the film so far

(it's only) paper

love crossing them shots off

revised synopsis

An ogre gets pushed onto a beach by an unseen force. Suddenly alone, he realizes he is nowhere, with only the sea, the sky, and the sand around him. Settling down into this austere environment, he encounters a mermaid over time, in stages, who mysteriously appears and disappears in the water, and by whom he increasingly becomes intrigued. At long last, smitten by her and deciding to seek her out intentionally, he wades out into deep and turbulent waters, risking the security and boredom of the beach to find her. He does so, but the water is dangerous, and a tidal wave appears behind her. He lets go of her at the last moment in order to to avoid what he fears will be drowning, before being swept away.

Waking up on the beach the next day, he realizes what has happened and runs back into the ocean to find her, but where there was depth before, now there is only the shallows, and he eventually hears the sound of a drain being pulled. Looking down in surprise, he sees the water level go down, revealing a wooden floor. The sky and the clouds are lifted by stagehands behind him, as props are walked offstage, including an uninhabited mermaid's costume. Staring in disbelief at the dismantling of what he had been his reality, he sees a stagehand carrying, and then dropping, an hourglass, which crashes to the stage, spilling its beach sand. Wistful, he reaches down to touch it, but upon doing so, turns to sand himself. A stagehand comes to sweep the stage, walks off camera, clicks the light off, and slams the door.

We are actors in our life's play, and if we do not use our stage time well, it is gone before we realize what has happened. All is lost to he who hesitates.

seqXII & XIII keys & breakdowns done

...onward now to the last three sequences.

color cloud example

working away on more cloud animation shots, before continuing I thought I should show some of the color work I have been doing. Not entirely sure on this color texture yet but there are brushes that I neeeeeeeed.

so here, clouds and such!

~Shannon

movie night

forgot to take photos, but today was a nice day for Motion Heads, with Janelle and Eric in at the discs on in-betweens, Eric for only the second time, taking a break from backgrounds (woo hoo!), and a guest appearance by Maya, who came over for our first animation movie night, which was made possible with the borrowed school projector and Marie's excellent macaroni and cheese. there were also some chocolate-covered bananas later.

we watched Histoire tragique avec fin heureuse, The Big Snit, Madame Tutli Putli, The Danish Poet, Sleeping Betty, La maison en petits cubes, and a few other things.

seeing light projected onto a wall remains more magical somehow than having it beamed at you from a tv screen, or, certainly, a monitor. I was reminded of what I found intriguing about these little gems once again, watching them this way with other interested onlookers. they are perfectly balanced, something new with each cut, something not only to keep your attention but also relevant to push the story forward - a good lesson for any storyteller.

sequence XIII has been keyed. now it's on to sequence XV, and then the last two sequences.

how lucky one feels when one realizes one can sit around and make stuff up.

hey team!

shots that are M.I.A. as of 13mar13; please look around to see if you have them (if your name appears under the pencil test clip, it means you did the in-betweens, not that you necessarily have them or lost track of them); please make corrections here, post new work and update the calendar as you make progress:

seq01sh03: ogre looks around (amanda)

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seq08sh01 (???)

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seq08sh02 (???)

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seq08sh04 (chris)

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seq12sh02 (amanda)

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seq12sh03 (giselle)

calculations & machinations

production calendar update process.

star sequence animatic

hellohello this is the animatic for the star sequence that I am woking on!

to do for 04mar13

• review and update calendar with everyone.
• collect and post color sheet for starry night from Amanda (Eric comes in after 5pm).
• collect animation files for starry night and clouds from Amanda and Shannon.
• collect Giselle's fish animation for Sequence IV.
• hand out new keys to Amanda and Giselle.
• review character coloring with Matt.
• e-mail Eric to review background painting schedule with Matt over Spring Break.
• buy paper at Staples before guitar lesson.

sequence XII

the end is in sight for sequence XII keys. the onset of school has taken a toll on keys/breakdowns progress, but this weekend represents a push to finish off XII and get started with the next one.

also cleaned up the calendar.

oof,

Chris