The Storyboard Animatic Project of Learning pt. 15

           So, I learned a new lesson that I will more than likely forget over and over again.  Here's what happened.  I was working on this environment and had to draw these stairs in perspective.

Now this my not seem to complicated, you just keep moving the triangle around a lot. However here are the stairs in scale.

quite tiny actually.

So after the first part was done, I had to do more along the side, getting tinier and tinier, like so.

some could say that I am overdoing it,and they are probably right.

             This was over the course of 8 fucking hours.  I am not kidding.  They were constantly getting of perspective, I had an impossible time figuring out each point, etc. etc.   Pretty much spending more time re correcting everything and frustratingly wondering why nothing worked.

(insert chibi picture)

Then I looked at my pencil tip.

That is a rather dull tip for really tiny drawings.

              Also my sharpener is not that good so sharpening it doesn't help.  So I realized that a  really tiny point, like say a .3 mm mechanical pencil, would be incredibly helpful.  So I went out and bought one a few days ago,  along with a bunch of lead for it as well.  It has stopped working since then.  Also once I had the really fine point, I also used a better sharpener that I had at home, I still had to go back and redo all the work I had previously done.

That line really helped keep the stairs even looking.

             But the good new is that I was able to get the stairs on both sides done a lot quicker and in easily half the time.

times this by infinity and take it to the depth of forever and

 you will have but a glimpse of what I am talking about.

           So there are two lessons here.One is to always use the tools needed for the job at hand.  This saves you a bunch of time and frustration and stress.  The second is to use a sharp point for fucks sake!  Nothing would have worked better than if I had used a sharp point from the beginning.  That would have been the most useful thing possible.  The image isn't even fully done yet.  There are an insane amount of smudges on the drawing from using the triangle so much. So I still have to light board the whole thing.

 p.s.       On the subject of useful tools. While I was working in my room for a little while instead of a SCAD building one tool was really useful.

broken, but still just as useful.

          It's called a rolling ruler and it is awesome with find straight lines really quickly.  You just need to have some for the edge of the ruler and the paper to be flush against.  For me, that is a piece of cardboard glued to my drafting table.  Sadly I can't do that in the SCAD buildings so it is not something that I can always use.

A Pro Bono Project of the Storyboard Kind pt.5

        As I was adding in all the text and notes, to the boards I realized I had missed a board completely.  My two options are just to insert a page with an empty box, or re cut and paste everything and keep it looking professional.  I chose the later, which means that I wasted around 4 hours of work.  However the more professional the work I do looks the better I look as an artist.

         The real lesson is that I should have just been inserting the text as well while I was cutting and pasting earlier,  that way I would not have wasted as much time and discovered the mistake earlier.  Hopefully lesson learned.

           So in this is what the storyboards look like finalized.
                     

            This took me over 12 hours to do.  Due to fixing up boards, adding a couple of shots, and generally constantly getting board numbers and shot calls wrong.  However finally it is finished.  Now I just need to get the files to the guy.

The critique:

 - The boards are rushed and horrible, however they are readable and you can tell what is going on in them.

- I finished on time and am now waiting to her back from the guy so that I can get him the files. Big Plus there.

- Using the drafting tape became a waste of effort since I wound up cutting and pasting the images into a different file.  I really wish I had remembered that, given how frustrating the drafting tape is to use and that the leftover tack did effect my images in the end.  Big mistake there.

- I should have really been adding the notes as I was doing the original cutting and pasting, that would have saved me a lot of time.  I mean a lot of time.  Big mistake as well.

A Pro Bono Project of the Storyboard Kind pt.4

After all the drawings are done then I went ahead and scanned them.

Followed by a litte photoshop to up the contrast and remove the blue lines in the images.  Leaving me with something like this.

However, these are sadly messy with eraser bites and tack from the drafting tape I used.  So now I need to use photoshop to clean up the areas around the images with the simple method of cutting and pasting the board images.  So now they look like this.

The images aren't cleaned up like everything else but it still looks more professional, which is a very important habit to have even with rushed, pro bono projects.   Now all I need to do is add the notes, shot numbers, etc.

A Pro Bono Project of the Storyboard Kind pt.3

After the thumbnails come the final images.  The rushed, done at the last minute storyboards.

Just look at that hand. Ouch.

So basically I drew these out.  The final count of images turned out to be about 147 images, done in a very short amount of time.  So, these probably aren't going to go into a portfolio anytime soon.

This is a story of how I guy gives up in life.  This can already be seen when the character stops using gloves and ice, also when he smokes pot.  This however happens at the end of a number a scenes where bad stuff happens.  I decided to help show the progression by changing the characters clothing with each. I decided to try and help emphasize this with the main characters clothing. 

First he is wearing basically a suite with the jacket, along with an apron.  As if he is trying to be a professional as possible.

Then goes the tie and the sleeves are rolled up.   He is not trying to look overly professional.

Now the apron is gone and the food stains are on his shirt, making it a mess.  Maybe as if he has stopped caring but is still trying to look nice.

Now he is just in shorts and a t-shirt.  He has stopped caring bout being professional or looking nice completely.

      Also more drafting tape uses!

      This allows creates a professional look by keeping the edges of the drawing area clean and neat.  The problem with doing this is that the tack gets left behind and has to be wiped off, or it looks bad.  Also the tape wears out wears out very quickly, so I go through a lot of it. 

There is a third lesson as well.  ALWAYS USE TWO PERSPECTIVE POINTS!!!

For instance,

This image is very off.  I was rushing and being stupid so I tried to fudge the other perspective point and be quick about it.  Bad idea.  

Now with the second perspective point it looks a lot better.  So is my lesson learned?  Sadly, probably not.

A Pro Bono Project of the Storyboard Kind pt.2

The next stage in the project is the storyboards.  Generally I like to also have some books with me as well.

These are my thumbnails,  Normally I want to do two runs of thumbnails, but this is a rush job and I only did 1.5 runs of thumbnails for this project.

Look at all these thumbnails!

At one point, I got stuck bad on trying to figure out the shots for the film.  So I actually did something smart.  I made a couple of quick crude lists to help me get the mental juices flowing properly.

Afterwards, I emailed them to the person I am doing the storyboards for to makes sure they were happy with with the shot calls I was choosing.