so final hand in is done and this is what we have to show so far. i am extremely proud of what we have managed to achieve so far but at the same time i feel there is a long way to go yet in order to deem the film finished. most of what is shown in this rough edit is just straight renders from maya as we had very little time for compositing. the edit is very rough as well and there is no sound as of yet. sound people have been involved for a while and we sent them a copy of the playblast animatic, after this they requested a finished rendered version to do the sound to, hence no sound yet.
there are a couple of shots in this edit which have been composited and they are proof of the quality that we can achieve given a bit more time.
The Experience
It has been an amazing experience to spend a year creating my film, there have been some tough times and some difficult decisions but overall the experience has been great. i feel that directing is something i will definitely be interested in pursuing in my career although it is terribly stressful.
The Team
The team as a whole has been great and production was solid and consistent from start to finish, the team has also worked well together and we helped each other when coping with the pressure.
i must say that some members of the team have been outstanding with their professionalism and commitment to the project. Ben has been like a rock solid throughout and always there to support me in whatever decision i chose. ben was there many a time to enforce the deadlines of projects and arrange meetings with the sound guys. Ben was also invaluable when we decided to do the over night shifts at college, we bounced off each other and kept track of the jobs we were doing whilst trying to stay awake.
Keith has taken a very professional approach to his work on this project and has produced some great work. Keith has been great at taking constructive criticism to progress his work and develop his skills. as i have a very perfectionalist attitude to my work i found myself getting keith to redo the same task over and over again until he got it right. But Keith has remained true and has taken the criticism in his stride. Keith has also put in many many hours into the project and this definitely shows with the amount of work we have managed to produce.
Mel has worked at a consistent rate but has only really shone in term 3 with some of her animation and her compositing. there was 1 shot in particular that took considerably longer than it should have done, but she kept working at it whilst working on a number of other shots. i was skeptical over her compositing to begin with as she was insistent upon using nuke instead of after effects. my main issue with this is the fact that we would all be using after effects and she would be using nuke and there would be the possibility of continuity errors over visual style. so when we came to doing the composition of the rendered shots i was insistent that she used after effects and she has shone through and displayed has produced some amazing results.
Fahran was what i would call a work horse on this project as in he had to be told what to do but when he did it he would usually do a good job, although there were a couple of times when more direction was necessary. for example the eel model is amazing and this was all done pretty much under his own direction whereas the kid model took a lot longer to get just right. all went quiet for a while with fahran but then he came back in force on the very last day to ensure he could do everything he could to help out. i feel that fahran is possibly better suited to working on his own projects than big group ones but still his skills and results were invaluable.
Emma has been a key animator for this project and in the early days produced some really nice designs for the project. Emma was good at meeting deadlines and again was someone who was great at taking constructive criticism. i feel that she will have a great career as an animator as long as she keeps working on her digital skills in maya.
Carlos has produced some very nice work for this project including some fantastic set pieces such as the iceberg and the ice cave. Carlos has a quick but strong way of working where he can be given a job and deliver good results very quickly, i do feel that he could be much greater if he spent a little bit more time on some of his work. Carlos is a great 3D generalist and can pretty much do any task assigned to him, this is gunna go down great in his future career as im sure hes the kinda person who learns as they go along, the only possible issue is his relaxed attitude to attendance.
Clym did some great work in terms of the rigs that he produced and i have to say the film would not have been possible without him and his work is greatly appreciated.
Joe was a late addition to the team and as he is creating a 3D piece i decided to allow him to distance his trailer from the main film. i made this decision so that he could utilise his skills as a 3D guy and not be hindered by elements of the film. this has also allowed him to explore his own skills and techniques in the realm of 3D.
Whats Next?
so now that we have handed in our folders and there are no more submissions i feel that the film can be worked on and improved ten fold. my intentions, now having the finished visuals and timing, are to do a very heavy edit of the film and possibly cut the entire opening scene from the film and replace it with an earlier idea of having the film start in the interior of the submarine and have the kid read something like a newspaper or a flyer that causes him to go and photograph some cool stuff. this re-edit and re-animation will be timely but i think it will provide greater grounding for the film and make a much better film as a whole.
so this is me signing out of this epic documentation of the last year its been tough but over all its been amazing.
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