Blog
Short Film Blog
Background Art: Pt 1
Here are some progress shots and previews of a background shot for my film. Most of my time currently is spent painting in Photoshop & animating in After Effects.
Interim Progress Report
Updated spreadsheet of status for Interim meetings this week. As I'll be reporting on my project status this week I've been double checking my progress on my google doc spreadsheet. While the July dates are still in the air, because it's mostly painting, animating and...
Animatic Completed
Below is my (very rough) animatic of pacing and timing that I put together. Hopefully I will be able to add to the shots here as I complete them. I'm very encouraged by having this put together enough to post as I've been fighting with it for a few weeks now. [video...
Character Design: Pt. 2
Today I took the concept art that I started and polished it up to make sure I covered all the scenes my character might appear in. This included a colour/skin pass for her base as well as a 'day' outfit and a 'PJs' outfit for at home. May need to include more later...
Character Design: Pt 1
Today I decided to start on the character design portion of my film. While the film is going to be partially first person I do want to design a character so the audience knows whose POV they're in. For the purposes of this assignment I'm going to make it very...
Storyboarding: Animatic Pt. 2
Finished the animatic today minus the 'abstract' part of Pt. 5 which I haven't illustrated and won't be until I know what the overall film look will be and design that section to contrast it. I've set my boards to music to create the animatic that gives me a good idea...
Storyboarding: Animatic Pt. 1
I've cracked the code! Below I've put my new approach to the narrative arc of my film: Part 1: Linear, outside shot, morning, to closet (getting dressed) to grocery store (largely empty cuz covid) kind of a linear shot by shot story clear (edited) Part 2: (music gets...
Storyboarding: Scratch Boards 2
This week I've been struggling with the animatic, while I have lots of fun ideas for shots, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have to execute said shots so I'm hesitant to put a lot of them in. I'm having trouble finding consistency in my film and I'm worried it...
Storyboarding: Scratch Boards
Today I started the rough boards for my short film. I have a general idea of the music and flow now so I started a file to block out (very) rough sketches of shots that I'd like to include. This allows me to get some ideas out and see all the shots I've planned...
Blender: Environment Completed
Today I finished the main living space of the Blender environment. Most of my shots from 'inside' the apartment for my film will be captured in blender first then drawn over in Photoshop. I'm not completing any lighting or texturing in Blender as I'm going to add that...
Music: Mixing & Editing Part 3
This morning I sat down and edited the music track I've selected down to a more bite-sized format. I haven't decided on the total length of the film yet, I'll decide that once I've finished blocking in my shots for boarding, but I at least wanted to give myself a...
Music: Sourcing & Listening Part 2
This weekend I listened to a bunch more songs for my project. I'm really torn about whether I want an eerie mood or a nostalgic comforting mood. My colour choices will be warm/cool contrasted and very moody, but I can't help but feel that COVID-19 was very unsettling...
The data behind Hollywood’s sexism (Study)
One of my major inspirations during this project has been the research of Dr. Stacy L. Smith. Her research into representation of women on and off-screen is a large part of why I feel driven for this project. When I began talking about this topic in around 2014 in my...
Thoughts About Representation
I've been putting off boarding this short film because I've been stressing about how to accurately roll COVID-19 and my experience into a conversation about Representation in my industry and all the nuances and expectations that come along with that. I've been finding...
Blender: Progress on Environment
As mentioned yesterday, I've begun 3D modeling my blender environment. These are some in-progress screencaps of the modeling process. I was actually lucky enough to find blueprints for my unit and building. For my privacy I'll include them in the final submission, but...
Blender: 3D model environment
For the purposes of this assignment, I'm going to be reflecting on my experience during COVID-19 as a short film, or maybe more accurately a series of short gifs set to music that I hope will reflect the mood and experience of living alone during the pandemic. To...
Visual Inspiration: Part 4
Bo Burnham released his Grammy & Emmy award winning special 'Inside' during the pandemic in Summer of 2021. His musings appealed to the masses who had largely been quarantining for about a year and a half at that point. The special took the form of many small...
Music: Sourcing & Listening Part 1
For the mood of my film I'm looking for some royalty free music that suits the mood I'm looking for that will match up well with the timing I'm thinking for my animations/gifs. The final film will be compiled in either Premiere or After Effects, but I'd like to time...
Research Reading List
I've been looking into research on women being represented in animation. While I was looking for articles and books I found a reading list concerning the topic. I'm going to post it here and try to access as many of the resources as I can and make notes in upcoming...
Visual Inspiration: Part 3
Charles Hilton is an LA based artist working in the animation industry as a visual development artist. Sometime during the pandemic he posted a short film he made using a combination of paintings and motion graphics. The film is very simple and short but effectively...