I thought bounding on stage would be cuter than just walking on. Still trying to figure out a title for the film.... My mom has suggested Sirius Dramatics, which I think is cute. I don't know, I'll choose one soon. 

So here's the first shot I've roughly animated. I wanted to make sure the suit dissolve would work.

I also did cleaner layouts for my film. 

I also wanted to do some color tests with reality. 

I've also cleaned up my animatic with my classes comments. My film is now about 1 min 22 seconds. That's what I've been up to lately. You can see my work log for a more detailed catalog of what I've done.

Hoo boy I managed to redo both my character sheet and my walk:

I like this walk much better. It's definitely more expressive. Now I can get on to fixing up my animatic and starting animating. We're a third of the week through and I feel like I'm on track (at least I hope I am).

This was pretty down to the wire, but I managed to fix up the animatic for class this week:

Also I got a composer! Marc Laroussini has been kind enough to want to work on my project. He's also looking into doing the sound design as well as compose, which is fantastic. 

Super excited to start animating. Wish me luck.

I finally managed to nail down a character design. Here it is:

I tried to emulate what brush I'm going to try to use in TVPaint as best I could. I'm going to make sure my final lines are still going to be active, and not super stiff. If that means it's not going to be flash level clean, so be it. I prefer that anyway.

Here's also some of the concepts and stuff I had for trying to figure out what to do:

Still trying to figure out a title and nail down what I want the title to be, and background colors.

Just wanted to make a quick lil post to show off the mood board I made for my film:

Still not too sure about colors as of right now, but I've locked down how I want the lines to be and also the character design.

Wow, my first animatic you guys! I feel so professional. It doesn't have sound yet, bur it still looks cool.

I made this in TVPaint Pro 11 and honestly I'm so thankful I bought pro. Being able to view the storyboards as an animatic in real time is insanely invaluable. It also helped me make it amazingly fast; I did the whole thing today. So if you're on the fence about which version to get, I'd definitely tell you Pro, hands down.

I also have to wake up early to go to the Artist Call meeting with Eastman and Nazareth students. I'm not presenting, but I'm hoping I can at least foster some good connections, and I'll have my boards from this animatic (you can publish it directly from TVP, how fantastic is that?) if someone is interested in composing for it. I certainly hope that's what will happen.

Well, I tried my best at adapting a human walk cycle to just a dog on hind legs, and here's what came out of it:

It actually didn't turn out too bad after I cleaned it up. I watched Faith's video while doing this, and noticed that dogs take really small steps since their hind legs don't extend straight out like ours do. I also tried to make sure the spine was curved downward for balance reasons. I found myself simplifying the hind legs into meaty thighs, and then curves near the end. I do like that approach, but I think I might need other people's comments to see if it's believable or not. What do you guys think?

EDIT:

Can't forget to post the treatment. I thought it would be easier to have it in the thumbnails post since it isn't as long:

The story is about a dog keep the attention of an audience. The dog walks on stage in a bright suit and tries different acts and stunts to try and get the audience to react. First, the dog stands up on it's hind legs, a feat it thinks is pretty spectacular. Unfortunately, the audience stays silent. Then, the dog rushes back stage and comes out juggling balls while also balancing on a bigger ball. Again, no reaction. Finally, the dog brings out the big guns and goes for dramatics. It's cries and howls rival Shakespearean actors. The audience is in tears. Finally, the dog collapses, and “dies”. The audience cheers. Off screen, you hear the dog's owner begrudgingly say, “Fine, we'll go for a walk,” and the scene transitions into the real world. The owner walks by, and the dog, now without its suit, hops up and happily walks off screen.

Also, if any one of you lovely peeps reading this could help me think of a catchy title, that would be awesome. If I'm being honest, I haven't really been able to think of one, so fresh ideas for a title would really help.

As promised, here's my first pass at thumbnails for my film:

I referenced a dog getting up from lying down from this video:

I went frame by frame until the end. It seems like the front leads the action as the back legs stay closer to the ground before the dog starts walking forward. I tried to capture that in the thumbs so I'll remember. 

Also, I think I've figured out how I wanted the scene to change: I think I'm going to have something like a scrolling background follow the owner as they walk by, and the dog's tux will dissolve when the owner passes. It's not definitive if this'll be my final transition, but it's probably easier than what I originally planned.

Hoo boy, do I have some great stuff for you guys. I'm still aiming on doing some color stuff this week, but today I have dogs.
And when I say dogs, I mean lots of dogs.
Like:

A lot of dog heads. There's so many dog breeds, and they're all fabulous, but I decided that I wanted to do the schipperke breed for two reasons: it was a simple color throughout (black with red undertones), and it had simple shapes. 

As I looked further into the breed though, I was instantly charmed. They're nicknamed the "little black devil" and are insanely energetic. I knew the breed would be great for the film as I watched more and more videos of them.

Also, how could you say no to this face?

I certainly can't.

So now I've come to the part where I'm trying to figure out how I want the dog to look an move around. Here a bunch of sketches I did for that:

I still can't decide if I want to have the dog walk on anatomically correct back legs, or more humanized ones like most cartoon dogs do. It is possible for dogs to walk on two legs, as shown here:

For this dog, Faith, it seems the center of gravity is somewhere in her chest, and it seems like the "thighs" of her hind legs are really developed and powerful to keep her going. I'm going to keep watching more videos of dogs walking around to see if it's feasible for me to animate a dog walking that way or not. I still have problems getting down the anatomy of of hind legs, but I just have to keep practicing.

On another note (wow, this is a long post), here are the story beats for my film:

• Dog walks on stage
• Dog performs an act
• The audience doesn't react
• The dog tries again
• The audience still doesn't react
• The dog dramatically “dies”
• The audience applauds enthusiastically
• Dog owner says they'll go for a walk
• Dog happily walks off screen

And here's the timeline for my production:

I'm hoping this is a realistic enough timeline for me. I've given myself more time for inking because I know that's going to be the hardest part of the process for me. I also put some concentration on sound because I need to figure out how I'm going to pull off those Shakespeare dog howls. 

Hopefully will have some thumbnails tomorrow! Also here's another schipperke because they're so adorable oh my god:

I present to you, the most dramatic dog in existence, my dog, Dusty:

This is her usual shtick, where she'll make a big commotion about something and then wait to see what the reaction is. She really needs to be the center of attention at all times. Even in puppy school she couldn't stand to see the teacher being with the other puppies. I love you to death, Dusty, but maybe you could tone down the theatrics. 

Also decided to try my hand at a dog walk with just legs and torso while referencing the Survival Guide:

It's pretty jumpy, and I'm still trying to get a handle on dog legs, but hey, I have to start somewhere. I'm going to try to figure out how I want my film to look sometime this weekend or so. Expect a lot of concept art for environments, and maybe a mood board.

I also talked with MJ today about TVPaint, and she's helped me realize that maybe amazing cleanup like flash cartoons isn't my style. Once I figure out the look of the film, I can consider clean-up, but I don't need to expect to even want to get that crispness anyway. TVPaint has so many cool tools and possibilities, and I'm excited to go more in depth about it with her next week.