1st cut done, More cuts to Come!

Short Update with some stills form the first cut. I'm animating and refining some additional scenes, with the hope and dream being to be sending stuff off to festivals by the end of the summer. WOOO! I'm feeling pretty good about the film, and I've learned a ton doing it. Here are the pics!

Coming Soon: Critiques, Focus Groups and Kids, Oh My!

Mid production update

trying to fight off illness and get some other work done, after hanging out with my family tonight, I'm going to try and blow out all the sound reading I need to do for today, so probably no actual animation today because of that, but it is all going down. About halfway done, huge cram of animation over the next 2 weeks, and I'll make it, I'm pretty sure I will. For now, PICS.

 Jake's Roadrunner style run cycle

 the hand made mini pillows, about the size of a quarter each, and stuffed with unbaked sculpey for shape retaining goodness.

 I now realize that fabricated rubble is pretty much rubble. huh.

 a good spread of the set in current animating action.

 mouths, both part of the animation and part of the set? I must be mad, MAD!!!

 Another angle on our favorite clay and wire gal.

 the scene set ups for the previous and completed shots.

like i said.

peace guys, back to reading mouths!

I present to you: The C47m, the latest in filmmaking technology! (and the art of procrastination, continued)

Well, as I settle in to go to sleep on the floor of my living room slash set, I look back on a day of personal achievement, exhaustion, and failure. I have not yet started animating (FAIL) or cut my sound (DOUBLE SLAM FAIL), having raised procrastination to an art form. I can now procrastinate on my film by spending all day working on my film. Let that just sink in for a second.

What did I do today instead of move on to active production, you ask. Continued to fabricate, prepare, and have various sundry, emergency, and distraction pull me away. Of what I feel I should tell you, here's the coolest bit:

 I discovered MINI CLOTHES PINS! I dub them the C47m, the latest and greatest in small scale film tech.

 See they do the same stuff only smaller.

I also Slightly changed Penny's design. now she has four digits on one hand (three on the other)...

 And those hand can be moved without killing mine! HURRAY!! (also, she's got buttons now)

 I've also been fabricating many a keyable support wire and base structure, so that I can blend them in with other keyable surfaces (green screens) and not have to necessarily use rotoing to get rid of support wires. Hurray!!

 Also, I've been fabricating more and more stuff for different elements of animation, here's some rubble I was making.

and now, wondering how to inform my teachers that I may not show up for class at times this week (I'll probably just bite the bullet and be honest, and I'm still trying to make tuesday and definitely doing monday) I go to bed on a sheet in the middle of my set, with dinner. I did more stuff, for the film and elsewise, but I don't feel like telling y'all now, so yeah. TTFN!

Info On the Set for Penny... And Who's art is this??

Let's talk a wee little bit about how I made this set. It is primarily made of cork, cardboard, wire, and small pins. Gaffe tape, fabric and paint are used for the facade elements. Key example of the idea that things only have to look like stuff rather than actually be stuff: The corrugated sheet metal in the background is painted corrugated cardboard, and the fencing next to it, obviously, is chicken wire. I also have magnets in it right now, bucky balls, but those might come out.

  More on the prop elements and the use of found objects. that tiny harmonica on the table? well, it's a tiny harmonica. Actually works, too, but one octave, that's it, c-tuning.  It's taking the role of... a tiny Harmonica. On the other hand, that pocket watch has both become a clock of a kind (with it's base made of aluminum wire, which all the fabricated props have element on) and it's lid has become the removable sheet of the spiral chair. In fact, all the chairs have removable pieces so that they can be used with my puppet's stand.  My obsession with detail might have shot me at least partially in the foot here, as I may have to simplify the background if Penny doesn't stand out enough from it. (things to find out tomorrow, I guess, as animation actually begins).

Now, onto the final part, I'm trying to compile who helped me make the background art. Now this isn't so much a worry if I already touched base with you on it (or if you, like Amy Lee Ketchum, Javier Barboza, or Sean Linehan are already recieving a bigger credit) but I'm trying to figure out everyone I need to credit as background artists. These are the pieces I'm using:

And here are the people I'm absolutely sure have drawn on them (the three people I previously listed excluded:

Cecilia De Jesus
Michelle Yang
Dan Wilson
Jovanna Tosello
Lou Morton

I'm absolutely certain other people have worked on them too, I just got to get my books in order, and if you're one of them, please just let me know so you get the credit you deserve. Anyway, TTFN.

... god, I should really be doing sound work.

THE SET IS SET, THE STAGE IS STAGED!!! photo update.

might do some actual notes on how I did these all later today or tomorrow. for now, here are the photos!

Big thanks to everyone again for the help, will tag y'all later.