Background Style/ Project Update

A late post, I know, I know. I just felt I was far too busy to stop working on the backgrounds/ project in general to type this thing out. But I assure you, I am still working hard on ‘Bear’!

I bet you want to know what background style I’ve chosen then? Well read on…

I decided to go for a fairly minimalist take on things for several reasons. The first being the pressure of time- if I went for a super complex style, then the likelihood of still working on the backgrounds at the end of the year would be very real. And something which I definitely do not want. A finished film is always better than an unfinished film, however ‘great’ the unfinished film might be, hypothetically, of course!

I also wanted to do something within my skillset. My primary skills lie in rotoscoping and are very character focussed, rather than anything else. Usually my backgrounds (when I do them) are more impressionistic/ abstract, so I wanted to carry that across into this film and despite it being a more advanced piece in terms of story, I still want it to reflect who I am as an artist/ filmmaker. I didn’t want to make really clean looking backgrounds, because that wouldn’t be playing to my skillset and I’m probably not the best person to carry that out. Maybe that’s for when I make a film with a budget. All eyes on you, funders!

If you remember back in January I actually posted about some potential background styles. Before starting the animation process, I was convinced that those were the style I’d go for, but as I got further into the project, I felt they’d be too complex to reproduce for each background in the time that I have. I really liked the textured aspect to them, which I kept for the current backgrounds, but everything else was kind of scrapped. I also created them in Procreate- a wonderful drawing app, but personally I find it difficult to animate in, so if I were to use the same continuity in bushes etc for the parts which needed to be moving such as doors opening, then that would have posed a problem. So I needed to find a way of making the backgrounds in TVPaint.

After deciding to scrap my original ideas I was a little stuck to be honest, but I then watched several short animations to get some inspiration going and that definitely worked! It always does, I find. I’m always super inspired after coming back from any form of animation festival or short film screening. My favourite place currently to source quality short animation online is the YouTube channel BANG BANG which you should all go check out (right after reading the rest of this post)!

I stumbled upon several shorts which utilised black and white/ greyscale backgrounds and thought that could be a good way forward.

My designs evolved from something really clean and graphic (which I almost went for, but deep down I knew something wasn’t quite ‘right’) to something similar, but with texture and something which suited the style of the film much more. The added texture softened the whole image and was much more pleasing to look at. I also like the fact it didn’t look as ‘clean’ as the original idea. You can see the evolution of my designs here:

The middle style was at first the design I decided to go with, but then as I created more backgrounds for the project, I was finding the two-tone idea quite limiting and I didn’t think the backgrounds were looking ‘good enough’ or at least complex enough for what I wanted to achieve with my film. I also disliked the amount of white space in them. I then decided to still use the same concept, but in a more greyscale way as you can see in the third design. I am much happier with how these are looking. I feel as the designs are somewhat ‘closed in’ and perhaps even claustrophobic feeling, they definitely suit the tone of the film. The style is quite dark, emulating what the character is going through, throughout. They are minimal, but have more than enough detail for the audience to tell what room or setting he is in. They are still pretty much as time efficient to carry out, too.

I’ll leave you with this little clip, so you can see what it all looks like when its moving:

‘Bear’ Colour Week 1

If you’ve been keeping up with these updates, then you will know that last week I finally finished the outlines and made a start on the colouring. This week I managed to colour 35 shots in full, as well as making a solid start on the background designs. So all in all I made good progress this week. I know last week I stated that I’d do a post on the backgrounds, but I just wanted to make double-y sure that the style I have chosen is the route I want to go down, before fully committing to it. As far as I’m concerned it is, but I’m just mulling it over in my head a little more just incase I have some last minute thoughts or inspiration! So do expect a post on that soon, but just not right now!

To be honest there’s not much else interesting to report on how it’s all going, so just going to casually manifest/ put it out ‘there’ that after this short I want to direct a rotoscoped feature. I guess I’ll see you in the background style post…

Here’s an image of the most recent colour swatch (has developed a fair bit since last week):

'Bear' Colour Style

Deciding on the colour style for ‘Bear’ was a fairly straightforward process, as while I was creating the outlines, in the back of my mind I was always thinking of how to colour it. Before the animating began and even in my initial ideas phase for this film before it was even a script, I also had a quite strong idea of how I wanted it to look.

I guess this is because I’m a fairly visual thinker and when I have a story idea or concept, I usually have some imagery alongside that, whether that be in my head or down on paper. It’s also come from a development of my style in the work I create outside of my films, such as the short clips you read about on this very blog or see on my Instagram.

Not only this, but I had to bear (no pun intended) in mind that there’s a fair amount of shots to colour in a limited time with a crew of just me, so I can’t be overly complex with my designs or I’ll never manage to finish the film! Despite this, I wanted to move away from block colour, like in my previous film ‘Nothing New’ (and a lot of my other short films) as to say that I have developed as an animator/ artist, while still wanting the workload to be manageable.

So, I bet you’re wondering what style I ended up going for? Well look no further…

As you can see, I have used block colour for the most part of it, though have added some shading on the character to give it a little something extra. I did this using EbSynth. I also textured the bear head. I would have loved to be afforded the time to have textured the whole thing because I’m a sucker for the textured look, but I feel having the bear head as the only thing which is textured makes it stand out (which it should do), plus gives a sense of fur. So I’m totally cool with the decision to texture only one element.

I coloured the character in TVPaint using the CTG layers, which is a fairly quick process- at least on the shots where he isn’t moving around too much! In just over one day, I managed to colour and texture 25 shots, which I was super happy about. I feel the EbSynth shading part will take a little longer due to the amount of touch up which I’m anticipating, but if I colour the rest of the shots at a similar rate, the timescale shouldn’t be a problem. I considered leaving the shading out due to time, but I do think it adds something to the character, plus really shows development in my work which for me is important to display in this film. I textured the head in TVPaint as well, using the brush ‘Acrylic 4’- which gave me the look I was after. Even though there are probably ‘better’ brushes elsewhere such as Photoshop and Procreate, I wanted to keep everything in TVPaint as for the life of me I can’t stand how non-specific animation programs have their weird way of animating- it feels really unintuitive and I honestly can’t get my head around how it’s done! I love the way programs built for animation make sense such as TVPaint and Callipeg, though the latter unfortunately lacks in brush options. The TVPaint brushes are more than sufficient for my needs and I know I can either make some or purchase some, should I need.

Below is a screen grab of the swatch I’ve created for my main character.

I went for a fairly muted/ desaturated palette, as I felt it would suit the tone of the film more than using bright/ vibrant colours would. Without giving away any of the narrative, the story isn’t exactly a super happy one, so using fluorescent colours definitely didn’t suit! I’m really happy with the colours I’ve chosen, after a little trial and error to get something which works.

This week will mostly be colour/ texture work, though I’m going to make a start on background designs too, due to not being able to colour some shots without a background- so look out for that post in the next few days…

Outlines Completion Post!!

Here it is- the moment we’ve all been waiting for! THE OUTLINES ARE NOW COMPLETE!! Wow. Can’t believe I’m saying this and to be honest, at some points I really didn’t think it would happen. But it has and I’m mega proud of what I’ve achieved so far.

After a second post-animation vigorous editing process (yes, some shots I animated needed to be cut to tell the story better) I watched the outlines version of the film ‘in full’ and I actually quite like it. It tells the story I set out to tell and I think it’s a nice, compact film. If a little odd!

Despite this, there is some animation I would like to touch up. Some of the shots I completed nearer the start of the project need a little more work, due to not having fully established the style to extent the later shots were completed. Over the course of animating the outlines, I have improved my animation immensely and looking back now, there are some shots I’m not quite happy with, along with a few inconsistencies. I appreciate I don’t have the time to go back into each one and alter all of them so I need to be slightly selective, though there are some which are a ‘definite’. I think I’ll make a couple of lists for this: one for the ones which are important to rework and another list for if I get some time, it’ll be nice to rework… So that’s where I’m at currently!

Even though finishing the outlines is a massive step/ milestone, in no way does that mean it’s plain sailing from here: it isn’t. So I will not be taking my foot off the gas until I’m well underway in the colouring process and therefore will have more of an idea how long the rest of it might take.

The next step now is working out the colouring and the background styles. I hope I’ll be able to have another little clip to be able to share at some point next week- it will be nice to put something out in celebration of this landmark, so that’s something to look forward to…

Here’s the screen grab of the outlines timeline:

And here’s a couple of pictures of my notebook I use to track the time of each shot/ my days work. Maybe one day I’ll add the whole thing up to see exactly how long the outlines took- but I think I’m going to finish the film first!!

Will do another post when I’ve sorted the colouring styles- catch you then!

xo

'Bear' Animation Week 13

Back on it this week in full force! As far as metrics are concerned I completed 12 shots- I honestly thought I’d have done it this week, but animation is always slower than you think/ want, so I haven’t quite got there- but almost! Really almost, almost! You’ll definitely hear about it on here when I have completed the outlines. In fact, I think everyone will hear about it everywhere! Let’s hope I can write that blog post in a couple of days…

In other news, there was another ‘MAF Presents’ #MAFPresents screening this week, held at the wonderful Chapeltown Picture House in Manchester. These are monthly short film screenings and networking events run by Manchester Animation Festival and are well worth checking out. The selection of shorts they select are always a treat and it’s brilliant to be in a room full of other North West based animators/ animation fans. Keep an eye on their socials/ website for more details.

xo

'Bear' Animation Week 12

If I’m being totally honest, this week hasn’t been the best for animating on this project- there’s been quite a few things going on in my life (animation aside), which unfortunately slowed my progress somewhat. Despite this, counting up the completed shots now, I managed to complete 11 in full which on paper doesn’t sound all that bad. I thought I’d only completed around three or something!!

With the 11 shots added to the timeline, it has really bulked it out and there are only a few sequences left to complete now. With making slow progress in the week, I thought the timeline wouldn’t have seemed so full, but having looked at it yesterday and this morning, it is encouraging to see and has given me a well needed confidence boost going into next week.

For the first time since starting animating, I also watched the film in full- just out of curiosity really and to check whether it looked ‘alright’. I thought it looked great, plus it felt like a reward to see my hard work sequenced up. There are a few scenes I feel I need to swap round to make the story more impactful, but on the whole I am quite pleased. I can’t wait to start creating the backgrounds and to colour it.

Nearly there Flora, keep it up!!

'Bear' Animation Week 11

The question on everybody's lips: has she finished the outlines yet?

The answer: not quite...

But close. Very close. I finished 15 shots this week, which is yet another record. Woop woop!! Though they still keep coming, one after another. Even though I’m getting a lot completed it still somehow feels never ending. But, I am having a lot of fun and I feel like as the outlines are drawing to a close, I've a new injection of energy and feel really spurred on to get to the next steps: the backgrounds and the colouring/ shading. They kind of feel like a reward for having the outlines completed- something to work towards. The colouring does especially- it feels like I've a quite relaxing (but labour intensive) task ahead.

I'm also a bit nervous at this stage in terms of how will it all come together? And will it look good and tell the story I want? I've put (and will continue to) a LOT of work into it thus far and I just want it to turn out as expected. I suppose all I can do at this stage is give it everything I have and that's all I can honestly do.

Once the outlines are finished, I've allocated a week to allow me to develop both the background and colour style, so I know exactly how I'm going to do them: what brushes to use, what colour palette, whether to add any texture and if so how and where, what program(s) to use and which will be the most efficient ways of doing all of the above in the time I have available. I’ll do a post about that development work here as and when it’s complete. I'm quite looking forward to having a mess with the footage to see how I can finish it and doing something which isn’t outlines!! The temptation to start already is strong and I must admit that I've already played around a little bit with potential colour ideas, but I'm not jumping into it fully until the backgrounds are done. It’s a bore being this disciplined, I tell ya!

Progress grab below as per…

'Bear' Animation Week 10

Want to guess how many shots I completed this week? I’ll tell you: 14!! 7+7. FOURTEEN. Best week so far. The timeline is filling up super nicely and it feels fantastic to be making so much progress. It really feels like I’m on the finishing stretch now for the outlines- something which several weeks ago seemed years off!

This week I was able to dedicate almost the whole week to working on my film thanks to not having any photo editing to do. It felt quite nice and relaxing that I was able to do so, though I did miss the photography side of things. But a break is good too and it did allow me to make BIG progress on ‘Bear’. Manchester Animation Festival has now opened submissions for this years competition, with the decline being 29th July. Which is therefore my deadline for this- it’s a brilliant festival (and fairly local), making it a great date to aim for.

If I keep going at this rate, the outlines should be done in a few weeks- though like I mentioned last week, there are some fairly tricky shots to come. I know I mentioned the end of May as my target, though I might be a week or two out. If this is the case, I should still be able to get the backgrounds, colour and comp (i.e. finish the thing!!) for said end of July deadline.

Here’s the screen shot for this weeks progress:

‘Bear’ Animation Week 9

Last week I mentioned I had a 156 frame shot to complete and this week, I managed to finish it, along with 10 others, making this week my highest achieving week in terms of shot completion yet!! And that was working only 4 days- I still had one day where I mainly edited photos. I am so, so, soooo pleased with my progress and it just makes me want to keep going.

I’ve passed the halfway mark (which is mega exciting) and the end is definitely in sight- or at least it is for the outlines. Though I do have a number of tricky shots still to do- trust me, it’s not all plain sailing from here. I’ve been saving the harder ones until I really have to do them. I think that’s a good decision though, as when I started the project I doubt I’ll have been able to tackle them, or not at least as well as I’ll be able to at this point in the process. It’s taken a while to get into the flow of the character and what details to include and so on. I feel there are going to be a few shots I’ll revisit for a bit of a touch up- the earlier stuff isn’t as complex as the current stuff, so I think I’m going to go back in and add some more lines on some of the shots. I think that goes with the territory of animating on a long project like this. Maybe for future projects, I’ll do some ‘warm up’ shots first to really get the mannerisms and style locked, so it will appear more consistent. That’s not to say that this looks all over the place (it doesn’t), but there are some shots I do want to adjust.

But I suppose that’s just evidence of me growing and developing as an artist anyway- whenever I look back on previous work, there’s always things I’d do differently if I were to revisit the project…

Back to what I was saying at the top of this post about finishing a quite lengthly/ difficult shot, I’ve collated a couple of ways in which I tackled it (for anyone reading this and in the same boat):

Firstly: to work on it for a short amount of time daily. Anything between 30 minutes to 2 hours can really make a difference and sometimes 30 minutes was all I was able to handle a day for this particular shot. But because I chipped away at it each day, I got it finished. Working on it in this manner made the shot feel not as daunting as if I were to say section off 7 hours in a row to work on it. It would have put me right off and perhaps even lead me to avoid working on the project altogether. The smaller chunks were much easier to handle, so would highly recommend this if you’re stuck on something.

Secondly, to work on it when you have the most energy/ can’t make any excuses for not doing it. Which for me is first thing in the morning. Mornings are when I work best and my energy slowly depletes throughout the day, so I tend to schedule all the hard tasks first thing, ending in easier/ more relaxing ones in the afternoon. If you don’t know when you work best, try out several different times and I’m sure you’ll soon find a pattern which uses your energy in the most efficient way.

That’s all for now, so will leave you with this timeline screen grab update (so much orange on there now)!!

2022 Reel Update

I've updated my showreel for 2022:

I definitely think it's my strongest yet and I'm really proud of all the work that features in it. Let's hope it leads to good things!!

I've also added the word 'director' to my title card. Something I've never considered before now, but I definitely feel confident enough to put it in- after all, I direct all my work which urm, kind of makes me a director, right?! The more I say it, the more it becomes real...