Short Film: Update #9 with clip- finally!

Hello there, the angel from my nightmare, the shadow in the… and so on. I’m back from the excellent Manchester Animation Festival and I had an absolutely wonderful time- mostly watching films(!), but also catching up with a load of people and chatting about projects and animation and all that good stuff! So, same time next time then. Ps. Go watch Adam Elliot’s ‘Memoir of a Snail’. You will be better for it. That is all.

My oh my the weather this week has been pretty bleak, hasn’t it?! Though miraculously the skatepark I frequent the most stayed dry, so I was able to get several decent sessions in. In true northern fashion, I layered up and got on with it. Have to put the hours in to keep improving…

Ok, small talk over. How is the animation going?? I’d say another productive week, considering I had a few other commitments going on. I managed to get 3 full shots complete and finished the big one I referenced last week (it ended up taking a whopping 18.5 hours). I also prepped the next shot ready to animate. I’ve actually nearly finished all the stuff I shot about a month ago, so there isn’t a whole lot left to animate without shooting more footage. I’ll check back here next week with a clearer idea of steps going forward as I might well have completed it by that point. Hopefully.

I think at that stage, I’ll export the film again and see how it’s looking with a significant amount of it animated. I’ll be able to see clearer where the holes are in the story and get an idea of how it’s all flowing. I already know at this point there’s a few shots which need changing the location of, so I’ll need to re-board those I expect, or at least in a loose way. I have also identified some gaps where a scene or two needs adding- some of it feels a little disjointed and I feel I need more of a thread to tie it together. So, the coming week I’m to focus on animating what’s left of the footage and I imagine the following week will be more of a troubleshooting/ ironing out stuff kind of week.

You know what, I’m in a good mood, so here’s a little clip:

Obviously it doesn’t have a background or colour or anything as I haven’t got to that stage yet, but it’s nice to be able to share something from it as it’s been absolutely ages! Enjoy!

I think that’s about all for this week- though this post feels really short like I’ve forgotten to write about something, but meh, maybe not. See you next time xo

New Old Stuff

Whilst preparing for an upcoming 'artists talk' presentation I'm doing at a university, I've been looking back over old projects to decide what to include in the talk. This has lead me to unearth previously unpublished works of mine- probably because I didn't see them as especially impressive at the time or maybe just left them be for reasons unknown... Anyway, thought I'd stick 'em up on here, because why not (and I actually quite like them)!

As a side note, it's been great to look back over my body of work thus far and appreciate the achievements and quality of the stuff I've created over the years, which at the time of creating, I don't always acknowledge. I've spoke on here before about disliking or not thinking much of my work immediately after finishing projects, but with time and distance, I can often appreciate what I've created in a better light. My older work has also given me fresh ideas and inspiration for more things I want to try- and that I also want to get back into making more music videos and experimental works- so watch this space!! So, if you are ever asked to do an artists talk, I would highly recommend taking up the opportunity- it will do something good for you and therefore this should (hopefully) translate to the students you are presenting to...

The clips are below- both created around 2019/ 2020 and I'll be back soon with another update on my current project xo

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!