Homework

Dear Team,

I'm sorry I havn't posted earlier. This past weekend has been super frustrating and I've been really busy with finals. The origional homework was for me to get the website up and running decently. Nikki was to revise the animatic. All of us were supposed to decorate, promote ourselves on our own pages. Much of the homework is done. The site is online and, thanks to Nikki, the new animatic is on the homepage for all to view. Apart from that, there is not a lot to do. Brush up on the story since we have to present our work on Wednesday. Enjoy the rest of your finals and I'll see you all in two days.

Sincerely,

Catherine

animatic

Kay I really like the direction the animatic is taking! First off, great job Catherine! You've pulled off a lot of work there and I appreciate it!! I'm going to finish up as many shots as I can!

Nikki

Test Link

http://megafileupload.com/en/file/108353/SuicideKevinAnimatic2-wedNoon-wk9-PDF.html

I hope this link works. I tried uploading the file to a file hosting site. Please take a look and comment. It takes a while before it says that you are able to download. Just scroll down a bit and you can see the button for downloading.

-Cat

problems uploading files

So, for the last 20 minutes, I have been trying to upload our latest version of the Animatic. So far though, I have had no success. The file is 15MB and everything only allows me to upload 10MB. I've tried compressing it using .zip and .rar, but it only lets reduces the file size by 0.1MB so I'm still over the 10 limit. Does anyone have any suggestions that could help me?

I forgot..

Here is the site to the new group suicide-kevin@googlegroups.com

Luke, for your homework, can you please separate all the characters in the story from their backgrounds and have them colored and cleaned up for use later. They should all be on their own photoshop document. Another way you can do this - if you dont want to extract the characters from the shots - is to clean up the tear sheets and color those. The files are all located on the network share for you to use.

Um... do any of you guys know the teacher's e-mail address so I can add him to the Google Group?

Thanks ^.^

Animatic/New Google Group

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for your hard work in class today - I know it was rather stressful but you all did an outstanding job. I also wanted to let you know that I have invited everyone to the new Google Group site since I cannot get into the other one. Please join it. I will have the rough animatic up in a few minutes. However, I am still working on it and it will hopefully be up and adequite enough by 10am this morning. -- I hope -- If it's not ready I'll post my progress so far.

As for homework, I havn't exactly gotten that far yet, but what we discussed in class is as follows:

Aimee - Kitchen Assets - keep as separate photoshop files
Nikki - Livingroom Assets - keep as separate photoshop files
Cathy - Working Animatic - post online by Tuesday Night/Thursday Morning

That's all I have for us to do so far, more will come later.

oh god im losing it...

well i didn't like the couch so I made it better....I really need to move on :P

hmmmm

kay...i realized after the last post that the beer bottle placement was a little awkward in front of kevin so here's a less obscene version....lol

color scheme update/first frame

Here's a jpeg of the finished first frame with the updated color scheme. Questions/comments?

color scheme

sorry for the slow post guys. Honestly I've been dedicating a lot of time to this class and now I'm behind in my others so I've been trying to catch up.

Luke-Cathy told you to texture but before you can do that the colors need to be updated and lines need to be fixed.

I'm attaching a basic color scheme with this post that with help with things such as the wall, carpet, wood tones(as in the tv stand, door, coffee table, etc.) and couch. I just adjusted one of my old frames. I still plan on getting the lines a better quality.

Week 8 Notes/Assignments

Last week in class we had a hard time figuring out what was going on. A lot of that is my fault because I am having a hard time comprehending the whole 2D aspect of everything. So, I'm sorry if I am confusing everyone. Anyways, I was looking over what all we have to do and I am assigning homework as follows:

Nikki - could you please touch up the intro scenes and kevin. Post a color scheme that we should follow
Aimee - could you please fix the perspective on the kitchen scenes and touch up your sections by making the line work flow easier and adding color
Cathy - could you fix the perspective on the scene where Kevin is carrying Mrs Jenkins. Work on background images
Luke - could you please add textures to everyone's images when they get done with them - right now you can start on Nikki's section that had the missionaries.

Nikki, Aimee, Cathy - when your files are finished could you send them to Luke for texturing

**When touching up the shots, please remove all arrows and text.**

Wk 7

So, last week we divided up the storyboards for everyone to work on coloring. I believe this was the assigned coloring list -

Cathy: 1-17
Aimee:18-34
Nikki:35-51
Luke:52-68

Color and get what you can done for next week. Please bring in your photoshop files. I expect there to be color diferentiation in the storyboards between all of our work. When we come together next week, we will decide on color scheme and try and get the other slides to look the same, so try to use layers to your advantage. Add backgrounds, fix a few perspective issues, and have fun. I will also try to have the shot list ready for next week as well.

I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great Memorial Day!

Week 6 Notes

Hey guys, I'm really sorry I did not get this post out sooner. Here are my notes from week 6.

What we did in class:

1. Finished up storyboards.
2. Edited/Revised storyboards.

During the critique with Glover, he gave us the following tips to help our story out:

• Shorten the part where Mrs. Jenkins gets the sugar
• Emit Kevin throwing the Bible at the Missionaries
• Emit Kevin throwing money at the girlscouts
• Emit Mrs. Jenkins returning with cookies
• Up the interest with girlscouts and missionaries
• Give Kevin motivation to get to the couch
• Give characters same style or look
• Fix odd perspectives

As for homework that we decided upon:

Nikki:

• Revise storyboards and make it good
• Send to Aimee by Sunday (?)

Aimee:

• Add descriptions to the storyboards. (You can either take the storyboards and write the description ontop, or add a small strip at the base of the storyboards and type in/write a description there. Try to use from the script, but since we are reworking some spots, make up text to go along with the storyboard.)
• Send to Catherine Tuesday, whenever... I have class in the afternoon so I be able to check before hand.

Catherine:

• Start collecting reference for the PreVis that we will be working on in class next week. This should include images, storyboards, video reference, sounds, camera shot examples, etc...
• Go over and, if necessary, revise annotated storyboards

Luke and David:

• PLEASE research PreVis so that you will have a basic understanding of what we are trying to accomplish next week in class.
• Look at movies such as Star Wars, Spiderman, etc...
• Also, if you could, bring in some references

Thanks, Nikki! Luke and David, I need your storyboards.

missionaries part 8

missionaries part 7

missionaries part 6

missionaries part 5

missionaries part 4

missionaries part 3

missionaries part2

Nikki's storyboards(missionaries)

Week 5 Notes

Hey Guys,

I want to say, I am really proud with what we have accomplished today in class. Everyone was focused on their work and on task. We were able to get lot of work done and it was a successful group effort. I appreciate this immensely!

Now… Let’s get down to business.

I would first like to start off with a review of what we did in class today.
1. We divided our script into a list of 45 different shots.
2. We created tear sheets of our characters in PSD format.
3. We presented our progress to the class and to the teacher.
4. Everyone was assigned storyboards for homework.

The following is a breakdown of the homework for individual group members:

Luke:

• Introduction
• Min. 8 Shots
• Start: Kevin sits on the sofa.
  End: Kevin has a look of sad resolve on his face.
  

Aimee:

• Mrs. Jenkins
• Min. 8 Shots
• Start: The door opens and Mrs. Jenkins walks in.
  End: Kevin sends her sugar flying out of the house.
• Post Mrs. Jenkins on the Network Share by Friday.
  

Nikki:

• Missionaries
• Min. 12 Shots
• Start: Kevin tries to slam the door shut.
  End: Kevin looks down at his sleeve.
• Post Missionary tear sheets on the Network Share.
  
  

David:

• Girl Scouts
• Min. 7 Shots
• Start: Gloria and Candice beam up at him with cookies.
  End: They gather up the cash and go.
  

Catherine:

• Finale
• Min. 10 Shots
• Start: Kevin turns around.
  End: Cut to black.
  (Aimee, I snagged the ending part when Mrs. Jenkins returns with the cookies from you so you wouldn't have so much to do. I hope that's ok. Don't forget to post the sheets for her on the Network Share so I can get them.)
  

I will post the breakdown of the script from class that have my notes on them on the website as JPEG images. I have come up with a little guide to help everyone understand my note taking.

Here is the guide:

• [ ] or [ ] ] ] – The brackets indicate shot designations. If there is a shot that has more that one ending bracket, continue the shot in the script until you reach the beginning of a new shot.
  
• “Up to discretion” – I listed this once in the notes, but I believe it can be used in multiple cases. Basically, what this means is that, in class, we could not come up with a specific sequence of shots for that section. It is up to the person doing the section to create the shots as they go along. Make sure that each shot helps progress the story and is appealing.
  
• I would also like to add here that if you are going to deviate from the script and add alternate actions or events, you have the freedom to do so; I encourage it. However, if you do this, I would also like to see the shots from the original script as well. This will allow us to have a bit of variety and will give us the opportunity to compare the different versions and pick out what we believe as a group to be a better option.
  

Glossary of terms:

• MS – Medium Shot (Waist-up in the frame)
  
• CU – Close up (Mid shoulders and up in the frame)
  
• LS – Long Shot (Shows entire person in the frame)
  
• ES or ELS – Establishing Shot or Extreme Long Shot (distant view to show location)
  
• ECU – Extreme Close up (Face; crop forehead so part of shoulders can be seen)
  
• Cut – Indicated with brackets
  
• POV – Point of View (Looking through person’s eyes)
  
• OTS or O/S – Over the Shoulder Shot (Looks over the shoulder of person close to camera to person farther away, shows relationship to each other)
  
• X/S – Cross Shot (alternating shots between one person to the other; common in dialog or communication)
  
• BS – Bust Shot (Mid-chest upwards)
  
• KS – Knee Shot (Knees upwards)
  
• Two Shot – Two People or objects are in the frame (Resembles MS)
  
• Three Shot – Three people or objects are in the frame (Resembles KS)
  
  

Also, when I mention minimum number of shots in the homework, I mean minimum. I want to see more shots; excess is better. The number of shots was determined from the shot list that we came up with in class. There are many parts in the script that can be multiple shots, even though they are listed as one shot. For example, the beginning shot where we get set the mood of the interior of Kevin’s house can be split up to show the different camera movements in three storyboards. This will make it easier to understand the movements and what we are looking at instead of trying to cram them all into one shot making it near impossible to figure out what is going on. We will just have to keep in mind that they are a continuous shot instead of multiple ones.

Submission of Storyboards:

• ALL storyboards MUST BE COMPLETED by Monday night! The latest I will accept storyboards will be Tuesday morning at 7:30 AM. I am very adamant about this deadline. If for any reason you cannot meet this deadline, please let the rest of the group know by either calling or posting online. Posting at this specific point in time will allow me to organize all of our files for submission in class.
  
• Storyboards must be submitted in JPEG format. Please, do not submit them as PSDs.
  
• The aspect ratio will be 720x480 or 4x3.
  
• Please number your storyboards. This is important for me so I do misplace the order of your storyboards when putting them together.
  
• Where to submit?
  This has been quite a dilemma for me. I would have liked to get the Google Groups site working right so that we could upload our files there. However, I am having troubles getting myself into that group, so even if we post our work there, I cannot access it. So, the only options we have left are to post our JPEGs onto Blogger and to e-mail me personally. I understand posting on Blogger will create a massive headache when it comes time to having to look back at previous posts, but it is a reliable way to get collaborate our work. The other way is to e-mail me personally. Though I am not completely partial to this idea, it will, however, free us from having to post all of our storyboards on the blog. I will accept both methods of submission.
  
  

Here are some additional tips and comments:

• To create tension, do not linger on a shot for too long. Cut faster and insert more close-up shots that show specific actions that are taking place.
  
• To create relaxation or calmness, stick with static shots and cut less frequently.
  
• On average, shots do not last for more than three seconds. This will not apply to us until the animatic is being created, but it is good to keep in mind.
  
• Good compositions in shots are more appealing than those without.
  
• Each shot has to help advance the story.
  
• KEEP IT SIMPLE – Do not spend a lot of time creating masterful pieces of art.
  
• Do not worry about props very much.
  
• Focus on the characters and the framing of the shots.
  
• Do not be afraid to add SFX (Sound Effects) or a description of the shot in the storyboard if it is necessary to help the viewer understand what is going on. When doing this though, try to keep the description to what is in the script. If no description is present in the script, go ahead and add your own description.
  
• Photoshop is not the only way to accomplish these storyboards. If you are more comfortable using another program like After Effects, you are more than welcome to. After Effects will allow you to put the images into 3D space with a click of a button. However, I prefer to have the storyboards finished on time rather than having people struggle to get the software to work right.
  
• If you forgot to pick up the tear sheets, they are in the Network Share/Ze Gravy Train/Tear Sheets folder. Please pick them up and use them for your storyboards.Bring the PSD or AE files to class next week! That way, when changes have to be done, we can get them fixed on the spot.

Thanks for reading this post. I wish you all the best of luck in the storyboards. Also, if you have any questions or concerns, please ask.

-- Catherine

Presentation

Alright. I want EVERYTHING scanned and into the computer and in the Network Share by the 12:10. That way by the time I get to school, I can just throw them into the presentation. I DO NOT appreciate having to do all of this last minute crap before class.

Missionaries

first board

here is my first board. the rest are pencil/paper. hope you like. Will get the rest posted in the early morning. I realize this slows things down a bit, so I offer up my apologies.

....

Kk Im still at school but hopefully I'll get the model sheets for the missionaries up sometime tonight! Has anyone else done their work? Where's the posts team?

Nikki

Kevin Model Sheet

Amy Model Sheet