Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Animation Sneak peek!!


Holy crap have we been busy!

We're officially entering crunch mode on the project...What that means for those of you who don't know is that I won't be getting much sleep for the foreseeable future.  Hopefully that translates into a sweet finished product for you all to enjoy.

After completing the last layout image, I was excited for a little change of pace.  I decided I would do a quick rough animation of the shot.  As you can see, it's a fairly simple head turn.  This animation was both super fun and really useful.  It gave me a chance to take a break from drawing layouts non stop, and it also helped me work out some kinks in my 3d to 2d animation process.  I was able to see where I could simplify the drawings, and where I could re-use drawings of certain poses effectively to streamline the transition to 2d animation.  I was going to clean this up a little bit more, but because I got such a positive reaction to the rough animation from my first production test, I have decided to leave the animation rough like this as both a stylistic and time management choice.  I personally think it will re-introduce a nice hand drawn feel to the piece.

Below is the original 3d to 2d test for reference:


3d to 2d workflow "Use the Tools" from zero seven on Vimeo.

We're also going to be ramping up for Anime-Expo coming up in July.  This is the first year we'll be participating in the artist alley, so if everything goes according to schedule I'll have all of June to create some really nice print pieces for the con.  Keep your eyes peeled for more updates!!

Stay tuned...

-07-

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Layout...


Alright, time for another exciting update!

introducing.....LAYOUTS!!

For those of you who don't know, after storyboards are completed the key animators are assigned layouts.  The layout is basically the blueprint of the scene.  It's what all the different departments get with directions on who handles what.  Usually at this stage, the animation director will check the key animator's work and make sure that all the characters are "on model".  After that the layouts are sent to the different departments and animation begins!!

Stay tuned for more next week!

-07-