Done the essay!

Backgrounds have been repainted, all animation has been done and put together in AfterEffects. I was originally going to hand it in just line tested (since I’d never get it inked and properly coloured in time), but after twiddling around with the blending modes I found Classic Divide gave a REALLY nice effect. Not quite in alignment with my concept art, but it looks better than handing in line tests. Here’s a preview:

Still a little bit of work to do; the picture came out a little low quality because I forgot to set the bitrate, and also I have a rain soundtrack I’d like to add. I’ll re-render tomorrow, put it on disc and hand in. In the meantime, I have that essay to get on with.

I’ve done a fair bit of the animating and line tested it. Some of it needs correcting – trying to draw someone walking from the front is surprisingly tricky – and there’s a sequence with a hand curling into a fist that still needs doing, but that’s it. The rest is panning over still backgrounds – need to repaint the ones from my storyboard to make them look a little nicer – and adding rain effects.

It’ll have to be handed in line-tested, although I know that’s all we’re required to do. I would’ve liked a polished, finished piece, but I don’t have time to do it to the standard I’d want. Unhelpfully, I pulled a back muscle dragging a heavy lightbox home and it’s been hurting ever since. I haven’t been able to sit and work for more than ten minutes a time without needing to stop for a break.

I also have to do that film essay. I chose Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds, and despite scarce making-of information I managed to a get a book full of concept art and storyboards. It’s just getting the time – and enthusiasm – to sit down and write the thing.

The animatic, now I’ve sorted the timings out and added sound. I had to tweak it a bit, so it doesn’t match up to the storyboard perfectly:

Here’s the storyboard, including times (properly recorded with a stopwatch).

This is the concept art. The water reflection came out nicely, though I’m not too sure about the rain (it’ll be animated, so you won’t even really see it, but I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t do it differently). But it gives the general gist of what I want this to look like:

So here’s the final design I came up with:

And here’s a cleaned and finished version, with all the colour chart numbers. Dark grey-blue and red was chosen for the contrast, because red is reminiscent of blood. Again, I want to suggest desolation, maybe a hint of suffering:

Will have some proper concept art up soon, with her in her rainy environment.