And it's all the same person. He picks the crust from his eyes, hangs his coat dejectedly on the back of an uncomfortable swiveling stool, looks around at some much-loved old friends and says,"I've worked thousands of unpaid hours this year. Anyone want to buy me a pint?"
Man, it's rough out there. It doesn't help the self-esteem when the likes of Bill Plympton, Pat Smith, Don Hertzfeld, The Vaccese Twins, Signe Baumane, and practically every animator known to man seems to be releasing their film and visiting fests, or announcing their new film and getting underway. More power to 'em!
But... Dammit! In the time it's taken me to develop and storyboard and begin production on my animated short, people have made entire shorts, built animation/motion graphics portfolios, even started companies. Granted, I cut an HD feature, PA'ed for Bridezillas, relocated twice, and volunteered videography services to countless individuals. But... Just the same. Point is, this film is huge, it's still huge, and it's not getting any less huge. It's not a music video, it's not stick figures, it's not under ten minutes. It will never be any of those things.
In any case, my film is on hold- this is a terrible, terrible thing. Every day that I don't touch it feels like sacrilege. But the money must flow. I can't find any editing work, despite having a solid pedigree. And while my last job was pretty great for a service gig- it ate up most of my time. So. There's this webcomic that could, in fact, bring some small amount of income. Therefore, finishing issue 1 before the year turns is a major, major goal. The faster I get this finished, the faster I can get back to the film. Either way, I'm not seeing much pay for any of this.
Dear universe: I'd like to do my fucking work now, please.
In the meantime, I am going broke laboring on amazing projects that won't pay off until question marks. Wanted: a new day job or any available sugar momma.
20110920
Sept. 2011
I am still alive, and I apologize for not posting. The job situation in my life has changed recently, allowing me more time for my XL friend (the month of August in particular brought some grand developments, including the best animation to date,) but with this change also brings a threat anew: poverty. I have been working on M since July of 2008, and as of July 2011 I've set a soft deadline of April, 2014. With everything going on outside of the project, I am unable to justify spending immediate time making the latest work available for viewing. Nevertheless, there are those interested in helping- and I am soon to enter a recruiting phase for scanning, cleanups, and color flatting. In the meantime, enjoy a pic from my secondary project [hopefully a moneymaker to free up some time and funds for this ongoing pachyderm epic] the unearthly graphic novel Bloodless.
20110519
Update May 2011
Working hard, working well. More time needed, but it's coming along nicely. More to come soon.
Mutwale : Timelapse 01 from Jeff Martell on Vimeo.
20110201
Inspiration/Influence: Richard Williams
I've been tackling a couple of title sequences right at the outset, and I'm reminded of something Richard Williams says time and again. "Sophisticated use of the basics." An important phrase for an animator that isn't doing Tex Avery style BOINGS or hard takes, but must instead focus on subtle anticipation and soft accents. Knowing the basics and how to apply them in a sophisticated way is one of the most effective methods to keep things organized while retaining a working sense of freedom.
Since my lead character weighs a couple of tons (his head alone could be up to 800 lbs.,) I'm going to execute a traditional human walk cycle separately just to cut my teeth again. Steps on 12 and 24, passing position at 6 and 18 all on ones, loop. Totally basic. Timing and spacing is paramount for mobility and believability in action. The only reason I even know the true difference between timing and spacing is Richard Williams. Everyone knows the man- he's responsible for integrating cartoons with live action in Roger Rabbit, (part 2, part 3,) the famous Pink Panther introductions, thousands of commercials, and the mostly completed 24-year endeavor Thief and the Cobbler (or The Princess and the Cobbler, or The Cobbler and the Thief, depending on the cut you get.) I could go on for pages about the man and how much he's helped me understand the art of animation. Animation at its simplest is translational math without numbers. Even more though, it's performance. Animation is acting. Richard Williams can cite Art Babbit (one of Disney's "9 old men" responsible for the Queen in Snow White) and Ken Harris (the classic Warner animator known for the Coyote) as masters, employees, and friends. He remains one of the only comprehensive encyclopedias of traditional animation technique on the planet. Any animator will point you to his book, The Animator's Survival Kit. There also exists a 16 DVD set called the Animator's Survival Kit: Animated, which is a lecture series compiled with over 400 animated exercises and illustrations of the most common animation techniques and mistakes. If you lack a mentor as most of us seem to, I can honestly say both of these are invaluable resources. If you can somehow get your hands on it, the animated lectures are fantastic.
Don't overthink. Anticipation. Action. Reaction. Work it until it works.
Since my lead character weighs a couple of tons (his head alone could be up to 800 lbs.,) I'm going to execute a traditional human walk cycle separately just to cut my teeth again. Steps on 12 and 24, passing position at 6 and 18 all on ones, loop. Totally basic. Timing and spacing is paramount for mobility and believability in action. The only reason I even know the true difference between timing and spacing is Richard Williams. Everyone knows the man- he's responsible for integrating cartoons with live action in Roger Rabbit, (part 2, part 3,) the famous Pink Panther introductions, thousands of commercials, and the mostly completed 24-year endeavor Thief and the Cobbler (or The Princess and the Cobbler, or The Cobbler and the Thief, depending on the cut you get.) I could go on for pages about the man and how much he's helped me understand the art of animation. Animation at its simplest is translational math without numbers. Even more though, it's performance. Animation is acting. Richard Williams can cite Art Babbit (one of Disney's "9 old men" responsible for the Queen in Snow White) and Ken Harris (the classic Warner animator known for the Coyote) as masters, employees, and friends. He remains one of the only comprehensive encyclopedias of traditional animation technique on the planet. Any animator will point you to his book, The Animator's Survival Kit. There also exists a 16 DVD set called the Animator's Survival Kit: Animated, which is a lecture series compiled with over 400 animated exercises and illustrations of the most common animation techniques and mistakes. If you lack a mentor as most of us seem to, I can honestly say both of these are invaluable resources. If you can somehow get your hands on it, the animated lectures are fantastic.
Don't overthink. Anticipation. Action. Reaction. Work it until it works.
20110110
Post deleted.
This post has been removed in the interest of keeping this production blog apolitical. For a copy of what was posted here, provide your email address to jpmartell@gmail.com.
20101228
Paper-to-Post Pipeline
I've devised my methods- save the main coloring processes, which I still need to nail down for the narrative portion of the film. I think I'll keep that pretty traditional (three-tone) for the first pass and augment with an additional beauty pass. Until I get there, though, I've devised the scanning/compositing methods and chosen the final output res.
The scanner I picked up is a Mustek Scan Express Pro A3 1200, which fits 16f (12.65X17") sheets comfortably. The drivers are a bit dated, but it's inexpensive and TWAIN compatible with photoshop -- and that's all that matters.
Scans will be 16-bit color @ 200 DPI. Why not grayscale? Personal preference. I'd rather avoid a grayscale->RGB conversion step in my photoshop phase. Even tho macro automation makes it fast, I don't want to deal with software conversion of colorspace or bit depth between the scan and the composite.
Been working with After Effects for 2D stuff until now. This time, I'm bumping up to Combustion 4 for almost all output. Output will be Digital Cinema 4k 1.85:1, or 3996 × 2160. About twice current HD. This is pretty close to actual film, the difference being that the crop to 1.85:1 will occur during the actual composite. (For those not interested in techie stuff, skip: Combustion 4 doesn't actually include a comprehensive image sequence editor. There is an edit node, but having 60-150 images in line as a footage layer proves pretty unstable and actually makes for a huge hit to performance. There's also a fine .TIF sequence import, but since it only allows for single frame numbers, it's far too labor intensive to reorder any drawings as the animation may require. So I'll be importing the individual drawings into AE or similar motion graphics suite, and exporting these layers as uncompressed .movs with premultiplied Alpha to import into C4 as footage. It'll work, even on my 6-year old G5 rig. It's actually not too taxing on the machine until you try to render a preview to RAM- which is when 1/4 res proxies come in handy.) The goal here is to create something that can withstand the next rollout of HD media, which will be larger than 1920X1080 (1080p.)
Finally, instead of just a trailer- I've decided to execute a whole sequence of the film to use for fundraising. I think the film timeline is too large and varied to open up with a musical trailer mishmash, so I'll hit the story. After that, I'll see if a teaser or two is in order for publicity and go from there.
The scanner I picked up is a Mustek Scan Express Pro A3 1200, which fits 16f (12.65X17") sheets comfortably. The drivers are a bit dated, but it's inexpensive and TWAIN compatible with photoshop -- and that's all that matters.
Scans will be 16-bit color @ 200 DPI. Why not grayscale? Personal preference. I'd rather avoid a grayscale->RGB conversion step in my photoshop phase. Even tho macro automation makes it fast, I don't want to deal with software conversion of colorspace or bit depth between the scan and the composite.
Been working with After Effects for 2D stuff until now. This time, I'm bumping up to Combustion 4 for almost all output. Output will be Digital Cinema 4k 1.85:1, or 3996 × 2160. About twice current HD. This is pretty close to actual film, the difference being that the crop to 1.85:1 will occur during the actual composite. (For those not interested in techie stuff, skip: Combustion 4 doesn't actually include a comprehensive image sequence editor. There is an edit node, but having 60-150 images in line as a footage layer proves pretty unstable and actually makes for a huge hit to performance. There's also a fine .TIF sequence import, but since it only allows for single frame numbers, it's far too labor intensive to reorder any drawings as the animation may require. So I'll be importing the individual drawings into AE or similar motion graphics suite, and exporting these layers as uncompressed .movs with premultiplied Alpha to import into C4 as footage. It'll work, even on my 6-year old G5 rig. It's actually not too taxing on the machine until you try to render a preview to RAM- which is when 1/4 res proxies come in handy.) The goal here is to create something that can withstand the next rollout of HD media, which will be larger than 1920X1080 (1080p.)
Finally, instead of just a trailer- I've decided to execute a whole sequence of the film to use for fundraising. I think the film timeline is too large and varied to open up with a musical trailer mishmash, so I'll hit the story. After that, I'll see if a teaser or two is in order for publicity and go from there.
20101207
Insert Money into Mouth.
Day job acquired. This has been a major step forward in my film's production, as I must now pay rent on both living space and a studio. More soon.
20101108
At last..
Some animation. Had to test the scanner, so I used M23_Shot286. Scanner works, Mutwale lives. 523 shots to go.
Need to double-check the timing- I don't have the drawings themselves, so I don't have the original charts. The pencil test seems correct, the alpha composite seems a tad slow.
More as it happens.
20101029
Industry Rant: Piracy, DRM, and The Corporation as a Victim
I'm a Pirate. I'm not sorry that I'm a pirate, it's necessary to survive the age of bloatware and rebuys. I also purchase a lot -most, I'd say- of the applications that I use professionally, so if that opening admission makes me a target, shame on you, Big Software. I'm a supporter.
Let's define our terms.
Highware: Large companies and corporations need software to function. This software is priced pretty exorbitantly because companies will pay it or, even better for the developer/publisher, buy bulk licenses. If you're a teacher you know this to be true because, almost always, the academic discount shaves off a *significant* percentage. Companies that make this software- I'm not mentioning names because it doesn't matter- generally don't care if the software is stolen or not. If you steal it and use it properly, you'll eventually get to the point where you're a professional and you're making money using that software. It will pay for itself, and you'll buy it. Everyone wins. If you suck at using the software, you haven't lost any money and you aren't eating into the industry that uses it. Personally, stealing software is only harmful if you use it for personal or monetary gain without (eventually) giving back to the team of creators- tho as we've mentioned, they usually aren't hurting for cash. (I'd been calling this Bloatware, turns out that's slang for software that uses up more system resources than considered necessary or efficient. So for now I'll call expensive software suites HighWare.)
Rebuys: My family has purchased the movie Jaws on VHS, Laserdisc (yeah, laugh it up,) and DVD. I pay for netflix, so in the event that I need to stream it to something, I can do that too. Now I'm supposed to buy it on BluRay? No wonder people freaking steal movies. Corporations, meet me at camera three. Hello there. You know those things on the backs of products called barcodes? They are used to keep track of inventory. How about you let me use the barcodes on the back of my old products for a discount on new formats?* Or if I've purchased the Alien Legacy QUAD SET collection on Amazon, you let me scan the barcode and send in for 50% off the BluRay? Or a free soundtrack disc? Or freaking... Poster. Something to commemorate how much freaking money I have already thrown your way. I think you see where I'm headed with this. Help the consumer, don't hurt them. And if one thing is absolutely destroying consumer confidence, it is this:
DRM: Digital Rights Management. This is a form of copy protection that either kills or limits the consumer's ability to duplicate, copy, back-up, transfer, or alter digital media that they themselves have purchased. This is one of the largest fallacies of the information age and it has less to do with copyright law and more to do with the corporation being a huge headless beast. There are a few great (grave?) examples of DRM that I'm going to mention and tear apart.
1)iTunes store files:
Ever buy a song, show, or movie using the iTunes store? Ever try to play that song, show, or movie on someone else's computer? Yeah. No dice, unless you authorize that hardware address. You can't share anymore. Remember- the difference here is the delivery. Technically, when you buy a CD, you're buying a non-exclusive license to play that music privately for yourself. You don't own the song. You own a disc of it. The benefit of the hard copy is what I like to call (yes, I make up my own terms to organize toughts) the Kindergarten Principle. --Sharing is caring. Like an album? Share it! Burn it and pass it along. This is technically illegal, including back in the days of the first CDR drives or dub-ready stereo machines, on and on. What the DRM-using corporation doesn't realize is that this is the greatest benefit they could have to their market. Firstly, it puts sharing tracks and mixes in the hands of users. This uses not one but two of the the very definitions of advertising in the new Century of the Self- involve the consumer and make the consumer define or inform him or herself with the product itself. It's all about making them feel like they are building something alongside the artists and craftsmen. Mixdubs and mashups, internet radio, build your own smart playlists, again... on and on. Come up with new ways to involve and inform the consumer. And since it's music, hell- people have been defining themselves with musical choices since operas- but I'd argue that the walkman really turned the music world upside down. Suddenly life had a soundtrack, and that involved people in a whole new way. Btw, RIP Sony Walkman. ... Where the hell was I? RIGHT. DRM is crap and those that use it for music files are actually limiting their own market saturation, their own growth. If you cut out some of this DRM nonsense, let the files spread a little, you'll find that suddenly people are finding new bands with ease. Word spreads faster. Things catch on faster. More artists grow new fans. Everyone wins. With DRM, everyone is losing. When's the last time you bought something on vinyl? Artists and publishers that provide vinyl now often include a digital download of the album with the purchase. BRAVO! This is the path. Inclusion, not limitation.
2)Steam game apps:
If you don't play video games you are ridiculously stupid. Sorry, that... That came out wrong. If you don't partake in any form of video games, or worse, you are down on them for being childish or time-wasting, you are a sad, sad relic of a dead era. Sorry... I just don't understand people that are down on games. Interactive New Media is a fantastic new wave of entertainment that is growing and expanding at a dangerously speedy rate. Even more than music it exemplifies the nature of the new century in allowing the user to take part in the generative, or, dare I say, creative process. Little Big Planet and Sleep Is Death are great examples of how interactivity and creativity can join together to form something challenging and unique... Even communal. But we're not talking about games. Let's get back to DRM.
So you aren't one of those dead-era persons. You're a gamersperson. A gamesman. You pick up this PC game via a download store called Steam, Valve Software's online gaming store. It's a rainy day, a storm knocks out your internet, or your wireless is acting up because your roommate is torrenting porn. Whatever. You're having trouble connecting to the net. You boot up Steam to play your new game and LO! You can't play it because you can't connect to a Steam server. What's this then? It's a single-player-only game, how could- Oh, THAT's what that is. See what happened? Steam has instituted a DRM policy that *requires* an internet connection to "verify" your "licensing." Every. Single. Time. You play. I'm sorry but this is ludicrous. How can you not just build an offline key specific to an account and a hardware address? Store this key in the user's online account and build a new replacement key if they want to transfer to a new system?* I realize that sites like GOG offer DRM-free game downloads... Wait, they just closed down. /sigh.
I think I understand the source of the problem. The corporation doesn't know how to be a victim. They can't stop suing their own consumers. It's ludicrous out there! The RIAA, the MPAA, Cable companies are SUING THEIR OWN CUSTOMERS FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. They don't know what to do so their flailing around like characters out of Peter Bagge's HATE and hoping that fear will stop all this unabashed piracy! Two things. First, most pirates are Chinese, European, Scandinavian, and Eastern-European users that won't have access to what you're selling for another 8 months or more, if at all. It's a global economy, morons. Get with it. If it's good, everyone wants it, and they want it now, not 8 months or a year after America. Second, pirates that are 'stealing' your music and shows and movies and games are going to watch them and play them. They will recommend the good ones, building cred, word-of-mouth, support, and consumer base. These will sell more than usual. Equally, they will *not* recommend the bad ones, and no one will buy your crap any more. Suddenly the market is gaining intelligence and sources, thus not paying for crap when it comes out only to find out it's crap. Suddenly the product matters again. Suddenly the corporation is responsible. Scary stuff for this headless mass, so used to pushing people around and defining its own trends without a care for the individual consumer! Information isn't changing these waters, it is the water itself; the consumer is evolving past the old line of corporate sales and into a new realm of user-defined consumption. Let's all make it a responsible realm. Support your artists. Buy things from those that need the attention, and, hell, steal it too. And blog/tweet/status update about how awesome they are. Culture will grow with or without capitalism. I am an artist, and I support piracy.
*I think this is a bang-up idea.
Let's define our terms.
Highware: Large companies and corporations need software to function. This software is priced pretty exorbitantly because companies will pay it or, even better for the developer/publisher, buy bulk licenses. If you're a teacher you know this to be true because, almost always, the academic discount shaves off a *significant* percentage. Companies that make this software- I'm not mentioning names because it doesn't matter- generally don't care if the software is stolen or not. If you steal it and use it properly, you'll eventually get to the point where you're a professional and you're making money using that software. It will pay for itself, and you'll buy it. Everyone wins. If you suck at using the software, you haven't lost any money and you aren't eating into the industry that uses it. Personally, stealing software is only harmful if you use it for personal or monetary gain without (eventually) giving back to the team of creators- tho as we've mentioned, they usually aren't hurting for cash. (I'd been calling this Bloatware, turns out that's slang for software that uses up more system resources than considered necessary or efficient. So for now I'll call expensive software suites HighWare.)
Rebuys: My family has purchased the movie Jaws on VHS, Laserdisc (yeah, laugh it up,) and DVD. I pay for netflix, so in the event that I need to stream it to something, I can do that too. Now I'm supposed to buy it on BluRay? No wonder people freaking steal movies. Corporations, meet me at camera three. Hello there. You know those things on the backs of products called barcodes? They are used to keep track of inventory. How about you let me use the barcodes on the back of my old products for a discount on new formats?* Or if I've purchased the Alien Legacy QUAD SET collection on Amazon, you let me scan the barcode and send in for 50% off the BluRay? Or a free soundtrack disc? Or freaking... Poster. Something to commemorate how much freaking money I have already thrown your way. I think you see where I'm headed with this. Help the consumer, don't hurt them. And if one thing is absolutely destroying consumer confidence, it is this:
DRM: Digital Rights Management. This is a form of copy protection that either kills or limits the consumer's ability to duplicate, copy, back-up, transfer, or alter digital media that they themselves have purchased. This is one of the largest fallacies of the information age and it has less to do with copyright law and more to do with the corporation being a huge headless beast. There are a few great (grave?) examples of DRM that I'm going to mention and tear apart.
1)iTunes store files:
Ever buy a song, show, or movie using the iTunes store? Ever try to play that song, show, or movie on someone else's computer? Yeah. No dice, unless you authorize that hardware address. You can't share anymore. Remember- the difference here is the delivery. Technically, when you buy a CD, you're buying a non-exclusive license to play that music privately for yourself. You don't own the song. You own a disc of it. The benefit of the hard copy is what I like to call (yes, I make up my own terms to organize toughts) the Kindergarten Principle. --Sharing is caring. Like an album? Share it! Burn it and pass it along. This is technically illegal, including back in the days of the first CDR drives or dub-ready stereo machines, on and on. What the DRM-using corporation doesn't realize is that this is the greatest benefit they could have to their market. Firstly, it puts sharing tracks and mixes in the hands of users. This uses not one but two of the the very definitions of advertising in the new Century of the Self- involve the consumer and make the consumer define or inform him or herself with the product itself. It's all about making them feel like they are building something alongside the artists and craftsmen. Mixdubs and mashups, internet radio, build your own smart playlists, again... on and on. Come up with new ways to involve and inform the consumer. And since it's music, hell- people have been defining themselves with musical choices since operas- but I'd argue that the walkman really turned the music world upside down. Suddenly life had a soundtrack, and that involved people in a whole new way. Btw, RIP Sony Walkman. ... Where the hell was I? RIGHT. DRM is crap and those that use it for music files are actually limiting their own market saturation, their own growth. If you cut out some of this DRM nonsense, let the files spread a little, you'll find that suddenly people are finding new bands with ease. Word spreads faster. Things catch on faster. More artists grow new fans. Everyone wins. With DRM, everyone is losing. When's the last time you bought something on vinyl? Artists and publishers that provide vinyl now often include a digital download of the album with the purchase. BRAVO! This is the path. Inclusion, not limitation.
2)Steam game apps:
If you don't play video games you are ridiculously stupid. Sorry, that... That came out wrong. If you don't partake in any form of video games, or worse, you are down on them for being childish or time-wasting, you are a sad, sad relic of a dead era. Sorry... I just don't understand people that are down on games. Interactive New Media is a fantastic new wave of entertainment that is growing and expanding at a dangerously speedy rate. Even more than music it exemplifies the nature of the new century in allowing the user to take part in the generative, or, dare I say, creative process. Little Big Planet and Sleep Is Death are great examples of how interactivity and creativity can join together to form something challenging and unique... Even communal. But we're not talking about games. Let's get back to DRM.
So you aren't one of those dead-era persons. You're a gamersperson. A gamesman. You pick up this PC game via a download store called Steam, Valve Software's online gaming store. It's a rainy day, a storm knocks out your internet, or your wireless is acting up because your roommate is torrenting porn. Whatever. You're having trouble connecting to the net. You boot up Steam to play your new game and LO! You can't play it because you can't connect to a Steam server. What's this then? It's a single-player-only game, how could- Oh, THAT's what that is. See what happened? Steam has instituted a DRM policy that *requires* an internet connection to "verify" your "licensing." Every. Single. Time. You play. I'm sorry but this is ludicrous. How can you not just build an offline key specific to an account and a hardware address? Store this key in the user's online account and build a new replacement key if they want to transfer to a new system?* I realize that sites like GOG offer DRM-free game downloads... Wait, they just closed down. /sigh.
I think I understand the source of the problem. The corporation doesn't know how to be a victim. They can't stop suing their own consumers. It's ludicrous out there! The RIAA, the MPAA, Cable companies are SUING THEIR OWN CUSTOMERS FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. They don't know what to do so their flailing around like characters out of Peter Bagge's HATE and hoping that fear will stop all this unabashed piracy! Two things. First, most pirates are Chinese, European, Scandinavian, and Eastern-European users that won't have access to what you're selling for another 8 months or more, if at all. It's a global economy, morons. Get with it. If it's good, everyone wants it, and they want it now, not 8 months or a year after America. Second, pirates that are 'stealing' your music and shows and movies and games are going to watch them and play them. They will recommend the good ones, building cred, word-of-mouth, support, and consumer base. These will sell more than usual. Equally, they will *not* recommend the bad ones, and no one will buy your crap any more. Suddenly the market is gaining intelligence and sources, thus not paying for crap when it comes out only to find out it's crap. Suddenly the product matters again. Suddenly the corporation is responsible. Scary stuff for this headless mass, so used to pushing people around and defining its own trends without a care for the individual consumer! Information isn't changing these waters, it is the water itself; the consumer is evolving past the old line of corporate sales and into a new realm of user-defined consumption. Let's all make it a responsible realm. Support your artists. Buy things from those that need the attention, and, hell, steal it too. And blog/tweet/status update about how awesome they are. Culture will grow with or without capitalism. I am an artist, and I support piracy.
*I think this is a bang-up idea.
20101006
Grant #1
I'm doing a serious amount of job hunting and resumé polishing, but in the middle of all that Mutwale has achieved a major milestone- it's been given its first grant from the Metropolitan Arts Council. This means I need to continue the tight paper trail and change a few legal terms on my pages. It also means I should get back to work on the film itself, which I plan to do as soon as I get on my feet. Earning is getting in the way of this project at every turn, but it's necessary to survive. If only I could just raise this budget properly and put this paycheck nonsense aside... This would all be so much faster. Cest la vie.
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