Progress Report 1

I figure now might be a good time to write up a progress report as it also coincides with an assessment due today.

So far so good, I believe I am well on my way to achieving my week 7 milestones though I admit that I have forgotten what they all were (I should have gotten a copy). So this is a breakdown of what has been done so far.

1. The first scene animation has been been blocked out and I'm testing out the first 2 shots in After Effect in full colour final artwork (unless I tweak it some more).
2. I have finished the artwork panning background for the second scene and animated it in After Effects.
3. I have begun pencil tests for the second scene and now have the horse galloping across the scene, now I will be able to have the ninja interacting with the messenger and his horse.
4. I have nearly finished blocking out the animation for the third scene in the geisha house, there are only 2 or 3 more shots to do.

As far as sound design goes my main concern has been about the music, with absolutely no musical talent of my own I need outside support. I have turned to Nathan for his help, he and his friend will be working on the music but I may seek others to add to it. I want something similar to Looney Tunes but seeing as how I can't get an orchestra nor a composer I  may have to lower my standards a bit. I am less concerned with sound effects at the moment.
So far this arrangement with Nathan has been mostly without complications, the only issue has been with the communication via email but we have agreed to send each other a text when we send an email and when we have received an email to send an email back in reply to confirm we received it

With Nathan going out of his way to work on my music I will be creating the backgrounds for his animation as well as doing some pencil tests for reference.
I have also discussed with Lahiru about doing some concepts and possibly final designs for his backgrounds.

Potential Issues
Besides my concerns over music my biggest issues have been technology and location, the computers are starting have difficulty keeping up with me. I have found that the Macs are more capable but seeing as how I don't own one and few of my classes are in a Mac lab I may have to start fighting for a spot in the edit suite.
One of my biggest challenges has been location and transport, I live in Belgrave a considerable distance from the campus and rely on public transport, I waste 3 hours each day in travel. The big problem being after a full day on a Monday and Tuesday between getting home and getting enough sleep to get through the next day I get little to no work done in the evenings. This will no doubt lead to me working form home more frequently. Another problem though completely out of my power is all the other assignments not related this project. In order to make this production of the highest standard I can make, many of my other assignments may not be of the highest standard or maybe just half-arsed but I figure any potential employer will be more interested in my abilities as an animator than the HD on got on an essay.

Cave Interior

Thought I'd show off the cave interior background. A lot of the image won't even appear in the animation but I wanted to see everything. I'm working on some pretty neat panning shots for this background in After Effects, hopefully I'll get them finished today and up on this blog but unless I'm on a Mac it's going to be a slow process. None of the PCs I've been working on can handle the strain, it's going to become a problem later on down the track.

Anyway here's the cave. Knowing me I'll probably add more to this, I think it needs some skulls.

Week 4 running comp

I know it's week 5 but as I mentioned earlier I'm a little behind on this blog stuff. I should be putting the week 5 running comp up but uploading videos take forever on this computer and I needed sleep, so enjoy the week 4 running comp and stay tuned for the week 5 running comp.

The Characters

From left to right: Fat Geisha House Patron, Messenger, Ninja, Ninja disguised as a geisha and various designs for geishas.
I think some of these characters will get re-designed, I don't like the big guy anymore. Also missing is the old lady who runs the geisha house.

The First Post for 2012

This is week 5 of the second semester so we're a little behind in posting stuff in this blog, the main reasons for this:

1. I'm lazy when it comes to doing stuff on the internet.
2. I don't like doing stuff on the internet, I guess that comes from working as a web designer and developer.

My hand has been forced and it is a requirement of this course that I keep a blog detailing my progress. This semester I am doing a short animation about a ninja trying to steal a sacred magical scroll from a messenger. Here is a breif synopsis:

       'A ninja who lives alone in cave has become obsessed with finding a sacred scroll. One day a messenger rides through the valley holding the scroll the ninja is after. The ninja leaps into action and attempts to steal the scroll; he attempts to retrieve the scroll by using ninja stars, blow darts and his skills with a sword. In a last ditch effort the ninja dresses a geisha and attempts to seduce the messenger.'

Below is a sample some early concept art.