Mission Opossumible- Week 11

Mar 26—Week 11: 

How did Film 2 go over? How do you feel it was received? How do you feel about it? What would you do differently? What will you change about what you are doing with your next film?

Film two was AWESOME. I loved the idea I impromptu-ed and actually almost enjoyed the process. My creative style is best productive when I "master-mind" the idea and have a director and a couple PA's to work with, but that will come down the line, until then I (most importantly) learned a TON about stop motion and would say that I would be much better equipped to re-make the film.
If I took another pass at the film I would build a kind of device to make the matches "stand" on their own, magnets crossed my mind, but that would require set building and more pre-planning that I, sad to say, didn't quite get to do. I also thought that the floss would work fine and be nearly invisible, no such luck. Strangely enough I didn't even realized it looked like a match "suicide" film until you mentioned it, thanks for that.
In doing it again I would make it longer and change shots more, being the first stop-motion that I've done and knowing the methods of not changing the F-stop or shutter speed I found myself reluctant (maybe even AFRAID) of the camera, it was suddenly a machine I was unsure if I could control. But I made it work for me and my past experiences in shooting full-auto paid off.

Luckily I didn't get caught in the destructive, chop-off-my-own-ear, "Artist Mode", planning, planning, planning stressing out and finishing nothing, at least I finished, unlike this Opossum.

Thanks for the help, Simon.
Signing Off,
Chieftain

Pimping Ain't Easy (Neither is Stop-Freaking-Motion)

Mar 19—Week 10:

I hate it, I'm one acme dynamite box away from blowing my brains out and I'm sick of the process. I didn't sign up for this (Ok, maybe I did, but I'm at the end of my crazy rope right now). Stop motion sucks. I've made excuses for myself, citing myself as a "writer" or one who isn't intrigued by animations or one who is too "mature" and advanced to subject my creative genius to this menial, physically laboring dedication to a child's medium, the last is my favorite, that's a good one. The bottom line is, my will is being tested. I know this isn't one of those last-second things, I'm dreading the whole assignment, trying to devise a plan to make it appear like a rabbit out of a hat, but it isn't working like that yet.

The "big idea" sells the story. The story is the big idea, it's the most important part and the part I'm never satisfied with. What is the punch line?

My stop motion has been a challenge I've almost enjoyed, but the true fire hasn't heated up and we'll see what happens in the final production stages (I'm expecting a landslide of a victory, common for my overconfidence). I am constantly tempted to change the story and am dying for creative validation, also excusing my lack of direction at the thought of "'My type' works better with a creative partner".
True or not I'm riding rogue on this trail and am gonna have to reach for the six shooters pretty soon.

Happy trails, see you at High Noon.

Signing Off.

Week Nein Nein Nein

Mar 12—Week 9: 

What are some things that are helping your learning in this class so far? What are some things that might be hindering you?

I've really learned a lot from the class aspect of this course, where if I have a problem with codecs or conversion or animation speed or some assorted issue I can facebook chat someone and find a solution very quickly. I'm also a huge believer in youtube, so if I search very specifically the "Marmalade D11 Converting Error" there are 500 other cowboys out there in the Wild Digital West who can tell me how they fixed their issue.

Another really helpful aspect of the course has been the in class viewing sessions, while hearing all the other student's ideas or watching their film clips (storyboards included) I can take inspiration and see news way to use the same tools I'm using to really completely change the way I make things.

Animation is a long inward struggle, just like when I started with Reason and Photoshop. When you try to make things in those programs you often find a problem and hit a roadblock, thus forcing you to work your way around it, that's how I believe you master these things. Reading manuals can only get you so far.

Happy St. Pats, ya filthy animals.

Also, if you didn't see this, you're missing it:
http://vimeo.com/38611963 

Signing Off.
ChieftainLife

Film One - There's Friction Before Perfection

Feb 27—Week 8: 

How did Film 1 go over? How do you feel it was received? How do you feel about it? What would you do differently? What will you change about what you are doing with your next film?

It sucked, I ran out of time and it ended up looking like hell. Which was a lesson in and of itself. Like you've said in class before, sometimes it just "happens" in a night, but the whole concept behind the film was weak, there was a frail attempt at a setup and no punchline to finish the job. It ended feeling listless and unexecuted.

The animation, also looking like hell, was moved from Illustrator into After Effects, I still don't understand why you can't add and manipulate audio in AE, the reasoning behind that makes no sense to me. If I added music to the film it could have better acted as a distraction from the on-screen badness, but the true issue is the badness itself.

In the future (Looking back in retrosepct) I wouldn't use after effects again, a lot of the projects I saw I know took less time than I put into mine and looked fine (not life-changing, but fine).

I like ToonBoom, but can't pirate [I can say that here, right? Or will I be strung up and assassinated by the SOPA-ssassins? Just being transparent.] a good copy that doesn't crash every five minutes or is the true, full version. I have messed with a demo but I refuse to put my name on any media with a bloody watermark on it, that just won't do, so until then there are labs, whatever, but I digress.

Looking back I would develop the story and the characters better, the process I used was also time consuming and backwards, I've learned more tricks and picked up on better ways of building the graphics and I'm believing those will pay off.

The next one's going to be out of this world. I know that's a stupid saying, but I don't believe in swearing on a blog, it's bad internet karma.

Signing Off.
ChieftainLife