Pre-Thanksgiving Update:

Current progress:

I originally had this thursday set as my finish time on the animation portion of my final. However, considering the fluidity and timing I want to achieve with my hand-drawn animations, the process is taking longer than expected. Luckily I've planned for such a thing in my calendar.

11/19: 4/5 of all assets completed. Begin animating project.
11/24: Continue animating project. All assets should be complete at this point.
11/26: Animation finished. Any tweaking to each scene completed by 11/29.
11/30: *****Rendering from the 30th thru Dec 2nd. Extra time given in case of mistakes, errors, or unforeseen circumstances.*****
12/3: final revisions to animation done. rendering completed. begin working on class DVD.
12/7: extra time given for unforeseen circumstances.
12/10: last day of class. dvd turned in.

The time between 11/26 and 11/30 as well as 11/30 to 12/3 was padded with extra time for rendering that I know I will not need in case of unforeseen events such as this.. (I'm working with vectored graphics and movie clips; I doubt a whole week is needed for rendering.) So I'm reorganizing my schedule just a bit to compensate, where I lower the amount of days i have to render to continue animating.

11/19: 4/5 of all assets completed. Begin animating project.
11/24: Continue animating project. All assets should be complete at this point. (begin working on class DVD.)
11/26: Continue animating scenes.
11/30: Animations should be complete by this point. Compositing should be in-progress.
12/3: final revisions and compositing to animation done. rendering completed.
12/7: extra time given for unforeseen circumstances.
12/10: last day of class. dvd turned in.

This way, i give myself more time to complete my animations without falling behind.

(Edit: It's been confirmed that the school will be closed most of Wednesday and Thursday. I'm going to work as much as i can, and work on my dvd at home during thanksgiving holiday.)

Beyond that, ALL of my assets are completed. Here is a list of the new ones below:

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The building where the climax of the animation takes place has three parts the first part is pictured above.



Part 2: A bit higher up.



Part 3: Waay higher.



There is an extra shot within the building, where we see him ride the elevator to the top floor.



Cityscape used for the building shots from above.



I revised the CEO, adding a shirt tail and cigar while removing the neck and gold lapel. I agree with the class, and think he looks a lot more 40's greedy-ish this way.


These are the extras that i use to populate the city in my animation. There will be color shifts, so there is more individuality between them, but they are all made from these three. I know the neck on the CEO seemed akward, but no one seems to mind it on my main character (maybe because it was thicker?) so the extras have necks as well.

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Finally, I have a preview of the first 22 seconds of my animation, except for empty spaces where backgrounds or set pieces would appear along with the animation. There is a green alpha channel on it currently to make it easier to see parts that are working and mistakes. Beyond finalizing the timing and tightening up a few sequences, I am getting a good idea of where areas need improvement.

I've been animating him with a certain level of fluidity and looseness in design that I hope will have him stand out from the static, geometric environment he works within. I know that my scenes are not composited yet, but from looking at this in comparison with my environments, is it working? Is it not? Should I tighten my animations to better represent my conceptual art and character designs?

While I am far along into my final, I'm not so far that i am unable to make revisions and improvements to my animations. Any and all comments would be appreciated.

DI Final: Preview 1 from Michael Shaw on Vimeo.

Critique Response:

It seems as though my aesthetic is working well, save for the CEO, who needs to be revamped. I agree with the comments made during class, and think the cigar may help. Should it also prove ineffective, I'll experiment with other methods of portraying his greed.

Other than that, I'm practically done with all of my assets. I have my cityscape and crowd to finish by tuesday. Beyond that, I will start animating today and should have good chunk of the animations in each scene done by thursday.

11/19: 4/5 of all assets completed. Begin animating project.
11/24: Continue animating project. All assets should be complete at this point.
11/26: Animation finished. Any tweaking to each scene completed by 11/29.
11/30: Rendering from the 30th thru Dec 2nd. Extra time given in case of mistakes, errors, or unforeseen circumstances.
12/3: final revisions to animation done. rendering completed. begin working on class DVD.
12/7: extra time given for unforeseen circumstances.
12/10: last day of class. dvd turned in.

I currently have next thursday as my date to accomplish all of my animation. Should something happen however, i've given myself an extra few days to finish the day we come back from break. Either way, the next week is dedicated strictly to animating, and then compositing my animations and backgrounds in After Effects.

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For tuesday, I want to have as many animations as possible to show, ALL of my assets completed, and a revised CEO design.

Final Update: All but 2 assets built (+ motion test)

Here are the additional assets i've made since tuesday. I have most of my set pieces done, only missing my extras for my crowd, and the cityscape for the final scene. (still doing research for its composition.)

Backgrounds:

Field with tree. I wonder if i should add more variety in colors, the solid ground seems to be working for this...

Bridge

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Objects and characters:

Bus; front, back, and side views. I like the detail on the headlights... I'm thinking about revisiting the taxi and adding the detail to those as well.

Donut.

Ceo. Here is his current design. Is he working? Does he seem to be the main character's superior?

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I also did a test in After Effects for the flash animations i plan to start working on today. I needed to make sure that I can effortlessly attach individual textures on characters independent of the background, and together. It took a couple of tries, but I ended up finding a way to make them work. All I have to do is parent the texture, and the layer of animation to each other, set the texture layer to overlay, the texture itself to a luma matte, and the layer to an alpha matte. They matte each other, and work together as if i layered them together in photoshop.

Texturing Test from Michael Shaw on Vimeo.

Everything is coming together well. I can begin animating today. I plan to have them all finished by next thursday.

Current Progress on Final:

My next milestone to meet is to have about 4/5 of my assets already created before undergoing character animation on thursday. I'm happy to say i'm currently about 3/5, of the way there, still working on my backgrounds, and only needing two more characters created.

My project utilizes a lot of compositing of static elements from photoshop and animations from (now), toonboom. I decided over the weekend it would be quicker to animate my scenes in toonboom as opposed to flash, then composite them with my set pieces in after effects.

I currently have completed backgrounds for the following scenes:

Donut stand.
Walk through crowd.
Bus stop.

I've focused more on the characters at this point, and have created

Main Character
Taxi Driver
Donut seller.
Bird
Flying Squirrel


I have also started on the vehicles and objects and created

Taxi (profile and rear view)
Donut stand
Viewfinder

I currently have the following left to do:

Characters:

CEO
crowd extras.
bus in profile, and from behind.


Backgrounds:

Finish tree environment.
Bridge chase environment.
Sprawling cityscape, including the large building climbed by the main character.

Extra:
The Donut

Some of the backgrounds are missing textures at the moment. I'm weighing the options of overlaying textures in after effects for this final, so i can utilize textures for my toon boom animations as well.

The creations:

Main Character

Taxi Driver

Taxi Cab

Donut Seller and Donut Stand

Squirrel (flying)

Bird


Viewfinder

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all backgrounds are in progress shots, missing texturing.

tree scene

bus stop

donut stand

the crowd (in progress)

Workday Revisions:

Calendar:

11/12: Begin building assets.
11/17: Final, FINAL revisions to plot complete. Continue building assets.
11/19: 4/5 of all assets completed. Begin animating project.
11/24: Continue animating project. All assets should be complete at this point.
11/26: Animation finished. Any tweaking to each scene completed by 11/29.
11/30: Rendering from the 30th thru Dec 2nd. Extra time given in case of mistakes, errors, or unforeseen circumstances.
12/3: final revisions to animation done. rendering completed. begin working on class DVD.
12/7: extra time given for unforeseen circumstances.
12/10: last day of class. dvd turned in.

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I made a few changes to my story in response to tuesday's critique. I went ahead and made his love of donuts his fatal flaw (although i might change his love to coffee in the final animation. I'll make assets for both, and switch them out just so i can see which one works better.)

The beginning is slowed down, and establishes his love for donuts. He even buys a second donut for the road to eat, dropping the first one he bought into his briefcase to save for later.

At the end of the animation, he climbs the building, past the elevator, to the very top where the building's flagpole lies. he grabs his paper from the bird, just as it is about to feast on the squirrel.

The worker notices a new sign the donut man sets up advertising a free donut during lunch hour. The squirrel takes his paper and tries to fly away with it (we learn it is a flying squirrel here.)

The worker jumps from the pole, catching the paper at the last moment, and crashes to the ground, only to have his boss take his papers, and the donut he placed in his briefcase at the beginning of the animation.

Test Animatic 2 from Michael Shaw on Vimeo.

Final Idea Revisions, Storyboard, and Animatic

I made him a bit wider, and removed the cross on his face. I like the larger look, as i think it will give me more animating opportunities. I rethought my story, and made it follow the three act structure to a T. Here are my notes below:

I. Act I

A. Exposition

1. Main Character

a) Businessman.

(1) a little large, but not too athletically challenged.

(2) has a love for donuts.

(3) loves his work to death, would hate to get fired.

2. Dramatic Premise

a) his papers are blown away while eating his donut. he struggles to get them back under a time limit. (1 hour)

3. Dramatic Situation

a) time limit. everything wrong keeps happening. has to find creative ways to get his papers in outrageously hopeless situations. wins in the end due to his cleverness.

b) uses the objects in his suitcase as tools to get the job done.

c) the stakes are constantly raised.

B. Inticing Incident

1. he notices one of his papers have fallen out of his suitcase when he opens it to pull out his cell phone. (pulls out next to post it saying papers due: 9:00 AM

2. closes briefcase, walks over to pick it up, it begins to blow.

3. keeps chasing it until he trips and his briefcase opens up. as he puts his stuff back in, it blows away across the street.

C. Plot Point A

1. shock on his face. checks his watch. 8:00. Runs to get the first paper.

II. Act II

A. Obstacles

1. has to cross the street despite the light being red. runs but almost gets hit twice.

2. looks for it in a crowd of people. sees it hanging on top of the bus stop fence. climbs it to grab it, but slips and falls in the street. bus comes, and he jumps out of the way, with his paper attached to the back.

3. calls a taxi. gives him 100 bucks, the car drives after the bus very quickly. reaches the back, tries to grab, has fingers almost on it approaches two-lane tunnel. sees the bus going down the off ramp when tunnel exits. car stops, looks through conviently placed binos. (25c) sees it gone, sees it now in a tree.

4. approaches tree takes tie, uses it to climb tree. sees paper in nest @ very top of tree. grabs it. hears branch cracking. falls. wakes up. sees paper. then sees squirrel. inches for paper, and squirrel runs off with it. look of frustration.

B. First Culmination

1. squirrel runs off with it. look of frustration. chases it, but can't keep up. while he's chasing it and the camera moves towards the squirrel, a bird comes and takes the squirrel as lunch the opposite direction, back towards the city.

C. Midpoint

1. squirrel runs off with it. look of frustration. chases it, but can't keep up.

D. Plot Point B

1. while he's chasing it and the camera moves towards the squirrel, a bird comes and takes the squirrel as lunch the opposite direction, back towards the city.

III. Act III

A. Climax
1. bird flies towards a building across the street from his. runs in, takes the elevator all the way up to the top floor. walks across the roof to the paper, hanging out over the ledge. gets on top of the building, having to reach out over the ledge for it on the flag pole. actually reaches it. goes back in the elevator, watches as he is almost at the bottom (glass elevator, his building is right across the way) and it gets stuck. fire alarm comes on. guy freaks. starts pressing the button repeatedly. fire department comes to open the door, and the guy rushes out. runs out the door, for the building. is almost there, gets hit by a car.

B. Denouement
1. wakes up in bandages with his suitcase next to him. people at his job stare as he is taken into the ambulance. he sees his ceo, hands him the suitcase. is loaded up on the ambulance, and the ambulance drives off.

STORYBOARDS:

Untitled from Michael Shaw on Vimeo.

The Bill Plympton Show: Review

I took a ridiculous amount of notes during the Bill Plympton class. He explained a lot of things about his animating style and production pipeline that i could use in my own animations. In addition to that he showed a lot of his films and would even go through his process making him.

I do wish it was a bit longer, but for four hours, he knew how to keep us interested. His drawings were quick, but really captivating. The simplicity of his dog was surprising; I expected it to take longer to draw.

Speaking of dogs, his dog films are my favorite. I'm surprised I have never seen them before. They were all amazing films; even more amazing considering the way he is able to capture the viewer's interest despite animating keyframes only. That said, he has really strong sound in his animations.

I wish his class was longer, but for the 4 hours he talked, drew pictures, and made caricatures, it was my favorite visiting artist presentation this semester. It's too bad every artist is not that engaging during their presentations.

Presentation Notes: Final Project Idea

Genre: Action Comedy

Logline: With a gust of wind, the future of one businessman's career depends entirely on assembling his missing documents.

Synopsis: Each weekday morning sees a rush of businessmen and women on the city streets. All of them have important calls to make, important deals to close, and important documents to turn in. These actions insure the longevity of their careers. Straying from this work ethic, even accidently, could mean being fired.

Unfortunately, accidents happen. On one such day, one worker's briefcase opens up and all of his papers are blown throughout the city as he eats breakfast on-the-go. Having only an hour before work, he scrambles to acquire all of his papers, and make it to work on time, or he will be fired.

In the animation, the worker searches high and low for his gear. There is a heightened sense of urgency in his actions, and he moves with a lot more life after his papers are blown away. The current list of locations for him to search include:

• bridge
• city park
• busy street (poplar ave. busy)
• tree
• powerline
• rooftop
• nearly endless corporate parking lot
• outdoor cafe

He moves in between each space as he notices his papers (indicated by their light pink color) fly about, getting caught on lines, picked up by people, etc.

I currently have two endings planned for this animation, although I'm not sure which one would be the better ending yet.

In one, he acquires all of his papers, yet in his quest realizes how much of his environment he's missed out on working so hard each day. he faxes his papers and takes a sick day to enjoy the sun.

In the other, he makes a mad dash for his cubicle, trying really hard to reach his desk before he is late, only to turn in his papers with one missing. He notices it at the last second, and pads his work with a blank form from his desk. His breathes a sigh of relief as his boss leaves his cubicle.
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All semester, i've been basing my thematic concern strictly on the lessons taught by shadow puppet plays around the world. There is a whole sub genre of shadow plays that are geared strictly towards action and entertainment. I wanted to use this larger format project to work with a story that does not have a moral with a higher focus on action elements to tell the story.

The aesthetic I want to use will be the same as it always has been, however, i really want to push the detail in these environments and create a fully realized world. The pictures below, while not mine, show the level of detail and clarity i want to achieve in my final project.









Here is my current idea for the main character. Any other workers will not be too far off from him. I may give the others different tie patterns and head shapes to convey different personalities.

front and side view

color keys for animation.

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As a final note, I want to employ more 2d flash animation into my final, and use after effects to composite different character interactions.