#but I would also love to see the pre-revision storyboards

[swan2swan]

From Board to Screen: Camp Cretaceous: "View From the Top"

I thought it would be neat to take some of Heidi Neunhoffer's storyboard revisions and side-by-side them with the finished product. It was a good, educational call, it turned out, because I learned some things.

One being, a storyboard artist/revisionist is not necessarily responsible for environmental shots:

And also, if you look right after where this shot takes place, you'll notice that Brooklynn runs into the frame. I'm not sure how that happens...I assume directors, editors, or animators will look at a scene and realize "Oh. This character actually isn't standing right here. But we can move them there." I know that may seem menial and obvious, but...I appreciate it.

It does also kind of cost something, though, as Yaz is looking up at Brooklynn in both cuts of the storyboard, but then they have her look back down at the egg to kill the second that Brooklynn takes to run to her mark.

I dunno, I guess I love it because it makes it feel Real--like the crew built the set and acted things out and then realized they needed a slightly different angle and had to adjust for one take. It adds realism to the production, and I love that.

Check out the full reel here.

[lakefama]

Hi Lake! I just started reading Heart Work and I'm in love. I've never seen a storyboard web series before either, how does drawing and posting it work compared to a comic? It's a really interesting medium that I'd love to learn more about, it seems like a great blend of comic and animation that would fit something I've been working on beautifully.

thanks for your kind words! :'0 i'd love to see more storyboard-comic series out there - storyboarding is often thought of as a pre-production process but imo it's such an efficient and engaging means of telling a story on its own.

i use the same program for Heart Work that i use for my storyboarding day job - Storyboard Pro - for all the drawing & art (but you could easily use any other program you're comfortable boarding in like Photoshop or CSP). to compile and post it, i export all the panels individually and combine them into a PDF in Adobe Bridge, and then upload the PDF to SpeakerDeck which gives me slideshow embed to put on the website.

in some ways it's probably a bit more labor intensive than comics but in some ways it's maybe easier. i try to add 2-3 panels of posing for each line of dialogue on screen so that you can tap through the embeds at a fairly steady pace, so there's potentially a heavier drawing load than for standard comics (though i definitely don't draw as clean or detailed as most comics). but i also find stuff like revising the art easier - with comics if a moment in the story or visuals changes it can affect the layout and art of the entire page, but it's very easy to edit/remove/add to boards.

sorry that may not be a terribly helpful answer! I'd highly recommend looking at story artists' portfolios too if you'd like to purse a medium like the one i use for heart work, since it's nearly identical to what story artists use for their portfolios!

[flclarchives]

Amusing Himself to Death, an Akadot.com interview with Kazuya Tsurumaki (director of FLCL and assistant director of Evangelion) from around December 2001. In the article, Tsurumaki explains a few things about Evangelion, his mentality behind FLCL as a whole, and the meaning of the name ‘FLCL’.

Full article text is under the cut, or read the article in its original form [here].

Kazuya Tsurumaki was a relatively little-known animator when Hideki Anno selected him to work as the assistant director on Neon Genesis Evangelion. For the TV series, which became a smash hit in Japan and one of the touchstones of the current surge of interest in anime in the US, Tsuramaki served as the main storyboard artist as well as assistant director, and when Studio Gainax began production on a trio of Evangelion films Tsurumaki got his first directorial assignment.

As he tells the story, Anno came to him after Eva and announced that he was out of ideas and that it was up to Tsurumaki to dream up the next project because, "you are next." Tsurumaki let his imagination run wild, but by the time he had written a script, Anno - despite his declaration that he had no stories left to tell - was already several steps ahead of Tsurumaki and in pre-production for his next series, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo, leaving Tsurumaki a chance to have complete and unsupervised creative control of his own series FLCL.

FLCL, referred to as "Fooly Cooly" (or "Furikuri" by its American fans), is unlike any anime series to come before it. Wild, maniacally fast-paced physical comedy; exaggerated, exuberant animation alternately pushing towards surrealist- as when mecha exuviate from a bump on young Naota's head - and deconstructionist - as when the animation literally stops and the story is told by a camera bouncing across a page of black and white manga art panels; and obsessively, often irrelevantly, referential to obscure Tokyo-pop bands and anime insider trivia; FLCL was hyperkinetic and disorienting, yet mesmerizing, almost transgressive, and undeniably original. It inspired enthusiastic admiration for Tsurumaki as a creator, even amongst the perhaps 90% of the series' fans who were absolutely baffled by much of it. One is tempted to refer to it as announcing the arrival of full blown post-modernism in animation, or perhaps as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable of the anime industry.

When Tsurumaki visited Baltimore to speak to American fans at the recent Otokon Convention, predictably, many of the questions were along the lines of, "Hi, I really loved FLCL [or Evangelion], but could you please explain this part of it to me?"

Tsurumaki answered all questions genially with a self-deprecating and often mischievous sense of humor. For example:

Why does Haruko hit Naota over the head with her guitar?

Kazuya Tsurumaki: Naota is trying to be a normal adult and she belts him to make him rethink his decision.

Why does Evangelion end violently, and somewhat unhappily?

KT: People are accustomed to sweet, contrived, happy endings. We wanted to broaden the genre, and show people an ugly, unhappy ending.

Why is the character of Shinji portrayed as he is?

KT: Shinji was modeled on director Hideki Anno. Shinji was summoned by his father to ride a robot, Anno was summoned by Gainax to direct an animation. Working on Nadia [Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water, one of Anno and Tsurumaki's earlier projects] he wondered if he still wanted to work like this. He thought that working on Eva could help him to change.

Is there any particular reason why so many Gainax series feature very anxious, unhappy young male protagonists with no parents?

KT: Yes, the directors at Gainax are all basically weak, insecure, bitter, young men. So are many anime fans. Many Japanese families, including my own, have workaholic fathers whose kids never get to see them. That may influence the shows I create.

Could you explain the mecha bursting from Naota's head in FLCL?

KT: I use a giant robot being created from the brain to represent FLCL coming from my brain. The robot ravages the town around him, and the more intensely I worked on FLCL the more I destroyed the peaceful atmosphere of Gainax.

Why doesn't FLCL follow one story?

KT: In the third episode Ninamori was almost a main character, a kid who, like Naota, has to act like an adult.  After episode three her problem was solved so we wrote her out.  She has many fans in Japan and we got plenty of letters about that decision.  For FLCL I wanted to portray the entire history of Gainax, and each episode has symbols of what happened behind the scenes on each of Gainax's shows.   Episode one has many elements of Karekano; episode two, a lot of Evangelion references, etc.

Where does the title FLCL come from?

KT: I got the idea from a CD in a music magazine with the title Fooly-Cooly.  I like the idea of titles that are shortened long English words. Pokémon for "Pocket-Monsters" for instance, and an old J-pop band called Brilliant Green that was known as "Brilly-Grilly."

Is there any reason why the extra scenes added to Eva for the video release were cut in the first place?  Did you think the story would mean something different with them intact?

KT: The scenes that were added to Eva for its video release aren't that important.  We added them as an apology for taking so long to get the video out.  Maybe they'll help people understand things, because the episodes were done under tough deadlines the first time around.

Can you explain the symbolism of the cross in Evangelion?

KT: There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us.   Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious.  None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians.  There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool.  If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice.

After the panel, Mr. Tsurumaki sat down to speak with Akadot.

Do you enjoy confusing people?

KT: I have a twisted sense of humor.  I'm an Omanu Jacku, a contrarian.  [Writer's note- Omanu Jacku is a folk character a bit like Puck, a mischief maker]

What do you see differently now that you're working as a director rather than only as a visual artist?

KT: As an animator I have only the art; as a director story is really big.  I still feel as an animator and I often have trouble putting the needs of the story first.

Did you intend from the start for FLCL to be as bizarre as it wound up?

KT: From the very start I wanted a different flavor.  To achieve this I had to re-train the animators to be as stylized as I wanted them to be because I wasn't drawing it.  I knew that not everyone would get it.  I deliberately selected very obscure J-pop culture and anime sub-culture jokes and references.  Because Eva was so somber I always intended to make FLCL outrageous and wacky.

Why the choice to break out of conventional animation and use manga pages? Was it at all a response to how many anime are using computers to achieve smoother and more realistic visuals?  Were you trying to go the opposite direction?

KT: I like manga, not only to read, but the visuals.  The pen drawings, the frame breakdowns and layouts . . . This is the first time I have used digital animation, and those bouncing manga shots wouldn't have been possible with cel animation.   Personally I'm not interested at all in using computers for realistic animation.  I'm impressed by it sometimes, but I'm interested in using computers to do what was once impossible, not to do smoother versions of what has already been done.  I want to be less realistic.

Has using digital animation techniques changed the way you work, or the way you feel about your work when you see it?  Does it still feel like it's yours if a computer did much of it?

KT: Before I got into digital animation I saw other shows that were using it and I felt that there was no feeling, it was empty.   As an animator, there's a sense of release when you draw a cel.  There's something there.  Working on FLCL, though, I learned that computers can do more, and, most of all, that they allow room for trial and error and revising, more freedom to experiment.  That is why I now feel that cel art cannot win against computers.  For actual animation everything is still drawn on paper.  That work hasn't changed.  It's the other stuff, the touchups, and coloring.  If we didn't use paper, maybe the feeling would change.

Earlier today you said that you were trying to broaden the genre by giving Eva a sad ending.  Does the sameness of much of today's anime bore you?

KT: First of all we didn't use a sad ending to annoy fans.  When they're upset, that really bothers us.  Personally, I think a happy ending is fine, but not if it is achieved too easily.  That's no good.

For all the fans that are confused at all, if you had to define in one sentence what FLCL is about, what would you say?

KT: FLCL is the story of boy meets girl.  For me it is also about how it's ok to feel stupid.  With Evangelion there was this feeling that you had better be smart to understand it, or even just to work on it. With FLCL I want to say that it's okay to feel stupid.

Even though it may be strange to us, do you have in your head a logic behind it?  Are you trying to portray a story that follows the logic of dreams, or is it supposed to make sense symbolically?

KT: I'd like you to think of FLCL as imagination being made physical and tangible, just as it is for me when I take whatever is in my head and draw it.

So what are you working on next?

KT: Right now Gainax has told me that they'll support anything I choose to create, but I'm having trouble coming up with any ideas.

Why is that?

KT: Releasing titles for market, I know I have to make something to please fans, but I'm not a mature enough person to accept that fact.  If I'm not amusing myself I can't do it.  I feel bad that fans have to put up with such behavior from me.  I apologize. 

[reel-em-in]

The Genre Film - Critical Reflection

The Film: 

All You’re Going to Want to do is Get Back There

(Version that is closer to 3 minutes as per brief)

(Version with full score at the end)

The Process:

Pre-Production:

This script was written by Maddy, and the idea was in the works as far back as our initial Master Shot. This meant that this final Genre Film is very consistent in, terms of genre and aesthetic, with our other work for The Film Genre Project.

During the pre-production stage, Maddy revised the script a few times in order to make the story something that could be told in 3minutes. Something that I feel was successful, especially considering the ambitious nature of the story. Another key aspect of preproduction was sourcing and making the props, many of which were made or sourced by Maddy and I, though the more general props such as misc. trash and debris were also sourced by the rest of the crew. (For a more detailed look at the production design see this post )

The risk assessments and booking of kit was done by Abbie. Whilst Maddy and Mia created a shotlist, shooting schedule, and storyboard.

Maddy and Abbie both spent time contacting Charlie to find out whether she would be willing to play the role of our main character, and once this was agreed Maddy organised a time to meet up and go over the script and rehearse with her.

Production:

For the actual shoot, we spent a full day at the location. The weather was much foggier than we anticipated, and although at first we thought that this would cause us problems, it actually worked really well. Adding to the isolated feel of the location. 

Overall the shoot went well. We stuck to the schedule and were on time (if not ahead of time) for the full shoot. One issue we did have was with some of the more ambitious shots, such as having a sunrise (which we were going to have to fake by shooting sunset for sunrise anyway). The weather on the day of the shoot made this impossible, thus a couple of shots had to be cut.

Another issue that we had was with the power-banks for the audio recorder (Mix-Pre 3). The recorder seemed to think that the power-banks were drained, though whenever i checked the power-banks themselves they were almost full. I feel as though this was likely an issue on my part though, rather than the technology. A bad workman blames his tools etc. I managed to get the majority of the audio recorded using the shotgun mic and Mix-Pre 3, this was beneficial as it allowed me to use Wingman to label files. Something we would be thankful for in post-production. Anything that I was unable to get with the recorder, I managed to get using a Zoom recorder that we had brought as a backup. 

Post-Production

Once shooting was finished, Maddy synched the audio with the footage in AVID, before we moved everything onto a hard drive and delivered it to Dori for the edit. Unfortunately this didn’t fully go to plan as there were some issues upon opening the project on Dori’s computer. This was likely due to issues with going between Windows and Mac.

Once this issue was fixed though the picture edit seemed to go quickly, with Dori sending different versions of the film into the groupchat for feedback with each pass of editing. Whilst this was being done, Maddy and I sat down to write the score that would be used in the final shot of the film. Using a Mac with Logic Pro X borrowed from a friend (massive thanks to Sam for that!)

Once we reached picture lock, I took over. Booking 3 days in Screen Academy to sit down and work on the sound design. The majority of the sounds within the finished film were from recordings on location on the day of the shoot. The breathing sounds (without the gas mask) were recorded by Maddy, with the gas mask breathing being sourced online. 

Working out what sounds to include within the sound design was very difficult, since the world that we were trying to create was one of desolation. The main sounds coming from Them (the main character) and the wind. I decided to add a geiger counter sound as a way to motivate the use of the gas mask as well as to build tension. Building the geiger counter with a single ‘beep’ sound that I placed at different intervals depending on how much radiation there would be within the different locations.

The Crit:

What Went Well:

The genre is clear 

The location is well chosen and the set design is very effective. It really adds to the clarity of the genre.

The colour grade is really effective and further adds to the sci-fi aesthetic with the use of orange tones.

The performance & casting

Close-ups are well used and convey a lot despite the lack of dialogue

People liked the score!

Areas For Improvement:

The levels of the sound mix are too low

Although some people liked the geiger counter, due to the fact that it was an idea that came in post rather than during production, it doesn’t have any visuals that situate it within the film. It was confusing whether it was a geiger counter or some sort of locating device

Some of the shots have a slightly soft focus.

The title is maybe too long.

It could have been nice to fade between shots in the journey.

What I Have Learned:

Pay attention to levels!

Long titles can work sometimes. But use sparingly.

I love doing production design.

Although it is possible to situate sounds within a space without seeing the source, it doesn’t always work.

Even if you think you have enough batteries, always bring more! And even though backup kit (in case of emergency) may seem like overkill, it often isn’t and you will be thankful for that little Zoom recorder.

Plan For The Future:

I plan on booking some more time in Screen Academy after Christmas in order to work on the sound design again and improve it. This will be both beneficial to the film, as well as to my skills.

I will use this time to: 

Look for a solution to the geiger counter issue. I would like to find a way to keep it in but link it to the visuals, perhaps through EQ, Reverb, and Panning to situate it with Them ?

If I keep the geiger counter in, I want to try adding a static crackle to it, as it currently sounds too pristine.

Fix the levels within the mix.

Foley some ‘gas mask breathing’ of my own and give more variation to the character’s breathing when wearing the gas mask.

Another pass on the footsteps.

[gunterfan1992]

Episode Reviews: ‘Two Swords’/’Do No Harm’ (S08E14-15)

Airdate: January 23, 2017

Story by: Ashly Burch, Adam Muto, Jack Pendarvis

Storyboarded by: Tom Herpich and Steve Wolfhard (”Two Swords”), Laura Ketzger and Emily Partridge (”Do No Harm”)

Directed by: Andres Salaff (supervising), Sandra Lee (art)

When I was a kid, I always found the topic of identical twins to be fascinating. Here you have two people who, in terms of physical substance, are as identical as possible. What were to happen if two twins were born, who, by circumstance, had all the same types of atoms in all the same types of places? In other words, what would happen if two individuals were born that were literally identical? Would those two people really just be one?

It would argue that this is unlikely, given that each of us seems to have some part of our very being that does not just simply reduce to the atoms out of which we are made (of course, this is a huge philosophical point of contention). Call it what you want (the je ne sais pas, the soul, the life-force), but I prefer “essence”. I truly believe that if two individuals were born with the same material makeup, their essences would be different, and hence they would be different people.

What what if two people are created who, in terms of material, are different, but in terms of essence are the same? This is the issue that plagues Finn in “Two Swords”/”Do No Harm”.

Following the events of the season 7 finale “Reboot”, Finn discovers that his grass-arm and his Finn-Sword have combined to form a new entity: Grass-Finn. We the audience are treated to an artful depiction of how this entity came to be: when the grass-sword pierced the Finn-Sword, the grass-curse (depicted as a cute little Cthulhu-spider-demon) that has been attached to Finn since the season 5 episode “Blade of Grass” ensnared the alternate reality Finn that (for lack of a better term) inhabited the Finn-Sword. The two merged into one being, resulting in Grass-Finn coming into existence.

At first, Grass-Finn thinks that he is Finn himself, but he quickly realizes that this is not the case. There’s something ‘off’ about him, and he cannot seem to do anything right. Eventually he accepts the fact that he is Other Finn, and as such he falls into a deep depression. This is understandable, given the existential issues that are at play here. Who is he exactly? Where did he come from? Why did all of this happen?

While Grass-Finn mopes about, the ‘main’ Finn goes to the hospital to check on Susan Strong. He apologizes to her unconscious self, admitting that the reason she is in the hospital is because of his actions. Dr. Princess hears this and demands that he take over as the hospital doctor to make up for his actions. Thus begins a cute but not entirely essential plot wherein Finn does a labcoat and goes to work trying (and ultimately) failing to give medical aid to those around him. As I said, while this plot isn’t really essential to understanding the two episodes as a whole, it is nevertheless pretty funny.

Meanwhile, the Grass-Finn and Jake locate the Grass Wizard, who placed the original curse on Finn in “Blade of Grass”. Grass-Finn confronts the wizard and begins to somewhat mercilessly beat him. Jake steps in, telling Grass-Finn that the wizard has taken enough abuse, and it is at that point that Grass-Finn realizes that, while he is alive, he doesn’t really know who he is. At the end of the episode, he tells Finn and Jake to call him “Fern”. He then steals Starchie’s motorcycle (”No! Starchie’s mid-life crisis!”) and drives away into the sunset.

And with that, “Do No Harm” ends on a very existential note. While it’s undeniable that Fern’s essence (i.e. the alternate reality Finn located in the Finn-Sword) was in existence before Fern came into being, this does not provide Fern with an answers as to who he is anymore than saying that he is simply grass material. To find out who he really is, Fern must go out and live his life. In this way, Fern's actions echo the key existentialist idea that existence than essence is more important in defining one’s identity.

Let us go back to our opening question. If two beings are made out of different material but the same essence, I would argue that they are still not the same being, because they have separate existences which will lead them to develop different identities.

Enough philosophical mumbo jumbo.

“Two Swords”/”Do No Harm” are a nice way to open season 8. Tonally, the two episodes feel reminiscent of the season 7 finale, and this continuity is appreciated. I’m curious if the entirety of season 8 will take on the tone as laid down by these episodes. In other words, will they be soul-search-y in a funny and amusing way (as opposed to soul-search-y in a dark and somewhat depressing way, cf. season 6)? Given that Islands is going to address some big questions about Finn’s origins, I assume that the existential elements that are to be found in “Two Swords”/”Do No Harm” will crop up now and again throughout this season. There’s also the fact that Fern will almost certainly show up again, meaning that the ‘search for meaning’ theme is far from over.

But, like I said, these two episodes were quite funny. From Jake knocking Bubblegum over and jettisoning out a window, to Mr. Fox simply just existing, these episodes had their fair share of funny jokes and amusing set pieces. You all know how much I love it when the show can balance humor with serious topics, so you probably aren’t surprised to hear me writing positively about “Two Swords”/”Do No Harm” in that regard.

In terms of art and design, the show has undergone a subtle but noticeable change. I chalk this up to the fact that the show does not (currently) have a lead character designer (both Joy Ang and Michael DeForge are jointed listed as character and prop designers) and has a new background supervisor (Jacob Winkler). The changes are most noticeable to my eye in the background pieces, as they seem to be reminiscent of Ghostshrimp in that they are full of fun bits of clutter, but they are also somewhat more detailed. This is not a bad thing at all, but just something I feel I should mention.

(Also, it looks like Ako Castuera’s back, only now she’s doing storyboard revisions. Cool!)

If there are any issues with these episodes, it simply that the pacing was, at times, all over the place. Finn-as-doctor, for instance, was really funny, but it was kind of oddly inserted into an otherwise completely story. Since everything worked on a humorous level, I don’t see the pacing to be a major issue, but it does drag the episode down a bit.

Mushroom War Evidence: There is debris in the Grass-Wizard’s hedge maze. It’s unclear if it’s pre-Mushroom War or not.

Final Grade:

[creativesounddesigntexasshepherd]

Semester 1 Year 2 Catch-up Revise

Hi! So As you probably know, this is a catch up because of the amount of work and time spent on our main VFX project was time intensive.  So after the completion of our VFX, I’m going back and revising how the classes from sound design helped me achieve my goal in re-creating our VFX movie sound from almost nothing. 

Most of this research was conducted and applied visually before applying it to our creature and film. (Because sound comes in POST-production, but some elements were considered beforehand ie music)

WEEK ONE to THREE.

Week one was a hectic week. Halfway through our visual effects project, (semester-long project) - we generated some basic sounds for what’s called a “pre-vis” which is taking the storyboard and other images to help generate the narrative of our film. 

Week two we were shown examples of different films, a sense of perspective was generated with sound. “Figure and ground in the sound image” Which definitely made me think of  Relating back to my very first project, I had to think about how sound would be applied and used to tell a visual narrative. With the help of our last project, we were asked to recreate all sounds inside a short film. Personally, I loved this project. This enabled me to think about field recordings and how I could create a sound-bank for the film to use certain bits of sound that may or may not fit.

WEEK FIVE (plus) 

Week five and onwards were not very attentive for the sound design class itself- mainly because production and preproduction came first which ultimately became a huge chunk of time that needed to be dedicated to the major. Because sound is often left towards the later stages, POST production. But for the next 3 weeks, I can confirm that the process of making the music for the film was a challenge. The previs was generated and storyboard was generated. The process of sound designing the creature was also beginning to be developed through tests of distortion and trying to find a natural sounding yet horrifying noise.

During these weeks we had attempted a number of different field recordings with one shotgun mic and a zoom mobile recorder. We attempted to match the same running and pacing to the video but found it was tricky because it would change time and tempo every time we imported it. 

As a solution I decided to take one piece that had the same number of footsteps and cut them, move them and warp them into the same position. Upon the second time watching the film you would hear that some footsteps do not match, yet they do. That is because they were added in post-production and through foley. What I would love to do next time is to create a space where the foley is recorded in one take and not edited on a laptop. I feel the sound would be clearer. 

(The later weeks 9-12)

Towards the later process, the time-intensive project became almost unbearable. More than 500+ hours were spent on just trying to figure out the pathway on how to create our creature, and during the nights I’d spend generating and integrating the music into the real film. 

Santiago’s Film.

During the time-intensive project, I found myself helping a friend with his own film with sound design. Because of his circumstances, I noticed he was doing all the sounds in after effects and I saw that that wasn’t very efficient at all, and because of his team letting him down and making him do all the work, I empathized with him and told him I’d quickly help out with his sound design. I wanted to test how quickly I could create a small soundtrack and foley in the time we were given. So not only was I generating and refining our own film, but I was also helping another with another visual project. But because I could see what was going on, I looked into the public domain for free sounds and any royalty-free place that had these sounds (with the help of Santiago). 

so why help when I had deadlines?

1. I didn’t want to see an aspiring visual artist in film and vfx struggle at a sound design where all that time could be used to help fix up visuals. 

2. I was already pretty efficient at my own program studio one and had almost completed our own film. 

So during the nights, I had spent my time multitasking working on my own and Santiago’s film.

The end weeks. 

After helping finish Santiago’s film and ours, we had spent so much time working as hard as we could (which cost me not going to certain classes for a bit). We were in university from 10am to 10pm most days/nights to complete the project.

(The main project below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4seMn3KKQ3E

(Music incorporated for breakdown and used in main)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-548sln5-g