which gives me next week to get back on track with filming the bulk of it- or at least everything that won’t involve any extras (that can come later). Then I settle down for the winter to animate. I must admit, that sounds pretty blissful!

I also managed to get around to deciding the outfit for the character and doing several test drawings of what she might wear. I need to remember she is on holiday for the majority of the film and ignore current weather conditions! Summer isn’t coming back, is it..? But I also wanted something which I wouldn’t find too much of a pain to animate, as well as something I’d feel comfortable filming in. I did decide on an outfit (or so I thought), but then decided against it after having filmed a scene or two wearing it- I touched on this in greater detail in my previous update. It felt too childish and I just didn’t think it was the sort of outfit my character would wear- it gave her a less mature look, which was something I wanted to avoid.

I think (after much deliberation) I may add, I’m most likely going to go with this one:

The top gives a relaxed feel, plus is very much ‘summery’- quite floaty/ light. This compliments the trousers, which are slim, with a little bit of bagginess to them. The colours are more than likely going to change, but I just wanted to add some colour on there, so I wasn’t just looking at line drawings when deciding. I had a thought the other day to overlay real fabric textures on the clothing to give it a bit more visual depth and to show more of my ‘voice’ as an artist I suppose. In my test pieces I’m forever experimenting with texture and techniques, so why not translate that to something longer form, such as this. It’s something I must remind myself to have a play around with when it comes to colouring the animation. Someone reading this, remind me in a few months, will you?!

The below outfits are a couple other front-runners, but it likely will be the one above. Maybe I could utilise these outfits in some different scenes? Would be nice if she had different clothes throughout, so it does’t go all ‘Simpsons’ on us! Anyway, I’ll see…

Ok then, that’s it for this one, it’s quite a bit shorter than last weeks, but that is fine by me!

Short Film: Update #2/ Filming Ref Footage

Hello! And another week of animation down:

As you can see, a fair amount has been completed since last weeks post. I must admit I’m mega pleased with how the outlines are progressing currently. I don’t really have any set deadlines or expectations with this (though outline completion by Christmas sounds nice), but it feels like I’m getting through the outlines at a good rate. Admittedly lots of the shots so far have been quite static, speeding up the process a bit, but they’re all shots that need doing regardless. It’s nice being able to chalk off a few quite quickly, because it’s building my confidence and motivation for the more complicated shots later down the line.

Animation update over, I wanted to talk this week mostly about the filming of it, which I have now made a decent dent into. If it hasn’t been made explicit already, I am not only the director/ animator/ producer of this film, but also the camera op and lead actor for the reference footage! None of this was especially by choice, but more out of necessity. With this being a totally self funded project, I’m always looking for ways I can be economical with all aspects of production. Though I will be outsourcing the score, voice actors and sound design as those are not my forte.

First thing to say on this matter: filming yourself is HARD! Like very difficult. Framing, focussing, performance. The more I am shooting though, the more I’m learning about the process and having a better idea of what is ‘right’, but that’s not to say it now feels easy because it really isn’t. I’m so grateful that my boyfriend has been around to help for small sections of it- acting as stand in while I set up the shot and focus. If it wasn’t for him, this would be a lot, lot harder. I’m also trying to avoid not taking up a load of his time and roping him in to a full on film production, so have only been using his assistance when I really can’t do it myself. I have even been using my teddy bear to set the focus point for some shots!!

As well as it being a hard task, I have actually filmed portions, then decided to re-shoot. Perhaps that comes down to poor planning, but also thinking something might work in one way, then realising it doesn’t or is not quite right on reviewing the footage. A couple of examples are firstly the ‘over the bed’ shot. I wanted a shot almost directly over the character as she is in bed struggling to sleep. I first thought I’d be able to film this using just my tripod, but on reflection after the shoot, it really didn’t provide the angle I had in mind. With indie filmmaking especially, there are lots of times you need to compromise, but you also need to learn when not to and when to stick to your original idea. This was one of those times. Luckily, I am a member of the South Yorkshire Filmmakers Network who actually have a good amount of kit to hire and at fair rates (for both members and non members). I noticed there was a fairly basic jib which I could use for no cost, so after watching a few YouTube videos on it, I decided to hire it out.

And what a great decision that was! I got the exact angle I needed and I’m much happier with the footage (despite it being a little out of focus- I had no external monitor and the jib is high, so I was tip-toeing to try and focus it correctly)! Luckily I wasn’t shooting for a live action film or I wouldn’t be able to use the footage, but as it’s for rotoscope and is essentially just a guide, then it was perfectly fine for my needs.

storyboard panel

footage- wrong angle

footage- correct angle

animation outlines

And where I also need to re-shoot is when I didn’t like the costume I had the character wearing. After mulling it around in my head for a while, I decided the costume didn’t really fit what I had in mind for this character. It was a hard decision, being as I had shot some of the footage, but like with what I was describing above, deep down I knew that this wasn’t right for the project and wasn’t a point I’d want to compromise on.

Thankfully, I had only shot two camera set ups with this outfit, so it’s not like I need to re-shoot the whole thing. I’m not really looking it as wasted time either- more just an experience I can learn from. In future, I will think more carefully about the outfit before shooting (even though I thought I did here, but clearly not enough). I suppose that’s one advantage of using myself as the reference actor and shooting it section by section, rather than all in one go. It also affords me to have more thinking time between each section I shoot, allowing me to analyse my performance and how I can improve for the upcoming scenes. I can also do it a lot more ‘casually’, rather than sourcing locations, I can just film sections around my house with no trouble. For example, the bed shot as mentioned above, that was just shot in my bed, whereas if I were to have sourced an actor, then I would have needed to hire somewhere external to shoot those scenes, adding to the production costs.

So self shooting clearly has its advantages and disadvantages and I would likely work in this way again. This piece is a litmus test in a way, to see how I get on in light of creating an animated feature in the same way. If I am happy with the result, then I will transfer this way of creating a project into something longer form. I like the idea of being able to make something without the whole funding barrier (because funding is ridiculously hard to secure and essentially a gamble- you’re basically waiting on someone to give you permission to make work), so I want to find a way I can make the films I want to make in an economical way if I’m not able to secure any funding. They might not be as polished, but I’d rather have made several un-polished films than not having made any at all.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about filming and the subsequently animating myself. This is because I have a history of disordered eating and body dysmorphia (both of which I have received treatment for btw), so I didn’t know if this was such a good idea. It gives me a load of time to analyse my body and find faults with how I look, so could potentially be quite a triggering experience. But I have so far been quite objective with it (and actually quite happy with my appearance in some shots), though admittedly there have been instances where I haven’t liked how I’ve looked. I am quite clearly aware that this could become an issue, so I am keeping on top of it and hoping I can get through the process without my mental health suffering. Actually writing it down on here has given me more motivation to keep my mind strong, because the fact that I still get these thoughts from time to time really frustrates me. Anyway, I don’t really talk about this much, but I did think it would be useful to make a note of here, because it is relevant.

Aaaand finally (this has been a long one- have definitely written essays shorter than this): just a little colour test:

Still not sure how exactly I’m going to colour the character (or backgrounds for that matter), though whilst doing the outlines, I’ve been thinking of several ways how I might go about it. The above is just one idea I put into practise. The end result will most likely not look anything like this (as these things develop), but it’s something to include on here anyway…

See you next time xo