Thursday, June 20, 2013

Life pokes its nose in

Sorry for the wordy post this time, but there's a lot to get in.

As is inevitable with a long term, ambitious project like this, life has taken a few turns of late and I find myself behind schedule.

I've moved from one full-time job to another, discovered that the new job is not the job for me, left that and started up as a self-employed freelance animator and art/animation lecturer.

My finishing date for Gilbert's War may (okay, will definitely) slip as a consequence, since working for myself is all-consuming, in that I have to go out and find the work as well as do it.

I've also taken the opportunity to look at the design of Gilbert's War while I can, and I think I have a new direction that will greatly benefit the appeal of the short. The overall tone will not change, it's just slight but obvious changes made to the fabric of the piece having stared at it for this long.

So, I'm looking at going 3d for the characters. One of my fears was having the film look like every other CGI short out there. I wanted to keep the hand-drawn element for human characters as a physical and visual connection between me and Gilbert, but I now know I can achieve the same with specific design choices.

I know a lot about the technology of animation, specifically in how it relates to modern CG practices, particularly for video games, and I plan to harness that technology, make it work for me to enhance what I can achieve as a crew of one.

So, there you are. I'll post new material as soon as I have any to show. Work on the screenplay continues, and I'll post some snippets in the near future.