The Attempt on Joss Whedon's Fan Mail pt.2

While I am waiting for an opportunity to download adobe After Effects, I have been working on the image I plan on sending to Joss Whedon. So as usual I did some sketches to practice Joss Whedon's face, and try a new idea for the composition.

     Since this is to JOSS WHEDON, and he is a director that uses storyboard artists (I hope),  I decided to work on my compositions more and did thumbnails.

..

       I like the one on the top left the best.  Bottom right is to intense, and this is still just a fun idea to give to somebody.  The bottom right defeats the whole purpose because you cannot even see if it is Joss Whedon, which is the whole point.  Of course form there I went to the tight rough.  

        When blowing this up to 11X17 size I realized something.

I had used the wrong format for the tight rough.  The tight rough template I used was for a side project that is suppose to be 8.5 x 11 size.  The solution to this is quite simple though.  I just trim both the working image and the final image when I send them to him.  Hopefully this will be one that gets sent a lot quicker, since it doesn't involve international shipping charges.

A Creepy Story for Stlaking pt.1

My next assignment for my Seqa class is a creepy stalker horror story.   So of course I brainstormed first.

It is a toss up between a space, Lovecraftian horror stalking a ship, and a monster stalking a guy and a prostitute only for the prostitute to eat the male before he does.

The difficulty in the space idea is showing the horror stalking the ship with very little objects to hide behind.  So I am going to catch my professor after class with some quick thumbnails to try and figure it out and get his opinion on it.

        Here are the thumbnails for the Space horror idea.  Now I just need to wait for his class to be finished for me to talk to hum about it.

The Class Assignment that is Two Pages Pt.3

  While waiting to hear back from some people, I took a look at the structure of my story and wrote some things down along with my notes.

       I had yet to even thumbnail my pages yet, so I decided to proceed with that next while letting the ending  options process through my brain.  I decided to take the time and do 2 run throughs of thumbnails.
Runthrough 1:

 Runthrough 2:

       So now I need to choose which thumbnails to work with.  I like my panel layout in the 2 set, along with how much happens in the story.  However the simplicity of the 1st run through is nice as well, and you can very easily put in too much information.  Also I still need to make a character model for the alien and a concept for the ship so it doesn't look like a spaceman spiff ripoff.  Of course I really need to have these pages as finished as possible by tomorrow morning.

               So I had finished the first page of my second run through and I realized something.  

This actually turned into a happy accident.  By the time I realized this I was already thinking of what other things I could have happen before they reach the rocket ship.  So instead of cutting those things out I did this instead.  

I like how this shows a lot of things happening while not taking up too much time story wise.  It is actually one of the nice things you can achieve easily with comics.  I definitely plan on using it in the finals.

The I Don't Have Time For This Pr Bono Project pt.3

      Normally I really prefer to do 2 full runs of thumbnails while going in two completely different directions.   I find this really helpful in coming up with better shots and camera pans.  I did not have time for this however so I had to go with my first run.
                       Next I made my storyboard formats for 4:3.  The producer wasn't sure what they were going to use at the time so I went with what he was hoping for.  After making my board pages for the correct format, I went ahead and did some blue line thumbnails from my first run.

 and then saved them as Photoshop files so that I could just open the file and work back into them for the final drawings.  I also saved a JPEG version so that I can make a PDF for the producer.

      I decided to try something new with using the horizon lines on this project.  I found a post on Tumblr about how you can use the horizon line to show which characters point of view the viewer is seeing.   Since the story is about a father and son who lost someone, I used the horizon line to show when it is the father's viewpoint and the son's viewpoint.  

     After I finished with the blue line thumbnails, I combined them into a PDF and sent them to the producer.  The reason I was sending these so much was because of the time limit and the fact that I was working two jobs.  I really had no idea if I would get them to the final stage in time or not.

         The producer happened to be in the lab where I was working so I went over the storyboards with him, and apparently there was a small problem with the steadicam shot that I had planned.  

The problem was that they were not sure if they could get a steadicam operator in time.  So I went back and planned out the sequence using still shots instead.  

I sent the alternate sequence to the producer and started to work on the final drawings.

The I Don't Have Time For This Pro Bono Project pt.2

          Eventually the producer was able to get his hands on the script and sent it to me.  This is where it is really nice to do things digitally.  I uploaded the PDF into Photoshop, and thumb nailed over the pages as I read them.

     I picked up this idea when I was taking  a class by Dove McHargue.  He recommended it to the class and I found it really helpful.  He was talking about comic book scripts, but this works just fine storyboarding as long as I have a digital copy of the script.   Afterwards, I made these into a PDF and emailed them to the producer.

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.

The Storyboard Animatic Project of Learning Pt. 5

         So, I have finally finished the 2nd thumbnail run through of my animatic.  Now it is on to the final   drawings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5Xp8BuWFIk&feature=youtu.be

         

         I finally have my aspect ration written down, however I am a little iffy about wether or not to use windows or keep on with ow I have been drawing the final images (See previous post).  While it would be nice to use a window and save myself some frustration there are so many camera pans and turns that it could just lead to a lot of frustration.  More than likely I will just mix them up, and see how it goes.
 
         Since I have access to SCAD equipment I also have the option of piecing these together instead of waiting until all are finished to scan them.  However, while that will help me realize bigger problems quicker, it will also slow me down on getting to a finished product.

The Storyboard Animatic Project of Learning Pt. 3

      So, around the beginning of November, after my first run through of thumbnails in aftereffects I decided to go back and redo a bunch to make them more readable, and to get a much better idea of what I am planning.  This was definitely a smart idea as I am still figuring out what to do.  So some of the images looked like this.

 

                I also decided to take advantage of the capabilities of After Effects and made drawings of the objects and environments that I wanted to animate.  I also realized the I could also reuse my environments for still figures that I am not animating.   So I made drawings like these:

 

                   

              I was working on this up until the end of the quarter, which was a little bit before Thanksgiving, in which case the quarter ended and I was no longer able to use the facilities in the SCAD building.  

Here is where I left off with the second thumbnails:      

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUugYBtUjPc&feature=youtu.be

                 After this point I wanted to save the 30 day trial of After Effects for when I had all of the final images done.  That way I would not have to worry about running out of time to make any changes.  So I decided to work on the images that I know were ready to be finalized in pencil form.

The Storyboard Animatic Project of Learning Pt.2

         So,  after the Storyboard Pro 2 trial ran out, I realized that I could still use the SCAD computers until the end of the quarter.  So I talked to a friend that teaches there and helped me figure out what I needed to know to make a storyboard animatic in After Effects. Before that I redid my thumbnails like so.

         Originally All of the thumbnails were suppose to be at the quality of the first image.  But due to the fact that I only had till the end of the quarter for free access to After Effects, I had to hurry up and get these done.  Upon finishing said thumbnails I went to see my friend in the SCAD building and began the proccess of turning the thumbnails into an animatic.

       This is the video result, also known as run through 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAdl-Z3sj1c&feature=youtu.be

The Storyboard Animatic Project of Learning Pt. 1

           So, during my class in the summer I was told that if I really needed to learn how to make a storyboard animatic and use Storyboard Pro.  Storyboard Pro happens to be the storyboard program that is standard in the industry.  So I decided that when it came to teaching myself how to make them that I would take my Korra Gangam style idea further and make storyboard a music video version.

           After finishing the drawing, I started to work on teaching myself how to make an animatic, so I downloaded a trial of Storyboard Pro 2.  After playing around with it for a little, I remembered the Gangam Style idea, and using my mouse made these crappy thumbnails to figure out what I wanted to do to figure out the timing of the video and what I wanted to do.

This is a good idea of what they looked like.

           The problem with the Storyboard Pro 2 trial was that you could only do segments of 30 seconds.  So I had save the project in parts. 5 to be exact.  Due to starting a job and needing to study for it. I managed to finish it just before the trial ended.   This is the point when I realized that I could sneak into a SCAD building.

The Overly Problematic Networking Attempt pt.2

      So as I was saying, I had chosen two images to draw.

This is the first one:

       

           It is meant to be in the bending arena, with the cast of Korra in front and Ghost Adult Anng in the back on top of the raised platform. This is actually my favorite idea because of the playfulness of Anng.  This also fits the layout of the people in the shot I used as reference.  

           This is the second image, and the first one that I started.  Same idea as before except the it is a view of Anng's statue which is in the back dancing like everybody else. I like this one because it was more uniform and quicker to read.  However it also comes across as a little more over the top and less fun.

           Before blowing these and printing a blue line on card stock, I did more practice sketches of Korra characters.  Like so.

There were about five more pages but you get the idea.

I focused on the faces thinking that they would be the hardest for me to get.  Also I had found pretty good reference for the outfits.  That way of thinking was not such a good idea actually.

The Overly Problematic Networking Attempt pt.1

           So at the end of August I had finished what I thought was my last class at Savannah College of Art and Design.  During that time I had the idea to send letters to various directors and creators and try to see if I could create a small discussion by talking shop.  One in a million, but whatever.  I tried it a couple of times and slipped in a storyboarding portfolio.  One got sent back as an unsolicited submission while the other there was no reply.  Then I decided to try it with cute fan art as a "bribe" so to speak.  My first attempt is Legend of Korra creators Mike and Bryan.  Obviously with the title this hasn't been as easy as it seems.

          The concept I came up with was to mix Gangam Style with the Legend of Korra cast in Season 2 clothing.  This was before Gangam Style blew up overseas and was just really popular in South Korea and people who are into Kpop.  I was also assuming that one of the two would have come across or heard about it, since the animation is done in South Korea. But I digress, after finishing class, I started to brainstorm and thumbnailed my idea out.  Like so.

 Also during this I was watching the video and referencing the dancing. This way I could pick and choose the poses that I wanted, and stay true to the research material.

          So while thinking about this, I was trying to decided between two images, both I like but I wasn't sure which would be better.  So I decided to do two, one for Mike, and one for Bryan.  That didn't work out so well.