Hey Guys!
So right now we are in the middle of Sound mixing. Literally, JJ and Corey are at POP sound right now putting together our final mix. Why am I not there? That's a very good question dear friend.
about a half hour ago I was there and we ran across a MAJOR hiccup in our final quicktime. So major that I have had to come back to Loyola and render out a new one while they go and continue to mix the audio. So yeah......real professional eh?
Anyway, after todays session Hammerfist will be pretty much done. Excuse me, Hammerfists of Fury will be done. David has quite a ways to go. Hopefully.
I just thought you guys would like an update as to what we are doing. We're submitting the film to a few festivals so we'll tell you guys about those when the time comes. JJ was taking pictures today so we'll probably post those later.
Gotta get back to the Studio! Later!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Hold up! We're still here!
Hey guys! Wow! It's been one hell of a week (two weeks?) and I'm sorry we haven't updated the blog lately. Anyway, let me give you the down and dirty on whats been going on with David the Hammerfist of Fury:
May 7th we premiered the film at LMU's Mayer Theater during the Animation department's screening. It was a packed audience and there were a bunch of great films shown. DH:HoF was the last film on the bill and the audience ate it up! It was a resounding success that ended with the Dean of our school complimenting JJ on our hard work. But the best part is that She also offered to help us revise our sound design
*Short story*
In the last few hours of production JJ and I were throwing everything together like crazy and then we realized that we had not finalized sound. We quickly taught ourselves Soundtrack Pro and threw together a "final" mix for the screening.
*End Short story*
The mix $&%#ing sucked. Levels were off, you couldn't hear our wonderful score by the great Ric Zimmerman and....well if there was a weak point to the film, the audio mixing was it.
Well now that has all changed! We got introduced to Corey E. and now she is helping with the mixing of the film. And from what we've heard so far, things are sounding 1000 times better than they were. at the end of the month we are going into the studio to mix the whole thing into 5.1 surround and after that, this film will be done.
Don't worry though! We will still be updating this blog. We're going to have a trailer up soon and then who knows what. The sky is the limit, and you guys could very soon be seeing some good old fashioned David Hammerfist comic strips popping up here. Anyway, hope this clears up our reasons for the long silence.
Talk to you guys soon!
-Matthew
May 7th we premiered the film at LMU's Mayer Theater during the Animation department's screening. It was a packed audience and there were a bunch of great films shown. DH:HoF was the last film on the bill and the audience ate it up! It was a resounding success that ended with the Dean of our school complimenting JJ on our hard work. But the best part is that She also offered to help us revise our sound design
*Short story*
In the last few hours of production JJ and I were throwing everything together like crazy and then we realized that we had not finalized sound. We quickly taught ourselves Soundtrack Pro and threw together a "final" mix for the screening.
*End Short story*
The mix $&%#ing sucked. Levels were off, you couldn't hear our wonderful score by the great Ric Zimmerman and....well if there was a weak point to the film, the audio mixing was it.
Well now that has all changed! We got introduced to Corey E. and now she is helping with the mixing of the film. And from what we've heard so far, things are sounding 1000 times better than they were. at the end of the month we are going into the studio to mix the whole thing into 5.1 surround and after that, this film will be done.
Don't worry though! We will still be updating this blog. We're going to have a trailer up soon and then who knows what. The sky is the limit, and you guys could very soon be seeing some good old fashioned David Hammerfist comic strips popping up here. Anyway, hope this clears up our reasons for the long silence.
Talk to you guys soon!
-Matthew
Saturday, May 3, 2008
40 hours to go...
Matt and I have about 40 hours until the final deadline. In that time, we've got to:
1. Color around 60 scenes
2. Clean two final scenes
3. Assemble a rough sound design
4. Finish watching the "Star Wars" trilogy
5. Assemble the project
6. Render the project
7. Ignore the need for sleep
Lock and Load!
-JJ
1. Color around 60 scenes
2. Clean two final scenes
3. Assemble a rough sound design
4. Finish watching the "Star Wars" trilogy
5. Assemble the project
6. Render the project
7. Ignore the need for sleep
Lock and Load!
-JJ
Thursday, May 1, 2008
May 1st! Wasn't that deadline?
Yes indeed it is/was!
So hear is the deal. JJ and I have basically been living in the studio for the past 4 weeks and I think two weeks ago we hooked our vital organs into the wall. Translation: we have been living and breathing Hammerfist. And the status?
Close. Very very close, but not done yet.
All of cleanup is done and half the film is compiled. We've been slowly working on sound design and will wrap that this weekend. As far as this thesis goes for a grade, it's averaging pretty well. The officially premier of the film will be on May 7th at Loyola Marymount University's Mayer Theater. But Monday is the definitive cut off date for the student project of David Hammerfist: Hammerfist of Fury. After that day everything that we will fine tue in the film will be just that: fine tuning.
JJ and I have already thrown around some ideas on what to do with Hammerfist afterwards.
But I'll get into that at a later date. We'll update with some media sometime this weekend.
So hear is the deal. JJ and I have basically been living in the studio for the past 4 weeks and I think two weeks ago we hooked our vital organs into the wall. Translation: we have been living and breathing Hammerfist. And the status?
Close. Very very close, but not done yet.
All of cleanup is done and half the film is compiled. We've been slowly working on sound design and will wrap that this weekend. As far as this thesis goes for a grade, it's averaging pretty well. The officially premier of the film will be on May 7th at Loyola Marymount University's Mayer Theater. But Monday is the definitive cut off date for the student project of David Hammerfist: Hammerfist of Fury. After that day everything that we will fine tue in the film will be just that: fine tuning.
JJ and I have already thrown around some ideas on what to do with Hammerfist afterwards.
But I'll get into that at a later date. We'll update with some media sometime this weekend.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
5(?) Days until Deadline.
Don't really have time to talk. Must. finish. Badass. Animation.
Here are some pictures for your perusal:
Here are some pictures for your perusal:
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Toonshading.
Hey cats!
Here's my late Saturday night/Sunday morning post for the week. We've got some great and exciting news.
1. 12 days until due date.
2. Matt got an external hard drive, so now our project exists in three places. I pray that's enough to avoid a catastrophe this close to due date.
3. 90% of the backgrounds are completed and dropped into scene files. They look awesome, and we've been getting nothing but positive feedback from everyone we show. In addition to that, Matt's expected to finish phase one of the cleanup tonight. That excludes two particularly long sequences, but aside from that, all the cleanup will be done.
4. We've just about completed the biggest crapshoot step of the process. We're lazy, so we decided that instead of drawing a biplane, we would animate it in Maya and composite that into the ToonBoom file. Sounds great, but we had no idea how we were really gunna pull it off.
I guess we always knew we would toonshade it, but I was super skeptical about toonshading because I almost universally hate the effect. The shader creates a "2d" looking image, but the shadows/shading still moves like a 3d object, so it looks like crap. With that in mind, I came up with a solution that I think works pretty darn well.
Note: the BG in this scene is a temp. The David is also rough and uncolored. The plane effect is completed.
STEP 1:
We start with a simple model from Maya.
STEP 2:
From there, I use the toonshade effect in Maya. This makes all of the colors a flat tone. No shadows or gradients that are usually present in 3d images.
I intentionally rendered it as one tone. It is possible to render a toon-shadow, but as I ranted above, I think it looks cheap and crappy, and I found a better solution.
STEP 3:
This is where I was sold on toonshading. Rather than using the above-mentioned "3d shading," I imported the flat toonshaded biplane into ToonBoom and applied a "highlight" and a "tone" effect to the image, giving it shading/highlights that are consistent with the rest of the film and that move like a 2d image, rather than a 3d model.
This isnt the coolest render of the effect, but those ones would be spoiler-ish. Anyway, Matt and I are really happy with the effect, and we're even happier since most of those scenes are finished now. I've got two left, I think.
Speaking of scenes left, I'd better get back to work. Look forward to next week, because if we dont have some clips and/or a trailer to show, that means this film's f**ked.
-JJ
Here's my late Saturday night/Sunday morning post for the week. We've got some great and exciting news.
1. 12 days until due date.
2. Matt got an external hard drive, so now our project exists in three places. I pray that's enough to avoid a catastrophe this close to due date.
3. 90% of the backgrounds are completed and dropped into scene files. They look awesome, and we've been getting nothing but positive feedback from everyone we show. In addition to that, Matt's expected to finish phase one of the cleanup tonight. That excludes two particularly long sequences, but aside from that, all the cleanup will be done.
4. We've just about completed the biggest crapshoot step of the process. We're lazy, so we decided that instead of drawing a biplane, we would animate it in Maya and composite that into the ToonBoom file. Sounds great, but we had no idea how we were really gunna pull it off.
I guess we always knew we would toonshade it, but I was super skeptical about toonshading because I almost universally hate the effect. The shader creates a "2d" looking image, but the shadows/shading still moves like a 3d object, so it looks like crap. With that in mind, I came up with a solution that I think works pretty darn well.
Note: the BG in this scene is a temp. The David is also rough and uncolored. The plane effect is completed.
STEP 1:
We start with a simple model from Maya.
STEP 2:
From there, I use the toonshade effect in Maya. This makes all of the colors a flat tone. No shadows or gradients that are usually present in 3d images.
I intentionally rendered it as one tone. It is possible to render a toon-shadow, but as I ranted above, I think it looks cheap and crappy, and I found a better solution.
STEP 3:
This is where I was sold on toonshading. Rather than using the above-mentioned "3d shading," I imported the flat toonshaded biplane into ToonBoom and applied a "highlight" and a "tone" effect to the image, giving it shading/highlights that are consistent with the rest of the film and that move like a 2d image, rather than a 3d model.
This isnt the coolest render of the effect, but those ones would be spoiler-ish. Anyway, Matt and I are really happy with the effect, and we're even happier since most of those scenes are finished now. I've got two left, I think.
Speaking of scenes left, I'd better get back to work. Look forward to next week, because if we dont have some clips and/or a trailer to show, that means this film's f**ked.
-JJ
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Hey folks! Is this actually an update on Saturday? Eh, technically its not, since it's 2:30 on Sunday morning, but close enough, eh?
Here's some final, rendered stills from "David Hammerfist: Hammerfists of Fury." Matt and I are pretty darn excited with how well this film is looking, and I certainly hope you all are too!
Anyway, words are boring, so enjoy some more stills from our thesis film!
-JJ
Here's some final, rendered stills from "David Hammerfist: Hammerfists of Fury." Matt and I are pretty darn excited with how well this film is looking, and I certainly hope you all are too!
Anyway, words are boring, so enjoy some more stills from our thesis film!
-JJ
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