Last week was Animex. I went to some great talks and got some really good advice from people in the industry. I have been nervous about not having a speciality, but I've come to realise that a lot of companies are looking for generalists for the starting positions, which is great news for me. I've been looking at runner positions in commercial studios in London. As soon as I'm done with this project, I'm going to update my reel and start applying for jobs.
Now back to the project.
I'm still modelling my CG characters, which isn't leaving me a huge amount of time for animation, but as it's a trailer, there's not too much movement anyway. The reason it's taken me so long is because I couldn't decide on the modelling software. I started out in Maya, but had some issues with some aspects of the models. Then I started modelling in 3D Coat, but I kept having to res up, and in the end the file size was ridiculous. So then I tried Z brush, but the software kept crashing. So I'm back to Maya and 3D Coat with slightly altered character designs.
I've also had to redo my armature, as I realised it was far too small and too stiff to animate. So this time it's bigger, and instead of using 2 aluminium wires wrapped around each other, I'm using a single aluminium wire with copper wire wrapped around it. I've added polystyrene to bulk it up and keep the weight down. I've added bolts to the feet and I have a piece of board that I will screw the model to. I'm looking to finish adding clay to it in the next couple of days. I'm getting the stop motion software installed on my home computer later this week, so as soon as that happens I can start animating the creature.
I've been looking at different soundtracks as well. I couldn't find any royalty free music that I liked, so I ended up getting in touch with a composer in US. He's also a student and is looking for a project to do on the side. I sent him some links for other B movie trailers to show him what kind of stuff I'm looking for, he sent me some of the tracks he's composited. He's also seen my animatic for the basic timing, so he's going to give it a go over the next couple of weeks. If that fails, I have some music that could be used, though it's not royalty free.
So my plan for this week is to finish both the CG and the Stop Motion models and start animating by the weekend.
