Production Update 198: Pause

It has been a little bit of a rough past week. I ended up tabling my animation tests due to migraines all week. The previous week before I had a cold and a sinus infection and I am not sure if the subsequent migraines were a result of just getting back to full health or if they are part of something else. I have been exploring a new diet recently to see if that will help, it seems like when I try new things to see if they work it solves the problem but then it comes back. It could also be a result of not being able to get out doors and naturally spending more time in front of the screen too. I am going to find a solution to this.

On the animation test front though, I completed a minor test that I mentioned before, using 4 mouth shapes of dialogue scenes. The next test I want to do involves using 7 shapes and seeing if that offers a more fluid solution. My aim is to render these scenes out side by side and share them.

This past week I also started a new session for teaching assisting through School of Motion, something I have been doing for a year now. I love to help get people into animation and that is what I love doing at School of Motion. My aim is to bring some of that animation eduction to Cosmic Rage as well, I am still working out the best solution for that. But this also allows me to build up some funds to cover the recent tablet I purchased and also going to help cover costs of VO for episode two along with funds from Patreon.

I really appreciate all of your patience as I get back into the full swing of things this week.

Production Update 197: New Tools, New Workflow

This week I started working on some animation tests for Cosmic Rage. The first issue I wanted to tackle was mouth movements for the characters. The workflow adjustments I am making here, involves using a tool called lipsyncr. This tool allows for After Effects to analyze the voice over file and make adjustments to cue up certain frames for mouth shapes called phononyms. That way, I can get around using just lip flaps and also drawing each frame individually. This tool allows for you to use various levels of detail in this regard. In this test, I used only 4 mouth shapes, testing out the low end of the spectrum. The high level of detail allows for 12 mouth shapes. My next test is going to involve the in between setting that uses 7 mouth shapes.

Keeping up with the theme of “New”. I ordered my first new tablet since my very first one I ordered in college. For the second episode, I want to do more frame by frame drawing and a traditional tablet, just wasn’t working the way I want it to. Some lines were jittery, and it may take several strokes to get a line the way that you want it to. I felt that in order to really make this an effective workflow, I needed to upgrade my tablet situation. So say hello to my new Wacom Cintiq.

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I spent the later half of the week exploring the tablet a bit and working on setting up some various settings for hot keys to really make working with it efficient. I am planning on using the Cintiq for my next animation test using lip syncr. I will break down these various forms in depth upon completion.

This week I am starting a new session of teaching assisting online as well to kick of 2017. So when I am not at work or critiquing work, I will be working on the new animation tests.

I am so ready for 2017!