ANIMATION / IMAGE OF THE DAY - MY FIRST WALK CYCLE

My first walk cycle...gotta start somewhere!

This is my first project doing full character animation, so, it's going to be rough around the edges. I'm still hoping my storytelling and overall mood can captivate the audience so they focus on the story and can avoid getting boggedd down in how technically sophisticated (or not) the character animation is.

A GLIMPSE INTO DARKNESS

A finalized and composited shot from scene 5!

IRA GLASS ON THAT ELUSIVE THING WE CALL TASTE

This is the most succinct explanation of the concept of 'taste' I have ever read...and it doesn't hurt that it's coming from the massively talented Ira Glass. Fathoms is that daily struggle for me...trying to be good.

IMAGE OF THE DAY - SCENE 1

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

FINAL EVERYTHING + NO DOUBT

Final animation + rendering + compositing has begun!

Making a film (really, any artistic endeavor) is a doubt-filled process. A LOT of self-doubt!

The problem is - if you are without doubt, you usually end up with a lazy/masturbatory film. If you have too much doubt, you end up stripping the film of any personality (design by committee), and mediocrity is the new failure.

Food for thought.

IMAGE OF THE DAY - KIDS IN THE HALL

This is a rough render test from a scene I was editing. At the top you can see the geometry as viewed from Cinema 4D. Below you can roughly see what the final render will look like; complete with lighting, textures, and outlines.

I want to show you guys a lot more from the film, but, I don't want to spoil(er) it!

STORYTELLING

 


An incredible TED talk from Andrew Stanton (Toy Story, Wall-E, etc)!

This is a 20-minute-storytelling master class.

WATCH!

DIRECTORS

Some great insights that I find useful from Oscar-nominated directors:


Alexander Payne
“editing is the ongoing process of disguising how bad the film really is.”


Steve McQueen
"I want to work WITH people, I don't necessarily want to work FOR people."

Also refers to film (specifically editing) as a [rewarding] conversation.

“I’m running, I”m not chasing… I’m trying to do as much as I can before I fall down. I’m interested in stuff which is in the air, that you can’t see. But how can you put it on film? It’s like catching butterflies.”

Mike Mills
“If I’m going to die tomorrow, this is the best story I’ve got. This is my best chance to try to communicate something about being human.”

Borrowed from NoFilmSchool

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!