The Bond of Four - Third Tutorial Session

   So, the one thing that stood out in particular from this tutorial session with Mat is the fact that we will be presenting our Pre-Production work by the 17th of March, which is in about 2 weeks time. Of course, I had to be honest and inform Mat that I was at least 1 week or so behind on my work (When checking back to the schedule/gantt chart that I had put together for myself way back) due to some personal matters that have gotten in the way, but I am hoping that I will still have a chance to catch up over the next few weeks.

   Rough storyboarding is at least 80% complete and I should be able to put together a quick animatic over the weekend so that I will now how long its entire duration will be, which will then allow me to know whether I should actually cut out any scenes. To keep to my desired level of animation quality, it is a necessity not to go over the initial duration I had planned for this animation. Sometimes, sacrifices just have to be made, despite how you may love and wish to include everything... and while I am not looking forward to that, it must be done.

   Once that is done with, I will try to insert in more (If not all) polished images before sending it to Luke so that he can begin composing the music for it. And speaking of music, Cara brought up a wonderful idea of intensifying the final scene, along with the music itself. Meaning, a slower but nonetheless 'epic' style of music will play for the majority of the music, but at the very end, things get absolutely intense as the fight scene reaches its supposed climax... I'm terrible at describing these things but I hope Luke will understand what I am talking about when I tell him about it.

   While all main characters have been designed, I still need to design two more characters that will be included in the animation. This does not include the background characters, but that shouldn't be as time-consuming as the main character designs themselves. If there is time, I would absolutely love to put together a few turnarounds for some of them, as well as expression sheets.

   I was gently requested to have some form of animation test done from the fight scene itself as my proof of concept for the presentation itself. Not that these lists have been of great use to me based on past experiences, but here we go, a little list on the key things I should try to finish up before the presentation day itself:

1. Character Designs
2. Storyboard
3. Animatic
4. Some Background Designs
5. Last Few Research Posts
6. Animation Test/s

The Bond of Four - Second Tutorial Session

   It feels nice having Mike and Mat again to help us out for this module (It honestly feel like forever since I have last seen them, to be quite honest), and it was last Friday where I shared with Mike my idea and progress, just as I had with Annabeth and Mat. By speaking to my third and final lecturer, I felt that everything has now been established once and for all, now that all of them have approved of my idea and what I am planning to produce at the very end of it all. While I might have already repeated this in several other posts, it only seems right to keep hammering it into my head so that I don't end up steering off like I normally do. An animation of the utmost quality (I'm definitely going to go all out) of 1 to 2 minute duration and a concept art book will be done for this project. 

   In terms of progress, it was during that same day where the bulk of my script was finished as well as the last of the main character designs. It was from there that we agreed that the very next thing I should be working on is the storyboards and the animatic itself, which I hope to finish over the next week. A few animation tests should be done too if possible, at least for one of the main characters. A few simple scenes will do, just so I can get started somewhere. There are a couple more character designs that I need to finish, but they can be done in between storyboarding and such.

The Bond of Four - First Tutorial Session

    After rushing up that steep hill (This is probably one of my most informal blog posts, but then again, how often am I actually ever formal?) and taking some time to catch my breath (Having just left my home 10 minutes before 9.30am)... I wounded up having a very progressive discussion with my lecturer and covered quite a few things during this first session (And as usual, went over the time limit, ehehe...), while she approved of my plan to make a short animation and a concept book to go along with it, she had quite a few tips and suggestions I was more than happy to take up on.

   Having finally shown Celles et Ceux des Cimes to her (Seeing as it is one of my biggest inspirations as to why I wanted to go in this direction in the first place), I was told that I could bring the animation duration down from 2 and a half minutes to 1 and a half instead. If there is time, I was also suggested to work on some animatics for scenes that will not be featured in the animation itself (Though, I am beginning to wonder if these particular scenes might require some voice acting in them... if so, professional voice acting wouldn't be required, right? Or should I go that extra mile and find some experienced folks that will be willing to do just that?).

   Aside from the content one would expect of any concept art book (Such as character, setting designs and storyboards), the book will further expand upon the story, character biographies and the world design of The Bond of Four, I was reminded to give my character designs from big, strong action poses, and now to stay too hung up on the concepts as compared to the animation itself. Seeing as I am taking a lot of influences from eastern cultures, the colour palettes should also be driven by them, and so quite a bit of research into these cultures is required (Such as the symbolism as to why certain colours are used in some of their costumes).

   Speaking of the eastern cultures that I will be looking into, I was once again told to narrow it down a little more instead of attempting to squeeze zillions of asian cultures all into one design, something that I am actually pretty relieved about being told to do, actually. Still, it wouldn't hurt to include some references from a few others and subtly incorporate them into my character design later on, if it works that is.

   The last bit of advice that I was given before I was chased out was to attempt to follow the same practice as Cartoon Saloon and develop concept art boards that closely (If not almost exactly) present what a final frame would look like in the animated trailer itself. And... just be smart and learn how to utilise whatever concepts I have into the animation itself (As well as reuse a few things such as tree designs when possible).

  

   And oh... try to use a back up drive during this entire project (Especially since this project is surely going to grow to ginormous proportions as I progress over the next few months, my poor laptop), and especially if I am intent on using one of the college's Cintiqs.

   AND OH! Other inspirations I had wanted to include to the bibliography and moodboards were Samurai Jack, Secret of Mana, Bee and Puppycat and Steven Universe (I am just going to list them down here for the time being until I get the chance to add them to the list).

   ... And also take a refresher course on After Effects so I can fully utilise it for my animation.