Extended Practice: Progress Review

I've now been animating for 4-5 weeks, and I'm approaching the half way mark with my linework. Had I have not had a week off to go to Lille, I think I would have hit a minute by now, which is really motivating, and I'm so proud that I've made it this far. If I work at the same pace at which I have been doing, I should be able to get finished in time for my deadline. I think it's going to be a bit of a struggle, but I'm finding myself working quicker than what I was at the start of the project, so I'm going to continue to push myself to work. Though on the chance that I don't finish in time, I'm still going to work to get it finished beyond the deadline, as it's a project I want to see through to the end, and I would love for it to be a finished piece in time for final exhibition. The three weeks after the final deadline before exhibition starts would give me plenty of time to finish my film, though the goal is definitely the 18th of May. I'm just going to take each day as it comes, and see how it goes.

Progress So Far

This is the section of my Live Action Video/Animatic that contains all the animated scenes I have to date. I'm really pleased with how it is looking so far. I like that the characters stay consistent throughout and that the clips flow together nicely. I've been posting all of my progress to my Instagram and other social media sites too, where I have been receiving great feedback and compliments on how smooth the motion is, which is wonderful. However, there are still things I would like to go back and change/take another look at if I have time. For instance, making sure the eye line of the characters are correct and that they seem as though they're looking at the object/person they're suppose to be, and making sure to really push the performance of the characters. The scene where I am walking over to the bench is a good example of where this could be reworked. If I make the character droop their head more, and have them looking at the ground rather than the bench ahead, this would really drive the emotion of feeling fed-up. 

A scene I particularly like is when Maressa's character drops the kite spool. I love the innocence of this scene, and I think that the timings on the spool make the drop/bounce seem believable. I am still to add in the kite string but I shall come back to this once the rest of the linework has been completed. 

I also really like the scene at 0:22-0:25. In my opinion the actions are really smooth, and I've made Maressa's character look at me and back to the kite to try and drive performance, and I'd say I have managed to get the eye line right here too. The subtle lean forward of Maressa's character has really made it clear that she's looking at my character. Not only this, it makes the action seem less wooden than what a simple turn of the head might have felt like. I'm making sure to pay attention to little details such as this (and for example, secondary actions on the hair and the weight of the kite string as it falls) to make it feel as lifelike/believable as possible.