film
The Film
Friday, April 25, 2008 | Skip to Comments
While the wife lays sick and asleep in the other room, I thought I might dust off this old notebook and pass along an update. The film I mentioned in passing last time around has been slowly taking shape. It’s to be an animated short with an expected completion date of late summer.
The number of hats that I’m expected to wear on this project is insane. I’m the writer, director, storyboard artist, concept artist, modeler, rigger, animator, compositor and editor. It’s an incredibly daunting situation. Just about the only task I’m not taking on myself is the music and sound, which my good friend Tony Ringor has graciously agreed to supply.
Back in January when I started this process, I decided to try to my hand at 3D animation. I had used Google Sketchup to create some reference environments for some illustrations last year and, for some reason, that made me think that I might be able to learn 3D animation in a couple of weeks. Looking back, I can’t believe how naive I was — what save me was my work ethic. I download Blender 3D and immersed myself in the program. Learning to model went fast, I had my protagonist done within the first two weeks. Rigging proved more difficult. By the time I got to materials, lighting, shape keys, premultiplied alpha channels, constraints, vertex groups, actions, IPO curves — I was drowning. I was hitting one problem after another and the learning curve was intense. I almost walked away from the whole thing — it’s only been in the past several weeks that I’ve finally started to see my labors bear fruit.
Here’s a sneak peek:
I was just notified yesterday that I will be receiving a generous stipend from California State University, Long Beach to complete my film. I’m extremely grateful for the support I’ve received from the school and my instructor, Aubry Mintz. Without Aubry’s guidance, this project would have withered on the vine.
