PRODUCTION: backgrounds 47 and 35 (new)

These shots have taken a lot of time to do as shot 47 had to be redone 3 times due to the wrong feel of the angle of the building on the right, one major part was to add a door to make the drawing more interesting and less empty, plus the door would be a great indicator of the angle of the hill that Jenny trips on. I have researched some steeper angles of houses and how their doors looked like however due to the steepness of this angle it either cut the door in half or it had to be made smaller but because Jenny was present it would push the scale size off balance. This process was rather frustrating but in the end with some brainstorming with Estelle and Will we have decided to decrease the door by a little bit so it still gives off the illusion of an angle.

Shot 47


Along with the process of drawing shot 47, I have looked up at some of the previous shots that still needed to be done and came to conclusion that shot 35 is throwing everything off balance because of how far Pup and Jenny were and it would make later scenes look very very static with exception of camera being on rolling away Pup. I'm really surprised that no one has noticed that mistake, I guess that in my excitement for submitting my first background shot I didn't take in the geographical placement of the scene and after discussing all the problems and complications that would follow afterwards if that wasn't fixed quickly. I have changed the view and place of where shot 35 should be taking place and everyone agrees that it's much better and it also gives off the feel that Jenny and Pup are at the top of the hill. I'm rather happy that I have noticed that because it would definitely derail my work process and put me behind schedule which is something I do not want, since some of the already done backgrounds ate into my schedule. I am hoping to catch up with everything.    

NEW Shot 35

PRODUCTION: backgrounds 3, 9, 17&18

 These three backgrounds did not take that much time to do. They are featured in the earlier scenes. Background 3 will have animated sea by Estelle, this is why I have done this shot earlier so she will have enough time to animate the splashing waves against the poles of the pier. The last background will be used in two shots since there is little camera movement. I feel that it's good to step away from some very detailed work to do some really simple back drops.

PRODUCTION: background shots: 35, 42, 44

After finishing the background shot 18.5 I have moved to starting the outdoor shots which are my second job to do. Here's shot 35, after doing most of the work on it I have realised that the space between the town hall and the house was too small and it just looked unnatural. So after patching up the piece I think I have improved it and it definitely looks better, we have placed an animation shot on it to see how it looks and it worked perfectly. I'm really happy with how it looks and I'm more confident in what I'm doing. I can't wait to see all the backgrounds and animation pieces together.

Shot 35












Afterwards I took on the task of drawing other assigned shots (42, 44) however after their completion, me and Estelle tested them behind the animation and unfortunately they didn't work. The animation was out of place and just didn't fit therefore I chose the task of redrawing them again but this time with help of already finished animation. This definitely made the job a lot easier
Here are the original images:                                                    

 and here are the improved backgrounds

As you can see they are not that different but it is important for the backgrounds to be in sync with the animation for it to look natural.

PRODUCTION: Background 18.5

I have worked on this town plan for almost full week. This piece is three times bigger than the normal background shots that will be used, this is because there is going to be a close up on the staircase and then the camera will move up towards Jenny's house (the last house in the backdrop), this is why the bigger size so there isn't going to be a loss in quality of work.
Here are two versions, one lined and the other fully coloured.
Furthermore there were few small details added later after I gave this to Estelle, like the wash-like effect to the lines, as well toning down the colour of the pavement since it's too white. Other than that everything was how Estelle expected, she will later add the sea which will be animated in Photoshop.

PRODUCTION: Shot 16

This is the last animation piece of Pup that I have on my schedule. This shot is rather simple, I just had some problems with the snout but after getting the animatic I have cleaned it up and it looks much better.

Now it's time for me to start drawing all the outside backgrounds for this project. I still have one more shot to inbetween but that has to wait until Will fully completes his part of the animated shot until I can begin with Pup.

PRODUCTION: Shots 12, 14, 17.5 and 28

The shot 12, 14 and 17.5 are where Pup is shivering from fear. This task was quite difficult to get the shivering animation correct without the character only having each drawing moved slightly to different places at every frame. After some brainstorming with Will and trying to work the perfect animation technique for the task at hand we have finally gotten the hang of what to do. With that done I was able to slowly start on tackling my scheduled shots for that week. It was a slow start because the whole process was more time consuming than other shots I worked on, as well as after finishing one of the shots I was told to correct the whole line work for the shivering part because Estelle didn't like the fact the everything was pasted and just moved and she preferred to draw every single frame by hand instead.

Here on the right is shot 12, the first shot to tackle the new technique. At first the whole animation was on 1s however after Estelle looked at the scene she preferred for it to be on 2s so it wouldn't look like the seal is spazzing. This shot was redone few times due the seal going out of it's original look.

So here is the shot 14. I have decided to take this shot as well as shot 12 and do these at the same time, since shot 14 doesn't have any other animations to be done. After I have gotten to get used to animating the shivering it was only a case of making sure that the seal didn't go off model and jitter too much. The only thing I had to change was Pup's mouth in this shot because in was meant to be different than in the animatic that I used as my main reference.

                                                                                     The shot above proved to be the most troublesome out of my three assigned shots for the week. I made a mistake on Pup's snout by pulling it downwards too much, and the whole shivering proved to still be rather difficult technique to animate. It placed me behind my schedule which worried me a lot since it's not something that I want to happen. After polishing off bits and pieces of Pup's body so it didn't pop too much I have only drawn a still image of Jenny. 

With the shots eating into my next week's schedule I have started to work on the next shot which was a rather simple one to do. In the animatic it was only shown as a still image but Estelle wanted some simple movement within that short scene therefore we decided that I should animate Pup blinking and opening his mouth when he looks out of the window. In the end I have drawn a still of Jenny since she's in the shot and there was no point in passing that onto Estelle just so she's draw a half of the character. 

I have now stopped worrying about being late with my schedule since shot 28 is on this week's assigned sheet therefore I have only one more shot to animate and then I can move onto the backgrounds and wait for one more animation piece. That scene will be animated by Will since it contains both Jenny and Pup interacting. Will will fully animate Jenny and I will be given key frames of Pup so it will just be a case of inbetweening my part of the shot. 

PRODUCTION SHOTS: 20, 26, 60 plus an extra coloured shot

The shots 20 and 60 were done over our winter break, after finishing these shots I have sent them to Estelle and received my feedback to improve their timings and ease ins, as well as a reminder to keep checking the original Pup character sheet since I seem to have few problems with getting the snout drawn correctly. With shot 20 I have tried to keep to within a set time limit that I have gotten from the shot list however it did not work because the animation looked too rushed and did not look well.

Shot 20

   
On the right is shot 60, after few changes that I have made after receiving  my feedback from Estelle here is what the result looks like. After sending her this piece she made few changes herself that did not appeal to her. She then send me the files with the changes to see it for myself what she has done to improve this scene and make it to her liking.
                                                                                  Shot 60

This rather short shot has proved to be quite a task for me. Since I haven't seen Jenny's hands up close I originally made her fingers more pointy than they needed to be. Furthermore there were some timing wise changes to be done as well as when Pup smiled I tried to give him more of a child-like growing smile, but that did not work to well with Estelle so after getting my feedback and generally changing the whole animation this is the end result.

Shot 26

I have also coloured a shot with the seal that is going to be jumping in the background to refresh my memory of how to colour the shots in Photoshop. Somehow I feel that the timing might be off but since this seal will only appear for a second it does not have that much of an importance, Pup has to be animated well since he is one of the main characters in this story.