Posts from — January 2008

I was trying to come up with some ideas for comics characters, and these two sprang out. Not sure they’re going to go well together, though — the top one is a monster, for sure, but the bottom one is more of an alien, and I see them occupying totally separate comics universes. In the meantime, I’ll post them here for your enjoyment.

Comments welcome!

Slow progress on the animatics reels for our 2-D movies.  Main reason behind the slow-going is the fact that the fancy-shmancy master editor POV script I put together to handle the edits and audio and such is… well… I have no idea how to run it.  This is what happens when you don’t do any movie work for almost two years.  Actually, it’s the audio section that I’m stumbling over.  This is the first time I’ve done a live project with it - or even a test project with it - so there are lots of coding bugs and interface “issues” I’m discovering…

Now that I’m getting into the animatics reels and layouts for the four 2-D movies, I’m beginning to lose enthusiasm for tackling the bee movie script.  This is normal.  I have a tendency to laser in on one particular project, to the exclusion of all others, which makes trying to do multiple projects simultaneously a bit of a challenge.  I need to dig up some motivation to get cracking on the script.  What I have so far is actually pretty good (well, I think so!); I need to finish it, make it better than just “good” (”great” or “outstanding” would be nice)…

No movement on the robot movie.  I’ve been wanting to kick people out of the house so I can record dialog in peace and quiet, but no one is willing to leave.  Might have to resort to bribery…

Finally, I’ve been putzing around the studio, scratching out some new doodles of bugs and monsters and things.  Still wrestling with some comics ideas, but with my brain sucked into the movie-production weirdness I haven’t gotten any traction…

I’ll keep it fairly simple:

1.  Finish at least two movies
2.  Play more guitar

Why did I pick number 2??  I started playing guitar close to thirty years ago, and ever since my gigging days went away (five years ago?  Six??), the old axe has been collecting a fine layer of dust in the closet.  I’m a person who hates hates HATES seeing things go to waste, and the guitar sitting around, unused, represents a colossal waste of time, blood, sweat, and tears.  It’s also embarassing when I do pull the guitar out to record soundtracks and I have to struggle thru simple little riffs that I would’ve blazed through with the greatest of ease a few short years ago.  Therefore, since I don’t want a blood vessel to rupture in my head every time I think about it, I decided to pull my guitar out of its case and start playing again.  The first couple of forays have not been encouraging, but I plan on hammering away at it til I stop looking like an idiot.  Might be awhile.

Normally, I tend to avoid making New Year’s resolutions because the exercise is usually a waste of time.  New Year’s tends to be the dumping ground for those make-myself-a-better-person ideas that apparently weren’t worth considering the other 364 days of the past year.  We all say we’d like to lose those twenty pounds, or call the kids more often, or quit smoking, or whatever, but the fact is most of us haven’t even given it any thought until we gaze at the clock, notice it’s ten o’clock in the evening of December 31st… and completely flip out.  “Oh my GOD!!!!  I need to think of a resolution right NOW NOW NOW NOW… hmmmm… thinking thinking think… you know I’ve always wanted to start going to the gym again - SAAAAY!!!  That’s sounds GREAT! I’ll do it!!  THAT is my resolution for the year ____!  Yay for me!!!!”

Yeah.  There goes one well-thought-out plan.  No possibility of failure there.

Oops, I forgot to mention, at ten o’clock you were on your third shot of tequilia, which is three more than you’ve had all of last year, so the elevator isn’t anywhere near the top floor (more likely it’s dangling by one frayed cable while you heave your guts out).

I’m feeling pretty good about my resolutions… well, the first one for sure, mainly because I resolved to finish these movies three months ago, so it should be immune from the normal post-New-Year’s letdown.  The second one should be okay, too because I realize the alternative is an aneurysm for me.  That would suck…

I’ll keep you posted on my progress.  If perchance a couple of music MP3s appear on Goofy Graffix, you’ll know things are doing fiiiiiine…………

Happy New Year!  Some project-related stuff to blurb about:

1.  Our four 2-D animations are officially in production mode.  I’ve sorted through all the dialog bits, selected the keepers, and have started working on some model sheets for our characters.  The model sheets aren’t going to be too terribly elaborate — I’m the only animator, so there’s no need to go totally nuts on it.  Just enough to work out the scaling, number of teeth and fingers, all that fun stuff.  Once that’s done, I can work on some layouts…

2.  In less encouraging news, our two 3-D animations are officially wandering around with their thumbs up their noses.  The bee movie has a partial script and no storyboards, while our robot movie is patiently waiting — and waiting — for me to record some friggin’ dialog.  What’s the deal?  Since when did I become so completely incompetent at this?  Oh, wait a sec… I was never competent to begin with.  This is just par for the course…

**sigh**

So, I am simultaneously pleased as punch and ready to throw myself under a moving bus.  The joys of animating…

One thing I can do while I wait for an opportune moment to record dialog is start working on the robot models.  It’s been almost two years since I last looked at the model or interface code, which is like twenty years to an animator (animator years are like dog years, only animators aren’t anywhere as adorable as your average mutt, nor can they be potty-trained).  Maybe gazing upon the cryptic mess of code jibber-jabber will inspire me to roll tape on some dialog.  Or maybe it’ll make me junk the 3-D thing altogether and take up claymation.  Either way works for me…