Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The End is Near

So, here we are at the 7 month mark. Its really insane to think that its been that long. It flew by. 7 months of production on this thing, 4 to 10 hours a day. That's a lot of work, and with this thing nearing its end, I feel like its paid off. Im extremely proud of this little baby of mine, and I really think that the public will enjoy it. I hate to sound like a broken record here, but I would be no where near where I am without the renderrocket.com service. Their support basically turned this project into a no limitations type of project. Which is unheard of for a guy doing something like this by himself. Its aloud me to make the quality of film that stands against some professional studios work. Its aloud me to add 2 to 4 minutes of film. Its aloud me to do all this work in a quarter of the time it would have taken. Its aloud me to rethink and even remake parts of the film that I would have regularly had to deal with. So, I can't thank them enough.
I estimate that I will be done animating within the next 2 weeks. I have just 2 scenes left to animate. I have changed the structure of the narration a bit, which has added another cool aspect to the film. Basically, instead of a narrator, Mr. Scrim will actually be telling the story through a letter he is writing. This aloud me to do more realistic dialog, and I think it helps people connect with Mr Scrim a little quicker. Ive also added to the ending. This is the third addition ive made to the ending. Which has added weeks of extra work, but hopefully will pay off. I say addition, because the end hasnt changed, its just gotten a little more complex, and surprising.
So, with the film wrapping up soon. I hope to have a website set up for it. As well as a gallery of images from the film.
Anyway, stay tuned =)

Thanks,
Eric

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Yet another test shot


Another Test Scene - sad from eric provan on Vimeo.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Side shot of the house -test-


Side Shot from eric provan on Vimeo.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Excited

Ahh man, Ive had a great past few weeks. Ive been animating a lot of the scenes that involve the creature. Hes a blast to animate. The closer I get to finishing the animation, the more excited I get. Im dieing to put this thing all together.
The game plan once animation is done is.....
First, lay out a rough film version with rough narration.
Tweak the narration.
Hire talent to do the voice work.
Do some acoustic tracks with my father.
Gather some sound effects.
Finalize the look.
Composite all the scene (using Digital Fusion).
And finally put this thing together.
Then make a final, profession looking website.
And then its off to the festivals.
I'm not sure how im going to fund this thing once its ready for the festivals, but I'm confident I will figure something out. For those that dont know, to enter a film into a festival is anywhere from 20 to 75$, plus shipping. That money adds up quick. If I had my wish, this thing would be submitted to 20-25 festivals. That's like 1250$, ouch!!!!! With that said, I could probably afford a festival a week, and just add them up over time. Bah, I dont like the money side of this stuff =)

I plan on posting some more technical shots very soon (wireframes, light rigs, etc)
Thanks for stopping by!

-Eric

Friday, April 3, 2009

Status Report

Added a new character to the film. He'll be in the film for a total of 10 seconds, so im not spending too much time on him. But it does add a few days of work.
Ive reworked the ending a bit as well.

Concept art - Characters 100%, Environment 100%
Story/Script - 90% (lowered from 100% because of some changes)
Modeling Characters - Mr Scrim 100%, Ms. Scrim 100%, Flying Critter 100%
Modeling Environment - 100%
Rigging - 100%
Texturing Char - 100%
Texturing Env - 100%
Lighting - 95%
Animation - 75% (nearing 4:30 rendered)
Compositing - 25% (still doing some testing for the final look)
Music - 25% (no recording done, but ive written a few simple melodies that I believe will sound nice with the film) Its going to be mostly acoustic guitar in the background with sound effects.

Film run time estimate is at 5-6 minutes.
HD 1080 (1920X720)
Finish date is June 1st.