DBAudio UPDATE

Hey Everyone,

Today Derek and I went to DB Audio to screen the finished film with new sound effects and Music. I honestly didn't really know what to expect, as how much more of a difference can some different punch and explosion sounds make?

I have to say that after watching it I was very impressed! the music has a sortof Jungle/Orchestral vibe to it, lots of drums- and they had a guy in recording Gorilla Sounds, Guerrilla breathing sounds (which works awesome in Robs pull through the tree scene) Soldier falling off branch yell, etc. The ending is no longer a let down, they managed to improve the feeling of suspense when on the waterfall and transition it to peace for the ending quite nicely in my opinion-

Unfortunately they found out nearing completion that the music they used from their new sound library was only licensed for use on websites, home use, etc for free- Things such as film festivals and such would cost a certain amount based on how much of the music is used. If it isn't too expensive I think it might be worth checking out some film festivals, probably limiting it a bit as we might have to pay for each... we will see.

You may be saying to yourself.. "but what we had was fine! what was wrong with our version?" The answer of course is that nothing is wrong with the version we have, but DB Audio expressed a desire to (for Free) do the entire Soundtrack/Effects. Wanting mostly to have it as a means of advertisement for their company on their website, and of course if the film ever makes money with their audio, they would like to have some compensation for their efforts, but they of course expect no money for this otherwise which is awesome.

If anything it was just cool to see an actual sound studio work, and to witness a quality of work that we can strive for in our upcoming films. They are also going to write us up an invoice so we can see exactly how much something like this would cost (who knows, personal project down the road, professional project down the road...) These guys were super awesome to work with.

I hope no one feels left out, the meetings with them tended to be very last minute and of course restricted to people in the toronto area.. also taking a couple hours out of the work day..

Feel free to respond if you have any thoughts

Nate

Our Good Buddy Rob

... JUST HAD A BABY GIRL!!!

'Chun Li Bladerunner Finlay' and mommy are healthy and all is well. Congratulations man :)

Sup guys! Hows summer going? Co-Op treating you well? We submitted the film to the OAIF. We figured it would just be awesome for people to see what we did this year; couldn't let that pass. Who knows, maybe something might even come of it. Issues with Geoff were also resolved.

Until then, peace.

~Jeremy

IMMEDIATE ATTENTION :

Hey, Got In touch with Geoff ( sound guy ). I told him that his services would no longer be required for the film. And He brought up a legal issue, That we had an verbal agreement and email corresponance, to use his help with the sound aspect on the film. And by not following through with this agreement, would be unprofessional

I think due to these circumstances, we should carry out what we orginally agreed on with Geoff, In order to avoid any prolong issues.

Please Call me at 416-845-2332, as soon as you get this

- Derek

WE DID IT

good job everyone! the film is done and handed in.

=D

really, pat yourself on the back right now. we should go out and celebrate sometime!

and get some sleep

LAST MEETING (TUESDAY)

2:00pm

We need to finish the film.

GROUP MEETING

SATURDAY ----------------------4:00PM--------------------

Homies - Here it is. Crunch time. Excitement time. Time to blast it out.

It's at the end that you must be most careful. Focus 110%. We fight till the last second.

EVERYONE is giving this their all up till we hit the EXPORT button. Give yourself to the film for just two more days. Work as a team. We got this.

Best wishes everyone.

"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory."
~Gandhi

Cleaning a Scan

First off, the scans themselves should be minimum 200 resolution to maximum 300 (for character linework) I have been doing mine at 200 and it seems to look alright

To get rid of the red line behind your clean line (if you used red as an under drawing) you go to Hue Saturation (Ctrl U) and then in the edit drop down menu select reds. Once selected move the lightness to the max and it should get rid of the red. Similarly if you used blue, then on those frames you would select Blues and change the lightness... however blue tends to eat away at the clean up line as it is so dark and the clean up line itself might have some blues in it.

Once the coloured pencil is gone from behind the clean up, select the Levels Tool (Ctrl L) and move the White slider left until the background garbage is gone while still maintaining a solid line, and then move the black slider up to make it nice and dark. Erase carefully any other crap that is around the character. If there is too much smudging on every frame that wont clean up even with the use of the levels you must not have scanned properly so make sure when you scan you put something heavy enough (and white) over the drawing. The lid itself doesnt always work since it sits ontop of the peg bar and doesnt make complete contact with the drawing.


If you are going to paint in flipbook you will need to save a copy of your cleaned scans as BMP

Hope this helps,


Nate

Final Paintings

Homies:

I just wanted to mention, for your absolutely FINAL PAINTINGS, I'd like to take one last look at them before you start compositing. I will create a new folder on the server similar to the Block-Ins one for you to drop them in.

Doesn't matter when you get them done, as long as it is BEFORE you composite.

Also, if you ever need help on something and you're stuck let me know - I'm totally willing to help.

Thanks :)

Current BGs

So here is our comp of BG block ins that people brought in today. There is some good stuff, but we need to keep going for sure on these. It's going to be quite a challenge to make them all look consistent for next week.

My general comments are:

1. Need a more clearly defined focal area.
2. Need to strengthen the depth relationship between layers (ex. stronger foreground, mid ground, background)

Continue to work on your paintings - start to introduce texture. The soft round brush is great for block in, but if you use just that brush everything turns out flat.

To those who handed in: thank you!
To those who didn't: I want to see them tomorrow please. This is serious shit.

*NOTE* There is a PAINTING BLOCK INS folder on the server - please put them in there by 5:00pm tomorrow.

After Effects

Yo, I was just playing around in After Effects with some random images from google and here was the result. Man, it's such a powerful program - and I think that's why it's also so confusing - there are too many things you can do! I realize you can actually use AE to do what we are attempting in Maya.

Assignment for Tuesday

Me again. Dudes:

I would like to assign some painting work. Depicted above is a 10minute BLOCK IN on one of Rob's layouts. I would like to see a BLOCK IN like this for EVERY layout (including mist shots) for Tuesday (March April 7). The colour script is here:


I would like to see a CLEAR:

1) Main Light Source

2) Focal Area

3) Shadow Pattern

4) Basic Colour Palette

This will help us to see a) continuity, b) composition, c) comfort level. It will also force you to start thinking about it - painting takes a lot of work. You don't have to render, use a BIG BRUSH and block in the important things.

Keep them quick 10-20mins per layout - quick but accurate.

Thank you :)

BY THE WAY EVERYONE: Please bring the PSDs, unflattened. Thanks.

Paint Stuff

Yo dudes, so I'm hoping everyone has atleast started painting a bit of their backgrounds. I just wanted to say that I've somewhat managed to reproduce that blend look that is characteristic of Painter using Photoshop. The trick is to lay down all your colours and tones then use the SMUDGE tool (about 50% opacity) to blend it all together. Be careful not to overdo it tho.

Pictured above is just the tree for that sniper-pull down shot (I've blurred out the BG for now). The close up is just to show approximately how loose/rough/tight we should go. Do not go any tighter than that - we don't have time :) Stay fairly rough.

I estimate it takes 6-10 hours to fully paint a layout.

We have only 4 Days for painting. I highly recommend everyone paint an hour a day if possible, or ATLEAST get started. DO NOT worry about colour too much - we can always change that later. Right now it is important that you:

1) Remove linework
2) Render forms using tone/value/light/shadow.

If you need any help doing anything with the painting stage, let me know - even if you want me to get it started for you.

FINAL COLOUR SWATCHES

Hey all, Jeremy and Alexis finished off the Colours for the film today so here they are!

Organization

Notes from Tony's meeting today: PLEASE READ IT ALL!!! Print it out if you need to

ORGANIZATION OF FOLDERS ON NETWORK

Folders named:
Scene_001 Scene_002 Scene_003, etc

(No longer names like "Cool jump shot" "Bills Scenes 12 13 and 59")

Within the folders are a number of sub-folders:

Scene_001-------------------------------------------------------
----->Layout (Digital copy of you layout in line work form OL, UL, etc)
----->Painted BG Elements (Layout/Background painted)
----->Anim (Clean Animation inked and painted--
ensure line work and paint are on separated levels)
----->Comp (Final composited scene - Saved as uncompressed video)

(If you want to keep a folder called rough Animation in there also that is fine)

WHEN A SCENE IS COMPOSITED:

Put the composited video file in the Folder called FINAL FILM
(labelled Scene_001 for example)

If a scene has to be updated or changed, do so and replace the version in the FINAL FILM folder so everything in there is the most up to date version

This is to keep more organized then we currently are so when it comes down to the final week and we are scrambling to composite everything, things go as smooth as possible. I had some issues while compositing the Leica that this will hopefully fix.

[Also, I updated the scene numbers from beginning to end so they might differ from the originals (even at the beginning) everyone should know what shots they are doing so write down the new number. This will also be the number used on the Layouts for Komza, so update his records if you meet with him]

Leica as of March 25th

Here is the Leica Thus far guys

Gorilla Vids

Howdy, hope all your scenes are comming along! here are some sexy gorilla videos I was watching today- you may have seen some of these already-

Dudes dudes

People what's shaking? Alright, this week was some horrible group cohesion. I don't think we had a single proper gathering - attendance was all over. Today for example we were supposed to look at 'half' the animation (don't worry, dont think anyone met that) and cut it into the leica reel but we totally ignored it. This can't happen again..

Are you committed to doing this or not? We have some really cool work, some really awesome visual ideas, but if we don't work like mad from now on it won't happen. This is crunch time but it feels so casual... wheres the group energy that we feed off from one another? Everyone that IS showing up is wasting so much time - its not fair to us.

I realise everyone is probably sick to death of all this by now, believe me I'm getting there, but we can't quit here. Finish the film first. There is no way in hell after spending countless hours on this and sacrificing other important things that we come out empty handed.

So please... please... lets make next week a better week - and the rest of year. The rewards come at the screening. Don't lose sight of the goal. :)

mandatory meeting nights

Hey All;

After the last few meetings - the group of us at school last night decided to remove one of the mandatory nights as well as shortening the night we are keeping. They are just not proving to be as effective as we had hoped.

So for now on, our mandatory night is Tuesday from 4:30 - 7:30pm. We are starting at 4:30 so people have time to grab food prior to meeting up.

Also;
Nate and I went to the FX workshop for the 4th years. They covered pretty much everything we needed. I made some quick videos that I have to go through before posting them on the server and blog.

Coming Along

It's kind of a beast of a pan, and I only just solved the merge issue. It'll be awesome.

ran's opening scene test

it is awesome, he must share. this is ran's thingy btw, I'm just doing the grunt work of uploading.

progress

hey all;

Sorry I havent been around much this past week - I have been feeling kind shitty as of late.
Between naps and tylenol intakes I have been busy working on my scenes as planned.

Here is some of what I have done the last few days:
(I will bring everything in for sweatbox monday)

First I re-thumbnailed the post-explosion scenes that I have - to create a better flow between them after removing the scene where archer looks at his arm.
Here is what I have:

Archer wakes up under tank.
He frees himself from under tank.
Archer walks a step forward - pauses.
Archer turns and looks around.
Truck-out to post-explosion destruction.
cut back to Archer, he turns.
Looks at Tank.
CU of tank as his implant fades..
cut back to archer looking down at tank.
he reaches up and touches his implant..
and gets shocked/hurt.

Let me know what you think..

second to show is the rough layout and line test of the truck-out/post-explosion scene:


Next is a rough layout for the over-head shot of Archer and the soldier.
And finally a rough sketch of the waterfall with the mountains based off the photo and rough layouts I have seen thus far. Any suggestions would be appreciated, I have a different sketch thats cleaner that I still have to scan as well.

Any comments and suggestions would be appreciated - I will have it all to show for critique tomorrow as well.

Later Daze Guys and Gals!

reminder

meetings:
monday - 11 to 12
tuesday - 1 to 2 (DQ Mentor Meeting)
thursday - 10 to 11 (after tony's meeting) THIS week, be in C140C at 9. it's a two-hour thing, software workshop.

work periods:
tuesday - 4 to 9
wednesday - 3 to 9

just a reminder!

Weekly Task List

Hey all, here are the tasks people set for themselves at our last meeting- Lets all try and stick to it (if you feel you can do more then you have stated then that is awesome, please do!) If you notice any issues let me know (angel let me know if what I wrote for you works, I am not sure what you are working on- Hope you are feeling better)

Nate

Listen to this Song

Yo I was watching this video on elongated human skulls, then I was like - WOW this music is awesome for our film.

Have a listen - ignore the voices.

group organization

1) guys, use the blog! if you have anything to say, comment! share interesting videos, images, whatever! update us if you're not going to show up tomorrow, for example.
2) show up to all mandatory group sessions/meetings.
3) focus during mandatory group sessions. have a plan of action, decide ahead of time what you'll complete that day, and do it!
4) we should impose a penalty for people who don't show up/are late/leave too early. 5% deduction every time, or a lesser 2% if the whole group is informed (via this nice little blog here!) beforehand. say, a day ahead, if you know you can't be there. this penalty wouldn't start until next week, so if anyone has objections/suggestions please bring it up! your opinion matters.


I'm not aiming this at anyone, I found myself hugely distracted by macbook/puppy/food for today's work session (no one's fault but mine! certainly not byron's haha). I just think these are some suggestions we should all follow. like today, I just hadn't planned well enough. I sat there not really knowing what to do next. feel free to disagree though, or better yet, offer more strategies for getting this done! time is tight, and we all have to work hard. don't lose faith guys, remember in your heart that we're a team making something different. let's make a great 3rd year film, it's tough but do-able.


OH and jeremy's untimed scene test:



he didn't want it on here since it's untimed and blahblah, but I have access to his files so uh here it is! :D

Colour Pass

First colour pass of all the characters together.
(Lily, I know what you're thinking, and that is SOOO racist!)

Butch and Tank

2gether 4eva.

Or something. They're up on the server. If there are things that seem wrong, need to be fixed etc. that's totally cool, just let me know. In the meantime, though, nothing should be stopping anyone from animating. They're in a folder entitled 'character' on the E1 server.

*edit* uploaded this image I found of a jungle in Costa Rica. It just seems like the trees and atmosphere are almost exactly what we're going for.

Colour!!!!!

Here are the colour tests I did today after the meeting, Let me know what you think of any aspects that you like