'Bear' Animation Week 5

5 weeks in- wait- whaaat?! And progress is going very well. I'm actually loving what I'm creating here.

As I mentioned a few posts back, I've been placing the completed clips on the timeline in DaVinci- which you can see in the above image (I have labelled them orange so I can clearly see my progress). I've actually completed around a third maybe? It's kind of hard to tell from looking at that, but I do reckon if I squashed down all the orange bits to one side, it would probably make up one third.

Again, I didn't have a full week animating due to a couple of other events/ commitments, but I did manage to get five shots completed, almost finished a sixth and started another two. So a little down from last week, but I completed a few difficult shots which inevitably took longer. So even though in terms of quantity what I produced was lower, I feel I made some really good progress regardless.

I feel tackling some of the harder shots was down to having attended Cardiff Animation Festival at the weekend, leaving me super inspired and giving me a bit of a boost. It was amazing to be immersed in animation for four whole days- whether that be watching shorts, speaking with other animators or attending Q+A's (I did pretty much everything)!! Animating on my own in Preston where there isn't much of an animation community is sometimes fairly lonely, so being in an animation centric environment for an extended period felt brilliant and inspiring.

Above is an image of the Q+A I participated in (I'm the one in the yellow hat!) talking about my film '04111311' which screened at the festival, alongside several other talented animators/ directors talking about their own work. Laura-Beth Cowley was interviewing for the brilliant Skwigly online magazine/ podcast as part of one of the 'Animator's Brunch' events.

Talking of festivals, Manchester Animation Festival has been putting on monthly screening events at Chapeltown Picture House, Manchester. They screen around 75 minutes of well curated short films, with plenty of time for networking/ mingling- whatever you want to call it! I've so far attended all of them and they have been thoroughly enjoyable- would highly recommend if you're an animator based in the North West. It's been great involving myself more in the animation community here up north- I am now confident enough to attend these kind of things and to be honest, I wished I had started earlier!

I think that's all for this one, ready for a long bank holiday weekend (I probably should have mentioned that earlier so you don't think I'm going mad thinking that it's a Friday or something)! I'll of course be watching football (and lots of it)..!

'Bear' Animation Week 4

Those eagle-eyed of you will have noticed that I didn’t post one of these on Saturday like I have been doing each week since this project started, because I knew this week I would only be animating for two full days, therefore wanted to group this week with last week. The reason why? I am heading to Cardiff Animation Festival and I am extremely excited!!! I honestly can’t wait to be in a cinema again watching loadsss of short films with fellow animators and having (hopefully) a brilliant time meeting lots of new people and surrounding myself with all things animation over the course of the next four days. And also getting to see my film ‘04111311’ on a big screen with a proper sound system and an audience- exciting stuff.

But, before all the fun begins, let me enlighten you with how ‘Bear’ is going. This week I completed eight shots and made good headway on a further two. So I matched last weeks efforts.

I’m still really enjoying it, though it is a big film- it feels like it gets bigger and bigger the more I complete! Sometimes it feels like I’m making really good progress because I’m getting a lot finished, though other times it feels like will this even be complete within two years (hyperbole, of course, but sometimes that’s just the way I’m feeling).

I’ve just got to keep chipping away at it (in which I am) and even though I do have some internal deadlines, I don’t want to burn myself out or overwork myself for some dates which are essentially arbitrary. So I’m not going to panic yet- if I find myself ‘slacking’, then I will have a strong word with myself, but if I’m doing between 6-8 hours of it a day (like currently), then I’m not going to be complaining. It will get done when it gets done and the last thing I want to do is compromise the animation for the sake of an arbitrary deadline. I appreciate these things are good to have as they keep you on track, but again, I don’t want to break myself (or let other aspects of my life suffer) over something which isn’t ‘real’. It’s also extremely hard to judge how long things might take before starting a project, especially if it’s on a scale I’ve not worked at before.

I’ve actually got a special treat this week- yes, it’s another clip! I thought before starting animating, I’d be posting clips more frequently, but I actually want to keep most of it back, at least until I make a trailer/ teaser when it gets to that stage. So these will be quite sporadic, but they will be here when I post them!

Peace xo

'Bear' Animation Week 3

Hey hey! I was back from my holiday this week (it was brilliant, thanks! We went to Plymouth followed by the Fife area of Scotland and watched 9 football matches in one week) and therefore back on track with the animation again.

My riding a stone Hippo in Glenrothes. I'm not childish, I promise.

Despite this week not being the smoothest in terms of actual hours I spent animating due to several other things I had going on, it was actually a fairly productive week in terms of ground covered. I finished 8 shots and nearly completed another 2. So again, up from the previous week. I like this trajectory!

I also started sequencing the completed shots on the timeline- something I should have probably done from the start, but neglected to until now. It felt like a little bit of effort as I had to export the outlines from each separate TVPaint file from the start, but it was definitely worth it. I can see my progress really clearly and it’s encouraging to see a fair amount of it sequenced together. It’s given me a well needed confidence boost in terms of my film as a whole and seeing it come together is a big motivator as it makes me want to put more and more completed shots on the timeline. I’ve changed my tune from my existential crisis a few weeks ago!

I’ve not got a clip to show this week- I’m in two minds about doing this that regularly, because there’s only so much I want to give away before the film is complete, but I do want to share parts of the progress as I continue. Perhaps I’ll share one every month (or when I feel the urge to post something on Instagram again)! Until next time, be safe and have fun xo

'Bear'- The Edit

After filming, I was extremely eager to get editing- I’ve always enjoyed editing as it feels like the bit where you actually ‘make’ the film. You know, turn a load of seemingly disjointed clips into something which tells a story. There’s just something fun about it- kind of like cooking a meal, going from ingredients which totally don’t mean much on their own, but when mixed properly, seasoned and cooked, you end up with something tasty! It’s quite fascinating what you can make with what doesn’t look like much to begin with.

I started the rough assemble edit the day after we finished the shoot. This was so what was shot was fresh in my mind, especially because I ended up not boarding a lot of it towards the end as we were pushed for time, but also because I was excited to get editing it!

Despite having moved from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve (Adobe’s sub fees are ridiculous), I didn’t find much differentiation between the two and from a technical standpoint, the edit went really smoothly. To be honest, there’s not a large gulf between editing software anyway, it’s all pretty much the same but just with different hotkeys. It felt great to be back editing again especially a narrative piece, something I’ve not done for what feels like (and probably is) years.

I ended up spending a lot more time in the edit than I had originally scheduled for. This was because for some reason, even after multiple script and storyboard drafts, the story just didn’t seem to be working and the pacing was ‘off’. This was confirmed by my feedback process in which I asked several trusted friends/ colleagues for some honest feedback after a draft of the cut.

I decided to ask people who didn’t know the story to take a look to see whether or not my story was coming across. It was an interesting, but exciting process and I had no idea what to expect. I did this feedback stage as it’s something I’ve never previously done (or at least not to this extent) so thought it might be helpful, plus as I’m so wrapped up in the story, it’s hard to know whether the film I’m making translates/ comes across to people seeing it for the first time. It mostly did (phew!), though there were some slight issues echoed throughout a few of the responses- which I knew deep down anyway.

After a couple of breaks (to try and freshen my viewpoint), I redrafted several times. It was hard to get the mix right, but I feel I got there in the end- or at least for now. I think once everything is animated with the backgrounds and music/ SFX etc it might need a few small adjustments. Fun fact: it’s actually quite hard to tell if a story is working from watching a live action cut with none of the animated aspects included!

I’m aware this post has been a long time coming, but hey look, I got here in the end (just like the edit process)!

'Bear' Animation Week 2

Hello! It’s now the end of week 2 animating on my short film ‘Bear’. And so far I’m keeping up with these weekly ‘round up’ blogs. Small wins and all that! But if I give up at this stage, then something is definitely wrong..!

This will be a significantly less wordy post than the previous week due to time or lack thereof, so here goes…

I completed 6 shots in full, almost completed another and started a new one- which is up from last week. I honestly thought I would fall behind this week, because I lost pretty much a full day on Monday due to unforeseen circumstances, plus I had a couple of days where I didn’t do the full amount of hours due to prior commitments. I know it’s a personal project so there’s no 8 hour work day hanging over me, though I aim for between 6-8 hours as I feel that’s a healthy amount.

I’m really happy at the pace the project is going- I didn’t set any targets in terms of how many seconds a day/ week I want to complete, but I currently don’t feel I need to do that. I think if that’s something I do decide to implement, then it might be further down the line if I feel it’s going too slowly etc, but for now, it’s fine.

I’m also really, really enjoying it- I know last week I had a couple of issues with how it was going, but I put aside the shot which was frustrating me (my boyfriend suggested I did this) and moved onto others. I’ll tackle the harder shot later on when I’m deeper into the project. I don’t have a clip to show for this week, as I was concentrating on the animation rather than any exporting, but hopefully I’ll get one for next time (heads up: I doubt there will be a blog next week due to taking a holiday so don’t wait up)!

Think that's all for now- this has probably been the most uninspired piece I've posted on here for a looonnnggg time!! So if you have only just started reading this blog, then I'd suggest to skip this post and choose a more exciting post- that could literally by any of them!

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood | Official Trailer

Remember I said back in October that I worked on a Richard Linklater film? Well, the trailer is now out and it looks amazing!!

And, even more exciting: a few of the bits I animated made it into the trailer! I animated this rocket shot:

And coloured these characters:

The film will be released on Netflix April 1st. Will try not to go on about it too much, but can't make any promises!

'Bear' Animation Week 1

After each week of animating on my short film ‘Bear’, I want to try and get a post out on here to track my progress. I guess it’ll also hold me more accountable if out in the public domain, too! I’m really self critical, so finishing a big project like this for me will be HUGE because I so often start things and then stop them if I don’t feel they’re going ‘perfect’ or turning out how I envisaged. I already had a battle with that this week (it’s only week 1- I honestly need to pull myself together!!) where I thought I should just stop it because I didn’t like how one shot (out of easily over 100) was turning out.

It’s ridiculous- you can’t even tell if something is ‘good’ when it’s not finished. And of course it won’t look good, because *news flash* it’s NOT FINISHED! Mainly telling that to myself, but it’s also there for anyone who needs to hear it.

Right, so now that’s out the way, back to the point: what have I achieved this week? OK so I cheekily started animating the film even though I haven’t quite finished editing it (when that’s ‘locked’ I’ll write a post about that). This was because I didn’t want to push the animation back any further, especially after the delayed shoot. I feel this was a good idea as it also gave me some well needed breathing space away from the edit, allowing me to view it with fresh eyes when I went back to it. I was able to start animating some shots, because some were not negotiable: i.e. they’re in every version of the edit, so I’m able to start on those whichever version I go with in the end.

I’m very pleased with my progress: I completed 4 shots (one being a 13 second long one) and started 2 more. I have been averaging 6 hour animation days, which I want to ramp up next week and average 7. Some went very smoothly and I love the outcomes, though some gave me an existential crisis (see above). I feel a lot of this first week was doing quite a lot of figuring out, too in terms of getting a feel for the outline style I want to use and how to go about animating some of it, plus what to do about props/ backgrounds. As the project goes on, this will all iron out and the animation process will become faster and smoother- or at least I hope so.

One of the main takeaways from this week is that animating something like this solo is hard- more so mentally, rather than creatively, I feel. Without being surrounded by a team or in a studio with dailies bringing you from your head back to reality, it’s easy to get lost in your head about what you’re making and critical thoughts rise to the surface. Knowing this in week 1 is a good thing, because it means I can develop healthy mechanisms to combat this issue and create a support network of people I can turn to when I need a bit of a pep talk.

Saying that, it’s also been a lot of fun. I’ve finally had the to catch up on my usual podcasts and a lot of music I’ve been wanting to listen to, but not had the opportunity recently due to editing and pre prod- I usually find listening to music whilst doing those tasks too distracting. It’s also super cool how I’m working on my biggest self initiated project for some time. I love having a project to be working on and if I’m quite honest, I can’t believe that I’m now at the animating stage. Last October it seemed a bit of a pipe dream when conceiving the concept/ early story development, though now I’m actually bringing it to life and that feels like a massive achievement in itself- getting it to this stage- having done numerous script drafts, a storyboard, filmed it etc- is no small feat. Can I give myself a pat on the back? Yeah I’m going to do that! And if anyone reading this is working on a project under your own steam then pat yourselves on that back too- you’re doing AMAZING!!

Yeah so I’ve definitely rambled a bit in this one, hopefully there has been some useful information for anyone reading this and it didn’t totally feel like you’ve been reading about me while I go through a breakdown or crisis or anything!

I’ll leave with one of the completed (outlined) shots. I might get one of these out each week, but that does depend as I don’t want to give too much away… We’ll see!

xo

Recent Football Photography

I've not posted on here about football for a while, but I have been going to games more regularly again (and photographing a lot of them too). I think the weather beginning to get a little warmer has played a large part, but Ben (my partner) and I have been choosing some interesting grounds/ games to attend, which makes it all the more enjoyable.

Above: me at Molineux Stadium (home of Wolverhampton) for a women's international Spain 1-0 Canada in the Arnold Clark Cup. See, I sometimes go to actual stadiums!! Had to get one of the foam hands as well- mainly for nostalgia reasons: they used to give them out at cricket matches I went to as a kid, so as soon as I saw them here I was all over it. Real mature, I know.

Below: some photo's from a recent trip down south to Desborough Island for Hersham FC 2-1 Guildford United in the Surrey Premier County Football League. You can view the full set here. 

Below are some images from my visit to Kendal County FC 2-1 Crooklands Casulas (played at Netherfield Cricket Club) in the West Lancashire League, chosen because of the castle backdrop. You can view the full set here.

Ref Footage Shoot

So after a Covid postponement (I managed to test positive on the first date of the original shoot) and a slight schedule re-shuffle due to the storms, I finally filmed the rotoscope reference footage for my short film ‘Bear’!

It was my first time of being on set since 2018. Not only that, but it was the biggest thing I have ever shot in my life (even bigger than anything I made when I was a student). So of course, going in I was a little apprehensive/ nervous. When we were setting up the first morning, my mind had definitely gone blank and I had no idea what to do first! After a few minutes of mild internal panic, it all came back to me and I was back in the swing of things in no time.

As I was shooting for rotoscope, the production was fairly streamlined in terms of what equipment we actually needed (basically just props and a camera), so each shot set up didn’t take loads of time- which eased my stress a little. We shot the majority in a makeshift studio space (an empty room above a shop), along with a couple of rooms in my house, my boyfriend’s car and the local park- there was a lot more space in the park, so I even filmed some of the supermarket scenes there (the below image will have a background of a supermarket aisle)!

I feel one of my biggest mistakes due to lack of recent on-set experience combined with a high level of optimism, was that shooting around 150 shots over 2 days was almost not do-able. For some reason I thought it was, because the ease of each set up and not having to faff about with lights and audio equipment and so on, though it was quite a squeeze and on future shoots, I will be sure to plan for a lot less per day. It’s better to end up the day with time left over and get extra shots if we can, rather than rushing everything and having to scrap some of the shots and reducing the amount of takes, potentially compromising performance.

Probably because of not having been on set for so long, I did thorough pre-production work, with extensive shot lists and a shooting order and lots of pre planning. My thinking was that if I do all this correctly, then even if I was a bit rusty on set, then at least we will manage to get everything we need, because it’s down on the paperwork! And if I follow the paperwork correctly, then that side of things should be in hand. And it was- I just wished we didn’t need to rush so much towards the end. Planning for a shoot should never be compromised- there’s always so much which can change or go wrong due to reasons out of your control, so it’s best to be as prepared as possible.

I feel in future shoots, I would also like an extra person as crew. For this shoot, it was just me, my camera operator Alan Livesey and my partner Ben joining us for a little of the second day to help with driving to the exterior locations. I definitely would have appreciated a 1st AD, to take care of the paperwork/ marking the shots etc, as personally I felt being in charge of pretty much everything was a lot, honestly too much. It was hard to play producer, clapper loader, runner and so on whilst also concentrating on being director and getting the best performance from the actor Peter Stone (who did an absolutely amazing job, by the way). The reason why I omitted this was because of budget (or lack thereof as it wasn’t a funded film), though I understand now how important it would have been to have someone extra and I will take this knowledge into future shoots.

As an experienced rotoscope animator, I had a good idea of how I wanted to shoot it to make it easier when it comes to the rotoscope process. When rotoscoping, I prefer that my footage is well lit, so when I draw over it, I can make out each body part well and I’m not struggling when it comes to the animation. Another thing I do to help this is ensure the actors aren’t wearing dark clothes (black is a definite ‘no’). I ask them to dress in neutral colours, so I can make out clothing creases easily- trying to do this on black is an absolute nightmare, especially when the character is walking! As long as the shape of the clothing is what you want the character to be wearing in the final outcome, then you can do all the colour changes in post (the magic of animation eh). It also helps a lot with continuity- I had my actor wear pretty much the same for each scene. In post, I’ll change the colour of his jumper to show that it is a different day.

In addition to the above, I wanted to film at a high shutter speed, to eradicate motion blur in the footage. Personally, I feel this is frustrating to draw over as I prefer clean lines on my work, though some animators (and productions) emphasise the motion blurs of the hands for example. There is no right or wrong in this and both results are worthy, this just comes down to personal/ stylistic choice. I was able to do this for the majority of the shoot, though when we shot the footage on the second day at my house, the lights made flickering/ scanning lines on the footage- which I wouldn’t have been able to work with as I’m hoping to use EbSynth in the colour/ shading stage- as it uses the real video to help work its magic. So unfortunately, I had to shoot the indoor sections on a lower shutter speed, meaning those bits might be trickier to animate. In future shoots, I’ll use film lights indoors to be able to shoot at the shutter speed I’d like. I didn’t realise this would have been an issue going into the shoot- the flicker lines didn’t show up on the recce footage.

Overall, besides a few of the things I have outlined above, I feel the shoot when extremely well, especially with it being my first major project for some time. It was lovely being back on set and I found the two day shoot a lot of fun. The actor Peter Stone was absolutely fantastic to work with and was extremely professional. I understood that the shoot may have been a bit different/ difficult from an acting point of view, due to filming a lot in one studio space, even if it were for different locations in the film. Despite this, he did a brilliant job of being in character for each for scene and I would definitely work with him again. I now can’t wait to get editing the thing- I’m excited to see how it will all turn out!

Selected- CAF!!

Super pleased to announce that my experimental film '04111311' has been selected for the amazing Cardiff Animation Festival 2022!!

I went back in 2018 for their previous in person festival and I had an amazing time, so can't wait to be back there IRL this year!

All of the films look amazing and I'm so, so excited to watch them all in an actual real life cinema. See the full programme here and get your early bird pass here. Hope to see some of you down there at the festival xo