Stolen Child WIP

[Mr. Jaqe]

still looking great

[Rodney]

Oh, ye of little faith.... 

I have yet begun to add the embellishing knotwork. When I said that this was a screen test, I meant it. Yet, late at night, I can since my poor abused hand quiver at the sheer thought of that much knotwork....

 

Thanks. I was reminded of that knotwork when I saw the image on A:M Stills.

Call me one of the faithful again... I really never doubted.

[smudge]

Thanks guys!

 

Time for the weekly update....

 

I need to get my brain in gear. This week was hectic, with trying to get one comic story done to send to the next artist down the line, starting another which is due at the end of the month, helping a friend try and get his mag together and off to the printer ASAP (with only half of the work actually turned in for it.... ) *and* getting geared up for WonderCon.

 

With all that, I really didn't have enough of a time block to sit down and mull over some of the animation (I need at least a two hour chunk to work on animation). So what did I do? Build a low patch count small Roman apartment building (192 patches)....

 

Focus, Pinky, Focus....

[smudge]

I did, at least, poked at redoing BG03. But I got to stop doing things for the updates the night before, ya know?

 

Need to tweak at BG03 just a little more. The cloud column isn't separating out correctly, and the first layer of water weeds is bending in such a way that the borders (which you shouldn't see) are coming well into view. Gotta stop that. The water looks happy, though!

BG03_new_compress.mov

[wwoelbel]

Hey Smudge! Are you awake yet? Poke Poke!

 

Sorry to wake you from a well deserved nap.

 

I grabbed your act I movie. Outstanding work! The style is wonderful. Its a cross between a musical, a graphic novel, and a movie. It grabs the best of each and weaves them together in a very pleasant way. The music is excellent. Who is the artist? I hope your body keeps up with your passion and drive. I'll make sure to keep up with your progress as it is really quiet excellent.

 

Bill

[Mr. Jaqe]

wow... Im always amazed by your work. surely someone asked this question before, but when will the flick be complete?

[John Bigboote]

Hey Christina- Just popping in for the 1st time on what appears to be an old thread. Great work! I can see a marked improvement from the files at the start and these more recent files...

[smudge]

Hey Guys, thanks for the responses.

 

Are you awake yet? Poke Poke!

...hum... wha... (pulls blankets back over head.... not noon yet, sleep more...)

 

The music is excellent. Who is the artist?

Music's by the very talented Heather Alexander off her first album, Wanderlust. Note to self: bug Heather about signing the final In Sync license contract.

 

but when will the flick be complete?

Last December? (Insert anime sweat drop here).

 

At the moment it's looking to be fall this year, hopefully. (hope, hope.)

 

Great work! I can see a marked improvement from the files at the start and these more recent files...

Thanks. I know my work has a long way to go, but I won't get there if I don't try.

 

Weekly work post--

 

Didn't get much time to work on things as I'd like (like I ever do ). Did work more on BG01, particularly the mother who was pooping when she transitioned from kiss the son on the cheek to walking off screen. Now, she'll still popping... just differently.

 

Also got a message back from Mr. Crow. Things are looking up for getting the rights for the EU. We're now at the contract negotiation phase. =wheee= We might actually have things locked down before I finish the short.

 

Back to work for me....

BG01compress.mov

[smudge]

--Weekly post, a day early since I'm gonna be gone tomorrow for WonderCon.

 

Arg! I'm really getting slammed this month. Too much to do and not enough time to do any of it. Unfortunately, this means that Stolen Child keeps getting pushed out of the way, which I really dislike. I'm still trying to do something each week. It's the only way this thing's ever going to get done.

 

'Mom's still fighting me. She's at least not popping as badly as she did before. But she's still not flowing correctly from one action to another.

 

That's all I've been able to do this week. =grr!=.

 

'Bout ready to delete all the 'Mom's animation information and start over.... . Going to try testing something first before I do that. If it works, it means I need to modify the model's rig (remove the hair constraints and redo them in a separate pose slider). A lot less work than trying to reanimate something that's almost there except for one little flaw. If not.... out comes the chain saw.

 

Yeah, I want this short done, but I also want it done right! I really hate it when projects fight me.

 

I'll try running the test this afternoon, and if I get it done quick enough, I'll post it. If not, I'll post it Monday when I'm back from the con.

BG01compress.mov

[smudge]

Sorry no post yesterday. Been sick with a head cold all week and only today did the evil horse-pill like antibiotics kick in....

 

Boy, I'm now really behind. I'm glad I contacted my publisher and told them I'd be late. I still have those same three pages left to do. But they were really understanding and I'm only going to slip by a couple of days.

 

Mom's still fighting me. I've cleaned her up a lot and the popping is gone, but now I'm wondering if my poses for her standing up are bad. Need to look at her once my brain is completely clear. Trying to do animation when your sick is very frustrating.....

 

Oh, and I don't think I ever posted the completed BG03--

BG03 Complete!

 

No rest for the weary....

BG01MomCompress.mov

[smudge]

Not much to report this week... still sick....

 

Did, however, finally get the contract back from the Heather Alexander, so now I've officially got the clearance for her tune. Yeah! Now, I just need to finalize things with the Society of Authors.

 

More next week when I'm feeling better...

 

...Hopefully....

[Rodney]

Christina,

Congrats on your clearance... little standing in your way now!

 

Hope you feel better soon.

I'd make you a bowl of soup but my wife won't allow me in the kitchen*.

(*There is good reason for that)

[smudge]

I'd make you a bowl of soup but my wife won't allow me in the kitchen*.

Thanks!

 

Nothing to report this week.

 

Doing much better, but now I'm to playing catch-up for the two weeks of sickness.

 

Got the pages off to my publisher. Murphy's law; here I'm all panicked that I'd missed the deadline, and they come back and tell me I'm the first person to submit anything....

 

But, I'm almost caught up with my workload now. Might be able to animate a little this weekend. That'd be nice....

[smudge]

Wow! I actually did some animating this week.

 

Got the 'Mom' in the first act fixed. She’s no longer popping nor slamming as she transitions from kissing her 'Son' on the cheek to walking off screen. I know the 'Father's still a little stiff, but I think I better move on to another shot. If I have time, I'll come back and revisit the shot to work on the 'Father'.

 

Next week, I plan to really look at my original schedule and adjust it accordingly to get back on track. I also plan on seeing if I can cut a trailer soon as a holdover for my website until I can get the final short done.

 

All this, another quickie short for another project, comics pages, and World of Warcraft, all at the same time. WEEEE!

BG01compress.mov

[smudge]

Not much to show this week despite how busy I've been. Actual work-like projects getting in the way. Gotta put food on the table somehow....

 

Had to deal with a small case of model corruption that kind of set me back. It's all fixed now. Did some animation too, but nothing I can really show. Hopefully, I can show a huge amount next week.

 

Still not quite back on track yet. =grr=

[nixie]

this is a very refreshing style and it suits your story very well, looks like the bayer tapestry! people like you inspire me.

 

Regards, Nixie

[smudge]

Thanks, nixie. Glad you like. Now here's hoping I can see it through 'till the end.

 

Sorry for no post last Friday. Things got kind of weird between trying to get the new Ebin & May graphic novel compiled for Radio, poking at an entry for the animation contest (don't know if I'm gonna make it but I'm trying anyway), and trying to convince another publisher that they really want me to letter their next book (aka pan-handling for paid work). But I did get the last touches to BG01 in, mainly fiddling with the clouds.

 

Next step, poking at BG04!

BG01compress.mov

[smudge]

Ug, it's Tuesday and I’m only now doing my Friday post? Erg ...

 

APE (Alternative Press Expo) kind of threw a ringer in things. But the shows over now, and I can start concentrating on other things (like my animation).

 

Mostly did maintenance stuff last week; updating my schedule, seeing what's done and what's not, figuring out whether I need to revisit already completed animations or not, ect. Added all this data to Toon-Tracker. Boy, when I get into larger productions that programs going to be a God-send!

 

The goal for this week is to try and finish off BG04. This should involve setting up the backgrounds for a very subtle movement in the clouds (so they are not dead), re-rendering the backgrounds with the Will O' Wisp, and taking a careful look at the son to see if I need to retouch the animation or not. Probably not with this shot, but I don't want to dismiss it out of hand.

 

Off to work for me!

[Zaryin]

I love that you are still working hard on a scene that I would have thought finished until I see you newest version. It's looking great. I can't wait until you finish the whole thing.

[Flog]

great work as always, always looking forward to the updates.

 

Although the boys reaction to his dad touching his head still looks like he was beat or something. Like his dad really smacked his head and he is dizzy now. Everything else is perfect, I notcied the subtle mouth movements of the oxen eating.

[Paul Forwood]

I love everything that you have been posting here, Christina! You are very talented and very commited.

 

There is just something about the father's walk that bothers me. I don't know if he is lifting his knees too high or whether it is the way the legs seem to snap forward or if he needs to bend his knees a little whn the weight is shifted onto the front leg. Not sure.

 

Anyway, everything else is just wonderful!

[oakchas]

smudge... pardon me for the critique.. I am a newb... but in fay's walk cycle... everything seems right from the waist up... but from the hips down... it seems like a lock kneed walk... does that make any sense?

 

everything else looks great... it's just that I noticed the legs... and then had to replay to get a sense for the rest...

 

respectfully,

Charlie

[smudge]

Oh, wow, I'm actually posting something on Friday for once...

 

Yes, my walk cycles suck. I've given up on them. Let's move on, or this will never get finished.

 

Worked on BG04 this week. Most of it's all there now. Adjusted the Son's ending pose to help with collision problems and to be more expressive to his reaction to the Will O' Wisp. Having the staff not slice the shot between him and the Wisp really helps.

 

Still need to adjust the Son's right arm. It's floaty right at the end where he grabs the staff again.

 

Next week, working on finishing BG04 and moving on to BG05.

 

*Quick Edit: Fixed floaty arm and re-uploaded .mov. Now, next week, I can completly focus on BG05.

BG04compress.mov

Edited April 15, 2005 by smudge

[smudge]

Woo-hoo! BG05's done!

 

Next on the hit parade is BG06. This is going to be complicated since, as yet, I have not finished rigging the Heron. So for me to finish BG06 I need to:

 

Finish rigging Heron

Animate Herons, 5 birds total

Animate the background elements, reeds, clouds and water

Probably need to create a specialty model for the water, ripples and drops

Then render everything

 

Can I get it done in a week? Probably not, and definitely not next week since I'm going to be out of town. So I'm setting my "due date" for the 9th of next month.

 

Here goes!

BG05compress.mov

[Rodney]

Your subtle improvements are making a difference.

 

This is frustrating in a way actually, because you keep refining what I thought were really fine shots already. I guess I need to hone my critical eye for the details.

 

As always... looking forward you your next post!

[Dearmad]

Very nice. I like the color balance you use, the stylistic poses which lend a certain sense of "craft" to the pieces, the ease of motion between poses is stylish too. Very nice sense of weight in balance to the boy, considering how smoothly you go in and out of poses- that's not easy to maintain, I think.

 

Of course the framing and sense of how you pieced together your visuals in balance with one another is beyond reproach. Maintaining that kind of visual balance and narrative is quite easily beyond my skills- I admire your talent there.

 

Um... you didn't ask for any crits, and consider you sequence done, but there's something I'd like to comment on (SKIP the remaining if you mind a nitpicker):

 

 

 

 

 

There's something about his run at the end that I can't put my finger on... it's a subtle enough cycle you have there that nothing obvious stands out, but here's what I thought: (NONE of these crits would be a for sure thing, as I said it's well beyond me as it is).

 

There's not quite enough bounce to his body when his forward leg comes up- a few frames after it is up.

 

I looked over a lot of your stuff over time and noticed that you sometimes drive the leg motion with the hip. In other words you have the hip move preceding or going with the leg motion. This isn't quite right and is not a natural walk; at least I've never observed anyone do that in their normal ambulation.

 

What I've observed happening when in walks is, while the hip will sway with the leg, the hip doesn't go in advance of the leg, it follows, and accentuates the motion- especially in women. While it can certainly be true that the hip is eventually forward on the forward leg it is NOT forward until after the leg is planted. So that it is safe for that weight to follow and be on top of the supporting leg- that's how the physics of it seem to work anyway.

 

This moment for the hips to be over the leg is abbreviated a lot in a run, but still I don't think it should preceed the placement of the leg in space (if not on the ground).

 

I think, though the video is small, that you have the boy's hips moving slightly in advance or in synch with the legs, when in fact they should lag behind just a tad.

 

Try that, if you like. Otherwise your walk cycles rock to my eyes. Loads of character to them.

[smudge]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

 

Sorry for no post last week. I was out of town. But I'm back on the ball this week.

 

Worked on BG06 this past week. Splitting the background up and preparing it for animation was, for some odd reason, tougher than normal. I think I had to redo the clouds like five times....

 

But I've got a first pass at the clouds and lakeside done, and, while I do have the reeds and water lilies split from the original background as well, I won't be animating them until next week.

 

As for the Heron, Obnomauk aka David Rodgers has, thankfully, volunteered to step in and give rigging the wings up a try. This is probably the most difficult rig in the entire short since the boards ask for the birds to go from a standing position (with their wings folded) to taking flight. It's easy to rig for one position or another, but mind-blowing hard to set a rig that can do both. I'm so glad he felt up for the challenge.

 

You go for it, Dave!

 

Next week, animating the foreground to BG06. If I get that done before Dave finishes the rig, I'll move onto BG07, which will need simple specialty models for a water drop and ripple rings for the water surface.

 

Onward!

BG06Background_compress_.mov

[smudge]

Nothing to report this week, since I couldn't do any work on the film.

 

ACK! Trying to set up for six different art shows (two attending) will do that.

 

If any of you are attending either Fanime Con or the AVArtfest stop by Baron's and I's booth and say "Hi".

 

Next week's schedule: Next verse, same as the first? I hope not.

[entity]

Worked on BG06 this past week. Splitting the background up and preparing it for animation was, for some odd reason, tougher than normal. I think I had to redo the clouds like five times.... 

 

I hate to say this if it was expressed before on your thread, but do you think separating the clouds by slight color changes might help seeing the depth of the clouds? And I think the clouds should move upward arcs.

That's just my opinion... cause everything looks just wonderful as is. Thanks for your "consistent persistence"!

[smudge]

I hate to say this if it was expressed before on your thread, but do you think separating the clouds by slight color changes might help seeing the depth of the clouds?

Actually, I had considered it. But on review of the artist's work that I'm patterning the film after, I found that he doesn't do it (one in maybe twenty pics if that). So I'm not gonna worry about it at this stage of the game.

 

As for the clouds, some do arc up. Some arch down, some don't arch at all. It all depends on:

 

A. How much information I've got to play with (usually not much) and

 

B. What will read on the screen.

 

There are usually three cloud layers to each background, with one or two exceptions. If they all moved in the same direction it just would read as one giant white blob. However if they are moving against each other you get a cool layered thing. Sometimes it means arching the clouds up, sometimes not. Also I don't want to add too much motion to the background lest you won't be able to focus on the main action of the characters.

 

But thanks for the thought, entity. It's comments like that that keep me honest.

 

Ug... back to matting. My hand's gonna fall off at this rate....

[entity]

Keep up the ARTFUL elegance!

[smudge]

UG! Sorry for not updating for two weeks!

 

Been busy trying to do two different art shows back to back, FanimeCon and the AVArt fest. Both went off real well and now I'm free to animate again. This weeks been recover and tying up loose ends so I haven't been able to do anything animation wise until today, and that starts by posting this.

 

More next week when I have something to show. Yeah!

[smudge]

Back to the typical friday posting....sort of

 

God hates me. I know it.

 

I acutally have something to show today; BG06 with all the background & forground elements animated. This pretty much finished with what I can do with the sceen until I here back from David about the Heron Rig.

 

So of course *this* is the day that my main work machine that has all the files refuses to boot. Blue-Screen of death time. Inaccessaible boot device.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Somedays, I just can't win....

[Obnomauk]

This pretty much finished with what I can do with the sceen until I here back from David about the Heron Rig.

Have I mentioned that wings are hard to rig it's been on and off the burner for weeks now and while I think I have a fairly manageable solution for just wing and feather happiness in general, folding a wing is a very complicated maneuver, lots of feathers sliding over and under other feathers. But I do love a challenge!

 

I hope to have something substantial to report soon(ish)

 

-david

[Mr. Jaqe]

About the bluescreen: Have you made sure the Harddisk Drive is properly connected? A similar thing has happened to me multiple times before and the source of the problem was either the IDE_ or power cable slipping. Eventually I had to replace my HDD, because it was so worn around the cable area as a result of pulling cables in and out. You should also check your BIOS to make sure the HDD appears there/that the settings are correct.

 

Hope you get it fixed, I know how damn annoying it is when you loose important stuff due to harddisk failure.

[smudge]

HA! Recovery!

 

Actually, Mr. Jaqe, that wasn't the problem. Rose(my machine, we name our machines in this house-hold just to keep straight which machine we’re talking about) was doing that blue screen *after* booting and loading Windows 2K, but not before you got to the login screen. Once Rindis got home from work, he pounded on Rose until she finally recognized Check Disk, then she was happy. Stupid computer.

 

As promised, here's what I was able to get done this past week; happy still lawn-herons standing in water (ie, the clouds and reeds are the only things moving). Until Obnomauk finished the rig, I can call this done and move onto the next shot.

 

Obnomauk, no rush on the rig. The 'Heron' is only used in two shots in the entire film. Of course they are two of the most difficult shots to TD in the entire film. If you think the 'Heron' is tough now, what 'til I get to the second shot in Act 2 when we start throwing in particles with the birds.... (Why do I do this to my self?) I know how difficult the rig for the wings is, which is why I was more than happy to hand them off to someone far rigging-wiser than I. I'm just moving on ahead with the ability to jump back and finish this scene off at any time when you think they are ready. No worries.

 

Onward!

BG06compress.mov

[Rindis]

About the bluescreen: Have you made sure the Harddisk Drive is properly connected?

With the information given, I made exactly the same conclusion. That something had happened with the physical end, and the machince couldn't find the hard drive.

 

Imagine my surprise when I get home, turn on Rose, and she starts booting up.

 

During the last stage she halts with the blue screen. The jist of the entire message was that HD had corrupted and the system could not access something it needed to boot. Thus, "Boot Device Inaccessable."

[Mr. Jaqe]

James, I guess great minds think alike

 

Actually, Mr. Jaqe, that wasn't the problem. Rose(my machine, we name our machines in this house-hold just to keep straight which machine we’re talking about) was doing that blue screen *after* booting and loading Windows 2K, but not before you got to the login screen. Once Rindis got home from work, he pounded on Rose until she finally recognized Check Disk, then she was happy. Stupid computer. 

 

Christina, I think I found your problem...

and loading Windows 2K

Windows 2K

Yepp, there it was Not the ideal OS when having plenty of important stuff on your computer, but I guess it's sufficient. I would, however, recommend an upgrade/to buy an external HDD to backup all your important stuff on. I have a 200 GB Maxtor with 5200 RPM, more than enough, as long as it's only used for storageing. It has saved me poor rear-end more than once. I'm the kind of guy that sometimes like to spend more time with the cabinet open and the screen black rather than the cabinet closed and the screen flashing from all my fancy stuff.

 

OH! and btw, like the birdeys, neat look, very bird-like.

Edited June 18, 2005 by Mr. Jaqe

[Dearmad]

Eh, win2k is a fine OS.

 

Anyway, I like the design of the screenspace in your anim, there, Christine. Your way of breaking up the screen really shows your experience with visual story telling, I think.

[smudge]

Weekly update!

 

Got a good start on BG07 & BG08. The first pass of BG07 is rendered. Debating on whether I need to speed up the droplet or not.

 

Pros: Right now it's moving too slowly and feels "floaty". Speeding it up would correct this.

 

Cons: Speeding it up means a much sorter view time on screen (in this case, inside the panel). Folks might not be able to recognize that it's a water drop if it's moving too fast.

 

Need to think on this.

 

Also need to think on how to handle rendering BG08 due to how HASH handles the Alpha channel. Talked to Noal & Yves about this already when I was up in the area visiting HASH Inc. Need to get back to them on it, probably next week between doing more matting & framing. Setting up for three different art shows again, two of which need to be in the mail by next Wednesday, Yikes!

 

Anyway here's the first render of BG07!

BG07compress.mov

[smudge]

Sorry for no post last week. Things have been hectic. The two art shows are off and away. Now it's setting up for SDICC.

 

Have been able to work on the short however. YEAH! Got the fish in for BG08. They are very fishy. However, when I dropped it into the reel, I can't tell if their motion is fighting with the main motion of the 'Son' in another panel or not. Poo. I've been staring at this thing too long and am starting to lose perspective. I'm going to wait until after Comic-Con to look at it again and decide if I need to change it.

 

Also filed the bug/feature report about the alpha channels to Hash Reports. Hopefully they (in this case probably Noel & Yves (sp?)) will have a chance to look at it soon. I have a pretty good idea how busy their work schedule must be and since I'm not reporting anything that's 'broken' it'll be awhile before they get to it. We'll see. In the meantime I need to figure out a work-around to both Hash's render channel & Premiere's stupidity to complete BG07 & BG08. Again, something to contemplate after Comic-Con.

BG08compress.mov

[smudge]

Standard Friday update!

 

Got BG07 & BG08 complied together and have discovered a minor problem. Because of the way they had to be compiled, I've ended up with this weird black line at the bottom of the panel during the shift from BG07 to BG08. =gr!= Best way I can think to correct it is to go in and touch-up the background of BG08 to fill in that area. Not a major thing but it is time consuming. And here I thought I had everything worked out. Poo!

 

(Continued in next post due to uploading more than one video...)

BG07_BG08compress.mov

[smudge]

(Continued)

 

I’m also looking at redoing the fish slightly since I’m really thinking that the one that darts off screen does it badly when mixed in with the other video. I need to have him appear above the son’s panel not dart behind it.

 

I’m slowly coming to the realization that I’m going to have to redo all my matts too. But that can wait until I’ve finalized all my shots for the first act. I’ll probably touch them up as I’m working on dropping all the knot-work in.

 

Fiddle, fiddle. Futz, futz.

BG07_BG10snippetCompress.mov

[Mr. Jaqe]

I've been wondering, how did you create the glowing fairy(if that's what it is, reminds me of Link's friend)?

 

Very nice, though the fish closest to the screen seems to move a bit odd, like it's swimming, but not getting anywhere when it stops...

 

EDIT: btw, cool Wow-comic. Do you play the game aswell?

[smudge]

I've been wondering, how did you create the glowing fairy(if that's what it is, reminds me of Link's friend)?

I'm assuming you mean the Will O' Wisp? It's a simple model of a flat circle with a ring around it. The Ring is boned to spin around the center. The texture map takes care of the glow.

 

Hope that helps.

 

As for WoW, I play it waaaay to much....

[Mr. Jaqe]

Indeed it helps!

 

As for WoW, I play it waaaay to much....

There's no such thing as playing WoW waaaay too much, lemmie guess: you're a Nightelf druid or something like that. What server are ye on?

[smudge]

Nightelf Warrior, actually. I like my guys good looking, strong and slightly stupid.

 

He's on Uther. I've got a bunch of characters scattered between Uther, Dragonblight, Eldr'thalas(sp?), Sliverhand and a couple others depending on what group I'm gaming with. Blanc is my main thou and is currently trying to figure out how to afford a mount.

 

But that's enough of a WoW hijacking for this thread (for now)....

[smudge]

Another Friday update.

 

Fish are happier now. Still need to repaint the background. After I finish with the re-painting it's on to BG09 I guess.

 

<sarcasm> Wow, I might actually finish the first act by the end of the year...</sarcasm>

BG07_BG10snippetCompress.mov

[smudge]

Finished repainting the background on BG08 and re-rendered everything. I can finally stick a fork in this scene and call it done. On to BG09 and fixing the 'Son's animation.

BG07_BG10snippetCompress.mov

[smudge]

Standard Friday Post (if not a little late in the day....)

 

Been busy this week. Between 2 diffrant work contracts and fighting with rigging, I havn't gotten much else done. At lest I'm getting paid for my stress for once ...

 

Did, however review BG09. Found that the popping knee problem I was having on a diffent model was affecting things here too. So I saved off the 'Son' model under a new name, re-rigged his legs, touched up his animation and re-rendered the shot.

 

Still need to touch up the clouds and get them moving. That'll be the project for next week, I suppose.

BG09compress.mov