Let me slap this on your face: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wVA4CyGqMo
I made that. Pretty cool right? No? Yeah, you right.
I like it though. And I want to talk about it. So sit back and let me explain how many stupid changes this thing went through--mostly in the story phase.
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The whole thing started as a story I put together in half an hour for my literature club at school.
But I really liked the visuals it sprouted in my head. So this summer, I decided to animate it. I didn't want to use the original story as the script though. Mostly due to the fact that it didn't have an ending. I mean, there were other problems there (Hank wasn't really a relatable character. He was just some d-bag who was addicted to bubble plants. Why would anyone want to watch a story about him?). I also wanted to flesh out the possible themes in a story like this, such as exploring the effects of love compared to drugs. I know it's a bit pretentious to talk about such complicated ideas like that but as I'm growing up, I'm realizing that it's really these themes and complex ideas that turns entertaining stories into works of art. And like, c'mon. What artist doesn't want to be the next Leonardo da Vinci?
Besides that, I don't know why I changed the names and terms of everything from the original story. I wish I could've kept the "smasher" term for the fishes that popped the gas leafs. I actually don't have a reason for these changes.
If you go through the script, you'll notice that it's missing two scenes. It's completely devoid of Wermill (the crazy yellow worm fish) and it's missing Ali finding the swordfish to pop the huge gasleaf. Wermill just came to my head because I felt like the script needed more stuffing. I wrote his scene in the storyboard phase and found that it fit. Only later did I realize that it worked because it showed Barry's actual point of view on the gasleafs. It showed that he was only popping them because of/for Ali and actually hated doing it.
The idea of Ali finding the dead swordfish came because I felt like she needed more screen time. I felt like, as an audience member, I'd want to see more of how she thought. And also, I wanted to show that she wasn't some dumb addict. She knew she wouldn't be able to pop the huge gas leaf by herself so she went looking for something to help her. And although she found a wacky solution, it worked.
Look at that character reference sheet. Good, now look at it again.
If you look very closely, you'll realize that Jim isn't a crab. I made this sheet before recording the voices. After my friends helped me capture the lines, they joked about Jim actually being a crab. Only so at the end when he freaked out, it would be funnier because he would be crawling around, snapping his pincers. I liked the idea because it would introduce more variety to this universe, but it also created that more entertaining ending. Even writing this now, I remember how funny it was when everyone was recreating their idea of how Jim would act when he freaked out, everyone clasping and unclasping their hands.
Now watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLD4w_Vozbw&feature=youtu.be
After getting the voices, I drew the boards. I wanted to shade it all so I knew how the values would look, but it was taking a long time so I gave up pretty much right at the start.
After I finished the boards and added in the scenes with Wermill and Ali, I placed them on (Adobe) Premiere, and timed out each board so everything flowed together. Then music. Usually the music added now would be temporary, but I liked it so much I knew I would keep it for the finished animation.
I drew the backgrounds first and then I made the animation. Nothing that different here. Just a lot of grinding, lip syncing, figuring out what would be the most economical way, time-wise, to animate the fish. The idea for how the gas bubbles would react when popped came from this visual development piece I drew one day.
I didn't record any reference to help me animate the fish, if that's what you're wondering. If you couldn't already tell by the very constrained animation. So yeah, most of the animating process was boring and I barely remember any of it because I also spent it watching television shows.
After the animation was done, I added the sound effects. This was a REALLY fun thing to do. Post-Production might just be my favorite part of the whole process. Visual, sound effects, and color correction feel like things that I can just really mess around with until I land the right look/sound.
I wish I had taken a picture of how I made the underwater sounds. I have the next best thing though, a really crude drawing.
I'm not kidding. I risked my hundred-and-something-dollar microphone by putting a cup around it and putting that cup halfway down my bathroom sink. Most of the sound effects you hear from the fishes moving around is my hand just moving around the cup underwater. Everything turned out pretty successful in the end, and no water got on the microphone. Fun Stuff.
The popping gas leaf sound was made by standing up the microphone next to the sink and blowing up water balloons full of air underwater in the sink. All of the other sounds I created are pretty boring so there's no need to talk about them. Just as a side note, I added a lot of effects on to the sounds after recording them. (Adobe) Audition let me add some sweet pitch shifters, some chorus effects, and a whole bunch of other stuff just to get the right feel.
The mixing of the sound effects took a pretty long time, but it was so worth it. It added a lot of atmosphere to the film.
As for the visual effects, I just added in this vignette for the scenes in the "gas leaf fields" and some shaking effects to the scene with the swordfish and the rumble explosion at the end.
Color correction, I just made the psychedelic trip green instead of a blue color it originally had. I needed to convey that that wave was full of gas that was causing that trip. Then I just made the color correction fade so we could see the blue orb flying towards the pink blob in its natural colors.
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This was way long. I'm just hoping I didn't cover a problem that I hadn't already covered in another one of my process-of posts. Remember to comment if you have any questions. As usual, I feel like I rushed near the end of the post. My mind tends to die out after about thirty minutes of intense concentration.
Kisses.
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