Captain’s Log #5: Another Week, Another Pitch

Week 4, oh boy. Is it only Week 4? It felt a lot longer. Let my suffering end.

But Week 4 has me and my team members rushing to finish deliverables. Well, I had an easier time since I was mainly working on the storyboards and the colour choices for the layout / set / environment. Initially, I wanted to work on the character sheet since Dana seems to be loaded with work, but somehow she didn’t want to give that responsibility up and assured that she could handle it. Thankfully she did, so I’m relieved. She was looking really stressed all the time not gonna lie.

Then we went to do the pitch, and we were the first team to go up.

I WAS NOT READY JUST YET I HAD JUST ENTERED THE CLASS, AND 5 MINUTES BEFORE THAT , I WAS ASLEEP IN THE CAR XDDDDD

But nonetheless, I had to ready my heart, tighten my invisible neck tie, and let my brain juices flow. And I pretty much improved most of the stuff I said during the pitch. Would I say I didn’t prepare for the pitch? Well, not exactly since the team were in Discord discussing what we should say during the pitch. But I wasn’t sure what I would need to say during my turn since my slides mainly consists of pictures and they are self-explanatory? I don’t know. But as usual, the lecturers had questions and I had to find answers in the span of 5 seconds.

It was noted that the first version of the storyboard didn’t have an establishing shot. And that the characters looked too generic in terms of art style. *cries* And also that we needed to speak up louder lol XD

So I made changes to the previous storyboard. Not much had to be changed, but I had to find a way to add an establishing shot (or a more obvious establishing shot, in this case).

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I am going to start working on the animatic for the animation soon, but my god this week I was just rushing with so many work for other modules, I barely have time to draw. But soon….soon….I WILL DO IT. *proceeds to go on YouTube and watch vids for the next few hours*

This is your captain signing out. PEACE I WANNA GO CHILL NOW BYEEEE

Captain’s Log 3: Storyboarding and Layout

Week 3 of Pre-Production, people. This is where stuff starts to happen. We have to actually do work.

As a person who does not enjoy intense work, I was starting to get worried. A lot of deliverables are required and mainly due in the following week, since we have to present our work and pitch it again to our lecturers (as if the first time wasn’t enough *screech* ). But it’s fine. I’ll be the bigger person here and forgive them for making us do work in a shorter time.

In a three-man group, we don’t have any choice but to wear multiple hats for the project. For now, I was tasked to work on storyboard. For around a week, I spent time thumb nailing the shots and then creating an actual storyboard for it. The thumbnails were relatively easy and I did them pretty quick. I already had a pretty clear vision of how the short film is going to look like on screen. Below are the storyboards I created for the project:

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I wasn’t sure how the final look for the character was going to look like, since the character design has not be completed yet. Thus I just had to make do and draw a boy who looks like…a boy. Yes, it’s a boy. The hands at the first panel was definitely hard to draw since I am not very skilled at drawing hands. But the rest are not much of an issue so thankfully I managed to finish the storyboard in around 3 hours or so.

After completing the storyboard, I was a little lost on what to do, so I consulted my teammate on what I should do. I did ask to assist on other deliverables, so I am tasked with colouring the layout of the room that the short film will be taking place.

Despite being an artist, I am not proficient or knowledgeable in colour theory. To be honest my colour theory sucks. If anything, why am I still qualified to be an artist? I am seriously questioning myself right now. But this is a graded project so, you got to do what you got to do.

I based the colour of the room according to our visual inspirations for the film ; mainly Omori (a video game) and the 5 minute animated short film, Afternoon Class. The bright colours and visuals are very significant in those two so I tried my best to emulate that feel.

I showed it to the team, but they felt that the room looks a bit too bright for the animation. So after much discussion and consideration, we have decided to go with the colours shown below.

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And not going to lie, I am pretty proud of this! For once, the layout is not that bad! I definitely wish I can work a bit more on my colour theory, but so far, it doesn’t look too weird or ridiculous looking!

So this is what I have done for the past week. Still have much to do for the next few days before the next meeting but can’t wait this project to be over already. I know. It’s only the third week.

This has been your Captain. Logging off!