End shot...35, I think?

Shots 24-32 finished

Shot 22 finished

Shot 19 finished

Shot 18 finished

Shot 15 finished

Shot 10 finished

Shot 9 finished

Journal April 23rd

• what is your priority list as of today, with two weeks before deadline?
• which "babies are you prepared to kill," if necessary, in order to finish your film on time (May 7th) and fit it within the 90 second - 2-minute time constraint  - think of in-betweening, simplified color, and eliminating shots not integral to the story

My priority is to have all of my shots animated and colored. I switched some stuff around so I have to catch up on some shots.

If I have to I will have fewer sound effects because I have yet to obtain a lot of them, have fewer in-betweens, and eliminate small motions not pivotal to getting the point of the shots across. There were little reactions and looping motions I wanted to add to a bunch of shots if I had time but I am not sure if I will. I also feel like I may go slightly over two minutes, yeesh. 

Shot 9 a, b, c, d

Journal April 16

what kind of a sound environment do you plan for your film? Realistic? More music-based? What will the role of sound be in your film?

I am going to primarily have sound effects. They will be cartoony sound effects. I am hoping to have a simple music track underscoring the action. I have spoken with a composer who said he could write the music for me. 

Original ending...I guess this would be shot 33?

Shot 14 B

Added this new shot and stuff. I'm gonna add a few more in betweens to smooth it out, but most of the drawings are fairly clean already sooooooo m'yeah I'm gonna upload it anyway.

shot 34 colored

shot 14

shot 20 finished

Journal April 2nd

• What is your biggest time management challenge, and what is your plan for dealing with it from here through the end of the semester?

• Which of your classmates’ films do you particularly like? Why? What is the strongest element of their piece? Where would you make suggestions?

I have trouble allotting enough time do get the anticipated number of shots done each week due to work from other classes, other concerns from life, etc.

I will try to designate specific times each week that I will dedicate to this project.

I like Erika's piece because it has a nice aesthetic and also cats. Cats are neat. I feel like I would need to see the whole completed she-bang to make any real suggestions. 

shot 15

shot 13

shot 11

shot 10

shot 5

shot 16 completed

Journal March 26

What were the three most important points you absorbed from the mid-semester crit?


The critique made me realize how important sound is to an animation. 

The critique made me aware of some timing issues. 

The critique illuminated me to some parts of my story that weren't totally clear, which could be cleared up with some tweaking.

shot 6 finished

shot 8 finished

shot 33 [WIP]

shot 23

shot 21

shot 16

shot 13

shot 1 updated

Journal March 5th

• what’s the approach to working on this piece that’s worked the best for you so far?

• what elements do you find you need to put you in a comfortable and productive frame of mind for working:
- at home with a hot cup of tea just before/after dinner?
- working early in the morning for a couple of hours before anyone else is awake?
- breaking up your six hours of out-of-class work time into smaller chunks, e.g. three times a week for two hours at a time? twice a week for three hours at a time?
- mixing work with clearly defined breaks for exercise or other play time?






-Varying what I work on has worked most effectively for me. I found that working solely on rough animation every week got way too tedious for me, so I started taking some days to work on color and/or line-work instead of animation and realized it was a nice way of breaking up the monotony in order to keep myself attentive and productive. I'm a fairly scatter-brained and prone-to-distraction/boredom type person, so I could not simply animate every day. I know we are supposed to have all the rough animation done before the color/cleanup and, further, have the rough animation done by spring break, but that may not end up being the case for me because I would lose my mind just animating everything out before working on anything else, and then get bored just working on color for weeks straight, etc. So...I will be taking an alternate route, if that is alright, but I'll end up in the same place at the same time as initially anticipated for the project.


-I have found that I tend to work best really late at night. It may be that I have trouble focusing and beginning to work, so by the time I have built up a momentum and rhythm for my work it tends to be very late at night, usually circa 3 or 4 am. I'm naturally a night person who will be up at this hour anyway, so I might as well make use of the time. I cannot work for hours straight, so I find I need to break up the work with [admittedly frequent] breaks for food, internet, mindless doodling, going for walks, talking with my roommates if at my apartment or other students if at the studio, etc. Additionally, I usually work on my thesis two-three days throughout the week. Oftentimes I don't adhere to this and end up doing all my shots for the week in one day, but this is always stressful and stupid. I find it works better for me when I break it up into separate days of work.

shot 22 updated

shot 34

shot 19

shot 35

shot 17

Journal ...February 26

What has been the most challenging aspect of getting work done on this project thus far? How are you addressing this challenge?


Getting an adequate amount of work done on this project has been difficult because I have had to divide my time between several classes, plus, y'know, eating and stuff. School is a lot. Projects take time. There is only a finite amount of time in a given day.

I have addressed this challenge by sleeping fewer hours and spending more hours anxiety-vomiting than I would normally in a given week.

shot 22

shot 18

shot 11

shot 8

shot 4 updated

shot 24-32 updated

shot 2

shot 3 updated

Shot 20

Journal #3

1. I would like the audience to laugh at my piece.
2. I want the audience to think the kid is terrible. I want them to be either ambivalent or sympathetic to the clerk.
3. A lack of laughter would leave me disappointed. I would really like for the audience to laugh. A good review would simply tell me that my jokes were funny and my designs were appealing. Or, as Chris Magee has more astutely elucidated, it would compliment my dark, absurdist, dead-pan humor.

Shot 24-32

Shot 4

Shot 7

Shot 1

Shot 3

Shot 6

Shot 5.

Journal #2

What is your relationship to the main character?

What experience of yours inspired you to create him/her/it?


I have no real relationship to the annoying fat kid in my animation, but I guess I hate him [that's the intent, though, so it's okay]. I guess this character was inspired by how generally annoying and terrible I find most [about 99% of] children. For the last seven summers I have worked as a lifeguard and swim lesson instructor at a lake in my hometown, so I have worked around a fair amount of kids in my time. I have found that regardless of how nice, mean, or apathetic towards them you may be, kids will always be obnoxious. Especially kids around middle school aged, which is the age group the kid in my animation falls into. They are the worst, most depraved creatures on God's green earth. So I suppose that's what inspired the little shit who stars in my animation.

Animatic

Style frames. Subject to change, somewhat. Especially the latter of the two.

About the Project/ Journal #1

 About the project:

The essential message of the piece is "you get what you deserve", I suppose. 

Synopsis: An apathetic pet store clerk deals with a frustrating customer drawn to a certain dangerous pet on display.

Genesis of idea/medium:  The idea for this film evolved from an idea I had for an animation a couple years ago. It was basically the same concept but the ending was different. I don't know where the idea came from. I feel like ideas just happen. That's how ideas happen for me, at least. I will be using Flash for this film because I like Flash. It's relatively intuitive and a pretty neat software to boot. 

 Character histories:

Clerk: 28 year old Caucasian male. Apathetic and lazy. Hates people, but likes animals. Will probably work at this pet store forever. He's technically a manager, but he doesn't make more than the regular clerks, so it's really just a dumb title with more responsibilities attached without any reward.

Kid: 12 year old Caucasian male. Terminally annoying. Always nagging people and pushing buttons. Stands too close when he talks, asks obvious questions, chews loudly and with his mouth open, wears socks with sandals, wears ugly shirts for days on end. Presumptuous, mean spirited, and selfish. Basically your average American middle school aged kid.

Journal 1:

First and foremost, I hope to finish this piece on time for the end of the semester! Next, I hope to achieve a finished look that I can be pleased with and not wince at the sight of. I want the film to be funny. I want people to laugh. I am anxious about potential awkward silence, or worse, half-hearted pity laughs. OH lord. Now I'm just getting very nervous about the whole ordeal of making the film. Well, hopefully I can get it done and make it look at least fairly solid.

Tentative Production Calendar

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WEEK 3 [animation]

Opening, outside of building, title appears. [shot 1]

  melancholy snake [shot 4]
 jittery rabbit [shot 3]

hamsters [shot 5]

Lizard [shot 6]

Piranha [shot 7]

 WEEK 4 [animation]

Close up kids face. He gets stupid look. [shot 20]

Close up of same. Starts wiggling fingers. Points one finger. [shot 24]

Very close up of finger pointed and moving down towards bowl. [shot 25]

Kids face becoming stupider. [shot 26]

Hand with finger out. [shot 27]

Face becomes even stupider. [shot 28]

Finger moving, closer. [shot 29]

Face stupid, closer. [shot 30]

Finger right above bowl. [shot 31]

Eyes, hungry for ruckus. Terrible crunching noise. Eyes widen and look down. [shot 32]

WEEK 5 [animation]
Cleanup/Color on shot 3. 
Cleanup/color on shot 4. 

Kid teases snake [shot 12]

 Kid picks up hamster and starts pokin' at it. Sees something and tosses hamster. [shot 14]

go back to hamsters, terrified [one covering other hamster's eyes, one crying, etc] [shot 16]

Hamster lands in snake tank. Snake starts rapidly constricting hamster [shot 15]
 Kid approaches rabbit, teases. [shot 10]

 WEEK 6 [animation]
 Wide of store showing clerk and some animals [shot 2]

Clerk feeding parrot [shot 8]

Clerk looks like he's gonna say something and then stops [shot 11]

Clerk looks up at kid again, corner of mouth twitching. Collects self and sighs [shot 13]

 Clerk clears throat to signal kid to stop it. Looks annoyed. [shot 18]

 Clerk really miffed looking. Growling. [shot 22]

Clerk looking surprised. Smiles and gives piranha thumbs up. [shot 34]

WEEK 7 [animation]

front door. Kid walks in. looks around. Gleam in eye. Walks towards animal tanks.[shot 9]

piranha. Kid approaches it. Looks tantalized. Rubs hands. Glances over at clerk. Makes to touch piranha. [shot 17]

Kid standing at piranha, dejected. [shot 19]

 Kid with hand hovering over bowl. Face drops as he hears clerk growl. [shot 21]

 Kid humming. Suddenly stops and raises hands and gets stupid face. [shot 23]

 Kid being slapped by his own severed hand. Cries and runs away. [shot 33]

 Piranha returns thumbs up by gesturing with kid's severed hand. [shot 35]

 Credits. [shot 36]

WEEK 8

 Cleanup/color  [1-6]

WEEK 9 

 Cleanup/color [7-12]

WEEK 10

Cleanup/color [13-18]

WEEK 11

Cleanup/color [19-24]

WEEK 12

Cleanup/color [25-30]

WEEK 13

Cleanup/Color [31-36]

WEEK 14

Sound/Editing/Compositing

WEEK 15

Sound/Editing/Compositing

Influences

1. Adam Phillips. Especially his 30 Days 30 Shorts project.
http://bitey.com/2007/09/30-shorts/


2. Yotam Perel.
http://lazymuffin.newgrounds.com/movies/

3. Gary Larson's "The Far Side". Here's a link to an animated adaptation of his comics, called Tales From The Far Side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me12JC2LoYE