Back on Track

After a couple of weeks of illness in the family and a couple of weeks missing the motivation to get creative, I finally found the impetus to make some significant progress.

It took a little bit of trial and error, but I've finally got my system down. First, load the background up onto the computer with a 3 x 3 grid overlay on top. This mimics the grid on the camera screen and has been essential to get the scale and perspective correct on the animations. Then, set up the beginning and end of the shot to ensure the flow is correct. Lastly, get animating!

I'd originally planned to shoot at 18 or 24 frames per second, but after watching a behind-the-scenes of Wallace and Gromit, I saw they were only shooting 12 fps. If it's good enough for those Oscar winners, it's good enough for me. I'm capturing at full HD resolution (1920x1080) and after completing each scene, I run a batch process on them to reduce them to 1/4 size. This allows me to quickly generate "rushes" where I can scrutinize the animation and that I can check against the backgrounds.

After about 6 hours of work, I completed about 700 frames of animation. That's about 1/7th of the entire episode, but there;s much more work involved than just the animation. I've still got to do the keying, mouth movements, final compositing, and audio syncing. Now that I'm in the flow of it, I'm hopeful to move things forward at a good rate.

The primitive animation studio: Green screen attached to a mic stand, two table lamps, a Lego base plate, and the camera.

City KREW Episode 001, Progress Report

Halfway through September, I expected to have shot all the backgrounds shot and be wrapping up the voice overs. I'd hoped to finish Episode 001 by the end of the month. Unfortunately, things are far behind schedule.

With the family sick all week, I've made no progress at all. The loss of the original equipment I'd planned to use, forced a rethink on that front. That actually worked out in my favour as I used that and my birthday as an excuse to invest in a new HD camera. Ordering that and waiting for shipping also set back the schedule, but now I'm very pleased to have a brand new Canon HG20. And for the deal B&H Photo was offering, I got myself a slick new mic and wide angle lens as well, all for less price than Best Buy's price for the camera.

I've had the camera for most of the week, but with the family sick and a hectic week at work (whose idea was that?), I barely had chance to use it.

Luckily, not everything has drawn to a halt. The first voice over was completed by Shanti and now Winny's lines are ready for editing. The results were excellent and motivate me to get going on mine (once I get the frog out of my throat). If the weather cooperates this weekend, I'll be shooting the backgrounds.

Here's hoping next week is a productive one...