Nearly there!

Missed another day - I do blame this on general laziness. Worked again from 9am to 7pm, and took liberties of skipping the lecture (Of Daniel Greaves, an animator) and Digital Skills to get on with starting and finishing my lip sync. I don't have a light box to work with outside of the class so I had to use all the time I have.

I also had the time to (finally) see Andy and do some Q&A with him, as well as show the work so far. I showed him my Characterisation Motivation and liked the 'flow' of the animation and phew - he had no qualms about it save for the rather symmetrical pose + movement of the arms. (She looks and animates a lot like an advertising billboard at the beginning). He also had a gripe with the shrinking of the character when she lands and its true but I don't really want to fix that - it's not terribly bad and I fought constantly with circular volume to get it right.

Asked Andy various things about what he wants for the 30 Second Animation - he simply wants an animation of any sort that amalgamates everything I tried so far, be it the walk cycle, lip sync, weight and so fourth. Because I feel so tight on time from here till' Christmas, I asked him:

"Can I get 30 seconds animated in one week?"
"No. That'd be impossible."

He's probably right but I'm confident that if the animators at Warner Bros were expected 20 seconds a week (or be fired) there shouldn't be anything to prevent me from achieving roughly the same. Of course, I've been a slow drawer and only managed 12-17 frames a day (from 4-6 hours of work) which I whined to Andy about. He paused for a moment and then recommended me to simply do the roughs of the animation first - then clean it, give it some real quality. Not a bad idea! Granted, I think I have been doing roughs (that is, guidelines, circles and such) the entire time - most of my characterisation motivation is rough! This is one the thing that's been bugging me a large amount - my slow speed. Why, I'm not sure, but I do need to speed it up.

Yesterday I also got a call from my brother to see how I was doing - that was nice of him! He had grave concerns that I was practically working and not spending time to chill out. I DO spend time to socialise in the kitchen and such (whilst cooking) but admittedly I have spent most of my time sitting on my ass animating. And well, animators have to do nothing but animate. Richard Williams but it best: "Animation is nothing but work!" and the Animation course leader of SouthHamption University also made a true statement in that we won't have time to do anything as seconds have to be drawn and produced unlike filming (I mentioned that before).

Today I felt a little better in regards to where I am; the characterisation has one section left (the walk to the door) and lip sync is a matter of matching the lips themselves to the drawing which won't take much time - I wish I could animate the body but I just don't have the time. I was about to, but this time I pulled my Chain of Reality and obeyed the little time I have left.

Today I once again got up at 12pm and didn't head to the library (for a lightbox to animate on) until 3:30 or so which was really stupid of me. My excuse is today was a real dip in temperature and my feet never managed to stay warm whatsoever - granted it isn't bitter cold that it would snow, though apparently Sunday and Tuesday will be bringing the white rain. I doubt it will however.

So, I headed on to the library at 3:30pm and waltzed back because I forgot my peg-bar and tape, and animation book. Worst instance was yesterday were I went back and fourth between my house (getting as far as half-way through the student village each time) five times. I kept forgetting something, sometimes the same thing, over and over. At the library, I found a light box but was unsure of where a near plug would be. Asked a member of staff and directed me to one, plug adapters sitting plain in sight on a few of the tables. Whoops - but at least I found a nice light box.

Got on with planning the walk to the door as it requires perspective use (which will be done far more than simple profiling) and didn't...achieve much. I got the basic extremes down but the walk as a whole kept leaving my mind (and eyes) scrambled from the mess of differently roughed and coloured drawings. One page of the Survival Kit had a good demonstration of how to plan perspective walks but it didn't mean much to my current scene as my character is in a medium shot before the walk. (the lesson on perspective walking started with using a full body character as a guideline) I better animate it all tomorrow with the details to along with it.

The library closed at 5pm unfortunately (which I was aware of before arriving) and headed back feeling underachieved. Back home, I packed my stuff back and thought about what to eat tonight - eventually arriving to a simple burger. Before going, I searched my entire room for my headphones which have gone missing. Pockets, my bed, under its sheets, the floor, behind books, tables - all over but to no avail. I was confused as I was SURE I didn't take it to the library (I don't listen to music whilst working) and I didn't leave it in the kitchen. Asked Sophie (who like me was packing with snacks) and Yannis but they didn't see my 'phones either. Yannis has another cold, poor man, and is weighed down by heavy work.

Headed to Waitrose (with no music :<) and had this fucking tune stuck in my head. I don't know why - other than the track is based on snow which I'm anticipating for Farnham. Meandered around Waitrose for a while picking out the food - whilst checking out, the card machine accidentally processed my transaction as being £0.03...! I should of gotten away with it, but notified the guy behind the till (he just looked at his screen perplexed until bringing it up).

Headed back home, and was about to cook grill a burger until it had hit me that I forgot one necessity - BUNS. Buzzed back to Waitrose for some. Oh! I found my headphones too - they were in one of the other smaller pockets on my coat, somehow I missed it. On the way out, I saw Dan and we talked about looming deadlines, projects and the cold weather - not the nicest topics but he manages to keep a calm demeanour about him which always impresses me. Dan is in advertising - one of the tricker projects he needs to do is write an essay concerning propaganda. At 1000-1500 words, it's a short piece but he hasn't been given any example readings - he has to literally skim through the books himself. Ouch.

Rob also arrived at our house and he proclaimed that he drank too much, and he was drunk. He certainly didn't act like he was though. Becky was up visiting our place - Sophie planned to head to hers to play on PJ's new Kinect thingy which he had gotten free (along with 6 games) free from Microsoft. I cooked my burger with the griller kept close and as I repeatedly mistake, it's kept open to prevent steam building up. Of course, opening the door (prompted from Becky's "Who's left the oven on?") had smoke billowing out like a locomotive. Still, the burger looked fine and dandy. After it finished cooking I ate it with some red onions. It was yummy! With some bacon, it would of been a real treat. I'll get some tomorrow and have it with the burger.

After eating, and writing this blog, I headed upstairs and out of boredom played a word association game with Yannis and Georgia (though Georgia only for the first part). Good fun, although it wasn't so strict on the rules.

Tomorrow, I need (NEED) to finish the walk to the door by all means as well as add the rest of the details to the animation - not only this but also complete the rest of the lip sync (sans a light box) and design the box art for the CD case. I also need to actually compose a DVD along with a menu - Jon's lesson yestarday Friday taught this but I just couldn't risk missing time. Hopefully, though, people on Monday will lend me some tips.