#porcess

I watched a live which gave me idea on the method of colouring line art. Unfortunately the video hadn't been uploaded after. Here is a memo for myself.

01: Line art and mask Keep editing the detail during later process. the posture and the details of Yuuri's costume were difficult.  

02: basic colour

03: texture Less boring Layer: normal to linear darken(?)

04: shade (The core of this method) The shade was all painted in one layer. It forced you to look at the big picture not the small details. I took a lot of time to draw the shade of Yuuri's hair, but I hided it in colour and the detail disappeared. The shade of upper body was changed for serval times.

05: final effect, without line art It looked boring so I add lilies (Yuri in Japanese) using similar method

I've been doing short little gag comics since I was 10. Tho I can't really say I'm self taught beucase I don't remmber "studying" any techquines or how certain comics work. I'm not a actively curious person and I have a adversion to learning, true learning not just listening to nonfiction book in the background (becuase I do, do that) I mainly learn out of necessity and by a slow osmosis. (Which is while I will always be an artist just not a great artist lol) And I'm sure over the many years I've absorbed information subconsciously by sheer exposure and I remmber reading some internet tutorial about how to do bubble placement but I can't really tell you how I learned.

What I can tell you is how I think when I make one.

So when I think of comic it's not in a comic froum. It's just events playing out In my minds eye like on a TV show like Arrested Development. Simple directing no crazy angles, or flashy editing.

I then wirte the script

I wirte the dialogue And rough non verbal discrption first becuase that's basically all my comics are about people talking with the occasional reaction shot.

Then I read that dialogue and find the natural breaks and emphasizesiums. And group those dialogues together. This is mainly intuation, and how you see it in your minds eye. This is also subject to change.

Then I get into the real meat of discription where I on good days I stretch my creative mussles and think out of my comfort zone With interesting angles, poses, visual sotry telling background cues; and on most days I just elaborate on basic detials like vague setting , who's in the background , forgrond, thier expressions, ect.

And during this part you might find yourself reworking your groups these groups become our pannles and by the end you Have a working script :)

Then I try to make those pannles fit on to a page it like makeing a puzzle fit that's what the thumbnailing is. I do it in penical first or I'll make a few small ones like before on a good day I'll flex my comic skills I'll make 3-4 different version of the same page to branch out of my normal patterns which is good practice. I don't always do it becuase the idea in my head feels so right even if it is repetive and unimaginative I just can't deviate.

I sometimes make a larger version of my smaller scribble ( Like I posted) with various colors and bubble placement becuase it's closer to the right size ( the smaller version I normally draw on sticky notes and they are too wide and I try to make them more vertical. and its for motivation I find if I have a nicer thumbnail to look at the more likely I will draw that comic…. Also I have a lot of empty journals laying around the house so . . . Lol

Det var jeg som fikk i oppgave å tegne alle de forskjellige karakterene vi skulle ha med i spillet, noe jeg synes var veldig morsomt å holde på med. Det var viktig for oss at det var mye variasjon, og at vi ikke spilte på stereotypier. Jeg har prøvd å inkludere forskjellige ansiktsformer, hudfarger og hårfrisyrer.

Etter at vi hadde snakket med sex og politikk fikk vi veldig gode tilbake meldinger, og det at karakterene var voksene var positivt for å unngå at barn som skal spille spillet plutselig ligner på en av dem. Vi fikk tips om å inkludere variasjon i funksjon også, så jeg tegnet en mann med høreapparat og en dame med lapp over det ene øye.

In this one see me face some past art failings head on as I work towards a better piece of work tomorrow. Breaking bad habits and setting myself up for better habits and developing my workflow and process to help develop a style and improve in painting faster!

Cheers! and Thank you so much for watching.

Live Tree or Die (a Memoir) (a Reflection) 

It ain't perfect, but it's still mine.

So I have finished my movie! (Not actually, I still need to go through sound and colour but I am finished with the "production" part of it... so I have a lot of renders.)

But for the purposes of this blog post I AM DONE!

So I thought I would go through and do a reflection of what I learned in this process. The pitfalls and triumphs that went into the production of my F3. A post-Mortem... well I guess it's just a mortem. Anyways...

THE SUCCESSES

"If you wanted the easy road you should have gone to Harvard Law." - Ron Honn

I'll start with the good stuff. I definitely learned a ton about my own personal work habits over this process. It was extremely satisfying for me to have stayed on schedule over the course of the project. Even with major setbacks and story revisions I managed to stay on schedule and still produce work to the quality I wanted, it ain't perfect but it is still mine.

I have found that I am a quick worker, and I think that is my greatest skill. I can move and power though an assignment quickly and produce a lot of revisions in a short amount of time. While this definitely leads to some overlooked details, I think this is a good way to work and I am happy that it is a trait I possess. (That's a Job interview answer) I like to think of it as a sort of Minimum Viable Product. I get as much done as fast I can so I can get notes more quickly, thus less time is spent moving in an unnecessary direction. It applies less to my own creative work, but it is still something I try to do.

Another big success I've had is in the collaboration I have had with my fellow artists. From the beginning I have enjoyed going over revision and revision with my wonderful art director Susan over the design of everything in my world, from the characters to the environment. Her awesome skill has been instrumental in giving my film the aesthetic which I love so so much. But I also had a wonderful experience working with my co-animator, Victor. He just latched on to the style I wanted right away and blew me away with the quality and quantity of work he put out. Originally he was only slated for two shots but wound up hitting five (~60% of my whole movie!) and had a strong influence on how I tackled my own shots. And finally I worked with a phenomenal Lighting and Comp team of Justin, Austin, and Collin. They contributed so much to my movie and took the challenges I assigned to them in great stride, producing wonderful work and further pushing the aesthetic of my film.

And finally, I think the biggest success I had was that I really had fun through the whole process. Sure it wasn't all peaches and cream, but I really am happy and I made a fun happy movie and I had a good time creating this piece with my classmates. It was fun and I think that is the most important aspect, because if we aren't having fun then why would we be here in the first place?

THE FAILURES

"If every porkchop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs." - Steven Universe

So onto the less fun parts. Of course it didn't go perfect. There were many a dailies I left wanting to just curl up in a ball and cry. But it ain't easy, and that is the fun part. So on with the death march of sadness...

I have an issue with basic story structure. I would love to blame watching too many Linklater films, but I know my downfalls definitely don't stem from an excess in creative skill. My initial F3 failed from basic story issues and I again ran into this issue while in the MIDDLE of production on this project.  When I had to go for that big story revision I fell right back onto the same basic dramatic questions. Who is my character? What does he want? Where is the conflict? etc... I emerged from the pits of reworking the story with a stronger film, I think, but it is something that I am determined to not let happen again.

I had a big issue whenever I received notes. I was confident enough in my vision to know when notes were really off the scale or right on the money, but my problems came with the notes that might work. Because at that point it was an issue of decision making. Spending the time. Risk vs. Reward. These were the ideas that I was afraid of not implementing. I have a hard time saying no and I feel like I am offending someone when I don't take their notes. Saying no is a hard thing.

This goes into my biggest issue of confidence. I have never ever ever considered myself an artist. I have always loved making short movies and learning VFX, but I had never (and this might sound dumb) realized that these were real art forms. Like, real art. And maybe that was because I was an Astrophysics Major until I applied to the film school, but I have never been an artist in my life. So now I am surrounded by these wonderful and creative and passionate and talented individuals who just love the art. True artists, and that makes me incredibly intimidated and self conscious. So it is always a struggle for me to try and stay confident in my own vision when I have other people who I assume are far more creative than myself giving constant input. A blessing and a curse because again, I love being surrounded by all these wonderful talented people but I just absolutely loathe them for how incredibly talented they are. So something I really need to get better at is confidence, and I think it will greatly help my own growth both as an artist and as a person.

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So obviously there is far more that I learned in this massive undertaking of crafting an animated short. But I feel that these things are really the key lessons I have taken away and they are what my mind turns towards when I think of my successes and failures.