Merry X-mas everyone!
Heather and I decided to spend Christmas in Los Angeles this year - which means the weather is very favorable but rather un-Christmaslike compared to the upper midwest. Since it was just the two of us, we spent the holiday in Disneyland (just in time for the 50 year celebration) and had a pretty relaxing time. For those who haven't seen it - they decorate the Haunted Mansion ride in a "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme, and everything in the ride changes to get the full "Nightmare" treatment. I was worried that the changes would ruin my favorite ride, but I was more than impressed - considering "Nightmare" is one of my favorite movies. Other than that, we ate tons of sweets and did everything we wanted - forgetting all the worries of everyday life. See you next year!

Working on these BGs is like doing work all over again. The scene before this was an establishing shot, and these just need to match the color and style. Nothing new - but lots of checking to make sure the work isn't straying off of the key. This one was also a two-parter, where I up-rezed the BG so that on the close-up part there is no resolution degradation. In short, just work that has to be done without much "New" to see. Now I'm trying to decide if I should work out the remaing BGs in the scene, or just do the animation on this one. The animation is tempting - but my brain likes the idea of finishing off this task of BG matching while all this work is still fresh and I can remember what layer composite styles I used and all that jazz. I blocked out the animation tonight just to make the decision more difficult :)

This next shot starts out with Santa hiding out behind part of the landscape. He pops his head out and observes. The camera trucks back to reveal some playful action between two of the alien inhabitants. The whole planet is like a large school playground - where playing and having fun is the primary activity. This scene and most to follow involve more character animation - so the updates may take a little longer as I work on these shot by shot.

X-Sheets

I spent the evening filling out X-Sheets (or dope sheets) for the remainder of the film. You don't really need to use these much anymore, but I still really find these helpful for guiding me through the shots. At this stage, I concentrate on the beats and plan out all the action. The storyboard animatic was cut directly to the music, so following this is a must. I don't animate with the music track so I use these to verify all the important areas where I can't fudge the action.

The Animation for these little buggers was competed yesterday. The planet is filled with these guys zipping around and going about their daily activities.
For me, these shots are all about making the action interesting but not particularly distracting. I didn't want any one Alien activity to draw attention away from the introduction of the landscape.
The Aliens fly around in their own personal ships, but occasionally you can spot them traveling in groups. The more the merrier!

THE ALIEN PLANET

Here's the final background for the Aliens. This one took about a week on and off, with a lot of back and forth decision making. Being too tight at the thumbnail stage in some cases makes it harder for me to make choices. I tried to simplify a bit - without loosing too much of what I liked before. This was another BG that I had to make extra large to accommodate the multi-plane truck-in.

I just wanted to write a little congratulations to my wife Heather for the recent work she's done on "The Chronicles of Narnia". The movie looked great - and I couldn't be prouder of her.

Sometimes, Heather draws pictures of herself. Here's a recent one that I think is very cute.

WINTER WONDERLAND


It's getting pretty cold out there - so this type of imagery comes to mind. This is a color comp I did for the family in the films opening scene. This was from the first model of them all in their winter clothes, and I'm not sure if anything was changed from this. This shot that features the parents is the one outstanding shot that has yet to be completed. If you haven't figured out yet, the scenes I'm doing now are in chronological order.

In the meantime, I'm trying to keep warm in my basement - working still on the Alien planet BG. My wife went off to work on another job in LA this week (cry) so I'll try to focus my attention on the project to drown the distance woes :)

Alien

World

Next Up - the Alien world where Santa goes to capture the mischievous Alien. This establishing shot is one of the more interesting in the short. When I did this thumbnail, I spent a little more time laying out the colors I wanted to use in this segment.

I forgot to mention - the last shot completes the entire "North Pole" sequence. That officially marks the first sequence of shots completed since I started this blog. Thank you to everyone who has joined me on this part of the journey!