The Jo Show - Part 2

It may be a bi-product of the stress of long hours I’m having to work in this last stretch, or possibly the anxiety of how well my film will be received come the deadline (4th June…fucking hell that’s close) but I’m feeling strangely melancholy with the absence of Jo, my wingman (or wingwoman...wing-gal?) for this project. Having lost her to the world of gainful employment, where her labours are actually exchanged with currency, for the most part I’m having to slog through the finishing touches on my own. It’s usually been that way when it comes to these types of projects - when producing music I find that the best work is done once the other musicians have left me alone with their contributions to work with. It’s not an ego thing (pinky swear), I’d just assumed that it’d have to be an interminable process to observe. I also get overly-focused and I worry that I come off as curt and irritable as a consequence.
Having Jo, as well as the film’s other helping hands (who I’ll later devote a separate entry to) as a presence has not only been a boone in terms of easing time and labour concerns, but I have also felt myself to be more driven and creative. Despite the stress, which would be inevitable with any MA, the production of this film has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life to date.
Last month I posted up some line tests that Jo worked on for the Prospective Lay character. She has since made the effort to clean these up herself which again saved me loads of time, and I'm consequently ahead of my production schedule. Interestingly, there's a distinctly different style about the character when Jo works on the full animation shots. The emphasis is more on movement than detail, which is another trick I need to get comfortable with. When the shots runs together I'd wager that nobody would pick up on the difference.

A limited-animation drawing of the Prospective Lay that I drew (left), next to a still from one of Jo's full-animation scenes (right). If you look closely you can see that Jo is more economic with the character detail, letting the movement of the animation speak for itself.

Here are the main shots from the earlier post, now inked-in and coloured.


In the above shots the character's acting is timed to the Duck's dialogue. When both characters are on screen with the audio it plays really well. The same applies to the shot below, where the Hunter and Prospective Lay's body acting interacts fairly smoothly:

Overall my little outsourcing experiment paid off, and for the eight-gajillionth time I'm very grateful for Jo's assistance. I had hoped that she would be able to do more animation between now and the deadline, but as her schedule is getting busy with real work it's not looking like that'll get to happen. But I'm glad she was able to contribute these shots and make her own little mark on the film.

A Laudable Lack of Organisation

My devout professionalism when it comes to the film-making process is...well, non-existent. So I doubt it will come as much of a surprise to anybody to learn that, rather than going through the required layouts logically and methodically, with a sense of order for ease of reference, I've been spewing them out at random. When I've exhausted every conceivable layout and pose from the storyboard I'll be faced with the unenviable task of sorting them all chronologically by scene, then by shot. In creating all this extra work for myself I've come to the conclusion that I am, in fact, a closet masochist. I should just cop to it and start paying some sallow dominatrix to beat me senseless every weekend.

Until I can get together the scrilla to indulge that vice, here are some more examples to show how scattered the whole thing has become:

Two more drawings of the Hunter having gone crazy (a bunch more from this scene were posted here). The latter shot accomodates a double-barreled shotgun being raised into the frame.

These drawings have very little facial detail as they will be silhouetted in the colouring process save for the eyes. To keep the character from going too off-model and unrecognisable without features you can see some consideration has gone into the shape of the head.

Our good friend the Prospective Lay. The pose of her in a seated position was drawn in a manner that allows the character to be placed against two different-angled backgrounds and give the impression that she's shifted her position. Whenever I can cut corners I can, I'm just that crafty.

Hands - they're a bitch to draw on their own, and when they're attached to arms it's even trickier. Lots of erasing, redrawing and staring at my own hand in that position went into these.

That feathery prick of a zombie duck is notable by his absence this time around. Rest assured he'll reappear soon enough...

What A Poseur

What is it precisely that you feel you need to make your day complete? If your answer was anything other than 'Why, to see more of Ben Mitchell's poses and layouts for his film, obviously!' then prepare to be bitterly disappointed.
It's called 'life', chump, get used to it.
However, if that was your answer then get ready to squirm and writhe with unrestrained glee, as that's exactly what you're gonna get! Isn't life grand? Here are a selection from the 'Prospective Lay' scene:

Setting up a walk-cycle, fiendishly framed so that no leg-work will be required.

These three are stand-alone cutaway shots designed to show the Hunter's increasing anticipation of bedding his ditzy gal, and his horror at being cockblocked when the Duck moves in on her

A number of sequences will come from this one, with and without the presence of the Duck, who'll be brought in as a separate layer. Proving that anything can look cute if you can make its eyes (or, this case, eye) big and tearful.

The slightly mismatched proportions of the Prospective Lay's head/body are done to accomodate two differently-framed shots (one of her face and the other of the Duck). I'm pretty proud of the not-so-subtle boob-nuzzling in this sketch and the one previous. It took a lot of trial and erasing to get right. Welcome to my life.

Anyone can look suave in the right dressing gown

One more scene before the grand finale, in which the camel's back is well and truly broken. While the preceding sequences were constructed around a fairly simple back-and-forth between the Duck and Hunter, in this scene another character is brought in to create a veritable nightmare scenario. The Hunter brings home a prospective lay (named simply Prospective Lay in the script) who finds her head turned by the unfathomable charms of the Duck who, despite appearances, manages to muscle his way in and whisk her off to his room after making the Hunter out to be a remorseless dastard. In bed the Hunter is plotting something to rid him of the Duck for good...but how ever will it pan out? You're on tenterhooks, aincha?