Friday, December 31, 2010

I PROMISED SCREENSHOTS.

HERE ARE SOME SCREENSHOTS.

Yeah I am behind, but at least I cut out some useless scenes from my film~ Heh........
I'll still try my best to finish as much as I can during break!

I had to put the fug watermark just in case..

Saturday, December 25, 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wow. I believe I am supposed to update more..

Well.. I have just been animating.. and I am behind ;__;
I think I need to find voices for Richard, Lay and Richard's boss very soon.. I think Lay would sound like College Andy from Toy Story, but I'm not sure how I would describe Richard and his boss' voice =I""

Anyways, I will post some screen shots soon (I need to pick the ones without spoilers)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! In the main time, have some Mario Brothers :>

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

What Now Mang?

I had my critique again last week from my class... annddd my story is now good to go =)
The ending was stronger and no one had a problem with it which made me really happy. Except they suggested me to bring the boss back.. but the problem with that is then it won't end as a full circle. So I think I might hold that off.. and maybe after I finish the film, it can be like an after scene XDD I'll see how it goes, cause I was considering that ending before =)
I have no idea if people are going to critique it more after wards... but at least for now, I know it is working. My reel is about 4 minutes.. So I am predicting my film will be about 5 minutes in the end (including credits).. HA. Only cause the scenes are longer after I animate it.. and I have a few office scenes which have to be slow paced to catch the boring atmosphere.. I guess it's alright.. but 5 minutes is quite long. Quite long as in I don't know if I will be able to finish it. Hopefully I will be Okay..

Stressed. I have to admit.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Character Biography Worksheet- Richard

My teacher gave us a worksheet to fill out to go more in depth with our characters.. so I will fill out Richard's Bio first =):

Name: Richard Yang

Age: 25 (about)

Gender: Male

Childhood: Normal, but never really got to go out and play as much as the other children. Mostly stuck at home reviewing for school work, studying, and getting tutored. He didn't really had the time to do things he really love... or it was not encouraged by his father. On a Sunday morning, he would wake up extra early to draw a bit and watch some tv before he would have to start reviewing again in the afternoon.

Family, friends: Lived with his mom and dad (moved out now). No siblings. He has a few friends from elementary and university, but none are that close to him... except for one elementary friend that used to ask him for help on his homework (Stephen, 24.) He is very quiet, so not a lot of people got to know him.

Era: Now..? XD

Ethnic Background: Asian from Taiwan

Religion: None (Athiest), but he is very respectful of other people's beliefs

Profession: Just a normal business man, dealing with company sales and products. His position is high enough for the boss to take him to meetings to deal with clients from other companies. But most of the time he just needs to keep track of files/customers, sort them, stamp dates and approvals, and etc.

Income: Very slightly higher than average

Dreams: Deep inside, he really wanted to draw. He thought he did not know what to do, so he followed the most commonly chosen path. He still wants to draw, but he believes he cannot escape from reality, he needs income.

Goals/Ambition: For his job, he feels pretty dead about it. He would like to move up, but he could care less if he moves up or not... since he will pretty much be doing the same things anyways.
Meaning.. if it happens, yay! if not, meh~

Morals: He's a good guy. He'll follow whatever rules that are set down... but he is human and sometimes he unconciously drifts away. He still has a bit of child-like personality in him.

Physical Health: Great. Though his back hurts sometimes from sitting the whole day...

Hygiene: A bit of a clean/neat freak. The kind of guy that would bring sanitizers around just in case.

Diet: He mostly makes easy stuff like a turkey sandwich for work, some salted/sweetened crackers for nomnoms. At home for dinner, he cooks some rice with egg on top, a bit of light dishes like stir fried lettace and a bit of pork and some soup if he wants to be "fancy." Mostly he cooks more than he can eat so he can save it for like 1 or 2 more nights. If he's really tired, he just makes instant noodles.. he prevents that cause it is unhealthy but he can't lie to himself that he loves those seafood cups.

...Why am I going so deep for what he eats? LMAO

Sex Life: LMAO none. He is still single. He had crushes before but he tends to be hush hush about it.

Intelligence: Always in the tops (like mostly first or second place... rarely third or fourth.)

Education: University graduate. Completed Masters.

Need/Purpose: To somehow get out of his daily routine and do something he loves again, but he still needs to keep in mind of paying for his monthly electricity bill and groceries..

Weaknesses: Day dreams when he gets extremely bored and forgets about what he was doing. Too quiet and shy sometimes and that he ends up not being able to interact with the people he wants to. Being oblivious to what he really wants in life. Sometimes he doesn't know how to express his true feelings.

Stereotype/Archetype: A typical Asian that is really good in academics LMAO..

Obstacles: To realize what is more important in his life and follow what he loves.

Values: Family, grades, job, and income.

Sense of Humour: His unconscious clumsiness

Fears: Getting scolded by his parents when something goes wrong. His boss. Making a mistake when filing information. PILES of work, going over time. His own "imperfection." Flying cockroaches... cause they are just too sudden and dirty.

Environment (they feel comfortable in): Alone in the comfort of his own home. Hates going to work and going to a place with too many people.

Self-View: He is confident about his abilities, but there is always a part of him that makes him kind of anxious and paranoid. Asks too many "what ifs" some times. He strives for perfection and always thinks he needs to improve in something. He wants to find the thing that is missing in his life.

Nocturnal Habits: He normally sleep around 10pm or 11pm, but sometimes he thinks so much when he is trying to sleep that he ends up falling asleep around 12-2am.

Flaws: His inability to stand up for what he really wants to do and express himself.

Talent: Arts, his crazy oganization skills, noticing tiny details.

Addictions: None, but he has a secret addiction for hard fruit candies, that he prevents himself from buying them everytime he goes grocery shopping... and those damn gummy bears.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

A little back story of what inspired this film (Long post is long)

I have wanted to be an artist ever since I watched my first cartoon.
My mom even told me that when I was around 1, I knew how to work the video tape player to watch my favorite cartoons.
My favorite subject was always, of course.. art. That being said, in elementary, I was pratically shit in all other subjects LMAO
Although I was extremely quiet and not exactly the funnest person to talk to, my drawings could always spark up some conversations with others.

That was what made me keep drawing.

But of course there is a reality. Everything I made when I was younger looked like shit of course. I would see my art very oftenly thrown away in the trash can, even though I made all that effort to make it and give it to the people I care for. That has always been very painful for me to see. Something I made being deemed as trash.

Even when we had those class presentations of "what you want to be when you grow up," I would obviously answer, "artist."

The response from my teacher: "Don't they have very minimal income?"

It has always been like that since I could remember. To others, being an artist is not a pratical job.
Everyone else, what ever they say... fireman, police, singer, etc. The teacher would be like "that is a great goal."

But being an artist. To them, it is only a hobby.

I still wanted to be one though, even though I didn't know what kind.
It was my dream.

But with all the other school subjects, was being an artist really encouraged? I understand it was necessary to truly realize what you want to do, but... even things like being a "leader" in high school. What was the requirement? The BEST grades. A's, tops.
It has always been Academics. Academics. Academics.

I wasn't that bad in academics and I had high enough grades to go into SFU or UBC business. But it wasn't exactly outstanding.... All the students around me was incredibly competitive in academics. I am a competitve person... especially I feel "challenged," so being the idiot I am, it bothered me when people were doing better than me and literally shoving their grades in my face.

That said, my wish to become an artist died a bit at that time. All my time was occupied by academic homeworks. But I was not happy at all and I was too stupid to realize why.

In high school I was also in a kind of relationship, or puppy love in you will. When I was going into grade 12, I talked to my boyfriend about how I wanted to try applying for Emily Carr and go into arts. Like everyone else, he said arts was just a hobby and I should consider doing something more "pratical."

Being the girly shit I was, I started kind of sobbing like a useless bee, and he was literally like "You are crying.. AGAIN? -roll eyes-"

He said this other guy that was better than me couldnt even get it, so I would not stand a chance.

Even one of the person I cared most for thought it was unreasonable, So I highly considered going into business. In fact, I was prepared to apply for it.

For what my family thought about going into arts.. My dad kind of wanted me to reconsider, but are still respectful to my decisions. My mom and sister said go ahead. And I believe my brother also thought it will get me no where.

A great thing happened to me BEFORE I had to apply though, my boyfriend at that time finally dumped me.
And it was at that time that I was like "what have I been doing?" I didn't even had the balls to do what I really love and was lingering between the shit thoughts of others. I forgot what I wanted to do.

Funny thing is in the most important year, grade 12... I started not giving much shit for academics. I still took everything but I wouldnt bawl over a bad mark. I think that year was the year that I finally developed a personality.

And I say that because after the break up, I was finally like "No. This is what I want to do. And I will PROVE that I will get somewhere doing something I love."
Rather than doing a job I hate and only doing it just cause I need money to live, I will be doing something I love and earn money having fun.

Just because others cant do it, they think you can't do it too and try to pull you down with them. People should do what they love before they realize it is too late to turn back.

I ended up pursuing my dream and I did not regret it even for a second.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Young Richard test

A test of young Richard's lines and colours. My screen is quite bright so I have no idea what this looks like on other computers LMAO.. Hopefully it is fine..

I want his lines to be slightly messy to keep him more lively looking. Though it looks way more clean when I shrinked it LMAO. Grown up Richard will have the cleanest lines and Lay will have the messiest. I have no idea how that is gonna go cause I'm really anal about my lines XD I'll try to stop myself from cleaning too much.. ;w;"

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Sometimes...

We just have to go with what we think is best for our story.
Everyone has a different way of telling stories, so people will end up giving mixed suggestions.
There will NEVER be a perfect story and not everyone will like it.

For example, I love Wall-e, yet my sister thought it was boring as frig and fell asleep.

I am thankful for the many suggestions people have given me and I have definitely take them into consideration. Yesturday I had my third critique. Everything was fine except the ending. They want Lay back, even though in the second critique they thought it was not necessary. If something isn't working, then it isn't working. I will try to find a good way to bring Lay back in the end without making it look like it is his ending =). Hopefully this will make my story that much stronger.

The critique that troubled me was style. My teacher mentioned that it was not working for her and asked the class what they thought. Another person put her hand up so that is like.. 2 people out of the whole class. As grateful as I am for the critiques, this is one that I must think for myself and go with it. Why?

Well
1. It is almost November. The film needs to be ready in a couple of months.
2. I have started animating
3. I, myself, feel this is a better style to animate in and enjoy doing so.
4. It only bothered 2 (including my teacher) out of the class. I asked others personally and they thought it was fine.

They were talking about my style looking anime and manga... which I have been trying to avoid.. but I guess  I am failing. If it looks that way to others, then I guess it is. What other people see is sometimes more accurate than what you see yourself. I guess it is the eyes.
My cousin did tell me about how some critiques may get out of hand, and start to make you hesitate when doing the film. I have to say this is one of them.
First of all, I showed my styles to the class in the first critique and this style was more preferred (cause my other normal style would take too long to animate.) Second, when I showed my leica the second time in my current style, no one had a problem with the style. That time, I have not started animating so it would be fine if I wanted to make a style change. What bothered me about this particular critique is not about them not liking my style, it is about the time they gave me this critique. By this time, I cannot be thinking about changing my style. This is when I have to step in as the director and be like... I am doing this.

I am doing this because I am telling this story and this is how I want people to watch my film.

As rude as that may sound.. I apologize, but I have to go for it.
This film will have its flaws, but I am only human, I can only try my best... and hopefully, I will be able to make some people smile.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

So what's up now?

I showed my story to my friends Betty and Melanie yesturday and it seems like it makes sense now. I just need to change some minor storyboard frames and then I'm ready to go!! Looks like I will be able to do this after all =D~ Here are some of the sketches I did about 6 months ago (the prev designs) and some that are done about a month ago. I also added the problems I encountered and why my story did not work.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Test frame

Sooo.. Yesturday we had the grad film pitch night and I currently have 3 paint bucketing helpers and a sound designer I'm still contacting to see how that will work out XD. I'm still searching for more people willing to help me paintbucket my animated frames (when I get em done XD), sound designers (only if the person I am contacting doesn't work out ;w;) and a MUSIC COMPOSER (NEED THAT.) Anyone who helps make my film possible will of course have their names added in the film's credits. And for the people helping me paintbucket, I will definitely be helping them on their grad films when the time comes XD (that is a given *w*) This will go great on a resumeeee~~~~ -nudge nudge-
This is just a test frame I made for the pitch... I did it RIGHT BEFORE the pitch (fails.) In this frame,  Richard's boss sees Richard's pleasant little sketch of him on the company's contract form for the customers.
Meaning... he's in shit LMAO. I will be updating my sketches soon XDD (I keep saying that... OTL)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Happy Birthday Taiwan!!!

I was going to work on my storyboard again after my friend's birthday... but my other friend suggested that I should change my facebook profile picture, so I was like.. you know what? I WILL. It's Richard in Hetalia Taiwan's clothes hahaha XDD~

Happy Birthday Taiwan!!

Anyways.. For anyone that is curious why my second storyboard failed, here is a link to my old anamatic:

http://www.ecuad.ca/~jchen/movies/jenny_rough_anamatic.mov

it isVERY bad and LONG as shit. There are a lot of unnecessary details and shitty scenes. That being said.. I changed almost all of the scenes from that one. I will post my sketches sometime soon.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Currently...

I am working on my THIRD storyboard, cause the last two was not good enough and did not satisfy me.
Thankfully I have a class where everyone can watch my animatic and give me very helpful critiques ;w;".
I have to admit that I was upset that the second storyboard did not turn out as good as I thought... but in a way I am glad it went through the ripping apart that it needed, cause now I can try to make it even better. I am only upset in the way that I did not do a good job, not upset of the critiques that my classmates and professor was nice enough to give me (Thank you guys so much for the help!)

They said that my second storyboard was a great improvement from the first one... but it is not there yet. It is too long, too flat (the camera angles), and there were a lot of unnecessary things. Technically, I just need to edit, take out, and switch some parts around in the second storyboard... Hopefully I will make it better. I only have a couple of months to do this and I really need to start animating ASAP.
I want to get my storyboard done and solid by NOVEMBER. I need 1 minute of animation by November 30th so I really need to start animating. By that time, I'll just have to go for it. If possible, I will edit while I am animating but I'm not sure how the stress will help me on that...

I will update a few pictures on the next blog LMAO.. cause I haven't really updated much.. so next blog, I will show all the characters I have eliminated, the style I decided to not do for this particular film, and the current characters that will be in my film.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Useless Folder

I made a folder for my character references and notes today =)~
I will post the sketches after I get to fix em a bit (I have a shit load..) XDD
 Richard and Lay are my 2 main characters. Richard is the MAIN main.. character LMAO he is a business man and Lay is a graffiti artist.
 Here is a close up. This is just their chibi forms... for my own entertainment. They aren't gay XD I just wanted to draw them holding hands LMAO I killed the drawing by colouring it.. -sigh- I suck with pencil crayons..
Richard is about 25-28 years old and Lay is about 19-22 years old XD I will talk about the story when I get the leica reel going

Using my little folder to hold my ref up XD This is a sketch of Richard when he was younger

I have abondoned my older story but I kept the main characters XDD The story was WAY too complicated and it led to a lot of confusion 8( so I decided to burn that shiet and make a new one.
The older idea's film name was going to be "What's right?!" now it might be.. "My World" (OTL I suck with names.. I'm sorry) I'm trying to aim for about 4 minutes long.. I only have a couple of months to rip this out.. hopefully it would come out okay..
I will need a music artist and some people to paint bucket for me when the deadline draws close +_+ blaaah-

I don't really think this is necessary but it's better to be safe LMAO:
My World film and characters (c) Jenny Chen

Wednesday, September 22, 2010