Opening Shots and London

So firstly, the opening shots for Trail of Crimson. Due to editing and sound design, the opening shot needed to be cut to 20 seconds, so I've done my best to fit everything in!! Here are 4 different options, though I think the final one is the best:

I also have a version that has 5 seconds extra either side for editing purposes :)

Secondly, LONDON!

Jeesh, how hard can it be to plan a simple route in London? Very, apparently. I have to go and pick up a special file for Dinamo, all very important, so I'm happy to be trusted with such a responsibility!! It's all very exciting, but no details, you know the score :)

But planning the route has been hard, as I'm rubbish with London as it is ~_~ but I think I've finally got it sorted!! So I'm going to go and have a shower, prepare everything for tomorrow, then perhaps have an early night so that I'm fresh for the journey, as I'll have lots of time to work on the coach!!

Trail of Crimson Credits

Well I'm pretty sure these are the final ending credits for Trail of Crimson - all that was needed was a quick name change and hopefully it's all good now :) I've exported a H.264 file as well as a MOV, just in case.

I'm just rendering some tests for the opening shot and will post those asap :)

Early Bedtime Methinks

Well it's only 12.30pm, so I may yet stay up and do a bit more work, but I'm still feeling a bit peaky from earlier and my eyes are starting to melt from staring at a screen for 12 hours a day...sigh...

But on the brighter side, here are the textured layouts for my book - please bear in mind that the text has still to be added, and some of the pop-ups aren't shown (most are done, one or two yet to finish), but there will be full before-and-after images soon...ish... >.< or perhaps an animatic if it turns out to be easier XD

Here ya go:

So sleepy....was going to do some flash expression sheets but not sure if I'll manage...perhaps I'll get ready for bed then just work til the Sandman takes me :)

Dear Brain,

Why oh why have you been telling me to export all these files as MOVs? Huge, chunky, flicker-y evil MOVs?? When you know full well they all needed to be H.264 - how many times have we gone through it in Uni?

I have come to the conclusion that you suck.

Yours sincerely,
Me.

Yes, brain = suckage. Oh well, here's the nice, small, high quality H.264 file of the opening shot. Please note I've left a long bit of black on the beginning because I'm not sure how long they'll need for music, and this way they can edit it to their liking. Also, for the lovely director who will hopefully read this, I do have an even longer version, where each bit has a little more time, so if you need any part longer or shorter, just let me know ^_^ hope this is ok!!

NOW I'm going to start the rest of the pop-up pages, get all the main textures done for pages 3 to 8 - hopefully won't take long, but I've cracked open another Diet Red Thunder drink to take the edge off!

Urgh Brain Fail

Ok so apparently the failing of After Effects to export the file was not, as I had hoped, due to some silly computer error, but in fact the far more common human error of my brain, trying to export it as mp4 format instead of H.264 (which comes out mp4 ANYWAY but whatever...still a different choice on the menu -_-).

So yes, that should be exporting all nice and lovely and I'll pop it up on here when it's done. I'm referring to the final version of the scrolling credits for Trail of Crimson, by the way. Well, hopefully the final version, though they may ask for tweaks, which is fine. I'm about to go into the opening credits file and just change a few things there and then I'll upload that here too.

Ooo here's the credits:

Two more updates:

Dinamo was fun again today, though a bit painful on the old back (yes, am already an old woman XD). Twas mainly audio cuts and some production filing, nice and easy, soothing almost. Plus the kids are great so it's easy to get the audio. I chopped up about 46 minutes worth of audio for Abadas today - wooo! ...that doesn't sound like a lot does it XD but it is if you think that it takes about 10 minutes to cut like 5 seconds... ~_~ trust me, you can fit a lot of words into 5 seconds!

Also, look, drawings!! Like, real-life pencil-y done-by-me drawings!! It does happen now and again XD they aren't great sadly. These are three poses for Niamh's action sheet. There's two more I haven't scanned, and two of Rae to scan as well. Still need to draw the rest....still need to do a lot of thing >.<

Right, let's get that opening shot done.

Also, I'm listening to the Ocarina of Time soundtrack. Be jealous. :)

Pop-Up Book Work

Well I'm waiting for the final few changes to the Trail of Crimson work to render on AE, so I thought I'd put a quick update of some of my own work in progress - I've been working on my pop-up book a lot, and it's finally starting to take shape :) Originally sketched in pencil, all the designs were then drawn over in Flash and last night I was texturing the elements in Photoshop. I'm hoping to finish all that tonight, as I'm just going to use the same few textures so that it doesn't get too crazy XD I do love my textures!! Of course, all the ones I'm using are royalty free from wonderful texture-providing people across the web, but sadly I was given them in a collection so I have no links to the original downloads.

Of course, a lot of these won't make sense yet as they're just the separate elements, but hopefully the two more finished (ish) pages will give more of an idea. I've left most of the mechanisms out for now, but will either be putting together a before-and-after style set of the final images in Photoshop, or, if I have time (which I really don't -_-) I may animate each page in After Effects. Anyway, here's some of the pages so far:

And yes Luke, that is you on the last page =P

Anyway, hoping to finish all the pages tonight and maybe even start the before-and-after images...it's only 9.30pm after all, the night is still young XD

Right well something is wrong with After Effects, not exporting in mp4 right now, so will finish here and restart my beloved Mac -_- If all goes well, I shall be back with more updates and hopefully the finished shots for Trail of Crimson!

Opening Shot Test

Couldn't fit the MOV file on here as it's like 2GB!! So here's a H.264 encoded mp4 instead. Not sure if it'll come out ok -_- But it's a test for the bleeds in and out on the opening titles of Trail of Crimson. I'm hoping to be all finished with this project soon, just a few changes to make here and there, so that'll be good :)

SO much to do...and now I'm at Dinamo FOUR days a week, it's going to be even more difficult! But I'm happier as this is what I wanted - to be at Dinamo as much as possible :) Lucy has been fantastic and even bought me lunch the other day!! ^_^ Fatemeh and Nia have been supporting me through all the production work, and all the guys at Dinamo are so friendly too - I'm never without someone to chat to or have lunch with ^_^ I really hope I can keep improving and get a job there after the degree is done!!

Anyway, before that I need to actually finish this work for Uni, so I'd better get back to it! >.<

Another Quick Update

In the middle of working on my website for the Business Module and the animatic for Major Project, but just wanted to put up some scrolling credits for the Trail of Crimson film :)

Not sure if they'll be what they're looking for, but it wouldn't be hard to change. I was thinking of trying still plates as well and letting them bleed in and out, so maybe I'll do a test for that tonight.

Short and sweet :)

Quick One Before Scream Night :P

So I've been back in Dinamo two days a week on work experience again, and I'm loving every second of it ^_^ I'm in every Wednesday and Thursday til the end of my degree!! Yay :)

On Wednesdays I'm on the Abadas project and then Thursdays are for Rastamouse, which is super exciting as they're both awesome series at very different stages and with a variety of media and tasks involved, which means there's a lot for me to learn and work on ^_^

As a quick overview, here's some of the things I worked on this week and last:

Abadas - asset clean up and QA; 2D asset checklists; script and asset tracking for 17 episodes; voice recording in English and Welsh; audio cutting in English and Welsh; etc

Rastamouse - set sanding, painting and other misc hands on set building work; using the Rastareader to make clean plate shots; reorganisation and labelling of all location storyboard files; printing and organisation of storyboards; etc

There may have been other stuff but we're about to start a Scream Marathon night in my flat so I'm a little distracted at the moment! But yes, I love Dinamo and I really hope I can continue working there when the work experience is over >.<

Will update with some actual visuals soon!!!