Introducing Molly!

'm Molly, and I'm one of the high school interns at Smiley Guy Studios this year! It's only been a week since I started my placement here, but I have been busy planning the 30-second short that I'll be working on this year. Although I have a few ideas (barely lol), I really don't know what I'm doing, but I'm hoping I'll have a better idea of what I want to accomplish by the end of October.

During the brainstorming process, I realized that I came up with some (probably) overly complicated ideas and that I have no idea how I'll animate them. I barely got everything to fit into the 30-second time frame I've been given, so now I have to figure out how to finish the project for the end of May.

I don't really know anyone near my work space except for the guy to the left of me (I still can't remember his name, even though he told me a bunch of times). Overall, I've had a good first week and am looking forward to the rest of the year.

- Molly

Rae Previews Her Animatic

Hi! This week I completed more of my animatic. I brought it into the studio and previewed it for Rich and some other animators for their thoughts and feedback. Overall they really liked the look and feel to it, but my timing and pacing still isn’t where it needs to be. I’m almost at the end of completely finishing my animatic, and moving on to the next stage of production. Once I figure out the last sequence I am going to go back and re time everything to fix the pacing, as well as to trim it a bit, cause I went a little overboard with the length. I’m getting a bit anxious to move on to the next stage, but I know that if I don’t take the time to fix any of the mistakes now, it will be a problem later on. While finishing my animatic, I've also started to do the final version of the opening shot for my film. It’s helping me develop a workflow for my shots, so I know what to do for each one. Hopefully by my next post the first shot will be done! Here is the updated layout for my opening pan shot, based off of the concept art and layout I posted last week.

-Rae

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

Rae Starts to Samurai!

I have started the process of making my own short film! So far I love it, I'm learning so much. I started out by brainstorming ideas and writing loglines. When I finally settled on an idea, I made my schedule for the rest of the year to give me an idea of when I should have things done, and how long it will take. Right now I am in the process of doing my storyboards, my idea is to do a Samurai Jack inspired fight sequence. The first part was a lot easier to storyboard, but now I am a little stuck figuring out how to start off the fight, and have it make sense, so I'm a little stuck, but I am up for the challenge! Today I have finished the first draft of my storyboards, and I am going to go over it with Rich and Aaron, to get some notes and see what they think. Everyone here has been really supportive, and offered me a lot of inspiration, and conversations about Samurais! The past few weeks have been great! I can't wait to start the next part of pre-production!

 

-Rae

Rae Works on a Walk Cycle

Hello!

It’s only been a week or 2 since my last blog post, and a lot has happened already! I continued working on my walk cycle, and then showed it to Mat one of the animators, for some feedback. There was a lot of that needed improvement, and he started a new one and walked me through each step, showing me how he goes about blocking a shot. It was really cool getting to observe how he works, and learning about his approach and technique to animation. He showed me how he breaks stuff down and works with one part at a time, starting with the main movement of the torso, and letting the rest follow. It gave me a new perspective on how to approach animating, and made things a lot simpler. With what I had learned I started my walk cycle over again, which turned out a lot better than my first try. I’m starting to understand flash a little better, and how to work in it.

I was also just told that I will be making my own short film during my time here, and I’m very excited! I’m about to start on my first stage of pre production, by brainstorming ideas, Hopefully by my next blog post I’ll have a story down, I can’t wait to get started!

See you on Thursday!