Journal enrty #23 11-25-2007

Well I'm back,
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. It was pretty good here, had some turkey worked on the project all day, and watched the Cowboys kick some ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well good news out of the EL Toro camp all the animation is done as of today. Right now is all about the rendering, as I right I'm rendering out a 215 frame seqenance, somthing likea 8 hour render, thats ends about 4am Sunday morning. What I have planned for the next couple of days is to render out everything and put it into a rendered animatic. From there I can look at it and see what works and does"nt and have two weeks to fix it. During the renders I'll be working on finishing the book and doing the editing. I'm happy with the animation, the lighting seems to be working, It's not the greatest but it gets done what is needed. I went out last week and bought and extra hard drive to do renders at school if needed, I'v been banging out renders over night, the next few are shorter so hopefully I can get a few of them done in a day. This will cut down on me having to go to NYU to do renders. I need to work on the credits Sunday, get them done and out of the way, they look like crap when I run them, I mught not do a roll but just a still, somthing simple to get them done, maybe add some art into each still. next week will most likly be the last of the blogs journals, I need to print them out for the book. I have somthing like 50 entries to print out, thats a whole book in itself. So this is it for tonight, the new Battlestar Galactica "Razor" is on tonight. can't miss it been waiting all summer and fall. Talk to ya all again next week.
-Best Tom
PS> some renders from the animation

Industry crit review 11-18-07

OK,
First does anyone know how to to a god-damned, F*&%ing walk cycle from point A to point B with the stride timing!!!!I'm half tempted to call someone at Pixar!!!! The review was ok from my stand point. I got the most feed back from Todd at Syop. He really knows his stuff, pointed out stuff about the timing that I did not notice, breathing room, etc... I'm getting better with the timing on each shot that I worked, Todd said there was to much stuff going on in the shots and thats why they looked to fast. His suggeting was to go into the shots and clean all the excess keys out to slow down the action. One shot that came to mind with that problem that really stood out was the when Rowdy noticed EL Toro for the first time and pulls his hat done to adjust and sort of set the tone for the animation. The hat was crazy with the movements and all over the place. I did what his mentioned and it worked nicly. The next review is the thesis defense, I feel better about it everyday, I think my animation is getting better everyday, as I fore-mentioned I wish I had and extra month to really polish the shots to perfection. But it is what it is. Later on today I'll try to post a couple of updated renders of the animation, but mostly I'm just doing my charater II today..

P.S I'm also planning my trip to Florida or the Bahamams, I really want to go back to Captiva Island in Florida. It's so nice and quite there, plus the shells are awsome....

Journal enrty #22 11-18-2007

Hey there folks,
Times almost here until where done, Right now as of last night I have 8 shots left to polish with something like 25 days left. Thats included in the rendering time. I wish that I had 1 month left to really polish all the shots, I feel that their there but need that extra little hour or two on eah one to clean them up. This week I should have them all done, by Friday. Thanksgivingis Thursday, I plan on doing renders that day, It's a holiday and everyone will be bugging me so it's better if I plan it as a render day, need to do that anyway. I can probly knock out three or four renders. What else, the book needs to be finished, thats a Thursday job, it's a quater done as I stand right now, I'll have time that day to do the work. What is going good is the lighting, I have a rig that I just drop in and adjust the gamma, from 1. to 1.3 depending on the scene and a test or two with out it. Thanks Boaz for the help!!!! The renders are takeing longer then I want, I went and bought another Port hard drive the other day to start doing renders at school when I go back next week. If I can knock three or four out each day would be great, I should be done by the end of the week. My plan for today is to do my character II animation which I have been lacking on the past week or so. I need to spend all day on this ti bang it out, I need a day away fro the thesis anyway to clean my thoughts. On a positive note I just got all my loans approved for animation mentor, yea baby I start that three weeks after I get done with NYU. It will be so much better then my past animations classes. Today It's snowing for the first time this year, so I will be able to knock some work out, Well enough bull-shiting will do and update after the holiday....

I am Legend update 11-10-07 "Will Smith"

WELL I'm a movie star!!!!! NOT...
Anyway here's the jiggy, I was coming home from school late Wed night about 1am and about 3 miles from my house I see that the sky is all lite up. as I got closer to town there is all these cop cars in the road, I thought there was an accident or a house fire. Well as I got closer there is this giant wall being put up across the road. The film was on!!!! They decided at the last minute to film, they added two other shots also, in studio so this needed to get done Thursday. Really cool. So I went up early Thursday morning to the town, which I have to say they closed completely down!! all roads where shut down in and out of town except for the US Mail, neither snow nor Will Smith will stop the mail!! So the morning was really quite but as soon as school let out it got crazy with all the teen age girls, but I must say some of the older people were worse then the kids. I did a couple of extra scenes but we where some far out of focus I could have held a sign up with my name and you could still not have none it was me. I snuck up to the set and stood by the monitors with producers and the director and watched as the filmed each shot over and over. I did'nt get to talk to them they where in their own little world. I did get to see Will really close up I mean with in two feet he walk by me waving to all the people. It was very awsome so see this guy he seems like he's a level headed guy, his body gaurd was a dick!!! So all in all I did'nt get shit down on my thesis on Thursday but what I did learn was that when I do a movie I want the set shut down, even with a small shoot like that the people were crazy. And also I got to see what goes on behind the scenec was really great, I bet they spent about 75 thou on that shoot, oh yea they also did a helicoper shot at the end of the day. I have some pics that i'll post of how it went down, not to many but just some simple loacation shots....
-see ya at the movies

Journal enrty #21 11-10-2007

Hey there,
Well were getting down to the wire as to days left and my sanitiy. I started doing renders last night, waiting to see how they turn out, Right now as I stand with work I'll safly say I'm 60% done. I finished the third pass an the animation Tuesday, It's starting to look good. This weekend Patricia wanted me just to work on the lighting rig and the slap scene which is pretty much the thesis statement. I finished the rig yesterday, I met with Boaz a couple of times over the last few weeks to get it set up. The only thing that bugs me right now with the rig is that the shadows are kind of sharp, it's somthing I need to live with for right now. So the light rig is done and I have dust made which I made with a particle system. not the best dust in the world but it looks good so far. The only down fall is that the renders went through the roof, I'm going to have to use it sparingly in the shots. So now as for the work plan I'm working on the slap today,"Saturday" need to really polish that turd. In the next couple of days I want to set the light rig in at least ten shots that are right there for being done. The ten shots I have close just need a tweak here and there and their ready to be rendered. I can then put them to bed and start the composting side of this thesis. In closing my ass is getting tired, I'm doing about 19 hour days right now, also I have that character II animation class i'm trying to bang some work out for also, some crazy ass shit going on!!!!!!
-Best Tom
ps. I'll post some WIP, in the next day or so

Really Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok this is so cool I had to right it, yesterday two guys show up knocking at my door, Turns out they are from Warner Bro's studio and want to shoot the last scene to "I Am Legend" on my farm. How cool, so Paul kramer the location directer was supposed to fly into day, well the helicoper flys into the farm with not only the location director but the director of the film himsely Francis Lawerance. I was talking with the director of a major Hollywood picture four about and hour about films and my thesis. When we were all done I asked the guy if I could watch, he was like for letting us fly in and use your land, well sit you next to the monitors with Francis. So in short I did'nt get very much done on my thesis today, one and a half shots, have to start later on tonight again....
-see ya at he movies Tom...