Done...kind of...

Final turn in for class was Friday the 7th, the film was not complete by a long shot but I turned it in anyway along with all the crap I accumulated along the way.

I have spent this week end ripping through scenes trying to piece together some thing that resembles a film so can show it at our exhibition. Many scenes have had to be removed but I think it still makes sense and it looks like I will make it on time to be included. Just need to re-render a hand full of scenes so they look less....crap.

The sound design came along really nice from Colin...the other student did a runner or some thing I think.

Anyway, back to work.

Gathering files

Spent a good amount of time today going back over the submission list for class and collecting everything to be printed and burnt into separate lists. Suppose it is a good thing that I'm anal about keeping things organized on my computer lol.

Also set the computer to render out the final image required by the graphic students working on my poster and dvd cover. The interesting thing was that four gig of ram was not enough to produce a render at the size I wanted (about 13,000 pixels square). This is the first time i have encountered this problem and it is a good heads up if I ever want to print a bulletin board sized file....*stare*....

Lessons learnt

I have not finished my cuppa yet so I will keep writing.

- If you are going it alone, try to keep your story as simple as possible! The more complex it is the harder it will be to tell that story visually.

- Story boarding always takes longer than you plan it to, so plan for it.

- Try to limit the number of locations you need to produce. Also if your film is 3D try not to mix your locations, stick to either fully interior or fully exterior. This is film dependent of course but it is a lot more work when you mix and match.

- Test your character rigs, walk away and test them again later as well. I can not stress this enough, my current character rig has a weird bug in the right arm and I missed this in the test phase. I do not know what is causing the problem but it is annoying and could have been avoided had I caught on to the problem earlier.

- Make sure that if the story is your choice that you are happy with it.... because more than likely you will hate it after your social life is devoured.


I do not think I will ever try to create a short film alone again, I really do want to try this with others though because it is a great feeling.

ok I'm done.

Week end work

Friday and Saturday came out fairly well, I got a lot done. I managed to get a good portion of two very hard scenes done and I even recorded one session :P

The structure of this film has undergone serious surgery at a few points and this is another one of those occasions. Trying to organize the elements that work together so they still read as a coherent story, I have had to lose some scenes purely because they no longer make sense when the previous scene is removed....so that sucks.

In the past week I have run into technical difficulties with some of my scenes that use dynamics to control assets, now while I am capable of fixing these problems I do not have the time so they have been cut. Which sucks to be honest.

Blocking progress

Blocked out eleven of the thirty two scenes, I have started on some of the easier scenes now. Some of which are so simple that no blocking is needed, the first pass works.

Not posting visuals at the moment because of internet issues.

Blocking

Frantically trying to get the blocking completed on all the scenes still. Deadline for blocking is this Sunday, I am hoping to have it finished a little sooner than that though.

I picked up two graphics students along the way and they are working together to bring a visual identity for this film. From the early tests I think it is right on track and looking very nice, will post the first draft later today :)

The lessons we learn hit hard and will stay with us for a long time, of that I am sure.

Back to work.

Chopping block

Sat down today with Mat and we discussed my situation in regards to the remaining time and how much I have left to accomplish. I may end up having to cut things from the film and at the very least It does not look like rendering will be done the way I want.... we will see.