'Bear' Animation Week 7

Cast your mind back to last week when I said I was taking on a gigantic 250 frame shot? Cool, well this week I finished it (fanfare please)! I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d get it finished this week and at some points it felt never ending, but today I managed it and I’m super pleased with the result. It wasn’t only the longest shot in the film, but also one of the most important ones, so there was an added pressure there as well.

Besides that, I wasn’t able to complete any more shots in full, though I did start another one which I’m a good amount (scientific term) of the way through. Next week that will be finished and then I’ve lined up a few smaller/ easier shots which I’m looking forward to animating.

Below is another one of those progress screen grabs from my DaVinci project (orange are the completed bits, ref footage underneath). I’m very happy with where I am in the project in terms of how much I’ve currently completed. Outlines finished by the end of May-be?! I would be extremely happy if I can achieve that.

Being as I’ve not got a lot else to say this week regarding the project progress, I thought I’d share some ways in which I’m staying motivated whilst animating this project. These may useful to anyone else reading this taking on a similar task. Or if not, then I guess you just get an insight into my life and my working methods!

• Firstly, I try to keep in mind the ‘big picture’ at all times. What I mean by this is that if I am feeling a little lost or unconfident in the project, I remind myself why I’m doing what I’m doing. For me, this is along the lines of: if I keep going I’ll have a completed short film in several months which will be an ambitious piece of work which will show who I am as a director/ filmmaker and the types of stories I want to tell. Which is one of the core reasons for making what I’m making in the first place. I revert back to this every now and again and it injects some new energy into what I’m doing.

• In addition to the above, I selected a story which I was really excited about and a film which I want to see. So I’d say even before you dive into something like this, ensure it’s something you want to make for your own reasons, not for anyone else(s). It’s easier to keep going on a project if you’re excited to see the end result and something which means something to you. Not saying every film needs to have a serious message or deep meaning (films don’t), but I’d say it needs to mean something to you as you’re the one making it. This is more of a choice to made early on, but an important one as you’re most likely going to be sitting with the project for a long time. If it’s something you don’t feel enthused about from the off, you’re going to lack the motivation to complete it, if things start to feel hard mid-way through.

• On a smaller, more day to day scale now we’ve got the big, overarching ones out the way, I have a strict but sensible work schedule. ‘Strict but sensible’??? Yes! I mean by this is that on the days that I have allocated to work on my film, I aim to get between 6-8 hours of animation done (7 or just over is ideal) and I don’t go over and don’t work weekends or evenings. Of course there are exceptions, but on the whole, I try to stick to this. Why? Burnout avoidance and trying to achieve a comfortable work/ life balance and putting time into the other things football I enjoy doing in life. At the end of the day, this is a self initiated project and whilst I am determined to see it through, I am not going to let other aspects of my life and my mental health suffer for something which is essentially arbitrary. It’s also a sustainable amount of work to do in a day, whereas 12 hours is not and I bet I’ll get sick of the project pretty quickly if I were to do that! Plus, on a creative level, if working whilst tired and unenthusiastic, my work will suffer as I’m not giving 100%. I bang on about the importance of this a lot in these posts, so I won’t go any further, but you get the point! Breaks and that are good!

• On an even smaller/ granular scale, I play back my work a lot when working on a shot. This is as a reminder of what I’m making and that each line I’m drawing is contributing to something in the film. It can feel a little monotonous at times, but playing it back breaks this up a bit and really gives me the motivation to carry on working as I’ve seen what I’ve achieved so far and makes me want to achieve more. This is especially apparent if working on a shot I’m not that confident with as it’s quite complex for example, then playing it and seeing the progress makes me think ‘oh yeah, it’s not that bad actually!’ and gives me the boost to carry on. Or at least most of the time!

• Finally, perhaps a fairly superficial one, but reminding myself of the amount of time, effort and money I’ve put into this project already. Why would I want all of that to go to waste and have nothing to show for it? I just wouldn’t. So if all the other reasons don’t work, then knowing that I’ve wasted several months and a fair bit of money will definitely be a motivating factor, if nothing else!

That’s all for now, I think. Hope it’s been useful and/ or insightful! See you in the next one xo

'Bear' Animation Week 6

Admittedly, progress has been fairly s l o w this week. This is down to having lost a day due to the bank holiday, as well as spending a couple mornings editing my football photos from the weekend. So I actually ended up working just two full days, with extra hours slotted in where I could.

So with this in mind, I only finished two shots, plus started a third which I’m around 75% of the way through (maybe more, but it’s really hard to judge)! And this one is a biggie- we’re looking at 250 frames. So once this one is done, then that’s 20 seconds of the film chalked off already. I’m hoping for around no more than two more days spent on this one.

If I hadn’t made much progress on the big shot, then I don’t think I’d be that happy with how I’m doing, though I feel breaking into this one is another fairly large hurdle tackled. Like I said, hopefully next week I’ll complete it quite early on, then I’ll be able to speed through some of the easier ones. I like to work like that- after a hard/ long one, I give myself fun/ easier one(s) to do as a reward!

Football season is unfortunately drawing to a close now, so after a few more weeks, there won’t be as much to photograph, meaning May should be a mega productive month on my animation (at least I hope so)!

'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.