Molly Works on Beat Boards

So last week I got introduced to beat boards, and I've been basically trying to make them look decent the entire week. I'm almost done (I think there's one more), and I'll probably get back to the storyboards at the beginning of next week. Really productive three days (finding a way to put Bob Ross in one of the boards was probably the highlight of the week lol), and hopefully I'll get everything done before the holidays.

Molly Figures Out Storyboarding!

The last few weeks have been a bit stressful, as I had really only been working on concept art, and I realized that I was getting really behind. Last week, however, I did get to talk with Darien about the storyboarding process. It isn't what I thought it was (I wasn't supposed to put all the frames on one document but oh well), but it was also easier than expected, so I don't think I will spend 6 weeks on this part of the project lol

Kal (storyboard artist) also talked to me today about my workflow, and recommended that I create "beatboards" (more detailed illustrations for major events) and write a mini-script so I don't get confused or lose the original concept while drawing. He also said the actual storyboards should be really rough sketches, so it turns out I got stressed over nothing :( Overall I'm happy that I'm not as far behind as I thought I was, and I have a clearer sense of what I need to accomplish this next month.

- Molly

Jasmine Finishes her Boards and Searches for Butter Tarts!

Oct 30th and November 1st:

Week 6 has come to an end and I’ve finished my storyboards woot woot! I also had some extra time so I decided to draw my character and one of the backgrounds just to see what I might want both to look like. Currently, I’m trying to decide if I want my character to have a blue shirt and purple shorts or a purple shirt and blue shorts, decisions, decisions.  Other than that my mother has beseeched me with the task of procuring some butter tarts for the weekend so I’m off to go and do that. Next week I start on my animatic. We’ll see how that goes!

- Jasmine

Jasmine Continues to Finesse her Storyboard!

   I finished my first draft on my storyboards woohoo! It was a little rough at first because I was trying to decide how I wanted to lay out the storyboards but after that, it was mostly smooth sailing. On last week's note about the cinnamon buns: I did not, in fact, purchase any cinnamon buns but I did buy two butter tarts that were very good and have gained the Jasmine stamp of approval. Also, I got the opportunity to properly met the other intern Molly, (hello if you're reading this!) because before this our schedules have not aligned at all but now we have met. Going into next week I'm doing my revisions for my storyboards and finalizing them. So far so good! - Jasmine

Molly Meets Rossi and Revisions.

This was a pretty eventful week, although I didn't get to speak with anyone in the storyboarding 

department, I met with a concept artist (I think her name is Rossi, she's really talented!) and we talked 

about making a good portfolio and the joys of the art community on Pinterest. She gave feedback on 

the concept art I was working on afterwards, so I spent much of today revising the design.

I got to meet the other intern Jasmine, who is really nice. Great week overall!

- Molly

Molly Is Super Productive!

This week was pretty productive, considering that it was the first 3-day session this year (I've only been at the studio for two days at a time). I forgot my tablet at home on Monday, something I only realized once I was walking onto a subway train, but thankfully I got to borrow one from the studio. I'm pretty sure I like the new tablet (Intuos Pro?) better than my own, but I probably won't be able to buy one until after university (its price is well out of my high school budget lol).

I got to work on thumbnail sketches along with concept art this week, which are basically just really rough drawings of the key scenes. I might start storyboarding next week, but if not, I'll probably just work on background art (although I'm a bit skeptical about how I'll colour it, since I'm a noob on Photoshop). Overall a very busy week, but I'm enjoying the project so far!

- Molly

Jasmine Does The Storyboard Thing

Oct 16th and 18th 2018

   Almost forgot about this, oops. The end of week 4 is upon us. Today I did the storyboard thing. I've done storyboarding before and I love it more and more every time. It's a very fast process where your ideas can morph and change rapidly and I love the fluidity of it all. That's mostly what I've been working on this past week. I’m about halfway done my initial storyboards but then I'll have to go over them and revise but so far so good. On other notes I think I'm going to buy some cinnamon buns on my way home today and try them either tonight or tomorrow for breakfast, we shall see how they taste. Can't wait to see what next week brings!

- Jasmine

Molly Starts Storyboards and Concepts!

These past three weeks have gone by really fast, but I feel like I've accomplished a lot; as of Thursday, I have officially started working on the visual aspects of the 30-second film (so concept art and storyboards).

 After finishing the script on Tuesday, I started designing the girl I'm going to animate later on in the year. I wanted a simple enough design to make the animation process easier, but this ended up being more challenging when clothing/hair movement came into the picture.

Even though I never got around to meeting any of the storyboard artists this week, I'm hoping that I'll get the chance to do so soon.

- Molly

Jasmine Discovers Helpful Tricks and Custard Tarts!

Oct 10th and 12th 2018

   Week number three is done! I can now officially say that I have finished my production schedule (it’s all nice and colour coded now (very pretty)). I got my thumbnails finished as well and I’m hopefully going to get them looked at by someone other than my tired self soon. Other than that I've had some helpful tricks about adobe animate bestowed upon me and learned that white boxes can be very important in an animation. Also after I left on Wednesday I went to the bakery next door (Nova Bakery I think) and had a very delicious custard tart. 10/10 would recommend. (I convinced my mom to lend me some money to buy a bunch more for the weekend so guess what I'm having for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next week). - Jasmine

Rae Gets Back on Track and Makes Really Cool Concepts!

It's my second week back from my winter break, and it's been great! I'm having a lot of fun working on my short film. It took me a while to get going, and I was stuck for a while, but now I'm back on track, and I know exactly what I want to do. I'm just a little behind schedule, so I have to catch up a bit. I've redone my storyboards, and changed a few things from what I had planned before, based on the concept art and designs I did. On Friday I pitched my boards to some of the guys for their feedback and suggestions. I really enjoyed getting to pitch my idea, and get their feedback, and discuss new ideas. They had some really good suggestions and made me think more about how to convey character and mood through storyboards, and make things easier to read visually. After I took their notes, I started making my animatic. It's cool to see my storyboards come to life by making them move, and adding sound. There's a lot more to think about, and I'm realizing some things may not be as easy as they seemed in my head. Today, I am going to try and finish my animatic, and get some feedback so I can move onto the next stage of production! Here is one of my concept paintings for my film, and the storyboards I did, I'll have more to show next week!

-Rae

Callie Colours Canuck

Last day of co op in 2015!!! I am very excited for the break and also excited about coming back to SGS with a clear mind in January (my head is unfortunately, too full of chemistry right now). I was feeling pretty dazed on Monday, god knows why, so, in a spectacular display of my inefficiency I only planned out 10 thumbnails for my story.

Wednesday was awesome though. I didn't work on my story but Ashly and Miranda gave me frames to colour in for Captain Canuck which is an animated show. I didn't draw at all and I was very slow at colour picking, but it was still very cool. I felt official!

Anyways, I am attempting to get as much boarding done today because I wont be back until January 5^th so I will not ramble on any longer. I hope everyone's holiday is wonderful (even if they don't get a two week break) and I'll see you in the new year!

Callie Eats Ethiopian Food!

It was Julie's last day on Friday :'( so everyone went out for Ethiopian food. It was so, so good even though it was different from the food I usually eat. I got to talk with Ashly, Lea and Cherry while I ate and that's always good fun. Going out for lunch meant I didn't do anything except go back to the studio and interview Rich for a school project (I also was so full I fell asleep while while working).

On Monday and Wednesday I finished up concept. I am moving on this week to storyboards!! Super excited!! I spent a while last Monday designing the location for my short and drawing a few expressions for the firefly character. Then on Wednesday I looked at the sheet and saw that the expressions were sort of bland so I exaggerated them a lot and then drew expressions for the light bulb character. Cartoons are so cool because they defy anatomy rules and you can stretch and morph them. See you next week!

Jordan's on the Case!

HELLO AGAIN. It is I, Jordan, and I am delivering the going on's here at Smiley Guy.

So I've been spending my time colouring a leica reel for DETECTIVE DOCTOR ATTORNEY AT LAW. I love colour and it was pretty fun once I grew used to the idea that Flash's "fill bucket" and "close-large-gaps" tool does not work.

I actually really love the fact that I was able to work on a leica reel of any sort! I'd love to be able to do more stuff like that, like board cleanup or something.

Just getting to poke around the file in general and see how it was done really showed me how useful flash is for animatics.

PICTURED IS what a typical day looked like for me. Lots of linetooling going on to get the shapes to close.

Also word of advice: do not engage the fake monks that walk around Toronto. I was too nice to say no and now he has my subway fare. 

Cody Trims the Fat

I've been continuing to work on my animated short and things are still progressing somewhat as planned. All the dialogue I intend on using has been chosen and is pretty much in place. I've cut the time of the show down from over 3 minutes to less than 2 so the animatic I've made needs a lot of tweaking. I've also added slight head turns and different mouth positions to my flash characters to make them look less flat.

A Cody Update

Here’s a picture of one of the storyboard panels

Hello again. Into month 2 at Smiley Guy Studios and things continue to go well. I just finished storyboarding for my animated short, which (on some good advice) I decided to make in Flash. I’ve received a lot of good advice for setting up my scene and characters and general tips for using Flash, so I’m excited to move on to making the animatic. The script has been recorded and the lines are mostly chopped up so I can start timing everything out soon.

Erica - "Board" to Tears

Back to Work I Go!

This past month has been pretty long for me because I have been doing nothing but storyboarding
(o.o”).   I’ve finally finished, and all it needs is some review.  Even though the process is pretty tiring, it’s good to see, and do, and experience the full process of animation. I can’t wait to start coloring and animating my, well, animation!!!(^_^)

But for now, enjoy my storyboard awesomeness! :P :