For this one, I wanted to use EbSynth again with the purpose of seeing how long a clip might take from outlines to completion: full coloured and shaded etc. This was with intention of the short film ‘BEAR’ I’m making (more on that in a few posts time) to gauge how long it might take.
When using EbSynth before in my own pieces, I have always used it in a slightly experimental manner, mainly by using analogue materials. Though this time, I wanted to use it in a more ‘normal’ way and create the look of the piece digitally in a less experimental style. This was for a number of reasons- firstly to prove to myself that I can (in terms of creating something more ‘tidy’ or ‘grounded’ perhaps, rather than aways working experimentally), secondly as a time saving device (the analogue ones take longer as you have to scan them in) and thirdly to try something I’ve not tried before.
The EbSynth/ rotoscope process is quite a lengthy one, but when you get it right the results are great (IMO) and you do save a lot of time. Say, if I were to do the colouring and shading of this piece frame by frame in the style I had chosen, I’d probably still be working on it.
Due to several failed attempts of using EbSynth to create outlines, I have decided that I will do those frame by frame, leaving EbSynth purely for colouring and shading my work. I have decided this, because from my experience, using it in this manner works a lot better for the effect I want to create. Personally, I like my work to be neat/ clean and I dislike the amount of smudges/ blurs/ deformities which come when using EbSynth to create the full piece (including outlines). Plus, even if it didn’t blur or go wrong in that respect, I found it gave off a real ‘uncanny valley’ vibe, which isn’t the kind of thing I want to go for in my work. Whereas when doing the outlines by hand and using EbSynth as a shading tool, it gives a more natural look.
Using it in this way still speeds up the process and allows me to shade/ colour the characters in a way which might have previously added on hours. As I’m very practised at creating roto outlines due to my experience with doing so, I don’t find those take all that long anyway. Plus I love the process (means I get to listen to music and podcasts all day, yet still being able to create something)! Win win situation. And it’s also pretty relaxing.
For this clip, I went onto my go-to free stock footage site, Pexels (still not sponsored by them) to choose my piece of footage. I selected this video of a woman in a supermarket. I really liked the aesthetic of it, plus thought I could create something cool with it.
I always start by creating the outlines- these took just over 12 hours to complete. The clip was 55 frames long (I work at 12fps), so if my maths is correct I make it a 4.6 second clip. I don’t feel that is especially excessive- meaning I can probably complete just under 20 seconds of outlines a week. Obviously varies depending on shot size/ amount of detail/ characters in each shot.
Then it was time for the fun bit- creating the styleframe. I already had quite a strong idea of the look I wanted to go for going in to this clip, so I only did one styleframe and went with that straight away. I had in mind to do a sort of comic book/ graphic novel kind of style- clean colour blocks etc. This is what I came up with:
When EbSynth was working its magic, I made the background. To be honest, I was just kind of messing around with the mechanical pencil tool in TVPaint- a brush I’ve never really taken advantage of before. I just kind of started roughing out shapes in a pretty scribbly manner. It was never meant to be the background I actually used, but I really liked the contrast it created against the full coloured character.
Once EbSynth had finished, there was a fair amount of touch up to do. It doesn’t always create the cleanest results, especially when there is movement in the shot, so there are usually bits which need correcting. Obviously this is all cosmetic and it really does depend what style you're going for and whether you think the minute details matter. I guess you just need to figure out what’s important to what you’re wanting to go for in your work.
I must admit that I’m a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to this kind of thing, so the touch up took around 2.5 hours. Which thinking about it, for a 4.6 second clip, was probably a little too extreme. Maybe I need to work on toning this down a bit for when I make my short film- or it’ll take a lot longer for me to finish than I intend!
In conclusion, I feel like I achieved what I set out to do (and at a high standard). I proved to myself I could create a clip in this manner and not always be super experimental with what I make. I do actually really like the look here and it will be a way of working I’ll continue to develop.
Here’s the result:
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