Hi CTN People!

Just a quick hello to everyone from CTN who might be stopping by for a visit!

This blog is updated sporadically...but when I do update, I promise it is full of EXCITEMENT AND WONDER. And drawings. Mostly drawings.

Enjoy this drawing - a medley of older designs for the Main Character - while I pack up and head to the Bay Area for Thanksgiving! I'm bringing my laptop and cintiq...maybe I will have something to update while I'm there? Eehh?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Trailer Time!

I am a sucker for trailers, and so I decided to put one together for Debris. Watching it makes me happy, and keeps me motivated to FINISH THE FILM AT SOME POINT.

Yes kids, this self-indulgent little romp is a work in progress. Goal for the next 3 weeks is to get the rest of these trailer scenes animated, so I'll have something to put up on the website I fully intend to build once I get a minute.

The music used is "Pepita," from Calexico's album "Feast of Wire." Haunting, lovely song; I think it works perfectly. I actually haven't given much thought to how I'm going to score Debris yet, but this track gives me a lot of inspiration.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and impressions of the bits/pieces I've strung together so far...love it? Hate it? Bored? Want to see more?

Color

I was out with a friend tonight talking about our various creative projects, and my friend asked me why I chose to animate Debris in black and white. Honestly, it was mostly because color is one more (complicated) step in the production process, and I wanted to make a film I could realistically finish. I'm using color to embellish certain props, but other than that I'm sticking strictly to b/w.

Then it occurred to me - the theme of the film has become "people on autopilot." Everyone goes around a little robotic, and nothing feels real. I think of "The Wizard of Oz," where the viewer doesn't really feel like they're "in" the story until the color appears. The main character isn't connected to the world around him until the end of the film. Why not use color to represent that? Why not color the last two scenes of Debris?

Thanks, Ariel! :)

Just a Note

How weird that today is the first day in a couple of weeks that I've had time to work on animation again...

I was feeling uninspired and busy with other stuff, but I took some time to re-watch the animatic (again,) and it reminded me why I wanted to make this short in the first place. It's a dark subject, but I'm drawn to it. It fascinates me, and I can only hope that I'm capturing it well, and doing it justice.

Thinking of you today, Dad. Hope you're having an okay day, the animals are behaving, and the Bay Area weather is sunny and breezy. :)

Lucky scene 13. A couple things I'm noticing as I'm starting to amass a pile of scenes that link together...

1. Main Character seems unemotional? Make him sleepier, especially in the longer scenes. It's 2:04 AM, dude needs some heavy eyelids. (note to self - revisit That One LONG Pain in the Ass Scene I Wasn't Happy With Anyway and re-do it, with exhausted gusto.)

2. Main Character's model is morphing slightly from scene to scene. I really didn't have a model pack when I started this, I just sorta dove in with a couple sketches and a rough idea of what he looked like. Good thing? Bad thing? "Artistic" thing? (Note to self - wait until production ends, several years in the future, THEN go back and fret over old, "crappy" drawings. Cry a little, while tweaking nose size in earlier scenes.)

3. Looking at all the finished scenes I've accomplished so far is - despite the mistakes I spot - really, really, really fantastic. :)

Non-debris related post!

Photos by Lissa Treiman.

NON-DEBRIS-RELATED UPDATE!

I have some art on the wall at Meltdown Gallery with the GirlsDrawinGirls "Girls of Summer" show! You should check it out, along with the work of 49 other talented ladies.

Gallery is located at:
7522 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA

Been super busy with this, and other GDG projects, but I'm steadily chugging along with animation. Little by little, the scenes get done...proper update next week, I promise.

Story Cuts, Rough Cuts

I dove back into the Debris storyline recently, and I found myself cutting again--this time, a couple of sequences that I found redundant when I looked at the whole story. I really like the feel of the film a lot more now...the line between hallucination/reality is suitably blurred, but (hopefully) not to a point that will leave the audience completely baffled. At least, not baffled in a bad way.

That's one of the great things about working on something that's not a TV production...I can do things like go back and cut entire sequences, and no one gets pissed! HA!

ALSO - in Non-Debris Related News, GirlsDrawinGirls (the art collective I am a part of) will be exhibiting at COMICON 2009 - booth 5428!! Come by and say hi and check out some sassy pinup art drawn by sassy ladies. I will not be there this year, unfortunately, as I will be careening down the Colorado River in a rubber raft, 50 miles from a paved road. Wooo!

Here's a rough cut of Sc. 8!

Animation Goodness

Just chuggin away at animation! Here's Sc1...skunky goodness!

It's traditionally animated, in Flash. The animation is limited, but what movement there is, I've decided will be done the ol' fashioned way. I rough out the sequence on one layer, clean it up on another, and then use the fill tool to color. It is fun times.

6 scenes down, 109 to go!!

Animatin

Some screen-captures from sc. 1...I've started animation but it's going slooooowwwwww. The nudge keys, the fill tool, and slow-out have become my best friends. It's amazing how quickly you can alter timing and drawings! I'll post some animation when I've got a scene I'm ready to share...

Int Gas Station

Productive day! Finishing a whole sequence of BGs in one Sunday is a wonderful feeling. Am I going to keep going and try to finish a second sequence? OH YOU KNOW IT.

Here are a couple of BGs I was pretty happy with. The down-shot with the TV is my favorite of the bunch, I think.

May?! How is it May??!

I'm probably not going to have this short finished by the end of the year. Oh well. For the sake of motivaion, let's pretend that it's still possible somehow.

Car debris! So much car debris...

I'm having a pretty productive weekend! It feels like I've barely worked on the short all week, due to any number of distractions - bronchitis, shitty sinuses, friends doing fun stuff and inviting me, Facebook, Lost...but I'm back now. WITH A VENGANCE! More BGs to come tomorrow.

Dashboard Professional

Hey! It's the dashboard! Of a car!!

...yeah, that's about all I got for this one.

Starting the NYC BGs next, so more exciting things to come. In the meantime, enjoy these dials and things.

Car Debris

Moving on to the interior of a car. I can never draw mechanics as easily as I can draw organic stuff, but I try. OH HOW I TRY.

I'm taking a layout class right now that, while taking some time away from Debris work, is actually very helpful. I'm thinking of changing the staging on some shots later on. I am INSPIRED, yo.

Overturned car

Here's another one...this one's a work in progress. Trying to draw while watching "Wristcutters: A Love Story." is not something I would recommend. I kept getting distracted by the movie (which is awesome, btw) and had to pause and rewind bits, resulting in a half-assed BG. Tsk. I'll fix it tomorrow, like the lazy bum I am.

Debris aplenty

Finishing up the country road BGs...moving on to the actual debris sequence, which is pretty abstract. Not much going on, but I think this one's kinda neat. It's an upshot; there's a big chunk of concrete that falls in a dramatic and frightening fashion. I hope. There's probably going to be a layer of smoke and dust animation overlaid on all of these. Is that a word? Overlaid? Looks weird.

More to come...

Sunrise

More BGs. These are all for the first and last thirds of the film...a lot of "ext. country road night" business. I'm working pretty quickly, and they're not completely perfect, but I'm happy with them so far. I'm going for a more organic feel, and I like the scribbly bits, cause I'm crazy that way.

Gas Station BGS

More BGs. While I was working on these, I came to the realization that I have no idea what a gas pump looks like without looking at pictures. The things I learn making cartoons...

More BGs

Destroyed NYC BG. Going for a slightly different look to reflect the change of mood. I was inspired by the backgrounds from "Persepolis." They do a lot of really interesting things with chalk and paper texture.



Tweaking the NYC BG again. I think I like it better now...

NYC BG

More BGs! I'm liking the way these are coming. It's a mix of Mike Mignola, my coworker Sean's comic "Ahab," and a scratchboard. At least, that's what I'm going for IN MY MIND.

Yup, makin' a 9/11 film...

More BGs coming later in the week.

BG Key - #1

BG Key...trying a different look. I'm pretty happy with it so far. More BG keys to come later next week.

Doh

I suck at keeping this updated. The last couple of weeks have been really busy with GDG stuff. I'm working on developing a style for the short, and I've been looking at a lot of Bruce Timm and Mike Mignola. (And Steve Silver still.)

Here are some sketches of skunks that still look like cats and squirrels. Someday, I will get it right.

I will post some BG concept sketches later this week. I promise. O_O

Heads

Some sketches for a main character design...don't think I've nailed him down yet. The original design seems generic and I would like to give him more personality. I've been looking at a lot of Steven Silver drawings for inspiration.

Finally cut the animatic to a length I'm happy with...for now, at least. The whole thing turned out to be 10 minutes, not 8--eek. Now it's down to a svelt 6:30 or so. Muuuuch better. The challenge is to cut it to time, but to not have it feel rushed. (Or drag endlessly.)

Cutting

Last summer, I had a few weeks off, and I storyboarded Debris in something like 3 weeks. I really didn't think a lot as I did it, other than just to get out what was in my head. Right now, the animatic I boarded out is about 8 minutes long. That's waa-a-y too long. Endless. Interminable. Originally, I couldn't see cutting anything from the animatic, but that was four months ago. Watching it again (and again, and again), I see a lot of places where it could be tightened and clarified.

My goal this week (and the next 3-4 weeks) is to cut at least 3 minutes from the animatic.

While I do that, here are some more rough designs. Skunks...mystic skunks....