Milestone 08 -THREE WEEKS LEFT!!!

As of Wednesday March 21^st I noticed that we only had three weeks left… This was a severe reality check… Not sure if I have enough time…

I still have a couple shots that need inbetweening. None of my drawings have: Facial Features, Tails, or Ears. And most of my drawings still are just circles. This leaves me with only a few options as to what I can do with my remaining time.

Option one: CUT my film to be half the length. This would sacrifice the story and character development, but give the film a “FINISHED” look.

Option two: Seeing as just about all the animation is complete, I could attempt to go through and spend the rest of the time drawing the character’s tails in and ears. (Probably won’t have time for facial features.) This option saves the story/character development, and would have really solid animation… Though the characters would look only slightly better than circles that move like the animals they represent.

Right now I’m leaning toward option two. I think what separates my animation from other animations is the story. I have to tell the story. I also think that with smooth animation, the circles will be enough to convey the idea. All I have to do is get those tails drawn in. I won’t worry about facial features for now, unless it’s a close up reaction shot. I’ll keep the line quality sketchy and add color under that.

My plan for QUICK coloring: each character will most likely only be one color (Except for the egg with the acorn hat on it and the acorns [both of which will be two colors.])

ACTIONS in Photoshop: I’ll set the drawn layer to Multiply (so all that’s white will be see through).

I’ll select the drawing (by selecting a top corner pixel, then inversing the selection),

Then create a layer under the drawn layer, and fill the selection with the foreground color (which would be the color of the character)

Then I’ll merge the two layers so that the color becomes part of the drawing.

Reselect the top pixel and delete all the white around the character.

It will be tough, and it's a race to the end, but I'm doing my best. I'm rolling with the waves as they come.

As for capturing my drawings into the computer: I have access to a feed-scanner. But if that fails, I’ll just capture them into the pencil test station and lowering the opacity of the tests over my backgrounds (But that’s WORST case scenario and would only take me a couple days to complete.)

I haven't lost hope or confidence that I'm able to complete this film. It might not be to the quality that I had originally imagined, but I keep chugging along!