IMAGE OF THE DAY - SCENE 1

A quick peek at a Cinema 4D viewport screengrab from scene 1.

TWENTY TWO!!!

I just completed the rough edit of the animatic mere moments ago!

The edit (without credits) is right around twenty-two minutes in length, and lots of shots. I'd love for the film to fit a feature length (40+ mins), but, I'd much rather the film be the right length to tell the story than be artificially long just to fill a quota.

I'm going to watch the film all the way through tonight, take some initial notes, probably tweak the edit slightly, and then I'll be sending out a few private screeners to make sure it's not a total disaster.
 
Many steps to go, but, yay!

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - "MARATHON SWIMMER"

Holy $#@*!!!

The animatic is done (save a minor part)!!!!!!!!

This encapsulates so many firsts for me it's absurd!!!


I'm a nerd for numbers, so, STATS!

105 DAYS STRAIGHT
 I only missed 8 days and that was to work on a rush job for a client.
That's a score of 92%!!!

415 SHOTS ANIMATED
WTF?! I added so many shots to flesh out parts of the boardamatic that were unclear (thanks to my team of trusted screeners) or not explored deeply enough. I was really hoping to cut down on my dreaming big...but everything keeps growing.

40+ MINUTES OF ANIMATION
According to most film festivals, this qualifies FATHOMS as a feature film (gasp)!
Now, this is based on the assembly edit (ie, all the shots laid out on the timeline), the final result may be shorter as there is probably a lot of fat in there.

Thank you so much to everyone for your continued support and patience with this process!
Now on to the rough cut and more private screenings to help tame this beast!

45 DAYS

Still going!

I'm working on some very slow scenes (a lot of characters and technical stuff all animating and interacting), but slowly making progress. So I'm estimating I can complete the animatic in January (fingers crossed).

Swim that mighty ocean!

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED - "OVER THE HUMP"

We did it!

Well, half did it....!?!

The animatic is over half-way complete!
This is a big deal. A HUGE DEAL!

This represents a ton of work of which I have never attempted or completed before (it's scary!). I've made some great additions to the story in terms of clarity (for the viewer) of my themes and story.


Nerd details - this represents about 200 SHOTS and aproximately 10 MINUTES OF ANIMATION...INSANE!

Now of course, some shots will not make it to final edit/animation, and a lot will be shortened (or lengthened) as necessary. A lot of shots are being added and refined, though, at this stage, animation remains limited and mostly loose.

PS - I'm at 16 days straight without breaking the chain (more on that in another post). I'll consider it significant when I've made it to 30.

Keep on swimmin!

DON'T BREAK THE CHAIN

Thanks to Norb for the great suggestion (and article) about working every day.
I think this is a great approach for the long term, so I'm using the calendar to make sure I'm working every day.

My current days are filled with lots of other work in addition to Fathoms. So I'm making my requirements for counting a day of work as - at least one hour of animation.

I'm only two days in, so, no major hurdles yet. My first milestone is 30 days...I know there's a ton of stuff coming up that will limit my working time, so, it's going to be a fun challenge!

GETTING CRITICAL ABOUT CRITIQUE

This used to be a face...oops!

When people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

~Neil Gaiman


'Nuff said! Meanwhile, work has been nuts, so, I've had almost no time to work on Fathoms the past two weeks...trying to move the ball forward this week though.

PRODUCTION UPDATE - PAIN & GAIN

I'm animating the first rough 3D pass - or animatic . This is mostly about blocking shots and getting a better sense of timing. Character animation is limited in this pass, the second pass is where I'll breathe dramatic life into the characters! So, in this pass, they will slide instead of walk, and behave a little bit like robots dancing.

I've animated about five minutes so far, of the roughly sixteen+ minutes that comprise the film...not bad (considering this is my first time), but not brilliant either.

A lot of the slowness is down to bug fixing, and making initial camera/style choices...so, this should not be a flat/linear curve of progress, but, in theory, I hope to get faster as I go along, though every scene presents it's own unique challenge.

Once I complete this pass, I'll really zero in on the edit - It should be much more clear what really works and what doesn't, vs the boardamatic, which is like a really nice figure study, but not the final work...this is like the linework for the painting.

Onward and seaward!

Q&A #1

Thanks for bearing with me...I will try to find adjectives for the word "incredible"!

LAUNCHING SUPER SOON!

A moment from the FATHOMS pitch video

OMG, freaking out! Excitement/Terror!


I've been working on the Kickstarter pitch video and project since the second I finished the preproduction phase.

I think I've got some great (and unique) rewards for you guys, and I'm excited to finally finally finally get the word out.

So, shooting to launch Monday or Tuesday if I can get everything together!!!

SUMMER SICK

Click for larger image

I've come down with some sort of cold and I'm feeling pretty raw...but we're still on track to launch the Kickstarter project next week, and enter full production in July. Stay tuned for more soon!

WEEK 7 - THE END OF THE BEGINNING

Bridge to success?

Pre-production time is wrapping up!

I will be back to my freelancing day job come Monday, and time to work on FATHOMS will become limited again.

I've completed 99% of the work I set out to, which is awesome, and proof that a good production schedule is critical. There are over 13 sets in FATHOMS...you would think I'm making a feature film here (that's the next project)!

Now the work begins on Kickstarter, and then actual production!

Keep on swimmin!

WEEK 6 - PRE-PRODUCTION FINALE!!!

???

Week 6 is over.

Week 7 is a shortened week of catchup, and then 2 mandatory days to rest before returning to working (for others) after taking time off of working (for others) to work (for myself). Phew!

So the curtains fall on the brutal (but productive) pre-production phase. If I were to do nothing more from here on on Fathoms, I would be very proud of myself. I've done a lot of things I've never done before and never thought I could do. And I've made a lot of images that even I think could be beautiful.


However! This is just the beginning. This is like base camp at Mt. Everest; The real test begins now that I have to actually climb the mountain known as animation.


To quote a favorite of mine:

Oh snail
climb Mount Fuji
but slowly, slowly!

This is why I will be looking to you for Kickstarter support...which, of course, I will spam everyone with as soon as I have made a video.

This humble one-man-band appreciates all past, present, and future support!

And there will be cool rewards!

THERE'S NO WAY TO GROW THAT DON'T HURT

Sam has pig feet (you'll see)

Soooooooo painful, but...JOB'S DONE!

I have now finished building and rigging all the characters. This is a huge milestone for me as it has been the worst part of Fathoms.

I don't know how people do it. Even using my lo-fidelity models and rigs, it's still a nightmare to get things to work well together. It makes me want to do character that are inanimate objects, like a cube.

My only advice is, get someone else to do it for you (if you can). If you can't, then...a lot of time + infinite patience. It took me 4 days for each of the main characters, that doesn't sound like a long time, but it feels like an eternity, hah.

I've also gotten sick in this painful process. Luckily week 7 is about much more comfortable territory. I've got to build a set for 1 sequence and an epic one-off shot.

Then I will update the boardamatic, including numbering my shots. This way I can keep track of my progress while animating...and make sure I stay on schedule (other job aside).
 
Then we get into actual production...scary!

WEEK 1 - RIGHT ON SCHEDULE

click to view fullsize

Somehow I've managed to stay on track this week (even with a lot of hurdles).

I assume that's because I've done little else and I've split my day into three working shifts. This helps deal with distractions (which there are many in modern life) and gives me a little breathing room, while still maintaining a 10 hour+ (minimum) work day.

My work routine:

Morning - 9:30ish - lunch time
Midday - lunchtime to dinner time, with a short snack break
Evening - (after dinner to about an hour past my bed time

If I'm ahead of schedule (hah), then I will take some personal time.

Also, with every significant milestone, I reward myself with a less complex task. Something to cleanse the mental palate.

So, the animatic is more or less ready to go, and I will probably get a few trusted eyes to check it out...make sure it all adds up, while I work away on designing and modeling things.

Not sure if it's too cheesy, or too bloated, or what, but, I'll get whip it into shape in due time!

DAY 1 - THE PAST IS PROLOGUE

Thusly we begin our journey

A journey of the mind and body

A journey of the soul


...also, I did a ton of storyboard frames today...not sexy, but, important (see above).