LOFAX

It's finally done! Watch in all it's glory (or at least a more compact form of it's glory). If you're unable to read the intro type, here it is again.

"Angus Glass awakens from the dead inside an extra-terrestrial vessel. Eluding his captors, he desperately roams the ship looking for answers. When his only human companion is killed, Glass loses any hope and returns to the corridor with the gap they could not cross."



The thing I learned most from this project was how to properly plan out my own schedule. I worked fast, as you could probably tell; maybe a little too fast in some places. But I stuck to my own schedule as best as I could, which was something I've never done for myself. It has been a very rewarding experience. So thank you Professor Delao for the class and for your time.

Also a special thanks to my Dad, my brother, and my friends Megan and Jose for their help and support.

Production Schedule

Rough Animation - 23 hr
8 days - 3 hrs a day.

Thursday 10/30
02 LS o/h GLASS stands over ledge looking down of the large gap. ½ hr
04 CU x/lo – GLASS’s face 1 hr
05 ECU eye level GLASS’s foot dangles over the ledge. 2 hr

Friday 10/31
06 ECU low – GLASS’s eyes watering 1 hr
07 MS from side GLASS fails to throw himself off the ledge and collapses to his knees, beginning to sob. 1 hr
08 ECU ¾ GLASS sobs for a moment then looks up again at the gap. 1 hr

Saturday 11/1
15 CU ¾ - GLASS comes to a stop and quickly raises his head to see the jump he just made 1 hr
17 MS Glass crawls back over to the ledge and looks down. 1 hr
19 CU GLASS’s eyes watering in relief and self actualization 1 hr

Sunday 11/2
20 MS from below GLASS gets up and hobbles off camera towards the corridor exit. 1 hr
21 CU front GLASS’s face after door slides open, eyes widen in horror ½ hr
23 CU front GLASS’s face lunges forward. ½ hr

Monday 11/3
13 ECU opposite ledge – GLASS’s feet faultily slam onto the edge as GLASS rolls across the floor. 2 ½ hr
22 CU CREATURE – face grimaces ½ hr

Tuesday 11/4
12 LS from below – GLASS soars over the gap to the opposite ledge. 1 ½ hr
24 ECU profile GLASS’s face hits a wall ½ hr

Wednesday 11/5
01 ECU Panning from left of corridor over gap to GLASS’s feet. ½ hr

Thursday 11/6
11 MS front GLASS – GLASS stands up and walks out of focus down the corridor, then quickly runs straight towards the camera and jumps off the ledge. 4 hr



Friday 11/7
14 MS ¾ – GLASS rolls and slides along the floor clumsily as he manages to make the jump. 3 hr

Saturday 11/8
Maya set rendering – 2 hr

Sunday 11/9
Maya set rendering – 2 hr

Coloring - 30 hr
30 hrs 10 days – 3hrs/day

Monday 11/10
02 LS o/h GLASS stands over ledge looking down of the large gap. ½ hr
03 CU x/lo – GLASS’s face 1 hr
05 ECU eye level GLASS’s foot dangles over the ledge. 2 hr

Tuesday 11/11
06 ECU low – GLASS’s eyes watering 1 hr
07 MS from side GLASS fails to throw himself off the ledge and collapses to his knees, beginning to sob. 1 hr
08 ECU ¾ GLASS sobs for a moment then looks up again at the gap. 1 hr

Wednesday 11/12
15 CU ¾ - GLASS comes to a stop and quickly raises his head to see the jump he just made 1 hr
17 MS Glass crawls back over to the ledge and looks down. 1 hr
19 CU GLASS’s eyes watering in relief and self actualization 1 hr

Thursday 11/13
20 MS from below GLASS gets up and hobbles off camera towards the corridor exit. 1 hr
21 CU front GLASS’s face after door slides open, eyes widen in horror ½ hr
23 CU front GLASS’s face lunges forward. ½ hr

Friday 11/14
13 ECU opposite ledge – GLASS’s feet faultily slam onto the edge as GLASS rolls across the floor. 2 ½ hr
22 CU CREATURE – face grimaces ½ hr

Saturday 11/15
12 LS from below – GLASS soars over the gap to the opposite ledge. 1 ½ hr
24 ECU profile GLASS’s face hits a wall ½ hr

Sunday 11/16
01 ECU Panning from left of corridor over gap to GLASS’s feet. ½ hr

Monday 11/17
12 MS front GLASS – GLASS stands up and walks out of focus down the corridor, then quickly runs straight towards the camera and jumps off the ledge. 4 hr

Tuesday 11/18
14 MS ¾ – GLASS rolls and slides along the floor clumsily as he manages to make the jump. 3 hr


57 hr total

Class #19: Final Stretch

31/2 scenes left to color. Then all I have to do is plug in the finished maya background files, export all the scenes to movies, edit them down, record my music, grab sound effects, and then juggle chainsaws above a pool of sharks while whistling the national anthem for Canada. No pressure, really.

I don't even speak Canadian.

edit -9:38am- 3 scenes left

edit - 10:41am - 2 scenes left

edit - 12:53pm - 1 scene to go!

Class #18 Update: Finished Animation

Animation is done for Lofax, finally. I now need to color the whole thing and get the new set built this weekend. Even though I'm still a bit behind, I should be able to get my work done by the last day.

Class #17: Catch Up

I've had an early final, like I said. I completely underestimated its workload along with my Concept Development class which required a pitch poster today. Sadly I've not been able to work on my animation or Maya set building. But today is the day for catching up! Hopefully I'll be back on schedule by Wednesday.

If you're interested, here's the pitch poster for my Senior Stop Motion film, McDonough.

Class #16

So I've been having to rewrite my paper for my Survey of New Media Art final and have focused much of my time on that yesterday and today. Thanks to the the buffer room I gave myself, though, it shouldn't be hard to get back on schedule with animation. I'll have more to show next Monday.

EDIT: I'm caught up. :)

Class #15 Update: Thousands and Thousands of Tiny Little Pictures

I average about three shots a day with my schedule. Here's a preview of what I have so far, since I don't rightly know how to export individual scenes yet.




It's a strange thing, these ever-looming finals. What I thought would be the most daunting part of my quarter (this class) has turned out to be my escape from the rest of my work, and the one thing I find myself doing over everything else (which is all due earlier).

Class 14 Update

I didn't get to put in music due to lack of synthesized string voices on the computers at monty. I'll try to get all this settled tonight, though. Sorry for forgetting to post on Wednesday. On the plus side, though, I'm already well into animating. I've scheduled three hours a day for animation, and so far it's been a lot easier than I thought. I should be done with all the rough animation by next weekend. I'll finish the set in Maya after that and then I'll start to work on the coloring. I'll put some of the rough animation up tomorrow morning.

Class #13: Animatic

I'll post my animatic later today, once I get my music in there. I'm becoming more confident in the several shots that I have to work with. It has a more comic book/anime feel to it, lots of static POV shots and static dramatic poses, which could be a cop out, but it's really too early in the morning to tell. I'm excited to do the really dramatic moves as well as the very subtle, emotional close-ups. Either way, the caffeine that's currently racing through my bloodstream is telling me "Hey buddy, we can do this!", and I must concur.

Lofax: Storyboard

24 shots. Not a lot of drastic movement, though, and many static POV and background shots. I'll have to run it by the Professor on Monday and see if it's still a good idea. I'll make an animatic next and time it all out.

Class #12 Update

Just about done with the storyboards. I'll have them up later today, and I'll re-edit this post.

Class #11 Update

Sorry to say it, but no real progress since last class. I took advantage of the end of midterms and went back to Tennessee over the weekend to visit my family and help them move out of their house. So now I'm trying to catch up/stay ahead. I still need to finish my storyboards, which should be done within the next day or so.

Class #10 Update: Storyboards

Just doing my storyboards today. I'll have those up within the next day or so. I have the camera angles set up for the Maya set file. I just need to draw in Mr. Glass. Here's a preview of the set.



It's an overhead shot. Those would be the corridors in the room with the giant gap. The hole in the bottom will be covered with atmospheric perspective and fog.

Character Designs COMPLETE!

I know I didn't need to go this far with the coloring for the character designs, but I really wasn't sure how it was going to look unless I tested out the technique and learn simpler ways to achieve that look. It's helped out quite a bit. I now know how I'll need to manage my time in terms of cleanup and coloring. I look forward to both animating and coloring this work.

Lip Sync Animation

This was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. Thanks to the 11 Second Club for the audio. I need to get into that over the break.

Walk Cycle Tutorial: Crazy Naked Lincoln

Be honest. On those warm summer nights when the moon ripples across the reflecting pool behind the Washington Monument, could you really pass up a quick dip? Neither can ole Abe here, especially if he's taunted by it every day. Not sure why he takes off all his clothes, though. Could just be to keep them dry, could be early signs of senility. I suppose after such an achievement as bringing the country back together, you can pretty much do whatever you want.

Get it? Honest? Hohoho!

Final Film Feedback from Four Fellow Flashers

Alliterations abound! People seem to understand my idea and see it as being pretty feasible. I showed them the set and character designs and told them how I planned to mix traditional animation with rotoscoping and I didn't really hear much negative feedback. This is a relief for me, as I was starting to wonder if I was just a delusional, over-zealous animator, after Stop Motion II's fiasco (I tried to animate around 3 minutes of this story for that class). But apparently I've grown from that, so that's good.

Rotoscoping Madness

I think I may have overdone it with the second one. It was fun, nonetheless. It's weird though. Rotoscoping white on black has the effect of fireworks with your eyes. Whenever I close my eyes now, Matthew Stolarik's face hovers over me. Hopefully this will wear off soon. I'll keep you posted.

The Tutorial




A Stolarik Darkly

Class #7 Update

Just about finished with the rotoscoping assignment. I'll post the second part for you soon with a more complete blog entry. I don't know how I got so behind, but I'm going to fix that today and tomorrow.

Class 6 Progress Report

Technically I already posted today but it was a little after midnight and I have more stuff ready anyway.



My Final Film character, Angus Glass, is just about finished. Just have to throw on some colors for the action poses, do a few more head positions and it's ready to go. The idea behind this guy throughout the mini-series is that he's the brute character forced into the smart guy's role. His physique is not one of an acrobat, yet his situation calls for him to keep running. I've been trying for a style like Samurai Jack mixed with Adam Phillips, with no outlines and only solid colors and values.

Jumping Things!

Hello friends! First up, we have the infamous clown head thing.




Next, my own animal. I named him "Bru"




I should probably explain. Bru was a failed government experiment to cross-breed different strands of cow and steer DNA to make Bovine Super Soldiers. Obviously there were some defects. No matter! Bru's a smart fellow, and thus made his limbs out of forks, rulers, and duct tape. Just look at that hang time! How's that for genetically superior?

Character Designs Near Completion

I'm also very close to finishing up my set in Maya. The set is supposed to be an alien ship; imagine the people at Apple are actually aliens. It's that sort of design with smooth, rounded corners with cut edges.

Also, there were some issues with getting the jump animation going, but that will be up very soon as well.

Tutorial 1: The Bouncing Ball

I wish Flash had a more advanced graph editor like Maya, but I wish for a lot of things. I wished for the Nile once... almost got it.

My Film Script, "Lofax"

This is only a section of the seven-part piece, but I wanted to see how the art style would hold up in flash by doing a small, coherent section of the film.

TITLE SCREEN - "LOFAX"
INT. GAP ROOM
The camera pans across as the giant gap between corridors as another title screen appears, reading...

"Angus Glass awakens from a comatose state to find himself on an alien vessel. With very little memory of his past, he manages to escape the hold of his captors. His only companion on this ship has just died, and he, too, loses hope of finding any answers."

GLASS approaches the edge of the walkway and looks down. Cut
from his drop, to his face.
Cut back to GLASS’s feet as he tempts falling over the edge.
He bends down on one knee and looks over the edge again.
Pounding his fist in agony, he is on the verge of tears. He
looks to the other side. The walkway seems completely
unreachable from this distance. Glass takes a deep breath
and stands up. Without taking his sight off the other side,
he retreats back to the door. Immediately he cuts back and
sprints towards the edge. He jumps with all his strength to
the other side.
LS from below of GLASS jumping across gap.
ECU GLASS’s feet as they hit the edge of the walkway on the
other side.
GLASS rolls and slides across the floor on the other side.
He’s taken aback that he made the jump. Music builds as
GLASS slowly gets back onto his feet, takes a long, teary look at the gap from which he crossed, and continues into the next door.
INT. GAP ROOM - DOOR
The CREATURE stands behind the door as GLASS opens it.
The creature flings GLASS against the wall.
CUT TO TITLE SCREEN: "LOFAX"

My Flash Film Premise

This film will very closely follow the story of one man who has been abducted onto an alien ship and, after failing the physically strenuous probes, has been left for dead. He awakens with no real memory, only that the environment he is in is not his own. He must journey through the depths of the ship to discover the truth about how he survived, and what these new found creatures are looking for.

While many films have covered the premise of space travel, and, more specifically, the space opera, there seems to be little questioning of the extravagance of these worlds. The audience is left to either pay attention to the dialog or be distracted by the often vast and alien world. This film seeks to compromise that in two ways. First, the main character will act as the audience's guide in the story, knowing no more about the alien craft he has been transported to than we do. The world will be vast and unexplained, with no consoles on any doors, no identification anywhere. Everything seems to work without any actual interface. Secondly, the film will follow the traditions of the old silent film. Our hero will only be able to express himself through his face and body. This piece intends to mix the dark, mysterious world of the space opera with the subtle pathos of the silent film, as our hero, Angus Glass, journeys through the depths of the large alien craft in order to find answers to why he's there.

This film will be producing only a portion of the script, so we pick up in the 5th episode of the film, entitled "LOFAX". Our hero has just lost his only companion on the ship, and now begins to lose hope...

My Best Work (so far)

While I'm proud of my different stop motion and Flash animations, I feel like too much time has passed for me to really use them as an example of where I am now. That's one of the main reasons I'm taking this class, to give myself a real challenge in 2D animation and have a solid piece for my demo reel. For now, I'd have to say the work I'm most proud of has been from my Animation Layout and Character Design class. Troy Gustafson pushed me to the edge and I came out of it on top with two character designs that secured my internship at Animation Collective this summer. Take a look.

My Favorite Animation

I'm continually inspired by Mark Osborne's "MORE", the first stop-motion short to be shot in IMAX format. Often I'll turn on the "making of" featurette on the DVD and let it run while I'm working in stop motion.

How I spent my Summer vacation.

I was in New York City for most of my Summer interning at Animation Collective. They're currently working on shows for Nicktoons TV such as Three Delivery and Speed Racer: The Next Generation*. I also got to design characters for different shows, including a bad guy for an episode of an as-yet-unreleased show. I'm not sure how much I'm actually allowed to say, so I'm afraid I just have to be vague. It was pretty awesome, though.

Here's a sample of their work.





*Because that just had to be made...