#had I the time and skill I would make an entire animatic of these two to that song and i would have a GREAT TIME with it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

arcticfoxbear · 2 years

Text

Humans are Weird - Sketchy - Let's Work It Out - Audio Narration and Animatic

Original Post: http://www.authorbettyadams.com/bettys-blog/humans-are-weird-sketchy

“It is so rare that we get to observe a human creating art,” Tstk’sk said as he eagerly slipped his paws into the protective coverings this planet’s brittle ground cover demanded; glass sand, the humans called it.

The rolling ground was home to a wide variety of fungal growths that ranged from larger than the humans to small enough to grow between the hairs of a Trisk’s mandibles. It just so happened that the species most adapted to growing on the footpaths was a silica rich strain that shattered into dangerous fragments when trodden on by the humans’ massive feet. On the positive side, the humans had entire industries dedicated to specialty footwear, and the light green coverings that Tstk’sk had been gifted by his father were both pleasing to the eyes and comfortable; or at least as comfortable as something that pushed in on all of your sensory hairs at once could be.

“I do not really see the novelty in this,” Grinds observed as he slid into his belly armor. The low slung reptile boasted feet that were more than rated for the silica rich sand of the paths, but they would collect the sand up in between their belly scoots if they spent too much time outside without protection. “I have a notebook full of human art, the majority of it from this human.”

“Scientific diagrams don’t count,” Tstk’sk explained. “That is just showing what something is on the outside. That isn’t real art.”

“I do not understand the difference,” Grinds insisted as he moved to the airlock and indicated a point between his shoulder blades with a flick of his tongue.

Tstk’sk scrambled over and climbed up to the offered perch. The reptile could not move nearly as fast as a human over long distances, but his average walking speed was still quite a bit faster than that of a Trisk, making the riding style a better option than for Tstk’sk to try and keep up the pace. Tstk’sk secured his data pad in a carry pouch and focused on balancing.

“The sketches that Human Friend James did in your notebook are mostly of engine diagrams,” Tstk’sk explained. “They are simple and literal depictions of the visual surface of the objects in question. There is nothing transformative about them… there is no meaning that Human Friend James is trying to express. They are not art.”

“I object to the statement,” Grinds spoke up after a polite pause as they left the cleared area of the base behind and entered the swirling tunnels of the fungal forests. “The art is entirely transformative. Human Friend James went to great effort to choose colors and textures that I could understand. You know that those graphite pencils they favor scatter light terribly for anyone capable of properly differentiating the electromagnetic spectrum. Then he had to take the critical elements of the engine and translate them into a two-dimensional form. He was expressing what he thought was the important element of the design.”

“There is certainly technical skill involved in the process,” Tstk’sk admitted. “But just look at this forest around us.”

He waved a gripping paw at the spirals upon spirals that made up the interior of the game tunnels of the fungal forests. Countless colors spread out from the shimmering opalescent fibers that served as the main bodies of the massive ultra-organism that covered nearly the entire planet. Dotted at intervals, turgid orbs of blue and winding coils of a shade of yellow that was so distinct at least three universities had seen spectral analysis teams attempt to record it mixed to give the impression that the forest was full of gravity-defying masses.

“It is a lovey sight certainly,” Grinds confirmed. “I do not see that Human Friend James’s attempts to replicate it in his sketchbook would be anymore ‘art’ than his attempt yesterday to give me an accurate idea of where he suspected the blockage to be was.”

Tstk’sk refrained from answering as one of the lumbering native life forms came down the path. Grinds chose a thin place in the wall of the tunnel and used his powerful tail to thrash out a small den where they waited until the creature the humans called a caterpillar-corgi passed. Usually a human would just step over the creatures, but the lower slung bodies of the reptiles didn’t have that option.

“Does the movement of that creature’s caudal end suggest anything in particular to you?” Grinds suddenly asked as they slipped out of the temporary refuge they had made.

“Do you mean to ask if I see the booty-bounce the humans like to laugh at?” Tstk’sk asked absently as he was more focused at the moment in cleaning the fast growing forest fibers off of his smart green paw-coverings. “I see the motion and can identify it, but I cannot find the fascination in it that humans do.”

“Human Friend James drew an entire series of sketches on the subject,” Grinds went on. “He was quite delighted when he showed them to me. He wanted me to judge if he had managed to capture the booty-bounce sufficiently in the series of still images.”

“Why did he ask you?” Tstk’sk asked in surprise.

“I suspect it was largely because I was nearby and off duty,” Grinds replied, “but he said that as I had a very nice tail myself and was used to observing caudal motion aspects of language, he judged me ideal to analyze his attempt at capturing the caterpillar-corgi booty-bounce.”

“What was your judgment?” Tstk’sk asked.

“Well, you know how the graphite scatters light,” Grinds replied, “but I do think it was a fairly accurate representation of the movement.” There was a moment of silence as they paused to consider the living image of the recalled sketch. “So,” Grinds finally asked, “if sketches of the forest count as art, but sketches of engine dynamics don’t, do sketches of booty-bounce count as art?”

HAW Book 3 – Available on Indiegogo October 2022

Humans are Weird Previous Books

55 notes · View notes

acosmicblizzard · 2 years

Text

Ikemen Revolution animatic/scenario ideas

Okay so while listening to some songs on my spotify playlists and playing ikerev i was like "ya know? Some of these songs fit really well with certain ikerev characters or would make very interesting scenarios." And now i'm here. Now my art skills and writing skills currently won't do these ideas justice but if any of the amazing artists or writers on here want to joink these ideas and animate or write a story based off of them then go for it. (as long as you credit me!) Some of the ideas are more thought out while some are just like this character fits this song and i like that. The links to the songs that inspired these ideas are in the post! This post is one that will be edited and added to as i get more ideas. Please make sure you're looking at the original post cause reblogs won't show edits or changes! (reminder i've only completed rays route characters may be ooc)

Even after everyones efforts, amon wins and he takes over cradle. This once peaceful country that meant the world to many is now taken over by a malevolent force. Alice is now forever stuck within the magic tower to be experimented on and will never return to London nor see the lovely cradle she loved and lived in. And so she sits in the tower remembering all the good times she had with all the characters while she was in cradle and says goodbye to those happy times. Goodbye To A World by Porter Robinson A Oliver x Alice animatic that mostly just follows the events of his route Fool by Frankie Cosmos A animatic about Jonah and Lukas relationship and how overtime Luka started resenting his older brother as they grew older and eventually ran away from red territory and his family.

Two Birds by Regina Spektor

Lance lived almost all of his life with his only goal being to become king and eventually take down amon so when alice fell from the land of reason and down into his life and he started falling in love with her it put lance in a strange position, wanting to learn how to love her but also afraid of loving Love like you by Rebecca Sugar

A Luka x Alice animatic where it shows the development of their friendship that slowly grows into more Treehouse by Alex G

Edgar x Alice animatic Despair by Leo Cool music video where artist lady falls into her own paintings that leads into a entirely different world but make it Alice falling into cradle instead La Primavera by FAKE TYPE

Edgar, just Edgar. My sleep deprived ass brain at 3 am said so and i'm probably gonna look back at this post later and then be like wtf why did i put this on here

Devil Town by Cavetown

In Luka's looking glass route we learned magic can make a person look like a completely different person when Amon disguised himself as Alice and Seth at different times. So what if in order to take over cradle Amon traps Alice inside the land of the looking glass and Alice and suitors wedding just happens to be on the day of the full moon, Dalim instead of following orders helps Alice escape and attempt to get to the wedding in time to reveal Amon and his plans, saving the suitor and the rest of cradle. Alt idea. Basically the same thing but with reversed roles, Suitor is trapped in the land of the looking glass and Amon takes their place disguised as them to take over cradle and take Alice out of the picture after the wedding. Dailm helps Suitor out and tries to get to the wedding in time to both save Alice and cradle.

This Day Aria by Britt McKillip (from my little pony friendship is magic)

16 notes · View notes

capturethezephyr · 3 years

Text

I was feeling angsty this morning so I listened to the Tallahassee album by the Mountain Goats. When it got to the infamous “No Children”, I came up with an idea for an Unsleeping City: Chapter 1 animatic. That song gets used a lot for animatics and honestly it fits almost any self-destructive character perfectly. If I had any skill in drawing or videos I’d make it but instead I’ll just write fucking long post going shot by shot of the imaginary animatic.

The animatic would focus on Sofia and Kugrash because their relationship is one of my favorites from all of the Dimension 20 season.

I hope that our few remaining friends Give up on trying to save us

There would be a title card and then go straight to a shot of Sofia cutting the lady’s hair from when we first meet her. The shot shows Sofia from the back, and then we see the micro-bangs accident.

I hope we come out with a fail-safe plot To piss off the dumb few that forgave us

Bruce Kugrich is leaving his office with Grabiela Sinclair turning in tho the Fury of Anger, having just realized what Bruce had done.

I hope the fences we mended Fall down beneath their own weight

Sofia throws a rock at a tree to scare the dear in her backyard away. She has a bottle of hard liquor in her hand.

And I hope we hang on past the last exit I hope it's already too late

Bruce having the spell cast on him, and Kugrash looking down at his paws for the first time.

And I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here Someday burns down And I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away And I never come back to this town again

This entire stanza is just about Sofia. We see several shots of her burning down her house and the making its way to NYC, where Ricky catches a whiff and then swims ALL THE WAY TO STATEN ISLAND. We see the invisible servant, her lighting a match, the house on fire.

In my life, I hope I lie And tell everyone you were a good wife

We see a young David Kugrich holding a #1 Dad mug and throwing it on the ground.

And I hope you die I hope we both die

Sofia talking to Isabella Infierno on the sidewalk with the David’s Bridal bag. We get a close up of Sofia crying, then a smiling Infierno.

I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow I hope it bleeds all day long

Sofia is fighting a stranger in an alley. Then we see her at a bar, one of her bloody fists in a bucket of ice while the she drinks a Mike’s Hard with the other.

Our friends say it's darkest before the sun rises We're pretty sure they're all wrong

Close-ups of all the Heroes of New York, all of them in a proud stance except for the last two of Sofia and Kugrash looking down in shame/sadness.

I hope it stays dark forever I hope the worst isn't over

Kugrash running around in the sewers when he first became a rat. See him afraid, in danger, mad at himself.

And I hope you blink before I do And I hope I never get sober

Kugrash and Sofia walking from bar to bar together. We see Sofia, obviously drunk, taking a shot while chemically detangling Kugrash’s fur. Kugrash is doing his dance.

And I hope when you think of me years down the line You can't find one good thing to say And I'd hope that if I found the strength to walk out You'd stay the hell out of my way

Just Kugrash, baby. We see him at David’s house, holding up the letter he found while crying. The last few lines of the letter are visible. Bruce is pushing between a young Wally and David to get to the door of their house or apartment.

I am drowning There is no sign of land You are coming down with me Hand in unlovable hand

Sofia and Kugrash are at Sofia’s home. Kugrash is in her room on the bed, just staring at the ceiling. The next shot is of Sofia on the couch, also staring up. We are suddenly at the fight against the American Dream. Sofia reaches out to Kugrash, who is starting to fly away. They grab each others hands but are pulled apart due to the wind and force of the storm.

And I hope you die I hope we both die

The battle is still going on, but Sofia is holding Kugrash in her arms as he becomes one with the universe/fades away. The Everything Bagel is in his limp arm with a bite taken out. Sofia covers him with her body, weeping.

It’s kinda all over the place, narrative-wise but I think it fits the characters that way. When I originally came up with this idea it was just about Sofia and Dale but the more I thought about the song it made me realize that it was more about her and Kugrash, the short journey they went on together.

#the unsleeping city #sophie and kugrash #sophia bicicleta #sophie bikes #kugrash #bruce kugrich #dimension 20 #The Mountain Goats #no children

47 notes · View notes

offbrandmercyplates · 4 years

Text

And Another One Gets a Post!

Ms. Emmibee: I’m tired and my back hurts.

Me: Hmm, I can’t as of yet teleport over-the-counter pain medicine and soft things to unknown locations with my mind. How can I help?

Me: Wait.

Me: There is a soft thing I can sort of teleport.

And here it is!

Sooo, I’ve been on a bit of a lazy streak this past week or so, so I figured I should actually do something productive, and what better way to be productive than to make a gift for someone? Thus, this is here.

I’ll also be posting this to my fanfiction account… AND my brand-new Archive Of Our Own account! Yeah, I finally did the thing and got an account. If I can figure out how to post the story right, then it’ll definitely be up today! Thanks once more plus infinity to Emmibee to inviting me and letting me write and post these and just generally being a really cool person!

If you’ve seen the picture that this story is based on, then you’ll definitely recognize the title. Speaking of things, but not entirely, here are some “warnings”:

Contains fluff and, like, one sort-of quote from Homestuck and Spongebob season 1, but I don’t know what episode. Read at your own risk.

Maximum Yearn

“Something on your mind, Dr. Gaster?” Emmibee asked the skeleton sitting across from her. He had been alternating between sneaking glances at her and staring intently into his coffee cup ever since she had sat down at the kitchen table that morning. Clearly, he was thinking hard about something, but what?

It took him a second to register what she had said, and he blinked his good eye socket at her. “There is always something on my mind,” he said simply. “My mind is a fascinating puzzle that I continue to improve on a daily basis with my incredible skills and accomplishments.”

“That, you do,” Emmi said with a light laugh.

He raised a bone brow at her. “I was being serious.”

“I know.”

He continued to look at her for a moment, at first with a bit of a hard expression, but slowly, it began to soften to one of neutral content. His two-second stare became a four-second stare, and Emmi turned her attention to her tea cup. She sipped the golden flower tea Asgore had gifted her on her first day in the Underground. The flavor was wonderful, a little like a sweet and floral oolong with natural hints of cream and honey.

She could still feel the doctor’s gaze on her. She wasn’t sure how one could “feel” a gaze without seeing it, but it felt… calculating, but not cold. Analytical, yet anticipatingly fascinated. Yes, anticipation. That was the emotion she could feel from him. A hint of apprehension and nervousness, all hiding an eagerness to learn, to expand. What a way with words I have this morning, she thought to herself. I’d better get to the bottom of why he’s looking at me before I write a whole creative essay.

She had just raised her gaze and opened her mouth when Gaster beat her to the chase. “There is something I must do.”

She cocked her head at him. “Must do?” He hummed in agreement. “And what might that be?”

He set his elbow on the table and raised his hand, the palm (or lack thereof) facing her. “Hold your hand like this.”

Slowly, she copied his position. “Why?”

“No questions.” He proceeded to stare at her hand for another couple of seconds. Emmi watched his eye socket shift slightly from side to side, taking in the sight. She wasn’t entirely sure what to make of this. Sure, Gaster could be a bit… odd, for lack of a better word, but he usually had a reason for what he did, even if his logic was just as odd as he was (again, for lack of a better word).

What could this be about? She ran through the possibilities: maybe he was trying to tell if her body was real or some sort of illusion created by her human SOUL? Or maybe he was trying to see if she had a nervous tic of some kind, so he’d know if she was feeling one way or the other? Both seemed like they could be it, but they didn’t seem to match the emotion she felt from him. So what—?

Without warning, Gaster pressed his hand against Emmi’s, hard and suddenly enough to create a soft clapping sound, but not enough to hurt. She did jump a bit, though. A very tiny part of her mind wondered how his hand had made such a sound without a palm. The rest of her mind was thinking, “hand”.

Gaster was now staring at their pressed-together hands, and she looked as well. His hand was much larger; the tip of her longest finger just touched the top of the hole in his palm. He fingers were long and slender, which was probably good for dealing with delicate machinery. And it was so warm.

So warm and comforting, in fact, that she nearly missed what he said. “…just as I thought,” he was saying.

She leaned forward across the table, inadvertently pressing their hands closer together. “What do you mean?”

“It’s increasingly obvious,” he continued, seeming to ignore her. “We can deny it no longer.”

“What? What?!” The anticipation was going to set Emmi’s wings aflutter again.

He paused again. Then he turned to look at her, his teeth quirking into what, on anyone else, would have barely qualified as a smile, but on him was the visual definition of “goofy”. “You are small.”

…

“PFFT-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!” She locked her fingers with his in an effort to keep herself from falling face-first onto the table and out of her chair.

“I’m perfectly serious,” Gaster said. His teeth quirked a little more, sending her into another series of loud guffaws. “Honestly, you can be so strange. Why in the world would you be laughing?”

Emmi wheezed. She probably would have kept on going for an hour, had she not felt something press against the back of her hand between her fingers. She looked up and saw that Dr. Gaster had also locked his fingers with hers. Their hands were now clasped. They were holding hands. We’re doing this, man, Emmi thought, we’re making this happen. In all honesty, if she could just have a single minute of this, every day, for the rest of her life, then deciding to come to this world was already more than worth it. And it could only go uphill from here.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to last. Gaster blinked suddenly and pulled his hand away, staring at her in a way she couldn’t describe. Definitely not that same, goofy warmth from before, though. Someday, Gaster. Someday.

“I have work,” Gaster said sharply, standing up. He grabbed his coffee mug and stared at it. “It’s cold,” he stated. He then downed the coffee in one gulp. “It was cold.”

“Shame.”

Gaster hurried around the kitchen, shoving his arms into his lab coat and slinging his work bag over his shoulder. Emmi watched him scurry, still in a good mood despite the hand holding being cut short. “I think I’ll spend the day at the Librarby,” she said nonchalantly.

“Library,” Gaster corrected. “They made a mistake when painting the sign.”

“I know. So… can I, you know, do that?”

“Do what you will. Just don’t talk to anyone.”

“I’m not going to ignore someone if they say ‘hello’, Dr. Gaster.”

He gave her a look before sighing in defeat. “Only talk to someone if they engage first.”

Emmi grinned at him. “Thanks, Dr. Gaster.”

His free hand practically flew to adjust his glasses, and he seemed a bit too distracted to notice at the moment. “Mm. I’ll pick you up when I get back from… work.”

“Say ‘hi’ to the boys for me,” she wanted to say, but figured that would just redact everything that happened just now. Instead, she said, “okay. Bye, doctor.”

He hummed in acknowledgement and hurried out the door, slamming it behind him out of a need for speed rather than a need to express intense emotion.

Emmi settled into the quiet of the house for a moment, then looked at her tea. “It’s probably cold,” she said aloud. She drank the tea in one gulp. “It was cold.”

After putting the cups in the sink, she grabbed an energy bar out of the fridge and put on her coat. Time to read up on monster history to impress a certain skele-man.

***

When does this take place? I imagine maybe a week or two after Emmi has settled into Snowdin with Gaster. Long enough that there’s something of a routine in place, soon enough that Emmi still has some golden flower tea from Asgore, and before Emmi officially meets the boys. Who knows how long it’ll take to get there; it’ll be worth the wait, though!

According to this site I found called Adiago Teas, golden flower tea is a kind of oolong with hints of honeysuckle, “Osmanthus” (which is a flower apparently found on the “devilwood” tree), and a subtle creaminess. I’m not sure what kind of tea Emmibee would like, and I don’t even know if this would count as the same kind of golden flower tea Asgore makes, but she wasn’t complaining during chapter one, so I imagine she’s good with sweet teas. (After some further research, it turns out Adiago also does “fandom” teas, including a series for Undertale! However, the teas are based on characters, and none of them are a straight up “golden flower” tea. Though Flowey’s does have gunpowder. Blow up a cardboard box with it.)

Does this seem to friendly for Gaster? Keep in mind that he has his own logic to these sorts of things, and was probably trying to see what would happen when he put his hand to Emmi’s. Also, I imagine he was sleep deprived (suddenly having someone in your home can wreck your sleep schedule), was thinking about it since she showed up, and also touch-starved. Disguising hand holding as a miniature “experiment” is the perfect way to keep yourself from thinking you have emotional needs!

A part of me wondered if Emmi’s hand would accidentally go through Gaster’s hand hole, but I figured that would ruin the mood, so that’s a mystery for another day.

I saw an Undertale animatic a few days ago that just put Spongebob quotes over Undertale characters, and Flowey was Plankton, and he said what Gaster says here. Like all children growing up before you could buy all of the seasons of a TV show at once on DVD, I never saw all of the episodes or even seasons; just whatever happened to be playing on the TV when I was in a place that had cable, like not my house. I missed this quote, and I am sad. I figured I should have Gaster say this, because, soft humor.

Speaking of quotes, there’s no real reason for the Homestuck quote I had Emmi think; I just like references. I also made the quote more grammatically correct, because I like grammar. There’s not much else to say on the matter.

Cold coffee and cold tea. Not the most enjoyable, but apparently perfectly viable. I’m not much of a tea or coffee fan in real life (hot cocoa all the way!), but I personally don’t mind downing cold hot chocolate all that much; it’s easier to gulp down and you can taste it without worrying about burning your tongue. Cold drinking chocolate, though, iS DIFFERENT AND IS DELICIOUS AND I’VE HAD IT ONCE AND I WANT SOME BUT THE ONLY PLACE I KNOW OF THAT HAS SOME IS IN A DIFFERENT TOWN AND ALSO I HAVE NO MONEY/TRANSPORT.

So… yeah, that’s everything! I have to go eat dinner now, but as soon as that’s done, I’ll get to posting these things on my other sites! Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom! See you around!

~~~

I am BEYOND exhausted so I can’t write a whole long thing but i wanted to get this up so everyone can read this wonderful fic!! I’ve had a rough day today and this made it much much better, so thank you very much, Author, this is really sweet and cute and I keep re-reading it.

Since I like addressing your comments tho here: Emmi does like sweet teas! She doesn’t like bitterness, and like Gaster, she has a sweet tooth. I grew up drinking sweet iced tea (it’s a southern USA thing), fun fact.

Disguised hand-holding is the ultimate fluff.

Again, thank you so much again for writing this. Its so so sweet.

I’ll be reblogging this with the AO3 and FF links!

#fanworks #yours the author #emster #so sweet #submission

26 notes · View notes

dragonheart-swtor · 3 years

Text

OC Song Analysis: I Will Not Bow (by Breaking Benjamin) & Duserra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWr4yjxNKzA

"Now the dark begins to rise, Save your breath, It's far from over."

Opening her story - the years in slavery, knowing any day she could die and yet also knowing she had to push on and that this would likely last a long time yet

"Leave the lost and dead behind, Now's your chance to run for cover."

Being found by the Sith - being unable to help anyone else, but honestly, fuck them. She had a way out. She had a way to run.

"I don't want to change the world, I just want to leave it colder. Light the fuse and burn it up, Take the path that leads to nowhere."

She lost basically most of her empathy and sympathy for others in the interest of protecting herself and herself alone. Unlike Zashiil, she didn't care about trying to change the galaxy or make it a better place. All she wanted was her own security and safety and power. If destruction was the path to that, so be it.

"All is lost again, But I'm not giving in! I will not bow! I will not break! I will shut the world away! I will not fall! I will not fade! I will take your breath away!"

Yeah pretty self-explanatory - destroying her competition on Korriban, refusing to bend to the expectations that said she would never make it, pushing away any outside influence or sympathy, taking the world by storm.

"Fall!"

Take it one of two ways - everyone else crying for her blood, or her demanding that her enemies fall before her blade. It works equally well either way.

"Watch the end through dying eyes,"

Having a near-death experience courtesy of Thanaton, being narrowly saved by her apprentices

"Now the dark is taking over. Show me where forever dies,"

Learning the Force-walk, hunting down and consuming ghosts to force them to lend her their power, giving her the strength she needed to face Thanaton.

"Take the fall And run to heaven."

The kaggath, and chasing Thanaton across the galaxy when he fled Corellia to Dromund Kaas

"All is lost again, But I'm not giving in! I will not bow! I will not break! I will shut the world away! I will not fall! I will not fade! I will take your breath away!"

That's an entire animatic scene of the final fight between her and Thanaton - on even footing, before the entire Dark Council, in the heart of the Empire, and she - the slave-born alien, who was never expected to be more than fodder on Korriban - she is victorious, and slaughters her nemesis before the eyes of the Dark Council.

"And I'll survive, Paranoid!"

And she takes his place, her throne - the head of Ancient Knowledge, the newly christened and crowned Darth Nox, who trusts no one and who always, always survives.

"I have lost the will to change."

Remembering that meeting with Zashiil partway through their class stories - but it's too late to change her path now even if she wanted to. And she doesn't. (Right?)

"And I am not proud, Coldblooded fake."

She does wonder, secretly, sometimes, even if she won't admit it even to herself - does she deserve what she has, when she couldn't achieve it on her own power? When she couldn't achieve it without stealing the power of others? (Of course she does, she rationalizes. It took her own skill, talent, and power to be able to bind ghosts in the first place. It's not like it was free and easy. She almost died.) (But she wonders.)

"I will shut the world away."

Yeah back to that " trusts no one" bit

Last chorus is the same deal except later, so the latter parts of it are to Zashiil's face, in defiance almost -

"And I'll survive, Paranoid. I have lost the will to change."

Refusing to trust even her own sister at first, saying "look at what I've done, what I've built, what I've made myself. I did this. I survived against all odds because I was willing to do what it takes. I don't want to change who I am."

"And I'm not proud, Coldblooded fake."

She says, "I don't want to change who I am." Zashiil is a consular. She's always been good at seeing the truths inside others' minds.

"I will shut the world away."

But Duserra's firm in refusing outside influence or help at this point - too afraid of betrayal to trust in anyone, too used to not being cared about to really believe anyone wants to help her.

#swtor #swtor ocs #sith inquisitor #characterization rambles #duserra #song analysis

1 note · View note

v1ntagecassette · 4 years

Text

As I’ll Ever Be (Chapter One)

Summary: Roman is a knight who serves beneath Thomas, the newly appointed (and, unfortunately, widely disliked) prince of a medieval kingdom. When he stumbles across a mysterious, yellow-eyed man who offers him a handful of roses and a shining kingdom of his own, he couldn't possibly refuse — but things are not always as wonderful as they seem. (A novelization of @thepastelpeach‘s "Ready As I'll Ever Be" animatic.)

Warnings: N/A for this chapter

Pairings: Prinxiety, Logicality

Words: 2,600

____________________________

There was nothing quite like an October morning on the palace grounds.

Warm autumn sunlight filtered into the courtyard through red-orange leaves, casting dappled shadows over the knights who trained on the field. A gentle breeze carried with it both the clattering of blades and the crisp, cool scent of a brisk fall day. Booming laughter bounced off the weathered stone walls that enclosed the training grounds; most of these laughs, of course, came from one knight in particular, who was in the process of dominating a sparring match with this morning’s challenger.

He dodged and parried with expert skill, anticipating each flick of his opponent’s sword a millisecond before it came. One arm was tucked behind his back — partially to show off, partially because he was curious to find out if he could win that way. He couldn’t help the half-smile that pulled at his mouth as he swung down hard and knocked his opponent off balance.

“Nice one, Roman!” someone called out from the group of onlookers. The knight’s grin grew, and he struck with renewed passion.

Jab, dodge, swing. Watch your step, fake him out, duck, thrust, lunge —

A sharp clang rang across the courtyard, and the opponent’s blade found a new home on the cobbled stones beneath his feet. The onlookers roared in approval; Roman raised his arms in celebration of his victory, allowing himself a small bow in their direction before turning to shake his opponent’s hand.

“Maybe next time, friend,” Roman told him. The other knight scooped up his weapon and jogged back toward the crowd just as another figure — one clad all in black, with a leather satchel slung across his shoulders and a windswept look about him — emerged from behind it.

“Make way for the messenger,” a knight said, giving a mock tip of an imaginary hat as he passed.

“Ah, Virgil!” Roman waved him over. “Just the man I wanted to see. Up for a sparring match?”

The messenger arched an eyebrow. “You do realize I have a job, right? I don’t come out here every morning just to swing a knife with you.”

“Well, you’re much more skilled with a blade than these fellows. Quite frankly, I could use the competition.” Roman gestured vaguely at the other knights (and grimaced when he realized they were listening). He raised his sword in Virgil’s direction, pointing at it with his free hand. “Just one round?”

Virgil made a face like he was still deliberating, but he had already tightened the strap on his satchel. “One round,” he agreed. Roman beamed at him as he drew his dagger.

These morning sparring matches had gone on almost as long as Roman had had his knighthood, but they never failed to put a spring in his step. He lunged and dodged with expert precision; he revelled in each clang of blade against blade. A grin, even bigger than the last, graced his lips as he and the messenger danced around each other, laughing and ducking and spinning across the bright green grass, putting on a show for the onlooking knights.

Roman watched as Virgil swung at an opening, then intercepted him at the last possible second, catching their blades in a perfect X that flashed with refracted light.

“You’ll have to try harder than that!” Roman said, and Virgil smirked at him.

“I plan to,” he said. He leapt backward, and the fight resumed.

For nearly a minute, it was unclear who had the upper hand. These fights were always a toss up; they were almost perfectly matched. When Roman struck, Virgil parried. When Virgil jabbed, Roman jumped. It seemed as though this fight could go on for eternity without ever declaring a winner —

— and then Virgil’s dagger flew from his grasp, soaring in a perfect arc that caught the sun just right before it clattered to the ground some three yards away. He heaved a sigh, and Roman laughed.

“Well fought!” he said. He closed the space between them with two short strides and clapped Virgil on the shoulder.

“Likewise,” Virgil huffed, rolling his eyes and making the trek across the courtyard to where his dagger lay innocently on the stones. “Now if you don’t mind, your worship, I’ve got messages to deliver.”

“Any for me?”

“Always for you,” Virgil chuckled. He slipped the dagger back into its scabbard at his waist as he knelt to the ground, rummaging through his bag. “You should know by now that you’ve got a fan club.”

Roman placed his hands on his hips in what he hoped was a nonchalant gesture (but definitely wasn’t). “Oh, I wouldn’t call it that.”

“A small horde of admirers that send you love letters every day?” Virgil scoffed. “Yeah, fan club.”

“They’re not love letters!”

Virgil tugged one from his satchel with a flourish. “Sir Roman,” he read in the most theatrical tone he could muster. “Not a day goes by when I don’t send my thanks to the heavens for your rescuing me the week before last. At night, I dream only of your —” he paused to stifle a laugh “— your beautiful eyes, and —

“Okay, okay, maybe that one is a love letter,” Roman conceded, snatching it from the messenger’s hand to read the rest. “But can you blame them, really? I am very cool.” He swung his sword in an intricate circle around his right wrist for dramatic effect.

“So cool,” Virgil deadpanned. He peered up at the sky, shielding his face with the back of his hand, and squinted. “I should go. It’s already getting late.”

“Don’t have too much fun without me!” Roman said, sheathing his sword to take the rest of his letters.

“Oh, I plan to,” Virgil said. He walked backwards to face Roman as he pulled his cowl up over his head, giving a short, two-fingered salute before turning around and hopping the brick wall that led to the main castle grounds and the city beyond them.

Once Roman had finished waving at Virgil’s increasingly distant figure, he turned back to his fellow knights. “That seems like enough for this morning,” he said, “don’t you think?” The knights nodded in agreement, and he smiled. “It’s settled, then. Off to lunch!”

With a few dozen knights in tow, Roman led the charge back toward the stables, chatting blithely with his compatriots about the day’s upcoming patrols and humbly accepting congratulations on his expert sparring technique.

In the shadow of the trees that lined the training grounds, there was a quiet rustle and the glint of an eye. Nobody noticed it, of course.

They would soon wish they had.

For most of the castle staff, mornings meant sweeping the floors and laying out meals. The palace woke up with the rising sun, taking its time just as the rest of the kingdom did. The prince’s bed was made, the busts were dusted, the curtains were drawn open to let in the weak autumn light. Yes; for most, mornings meant peace and quiet.

For Logan, they meant work. (Patton often tried to convince him that the rest of the staff did hard work as well, but Logan didn’t buy it.)

“First off,” he was saying, bespectacled eyes turned down toward a scroll of parchment in his hands, “is the matter of All Hallow’s Eve. We must finalize decisions our on budget, itinerary, decorations, music, activities —”

It was at this point that Logan realized the prince wasn’t paying him the slightest semblance of attention. Instead, he stared out the window of the main hall, hands pressed against the sill, seemingly lost in thought. He gazed over the bustling city and the rolling hills beyond, looking far away into the sprawling forest that bordered the kingdom.

“My lord,” Logan said, to no response. He cleared his throat; still nothing. With a sigh, he set his scroll down on a nearby table and said, “Thomas.”

At long last, the prince turned, looking almost startled. “Sorry! Guess I was a little distracted.” If his demeanor hadn’t given that away, the state of his being certainly would have; his overcoat, usually crisp and pressed, was wrinkled all over. His cuffs weren’t buttoned at the wrists, and the top buckles of his right boot were done up entirely crooked.

“Distracted,” Logan muttered. “That’s one way of putting it.”

“What were you saying?”

Logan pinched the bridge of his nose. “The All Hallow’s Eve festival, my lord. If you’ll pardon my candor, we’re coming down to the wire here.” With less than two weeks left before the festivities were set to start, this was something of a trivialization.

“Oh! Of course.” Thomas nodded slowly, biting his bottom lip as he let this sink in. “One question, though.”

“Ask away.”

“How much am I allowed to spend?”

Logan plucked the scroll off the table and went back to scanning its contents. “Considering a large portion of this kingdom’s gripe with your rule is your financial habits,” he said, “my best estimate would be not much.”

“But I — ugh.” Thomas pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and let a long, slow breath out through his mouth. “This is hard.” He began to walk toward the grand oak doors that led to the courtyard, and Logan followed.

“I understand that it’s difficult,” Logan assured him (even though he didn’t), “but you owe this festival to your people. Public opinion has not been very strongly in your favor since you took over the throne. The kingdom needs a distraction.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Thomas asked, a look of hurt in his eyes. “I’m trying so hard, Logan, but nothing I do is right. I feel like… like this isn’t meant to be my job, you know? Like I’m filling in for someone who actually knows what they’re doing.”

Logan opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, another voice came from an open window just behind them. “Don’t say that!”

They turned to find Patton, the castle’s odd-job man, leaning toward them over the stone sill with a cleaning rag in his hand. His round glasses glinted with morning sunlight, obscuring his eyes as he said, “You’re great at your job! Everyone loves you, I just know it.”

“To put it kindly,” Logan said, “that is a monumental overstatement. It is, however, a pleasant sentiment.”

“You really need to work on your definition of ‘kindly,’” Thomas said, burying his face in his hands yet again.

“My ‘kindness’ to you is having your best interests at heart, my lord,” Logan said. He failed to mask his disdain for the word but plowed on nevertheless. “I want nothing more than to see public opinion turn back in your favor, and this festival is the best way to bring about that change.”

“But… hmm.” Patton squinted like he was trying to puzzle something out. “If everyone’s upset about how he’s spending money already, why should he spend more money on a big festival?”

“Yeah,” Thomas said, nodding along. “What if we sent some support out to the border instead? Relief funds for the Dragon Witch’s attack last spring? Or —”

“If you spend vast amounts of money on the poor, the rich will complain,” Logan said. His tone was that of someone explaining simple math to a very small child for the fifteenth time. “If you spend nothing at all, the economy will dwindle. Your most promising option at the present moment is something that will engage the entire kingdom as we attempt to find a more long-term solution.”

“But —” Thomas began. He was cut off by the sound of hooves clattering up the walkway.

Roman approached from the stables at top speed, sitting astride his white stallion. “Thomas!” he called, slowing to a halt and jumping to the ground. He skidded up to the prince and gave a hasty little bow. “Er — sorry — my liege!”

“My name’s still Thomas, Ro,” Thomas sighed. He leaned heavily against the stone wall behind him and rubbed at his temple. “What do you need?”

Logan went back to scanning his scroll of parchment as Roman launched himself into speech. He could not for the life of him understand why Thomas was so averse to his princely title; it should have been an honor to ascend to such a position, after all. It was understandable that Thomas would give a friend he’d had for over a decade a little more slack on the royal title front, but Logan had only joined the staff a few years ago, and he got the same treatment — “You can cut back on the ‘my lord’ stuff.” “It’s not that big a deal.” “You don’t have to treat me any differently.” Of course Logan had to treat him differently; he was the prince! That was part of the job description. Putting his grievances aside, cleared his throat and turned his attention back to the conversation at hand.

“So, for this festival I’ve been hearing about,” Roman was saying. “I was thinking of a good, old-fashioned jousting match — with me as the star, of course, given my astounding track record.”

“Yep, yeah, sounds great,” Thomas said, eyes still downcast and brow still furrowed.

“And maybe a bit of sparring as well! I’ve gotten very good at this new disarming trick —”

“Okay, Ro. We’re kind of busy here.”

“But hear me out on this one: me, my stallion, and a jumping course. I’ve never jumped before, obviously, but I’m sure it would be a spectacle, and —”

“Roman, that’s enough, alright?”

“Oh, we could hang banners! ‘Epic joust today at noon’ —”

“Roman!”

At long last, the knight fell silent. A disoriented sort of look played across his face as Thomas grimaced at the ground.

“I’m really busy right now, okay? I don’t have time for this.”

“Well, I’m only trying to give my thoughts —”

“Then stop giving them,” Thomas said, finally looking Roman in the eye. He seemed, quite frankly, exhausted — his hair was tousled and his eyes were frazzled. “I — I’m sorry, but I’ve got a lot on my plate today, and as — as your prince, I’m asking you to put a pin in this until a… later date.”

Roman blanched. He opened and closed his mouth like a codfish before regaining his composure, giving his crisp white doublet a little adjusting tug. “Right,” he said, and it came out tight. “Of course… my lord.” His bright eyes hardened as he turned on his heel and remounted his horse. With a jerk of the reigns, he took off toward the city across the sprawling lawn.

Thomas waited until Roman was out of earshot, then thumped the back of his head against the wall. “Agh, that was mean,” he groaned.

Logan sniffed, unbothered; he and Roman got along well enough, but sometimes that boisterous knight simply needed to be told to shut up. “You asserted your authority over a knight who forgot his place,” he said. “I see nothing wrong with that.”

“He’s my friend, Logan.”

“Even friends must come to understand the balance of things. Now, would you like to discuss the festival?”

“I would!” Patton chimed in. Logan nodded fondly at him. “I can go pick apples for the bobbing contest!”

That managed to bring the ghost of a smile to Thomas’s face. “Sure,” he said. “Yeah. Let’s get to it.” He led the way back inside, blissfully unaware of the roiling rainclouds that were beginning to creep in along the horizon.

There was a storm coming, and it was going to be a big one.

____________________________

Next Chapter

Read it on Wattpad and AO3

Taglist (send me a message or an ask if you want to be added!):

A/N: I've been sitting on this fic for almost a year now, and after months of rereading what I'd written a million times over, I'm finally ready to post it. This story is lowkey my baby; I'm beyond pumped to send it out into the world. If you like what you see, I sincerely hope you'll stick around — I've got quite a bit planned for this bad boy.

#thomas sanders #sanders sides #sanders sides fic #prinxiety #logicality #ts virgil #ts roman #ts thomas #ts logan #ts patton #warnings will be posted per chapter #so will character tags #so check them each chapter

3 notes · View notes

alexswak · 6 years

Text

From Castlevania to Boruto: Spencer Wan Interview

I myself had all sorts of questions after watching Castlevania, and seeing that Spencer Wan was so active on Twitter I thought I might try asking him, what resulted in a long interview. The scene he is best known for is the abstract black-lines-only part of the opening, but he had remarkable participations in many other known projects despite his young age. Other than Castlevania, where he animated, AD’ed and directed episodes even, he also worked on Boruto and Invader Zim among others. My notes are in bold. Conducted on behalf of AnimeTherapy and originally posted on their website.

First tell me a bit about yourself and how you started with animation.

Spencer: You know, that might be the only question I wasn’t prepared to answer. I’m not great at talking about myself. Okay, I’m 25 years old and I’m from a small town in the Deep South. I got into animation after seeing Norio Matsumoto’s work on Naruto. I used to watch it with my friends in high school and I’d never seen anything like it before. I’d intended to major in illustration when I got into college, but I ended up swapping to animation at the last second because I couldn’t get his work out of my head. I thought maybe I could learn how to make animation like that at school.

Where did you start your professional career and how?

Spencer: So after I dropped out of school I spent a year sort of just wandering around and doing very little with my life. I was having a hard time finding any sort of work, let alone artistic work. I ended up working in a tire shop for a while, actually. Dana Terrace was the one who dragged me out of that. She’s the creator of the show I’m working on now(The Owl House). I’d helped her with one of her student films when we were in school, and she was doing way better than me as a professional artist. She gave me a sort of a pep talk and told me about this animation studio called Animation Domination High Def that was looking for animators.

It's worth mentioning that there aren't very many studios in the United States that hire traditional(hand-drawn) animators anymore. We were even told in school not to pursue traditional animation as a career because those jobs didn't exist. Anyway, I applied the next day, they had me do an animation test, and few weeks later I moved across the country to work for them.

The work I did there was very different from the work people expect from me now. It was mostly parody cartoons, and we had to animate 2-3 scenes a day so it was hard to make anything look very good. It was a difficult job, and it wasn't what I wanted to be doing with animation, but it taught me how to draw very fast.

An interesting backstory, really. So you stuck with traditional animation because you wanted to create something like what Matsumoto makes?

Spencer: That's how I started anyway, but he was just my first exposure to this sort of animation. When I got older I came across the work of Yutaka Nakamura, Mitsuo Iso, Toshiyuki Inoue, etc. They're all incredible in different ways, but I could feel that they were also drawing on something similar. There's a sort of feeling I used to get looking at the work of a really talented Japanese animator, and I really wanted my work to illicit that same feeling.

It would've been a lot easier to change tracks to storyboarding or design. I had enough technical skill to do it, and there were many more opportunities available, but I stuck with traditional animation because I was chasing that feeling. I knew I couldn't be satisfied as an artist until I understood it.

Alright, now to more specific stuff. How did you get involved in Castlevania?

Spencer: Well after working at ADHD, I ended up moving away from LA because I couldn't find anyone who wanted to hire me for animation. I went back to my hometown and spent a year freelancing for scraps. I actually tried to go to Japan for work at one point, but my visa was rejected because I'm a college dropout. It was around this time that Sam(Samuel Deats), the future director of Castlevania, had been emailing me to try to get me to work for Powerhouse. Actually, I rejected him the first time and tried to get my visa through again…

Obviously that didn't work out, so I told Sam I'd changed my mind and I moved to Texas to work for Powerhouse. He'd been telling me the whole time about this awesome secret project the studio might acquire soon. I completely wrote him off because as a freelancer you hear that sort of thing all the time and it's never as good as it sounds. That project was Castlevania. It ended up getting greenlit after I'd been working at the studio for a couple months. Sam plucked me off the animation team to work on it and I started storyboarding on the first episode. It was actually my first time storyboarding, so naturally I was given the scene where the crowd gets attacked by an army of creatures in an elaborate gothic city.

I see. Then can you give me a quick overview of the workflow the staff followed while working on Castlevania? From finished storyboards to finished scenes. I'm interested in the workflow you followed since Castlevania is obviously not your run-of-the-mill project.

Spencer: *laughs* Well in season one it was a constantly changing process. Powerhouse had never handled a TV show before, and so we were sort of creating the process as the show went on. We didn't even manage to standardize our storyboarding process until episode 4. Our background team doubled as our incidental and prop design team, with one of the background artists serving as a part time storyboarder. Sam was the director, but he was also storyboarding and designing all the main characters. His brother Adam, who's meant to be supervising compositor, became our editor. It was all over the place, but it allowed for a lot of experimentation. That's how I came to animate on the show instead of just storyboarding.

I'm getting kind of off topic though- the way it would usually work is that we'd receive an approved script and we'd have a few weeks to storyboard it. We didn't have any revisionists working with us, so if there was a problem, we'd address it ourselves and then Adam would cut together an animatic and add sound. It's worth mentioning that we didn't have any voice acting to work with in season 1, so we sort of had to guess at how the actors would read their lines.

After the animatic was approved we would ship it along with the designs and key backgrounds to MUA Film, our outsourcing studio in Korea. And then in some specific instances we would leave a note telling them to exclude a sequence, because Sam or I had planned to animate it ourselves. After storyboarding was done I jumped right onto animation. We were working with a pencil and paper animation studio, so even though I work digitally, I would have to write x-sheets(equivalent to time sheets in anime) for my work as if I'd drawn it on paper. At some point in the process we decided we wanted to do a much more specific compositing job on the show, and so we had the studio ship us back their cleaned and colored animation, and our in house compositing team would polish it with a mountain of after effects work. A lot of why the show looks so cinematic is because of them.

So I take it this is how it went with the average scene. But your scene in the OP, that got a lot of attention, is clearly exceptional. Can you tell me more about how you came up with this style and scene? Personally I have to admit, it’s one of the best and most striking animation pieces I have seen in a while.

Spencer: Thanks! We really slaved over that opening. It actually wasn't meant to exist- there was no time or budget set aside for it. Sam had done the storyboards for it in his free time and pitched them to the producers. They said we could do it if we could somehow find time for it. I think Sam originally intended to handle the entire thing himself, but when the time came to animate it, I was the only one available. So Sam pulled me into his office and showed me the storyboards, specifically the part at the end. He said something to the effect of, "I know I want this to look like fire. You can do it in whatever style you come up with, as long as it's done quickly." Never in my career had someone put so much trust in me. A lot of people like to compare the sequence to the music video for Take On Me, but when I was trying to come up with the style, the first thing that came to mind was one of Yutaka Nakamura's animations. It's from an anime I watched in high school called Soul Eater where the character goes to draw his sword, and the entire scene turns into this abstract looking sort of river of pencil lines on a red background(this scene). I thought maybe I could do something similar to that. It took me about an hour to realize I couldn't do it the same way, and my imitation of it was coming out far too abstract to tell what was going on. I ended up doing another pass on it, but instead of trying to copy Nakamura's abstract linework, I tightened up the drawings focused on the shadows. I thought I could try to mimic the look of how light shifts around on an ember, and that's where I got the shadows that constantly roll across the characters. The finished result still bears a lot of his influence, but I think I managed to put my own spin on it.

I remember that Soul Eater scene! Now that you mention it, I can definitely see similarities. But the Take on Me? Not really. How much time did you spend on that scene, if I may ask?

Spencer: It was something like two weeks? I don't remember that well anymore. I worked entirely through the last four nights, so it felt longer than that. I remember losing an hour to daylight savings time, and that put me in a really foul mood.

I've never mentioned this before, but it's unfinished. I ran out of time in the end, and so the part with Trevor and Sypha is just my rough first pass. I was devastated when we shipped it that way. At the time I considered it to be my biggest failure as an artist. Ironically it's the piece of work I'm known best for now.

youtube

Sypha's scene in the 2nd season is also yours right? Glad to see the same style made it into the show.

Spencer: Adam had wanted to have it in the show for a while, and I really didn’t want to do it. I was so upset about the opening before it aired that I swore I would never draw in that style again. But then the opportunity presented itself and I thought, “Well I guess it would only be for a second or so”. I felt the second time I did it it was a lot less inspired though.

Can't complain myself, it was pretty cool.

Spencer: Well I had more experience the second time *laughs*. I didn’t have to feel around for what the style was.

So moving on. The problem with your Alucard fight scene, that you had problems translating your digital motion guides into paper, you said that also happened for the Cyclops sequences. How widespread was this problem then? Did it only affect your work or the work of other animators as well?

Spencer: It would only affect animations that had large camera movements, that we sent overseas for clean up. It was a problem born from the fact that we don’t really do paper animation in America anymore.

When the camera moves around a lot, the field has to get bigger. You have to use something called panning paper in order for the drawings to maintain a proper size for clean up. But there was no one that I could learn that from. I had to teach everything to myself, and so my first instinct was to make the drawings smaller to fit them on the page. The clean up artists overseas fixed this by scaling the drawings up, but then they had to recreate my spacing from scratch and they didn’t have enough time to do it the same way. The result was that drawings would pop anywhere from a few pixels to a few millimeters out of position all the time. Adam ended up respacing everything, but it wasn’t a perfect match to the original, so drawings tend to pop around. Most people don’t notice it though.

Actually I’ve had a similar issue with other productions where if my spacing gets too tight, there’s a chance a drawing could pop out of place too. I’m still learning how to solve some of those problems.

I see! Shame you found yourself in this situation, but this is a nice segue to another traditional project I want to ask you about, Boruto. You worked on Boruto a few months ago, episode #65 specifically. How did you get involved in this project? You were an interesting case because you are not affiliated with studio LAN like most of other foreign animators in that episode, as far as I know at least.

Spencer Wan: *laughs* I could see why it seemed a little out of nowhere. It's because Chengxi and I had already been talking on twitter for a while. I consider him a close friend. He asked me to animate for him and I agreed. It was as simple as that.

Looking at your original work and the final version in Boruto, I see that it went mostly uncorrected. Why is that? Were you just given a lot of freedom in that episode? Because of Chengxi and your aforementioned good relation with him?

Spencer: Oh, it was nothing like that. I was a lot more concerned with doing the work properly than trying to stand out or show off. Chengxi's storyboards and the model sheets for Boruto were very clear. I followed them to the best of my ability, and my work ended up going uncorrected aside from a light fill being added. I should've anticipated the need for that light fill, actually. I wasn't thinking about how it would look in color.

Boruto is more of a traditional animation(paper) show, right? Didn't you have problems with that this time? I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to Boruto specifically, so I don't know how much of its production is digitalized.

Spencer: The process was actually very similar to what I used on Castlevania, only this time there was no complicated camera movement to worry about, and I had Chengxi to help me with parts of the paper process that I didn't fully grasp yet. Some of the other foreign animators helped me out too- namely Guzzu. It was my first time not having to figure it all out on my own, and I was really grateful for that. I feel I learned a lot.

You are right, the nature of this scene is different. I thought maybe it was the Japanese industry being more used to this dual nature of digital and paper. So generally working on Boruto, although a Japanese show, wasn’t different from Castlevania and other shows you worked on before?

Spencer: There are differences in style when it comes to x-sheets. For example, the Korean x-sheets I've written list the layer order completely backward from the Japanese ones used on Boruto. Americans will write "truck out" when they want the camera to pull out, but the Japanese shorthand is apparently T.B for "track back" instead. It's a lot of differences like that, but the idea behind them is mostly the same. It was an adjustment, but not a very big one, and I was told I did an alright job writing them... I hope they weren't just being nice.

I was just watching Castlevania and now that you mentioned him, Chengxi did some animation! Also others such as Hero. Were you the one who invited them this time?

Spencer: I was the one who invited Chengxi. Sam invited the others after I’d left the production.

And you inviting Chengxi and working on #7 was after boruto, I suppose?

Spencer: Actually it was beforehand! He had to cut his work short to start working on Boruto. He did such a brilliant job regardless. That guy is a genius.

Aha, interesting. That was the last of my questions, I'm very grateful for the chance you gave me and for your amazing, detailed answers!

Spencer: No problem! I hope my answers weren’t too boring. That technical stuff can get dense.

#Spencer Wan #Castlevania #Boruto #Interview

175 notes · View notes

biancasiercke · 6 years

Text

Storyboard portfolio - what should I put in my story portfolio?

I've recently gotten this question a lot and thought I might take some time to go over what you might put into a story portfolio.

Storyboarding is not a job that a lot of people talk about, so the requirements of what goes into a portfolio are a bit more obscure. I also spent some time talking to my supervisor, who worked on the Incredibles, to give you guys some of his insights as well.

Always, before giving you guys any information, I always like to put a disclaimer that my input is only an opinion. Please don't feel bad if you disagree with anything I say, I'm just trying to share knowledge from my experience. Even though I'm working in animation, I think we are all students when it comes to art and we can always keep learning. So don't hesitate to get as much input as possible when it comes to your work and your portfolio and take what you can learn from everyone :)

So lets get started. What kind of drawings should you put into your portfolio? Even though storyboarding traditionally is not about pretty drawings, storyartists nowadays should show strong drawing skills. As a storyboard artist you don't really get to render your work. Instead you mainly draw with lines. You often have to work fast and your drawings don't have to be clean, but they have to communicate clearly. That is the most important thing! Therefore any drawings that can showcase the above skills would be great.

Some examples would be full body cafe sketches or lifedrawings that showcase your drawing skills. You could put a page of hands and a page of feet to emphasise that you know how to draw both. Any animal drawings that you might have could add to your portfolio. Especially if you know that the studio you’re applying to has a project coming up that is using animals. It would be great if your drawings could show weight, movement and communicate some story or emotion. A child playing in a water fountain; a mother carrying a million bags on her way home, while she is on the phone with the babysitter; two business men out for coffee, one is a confident man that has been at the job for 20 years, the other an upstart waiting to impress. The possibilities of what you might see are endless :)

But besides your drawing skills you will also want to show your storytelling skills.

For a storyboard artists there are often 2 paths, feature storyboarding and TV storyboarding. I know most people want to get into feature animation, but it's always great to mention not to discount TV animation as well. For example in feature animation, weather or not you are an animator or a storyboard artist you will potentially have to redo your work again.....and again......and again.....and again. You're not worse or better because you can or cannot do this, it's just a reality that this is not for everyone. One of my coworkers had to redo a storyboard sequence in a feature film about 20 times. The sequence kept changing again and again....and again. Now he LOVES his job, but by the end, he just couldn't look at it anymore. It's good to note that this doesn't happen all the time, but you have to be ok with throwing out your work, and starting over again. In TV animation you don't have this issue as much. When you do a TV-storyboard the deadlines are often times very tight. This means that you get to do the storyboard once and maybe if there is time, one set of revisions. The great thing about TV storyboarding is that you get to do a lot of work in a short amount of time. This practice and repetition really lets you experiment and lets you make mistakes. You get to learn a lot in a short amount of time. Of course TV Storyboarding also has positives and negatives as well. For example you might not get to delve as deeply into characters emotions in TV Storyboarding. Sometimes you can't do the kind of camera work that features might be able to do, or you might be limited to the amount of shots your allowed to have in your storyboard.

I just wanted to mention this, because I don't think you should ever feel the need to justify yourself if you wanted to work in either TV or in Feature animation. Both are different and both have things that are great about them. :)

It's also good to note that you can learn so much about storyboarding in TV animation, so if you don't get into feature storyboarding right away don't worry! You'll learn a lot in every job you do and it will help you in the next job ^^. So let's go over what recruiters would look for in a Feature storyboard. Again, the more input you can get on this the better :).

Firstly about Presentation. One thing to consider is the actual screen dimension. Feature Films use a ratio of 2.35 : 1 (also known as Anamorphic Wide-screen). If you’re thinking of practicing a storyboard for a feature film it could be good to use this ratio, to show that you’re able to create an appealing composition for a wide screen film. For television the ratio is usually 4:3. I haven’t been able to find any templates online, but if I do I’ll update this post and will post a link here. Another thing to consider for presentation is how to format your page. There are 2 ways that you can present your storyboard. One is "a single sheet with 3 panels next to each other", the other is to create "one image per page".

For FEATURE STORYBOARDS, it is better to create a PDF that has one image per page. As the recruiter or the head of story will flip through the images, they will truly be able to feel the story and the emotions that your trying to tell, because each image flips to another image just like animation. Toby Shelton's blog has lots of examples of this. If you don't have time to search through his blog, this is a great example: https://tobyshelton.blogspot.ca/2012/02/pig-who-cried-werewolf-2010.html

As you can see you can really feel the movement of the characters and their emotions. That is your main job as a feature board artist.....to convey emotion. Of course you need to know about composition and about shot choices and how to cut between shots, but all those things should be natural once your storyboarding (if they're not yet, don't worry, that will come :)). What a feature storyboard should really show is character and emotion. What is a character feeling, why are they feeling this way, how does that effect the situation, how does it effect the other characters? Disney in particular has said that they're looking for character moments from their storyboard applicants. You don't need to do something big, or you don't even need to do a full story. It's ok just to choose a moment in a characters life and to truly make us feel what the character is going through. You do want to have a beginning and an end to the sequence that you're doing, but it doesn't have to be something epic.

If however you're creativity leans more towards doing action, that is great too. But even in action, your storyboard should be character based. My supervisor, who boarded on "The Incredibles" said that when he looks at an action storyboard he can tell right away if he would or would not hire that person. If the action is just about action, he would not be interested to hire the person. But if the action is motivated and routed in true character moments and motivation, then he would be interested.

Lastly, most Feature storyboards are done in Photoshop, or proprietary software that studios provide.

Now for TV STORYBOARDING. If you can get your hands on Storyboard Pro, that would be very helpful. This is what TV productions currently use to create their storyboards. Also within Storyboard pro, there is a setup which will automatically organize your boards in 3 panels per page. This is how you want to present a TV- Storyboard. The Storyboard pro setup also has action notes and dialogue boxes that you can fill out. Presenting your board this way, will show the studio that you can be put directly into production.

Another difference between Feature storyboarding and TV storyboarding is in the amount of drawings you might do to convey an action. In Feature storyboarding you might flush out an action to show what kind of acting the characters are doing and you might do some really subtle animation/acting to show how slowly emotions are unfurling and what the characters are feeling. All of these drawings are made so that once the editor creates an animatic (a storyboard that is timed and has dialogue and sometimes music), that you can really feel the pacing and emotions that are happening. A TV storyboard will still have a lot of drawings, but often less acting then a feature board might have. Instead they will communicate movement with red arrows. For example, they will use red arrows to indicate the direction a character might walk, or if a character will exit a screen.

I did a quick search and found this storyboard test that someone did for Star and the Forces of Evil. You'll be able to see how the storyboard artist used arrows and how the dialogue is displayed. (Sorry they took these boards down) https://www.scribd.com/document/283152280/Star-vs-the-Forces-of-Evil-Storyboard-Test I did find this link which is a pilot episode for Monsters Abroad which was not picked up. The whole thing is in storyboard format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGuJL0KUDQM A TV Storyboard artist also has to consider if he is storyboarding for a 2D show or a 3D show. In a 2D show there might be a limit to the amount of backgrounds that they can have in the entire show. So you might choose to reuse some angles. For example you could have a far away shot, and then later in the episode cut to a closer version of the same angle. A 3D show might not have to worry about the amount of backgrounds they can use as much.

Both 3D TV animation and 2D TV animation have to be conscious of how many characters you have in a shot. They call this "character count". So you might be told that you can only have twenty 10 character shots in your storyboard. (I'm just using random numbers here)

Also when you are applying to a studio -> Always know who you are applying to and cater your portfolio to each individual studio. For example, Sony does not have the same sense of humor as Disney, nor does Bluesky. Also know if you're applying to a studio that has a 3D shows or 2D show. If you have time try to cater what you do to the place that you're applying to.

My supervisor told me that "You only need one great board to get a job, you don't need more." He personally makes the interns at our studio do one of two assignments. They're called 1) The chase 2) The waiting room

ad1) The chase can be anything. You get to create the scenario and the characters involved. Is it about a husband that is chasing after his wife who got on the bus angry, trying to apologize for their fight this morning. Whatever you do, this assignment is not only about the chase. That is only a small part of the assignment. Probably the smallest. What the assignment is really about, is character. How are the characters interacting, what are the characters feeling, what are they going through. You want the choices of the characters to be believable and routed in their personalities. Also every storyboard should be about evoking an emotion. What emotion am I trying to make the audience feel, what emotion am I communicating.

ad2) The waiting room My supervisor mentioned that he does not really love this assignment. But let me explain the scenario. This story is about two or more people in a room. You get to choose the characters and what they are doing. Because you are limited to one room, this assignment shows your creativity in staging and in storytelling. A good film example of this assignment is the 1957 version of 12 Angry Men My supervisor did say however, that the only successful waiting room assignments that he's seen went way above the waiting room creatively. Unfortunately he did not elaborate so I'm a bit in the dark for this as well lol.

A few more notes that my supervisor gave were: - good comedy always sells. - Even though boarding is not about drawing, pretty drawings impress. As does good compositions. People will stop to look at pretty pictures.

I also asked him if you might be able to use an existing scripts to help you if you don't have a story. He said, yes you can totally do that. He recommended that, if this board is meant to go into your portfolio, rather then just to be a study piece that you should stay away from animated film. More then likely if you re-board an animated film, your work will simply not be as good as the version of the film. But if you take something like the life action GI - Joe, if you think you can do that better, then go for it. You might also be able to use the script as a launching point to get yourself an idea. These are two websites where you can find scripts. http://www.imsdb.com/ http://www.script-o-rama.com/snazzy/table.html

Also note that, if you are a student and your school lets you make a film, your film doesn't have to be your portfolio. Sometimes you're trying to accomplish so much with your film that it ends up not being the best piece to represent yourself. You might have a small personal project that you've done on your own time that feels really authentic that represents your skills better.

Ok that's all the information I could think of for now.

Please let me know if you guys have any more questions. There is so much to go over with storyboarding, it's hard to know where to begin and where to end :) Wishing you guys all the best Bianca

162 notes · View notes

bb-ma-2 · 3 years

Text

industry feedback

Sabrina Cotugno responded, but as our correspondence occurred over a period of a week and several days, I didn't post all the feedback I received immediately. I believe we're done for now though, so here's what they've said:

March 23: "—Okay here’s some notes!! I’m feeling pretty tired right now so hopefully this makes sense!! —I’m interested to see where this story goes! The characters all have nice clear personalities, Agatha in particular is super charming. The glitch is an intriguing concept as well. —You introduce the setting twice—first in the initial establishing shots, and then through the main character’s eyes after she wakes up. I’d cut the first establishing shots and, instead, open nice and close on our main character. Only when she looks out at her surroundings do you cut wide to reveal the location. This way the audience is more in the character’s head, since we’re discovering the wider world at the same time she is. —On pacing: I’m working on the assumption that this is the beginning of the story. Disregard this is we’ve had previous time to get to know the characters and rules of the world…. But IF this is the beginning: You’re introducing a lot of unusual and interesting ideas that need a bit more visual explanation. I.E.: —What are the flowers growing out of the main character’s eye? What’s going on there? Is this a new thing for her? I admit at first I just thought some flowers had fallen onto her face, and it took me a while to realize they were a consistent part of her design. We see her interacting with them and trying to pull them out a few shots later, but that interaction is interrupted by: her reaction to the world around her and her reaction to the person with the bucket. Because it’s interrupted by that stuff, it’s difficult to clearly establish this important part of her design. I’d step it out like: —She notices the flowers. What the fuck?! She sits up, tugs at the flowers. They won’t budge. She gives up. THEN…. —She looks out and notices her surroundings. Big wide shot! Reveal the world! —Then, we get a nice close-up on her to see her clear reaction to her surroundings. —And then, in theory, she notices the bucket person? Honestly, I’m not sure if we need this character here? We meet them later anyway, and I’m not sure what they’re doing out in the wilderness. It took me a while to realize that the bucket character and Agatha were two separate characters. —Agatha throwing her skull as protection is really fun—is there a way to introduce the fact that she can detach her skull earlier? Maybe have her play around with her skull head in her introductory scene? —Here’s the most common storyboard note I give, it’s: switch up your medium shots. You’ve got several minutes near the end of JUST medium shots, which can feel repetitive and jump-cutty if used too frequently. Look for shots that are more about broad physical motion and turn them into wide shots. Look for shots that are more focused on facial acting and turn them into close-ups. —For your over-the-shoulder shots: as a general rule you don’t want the focus of the shot to be the over-the-shoulder character—because they’re turned away from camera, we can’t really see them properly. For instance, when the main character (Exa?) introduces herself, she states her name while facing away from us in an over-the-shoulder—which feels odd because she should be the focus of that shot. I’d swap that shot out for an over-the-shoulder from over Agatha’s shoulder or a single shot on Exa. oops, I meant "Disregard this IF we’ve had previous time to get to know the characters and rules of the world…."

I think I'm a little confused as to the purpose of this animatic? You mention that it's going to be a pilot eventually, but I think we might have a different definition of 'pilot'.....

Questions on that are: 1) Is this the entire animatic or part of a larger animatic that I'm not seeing? 2) What is the purpose of this project? I understand that it's for your school program, but what is the goal here? Is this basically going to be a thesis film? Is it a portfolio piece to apply to future jobs? Is it something you're planning on pitching to a studio? (If the latter, people don't often pitch shows to studios using animatics--they're way too labor intensive! and usually you'd want to go through several rounds of studio notes before committing to a pilot script/board) 3) What kind of program are you in? Is it an animation program or another kind of graduate program? I ask because you seem not entirely confident in your professors' notes, and that may be a good instinct--animation is a really niche industry and there aren't many teachers who are really qualified to teach in this area er, or rather.... I don't want to say 'they're not qualified' but they may not have the specific expertise to really guide you to to get the specific skills/portfolio you need

April 6: --So, I would definitely encourage you to do a bit more research on animated pilots! Pilots are generally one full episode length--either the first episode or an early episode (say episode 4). --The job of a pilot is to convince the studio that they should greenlight your show. That's what sets it apart from a "teaser"--generally speaking, you want to clearly establish all the major elements of a show in that first episode. the Steven Universe pilot is a great example ("this is a show about a human boy with three superpowered moms. Here are their powers. Here's how they work. There's going to be music. There's going to be action scenes.") The pilot of Hannibal is also a great pilot (it takes time to clearly establish all the main characters, their dynamics, and the major setpieces of the show--the big, artsy murders, Will's "This is my design" schtick, Will and Hannibal's manipulative therapy sessions) --Ah hah, actually shoot, reading through your previous answer, it looks like you already understood that a pilot=selling tool. But to expand on that: you want to avoid teasing. Instead, you should be revealing and dramatizing. A lot of pilots will END on a teaser that hints at the overall season arc, but ONLY after spending the majority of its runtime answering the basic questions of "What is this story? Who are these characters? How am I going to tell this story? What sets it apart from other stories in this genre?" (Again, to use Hannibal as an example, taking full scenes to demonstrate how Will's "superpower" works, how the murders are more like art pieces than your typical grisly CSI murder, how Hannibal is depicted as more of an ally and friend to Will than an adversary..... these are all things that clearly explain, "This is what an average episode of this show will look like. These are the things that set it apart from other crime procedurals.") Right now in your pilot you're teasing a LOT about the basic premise of the story but have not revealing a lot of answers. Again, you can have one or two things teased at the end, but not at the expense of basic clarity--and you have to reveal enough of the story/world/characters that the audience could feasibly start guessing what the answers to those teasers could be. --I may have mentioned this before, but generally speaking individual creators don't make pilots on their own--they're much too expensive. Generally, you make a 'story bible' with art and writing that explains the basic premise of the show, the characters, and world, and then pitch it to studios. If the studio likes it, they will option the project and then give you the budget and resources to make the pilot at the studio --An exception would be something like Hazbin Hotel, but that basically required the creator to create her own studio, funded by a very successful Patreon, with her own full crew of animators working under her. Honestly I would only recommend this route if you are very business savvy and would also be OK producing the ENTIRE show independent of a studio (therefore rendering a pilot pointless) --So overall, I would recommend using this project as A) a personal project B) a portfolio to sell YOUR SKILLS as an artist for future industry jobs--storyboarding skills, 2D animation skills, design skills. However, I would say that if you want to use this piece as part of a storyboarding portfolio, I would recommend going back in and cleaning it up to industry standards--referencing currently working industry board artists for that level of clean (i.e. Steven Universe, Amphibia, Rise of the TMNT, etc.). The goal you want to reach is for the person reviewing your board to understand the story clearly without having to read the dialogue or ask follow-up questions. Hope that helps!!

I then had some questions to wrap up,

"1) Do you think that, as it is, it holds up better as a mock series teaser then? Basically stop trying to call it a pilot and own the vagueness/mystery of it. In other words, if it's not trying to be a pilot, do you think it works/is engaging?

2) I have a written 'project proposal' that I have to arrange with my professors, instead of trying to sell this as an "animatic for a pilot", would you recommend I change it to "story bible with animatic"? That seems like the right path to me at this point but I thought I'd ask

3) And finally... Would it be okay if I sent you a sort of update in a few months (june-july ish) to get your feedback again? By that point I'm hoping to have redrawn the characters (so they actually look like their references) and implemented the advice you've given me for the animatic. It should be the last time as my school year finishes in September, but I I completely understand if you'd rather not. like I said earlier I know you're very busy"

To which she responded,

1) Hmm, this is a tricky question for me.... I would say my primary issue goes back to the fact that it doesn't feel like a complete statement. I feel the text of the animatic would need to answer a few more questions before it could properly "tease" an audience into wanting to see more. I'd say your meat-and-potatoes questions are: What does your main character want/need? How is she going to achieve it? What kind of obstacles is she likely to face? What are her flaws as a character? How do they hold her back? How will the world of the story force her to confront and grow from those flaws?

And for this story in particular, I'd want to reveal enough of the world that I could begin to guess at things like: What is the glitch? What kind of world is this? Um, this is a little trickier to explain, but since this story exists in a fantasy world and there are SO many mysteries--what is the glitch? who is the main character? Is she from this world or another world? Is this world real or does the glitch indicate that it's a video game or something? Incidentally, these are the kinds of questions I commonly ask students who are working on their own original stories. I find those students often have pretty clear answers when I ask them, at which point I say, "Cool. Now put the answers in the board." I think there's a culture online of "don't be obvious" or "don't spoil the audience"--I would say, when trying to sell a new story to an audience, don't worry about that kind of thing. Be obvious. Keep in mind that many animated shows are only 11 minutes long, and in the age of streaming, most showrunners only have one episode to convince an audience to watch THEIR show and not the dozens of other shows that aired the same month, or thousands of other shows they could access via streaming. Don't worry about giving too much away! Be stupid and obvious!

However, I am aware that as a student you only have so much time until your deadline--if you're in a phase where you should be finished with pre-production and starting production, I would not recommend making major changes to your story--that will only cause you to rush through your work later. If you need to finish the animatic soon and start on animation, I would recommend ignoring my advice above and focus on producing the animatic you have currently at the highest quality you can. Even if it doesn't necessarily work as a selling tool for the story--which is perfectly fine, I would strongly recommend pitching to studios right after graduating anyway (studios are complicated and predatory to young artists, and I recommend taking several years to work within the studio system to understand how it works from the inside before trying to be a showrunner)--it can still work as a portfolio presentation piece if you take your time on your animation and go back and polish this board 2) Story bible with animatic should work! 3) Yeah, feel free to send an updated version! Though again I am wary of deadlines and am a little skeptical that giving feedback so close to your deadline would be SUPER helpful--I may only be able to give 'polish' notes at that point that you would still be able to implement By “text of the animatic” I just mean that when I flip through the storyboard, I can understand the answers clearly without having to ask questions or read about it in the action notes. Personally I don’t recommend using board notes/action notes/descriptions at all. The only time I’ve used those are when working with an overseas outsourced contract animation studio. The function of action notes are essentially insurance—the board should read clearly on its own, but if an overseas studio misinterprets the board, you can point to the action notes and say, “you should have done what was in the action notes. Because this was a mistake on your end, you have to fix it on your own time (rather than requesting additional money to pay for a mistake on our end)”. In any other case, action notes are redundant and should be taken out of any portfolio or presentation

It was overall incredibly helpful and enlightening, especially with what pilots are and how they work. Sabrina's really helped me figure out what I thought I wanted to do, and what I actually want to do. I'll elaborate on this a bit more in my essay and how I applied it to my animatic directly.

#00

0 notes

alexanderessex3dstoryart · 4 years

Text

Inanimate Objects - Advanced Modelling - 21/10/20

For today’s session, I wanted my assets to be improved greatly as they looked very blocky which works really well for an animatic, but less so leading up to a finished film. This was both for my main characters and the set itself as I felt so much could be done for improvement. In addition to this, I wanted to rig the characters to allow the possibility of emotion and characterisation in the objects movements

Starting off with the head honcho himself, the coffee cup was very simple to make in terms of modelling as I used the cup I bought for the sound design as visual reference in making it which is what probably made the process a lot easier for myself. One tool that I found new to me when I was modelling the cup was the bevel tool as this allowed specific edges, faces or vertex points to curve to my liking. I applied this tool on the base of the cup’s lid to make it look realistic which to me, seems like it did the job really well. I was going to apply this feature to the top of the cup too, but something was telling me that it looked quite nice for the time being seeing all the polygons like this which is why I left it in this state.

One very important feature I added to the character was the rigging as I decided to make this model from the ground up from the technical issues I had with the character with the rig not staying put. Whilst I made an overall rig to control the characters movements and grabbing all the modeled parts hen moving, I also added a rig to the lid of the cup too as this could help to express the object a lot more in it’s performance such as when he’s scared, his jump forces the lid to pop off him and land back on top of him.

After the cup was completed, I then headed onto making the pen a whole lot better and similar to he coffee cup, I also used a visual reference being my own ZEBRA pen to model the character. The modelling process was rather simple due to the pen being a very simple design as it was a lot of objects that honestly didn’t need too much modelling for. However saying that, a feature I got stuck from refereeing my pen was the curved hilt to the handle as my knowledge of Maya didn’t know how something like it could be made. After some researching online, I found out I could use the bend tool to bend a specific part of an object instead of having to cross cut the object multiple times and curve each individual one. Trying to bend was really tricky at first as the way you have to control the bend for the object was a really complicated process for me to grasp but in the end, I somehow managed to do it and made my efforts and frustrations all the more worth it when I saw how good it looked on the character

Like with the coffee cup, I also added rigging to not just the base of the character but in other details too to make the character a lot more expressive. These added elements were added to the pen’s button clicker as well as the pen tip. Whilst they’re not as expressiveness or experimental as the coffee cup’s lid, they’re still just as important to me in terms of animating the character as we don’t see a lot of the pen due to hiding in the shadows other than the last shot.

After the characters were finished and fully modeled out, I then advanced to remaking the set again to look much nicer than before. Starting off with the laptop, I essentially worked off the laptop that I had roughly made but expanded it making it much bigger in scale and a lot more detailed too with creating each key. I used the cross-section tool to make the touch pad through cross-section the base of the laptop and then extruding down in to the object to form a hole and buttons. With the screen of the laptop, I made sure to make a deep extruding using the extrude tool to cover the rims of the laptop when the light is placed into the object.

The flask was very similar to the coffee cup as the making process was pretty much the same except for angling the faces of the mug itself. I did this by selecting a ring of faces using shift and double click to wrap around the model and re-sized it to make the indention. Then I would angled it either downwards or upwards depending where it lied on the model. I did this with multiple faces around the base of the model to create the perfect indentation for me.

Now of the pen holder, I wanted to achieve a specific look for the object that being this wired meshes deign that you normally see in 9to5 offices. To help make this specific design, I followed a YouTube tutorial in how I would make it as it looked like a complicated prop to do. Through watching and making, it was a very tricky process for me having not too much experience in Maya myself as I had to constantly keep referencing back to the tutorial. Two things I learnt from the process was that I could move the entire d point by pressing d and v at the same time which was really cool to uncover as it made making the pipes and applying them around the model so much quicker than I knew intially. As well as this, I learnt about the use of defomrers as I used them to twist the pipes to make them look mesh like. Even though I completed the process, I found this style of modelling very complicated and not as fun as the extrude tool. To finish the prop off, I quickly made some pencils and duplicated versions of the pen character and placed them in to my model.

Finished Set

How to Model Creative Pen Stand in Maya

youtube

Other additional props I made were more for the after credits scene like the crushed up hole cup and the rips of dead paper that would of been ripped out of the cup. For the ripped paper, I got a flat plane and played around with the vertex points to make a crumpled piece of paper. Whilst it looks rough, I wanted to see what the paper looked like in the scene and through the camera lens to see what needed changing. For the holed cup, i took my already existing coffee cup and put cylinders through the prop to boolean so that they would form holes. Once the holes had been formed, I grabbed their new vertex points and pulled them out to make them look much more ripped in detail and to show it had been destroyed by the pen. Another detail that went into this model was that I made the lid a lot more crumpled looking by dragging and angling the lid to look distort and battered. I think the changes I’ve made have all helped to create a really successful looking destroyed model.

Whilst the whole modelling process went really successful, the only issue I had when making the models was that I always forgot to freeze transform and delete history as I was modelling leading to some of the shapes unexpectedly expanding on me. But other than that, the whole modelling process was really fun and informative as not only did I have a blast experimenting with each model, I also picked up new skills that might prove useful later on in the project.

#InAnimateBA2a

0 notes

attemptingthoughtfulness · 4 years

Text

Narrative Reconstructions of History or The Butler isn’t as bad as I thought

For my English finals we had to watch two movies, one of them was the 2013 movie The Butler that retold the story of Cecil Gaines, an African-American who became a butler at the White House in the 1930s after escaping enslavement in the South. It greatly dramatizes the Civil Rights Movement through the lense of a figure whose job description entails to be non-political (which is an entirely different can of worms). The movie had gotten a lot of flag due to its Oscar-bait properties and stretched the phrase “inspired by real events” quite a bit, inventing an entire b-plot to heighten the tension and create conflict.

When I first watched the movie, I met it with the scepticism we all reserve for most things we’re forced to consume and don’t really have any personal stakes in. It was an Oscar-bait, it wasn’t historically accurate and it wasn’t very good – narratively and visually. It was okay, from what I remember more than a year later, but it did inspire a rather lengthy written rant the lights of which I would love to share if the hard drive it is on wasn’t literally 600 kilometres away from where I’m stuck in social distancing.

From what I mostly remember, I criticized it a lot for being historically inaccurate and there were definitely some weird choices from cinematographers but here we get from my rather apologetic insights to my passive aggressive rant: So. I just. Read… I mean, basically a rant on AO3 that was a version of all those very good and insightful video essays that centre around media criticism on pop culture. Basically, it was “Hamilton is bad and here’s why” and I mean, of course I just had to read it, right? I am aware that I am a bit more biased than the usual Joe, but yeah, let’s get into it.

For what the description promised, an essay on deconstructing Hamilton the Broadway Musical and something about the toxic fandom, it started out very rough before I realized what was going on. This wasn’t the work of a media critic at all (okay, if you publish your essays on AO3 and not on your personal tumblr-blog, the aspects of academically sound criticism seem laughable), it was a historian’s perspective.

It is actually better than I initially gave it credit for, not much but definitely a little. I can’t really comment on the aspects of the toxic fandom because I’m quite new to this and never really deeply engage with The Fandom™ as a collective entity but fandoms, by their nature, tend to be very intense and often times inspire a lot of gate keeping and, in that regard, toxicity, so I am sure the writer had some reason for being annoyed by it.

What I had a problem with was the second kind of argument: They were doing what I had done with The Butler, but better. With a more clickbaity title, but still. They wrote a lengthy, historical analysis citing sources and everything; it wasn’t “deconstruction” in the way it’s generally used in academia, or rather philosophy, referring to semiotic analysis rather than literally taking something apart. It was historical analysis, which is, for all intents and purposes, fine.

So, here’s my problem with that: it felt like a rant because it was a rant. It wasn’t an essay because the way it constructed its argument towards the conclusion kind of didn’t work and I should have expected that, but I didn’t, so, let’s get started.

The entirety of the document is “here’s where Hamilton is historically inaccurate” and “here’s why your waifus are shit”, which is. Big ouf. Until we reach the conclusion, which did have rather meaningful insights that we’ll be getting to later. The reason reading it prompted me to write this rant was that I, since The Butler, had finally understood what narrative and creative freedom means. There are actually a lot of parallels between The Butler and Hamilton (one’s probably got more artistically skilled people and a bigger box office but let’s not get there): They’re fictionalized history for consumption – and to a wider extend education.

What Hamilton ultimately did was to take a lot of creative freedom to make a good mixtape and stage show and one could argue, that it is a perfectly sound decision to dramatize and focus on certain aspects of the Revolutionary War than all of them. And I would agree with that argument. I don’t think judging media for its accuracy towards its source material is a very productive way to look at; no matter if you don’t – or particularly if you do – care a lot for its origins. I won’t go too “Death of the Author” on you, because that’s not really the conversation we’re having here and because context does matter and there are more layers to that argument.

You could also make the same argument for the “your waifu is trash”-part, that however we chose to fictionalize a stage musical that already is a narrative construction of history in our heads (in the business we call that “headcanon”) doesn’t really matter. At this point it’s a story of a story of a person who’s been dead for centuries that we only have stories about – it’s pretty much the closest to fantasy we have for reality.

But here’s where that rather long historical analysis in search of inaccuracies and falsehoods has a point that it communicates rather poorly but is a very valid point: History doesn’t exist in a vacuum and how and who we chose to idealize it and its actors in our heads does have effects on how we view history. The reason media that is based on history is often times criticised is because it’s critical (pun intended) to cautiously keep our eyes on the way it sheds light on its actors, on who we chose to dramatize, who we antagonize, whose story we tell. Stories, by their nature, are not reality, they can’t be. They’re narratives that are cherry picked and cherry picked for a reason – and they have a huge responsibility in the impact they have.

While “The Butler” performed unexpectedly poorly at the box office and is probably only watched by bored English students in one of Germany’s 16 states, Hamilton dwarfs that by comparison probably going down in history (pun intended) as one of the biggest cultural artefacts of the early 21rst century, while telling the heroic story of way more #problematic people.

But here’s a thing I learned from all the Hamilton animatics on YouTube: Hamilton the American Musical has ceased to be solely a musical on history; there’s a reason the AO3 fandom-tag for Hamilton is “Hamilton (Miranda)” and not “18th century revolutionary war” or “history” or “actual Alexander Hamilton”.

Here’s a question: Do you even know how Hamilton looked like? How Lafayette or Mulligan looked like? If you aren’t an American citizen and carry his face around in your purse all the time, you probably don’t. I’m sure I didn’t until I searched for songs of the musical “Hamilton” on Google and have his portrait pop up. I would argue that most people who know and love and listen to Hamilton don’t imagine the actual, history-canon, Alexander Hamilton when they imagine the story of the musical, the imagine Lin Manuel Miranda in the costume and role of Alexander Hamilton.

I remember the outrage when Hamilton got released about the historical inaccuracy for casting people of color as the founding fathers and Miranda actually had to justify it by saying he casted whoever was best for the job, which is a perfectly fine statement, and that race is a social construct and it really doesn’t matter, but I bet he also thought at some point that if he only casted historically accurate it would have been the whitest musical ever – even whiter than musicals historically already were. The 1770s were pretty white in terms of players in major historical events and who was allowed to fight in war and participate in politics. Like, super white. Just imagine how fucking white a musical on war and politics would have been.

I’m not saying it doesn’t matter. It does. I’m not saying Hamilton the American Musical can be viewed completely shut off from its historical roots, and in fact shouldn’t be - it’s important to remember that probably every single one of them was super problematic by today’s standards. I’m not saying the historical lense is a wrong method of criticism, it isn’t. But I’m also saying that this are not reasons to disregard it as a meaningful piece of art and ironically Hamilton, the musical not the person, makes the exact same argument in its inherent flawedness: History matters and breathes in our present and telling those stories is important.

0 notes

sarahjart · 4 years

Text

UNIT SIX// PROJECT- FICTION: DEVELOPING THE ANIMATION

I started off making an animatic for my first animation idea. This was the two characters Rosalie and Theophile slow dancing, Theophile was to start to rot in Rosalie’s arms, which she is shocked and disgusted by and steps back, the ghost Jean then flies in to take Theophile’s place in the dance.

I thought this would be a visually interesting idea to do. However, in the time frame it wasn’t realistic to try and animate and colour full body movement to the standard I wanted to. Looking back, this format doesn’t really suit the story anyway because there is no point whee the characters dance so it doesn’t really make any sense. I am also not sure at all how it would loop back to Jean being able to turn into Theophile in a way that actually makes sense for the story.

After making the three rough development books (see previous post) I did think briefly about doing an animation which would include Rosalie falling into the grave and falling into Theo’s gruesome body. However After making the short animatic below I discovered I wasn’t skilled enough/comfortable enough at animation to be able to draw her falling in a way that looked good. I also had no idea how I would loop it so quickly abandoned the idea.

The next idea I tried turned out to be the ‘one’. This composition is entirely based on the drawing in the colour A6 rough booklet.It was that drawing that inspired this entire animation. In this animatic (which is very fast sorry!) Rosalie is asleep in bed and dreams of Theophile who appears behind her. theophile begins to rot in a gruesome way, which makes her expression change. Jean then appears on the far left and ‘blows’ the memory of the poor rotting Theophile away literally and moves in to take his place behind Rosalie.

I used this animatic as key frames to draw over. This produced this rough version of the animation-

I then vastly improved Theophiles ‘rotting’ by studying how the skull sits under the skull and thinking about how the human body would decompose. I also performed extensive clean up on the overlapping lines between characters. the key improvement in this stage is the zoom in/out segment which allows the GIF to loop seamlessly. This was difficult to do as I did the zoom by manually making the frames bigger myself so I am proud of the outcome.

The version below is then full cleaned up and is the final line version of the animation.

I then began to add colour frame by frame....

I didn’t run into too many problems while animating. I used my sketches extensively and used the key frames/tweens method of animation I learnt from the book ‘The animators survival kit’ to keep my animation solid. Please see my next post for the final animation!

0 notes

ao3-hipster-fangirl-trash · 7 years

Note

For the carry on ask thing I really just want to say all of them😂. Or if that takes too long the ones you really want to answer😊 Sunglasses dude just because he's cooler than me

Banshee: What’s something you love so much that you just really want to run around and scream about?

Probably my best friend @thehatwhisperer caus she’s an awesome ‘mythic bitch’ who absolutely supports me through anything, like i can call her about the stupidest things crying and she will always help and console me and make me feel better about myself, no matter what time of day it is and it makes me feel so amazing.

Bonety Hunter: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever had to ‘hunt’ down in the store?

I once had to hunt down two giant boards of wood, three cans of white spray paint, a spool of wool and 600 nails for an art project, the poor cashier looked terrified caus these planks were like, A1 size, that’s really the weirdest thing ever.

Centaur: If you were a centaur, what would be your preferred weapon to fight people with?

Specialised bow and arrow FITE ME I’M AN AESTHETIC BITCH

Chimera: Have you ever sent a chimera after anyone? And if you haven’t, who would you love to send a chimera after?

I can’t exactly remember if sending a chimera is good or bad, and imma assume bad, so probably ever guy that ever tries to tell me that I’m bisexual when I specifically say that I’m pansexual, and then argues to me about what bi and pan is.

Demon: If you could choose any human to be the vessel for your demon soul, who would it be?

Tom Holland, caus A) he’s hot B) I could date harrison osterfield (If he’s bi/pan/gay/polysexual) C) TESSAAAAAA

Devils: What’s the evilest prank you really want to pull?

Pretending to date a dude and get my parents hopes up then make out with a girl in front of them.

Dragon: Does your pet a dragon breathe fire or ice?

Fire duh, he/she/they could warm me whilst i sleep and keep me safe, and be a great cuddler.

Dryad: Would you be a dryad that helps those who come seeking information or would you hide away in the trees and spy on everyone?

Probably hide in the trees and spy on everyone, knowing me i would chuck berries and them and think I’m being helpful too

Fairy: What type of fairy would you be? (A pizza fairy, a comfy sweater fairy, a rain fairy etc.)

A rain fairy, caus i fucking love rain, the dew drops that it leaves on leafs, the freezing cold winds and the beautiful sound against an iron sheet, rain is my shit dudes. Either that or a night fairy, because i adore the stars and when it is absolutely pitch black and you can literally see the milky way

Flibbertigibbet: Is that the sound you make when you sneeze? If not, what is it?

Either the loudest sound you have EVER HEARD IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE or the smallest noise ever there is no inbetween

Ghost: If you were a ghost, what’s the first thing you would do?

Meet celebrities and fucking haunt their hot asses, like just hang around tom holland and help him out and send him good vibes, or like open doors for tom hiddleston caus he’s so polite, he needs a polite ghost to pay him back for his loveliness

Goblin: How would you style your fabulous hair if you were a goblin?

Like storm from x-men except teal, caus that shits tight

***Goat: You recieve a baby goat as a birthday present; what do you name it?

SHIT PRESSURE I DON’T KNOW ok delilah, caus I’ll sing hey there delilah to her and i ain’t EVER HEARD OF A GOAT NAMED DELILAH

Gnome: If you could grow anything in your garden, what would it be?

Gryphon: Would you rather be an eagle, a lion, oR bOtH?!?!?

Kitchen Skink: If you were to fight a kitchen skink, would you win? (I’m sorry I have no idea what a kitchen skink is)

Leprechaun: What would you do with a duffel bag full of Leprechaun gold?

Well i’m half irish so probably take em out for a pint of Guiness and have a good time with em, chill out and be cool.

Manticore: Which would you rather have: shark teeth, bat wings, or a scorpion tail?

BAT WINGS MY DUDE THAT WOULD BE THE SHIT AND IT WOULD BE SO FUCKING COOL I COULD FLY AND JUST SCREAM AT PEOPLE AND FREAK THEM THE FUCK OUT

Mermaid: Under The Sea or Part of Your World?

Part of your world, i could sing that till i die i swear

Merewolves: What’s the grossest food you’ve ever eaten?

OK SO STORY TIME i used to live in france and there was this place where we got lunch, and once we got this horrible seafood stew, somehow the carrots were undercooked, the mussels were overcooked and chewy, and the fish was falling apart in the stew and tasted rotten, it made me throw up i hated it.

Minotaur: Are you good at solving mazes or do you totally suck?

I once ran through a maze as a kid and never made it to the centre, despite having gone super fast and been in it for like 3 hours

Ne’er-do-wolves: If you could be any magickal creature on this list, which would it be?

I’d be a fucking nymph no joke my dude they’re awesome for sure

Numpties: How do you feel about people sitting in the front seat when they were kidnapped by fucking numpties?

Absolutely disgraced, horrible, disgraceful

Nymph: Would you rather sing beautifully or dance beautifully?

Sing because fuck it i want to be a gorgeous singer, and if i can’t dance then someone can teach me yas

Ogres: What is your favorite movie? *cough* SHREK *cough cough*

THE MARTIAN AND A HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY FUCKING FITE ME

Phoenix: If you could explode into flames and come out completely unharmed anytime you wanted, what would you use that skill for?

Probably exams, if someone dies in an exam then everyone gets their predicted grades and i’m gonna help my buddies out, i joke about it sometimes but damn i would for my friends

Pixie: What would trail behind you if you were a pixie? (Sprinkles, bacon bits, rose petals, tiny skulls etc.)

Fucking lightning my dude, imagine you step on water and fucking lightning spreads on the surface of it that shit would be tight

Rakshasa: (Rakshasa means ‘protect me’ in Sanskrit) What does your name mean?

Sophie: wisdom/wise

Siren: What is the one thing Sirens could sing about that you would not be able to resist?

Self improvement, like if they offered acting classes or art improvement i’d go right over there like fuck the crew of my ship imma crash it and improve myself fuck em

Snow Devil: If you had a perfect snowball in your hand right now, what would you do with it?

Take a picture, then a video of me shoving it down my little brothers shirt and freezing the shit out of him

Sprite: Which would you rather be, a sprite that can breathe underwater or a sprite that can fly?

BREATHE UNDERWATER I COULD EXPLORE EVERYWHERE ONLY 5% OF THE OCEAN IS EXPLORED I WANT TO SEE WHAT’S THERE THAT WOULD BE SO COOL

Tooth Fairy: What do you think the Tooth Fairy does with all of those teeth?

I was always told they take the teeth and turn them into pearls and make beautiful mosaics from the different coloured pearls (this was in a kids book) but i also like the idea from rise of the guardians that they hold memories

Trolls: What’s your favorite phrase? (Example: Fuck a nine-toed troll)

“Aight my dudes”, that or “ah nipple fuck” i don’t know i just love the phrase

Unicorns: Would you be a pleasant and gentle unicorn that grants wishes or would you be a powerful kickass unicorn that stabs anyone who gets on their bad side?

Bit a both, pleasant to my friends or a complete asshole to anyone who insults them, these are my friends, hurt them and u get stabbed

Werewolf: Who is your favorite werewolf?

There was this one animatic of a werewolf who had a boyfriend and called him puppy and that would be my fave werewolf ever, like i might share it on here but it makes me happy af

Worseger: How do badgers personally impact your life? Could they get any ‘worse’?

Not really, badgers don’t ever really bother me and i don’t bother them

Wraith: Would wraiths be creeped out by you too?

Duh, i’m freaky as hell

Vampire: Who is your favorite vampire? (Besides our lovely Basilton of course)

Probably dracula’s ladies, like in the traditional story he has 3 beautiful women who entrance men to their deaths and they’re really kick ass to me

and you’re not wrong sunglasses are so kick ass

#long post #ask #answer #about me #my stuff

2 notes · View notes

zak-animation · 5 years

Photo

Mystery Box: Final Storyboards Review Today, I took the opportunity to develop two refined storyboards for my Mystery Box sequence: working from my live-action reference and breaking this down into six key images that work to convey the overall action of the scene. Additionally to this, I wanted to take the ideas of the previous storyboarding workshop and produce a storyboard using a few different shot types to further communicate the narrative and emotional beats of the story. Ultimately, this was simply an exercise in storyboarding due to the locked, one-shot camera nature of the mystery box brief - but in this experiment, I have explored some interesting visual ideas.

Before I began work on the final storyboard, I wanted to take the time to develop upon the ideas of the storyboarding masterclass: to present our story using a range of camera angles, working beyond the limitations of the brief. Whilst beginning to sketch out ideas, I couldn’t help but see the potential in the use of multiple shots to convey this sequence.

Storyboarding Masterclass Development Whilst having all of our action take place in a single shot can be an effective technique to present our character performance, it’s not exactly an industry practice. Typically, artists tell the story over a series of different shots which work to communicate the story. As Helen established in the masterclass, having different type shots and camera angles can really influence the emotional impact of a story. Utilising different shots can ultimately allow the story to be conveyed in a way that heightens the themes and ideas of the narrative itself, from long shots to indicate a character’s isolated emotional state, to compositional techniques demonstrating the balance of power in the scene.

These concepts that I’m discussing here are initially pulled from film theory and cinematographic techniques, something ingrained in modern storytelling animation. As industry professional Helen said, ‘we don’t tend to use a locked camera, it’s quite difficult to tell an interesting story’ with such a limitation. Although we are given a locked camera for the mystery box, this is an unlikely industry practice, and this is the main reason why we have been asked to explore the possibility of multiple shot types to tell our story. Typically, the camera moves with the action of the narrative as a further way to tell the story. Taking this away from us effectively forces us to focus on communicating a single action in a visually clear way, rather than an actual story.

My initial storyboard begins with a close up on the father: we can see he’s got his hands over his face, playing ‘peek-a-boo’ with this son. He opens up his arms, ready to surprise his son and suddenly - he’s not there. The main focus of this section of the story is highlighting the character’s facial acting - and so I’ve opted for a close up here. The reveal is conveyed through a reverse shot: we see the father’s point of view, and can easily see his son isn’t there. This idea of shifting to the character’s perspective is the easiest and clearest way of demonstrating the surprise to the audience, which then cuts to a long shot of the father looking from right to left, before dropping his arms in disappointment: ‘where has my son gotten off to now?’.

After crouching down to look under two (unseen) tables, the angle then changes to an over-the-shoulder shot - as we see the box when the father does. This was a key shot in my initial vision for the sequence, something that isn’t possible with the locked, one-shot camera description of the brief. We have to present the box already on screen, and so the reaction isn’t in-line with the main characters. Whilst this is perfectly fine, and there’s room for some exciting ideas within this restriction, it does place a separation between the viewer and audience.

Within the feature film animation industry, there is a heavy focus on character - and getting the audience to resonate with the protagonist is the main goal of the entire film. This is achieved through an interesting character and design, but also how the director chooses to tell the story - and if it can make the audience truly feel what the main character is going through. Whilst the majority of this is created through an engaging, affecting performance - it is also achieved through purposeful shot composition to tell the story through visuals.

Looking at my first storyboard here, I feel like this series of shots present a more exciting and engaging sequence. The array of shot types allow the audience a window into the father’s character in a way that a single locked camera simply cannot. Whilst I’m ultimately going to follow the final, single-shot storyboard, I’m very tempted to work on this sequence in my own time beyond the requirements of the brief: creating a sequence using these multiple shots and comparing how this conveys the story in comparison to my one-shot iteration.

Despite this, there are a few reasons to use a locked, one-shot composition: firstly, it places the focus on a convincing character performance. With film, this would mean the pressure is placed entirely on the actor to tell the story. With animation, this effectively puts the entire success of the piece on the character’s performance and challenges us to convey a character through the acting and how the character moves than a series of exciting compositions.

Lastly, using a one-shot camera removes any potential for distracting editing and cutting, allowing the actual animation to speak for itself. This is the main reason for the limitation, and it’s one that I honestly understand and resonate with. The success and focus of our sequences should be the character’s performance and how we can use acting to convey a personality and emotion, rather than distracting cutting to obnoxious camera angles.

Final Storyboard Review With this in mind, I began work on my final, refined storyboard for the Mystery Box assignment. Using my own live action footage as reference, I was able to break the sequence down into six key panels, each one working to tell the story through simple pencil illustrations. With both of these storyboards, I placed a focus on clear, legible drawing and storytelling - to put it simply, we can easily read what is happening within these sketches. This is something core to the storyboarding medium, and is a skill I hope to develop over the course of the project.

Looking at my storyboard, it was a challenge to simplify my shot into six storyboard panels, however I feel as if it successfully tells my intended story simply through visuals, conveying the motion and action of the sequence nicely. Given the ambitious nature of my sequence, I had to note down longer elements such as the ‘character steps up and walks to box’ and how the arms drop in reaction to the box, though this storyboard does cover all my narrative beats successfully.

A common storyboarding practice found in the industry, the use of arrows in my panels allows me a guide on the travelling paths of various parts of the character: the hands, head, and torso. Given the restriction of six panels, we have to break our sequence down into the bare essentials of the narrative and use storyboarding techniques such as arrows, notes and motion lines to further represent what’s happening on screen.

With this, however, comes my main gripe with the storyboard. Given my ambitious sequence, I feel as if this storyboard doesn’t reflect my idea as well as my video reference does, which allowed me to explore ideas and principles crucial to the actual animation process such as posing, staging, and timing firsthand. Whilst a viewer could understand what is happening, the six-panel nature of this assignment’s storyboard feels a little restrictive and I was not able to illustrate all of the actions in this single board. I can’t help but feel that my own drawing skills will hold future storyboards back from further representing the story, and as a result, I want to focus on developing my skills within the actual animation process instead.

Despite this, my final storyboard is a large improvement upon my initial iteration - which spanned two boards and was ultimately too cinematic and ambitious for this project. Here, I’ve been able to develop an idea that I personally find to be really interesting engaging, and allows me the opportunity to pursue an original response to this mystery box task - instead of presenting two shots with moving the camera, I’m moving the character instead.

Something that I found to be quite helpful whilst physically acting out the performance was to verbally say what my character is thinking aloud, whilst I’m moving. This idea has translated to the storyboard, acting as a way to further develop the character beyond the brief’s expectations and allow me to properly understand how this character would think and move. Ultimately, this practice would only allow me to create a more convincing and engaging performance in my animation.

Here, I’ve been able to develop two final storyboards for the mystery box project: exploring the potential of telling my story through multiple shots to further convey the emotional beats of the narrative, and producing a final, refined storyboard which I can return to when animating. Having produced a developed storyboard that I’m happy with, I will now be turning my focus towards creating an animatic.

#ba1b:mysterybox

0 notes

ualscout · 5 years

Text

Captain's Log: No One

I did roughly 8 hours of field research for this project. If that doesn’t show how hyped I was, I don’t know what does.

We were told to go to the British Museum to take notes and sketches of artifacts that interested us. We’d then incorporate our research into our first animatic by centering/including the artifact in a story. The British Museum is a pretty fukken big museum, host to artifacts from cultures all over the world. I was gonna be there a while.

My first area of interest was the Ancient Egypt section. Even thought it was packed, I took a lot of sketches and notes on stuff I could picture as the centerpiece of a story- a means of congregating or hosting. For instance, a lot of libations bowls that would be used by many people a day who visited a temple took my interest, or the towering sarcophagi that looked way too big for only one person. I initially didn’t want the artifact to become the character, but to assist the characters interacting with it. That way, I could tell a story around it.

My next stop was the Ancient Greece section. As a kid, I knew everything about greek mythos. It’s a religion not only with multiple gods, but fatally flawed gods is so interesting to me. I took a lot of notes, but most of the notes ended up being around the story as opposed to the aesthetic of the artifact. The Greeks shared an area with the Romans, so I took some notes there as well. I moved onto Ancient Asia. There was a lot of interesting material, I liked to look at the jade crystal carvings and imagine the cronch from biting down on one. They had interesting masks, but not too much stood out to me in there. As I spent more time in the museum, the more monotonous everything got. I don’t think it’s the cultures being repetitive, but it does show how humanity fixates on very similar topics, even beyond cultural barriers. Kind of like parallel evolution. Where I really started to find my spark was Ancient Europe and Scandinavia. Aesthetically and mythologically, I love vikings. Pagan traditions are really cool as well, it all just seems so foreign to me (we don’t learn much about it in American schools). Stuff was interesting me again, but nothing was really catching my eye… Until I was being ushered out of the museum at closing time. I saw a deer skull, the antlers still attached, with holes drilled in.

It was from Star Carr. Made of red deer skull, it served as a headpiece and is among the oldest evidences of shamanic religion. It seemed so unsettling in an ancient and earthy way on its own, the idea of someone wearing it intrigued me. Coming home, I started on three base ideas to bring into class. The first was using an ancient viking mirror as a gateway between an eldritch horror and a young adult who’s distant grandmother just passed away and received the mirror as inheritance… except the eldritch horror acts like an elderly guy with clearly racist beliefs but trying to seem like he doesn’t. They talk by fogging up the mirror and writing.

The second was two people arguing over who would win in a fight: a person on horseback or a centaur. Inspired by the fact that any times centaurs are featured in art, they’re always fighting a human. Even after writing a rough script for it, I don’t know who would win.

The last idea was using the mask I found. I liked the idea of it holding an ancient spirit tasked with protecting a humanity that has long since forgotten its existence. I also liked the idea of it being able to possess other living creatures. Not sure if I wanted it to be horror or not, but it would certainly be unsettling. You can probably tell which idea I went with.

Today, we wrote a script. This is the only area I have any expertise in. My script ended up being 10 or so pages of screen direction and character building, but I finished the dialogue as well.

The story follows three hikers who venture into some Scandinavian woods on a backpacking trip. Haak is the most serious and the leader, he has the most survival skills out of the group. Maya is the prankster of the crew, but is just as experienced as Haak. Robyn is the physically weakest character, often scared by everything and unnerved by the surroundings. The characters leave their car and enter the woods, but not before trying to make sense of the cryptic writing on the worn and torn trailhead. Robyn is the only one who seems to pay any mind to it. As the group start, a narrator that could be Robyn starts speaking about “tales for a trip through the woods.” The tips start out as actual advice one would use for a backpacking trip, like packing extra food and always having a map, but slowly get more cryptic and unsettling. The characters make their way through the assortment of settings in the woods, focusing more on the nature around them instead of what the group is doing. As the tips get more cryptic, saying stuff like “it may seem like the trees are following you, they’re just keeping an eye on you” and “be grateful you don’t know what’s under the dirt, pray you never find out,” the forest seems to retaliate against the characters. For instance, they get lost and double cross an area they’ve already been in, get haunted by the eyes on the birch trees, and more. Eventually, it all leads up to a normal bear attack being an Ursa Major, a bear with stars in its pelt and no need to hold a solid corporeal form. Haak and Maya get struck down by the bear after supposedly subduing it. As it’s coming for Robyn, Robyn backs up into the form that was following from beginning. The head is out of shot, but it puts a strange headpiece on Robyn, and allows Robyn to fight back against the bear. Once the fight is over, Robyn is faced with the ancient spirit who saved them- a towering, scraggly figure made of twigs and forest materials. It’s creepy to look at, and was framed at the start to be the creature tormenting the group. The creature reaches out and touches Robyn’s forehead, using their body to say verbally “no one believes in you, you should believe in yourself, too.” In Robyn’s voice. The next scene happens where the group dropped the car off, Haak blinking back to consciousness. Somehow, Robyn saved them, and Haak passes out again knowing they’ll be okay. Help arrives as Robyn looks back at No One for the final time as the spirit disappears into the forest.

The idea is how humans have interacted with and continue to interact with nature. The reality is the forest provides, but it does not protect. People putting faith in the old gods to protect them is a tradition long dead with history, but the idea of this god still holding onto life for the soul purpose of protecting those who may wander into its domain is a very human story, even if it’s behind a creepy mask with origins we don’t entirely understand. It’s inspired by my love of hiking and nature, I actually work in the summer as a camp counselor at a ranch that takes our campers backpacking on the weekends. Each of the human characters show some kind of recurring theme I see in the people I go on these hikes with, and some are named after them. I think drawing the sets and characters for this will be pretty fun, I look forward to it.

Character design is up next. I started with Robyn, the rest of the characters would follow in style.

I wanted Robyn to have a very childish look, but not dumb childish. Like a smart bookworm who has no idea how to survive outside a library, much less civilization. However, Robyn couldn’t look like they thrived in society either. They should be a shy nerd who’s out of their element everywhere, not just in the wild, which just makes being in the outdoors that much more terrible. I also wanted Robyn to come off as genderless so anyone could relate to them. The story isn’t about their gender or age (even though in cannon the characters are in college/university/living on their own, but the style still makes them look like children… oh well) it’s about the forest and how they interact with it.

I had a hard time getting a grip on the style I wanted, everything seemed so forced and I was never happy with what I drew. I kept erasing and redoing and changing without keeping anything. About halfway through the day, I was still only half a character sketch page done and feeling quite hopeless. I realized I was trying to be perfect on a sheet that wasn’t supposed to be. It Sucked… but I figured out the style I wanted. The t-shirt and swishy basketball shorts is the epitome of beginner hiker attire. I stopped caring so much about the quality of the drawings and just started drawing action poses.

The next most important character would be No One. I had a lot more fun playing with No One’s design, probably because I didn’t have to make it look human. I wanted to make them look imposing, scary, but made of the environment. Like, with clothes of moss and litchin. Almost stitched together. I played with making them tall, wider, hunched over, in layers. The hardest choice I had to make was the horn shape. I pulled a lot of references from different horned creatures even though the original skull was a red deer.

Eventually, I came up with final designs for both. I made up Haak and Maya while storyboarding, their designs were simple and based on real people, like their personalities. No worries ‘bout that. Their character models followed the base Robyn’s exploration found.

Next, storyboarding. I spent so much goddamn time in storyboarding. Not too much happened, but I did like plotting out everything. I realized I can pretty easily plot out the setting and where the characters are in relation to each other then manipulate the camera as needed. Pretty nifty. The only problem is 1. Im bad at drawing and 2. Drawing the same thing over and over again kinda sucks. I spent a lot of time designing the varying backgrounds the characters would walk through and played with how the forest would interact with them. For instance, what if a path suddenly changed or wasn’t visible on the second cross through? What if you could see the reflections of eyes in the cave shadows before the characters entered?

The idea originally started over the summer. I was hiking through a birch forest and noticed the markings on the white bark looked a lot like eyes… what if they were watching while you passed by? I let this fuel my imagination and inspire the script. I liked playing with where mystery or malice could hide in the forest, which is a lot of places. Sure, people generally feel threatened by the animals, but the terrain is arguably more dangerous. I didn’t want to introduce a wildlife enemy until the climax, or it would just make it less impactful. If a wild animal is revealed to be evil, it gives another face to the force tormenting them, which takes away from the little cameo No One gets at the start.

Nothing really important happened over the storyboarding period. Just little epiphanies. I realized I got better at drawing the characters and much quicker at it as time went on. I spent a lot of time editing shots and order, which is why the storyboards are messy AF. Made me feel kind of self conscious because everyone at my table had works of art for storyboards, but whatever. They’re supposed to be tools. I also made the very stupid choice to go over every single goddamn board in digital. It was hell. Next time, I’ll probably do everything digitally…

Capturing audio was hard not only because of the location but because of the season. For instance, I need cricket sounds, nature sounds, car sounds (that I could control), and quiet crisp sounds. Too bad I go to school and live on a street that’s triangulated by a fire station, police station, and hospital. And everyone seems to be lighting things on fire, getting crimed, or dying.

I got what sounds I could, but I had a fun time recording with everyone. It was the first time the class was forced out of their comfort zones and made to talk to the people outside their tables. It was a welcome change and I met some cool people. We would talk about what sounds we needed in our stories and whenever we realized how to get that sound it was a group epiphany with excitement. Too bad nowhere in Camberwell is quiet.

Instead of having one of them narrate my lines, I just did them myself at home with my own microphone. It was just easier because I knew what tone I wanted this character to be. In terms of pitch, I just edited it in Audacity. The quality of it didn’t matter, because it wasn’t supposed to be exactly human. I played with it being lower pitched, but if I wanted to make it seem like Robyn was the real narrator, I would need it to be higher. It sounds pretty close to what I wanted- hollow, indifferent, but all-knowing and wise beyond the years the voice should belong to.

I knew from the start I wanted one of two songs in the soundtrack, even though Joe said no songs… sorry, but I envisioned it with this music, it wasn’t structured around it but it was structured with it. Both are the instrumentals behind the songs, so there’s no words, but I did make a playlist of music I wanted to inspire this animatic with at the start. Both songs were at the top. The first song is “Welcome Home, Son” by Radical Face. It’s got a steady beat, good organic guitar, piano, and what sounds like bells. It’s got a REI feel to it (and I’m realizing now that you don’t know what REI is, probably… but I’m keeping the comparison because it’s true) which is kind of like adventuring somewhere greater than yourself, understanding the greatness of it, being slightly scared of it. Like you’re on a quest with no destination. Like facing the mortality and insignificance of yourself in this vast and wondrous world, but instead of fleeing in fear or rejecting the fear, accepting it and finding a home in it. The background vocals add to the feeling of humanity that’s not quite ‘human’ but when tested it tended to mess up the dialogue. The sound of bells and wind chimes was nice, like a feeling of emptiness or forgotten home. Just all around a great song. Also there’s a wind sound effect, like it’s blowing through the trees outside the mouth of a cave. I just think it’s neat and put it at the beginning.

The other song was “New Slang” by The Shins. It has a similar feeling to “Welcome Home, Son” but not quite as adventurous. Much like the song lyrics say, “Gold teeth and a curse for this town were all in my mouth, only I don’t know how they got out, dear…” it’s about returning home with a bittersweet feeling, somewhere you don’t quite belong, but desperately want to. The simple guitar strumming and bass feel melancholy, and the calm electric guitar (never thought I’d say that pair of words together) just make it seem like an amble through the old woods in the backyard of your childhood home, visiting the old treehouse, and sitting in it alone as you remember back to when you weren’t alone in it and much smaller. The simplicity of the song adds less of a dramatic tone and a more organic and realistic one. It’s also more comforting than “Welcome Home, Son” due to less swells and changes in the sounds. It also has background vocals, but they’re much more human and less dramatic, they almost sound like a mourning wolf separated from his pack, but his calls go unanswered. The thing is the runtime is 1/2 that of “Welcome Home, Son”… The middle section, when edited, made up about 4 minutes.

youtube

I played with both and enjoyed both results a lot. The music starts as they enter the forest and the narration starts, following them as they go on their adventure. It’s supposed to show that time’s passing like a montage, but also ends up showing how the danger is real and haunting when Ursa Major awakens in the bear.

My biggest issue while editing the animatic was sound design after the music cuts out. It ends at the perfect moment and even follows the story beats of the end, but after that I just had the haunting silence of the forest and the sound of the nature around the characters in which I had to put a dramatic fight scene. I didn’t want to bring the music back until No One revealed themselves to Robyn to show the connection had finally been made, but the fight scene between Robyn and Ursa Major was so empty… It felt like I was just layering bear grunts and damage sounds over dynamic shots, but it wasn’t translating as tense, it was just awkward. I also had trouble with selecting what sounds were real. Robyn doesn’t make any verbal sound, the only sound to come from Robyn is their footfalls and how they interact with the environment. I should have made more steady rules with how Robyn and the other characters are present outside of the middle montage.

Actually while I’m writing this I realized I could restart the music and have it cut back out once No One takes back their face… fuck.

So, what did I learn from this? That I storyboarded way too fucking much and made way too many fucking characters. I was told all throughout diagnostic to be free and reach for the stars, especially in communication, but the reality is in trying to tell the story I wanted I ended up drowning myself in work.

I really loved writing this story, though. That’s my favorite part of anything. Writing is the ONLY skill I have over everyone else, and I WILL flex on everyone when I get the chance. It was just too big of a story for right now. I mean, I got everything from a single deer skull, it didn’t seem like much at the time… Maybe when I’m better at all of this, I’ll revisit it and make it more like I pictured in my head. I felt like epiphanies kept coming to me as I was writing the script, but as time went on and I had to plan it, I would get too caught up in the details. I love preproduction though. Like, a lot. That’s for sure my favorite part of making animation and film. Just figuring out where everything goes and how it all works together is just so satisfying and I really enjoy it. A bonus is it doesn’t have to look like Perfect Art, either. The fact that it doesn’t look perfect is one of my greatest insecurities, but it’s something I’ll have to get over, and it’s easier to get over it if it’s forgivable/expected. I know once we do actual animation, it’ll just be harder to make longer stories and I won’t know how to cut down on it all… but whatever. I’ve always had a problem writing too much, so that’s just something I’ll have to learn to manage. I’ll try and do better next time. I was really tempted to make this a comedy, like I always do, but I didn’t. I made something serious for once, and it didn’t end up as I imagined, but it got close enough.

That’s a victory Royale.

0 notes