Milestone 01- Getting Started

Getting started I had to: figure out a production process pipeline, I had to get organized, so production will run smoothly, and I had to get started immediately on actual production.

My “Process” will consist of 11 different phases to complete each shot: Key Frames, Pencil Test 01, Inbetweens, Pencil Test 02, Final Drawings of the characters over their construction lines, Pencil Test 03, INK the drawings/ clean up, Scan/Capture the final image into the computer, Color (if I have time), Composite, FINAL Composition. I broke the film down into 7 different Scenes, consisting of about 63 shots, so that I can focus on each part and not get overwhelmed with how big the entire film is.

Milestone 01: I have to be really aggressive with my weekly goals if I’m going to complete the film in such a short amount of time. So for Week one, my Milestone was to complete the first and second phase of my “process” for the first half of my film (Scene 1-4). The keys are REALLY crucial to have right, because if they aren’t right then the whole action of the shot gets screwed up. So a lot of time goes into figuring out these key frames. After I have them drawn out, I go to the pencil test station and time out each shot. For every empty frame in the program Flip Book, I insert an empty sheet of animation paper between the Key drawings. That way I know how many Inbetweens I have to draw when that phase of the process comes around.

The schedule IS the most essential ingredient to creating this film and completing it on time. I generally devote one entire day to creating the schedule in a logical order. When I’m making the schedule I think about the “Process” and what I need to do sequentially for other parts to work down the pipeline. I consider the scenes that I broke the film down into, and the difficulty of each scene. Then I try to consider how fatigued I’ll be as it gets deeper into the schedule. If I anticipate a lot of weeks before a break from school, I start out the first few weeks with more ambitious Scenes, then as the weeks go on, I lax up with some easier Scenes. Sticking to this schedule is dire if I’m going to complete the film as I want it.

MILESTONE 1: Complete. I was actually ahead of schedule up until Monday January 30^th. I took advantage of the first week, and the fact that I didn’t have any competing home work from my other classes. Then the sleep deprivation started to get to me and I began to get a really bad cold. As of Tuesday, January 31^st, I had put in 66 and a half hours.