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

Throwback Thursday

...not sure if that's still a thing, but here goes!

A few weeks ago I made a post about painting a skateboard deck, but it turns out that not much in life changes and I'm pretty much still the same as when I was around 14... My Mum sent me the below images of me painting a board for one of my school projects way back when (how on earth I got away with that dreadful hat for so long is anyones guess)!!

I remember this piece was inspired by/ influenced by the work of Barrie Cook- if I remember correctly lots of art at school age seemed to have to have a starting point of an artist of your choosing. But I suppose a good way to learn and be inspired is to study other art.

I've always loved making art/ stuff and recall long hours spent taking over the kitchen table with my various creative endeavours, whether that be for school or personal projects. I can confirm I still spend many hours doing such things (as you'll probably gather through reading this blog), though I now fortunately have my own table/ desk space to do so. So perhaps things do change after all...

I might do more of these throwback posts if I find anything else appropriate or fun to talk about- I do have a lot of old art lying around, so perhaps I'll have a deep dive into the archives!

New Photos, New Football Season!

After a little break over summer, last weekend I was back pitchside with my camera, photographing not one, but two football matches! Here's the images from the second game of the weekend: Wickersley Youth Ladies FC 16-1 Eckington Belles, in the Sheffield & Hallamshire Women & Girls League. What especially attracted me to this fixture was the venue: Millmoor Stadium, former home of Rotherham United (until 2008). Luckily for football ground/ architecture enthusiasts the stadium was not demolished and instead new life breathed into it thanks to the Booth family (source: Instagram), bringing competitive senior football back to the venue.

Ten images below, to view the full set head HERE.

Short Film: Update #1

On August 20th 2024 I started the animation on my film! I haven’t animated a long project such as this for a while, so it took a little time to get into. I started quite slow, only doing an hour or so each day, but I’ve definitely started to ramp all that up now. I’ve also been busy with filming sections for this, as well as trying to enjoy what’s left of the summer. I am human after all! Being tied to my computer can wait until darker, gloomier days..! Here’s a clip of my first completed shot:

As you can see from the clip, I decided to go for a thinner outline rather than the chunkier style I often go with (you’ll notice this if you’re familiar with my work). I decided to do this, because I felt like I had used the thicker line a lot and mainly because I wanted this project to have a different feel than the rest of my work. I’m really liking how this choice of line looks and I think it suits the film well. It has perhaps more of a ‘mature’ look and this piece is definitely more of that nature thematically and tonally. I feel a thicker line is perhaps suited to a project less serious maybe? I’m not sure, but this definitely felt right for this film anyway…

What is also different than my previous short is that I’m using TVPaint (on my desktop) rather than Callipeg (on iPad). Using my iPad to animate was convenient due to being able to do it anywhere anytime (and the Apple Pencil is wonderful), but the screen is quite small and the workflow isn’t as smooth because I found myself constantly transferring files between devices. I also like the fact that I can’t do it anywhere/ anytime, because it feels like I can potentially always be working, even when I’m away. And yes, I do have a tendency to ‘overwork’. So it’s nice to actually have a cut off point with this. I also enjoy working on a larger drawing tablet (XP-Pen 24 Pro) and TVPaint is such a brilliant software it’s hard not to use it. Callipeg is also great by the way- don’t get me wrong and if you really like working on iPad, then I 100% recommend. I even wrote an appreciation post for it a while back!

I’ve got a lovely little spreadsheet for this one (doesn’t sound like me much does it!), where I am able to time/ track everything quite accurately. Below is a screen grab (click to enlarge):

I’m going to try and do one of these update type blogs most weeks- basically like I did with ‘Bear’. Just so I have a record really of what’s been done, what’s still to do and how I’m feeling about it all. I’ll add the screen grab of the tracker each time as well, so my progress can be seen visually. It also might be useful for you if you’re reading this and wanting to make a short film yourself. I like to think it will inspire, though I am quite candid with my writing, so I hope it doesn’t put anyone off! I actively encourage anyone wanting to try something like this to do it as creating something of your own is one of the best feelings ever.

Right before I get all gooey about creativity, that’s the first update done, see you in the next one! xo