Final touch of Pigeon

by - 2012/08/23 23 Comments Animation, Rigging

Animation is starting to slow down a little for me in the last days (if animation is cranked this close to the end then you’ve got problems).
So other than a tweak or two here and there, there isn’t much for an animator to do.  So yesterday Kjartan made me this little guy.

With a quick rig and flap cycle, I’m spending the last hours pigeon’ing any scene I can. Sticking him perched in a tower somewhere in the background, or flying past in the distance just to add a little touch of movement and, eh-hem… life.

Less Than a Week!

by - 2012/08/22 20 Comments Production

we’re at the end of our rope! hohoho

We premier in less than a week! Will we make it?! WILL WE MAKE IT?*

Scrubbing through the timeline is super fun; just a crazy strobing mass of absurd colors and visuals. We’re not entirely done yet- we still have a couple hand-replacement shots to wrap up, and we’re probably going to be re-rendering some of the big shots till close up to the end, but 98%(ish?) of the film is at least at ‘Final 1’ status. ‘Final 1’ means, ‘yeah, it’ll work. We won’t cry if we show that at the premier**’.

Some of us are working on wrapping up the few remaining shots, but most of us are actually going in and upgrading ‘Final 1’s to ‘Final 2’s or 3s or 4s (or… far far more.) Which is super great for pleasing our perfectionist sides.

And the music and sound! Joram Letwory’s been delivering some fantastic things these past few weeks, and whhewhwhew it’s incredible how much it elevates*** the film. Since the film is so short, and we’re trying to cover so much ground, it goes all over the place pretty quick, so being able to come up with a score that follows the beats of the film without feeling like it’s being yanked all over the place is a huge feat, and especially towards the middle the music takes the form of a polite host, staying out of the way, but still giving you tips on how to best enjoy your dinner, or where the bathroom is****.

Joris and I are going to start grading tomorrow using Sergey’s new incredible grading tools he’s put in the sequencer (I suspect a rad blogpost will be coming out about this at some point- but they’re nifty!). We’re gonna convert the STFU room into a little grading suite*****, and lock ourselves in there till the film’s done.

So yeah- a lot’s going on this last week, and it’s probably going to get pretty hectic, but man- oh man- it could have been so much more so. somuchmoreso.

so.

much.

moreso.

 

*yup.
**at least nothing that can’t be smothered gently into a pillow.
***This is a producer buzzword meaning, ‘makes better’.
****This is a metaphor, and I am the first to admit it kinda fell apart towards the end there.
*****room

Weekly – August 17

by - 2012/08/18 36 Comments Weekly meeting

Time’s not working for us (too fast), nor is the outside temperature (32C today)… so render power is very low now.Nevertheless, a lot of progress has been made, with the last gaps in the film being filled in. One more week to go! Here’s the usual random picks from the weekly presentation folders.



 

env art videos roundup

by - 2012/08/17 15 Comments Artwork

Hi, I’ve been putting together more env-art videos during last weeks , here’s a round-up (2 already posted, 3 new : design, dirtmaps, mapping and stencils)

It’s again a mix of tutorial and diary : in part it’s explaining and telling how scripts and techniques work , in part just recording the process and how i organized my part.

Of course it’s not a full overview off the whole process/project: I stop at the stuff I actually dealt with,  other parts/assets share some techniques but are very different in others (like robot -with different use of dirtmaps , painting and box mapping – and church – for the different use of photo textures ),  and -about rendering- there’s the whole step of projection / matte painting between the materials I mention and the finished frames, then the aspect of integration with live footage and much more… there’s quite a few tutorials I’d have to see myself! after the rest of the team is done with the project :)

Continue

Crunch time!

by - 2012/08/16 14 Comments Production

Nobody is thinking of you – loyal blog reader – these days anymore! Well, a film has to be finished you know. With just 12 days left for our pre-premiere there’s only one thing people worry about – how to sleep at night avoiding Amsterdam mosquitos. :)





(L to R, T to B) Campbell, Myself, Sergey (hiding in “the cave”), view on our internal and new (!) external render farm renders, Kjartan, Jeremy, Ian (sporting a cool mo!), Sebastian, Andy, Francesco (Mohawk!), Rob and Roman.

Greeetings from everyone from a still relative cool Amsterdam. This weekend it’ll be 30+ here. :)

Mango Weekly 10.08.2012

by - 2012/08/10 18 Comments Production

It’s weekly time again!
Since Ton has been visiting Siggraph last week and hasn’t come back yet we are doing the weekly without our beloved boss. And in 2 weeks it’s already premiere! OMG!

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