Here it is, update number 50, the big 5-0, halfways to 100. That’s all I got for installment update 50. I have worked on several freelance projects this week but I did get to Cosmic Rage this week. I didn’t get to the compositing on episode 1 yet, the shot that recently finished up rendering and wrote about last week.

I did get the audio added in yesterday, there is one small minor change in the audio that I am hoping to get revised, but outside of that it is done. This last week I spent some time revisiting backgrounds to the prologue. I decided to revisit the backgrounds since I wanted to revise the water in some of the shots as well. 

I wanted to go into the backgrounds and make them a little less CG in appearance and a little more graphical. However, after experimenting with a few other styles, I think I am going to retain the original designs for the backgrounds. But the time I spent doing so was not a wast of time.  

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/41287940 w=960&h=540]

I came across this video and there was also a recent tutorial from Greyscale Gorilla (a pretty prominent artist that makes tutorial videos). 

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/68728876 w=960&h=540]

One of the things I have been looking at additional ways to add more depth into scenes, which is something I was experimenting with on some of the spots this week. I am very excited with some of the things I learned in the last week to be able to grow these skills into more of the backgrounds. Currently, I am rendering out a test animation on the water in the first water scene. I am hoping that today I can get it ready for a full render. As I start rendering out the shots for the prologue I can continue to draw for episode 2 and also start modeling the next environment for episode 1 and even composite shots. I look forward to posting up new production art as it comes available and will be posting render updates to Facebook throughout the week.

On a small side note, I have also started some preliminary work on my SGMS presentation pitch for this years SGMS conference. If you are kinda new to the blog, the SGMS conference (Schoolgirls and Mobilesuits) is a conference in which the topics are academic presentations on all aspects of Japanese animation, culture and more. You can check out their Facebook page here. A couple of my previous presentations include; Gantz: the social commentary and CGI and it’s use in Japanese animation. By researching these topics, I have learned so much and get inspired by digging deeper into techniques, stories and artists. I will share more on this as it develops.