todays post consist of some thumb nail color studies from a while back. i think these are from maybe 2 years ago. i had finished the 1st pass of back grounds on paper and gave them a quick simple coloring just to get a feel for the colors i was gravitating towards. the colors im currently experimenting with are different but i do love these 1st drafts.
color study
color study
newer color study
i am terrible with setting deadlines, there i said it. i am pretty good at meeting them when they are set by a 3rd party but if i set it, i struggle with meeting them. this applies to my film. i have been working on it daily for a little over 3 years now. that's production work, pre production took longer then that but thats for other reasons.
well im ready to finish this film and set it free in the world, in order to do that i have to set a deadline and i have to work my ass off and try my best to meet the deadline. last week i was going through my scenes thinking it would take me about another year to finish it, i had given myself 2 week to finish every scene. thats 25 scenes 2 weeks per scene, equals a bit over a year.
to my surprise when i actually started doing the final pass, i was knocking out scenes very quicky. i think i did 2 scenes in a night, needless to say i was elated! this has shorten my production time by more then half. my new goal and deadline for final animation is may or june, definitely before summer.
im super happy about this, this has given my a new motivation. i am aiming to premiere FRANK before the end of the year, yay!!
the night i started doing the final pass
one week progress, as you can see the green ones are complete and ready for color
a model sheet for the game boy, this is the latest design and i think the final design
possibly the final design 2020
tonights update consist of the phone/gameboy
color study from about 1 year ago
from the beginning i knew this device was to represent what we all have grown so dependent on, our smart phones. something fairly knew which we’ve gotten really attached to, some of us even have serious health side effects because of them. this phone/gameboy was something i was strongly pulled towards when first conceiving this project, partly because i really enjoy drawing it and partly because like most of us i use it daily and it has changed my life in many ways.
i think its very important for us to understand what this device does to our brains, that being said they arent a bad thing if you maintain a health balance.
below are some ideas of the evolution of this device, im almost sure what design i will go with but i still have some doubts at times on which version i like more and although all the animation involving it is pretty much complete.
1st draft of game boy, way back in 2015
this draft was more in the smart phone direction
smart phone design also
gameboy design with smaller controls and larger screen
gameboy design with different buttons
closer to the final design, kinda looks like micky mouse..lol
had settled on this one but recently changed my mind…again..
i selected this as the main distraction in FRANKS life because i strongly feel that this is/can be a distraction in most of our lives. its cool and new and can come into our life without warning, it consumes all our time and attention thus ending with us ignoring whats most important to us. this is what this little thing represents in my film. i hope i can accurately convey these thoughts with these drawings in motion
color study
short update today, just a few thumbnails in black and white, gray scale and color. colors are subject to change, i think i’ve narrowed down the final designs for these scenes.
todays update consist of a few drafts of the final (?) shot of this project. here we see a few different thoughts on what the final shot would look like. i am almost done with the backgrounds, they are taking longer then hoped but what doesn’t when it comes to making art..
thumb nails of what the final shot could look like, along with some some rough key frames of the animation
a value study and the original final shot for the animatic but not the storyboards
a version closer to the final layout
some where along the process i decided to flip the building. i wanted to convey a sharp and un natural feel, something is out of place in the end, which is how the after math feels when we screw up in life. I also decided to distance the city, it suppose to give you a feeling of disconnect as well. does it do that well?, im not entirely sure, now that im uploading this im having second thought about its effectiveness…lol. there is much work left to be done but as always i look forward to taking it one day at a time.
a more updated version of the final layout.
the revealing shot of franks apartment, at first i was going to cut between the two, but i have decided to use a pan east move. this background has been in the works for a long time, i have a hard time making the call for a final version on backgrounds. i love exploring its space. the evolution of a scene is quite fascinating. the birth of a project is a wonderful thing, i love the process. i specialize in animation production haha (inside joke)
A few more different variations on a different back ground. These where a pain but also a lot of mindless fun
okay! Im back for the final installment of 2019! While its been a while since I posted anything about this current project, its not because i haven’t been working on it. Just the opposite, I regularly log time into animating. Process has been made but you know how it goes animation take a long time.
I’ll really just do an image dump, its new years eve and I have to get ready for my outing. I just finished putting some time into some back grounds. Since the beginning I knew I wanted a brick building, something about brick is very appealing to me.
current final back ground for this shot
Below is a few different variations on this back ground. Most of these are very similar, probably because Im pretty sure with what I want
So it being the new year real soon, I want to try and develop a better habit with posting something on this blog, Im constantly drawing but I suppose Im just all in on animation I don’t devote much free time to else things. All in due time, for now Im still focused on completing FRANK.
SEE YOU IN 2020, best wishes -alex-
Below are some screen shots of my work space. I use TV Paint 11. Its a very easy software to learn. Its specialize for 2D animation and works amazing. Frank will be my third animated cartoon using the program. It come from France and has been around for a while now.
I used the standard Adobe Flash when I was in art school and for some freelance projects after graduation. I didn’t like it so much, there are a few reasons why but i honestly think I am just bais towards it.
I been using TV PAINT for a while now and just keep loving it more and more. Im not very fluent with all that the programs offers, I have my methods and I stick to them however old school they may be.
There are two versions of the program, the student version and the professional version. https://www.tvpaint.com/ check the site out for all the details
Still from FRANK
Still from FRANK
todays update consist of some rough key frames for a scene and a few old story boards. this scene has been a lot of fun to work with, pretty easy and simple action to animate. the biggest challenge has been the flowers, trying to keep count of all the petals and their size in every frame. non the less the scene has been easy and fun. it needs one more pass of clean up, and then on to coloring. the colors are subject to change a bit
rough back ground and colors for this scene
more updated key frame
more updated key frame
more updated key frame
more updated key frame
old draft key frame
old draft key frame
old draft key frame
old story board
more updated board with character design
old story board, possibly the 1st draft a very very long time ago
