8 to 14 November 2015, your time has come.
Story dev is very nearly almost done – I know I’ve said that in the past, but this time for sure. The gag bank is absolutely packed so I’ve been able to get through the middle act and massage in another “rule” which makes the gags even more satisfying. The whole thing where bad luck strikes because Gronky is helpful yet unlucky has been switched over onto Pointy – whenever Pointy’s ungrateful or mean, that’s when his luck turns for the worse. Much less explaining to do means more time for funny!
I haven’t done an animatic yet so I haven’t seen the overall shape of the film in the rough. It would be exceptionally foolhardy not to make an animatic, but on the other hand certain key scenes I’ve got are locked enough to start pre-production on. Those scenes are not in doubt at this point, so I can happily start figuring out how to make them without having to worry about discarding them later.
I did the little beetle guy from the pre-title scene last Sunday. I needed a rig that could scamper and tumble. I’m happy with how this quick animation test turned out – the skitter looks good, the tumble mechanism works, and the rig is OK to work with. The surfacing is just a placeholder for now and will be polished up once it’s time to render everything.
There’s another gag which involves wind blowing sand off something. For this I tried using a particle system with Cycles particle density. The particles don’t whip up and disperse in a way I like yet and the cloud is way too dense, so this one will take another try.
That’s all for now. See you again next week!