Last BG

3rd Aug 2013





Finally tying up loose ends of 'The Mailbox'. The editing and compositing is almost done. I had to do a lot of emergency work and extra bgs and special effects. It's been a frustrating journey trying to learn AE on your own. Luckily I had some help from Rajeev Uncle who helped with some basics.

Here's one of the last few bgs I had to paint. Must be one of the simplest done out of lack of patience but it works. Had to make a lot of compromises so far.

 

And for some people who want to start living and believing again, you'd be honoured to find this. 

Overflowing water shot

17th June 2013

Finally finished one godforsaken shot from Scene 5. It lasts for just a second but has so many goddamn frames of moving water. Still need to be clever with loops. This one's not a loop. Luckily I found a good reference on youtube. Although I'm not entirely happy with this shot I don't think it could get any better. :( It's been ages since I updated here - because the progress is so slow its barely worth updating! Here it is. Took nothing less than 4 hours. :'( I hope it was really required.

Update and observations

22nd January 2013



Obviously it's been too long since I posted here! I wish I had kept on updating this but I have been so invested in the film, I just want to finish it on time. I've been under a lot of pressure balancing my Atnovus work and The Mailbox work. Animation is painstaking and the output is very disappointing considering I knew very little then as I know by now. The process of film making is so long and tedious that when you reach the last shots, you realize how ugly the first shots look and you just want to redo it, but you can't. You have to tell yourself that the time has passed and you have to move on to grow. You're learning, and for that you have to finish something, not keep holding onto it and perfecting it.

Cleanup is taking really really long and I've sort of figured out what went wrong earlier. I should have done another pass of cleaner lines and then done the final cleanup rather than directly coming to the final cleanup. It's totally ruined my animation! Also you have to keep flipping and keep the lightable on at all times, or you lose the flow of the animation and start to do it mechanically. But I can't afford to redo so many shots! So I'm just gonna do the incomplete ones.

Sigh. Then I gotta color and do light passes, and try to reduce the background's appearance. Finally I have to composite on after effects - something I have no idea how to do.

Anyway, that's all for now. Mosquitoes are killing me. It's 2:15 AM and I'm alone in college. It's much more peaceful and focused than during the day. Gotta get rid of machchar (mosquitoes) though.
It's been a great experience so far, and I've become a much more focused determined and hard working individual. I think I can endure anything now.


Goodnight blog! :)

Here are some fully rendered screenshots I had to sent to the placement cell.

BG #4_19

23rd Oct 2012


Squeezed out one more BG outta myself. Unfortunate news: I am getting pretty lazy, fat, lonely and a wee bit depressed at home. Not the reaction I expected, but I am gonna get my stuff together and hold my chin up.

Gran gave me an unexpected gift on my birthday day before, and I went through an emotional roller coaster. It was from grandad as well, and I don't know if he would have been proud of me, had he seen what I am today. Anyway. Here's all I got.

The Mailbox - test 3

17th Oct 2012

So I was told to submit the final film with sound and everything to my H.O.D. It's obviously impossible, but this was the best I could do with the given deadline. Of-course I'm going to change a lot of things. Lets see how it works out in the end! For now, munch on this >



I'm kind of getting how the film is supposed to look by the end of it. Still have to add change and boil a lot of shots!

See you soon!

Rampage of BGs

Too much pressure from our sick sadistic institute has made me churn out some mediocre but quick BGs for the mailbox. What takes 6 months is told to be done in 6 days! Talk about exaggeration. Here they go.

Also looking for a decent soundtrack. My great foundy friends Dhruv and Krithika are helping me out there. That's all for now!

Shot 5_3

26th September 2012


I have shifted to the comp lab thanks to the departure from Pune of my close friend and bench-mate Vicky Punjabi. Things are better here than there in the noisy stinky class. I did a whole lipsynch shot today and I'm SO happy with how it turned out. I learned more than I did with the stupid lipsynch assignment we had done back in Sem 5. Such a waste. This is how you learn!

Also my friends said the sound is unclear, so I'm gonna have to re-record Ishan's voice. I hope that can be synched to this animation or I'll have to re-animate also! :(

Enjoy!