Summary

Moving the Animatic forward along side the revised script was my primary concern this week, and will continue to be my focus as the next week draws to a close. My previous draft of the Animatic was extremely helpful in showing us what our story looks and sounds like when played over it’s intended length. It also revealed a couple of problems with the script that we ironed out over the week and will be finalizing pending our meeting with the Screenwriting Faculty on Thursday. We’ve reached a point with our script that we’re comfortable with focusing primarily on cutting down dialogue in favor of more visual storytelling (an aspect that we found lacking after first viewings of the Animatic). As such, the Animatic has been constantly shifting to match

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EDITING 

• Recut the audio and animatic to adjust to the removed dialogue.
• Integrated motion graphics storyboards into timeline
• pros- stronger sense of timing, better visual storytelling
• cons- motion graphics segment not fully integrated, will be resolved in upcoming week
• Total Time: 2 Hours

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MOTION GRAPHICS

• finalized motion graphics script
• polished animatic storyboards, final revisions pending art assets from Gabe and Dave
• imported PSD files into After Effects, organized composition
• Pros- Off to an extremely solid start on Motion Graphics, good coordination with team
• Cons- Still needs audio, though this will be taken care of in the upcoming week.
• Total Time: 6 Hours

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SCRIPT REVISIONS 

• I met with Gabe and Dave several times over the course of the week to discuss script revisions. We noticed several glaring issues in our script after drafting the Animatic and worked to resolved them throughout the week. Gabe and I went through the premier project together to test different solutions.
• pros- we’ve reached a much stronger solution for maintaining ambiance and motivation through our animation.
• cons- have not finalized script. Though I do want to get a screen writer’s perspective I’m a little nervous leaving it open ended this close to the deadline.
• Total Time: 3 Hours

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For the next week: I’ll be animating and recording audio for our motion graphics and moving the animatic to completion with additional storyboards from Dave and art assets from Gabe. We’ll also be meeting with a screenwriting professor and VFX editor in the upcoming week, both of which will give us a unique perspective on both the editing, timing and structure of our animation.

Overall Time: 11 hours

This week I focused A LOT on our script.  I had three separate meetings, two with group members to discussed how we wanted to change our script to better tell our story/ cut down on dialogue and one with a film student to fix all the general formatting errors.  I then created a new version of our script with all the edits.  Aside from that I didn’t get as much modeling done as I had liked, but I finished our main character’s hat and began working on the model of the Elder Thing.

Script

• I met with Pat, Ethan, and Dave early in the week.  After much discussion we decided to completely cut all narration.  We also had to address some story points that were not coming across as strongly as we wanted along with restructuring a couple scenes.  We fine tuned the dialogue throughout the script and made some cuts there as well.
• I emailed a film faculty member and asked him if he would sit down and go over the script with us.  He has responded and agreed to meet with us, which will take place on Thursday.
• I then went through and created an edited draft of the script with all the discussed changes.
• After that I met with just Ethan to finalize all the choices we made in the previous meeting.  We basically went line by line throughout the entire script and made decisions on what we should/ shouldn’t cut.  We also went through all my changes to the script and decided which of those changes we wanted to implement into an updated draft. Another thing we touched on was what places music and silence were important.
• The next day I met with my film student friend and showed her all our notes.  This meeting went very well.  She said our script is much more readable and interesting.  She also gave me general screenwriting formatting tips.
• With all the notes from the previous three meetings I typed up the tenth version of the script in Celtx.  I reworded some things, added everything discussed with the group, and edited all the formatting errors.
• Pros: Lots of good decisions were made, our story is stronger than ever.  Made a lot of progress.
• Cons:Still can’t say the script is ‘finished.’
• Hours: ~8

Modeling

• Finished our main character’s hat.  There are a surprisingly small amount of orthographic photos for old hats.

  

• Started working on the model for the Elder Thing.
• Pros: Haven’t run into any issues so far.
• Cons: N/A
• Hours: ~2

LIST OF UPCOMING TASKS:

1. Meet with film faculty to further refine our script.
2. Revise shot list w/Ethan and Dave.
3. 2d assets for the animatic
4. Continue modeling!

This week, my focus was on learning how to retopologize the shoggoth, add more detail to the asset list, and make some 3d assets.

Shoggoth Retopology

Summary: I learned how to retopologize an existing mesh in zbrush without loosing any detail.

Positive Stuff: The process is extremely accurate and doesn’t take much time to run.

Problems / issues: The topology isn’t perfect, so I’ll need to sit down and design it to fit our needs.

Hours Spent: 2  

Asset List

 

Summary: Spent some time updating the assets and adding several columns for modeling, texturing, and unwrapping

Positive Stuff: The layout is complete and populated

Problems / issues: There is a lot of work to be done. There might also be things missing, so we will add any objects that come up later down the line.

Hours Spent: 3

Modeling Assets

Summary: I modeled several objects to add to our library, including a typewriter and some pots and pans. The typewriter will be in the plane, and the pots and pans will be in the tents.

Positive Stuff: The assets looks good and are catalogued.

Problems / issues: The objects still need to be unwrapped and textured.

Hours Spent: 3

LIST OF UPCOMING TASKS: 

1. Retopologize shoggoth

2. Keep modeling assets

This week, my focus was on helping fix the story problems Gabe identified last week and on painting mood boards to take an initial look at the colors and atmospheres of our shots. Didn’t get to the storyboard revisions yet, although Gabe will be helping me finish those up so we can get them done quickly.

Mood Boards

• Summary: Painted key shots and scenes from the story to better illustrate atmosphere and communicate our story beats for our upcoming pitch
• Positive Stuff: Worked out some problems previously unknown involving the initial cave scene, and overall got a better sense of what we’ll need to do color-wise.
• Problems / issues: I’m concerned that there’s too much grey and white, so that will require revisiting (likely with Josh) to see what we can do to introduce some more color into the Antarctic wasteland.
• Hours: ~8

Script Revision

• Summary: Met with Gabe, Ethan, and Pat to go over our proposed changes in the script. After talking about the value of the narration and deciding to cut it, we discussed ways to make the ending work without it, ways to shorten the dialogue throughout the film, and ways to clarify problem areas of the script.
• Positive Stuff: Was a very efficient meeting, trimmed a lot of fat from the script and problem solved a lot of issues.
• Problems / issues: Still haven’t finalized our script, I believe we have two different versions we will be showing to some film faculty (could be wrong about this). I think we really need to lock down what we are doing for now (no script survives contact with the faculty, I know).
• Hours: 2

LIST OF UPCOMING TASKS: 

1. Revise shot list w/Ethan and Gabe
2. Storyboard Revisions
3. Hair Sculpting

This week my primary focus was rigging. It was a week of testing new solutions and combing old solutions.

• Summary: For this solution I used a ribbon rig.The rig has built in squash and stretch with volume preservation. In addition it has twist built in.  I began with trying to use this solution in the spine and the neck.
• Positive Stuff: I really love the ribbon rig and it has a lot of potential to add cartoon motion into the characters.
• Problems / issues: Sadly this solution was a no go. After showing the animators they pointed out that the spine was set up in a way that it would have to be counter keyed. Before trying to fix this solution I tried something else.

• Summary:  In this solution I used an ik spline with an advanced twist. It has squash and stretch built in with volume preservation . It also has fk and ik controls. I used this solution in the neck as well. The rig is built using proxy geometry.
• Positive Stuff: The animators love the solution.
• Problems / issues: The volume preservation was not as good as the ribbon rig. I could potentially fix that with using a lattice deformer. I am not sure but I tried to add volume preservation into the neck but the solution I used in the spine was not working in the neck. The biggest problem is yet to come, trying to combine this solution with the ribbon rig in the arms and legs.

LIST OF UPCOMING TASKS:

1 . Rigging

Hours: 11-12

 

This week my primary focus was thoroughly going through the script and animatic.  Now that we have a WIP animatic we can start working on the overall pacing of our story and dialogue.  This unfortunately brought up some unnoticed problems with the script and I spent a lot of time figuring out how to address these problems in order to strengthen our story, which I then presented to the group.  I also gathered clothing sketches from our clothing designer and made sure they matched our character’s bodies (see picture from Dave’s post).  I also began modeling clothing assets for our characters such as hats and boots.  Lastly, I tested the current state of our character rigs.

Script Issues

• Summary: I had a new pair of eyes look over our animatic and script which brought some unnoticed problems to light.  I then spent quite a few hours going through the script/ animatic myself and discussing the story with this new pair of eyes (a senior film student). Lots of wordy dialogue can be shortened or cut, character progression can be strengthened, and more powerful imagery can be used.
• Positive Stuff:  The story itself is solid, so ultimately no changes will add large amounts of work to our plate.  Minus one potentially major dialogue reformat we are basically polishing our script not changing the story structure.
• Problems / issues:  Lots of screenwriting formatting problems will need to be addressed along with cutting down dialogue.
• Hours: 5-6 hours

Getting clothing designs/ testing rigs

• Summary:  Gathered clothing designs from the designer and worked with Dave to make sure they were correct/ fit the characters. I tested the character rig and suggested some changes to make animating easier.
• Positive Stuff:  Looked great.
• Problems / issues: Some rotation orient problems but those were quickly fixed.
• Hours: 1.5 hours

Modeling!

• Summary: Started working on extra models needed for the characters.
• Positive Stuff:  Just need to keep chugging away.
• Problems / issues: Not yet!
• Hours: 3-4 hours

LIST OF UPCOMING TASKS: 

1. Cleaning up the script, working on refining dialogue, and scheduling a meeting with a film professor in order to make final decisions.
2. Modeling, I have a large list of props and character things to model/ UV.
3. Continue testing the character rigs and updates become available

This week, my focus was on creating an asset list so we all know what to model for our environments and tweaking the shoggoth model.

Shoggoth Editing

Summary: I edited the arms so they are torn and reshaped the body to be less flat
Positive Stuff: The skin damage is visible from both a distance and close up. The body looks less squashed.
Problems / issues: The shoggoth still has poor topology, so this needs to be addressed.

Hours Spent: 4

 Asset List

Summary: This is a document that catalogs the different models that need to be created for all the environments.
Positive Stuff: All the scenes are blocked out and formatted
Problems / issues: Not all the needed assets are in the document yet

Hours Spent: 2

LIST OF UPCOMING TASKS: 
1. Finish Asset List
2. Begin Modeling Assets

Animatic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBQ3u6gJnaU

• Summary: Labeled Storyboards, retimed and re-edited entirety of animatic, added VFX and adjusted shot list.
• Positive Stuff: Latest Edit looks great, has helped us establish the pacing in a much more significant manner
• Problems / issues: Timing issues, script issues revealed through timing.

Shoggoth Call and Sound Design

• Summary: Roughed in sound design and folly for Animatic and Shoggoth
• Positive Stuff: The chance to work in Audition again is pretty exciting, plus it’s a fun challenge.
• Problems / issues: It’s a challenge, albeit fun. The shoggoth is a unique creature, going to be interesting trying to nail down it’s sound.

Lake’s tent Layout

• Summary: Laid out the interior of Lake’s tent, created multiple versions for team reviews.
• Positive Stuff: Macabre as hell
• Problems / issues: None

LIST OF UPCOMING TASKS: 

1. Animatic revision
2. Script Revision
3. Rough Motion Graphics Treatment
4. Plane layout

Hours- 15

The majority of my time and energy this week was spent on editing production documents and organizing our next sprint.

Task #1: Gantt Chart

• Summary: I spent a lot of time this week getting our Gantt chart up to date and projecting our progress into future terms. I met with my team and determined milestones and goals, which have been indicated in the chart and communicated to the team. I then used this chart to set up task lists and sprints for everybody else on the team, structuring deliverables and due dates in terms of priority.
• Positive Stuff: Upon updating our goals and actuals, I’m pleased to find that we have exceeded our intended summer deliverables and are well on track.
• Problems / issues: It’s ugly! We need a properly illustrated Gantt chart for our presentation. I chose function over form with this one — it conveys a lot of information and is now my go-to document for planning out sprints, but I still need to design a more legible version for others to look at.

Hours: 4

Task #2: Master Task List

• Summary: Our master task list needed a revamp. Two major flaws in my original design were brought to my attention — First, the layout did not allow for simultaneous status updates on each shot, which would be highly detrimental in the later stages of production when assets are rapidly bouncing back and forth between departments. Secondly, I accidentally used the same IDs for two scenes, leading to a duplicity in naming conventions. Whoops. Both were sorted out.
• Positive Stuff: Fixed.
• Problems / issues: The new MTL format means that I will need to make additional spreadsheets to track WIP status on a per-scene basis. As we only have seven scenes, I don’t see this being too much of an issue. Certain fields are still blank and will update pending approval of storyboards & animatic.

Hours: 2

Task #3: Presentation Pitch

• Summary: We all worked on this pitch together, but I took the lead on assembling it into a visual format.
• Positive Stuff: Looks good so far! I will be updating the pitch as deliverables start rolling in within the next week. We have some nice mood boards and more concept art in the works, and I’m excited to clean it up and make it look prettier.
• Problems / issues: I’m mildly concerned with the amount of information we’re covering in our initial pitch. I have asked multiple faculty members for opinions on what to include and have received mixed responses — some said to stick to pre-production materials only, and others have told me to include turntables and our latest projects. I attempted to strike a middleground. We’ll see how I did on Tuesday.

Hours: 6 (includes Keynote, scriptwriting, scavenging assets together).

LIST OF UPCOMING TASKS: 

1. Update website
2. Begin to texture characters
3. Create scene-specific subsheets for MTL

This week marked the “official” start of our project! After presenting our topic to the class on Tuesday morning, we continued onward with our assigned tasks. On Wednesday we met with our adviser, Nick Jushchyshyn, and discussed where to continue from here.

We will be pitching our project to the Drexel Digital Media faculty on 10/13/2014. Because of this, we are switching priorities slightly and focusing on polishing our current work, preparing for Animation, and laying down the groundwork for a more permanent storage solution. Nick will be looking into acquiring 1 – 5 terabytes of dedicated server space for us to store our project, and we will be migrating our scene directories over as soon as possible. This allows for a MUCH greater storage capacity (as we are now limited to 120 gigabytes of cloud space), as well as a direct line to the Drexel render farm.

This week was spent establishing a projected timeline for the next nine months, developing a modeling asset list, iterating our animatic, polishing our concept art and mood swatches, rigging our characters, and working on scene layout. We intend to begin animation immediately upon the approval of our project! Because of this, we will need completed human rigs, 3D, scale-correct layouts of each environment, a workable shot list, and a file hierarchy solution completed by October 13th, the end of our first Fall sprint. Everybody who isn’t working on layout or rigging will be modeling assets and helping to polish our presentation pitch.

Please refer to our Gantt chart and our individual team entries for Week #1 for more information about our intended deliverables for the next week!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK4r2E6oifU

Edit by Ethan Miller, Storyboards by David Maguire, Soundscape by Len Miller, Narration by Dean Jones

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by Gabriel Valdivia

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by Gabriel Valdivia

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by Valentina Feldman and Ethan Miller

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by Valentina Feldman

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by Patrick Stelmach

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by David Maguire

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by David Maguire

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by David Maguire

by Ethan Miller

with Dean Jones, Connor Behm, and music by Len Miller

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by Josh Hollander

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by Josh Hollander

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by Josh Hollander

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by Valentina Feldman

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by Patrick Stelmach

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by Josh Hollander

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by David Maguire

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By David Maguire