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April 26, 2008
100 sven hours = 100 film seconds
by sven at 5:17 pm
Today is day 75 of my 100 day countdown, pushing to finish Let Sleeping Gods Lie.
Putting in 25 hours a week on animating Act 2, I've just today passed the 100 hour mark. I've got approximately 250 hours still to go.
Interesting to note: Right now Act 2 is 1 minute and 40 seconds long. That's 100 seconds... So, thus far, an hour of labor has been invested for each second of film. (And really, I won't be surprised if each second actually winds up costing two hours of labor.)
Animation is insane.
What am I up to lately? Over the past few days, I've been working on rendering two different skies. One for when the Elder Things' civilization is triumphant -- and one for when it's been smashed. (Check out the photos above.)
new developments
Even at this point in the game, the storyboard continues to evolve as new ideas come to me...
I decided that in order to convey the genocide of a species, having just one symbolic Elder lying dead isn't enough... I want mountains of corpses and lakes of blood! Not only will it be a more powerful image -- it also helps support Act 3. Act 3 is all about fast, violent action; there's no time to survey the carnage. By showing lots of dead bodies in Act 2, the consequences of Act 3 are implied and don't need to be shown.
I've also discovered that I need to show more of Carl (one of my actors) in the Dream History sequence. I've done some experimental shots which I think will work out pretty well... The big surprise (for me) is that the new material changes the end of the film.
Yes, five years into this project, I've suddenly got a new ending!
It's obviously not what I originally had in mind... But it's a DOABLE solution. And at this point in the filmmaking process, that's really what matters most.
posted by sven | April 26, 2008 5:17 PM | comments (4) | categories: let sleeping gods lie
Comments
a new ending! oh, my! i know you've been unsatisfied with prior endings, so i'm looking forward to this one!
Posted by: gl. at April 26, 2008 5:42 PM
I always love a nice Bespin sunset :)
Posted by: ubatuber at April 27, 2008 7:44 PM
Lando's an old friend of mine...
What's that Uba?
Oh, I'm sure he's forgotten about that. That was a long time ago. ;)
Posted by: sven at April 27, 2008 7:52 PM
Hey Sven,
I'm curious about your workflow for this project. Are you shooting 2's? I agree that 1 hour for just one second of animation is a lot, and sometimes kick myself for not capturing above D-1 resolution to take full advantage of the process. As far as time expenditure, don't forgot what the animators at Vinton's went through on a daily basis- sometimes they were lucky to get even two seconds for the entire DAY!
By the way, I see that you guys have your names attributed to each post now. Looking good! As far as your shpiel about pose to pose I also really dig that style. Robot Chicken's animators really have it down.
Don C.
PS: I have my sound lab up and running now, let me know if you need any help. Acoustics are pretty dead here, if that is useful to you.
Posted by: Don C. at April 30, 2008 1:23 PM