Ripieno

Animation Studio

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

All the dancers have been motion-captured and the race to the finish has started. Next week we’ll be talking a little more about how we get to the final production, but to give you a sense of where we are….

All frames are accounted for

… we’re in deadline mode.

This week’s focus was on responding to our critiques from halves and preparing for an all-day playtesting event run by the ETC. As the team created video and audio clips to show our visitors, the producer had one-on-one meetings to discuss compartmentalizing work into smaller chunks and deadlines. This got us organized by what needs to go into the render farm, with our goal being to reduce the final processing burden and ensure nothing gets caught at the end of the pipeline.

As our instructors put it, everything is about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and aiming for it strategically and decisively.

Pulling for Pre-Production

The moral of the story could be seen as, “Don’t meet your heroes.”

As phases of the production pipeline complete, the team members who have less work on their plate are being moved to Agloe, our pre-production package. The project will be for traditional media – in other words, for the screen. It is going to be an awesome opportunity for next semester’s team to learn the fundamentals of film. In addition, it is going to be mixed media, with some scenes solely in live action, some with matching animation, and some entirely animated.

The story begins with a woman who has admired a particular artistic movement her entire life. She has the opportunity to meet the artist that started it all, and finds out that he is both reprehensible as a person and that his creative inspiration was actually a mistake. She then has to reconcile the fact that she can no longer admire the artist, and it impacts her love of the work. In the end, she comes to terms with the knowledge that the art still has an impact on her, and that is all that matters in the end.

One thing our team agreed on is that we wished we had more time for actual production, so everything we are creating for next semester’s team is oriented around giving them the tools they need to get started. Of course, should they decide they want to change the story to suit the needs and interests of the team, they are more than welcome to do so, but we want creative freedom to be something they choose.

To that end, we’re making a script with notes on where to scope; a storyboard; character and environment concept art; and a mood board. Currently we’re in process on the script, and as the last of textures wrap up, meetings on concept art will begin. This will realistically be as soon as next week.

Our priority is getting Melody of Life to softs, but I know our concept artist is excited to get started on this project.

In the meantime, in case you missed it, here is our halves presentation:

See you next week!

mschoell | mschoell@andrew.cmu.edu

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