THE SIMPSONS NEWS

So I finished my work and within the hour I was getting booted right out the studio door.  Well…not really, but it sure felt that way.  I worked as hard and as fast as I could on the boards I needed to do.  I started the clean up process late Thursday and it took me Friday, Monday and Tuesday to finish it all.  Wednesday  night and  most of Thursday I spent creating  a rough Quicktime Animatic of my board in order to find out how long the short would be.

I stayed late Wednesday working on the first rough pass of the animatic.  I showed it to the director and he had the same problems I had with it. Namely, it was too fast in parts. It was difficult to tell what was going on.  We went over, about a third of the shots and retimed them before we got too tired and decided to call it a night.  I told him I’d come in nice and early Thursday to tighten up some timing before he got in.  I usually come into work around 7am.

Imagine my shock, as I was ready to go bed that night, when I passed by my Jury Duty notice and realized I had to call in that night to see if I had jury duty the next day.  Turns out I did.  Everyone was counting on me being in Thursday and it turns out I had to go in for jury duty the next day.  Panic time.

Well, at the court house the next day, I had to make all the phone calls to all the director and production staff, about my situation.  They were less than happy about it.

Lucky for me, about an hour after I had done that, I was dismissed and on my way to work.  Not a moment too soon, since one of the production  coordinators had called me to ask about the location of my boards in my computer.  They were releaved when I told them I was on my way.

I got to work at noon and worked on getting the animatic finished ASAP.  The director and I managed to finish it on time and we showed it to the Head Director of the show, who really liked it.  He gave us a suggestion or two and it was time to finish cleaning up the  boards.

As I wrote above, I got done by Tuesday.  No sooner had the head of production received a copy of my board, when she was having me turn in my last time card so I could go on my hiatus.  It was pretty crazy.  But it was necessary.  They needed to process my as soon as they could so I could sign the right paper work. Otherwise I would have to come in the next day for no good reason.

I was originally suppose to have 4 weeks off, but because of how long this project went, I now only have 2  1/2 weeks.  That’s not so bad.

ART

FINALLY! I’m done with page 7 of my script:

That was by far the toughest part to get through.  The worst is over.  It should be down hill from this point on.  Yes, I have to thumbnail the climax of the story, but compared to having to rewrite an whole new fight scene as I went, it will be much easier to do.  Especially since the final conflict is much more internal the external.

I’m so glad I was able to get through this. I was really ready to quit. It was just so much work and I was suppose to be doing this for fun.  Now that it’s over, I can get back to having fun with the rest of the thumbnailing.  It’s still work, but it’s much easier to handle.

VIDEOS/storyboarding

The video below is an incredible resource for anyone who’s interested in doing boards or comics.  It’s a video by Sherm Cohen on THE 7 SEVEN HIDDEN PATTERNS OF SUCCESSFUL STORYBOARDS.

This is a great tool veterans and newbies to get acquainted or reacquainted with some basic shot fundamentals. For those who are new at composing shots, it should open your eyes to things to watch out for as you watch movies. It helps you get an eye toward figuring out why some shots are used at certain times.  I highly recommend watching it.

It’s also helpful to watch as a comics creator because much of the thinking behind what shots to use can be easily translated into comic book form.  It will help clarify you visual storytelling.  I’m tired of reading comics with that are very well drawn whose panels are confusing to read.

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.