Well, everything was running along smoothly, until Saturday. Several things converged at once to stop the Wendell animation in its tracks.

RESHOOTS

After showing the rough version of the film off to several trusted advisers, the general consensus is that the film is good, but most people aren’t quite sure about the tone at the beginning of the film. It takes a few minutes before you really get the gist of the thing.

So, I’ve been working on a way to fix this, and came up with a new scene to put at the beginning that should set the stage nicely. And, for various reasons, we must shoot this scene on Thursday. So, I’ve had to prep for that. Which includes making a sign to stand outside the art gallery, proclaiming where we are. A six-foot-wide sign, which is currently eight feet tall, though unfinished. I’ll blog more on that later.

So, the bulk of Sunday was spent figuring out how to build the sign, and then, you know, actually building the sign. Most of the hard labor is done, now it’s mostly just gluing things together (God bless Liquid Nail), and finding the right lettering.

COMPOSITING

The second snag started off when I showed the animation off to my brother-in-law Danny, who’s artwork hangs in the film’s gallery. He said he liked the animation, but Wendell didn’t look very well integrated into some of the shots. He looked too clean.

Later that same day, Producer Tom Mumme came over to discuss Thursday’s shoot. I made a DVD of the film with the animation I’d done so far cut into it, and showed it to him in the Poem Pictures screening room. He said he loved the animation, the personality and the emotion I’d put into Wendell. It was just, he didn’t look very well integrated into some of the shots. He looked too clean.

So, I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to improve the compositing of ole Wendell. I think it’s coming along pretty well, but it’s slow while I’m trying to figure out the best things to do. I’ve only got a couple of shots done. I’ll post a comparison soon, as I’d like to hear your thoughts on how I’m doing. I figure it is better to figure out the right system now, so I can apply it to the 19 remaining shots as I animate them, and I don’t have to re-comp every shot once I’ve finished.

Render’s finished. Back to work!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 9:22 pm and is filed under After Effects, Wendell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.