Back From AURORA 2007

Sorry everyone I didn't post this report right away... I've been jet lagged and slept around a lot.

AURORA was an amazingly refreshing festival. I am glad I went... The Festival Director Adam Pugh is very down to earth. I felt like I've already known him when I first spoke to him. He is also a very honest man... He confessed to the AURORA crowd during opening night, "You won't like everything you see here, and it'll be boring if you did." And...

I didn't like everything I see, but it was refreshing seeing so many work taking risks. Most of them weren't plastic copies I remember not liking before, and all had interesting potentials.... So even though I didn't like eveything, I wasn't bored. I only fall asleep because of the jet lag. ;) Honest!

This is much like what Adam predicted and I really appreciate his honesty. He really is a gentleman with a lot of guts.

The concept of AURORA is based on more visual arts practice than previous animation festivals I know of. The festival apparently dropped its 'Animation' name because it doesn't want to be just an animation festival. To me it feels like a cross between animation, video art, visual art, and cinema.... There are probably some odd things in between too... But I think these are the main ingredients.

The language I learned in academic classes, and acting skills I learned in Grade 10 Drama come handy during presentations and Q & A.

Naoyuki Tsuji who makes interesting charcoal erasure animation like William Kentridge was there to present his retrospective to the festival. He didn't speak much English when I talked to him. I mentioned he looks like the protagonist from "The Man Who Stole The Sun" (He does), he laughed and tried to communicate with me how much he loved that film. It's amazing how a film title can become the key to language barriers.

Jeff Scher and Robert Breer also were there to present their retrospectives. Their works are funny much like they are as people behind the scenes. Works by Jim Trainor are supposed to be funny too... Unfortunately I was jet lagged and missed his jokes.

During the Q & A, there were many questions about my film's ending in Screening 1 and 3. Sometimes I wonder perhaps this is why I am invited with this film.... The Ultimate Student Animator will be there and give all of you the Ultimate Answer of "What Happened." It was funny because I said different things every time I get asked about the finale... So I gave them a total of Three Ultimate Answers. I feel really lucky to be part of this great festival.

Many participating artists and students attended AURORA. Like me, most of them were traveling by themselves. It was easy to make friends there since we were always looking for lunch buddies.

Lots of free drinks... I didn't get drunk, but it was entertaining talking to red faced people about films.

I walked a lot in the city. It was one of my favorite things to do during this trip. The roads are not planned like the grid system in North America; they are organic and unpredictable at turns. The streets are also empty enough on quiet days. I can really disappear in the city.

"Molecules" didn't win any awards in AURORA ... but the people who liked it were very supportive..

(Thank you!)

Quietly into Tokyo

When I was in AURORA I met Kotaro Tanaka and Takafumi Tsuchiya, participating artists who are part of a collective Spread Videoart Project 2nd aspect (SVP2) in Tokyo. I gave them my screener, and talked about some of my favorite Japanese filmmakers (like usual). Today I was thrilled when Kotaro emailed me about screening MOLECULES in their BUREIKOU Event on December 1st! It's a private screening where SVP2 have screenings, lectures, and conversation between filmmakers and audiences.

BUREIKOU in Japanese means the place where people enjoy being together without worrying about their position and honour.

Despite my excitement, I was worried about how BUREIKOU will disqualify me from Hiroshima Festival and Short Shorts.. Two Festivals in Japan that ask for Japanese Premier. But apparently the screening's too quiet for that to happen...

So if you are in Tokyo, please come and enjoy this quiet screening.

BUREIKOU will take place at Victor JVC Bldg, Dec.1, 2007.

SVP2 Blog: http://blog.svp2.com/
SVP2 Website: http://svp2.com/
Kotaro Tanaka: http://kotarotanaka.net/
Takafumi Tsuchiya: http://takafumitsuchiya.com/

Molecules in AURORA 2007

WHAT!? Molecules' going to UK??

It's going to be in AURORA 2007, under "Student Films 2: If Not All, Then None" competing for the Best Student Film.

Here are the screening dates:

Thursday 8 November 2007 12:00: Screen 1
Thursday 8 November 2007 20:00: Screen 2
Friday 9 November 2007 22:00: Screen 3

Since it's World Premier and I've never been to Europe, I will attend.

Hope to see you all there ;)

The End of Molecules

OOPS ~ Forgot to add a "Mission Accomplished" post. The film fortunately was completed for the external grad show. People who have yet to see it and want to may have to arrange special screenings with me. Or catch it in one of the upcoming film festivals. I will post festival information as soon as they are announced.

Very big, tearful Thank-yous go to the people who helped. Without you people, this animation would have been a Christmas release.

2 min 52 sec footage.

Right click here to view the first 2 min 52 sec footage.

Working A lot

Have lots of stuffs done and to do recently ... I'll post all my new scenes in the next edited version of "Molecules."

Meanwhile, here's a WIP ... Thank you Mark Lee and Justin Murphy for life saving help on this one.

1 Minute 20 Seconds

See the April 4th Update.

Carousel

Right click here to view a camera movement test. I am trying to mimic 360 degree camera rotation with images on 2D plane.

The 'cars' image is just a stand in. Just testing it fist before I apply this effect to the scene I am working on now.

25 Seconds

Edit** Please view the latest version in latest post. Thanks!

Hologram Companion Piece

Right click here to download and part of the opening animation. No Sound. It's about 15 mb ... Please have half cup tea while you wait :)

A suitcase will be placed behind the character's head in the composition. Suitcase design will soon to be finalized after I animated scenes with open suitcase.

I will update this post again soon

Highway Scene Closed!

Right click here to view the highway walk animation with place holder sound. It's about 30 mb ... Please have tea while you wait :)

New scenes coming soon!

Rotating a Hologram

Click here to view the hologram rotation. Need to animate a bunch of scenes next, but first I have to write a paper....

Rotating a Tape

Click here to view the tape rotation animation... Hologram rotation next!

Walk for Character A

Click here to view the finished walk for my female character. More animation coming soon! More than walks!

Character A

Walk In Progress

Click here to view the walk animation of my male character. Currently finalizing the female character design and will post another walkcycle here soon.

Reference Footage Step 1

Model built ... live action reference shooting soon!

Album Cover

Character B

Walkcycle ... hopefully done tomorrow...

Laughing Test

Click here to view...

I fixed this character design up a bit to make him look more interesting and animated .. it was drawn and colored in Flash first .. then brought into Photoshop with Gaussian blur .... then brought into After Effects for export to SWF for web purposes.

Now looking at what I've done.. I felt like I could have saved a step in Photoshop .. and just apply in After Effects all together... Not quite sure if the blur line effect exists in Flash ... have yet to find that out...

I was skeptical about Flash before because of my misconception with its line character compare to Photoshop ... But today I managed achieve the line quality I want ...

Back with more tests soon.

Good Weather

Here's a character design I killed.

Been running work flow tests in Flash with very satisfying results. Thank you Flash veterans for guiding me through this. Now it looks like my productivity's gonna explode with this new workflow.

Vacation

Taking a break from layouts. I am building this plane for live reference footage. This plane will also be modeled in to 3D to composite with 2d animation later

Also, Started animating today... I will post them as soon as they look ... hmm.. animated.

Leica Reel Jan. 22, 2007

Right Click Here to download this leica reel.

Since the last version in December, I have made changes to the opening and closing sequences. Unfortunately, I haven't cut rough sound for the changed scenes, but I think I've done enough to get my ideas across. There are still minor changes I made that's not in this version, and I will update the reel every now now and then.

Highway Star No. 2

Using 3D models as guides, I can make drawings with realistic perspective. This is a rough drawing now of course, and there is going to be more vehicles in the final layout.

Moving Forward With Boxes

Here's the finished reference composition for the "Road Sequence"...

Going to finally draw on top of it next!

So this basically gives me the idea of where things are, and in what perspective when I draw a 2D layout.. also an idea of how fast/slow to pan each background/foreground layers ... I don't think I can rely too much on timing information in this stage because I think timing with the flat 2D planes will be different


P.S. The 2 cubes are subsitute 'references' for the 2 walking characters for now...

Choo Choo

finally done modeling 10 drawing reference vehicles ... Have to scatter them around next to compose a rough layout.

Propeller Rotation

Above is a color prototype for the aeroplane scene. The color scheme's too soft for what I was looking for.

Click here to see the rough animation test with rough sound.

3D Geodesic Dome

As mentioned in the previous post... Broken protruding bars and texture coming soon!!

Prototype Renders

These are 2 of my prototype renders in the early stage...

I think I prefer the thinner line quality, but it might be too thin in this case.

Since I will have shots of the geodesic dome in various angles... I have decided to model that part of the background in 3D later on.

Creating Realistic Animation Characters

To create realistic animation characters... I use hair magazines.

It's a method developed with the help of a talented drawing friend...

The photos in hair magazines are great reference for realistic character designs, because they feature front, side, back, and sometimes 3 quarter views of their models.

What I did here is breaking a face down into shapes and models so it can be animated later on.

The character's final design may not look like the person in the photograph, but that's not the point here.

Hair magazines are also great for your next hair haircut.

Testing the Helicopter

Here's a quick animation test with the WIP helicopter model.... with sound.

Helicopter

Following steps from an online tutorial and modifying those steps as I go....

This helicopter is modeled as part of the background for the final park sequence in my film. It's taking a lot longer than I planned.

It's almost done..... Just needs 2 doors and some wheels.... and another smaller propeller set for the back.... and oh yes... texturing.......................... It's almost done.

Highway Star

This will be used for the highway layout. I am currently modeling a traffic of simple vehicle models for drawing reference.

Testing Testing

Hello everyone,