Whilst our brains have been recovering from the intense brainstorming sessions of the mornings we've been doing a bit of research and development. These sessions have been spent watching DVD's and web movies. It's great to be able to watch films and call it research!

Hopefully the R&D and pre production will pay off in the end. We haven't even touched the computers yet. It's good to be able to know what we'll be able to do in the computer. I guess it's something that only experience can provide. Unlike previous projects I've worked on it'll be good think more artistically rather than have the technology get in the way.

This week I've learnt that:
Dave and I are animators not writers!
This project is going to be hard work, not a holiday!
It's going to be great fun!

WEEK 2. 12th - 16th Nov
Story, Story Boards, Script
The second week of the project is now over. Things are moving along. This week we concentrated on refining the story. Perhaps the biggest improvement in the story has come from running our ideas past other people. The feedback has been great! Everyone has been extremely enthusiastic to help out wherever they can. In fact things have gone so well that we're planing to put together a small mailing list of trusted friends to give us feedback throughout the entire process, kinda like a play-testing/screening group.

We also finished the storyboards this week. There are still a few problems to be ironed out but we're right on track. The story keeps getting stronger. It'll be good to get back on the computer - back in familiar territory.

This week I've learnt:
The value of feedback
Drawing is fun and I should do more of it!

WEEK 3. 19th - 23rd Nov
Animatic
This week took an unexpected turn when we put together our storyboards to create an animatic. It soon became clear that instead of moving straight to the 3d layout like we'd scheduled it was going to be much easier for us to flesh out the story/pacing of the short in the animatic.

So we've been working and re-working the animatic. It's really amazing! All of a sudden the short film is starting to take shape. Dave has been recording and re-recording the dialog while I draw new storyboards where the old ones don't fit. Already we seem to have a working edit of the film. I'm kind of nervous because we've got it to a stage that we might start showing it to some people. We've both been looking at it all week and think that it has a lot of potential, but it's hard to stand back and see it for what it really is. It'll be great to see what people actually think.

This week I've learned
The importance of the animatic and how it can quickly give feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the film - before we've even started on the 3d!

WEEK 4. 26th - 30th Nov
Well we received some mixed feedback from the very first showing of the animatic. Primarily when we reviewed the feedback it was obvious that the film needed more punch.

So early in the week we added sound fx to give it a bit more life… and it turned out quite well. All of a sudden our feedback was a lot more positive. But we still have a lot to do.

The rest of the week was spent refining the script, making changes were applicable and starting to model low res props and characters for the layout process. It's tough at this stage in the process because there's still a lot of work in front of us. Hopefully the pre planning will pay off in the end.

This week I've learned
That sound is going to be very important.
That writing a script is hard work.
Critical feedback is great, as long as you can take it!

WEEK 5. 3rd - 7th Dec
We started off this week with the newly acquired feedback that we've received during the past week. We've further refined culled and hacked at parts of the story and script. The biggest thing to go was an entire scene that people were struggling to understand. Luckily, deleting this scene has meant that the story is now tighter than ever, and we have a whole lot less work to do! Now the running time of the animatic is very close to the length we were originally aiming for - about 2.5-minutes.

Dave spent the rest of the week starting on layout and so far it's looking great! We'll be constantly updating the movie as we complete new sections. So far the animation stands at half animatic and half layout.

I spent the rest of the week on modelling the high resolution Bazza. At first I was having troubles getting our rough design to look good. But after a little feedback and reworking I'm happy with how he's turning out.

This week I've learned
Sometimes you have to be brutal with a script.
Character design is not a piece of cake.
Feedback, especially fresh feedback helps to get ideas flowing again.

WEEK 6. 10th - 14th Dec
This week started with an unexpected hiccup. Both Dave and I went on holidays out of the house last weekend. I returned Sunday afternoon to find the house totally trashed. As it turned out my sister's ex boyfriend (who was staying with us at the time) had had a schizophrenic breakdown and wreaked havoc through much of the house. Thankfully our computers remained in tact. Consequently we spent the early week cleaning up the house - not a fun experience.

I spent the rest of the week tweaking the Baz model and I also modelled our other main character Dazza. Thankfully I could re-use most of the Baz model in Dazza and so he came together quite quickly and easily. I'm happy with the models though they are a little different to what I had expected. It'll be interesting to see how well they go in animation.

The script also took a big change this week when we got a friend to have a look at it. It's had a complete re-write. All the elements are basically the same but the dialog has been changed completely. We were hoping to record the final voice this week. It'll have to be postponed now until after New Years as I'm on holidays for 2 weeks.

This week I've learned
Bad things can happen when you least expect them.

WEEK 7. 16th - 21st Dec
Holidays

WEEK 8. 24th - 28th Dec
Holidays

WEEK 9. 31st - 4th Jan
I got back from holidays on Monday, it's always great to take a break. New Years was Monday night so Tuesday was spent in recovery. After the long break it was good to get back into it. Now that the modelling of the characters is mostly complete I put together a quick facial rig to see how well the face mesh deforms. Previously I've done a lot of faces with just a couple of bones and lot's of morph targets. This time we're going to try to drive the facial expressions almost entirely from bones. So far the rig and the faces seem to hold up pretty well, so I've moved onto texturing.

WEEK 10. 7th - 11th Jan
This week I continued to texture the characters. I spent a bit of time just getting used to the UV unwrapping tools that I'm not used to. Now that I'm up to scratch with all the technicalities the texturing is progressing well. The models are quite cartoony but we've decided to go for a more realistic look in the texturing. It's fun painting warts all over the toads. It's great to have such a disgusting texture to work with because the realistic look is a lot easier to achieve.

This week we also recorded our final dialog for the film. Both Dave and I were both pretty nervous before the recording, we had decided to go with a professional voice actor so the recording session was going to be done in just a couple of hours. In the end we were very happy with the audio. It was also very interesting to be the "clients" for a change - a very interesting feeling.

We're finding that we're starting to fall a bit behind schedule so we're starting to ramp up our working hours on the film. The next 6 weeks are going to be intense.

This week I've learned.
About professional voice recording.
We realised that the voice will have a major impact on the film so it was interesting to have the whole dialog come down to just a couple of hours.

WEEK 11. 14th - 18th Jan
This week we rigged the characters, started building props and put the final dialog into the layout edit.

For the rigging Dave did both bodies and I did the heads. The body rigs have turned out very well so far, the characters can deform and move around quite easily.

The facial system it has proved a little tedious because we are using lot's of bones in the set up, hopefully the benefits of the bone facial system will be worth it.

We've also put together a solid "layout" edit with the final dialog. Both Dave and I are pleased with the layout. We've shown the latest edit to a few friends and family and the response has been very positive. In the beginning of the project we were given two pieces of advice on story, one was "if it works as stick figures it'll shine with the glossy graphics" and the other was "if you can tell the story in a pub and get people to laugh then you know your on the right track"… So far we know we're on the right track, even before we've animated a scene.

This week I learned
How tedious rigging up characters can be. But it'll be all worth it in the end.

WEEK 12. 21st -25th Jan
First week of animation! Well it wasn't exactly all animation, I had some technical problems earlier in the week and unfortunately it wasn't until Wednesday that we actually got animating. The tech problems caught me completely unaware, fortunately it only took a day to find the solution to the problem, unfortunately time is very precious now and everyday we don't animate is like 2 days lost because Dave is also left with little to do. So to fill the time Dave finished modelling our first set which is looking great even without textures.

Now that we are animating it's a bit strange, we've taken a look at our schedule and we've realised that we now have less than 5 weeks left till the animation has to be finished to a high level. In a project that is going to last 5 months 5 weeks isn't a lot of time for actual animation. The next few weeks are going to be hard work!

This week I've re learned
Tech problems are a major headache and are made worse by the fact that they're never planned.

WEEK 13. 28th - 1st Feb
Well time seems to be blending together now. We are spending the weekends working and the amount of work to do still seems endless. We are almost on track, just a couple of days behind schedule now. There's no rest for the wicked!

The Dazza rig is holding up well, it's good to have spent the effort on the rig. Animation is a bizarre thing, in my opinion it's the best part of the process because you finally get to see the characters come to life. But both Dave and I have such high expectations it can be hard work. Sometimes the animation just comes together and works, other times you can slave over a certain gesture just to make it read properly. It'd be great to have a lot of time on animation but we have to keep moving forward.

I've also done a couple of days of texturing on Dazza this week. He still needs some work but we've got plenty of time for that after the Feb deadline.

This week I've learned:
More about animation, it must take years to really master this part of 3d.

WEEK 14. 4th - 8th Feb
This week we spent finishing off the animation of our character Dazza. Early in the week we showed our early animation to a few people and got some good feedback on where improvements could be made. Since that we've both become a lot more accustomed his character and we've found better ways to make him feel much more alive. Most of this week was actually doing a few fix ups to earlier scenes that weren't up to scratch. . Dazza's animation is now pretty much complete so now it's onto the other character Baz. I also did my first render of Dazza with his textures on in animation, it's great to see your work with textures shadows and motion blur.

I've learned :
The importance of feedback in regards to animation.

WEEK 14. 11th - 15th Feb
Well we've just started the animations of Baz. And it's great to be on a character that you can play around with a bit more. Dazza's difficult because he's not moving very much. The position that we've got him in the dog bowl has meant that his movements can be restrictive at times. On the other hand Baz is unrestricted and it's fun to give him some snappy movements. There's still a lot to go over the next couple of weeks, it's great to see all of Dazza's playblasts in the running edit of the film, even if they're not rendered yet. All of a sudden the whole thing has a bit of life to it.

WEEK 14. 18th - 22th Feb
OK everything's coming together and we're looking good for our first deadline. Luckily it's all been smooth sailing - everything's gone to plan so far (touch wood).
We've both spent the week animating like crazy but I've still not had to put in any late nights of work and that's been great. Some of the shots are starting to look great now that they've been animated. It's amazing how much of a difference a bit of animation adds to the whole thing. Can't wait until the Wednesday deadline.

WEEK 14. 25th - 1st March
Well this week was it! Our first submission has been sent and delivered to Sigraph. We managed to get the whole thing rendered too. It's been a great effort to get through all of the animation and render it all in just 5 or so weeks. It really has been amazing to see how quickly this thing has come together after the first couple of months that were really slow moving. We've shown the film on VHS to a few people now and it's been well received even despite the fact that we've still got 7 weeks of work to do. I must say it's been a fantastic deadline to get all of the animation out of the way and have a first pass at the film done. Now we've got the next few weeks up our sleeves to make the whole thing sing. Of course I cringe when I see certain parts of the film but it's good to know that there's nothing that can't be tweaked over the next few weeks.

I've learned:
It's great to take a break, it's been a while since we've had a good break.

WEEK 14. 4th - 8th March
After a fairly easy week last week we're now back on track. This week has been spent texturing. Dave's done quite a bit of work on the water in the dog bowl including rippling water and bubbles. He's also got beer in Dazza's stubby that sloshes around - very cool. As for me I've been working on refining Dazza's textures… tweaking them a bit more plus we've both just about finished the texture work on the Dog Bowl scene. For the first time it feels like we're getting really close to the final look for some of these shots. Geez it's been a long slog but it's been worth it.

I've remembered:
The great feeling when you start to see your stuff all come together.

WEEK 15. 11th - 15th March
When they say that the last 5% is worth at least 30% they're not wrong. Putting the finishing touches certainly takes a fair bit of time. The worst thing about the final stages is that the whole process feels like it's going a lot slower.

This week I did some Dazza animation fix ups, including adding a couple of automatic "chin fat" controls for Dazza. Now when he looks around his chin automatically squashes and stretches accordingly. At the beginning of the project we were a bit worried about referencing all of our files. In hindsight it's worked brilliantly. As we've gone along it's been invaluable to be able to tweak things on just one file and have it update in all of our many animation files. Dave's also spent a bit of time on the Dog Bowl set, and it's really looking good. Things are starting to get fiddley now that we're starting to render, and we've also decided to go to HD res… just lucky we've got access to a render farm. :0)

The other big thing that happened this week is that we had a big critique session on the film. We put on free beer and invited all everyone around to see the film and make suggestions. It turned out very well, the only problem is that it really reinforces that fact that the film's not perfect… everyone had something to say. I found that the trick is to stay positive and try and filter the suggestions that are really worth changing. Despite all the suggestions the overall feedback was very positive.

WEEK 16. 18th - 22nd March
This week has been a fairly slow one again. I've been looking for a new place to live this week and it's taken a sizable chunk out of my time. Also the tedious nature tweaking makes the project feel like it's grinding to a halt. I can probably say that I'm getting pretty tired of the project, 5 months worth of work for just 4 minutes of animation can be a bit of a brain bender. But things are still moving, Baz now has final textures and quite a few of the props have been finished for the backyard scenes. All the Dazza scenes have been finalised (some reanimated) and most have been rendered. The amount of work is going to ramp up again over the next few weeks. I must admit that it'll be nice when it's all over.

WEEK 17. 25th - 29th March
Disaster has struck! This week we've found out that the film didn't make it into Sigraph. Dave and I are both very disappointed.

The only saving grace we have is that the film was not complete for the reviewing process*… if it had been I'm confident we could have made it. Even so the news has come as a bit of a shock. I've never been to Sigraph and it would have been great to go this year. Unfortunately paying the $4000 (Aus) to go doesn't have the same appeal now. I might just go skiing instead. J
Despite the bad news there's nothing stopping us from completing the project now. All along our deadlines have been for Sigraph but the real reason for making the short was for ourselves. And there's always next year.

*Next year Cane-Toad did make it into Sigraph. Our original submission had little to no textures on background elements and very rough lighting, some shots like the final shot was modified a great deal.

WEEK 18. 1st - 5th April
Most of the short has been finished now, not long to go now. We're starting to get sound effects and compositing done now and it's coming along great. Just two weeks to go now. I'm surprised at the amount of work is in the texturing and lighting business. The most frustrating part is the waiting - waiting for a giant scene to load or to test render a frame.

All that's remaining is the last "Tourist Shop" shot and the "Road Kill" shots. Dave's returned from doing night shift work so he's back onto the short full time. Can't wait until we're finished. It really feels as though we're going through the motions now it's both good and bad. On one hand it's great to see our work in it's final stages (it's taken a long time to get to see a finished shot!) and on the other it's a little frustrating because there's no changing anything now. 5 months is a long time to be thinking about this stupid little film.

WEEK 19. 8th - 12th April
Just one more week to go now, it's amazing to think that we've been doing this for almost 20 weeks. This week I had another look at the edit (which had been really bugging me) and culled back as much of the footage as we could, it feels a lot tighter now even though there's hardly a noticeable change to the structure. For the rest of the week I've been working on the last shot of the film… the tourist shop. In the "first submission" version of the film this shot was the most disappointing… the final shot reveals the biggest gag of the film and yet we found it hard to keep attention in that shot. This week I had a play with an animation to show Baz's reaction in the end of the film, it's helped a lot. I'm finally confidant that the end of the film will work. (just in time! :o) ) I've also taken some photos of shops this week for reference. Since then I've been remodelling the tourist shop and so far it's coming along well, I can't wait to texture it and give it that extra bit of sparkle.

This week our house got broken into. Dave lost about $4000 worth of guitar gear; the expensive digital camera I was borrowing also got stolen… I hope my insurance comes through. As bad as it was it could have been a lot worse… at least they didn't steal the computers!!

Summary
After this week Dave continued to render the film and I worked on the last shot of the tourist shop. Things were a little all over the place after this point because we were no longer working on the film together. Eventually the rendering was completed and we finally got to see the damn thing done. Read here for my retrospective a year later.