One Day - THE FILM

Fiiinally! One Day, a film by Joël Corcia, Bung Nguyen, Thomas Reteuna, Bernard Som and myself.
(I haven't actually seen this since we finished! :S)



And here, is my Making Of video n.n



Vimeo lovers can see it HERE
The obligatory 'End of Something' speech is further down the post. There are so many things I could talk about with regards to the film and life in general this past year - buuut I'll just talk mainly about my Animation Process. The rest would be too much for y'all to handle :P
First though, a few images from my character research.

When the animation phase was about to start, I wanted to try something that I thought a) I would be more comfortable with, and b) would potentially save time.

After Project_Gouken I really loved how Flash freed up my rough animation. Coming from an Assistant Animator background, it's easy for me to fall into the habit of trying to do tidy drawings from the get-go when I work with paper. Digitally, I feel so free to do scribbly, rough, nonsensical marks.... using things like the transform tools to really chop and move things about, change the spacing and timing of things in an instant and seeing if it works....
(I know I know.... in the old days they would see the line test only after all the animation had been done u.u Well there's a reason why they were Disney legends and I aint! :D)

Rough & Tie-Down. Don't worry - they came rougher than that :P

The idea was, Rough and Tie-Down the anim in Flash, print out the keys and then clean 'em up and inbetween on paper so that the final images would be like the other team members who were animating traditionally. I did a test with the Clean in Photoshop, and once the line and character were coloured in the style we were going for, there wasn't a way to differentiate between the two methods.

I was actually somewhat relieved at this discovery - for me, more time would be saved (and also a few trees :P)! No printing, no hole-punching, no scanning (all the stuff a Producer would LOVE to hear! :D). It also meant it was easy to take work home too, and when you live 40 minutes away and up 6 flights of stairs, I'd choose a usb key over a pile of paper any day!:P

I know how you feel mate u.u

The Rough animation was my favorite part of the whole production (a bit obvious?) - Unlike every other stage of production, it didn't feel like work at all... It was just fun.... Tie-Down was also cool - I enjoy that phase (even if I didn't want to continue a career in it :P). Clean-Up was a royal pain in the ass however. Thanks Joël u.u

There were no 3D films this year (again. Look for that to change next year!), though there was a film animated entireley in After Effects. Out of the year there was only myself and Tom Law, the Calarts exchange Student, who animated 'tra-digitally'. (His recital from memory of the One Day dialogue to perfection was stuff made of Legend. On which point, you can imagine how many perverse iterations of the dialogue were thrown about our room.... mainly at JJ's expense :3 "Shhh JJ! Don't be ....", "Sorry, do you mind if...").
I think it gets stereotyped a bit by 2D purists, 'Flash' animation... looked down upon. But how can you look at something like Ernest & Celestine and not be wowed by it's beauty...

I think it was in a Glen Keane interview he mentioned how the only reason we have this way of animating on paper today and how the technique (even the style itself!) evolved is because of the constraints they had back when it all started out. Had animation been invented today, it would not be done in the same way....
Don't hate on me just yet! You know I love drawing (you can look at the amount of sketchbooks I fill if you don't believe me), and to see a Milt Kahl line test or even just one frame of his craftmanship is uncomparable to anything you can see today. I pray that it doesn't die out - why can't all the mediums just get along and co-exist!! For me, animating is animating, no matter what medium you're using.

Paper for Layout - Flash for Animation/Tie-Down - Photoshop for Clean. It worked.

The shots were coloured in TVPaint and composited in After Effects. Thank you to everyone who helped with the colouring of the shots - you are all beautiful people.
If you are interested in finding out more about the process to produce animation in this way, feel free to ask any questions n.n



I think our group will be remembered for a few things... one perhaps being the fact we had a tin. Whoever was the last to arrive out of the five of us after 09:45 HAD to put in 1€.
Over the course of the film we accumulated round about 80€ XDD There were a fair few times I was late.... but it just so happend that on those days.. there was always someone later :'D I would RUUUUN if I thought I wasn't gonna make it - more to do with the principal than the money I think (cough cough) - so it turned out to be a good incentive - well, for me at least! I ended up putting in 0€.
I won't name the primary contributor to the 'Group B End of Year Dinner' fund.... But needless to say, we all thank him sincerely for what will be a joyous feast :D

Going to the sound effects studio was awesome fun! So much junk everywhere! :D

Crazy how much can happen in just one year, huh. How much can change. How much you can learn, improve.... and then fail miserably. How often you can feel ecstatically happy and then confused... or worthless. How many people you can meet, get to know, miss out on getting to know, fall for, work well with, work not so well with, help, please and hurt.... and how much your hair can grow.
I'm happy to have shared the experience with everyone at the school. Afterall, it is the people that make a place.

January 2012

It's pretty weird to realise an ambition such as what Gobelins was to me. So happy to have done it, but perhaps more happy to have finished it - to stop having to chase the dream. Don't get me wrong, to have ambitions is a good thing - it pushes you, drives you on.... but once it was over, I felt so light and at least for now, I'm so happy to take pleasure in the little things and just.... be.
Courage to anyone who goes after something they want. You'll need all the courage you can muster.

AND NOW!!

I have some drawings from the Layout phase of the film (obviously I have NO drawings from the animation phase :D) and also some rough scribbles to give away!


If you would like to have a drawing (If you liked the film that much that you want to frame it and put it on your wall... or if you want to sell it for 1€/79p/1.25$ to help pay for the cup of coffee you needed to stay awake through the ¡€#∆µø thing), then all you have to do is the following...

Leave a comment and be sure to include the phrase,
"OH! J'EN VEUX!!"
Anyone who also Embeds the film on their own blog/site/page will get themselves extra bonus goodies.... and a hug voucher..... valid for one year.

Like last time, participants will be put into a draw. Winners will be randomly selected at the end of October and contacted at that time for their address. Artwork will be sent in time for Christmas ;)
Oh and this time around there can be up to 7 winners n.n

And just 'cos I never posted it here..



'Till the Next,
L

Si vous pensez que je vais traduire tout ça, vous êtes fou!! :D Mais, ce que je vais dire, c'est si vous avez des questions par rapport du film, n'hesitez pas de les mettres dans les commentaires!
Et si vous voulez avoire des dessins du film, il faut juste laisser un commentaire avec le phrase, "OH! J'EN VEUX!!". Pour gagner plus, ajoutez le film sur votre propre blog/site aussi. Jour J est le fin Octobre.
Merci et Bisous à vous tous!!