30 December 2009- Consultation and mini-interim in Week 11

For the past few weeks, all I have been (nearly) faithfully doing is animating a lot of shots for my piece. Up to date, I am on track and at my halfway point…all that is left to do are the harder shots (where a lot of elements are moving or a lot of movement is required).

Consultation on 28 December: I put all my completed shots inside my animatic (replacing my storyboard stills) and showed it to Mr. Ronald and Mr. Alan. They pointed out three flaws:

1) In the shots where is walking (6,7, 8, 9, 21), the walking cycle looks more like sliding, and it is jerky as well. Mr. Ronald and Mr. Alan were extremely kind enough to point out the correct key-frames in a walking cycle (front foot, passing, back foot). They told me the importance of determining bending points and weight balance in walking, so that it will not look like sliding. Mr. Alan even showed me a more faster and efficient way of doing a walk cycle in After Effects. I also need to put a guiding line or marker in my Photoshop file.

2) In the shots where there was blinking, the blink is too slow and the speed of blinking was impossible to achieve. I should make the blinking much faster.

3) I forgot to de-saturate the flashback shot (I have done only one so far). Note to self: de-saturation is at -60.

Mini-interim on 30 December: I managed to de-saturate my flashback shot and quicken up my blinking in the necessary shots. I showed my improved animatic to my lecturer, and this is what he said:
* Improve walking in shots 6 & 7 and 8 & 9
* In Shot 18, add a blink.
* In Shot 21, make the foot move in more angles.
* In Shot 34, the rain must fall faster.
* In Shot 35, the zoom-in becomes pixilated halfway, so I have to add a fade-to-white or dissolve.

Luckily for me, I scheduled a break for today and tomorrow, so I can give myself time to do all the necessary editing before continuing production.