Video Short Film Blog

[Bruce Del Porte]

Introduction: I’m remaking an old Christmas video called “Twas the Night Before Christmas” that I did three years ago. As I completed scenes, I thought I would blog them here for general discussion of animated short making and have everyone critique what I am doing.

 

I originally did this piece as a video Christmas card however in my ignorance of delivering video, most of the people I sent it to didn’t have the bandwidth or a powerful enough computer to view it. This year I will make it into a DVD and hope for a wider audience. I started about the first of July and am shooting for completion by December 19th. While I would love a lot more time, I am going to make as many improvements to the original as I can in the allotted time. This gives me a chance to mail DVDs for Christmas and there is a local art-house movie theater that uses a digital projector that has agreed to screen it on the 19th as part of their Arthaus Microcinema Series. http://chaosartspace.blogspot.com I’ve shown other cartoons there before and it is striking how good some of them look on a theater screen. Original Video 25Mb

 

Background: I’m currently half way through the courses of Animation Mentor and need a real world exercise to practice the theory I have been learning. While the original piece has its charm, it is clear it could use some animation and cinematography improvements. I’m not much of a modeler so most of the models are adaptations or right out of the Hash donated collection. This year I plan on substituting the Santa Cat from the Extras CD for the two models I used before. I also will change from subtitles to a voiceover. Other than that I will reuse most of the previous characters and sets with some new tweaks.

 

Shooting Schedule: There are 25 planned scenes. There are five sets and three main characters and a some extras. I will combine shooting scenes as much as practical. I will be compositing character action onto fixed sets where it seems to save render time. Last time I didn’t really know about compositing and each scene was shot as one pass.

 

Week 7/1 Opening (1)

Week 7/8 Kids room (2) & Sugar plums (3)

Week 7/15 Moma’s room (4)

Week 7/22 Spring to window (5)

Week 7/29 Wondering eyes (6)

Week 8/5 Dry leaves (7)

Week 8/12 Now Dasher (8)

Week 8/19 To the roof (10)

Week 8/26 Head in (11)

Week 9/2 Down Chimney (12)

Week 9/9 Stockings (14)

Week 9/16 Presents (16)

Week 9/23 Pipe (17 & 19)

Week 9/30 Santa (20)

Week 10/7 Complete presents (22)

Week 10/14 Up Chimney (23 & 24)

Week 10/21 & 10/28 Kat looking (9,13,15,18,21)

Week 11/4 To all a good night (25)

Week 11/11, 11/18, & 11/25 Slack and fix scenes that really bother me

Week 12/ 2 & 12/9 Composite and editing

Week 12/16 Produce DVD

December 19th It’s Show Time and mail DVDs

 

Note: The “Kat looking” shots are the Dad/narrator reaction shots to seeing Santa. I will do them last so I can vary the lengths of each one to keep the timing of hitting the music beats on track. This gives me a little slack on length for each scene.

 

 

Workflow: I use Animation Master v13 for all of the sets and character animation. The conversion from 10.5 to 13 has gone pretty smoothly with no insurmountable problems. I try and shoot in layers and composite in Sony’s Vegas Video 6.0. I pretty much always keep a running WIP in Vegas and render out daily progress. I animate in AM and render TGAs continuously when I am away from the computer. If I keep track of file naming correctly the Vegas WIP is always the latest version. Some masked composites I do in Autodesk’s Combustion 4.0, I’ll try and point those out when I do and why. Everything is being done on a Dell Precision 670 w/ 2X P4 3.8GHz Xeon, 3GB. The schedule is tight and life always intervenes so I am going to have to not let “perfect” be the enemy of “good enough” if I am going to make December 19th.

 

Here we go!

 

Scene 1 For this scene I wanted to improve the lighting to include some flickering to make it seem like the primary illumination came from the fireplace and to add a little dynamics to the scene. I rendered out the flames as a separate pass and used it as a gel on a klieg placed in the fireplace. It is hard to tell how many flickering is enough. Each frame took 18 minutes to render so I don’t get many renders to experiment.

 

I tried to upgrade the sprites for both the snow and the fire. Originally I used the flames from the firepot project as is, I wanted to make the fire seem a little more roaring. I couldn’t get the brightness in the firebox and the shadowyness of the room on one pass to look good so I did them as separate passes and composited them together in Combustion because I needed to mask off the sides of the firebox. The left two stockings are a separate layer to allow for the firebox composite. I also added a render of one frame of the tree behind the window set to 75% transparent to look like a reflection in the window. I never could get the window pane reflection to look right.

 

I changed the title from one of the stock Vegas 3.0 text pages to using AM’s Font wizard and rendering it in the flickering light as a separate pass.

 

If I have time to improve it at the end I will redo the snow pass to make the startup a little smoother.

 

Scene One

 

 

Scene 2: Not many changes here. I did a little modeling around the window sash and added the snow from scene one. I also added a tweak or two to the lighting to add a little flicker from the TV.

 

Scene Two

 

Scene 3: I redid the Sugarplum Fairy and changed the sprites. Originally I had candy canes as the sprite but they didn’t read all that well. Technically sugarplums are candies so the candy canes were correct but I wanted to add some color so I made the scene a little more abstract. I tried to improve the yawn but other than that, Shaggy is the same. I did the fade of the back wall in 10.5 and there was a strange line as it went transparent. I never could figure it out. I just faded it in Vegas this time.

 

The Sugarplum Fairy still seems a little stiff. Her rig is old and sort of sub-optimal so if I have time I may rerig her and do this scene over.

 

Scene Three

[Rodney]

Bruce,

You didn't ask for suggestions so I'm hesitant to add these.

Since they are minor and you probably already have them covered I'll post them.

Say the word and I'll edit them out.

 

First let me say that I remember seeing your film before (at least I'm pretty sure it was your film).

Getting a chance to go back in and change things has got to be fun and a whole lot of work all at the same time.

I look forward to seeing your progress posted here.

 

I redid the Sugarplum Fairy and changed the sprites.

Those sprites are very effective. I love them!

If I could suggest anything with the sprites (both snow and fairy dust) I'd suggest a little more transparency to blend them in.

 

Scene Three. The scene with Shaggy in bed.

You've adjusted the yawn but now his nose penetrates through the upper pallet of his mouth.

 

Looking foward to the next update!

Rodney

[Bruce Del Porte]

I didn't see the nose penetrate, thanks Rodney. Yes, critique away, I can't possibly see everything.

 

Thanks

 

Edit: It was a quick fix Nose Fix

[Bruce Del Porte]

Scene Four: Here I didn't change much, I fixed his hat and tweaked his eyes. I experimented making the bedspread using cloth sim but I don't have the knack for it quite yet. Since it isn't important to the story, I left it for another day. The Trolley Wood material on the picture frame above the bed was strobing for some reason. Removing Porcelain seemed to abate the noise on the frame. I wasn’t able to do anything about the noise in the decal, probably because of the angle. So far, I'm on schedule but the hardest scenes are ahead of me.

 

Scene Four

[dborruso]

Looks nice so far. Not that much character animation to comment about yet, I guess you'll have more when it gets into the story. So are you doing this as a project for animation mentor? Or just a side thing?

[Bruce Del Porte]

Yes, these are the establishing shots to give audience the layout and establish the mood of a house asleep yet in anticipation of Santa's visit. The main characters, Dad & Santa, get introduced in the next couple of scenes.

 

This is really a side project. School uses specific exercises to emphasize certain basic skills. Eventually you have to translate all these skills to movie making and you really have to practice that on your own.

[Bruce Del Porte]

It is midweek and this is the basic scene of shot five. I still have to add in his hat and do a lot of polishing but this is the basic idea. His tail seems to take over the scene when the idea is that he is looking outside to investigate a noise. I may reduce the size of his tail and try to keep the wag below his shoulders.

 

Scene five WIP

[martin]

I'm following your blog here, Bruce. What an excellent use of models from the A:M Library, and I think your family and friends will love getting this in their Christmas card, (me too).

[Dhar]

It is midweek and this is the basic scene of shot five. I still have to add in his hat and do a lot of polishing but this is the basic idea. His tail seems to take over the scene when the idea is that he is looking outside to investigate a noise. I may reduce the size of his tail and try to keep the wag below his shoulders.

 

I'm following your progress Bruce with much interest. I too like utilizing the characters that come with the CD, in fact, I'm working on one in parallel with my work on TWO.

 

Here's a thought about this scene, since KeeKat just woke up, why not have the tail simply droop along on the floor to indicate sleepiness?

 

Keep up the good work. I'd love to see the end result.

[Bruce Del Porte]

Hey thanks for watching,

 

In this take, I tried to quiet the tail down some but I still wanted to show some emotion on Dad’s part. In the first couple of shots, I show a house asleep anticipating Christmas. The kid who you would normally think would have insomnia waiting for Christmas morning is asleep dreaming and it is Dad who is awake with the excitement of Christmas Eve. Since Dad is looking away from the camera, I need the tail to show his nervous anticipation as he uses a noise (exaggerated is its description as a clatter) outside as an excuse to get up and look outside hoping to get a glimpse of Santa. At the end of the shot, I want the audience to be led to look outside with Dad, leading to the next shot that will be a POV of Dad’s view outside where I (the poem) will introduce Santa. By the time the shot gets to the window, I want the tail to subtly sustain the anticipation but the main focus to be looking outside. Anyway that’s my story interpretation and cinematic intent. I don’t think I’m there yet but I still have some time left this week.

 

Dhar, yes, these are great models, it would be a crime not to use them.

 

 

Thanks

 

Scene 5

 

 

Martin, I'll put you on the Chrismas card list!

[Dhar]

You really got my interest on what you're trying to communicate with the tail. We have 3 cats, and one thing I noticed when they're half asleep, is that only the tip of the tail actually moves back and forth while the rest of it stays still. Cats speak volumes with their tails

[Bruce Del Porte]

I tweaked the tail a little more and added his hat falling off from the leap. It happens pretty quickly, and doesn't read real well. There may be too few frames to do it effectively and leaving it on for the whole shot has problems with his head out the window, I'll tweak it some more but I may nix it and leave it on the bed if I can't make it work effectively. Thanks for the cat tail intel, I dropped it down to just the tip as he looks out the window.

 

With hat

[Zaryin]

I remember when you posted the first one. I like that one, can't wait to see it "New and Improved". It's going to be great.

[Bruce Del Porte]

This week is up, it is time to move on. I added some frames as he loses his hat but I think it is still too fast to read really well. I would probably need to entirely reblock the scene to give it enough time to be obvious and right now the schedule says I don't have time. Fortunately it isn't an important story point and really has no role later, I may just take the hat out altogether. I may work on the transition on both ends of the scene, too as time permits. Next, we move to restless Dad using a noise outside to sneek a peek and enjoying the fresh snow but seeing the noise is only a dog.

 

 

Scene 5

[Bruce Del Porte]

This scene is a point of view (POV) showing what a restless Dad sees as he gets up to investigate a noise outside. Already in the Christmas spirit, he is awestruck by a full moon illuminating freshly fallen snow. The noise turns out to be a stray dog.

 

I gave AO a try and changed from the urban sodium street lighting look to a more surreal blue glow with the vanishing point taking you to the infinity of the stars. I’m not sure I completely understand AO and will experiment with it some more. Like a lot of the new features of the past couple of years (hair comes to mind), you take a big render time hit. I broke the scene up and rendered the background as a singe frame and composited the dog in. I haven’t added a shadow pass yet, I will add it in once I get the dog’s crossing finished.

 

 

Scene Six

[thekamps]

Looks good.

One thing that is confusing/odd though...

 

The narrator is saying "The moon on the grass" and the character is looking at a city scene with no grass:)

[NancyGormezano]

With respect to the hat - perhaps you could have him grab it as it flies from his head - ie like catching it - rather than have it go out of scene.

 

and with respect to the lighting outside the window - I saw the blue render first and thought beautiful - but then when I went back to scene 5 - I saw the brownish (which is also nice) - probably the bluish (ao)communicates winter better - but the brown is moodier & more grungy.

 

Also it would be nice if perhaps the dog could have long shadows to make it more dramatic.

 

glad to see you resurrecting this.

[Viper GTX2.0]

Looks nice. Cant wait for the finished film.

[Bruce Del Porte]

Hmmmm,

 

The line is supposed to sound like "The moon on the breast of a new fallen snow..." I don't know, can we say breast here? Sorry for the confusion.

 

Thanks Nancy The sodium light brownish-yellow is maybe a little too urban edgy, I'm trying to add a little more Santa magic so I think I will stick with the mysterious blue. I'm still experimenting. Since I am now compositing the scene, tweaking a fixed background isn't a big time hit. I seem to be tweaking within the error band of the technology, it looks a little different on each screen I have. Thank god for deadlines. I left the shadow pass for the dog until the very end so it will track precisely.

[thekamps]

I replayed it real loud and sur enough...

Darn ears/hearing! I'm really getting old.

 

Sorry.

[Bruce Del Porte]

Thanks, a second check is why I post here. Does the sound level seem unusually low? One is always the last to know when their own equipment is fading.

 

It may well be time to finish up, the dog, I'm not sure I am improving the background anymore. I like the moon better but I may go back the the first one, the sense of snow on the street seems less here.

 

 

Scene Six Tweaked

[NancyGormezano]

The sound does not seem low to me at all - might even be too loud - but it would be real hard to evaluate this (and ridiculous as I am sorta losing my hearing). Who knows how differently I've got my speakers turned up, or my settings on volume control compared to your system.

 

I like the rendering - very lovely - but I also am not getting a sense of new fallen snow - could use some irregularity and light fluffy texture on those smooth city sidewalks - and to make the scene a little more interesting (but it's plenty interesting enough) - perhaps the dog can leave some tiny footprints in the snow

[Bruce Del Porte]

After a brief hiatus I’m back at it. Sometimes life intervenes. I’m a couple of weeks behind schedule now and will have to kick it up a notch to make the end date,

 

I’ve blocked out the rest of the POV shot where Dad first sees Santa whizzing by. I’ve still got to loosen up the reindeer a little and maybe add some magic sprite sparkle trailing the sled. I want Dad/audience to be seeing/feel the magic that even though he is in “wondering” what he is seeing, the magic tells him this is something special, this has to be Santa.

 

In the original I shot this as a complete scene. Here I am compositing Santa and the sled onto the background. This allows me more flexibility in lighting the sled of it can be seen clearly, a problem in the last version. For the run on the ground, I mask off the sled at the edges of the buildings in Combustion. I just painted the runner marks in the snow. The stars and gradient blue sky are separate layers so I can come from behind a building against the sky.

 

 

Spotting Santa

[MMZ_TimeLord]

Bruce,

 

Excellent work so far... I really like the improvements you've made... keep up the good work! Bravo!

[Bruce Del Porte]

Here I've added some of Santa's magic dust turning into a Christmas eve snow, even on a clear night. This is a first pass and I've still got a bit of tweaking to do, but you get the effect I am after. Let me know what you think!

 

 

With snow

[NancyGormezano]

fun fun fun snow effect ! very good (how'd ya do it ? - do tell). I like that some flakes appear blurred at the end, as well.

 

The one thing that seems off to me is the santa sleigh appears too soon - love the pattering of raindeer footsteps & the tracks being left - I just feel like santa should appear after she says "and what to my eyes should appear but eight tiny raindeer", then the patter patter patter and then very quickly the sleigh is seen up in the air passing back by - Could be funnier, and more surprising.

[Bruce Del Porte]

Thanks, I'll try it.

 

The snow is three different passes, small, medium and large and I stagger when the are faded in. Then I stack them . This gives two visual clues for depth perception, size and stacking. I stagger them fading in trying to give the perception of it spreading from the sled, moving toward the viewer. I’ll see how it looks on the big screen. The blur is just transparency.

 

Edit: Nancy,

 

That edit seems to work, maybe a little more tweaking to keep it on beat. Also it shortens the scene a little. Thanks.

 

edit

[Bruce Del Porte]

After a month long hiatus for a trip home and to do a short for the Mini-Movie Contest, I’m back on this project. The schedule took a hit but that’s show biz.

 

Here I am testing the basic staging layout. This is a shot to introduce Santa to the audience. The mood changes from a sleeping house to the chaos of piloting a loaded flying sled, pulled by eight reindeer. Since this is the first look at Santa, the sequence is fairly long, 21 seconds. We will see Santa’s sense of urgency for the task but that he is in control like the pro he is. Santa doesn't really have a mood change himself so I think I can keep it as a medium shot the whole time. He will get his close-ups later.

 

This is the only sequence with lip sync, the narrator will deliver his line. Next I will start to add Santa’s basic body poses and breakdowns. I will do the lip sync and facial expressions last.

 

 

Sequence Nine

[Rodney]

Bruce,

Its been too long since I checked in on your Blog.

Some really nice additions!

 

I especially like your subtle yet effective use of sound... particles and lighting.

 

I'd love to see a Bird's Eye view of sequence 8* to demonstrate how you set up the scene.

Its hard to tell how much is 3D and how much 2D.

 

However you did it... it looks great!

 

Sequence 9 already... looks like I need to go back and see what I've missed.

Christmas will be here soon.

 

Edit:

*Sequence 9 reveals you have quite a few 3D buildings in there.

[Bruce Del Porte]

The buildings and street models are all of the CD. I changed the color of the window glows and added a snow material to the street.

 

I did the shot in two passes, one with the camera moving through the canyon or buildings and borrowing a trick from a ride at Universal Studios, I shot with the sled and camera both stationary, using secondary motion and a moving background to give the sense of a flying sled. The sled is the red spot near the middle. The only 2D matte is the static stars field. In the original I did it as one shot and the camera tracked the sled through the buildings. I don't think I lose much with this simplification.

 

[Rodney]

Wow. Fast reply. Thanks Bruce!

 

A very nice, simple, yet effective approach.

[case]

cool cool cool amazing snow project you got effective yet simple.Great job!!

[Bruce Del Porte]

I blocked in some of the basic poses and actions. I also blocked the jaw movement of the lip sync. I had thought of going with a sprite magic whip and included a non-animated sample to see if it looked Santa’s-Magicie enough. Sprites are always time consuming and I may have to just go with a normal whip. I’m also trying to come up with a big finish final gesture. There is still plenty to polish and I want to get the whip arm action timing closer before I start animating the whip pass itself. Critiques if you got them.

 

 

blocking pass

[martin]

Blink. Blink again.

 

Make the side to side motion jerk more. (It's very rhythmic now). (These suggestions brought to you from your friendly anitomato).

[Bruce Del Porte]

He is in controlled flight, not really sledding. I tried a pass making it more randomly bumpy but it would have been a nightmare polishing secondary action. It isn't a real story point and my animating staff of me, myself, and I am already very nervous about the Christmas deadline. This is one of those cost and schedule compromises I'm just going to have to be OK with. You are right though, it would probably be cooler, maybe in the 2008 version.

[Bruce Del Porte]

Getting further along on this scene. I could probably spend a couple of more weeks on this one but I'm running short on time. I'll spend the weekend polishing and probably making the whip vanishing a little smoother. Maybe even quicken the whip moving forward a frame or two if I have time. I need to move on.

 

 

Scene 9 WIP

[Rodney]

Bruce,

Did I miss an update and you've finished this film?

[Vong]

Yeah, what's going on with this? It's 12/12, and the premiere is a week away...

[Bruce Del Porte]

Well.......Due to poor management on my part, I wasn't getting the level of upgrade in the look I had envisioned. External responsibilities also reduced the amount of time I had to work on it. Experimenting with AO and taking more time with the characters put me further behind. I came to the conclusion that I really had not allowed nearly enough time for everything I wanted to and could accomplish. Rather than let schedule make all the artistic decisions, I have rescheduled the release for next year. I am experimenting with way better renders, taking advantage of some of the new features and will replan for a release 12/07. Fortunately there is a Christmas every year. I will keep posting when I have the new look to show. Merry Christmas!

 

Thanks for asking!