Just wanted to say

GOOD JOB YOU GUYS <3333

Final Notes

Here are the notes from last week:

Nick:
- add swish sounds when switching between sponge and octo
- add sounds of birds holding in laughter
- more time on smoking starfish (done)
- add bird's sighs
- add in octo's scream when being pulled by dolphin
- show both arms "snapping" (done)
- add splash sound when octo is coming down from slingshot
- continue "soaring up" sound after you cut to the bird talking (before impact)

Alex:
- have blowfish floating up on seperate level
- zoom in at fast cuts between glider and octo
- maybe spend more time on airplane love scene
- add 1 more scene of tentacles sinking underwater

Angerla:
- make seagull talking (during blowfish scene) louder
- add ambient (background) sound during blowfish scene
- the sound was a bit off at the end of the airplane scene- please fix this

Karsen:
- add bird's gasp
- add long truck out at the last shot

FTP Info

Host: tobias.dreamhost.com
User: adereis
Pass: lagunacollege

A question!

Hey guys, can I get the name of the song used in the first scene between octopus and seagull? Thanks!

Nov 23 Notes - 2

Here are the notes I transcribed from Alex's notes:

REEL:
- 1st zoom out from the sun is too fast
- give other female octopus more time
- ABC drawings with female octo drawing square.
A. start with just him
B. her hands on top
C. her hands in middle of drawing square
D. her hands finished square
*dots following hands
- first her hugging her boyfriend, hand pops in
- woosh sounds when going back and forth between him and the sponge
- ABC drawings when he comes up to the girl who inks him, have him come onto the scene
- give the sigh more time (let him sit there for a second)
- transitions around crash scene
- have birds eye view right after crash
- slow down the ending

- for the sunflare, use a white out effect
- instrumental opening song
- seagull sounds when she and the group are flying away
- have him make lasso after bird dives
- cuts with lasso and bird and dolphin need to be a bit longer/easier to read
- remove wooshing sound after bird dives
- add shot of bird flying away from dolphin scene
- elastic sound when tentacles are pulled tight from dolphin
- splash of dolphin going under
- lengthen shot of water before octopus splashes in to whale scene
*have bubbles, fish, or toned background to make it clear that we are now underwater
- longer whale sound when he's coming up to eat octopus
- more time for whale to sit on surface before blowing
- hold the speeding sound more

Let me know if anything doesn't make sense/was written down wrong!

November 23 Notes

• Add seagull gag sound, laughing sounds

• Have a close up of the starfish choking

• Cross dissolve from "awwww" view of her to him
• sneaker bird sounds
• take the song longer by a stanza or so.
• extend dream moment at least 2x or 3 longer
  
• start closer with the camera when she's winking and then zoom out.
  
• Fade out is a bit too fast from Rebecca's scene to nick's
• Pan up the rock
• start with the start fish
• see the tentacle then add the smack (have A and B drawings)
• Fash woshing sounds (similiar to someone grabbing things quickly), when he's reaching for the bird.
• A and B drawings when he's falling
• Panel of him talking to the whale-have him make sounds as if he's talking
• Add more blahs when the bird is talkingto the other bird
• More sad time with the octopus (Karsen's scene)
• Add music when the two are together on the plane
• When the engine sound is going, have the screen shake
• Fix the bird drawings to be more clear (airplane)
• add missing frame from octopus passing out
• Have woosh or flapping sound when she's fling by
• Have bird cawing when she goes and attack the puffer fish
• Extend bird talking shot
• screams with octopus and glider
• screaming swimmer
• scary underwater sounds (shark chomps)
• longer shots at octopus and bird plane
• cross dissolve of faint
• bird gasp before going under water
• release of bubbles under water
• snapping of jelly fish needs to be louder
• zing/ding for reveal of pearl
• kiss sound
• record "mmm" for hug
• scratch record idea at end
• beautiful ending song
• scratch record
• "I Need You" song for credits
  

The Agony of the Starfish

Pixar Story Artist Interview

http://sketchoholic.com/Talent/member/my_contest_items.php?ContestID=912

colored board samples

For description see comments of Rebecca's post.

What We Need

Hey, guys! So if you haven't checked your e-mail, Dave canceled class today. That being so, was there anything we were planning to talk about in order to finish our storyboards? Maybe the color pallet for our panels? I just don't want us to get behind. Have a good day! :)

Action!

I wrote up a little tutorial on recording actions in Photoshop, so you can edit large batches of images automatically. I used Photoshop CS3 here.

This is my first tutorial on anything, ever, so bear with me! ;P And let me know if there's anything too vague or confusing.

Recording the action:

1.) Create a folder named "source", and another folder named "destination" (you can name yours whatever you want of course, but this makes it easier to explain :P).

2.) Place your scanned panels in the "source" folder.

3.) Start up  Photoshop and open your first scan.

4.) Open up the Actions panel (Window>Actions). Click "Create an action" and name it whatever you like.

5.) Press the "Record" button.

6.) Make whatever adjustments you'd like (change color, contrast, etc.)

Cropping: If you don't want/need to crop your panels then just press "Stop" in the Actions panel and skip the next steps

7.) If you want to add cropping to the action, your scanned panels should be somewhat consistent  in size/placement. For example, I have all of my panels scanned like this:

7a.) Crop the first panel:

   
  










7b.) Go to File>Save As and save the cropped panel to the "destination" folder.

c.) Open the History panel (Window>History). Select the last step in the list (Crop) and delete it. This should undo the cropping.

d.) Crop the second panel:

e.) Go to File>Save As, and save the panel to the "destination" folder, but this time make sure that the "As a Copy" box is checked.

f.) On the Actions panel, press "Stop".

g.) Close the file without saving, then delete everything in the "destination" folder.


Applying the action to your scans:

1.) Go to File>Automate>Batch.

2.) In the Play menu, Choose your action from the Action list.
   
3.) In the Source Menu, choose "Folder",  then click "Choose" and set the "source" folder as your source. You can leave all the other boxes unchecked.

4.) In the "Destination" menu, choose "None".

5.) Click OK.

Done! If everything went right, all your cropped and edited panels should be in the "destination" folder.

Hope you find this helpful!





  

Story Reel Coloring

Here are a couple of Jamie Hewlett's animatics for Gorillaz' music videos. I just wanted to throw them out there, i think the limited color really packs a punch and emphasizes the key points. Since we don't have as much time something like this might be a good alternative to storyboards with full color palettes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYDmaexVHic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFMOFd4-6xA

Presenting next week

Hi everyone,

So we have to present next week, and this will count for a grade. So! Remember to practice. Try incorporating sound effects while you present. Change your pitch and pacing when you say certain things. Pause for dramatic effect. Be very excited about your part. If you're excited, then it'll pass to the audience. Have confidence! We're all there to support each other so don't be afraid or shy. :)

Sounds

Recording:
-Bird
-Bird Posie
-Octoladies
-Octopus

Stock Sounds:

• Boey
• Splash
• Dive
• Bubble
• Wosh
• Whiteboard squeak
  
• cave man grunt
• wipe sound
• purse snap
• ambient sea noises
• spray bottle
• ketchup bottle
• bubles
• water/whispy
• bubbles
• holy/violin music
• whistle/slide flute
• trumpet
• violin
• ding/ping for wink
• seagulls
• smoke/cigar
• yonk/woosh
• swish
• lasso
• light soaring sound
• whistle lasso
• swoop
• gasp.scream (starfish)
• swoop
• dolphine
• splashing
• rubber stretching
• wheph
• splashing
• rubber glove
• crack whip
• snap
• wind
• splash
• splash under water
• whale
• cave/rumble
• break water surface
• trumpet or dave
• jet
• triumphant music
• heavy squeak
  
• bubble/sigh
• suction cup
• bubbles
  
• whipping away
• 2 balloons rubbing/rubber cork in vial
• taa-daa
• grunt
• wosh
• bubbles escaping/wind knock out
• bubbles
• balloon blowing up
• flying/woosh
• woosh
• squak
• fart/balloon sound
• splash
• glurp
• buble
• splash coming out
• triumphant music
• dun dun dun
• wet slap
• flapping
  
• under water splashes
• under water scream
• swimming sounds
• chomping sound
• heavy/swimming fast
• woosh
• break sound
• tool sounds
• airplane sounds
• propellers
• epic airplane music
• motor
• propeller failing/engine failing
• cupping/hickey skin suction
• falling airplane sound
• snap
• plane diving
• touch of fish flapping
• water crash
• bubbles
• woosh
• clunk
• exhale
• soft bubbles
• swoosh
  
• prit
• splash
• bubbles
• holding breath under water
• woosh
• rubber glove
  
• splash
• rubber on rubber
• hinge opening sound
  
• sparkle, harp, ping
• animal balloon
• bubbles
• happy instrument

Any music soundtrack for the background.

Preplaning to go to Storyreel

What lies ahead?

• Addressing all notes on the boards to date.
• Finalizing all panels in your boards
• Make sure everything is clear.
• Clarify staging in those panels
• Cleaning up panels
  
• It doesn't need to be super clean like animation.
• writing and recording final dialogue.
• something simple
• compiling sfx and music
• camera moves in red
• symmetry pass:
  -look through to see if the screen is flat
  -If its symmetrical is it symmetrical for a reason? Or is it just boring?
  
• If you have dialogue, put it on a separate strip underneath the board
• Instead of redrawing bigger to fit a better composition, you can just cut into the paper.
  
  Ultimate goal of a story reel:
• To keep everyone working together as a team.
• See what each person is interested in:
  -sound effects, music, cutting, etc
• To make the work entertaining, consistent and high quality as possibe
• Make sure timing is right
  -timing can make or break a great gag
• To shoot for a specific ideal such as the Little Mermaid reel we watch
  

Class notes from October 12th

Rebecca:
Have some breathing space for clarity with the group of birds. If need to, have a closer shot to show the gag.

When they're talking, have bubbles come out.

Nick:
Play with the star fish pose smoking more. Start off with a close up of him, and then zoom out to the octopus grabbing him.

Have a drawing of her reacting/being happy/squaking at seeing hte star fish.

Invert the placement of the starfish when the octopus puts him down

Test with the sound if you should show the slap or not.

Make the dolphin look like he's really trying to pull on the starfish

Watch the placement of the octopus an the whale (add bubbles to show him swimming in and out),

Change the configuration of the octopus flying so it's vertical.

Add action lines when needed.

Myself:
Have a long pan with bubbles going one way and then going the other way faster.

Push the bird away further from the blow fish in the first scene.

Draw octopus falling n bigger paper.

Karsen:
When the octopus is watching the hang glider person falling, have him watch, and then another panel of him grabbing the hang glider tightly for deer life.

At a point, you don't need the other jelly fish. Have the bird hit the plane. Have him shake his head. And then the other fish falls off.

Angela:

Rather than have the bird stick her toe in. Have her look around frantically for the octopus. Have her put her head down in the water. Sees him. Comes out and gasp. Looks around and finds the jelly fish and put it on.

Instead of having the octopus shake of the shell, have him present the clam as if he's presenting the pearl like a ring box.

Add one more long shot at the very end.

---
I'm so proud of you guys! Our group is doing so well. Thanks <3

Bird Revised 2.0

Here's another version of the bird. I kinda like the previous one more. I think three strings make it too busy, and the square thing was a good idea in theory, but I don't like how it looks. What do you guys think?

Revisions

Bird Revised

Here's the revision of the bird. I tried it with the collar and it looked too much like a duck. Haha, so I took it out. Tell me if you guys think I should change anything else.

Notes from October 05

Here are the notes from class.

Rebecca:

Make sure he has a distinctive square shape. I think you had one frame, where it was questionable.
Fix the direction when he first sees the bird
Fix the staging with the bird and her friends. She should be in the middle and everything should be really clear.
With the determined shot, make him more thinking and less angry looking.

Nick:
With the two girl birds and her shot. Keep the two friends close and keep her separated. Have them be more gestural.
Suggestion- have the starfish flip over with ti's butt in the air shaking when the bird comes to try and eat it.
Fix the angle of projectile with the dolphin and starfish.
Reverse the shot when he's coming out of the whale. (Which I think you did already).

Myself:
Have the complete back shot of the octopus doing something with his tentacles.
Make the starfish more grumpy.
Have the camera zip up to the blow fish.
Don't crop too much of the blow fish.
Have him blow into the blow fish, and as he gets bigger, the camera backs up.
Frame the blow fish with clouds as he drifts by.
Have the bird look up for consistency.
Push the Z-axis more for when they're skipping on the water.

Karsen:
Make the octopus happy for seeing the bird on the plane.
Suggestion- Perhaps add the starfish to the airplane to bring him back. If you do, make him absolutely miserable.
Add a shot of the octopus going through the water and the shark exiting.

Angela:
Push the look of concern on the bird.
Have more than one hand hugging her at the very end.
Don't just have her flying with her friends at the end. Have her see what she's done wrong. Do an "oh no" expression, have the other birds point and laugh, make her look hesitant, perhaps have her look back and forth, and then a "screw it" expression, and have her go help the octopus.

That's it! Keep up the awesome work everyone. I'll fix the bird designs and have it up by tomorrow. I don't think the boards have to be on model yet, since it's still the roughs. I'm not sure though. It's your call. :)

Panel for Alex

Here you go, sorry about the quality...

Character Designs

Hi everyone, here's my version of the characters. I guess we can vote on which one we want and go with that one.

Notes from September 28

Here are the notes from last week. I'm sorry for posting it so late. I've been really busy.

Rebecca:

Use two tentacles when drawing the square.
Make the sponge bigger.
After the ink, don't have him look up, make his eye half lid.

Nick:

Have 2 star fish in the lasso scene.
Have the first bird swoop down.
The octopus ducks.
Then the main bird scoops down.
And then he tries to lasso her.

For the swing shot:
Show one point of the rock. Then truck up
Have one tentacle latch on.
Show other point.
He latches on.


When he's falling have him come down in the water and pass the camera to off screen. Then have him come back into screen and see the whale.

With the whale scene, have him flying up looking happy and determined.

Myself:
The starfish is too much of a tangent.
Have the starfish get snatched
Then you see the tentacles building
Then out to the starfish with a bow
Then have the blow fish laughing at the starfish (blowing up while he laughs)
Then grabbed by the octopus etc.
Have the blow fish and octopus fall into the water and then comes up with the sting ray

Karsen:
When he comes up with the sting ray, have a "what the" expression but goes with it.
Push the staging with the octopus more.
When he's thinking have him use all arms with different poses. One scratching his head, one holding his chin, etc.

Angela:
Move Move the panel so we see what she's seeing. Have her want to go into the water, but doesn't like it.
Then sees the jelly fish and go in.
Really push the hug by having him hug her with all arms and really squeezing her
Have an aquatic transition at the end after you show the bird and the octopi.

Kay that's it. Sorry it's late again. Keep up the good work everyone.

Character Designs (work in progress)

Here are a few of the sketches i have done to figure out our character models. The octopus is pretty much down to one design, but as you can see, the seagull isn't. Let me know what you think of them as soon as possible.

Notes from September 21st

Here's the critique we got from class. I'm sorry it took me a while. I was a bit busy with stuff.

Rebeca:
Establish the bird eating starfish and puffer fish at the beginning. Have the female octopus react to the reason why she finds him disgusting. Such as, "you're so square" and have her draw a square. Or the sponge she's using can be a square. Have the bubbles/ink be in a square shape.

When the octopus first sees the bird, you can have sun rays behind her-making her all heavenly. When he reaches up for her, have her far away so he's really stretching out for her. When the other birds are making fun of her, have their head crane around looking or have them pointing at her.

Nick:
Add the Dolphin helping the octopus while he launches himself.

With the lasso: Have the bird spot the star fish. Swoops down and then have him get excited, sneak up behind a rock and try to catch her. "Secretly trying to catch her" Or something like that.

For myself:

Have the bird do a double take when she spots the puffer fish. Have the bird fly up and lick her chops. Then a panel with the puffer fish scared, and then finally have him toot.

Karsen:
Have some quick cuts switching back and forth between the hang glider and the octopus.

Angela:

After the bird give the octopus the peck, have the octopus do a cute/shy pose and then have him hug her.

And that's it I think. Also try to incorporate the main bird instead of random birds.

Title?

Do you guys have any title ideas? I came up with a couple...

"The Laridae Who Loved Me"

"So I Married a Mollusk: A Tale of Forbidden Love on the High Seas"

argh

Alright guys, I'm trying to work out the hangglider and airplane scenes.

• I changed the hangglider scene to have him crash into an actual hang glider. Thoughts, suggestions?
• I added a few shots of him building the shark plane.

I have two versions, one longer and one shorter. Here's the longer one (which I like better):



And here's the shorter one:

Story

Hey everyone,

We brought this up last tuesday, but i think before we get too far we should figure out an emotional story arc.

Also , after watching the story reels from last year, one important thing i think we should work on is making sure every scene in our story is indispensable to our storyline . We still have the core concept intact, i think we shouldn't be afraid to consider ideas outside the box we have created, in order to further the story.

Size Comparison and Redesign

Here's a sketch of the rough size comparison between the octopus and the bird. And here's an adjustment to the bird design. It's still open for change and such.

Notes from September 14

So here's a brief summary of the notes that I took last Tuesday.

We decided to add a group of female birds, that are chatty and such. We're going to add them in the intro, in one of Nick's scenes, and in Angela's scene.

I didn't write down what we critiqued to each other, but here's what Dave had to say about our stuff:

Too much time between the jelly fish falling and the bird using it. So perhaps have other rubble falling to connect that the jelly fish was from the plane.

He likes the sunrise idea, but he thinks we can stage it better.
His idea for it:
Some of the birds spiral up as the camera trucks up with them. The camera then goes back to the sun, and there's a sun flare that wipes the screen. The sun is then upside down and the octopus is looking at it.

The idea of the octopus being an outcast needs to be played up more.

Having a character being stuck up is not appealing unless the character changes in the end. (Which ours does). So....

• Things we need to consider with the bird personality. Why is the octopus attracted to her?
• We Need to make her really repulsive at first.

Maybe have him taunting him with her female bird fiends. Have her point at him and make fun of him.

• Have her hurt him at the end
• Have her feel really guilty about it.

What is the point of the starfish in Nick's scene?

• Is she eating it?
• If so, we can use the same starfish in the middle scene, where the octopus is going to go up in the puffer fish. Have him bring the star fish up as a present.

With Nick's scene, a good transition was to use the splash to cover the camera, and then wipe out to the next scene. He also suggested that it wasn't necessary to have him thinking, and to just show the next stunt right away.

A suggest for the rock launching scene was to:
Have the octopus grab one rock, and then the other. Then the octopus gives a nod. The same dolphin from before then pulls him back. We zoom out a bit, to reveal what's going on. The octopus gives another nod, and the dolphin lets him go flying.

He also thinks the whale scene could be faster. Just have the two talking, Then cut to the surface with a bunch of seagulls flying over. Then have the whale emerge. Looks up, and blows. The octopus comes out, and says "taa-daa!." (Even though he suggested it like this, I really like the way you have the whale swallowing the octopus.)

With the scene of the starfish hook, and the puffer fish:
He suggested to combine the two. Perhaps have the star fish (the same one from before), be a present he brings to her. He can put a bow on it to make it look like a gift.

Instead of having the bird take the blow fish away, the main bird comes up and is about to eat the blow fish, but the blow fish becomes too scared, and farts, which releases all the air. We can have him either flying across the screen in spirals, or have him skid across the water.

He then asked if he needs to get knocked out?
I personally think it adds to it, so I prefer it if we keep it in.

With the different devices, he thinks we can cut out the turtle crane. With the stingray scene, the thing he crashes into could be a boat, or something other than a random tree in the ocean.

The main bird tries to get the clam, and then she realizes what she's done then tries to save him.

The main things we need to work on is:

Character (Pushing their personality),
Pushing the Humor,
and Connectivity

Octoladies

Contraptions scene

Where our little octopus hatches crazy plans. All of which fail.









And this is my design for the plane. Suggestions?

Inspiration

http://www.deviantart.com/#/d2ynb3a

Here's a cute storyboard I wanted to share with you guys :).

I particularly like the panel with the boy squishing his face against the mirror. The snake's tail leads the viewer's eyes right to his face.

Last Scene

Note: I wasn't sure what to do with the knotted tentacles either, so I just left that for later... :P

Alex's Scenes (Thumbnail)

Hey everyone, here's my rough thumbnails for the scenes I got assigned.







Here's the other scene that's after Karsen's.

Motif Idea

Here's a motif idea I had for the camera shots. Since the story is all about a creature from DOWN below the water trying to get UP above to the air. I think it would be nice to have a lot of pan shots that go up and down (and vice versa).

For instance, we already have the opening and ending shot like that, perhaps we can add it here and there during the middle parts. What do you guys think?

Octopus and Bird Rough

Here's the image for the rough design that we tried.

Also, we need to come up with a title! So come up with some ideas for that too. :)

Notes from September 07

Hey everyone,

Here's a copy of the notes that I took down from our last class.

The Story:

It starts with a sunrise, and all the birds are sitting together as couples, and then it pans down to the octopuses, who are also together. Then it shows the two odd balls (our main characters). They fall in love. The bird tries to go to the octopus, but when she touches the water, she responses, "eww," and returns back to the sky. Throughout the rest of the story, she's still in love with him but plays hard to get, and acts oblivious to his attempts.

So the octopus tries a number of stunts, which is as follows:

1) launches himself by latching to rocks and flinging himself.
2) trying to launch himself through a blow hole of a whale. (Maybe have him spew ink her as he flies away)
3) uses his arm as a laso, but it gets caught on a dolphin.
4) gets a star fish and turn it into a grappling hook.
5) ask his puffer fish friend to turn into a blimp, but the puffer fish gets eaten by another bird couple.
6) He ask his sting ray friend to become a glider.
7) He makes a crane out of random sea items
8) He makes a plane out of random sea items.

Each attempt, the pace gets faster and he gets more mad and ambitious. He gets closest to the plane, but because he's so excited and flapping his arms everywhere. One gets caught in the tail of the plane (which is a clam), and the plane spins out of control. He tries to use his parachute (which is a jelly fish), but the clam makes him too heavy and the parachute flies off. His legs get tangled. The clam makes him crash into the water and pulls him down. The bird finally notices that he's in danger, sees the jelly fish, and puts it on her head. She goes and rescue him.

When the octopus is saved, he's very happy and wants to give her something. He looks around and sees the clam on his arm, pulls it off, and gives her the pearl inside of it.

We have the same shot as the beginning, but it's now sunset. The bird couples are on the top, and the octopus couples are on the bottom. The odd couple are swinging in the water watching the sunset happily.

We shot the credits, and then there's a short clip after that, that shows the couple's weird babies.

If I missed something from the story, I apologize. Just tell me and I'll fix it. :)

The outline of the characters:
Octopus: love sick, resourceful, nerdy.
Bird: hot chick, stuck up, loves octopus but plays hard to get

Scene Assignments:
Rebecca: Intro to the first attempt.
Nick: First three attempts.
Alex: Fourth, Fifth, and when the octopus faints in the water.
Karsen: Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth attempt until he crashes.
Angela: When the bird sees him in trouble until the very end.

If anyone needs help or wants more work just say something and we'll readjust it.

I think that's it! I'll post the sketch that I have of the octopus in the next post.

Bird Sketches