Today I finally received payment for my first paid production. I'm quite surprised that it's come so early, I was not expecting to get here this year. Unfortunately it was a rush job and I wasn't able to create any sort of official contract document, everything was word of mouth, but we got all the way through it. I held off of uploading the final HD animation until I had received payment which I received today, so tonight I need to make one final adjustment and then upload the final render. W00t!
In other news, I think I've finally come to grips at how I'm going to approach the freelancing business. For one, I'm not going to actually own a business. Angler.digital will remain my visual moniker, but I will employ myself as a contractor doing contract work for other companies. So I will rely on agreements and contracts from the company that I will do work for.
This way I don't have to concentrate on the stress of owning a business (been there, done that, never again), liability being the primary concern here. And I can concentrate on the "doing" part which is all I really want to do anyways.
I've been working on so many different projects lately, but unfortunately I can't show anything yet! As soon as these projects get officially finished and out the door I'm going to be doing some serious updating on my demo reel!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
A rare lull
Enjoying a lull right now. After a hectic few days at work, and last week's crazy deadline (yes I had my first hard deadline last week!) I've been relaxing, and catching up on some Formula 1 (missed 3 races!) and Game of Thrones.
Last Sunday night (5/15), the animation project with Origin Nile was finally approved, but it had a hard deadline of Wednesday 5/18. Only 3 days to work on it, and it was a decent sized project. I had to create and animate a performing stage along with a crowd for the intro animatic for H.O.T. It would also be complete with a light grid behind the stage spelling out "H.O.T." and a lone performer on stage. The crowd and the performer had to be static sihlouettes which made it easier, and I had to create a whole bunch of stage lights. After everything was done I think I had about 85 lights total that I had to animate.
Day 1 was creating the model for the stage. Day 2 was creating the light fixtures, the crowd, texturizing the stage and rendering out the different passes (4 total passes) overnight. Day 3 was compositing all the renders and lights in After Effects and preview 1 was ready and sent to the client. Only minor changes came back later that night and I had the final uploaded to them by 11pm that same night. Whew!
On top of that, there might be another project to add to the list. I got an email from a company in Los Angeles who is looking for an environmentalist / compositor for an big upcoming project. NDA has been signed so I can't talk about it now, but it's big and a little intimidating, but the guy likes my work and the first part involves Tron, so I can't go wrong! :)
Other projects are on hold or still developing right now, we'll see how the next week pans out.
Last Sunday night (5/15), the animation project with Origin Nile was finally approved, but it had a hard deadline of Wednesday 5/18. Only 3 days to work on it, and it was a decent sized project. I had to create and animate a performing stage along with a crowd for the intro animatic for H.O.T. It would also be complete with a light grid behind the stage spelling out "H.O.T." and a lone performer on stage. The crowd and the performer had to be static sihlouettes which made it easier, and I had to create a whole bunch of stage lights. After everything was done I think I had about 85 lights total that I had to animate.
Day 1 was creating the model for the stage. Day 2 was creating the light fixtures, the crowd, texturizing the stage and rendering out the different passes (4 total passes) overnight. Day 3 was compositing all the renders and lights in After Effects and preview 1 was ready and sent to the client. Only minor changes came back later that night and I had the final uploaded to them by 11pm that same night. Whew!
On top of that, there might be another project to add to the list. I got an email from a company in Los Angeles who is looking for an environmentalist / compositor for an big upcoming project. NDA has been signed so I can't talk about it now, but it's big and a little intimidating, but the guy likes my work and the first part involves Tron, so I can't go wrong! :)
Other projects are on hold or still developing right now, we'll see how the next week pans out.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Start of the Busy Season
This year things have continued to grow exponentially. By the beginning of June I could be working on 4 big projects simultaneously. I am also currently working with a Lawyer to help put together the legal requirements for contracts to be used for paid gigs. This will in turn protect me and my clients, make sure I get paid and they get quality work. Of course they always get quality work from me, so I guess it's really to make sure I get paid :)
Tron: Defiance may need to be put on hiatus if all these projects make headwinds at the same time.
One of the producers of last year's film "Orbit Control" is directing a new film right now and wants me to edit it when it's finished at the end of May.
Origin Nile Studios in Atlanta is keeping me busy, a new project called "H.O.T" is preparing it's pilot to be pitched to major network studios. It's essentially "American Idol" only based around unknown Hip Hop artists.
And finally an unknown film with writer/director Paul B. should be breaking ground soon (I hope) in time to be completed by the July 31st deadline.
I'm going to have to start saying "no" soon.... :)
Tron: Defiance may need to be put on hiatus if all these projects make headwinds at the same time.
One of the producers of last year's film "Orbit Control" is directing a new film right now and wants me to edit it when it's finished at the end of May.
Origin Nile Studios in Atlanta is keeping me busy, a new project called "H.O.T" is preparing it's pilot to be pitched to major network studios. It's essentially "American Idol" only based around unknown Hip Hop artists.
And finally an unknown film with writer/director Paul B. should be breaking ground soon (I hope) in time to be completed by the July 31st deadline.
I'm going to have to start saying "no" soon.... :)
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Tron Defiance - Sneak Peak and Behind the Scenes
The animated short film Tron: Defiance is still coming along nicely. I just finished all the models necessary to complete the story and I uploaded a behind the scenes video showing some new models and the end titles sequence for the film.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Character Animation
It might be too early to declare this, but I hate character animation. I just don't have the patience or attention span for it. Maybe it's the tools I'm using, or maybe it's my limited knowledge in the tools (very possible). I think that if I had some sort of moderately reliable motion capture system then I would probably like it, but I don't.
I'm right at the point where some character animation is necessary in my animated short film Tron: Defiance and it's slow progress. Every time I try to do it, it sucks so I back out some complexity, then it still sucks, so I backout even more complexity, and then even more. Now it's just a static model that morphs between two positions and I'm going to position the cameras and the scenes so that it won't be noticeable.
I have some basic animation presets like running, standing, one-knee, etc. But some of the scenes require non-standard animation, like mounting a motorcycle, or grabbing the disc off of their back. Hopefully with some clever trickery I might be able to cheat my way around having to do complex character animation.
Other than these obstacles, so far this is coming along very nicely. I've already completed the End Credits sequence which is modelled and animated just like the movie, and I'm going to put in some behind the scenes stuff after the credits to help fill in the awesome music.
I'm right at the point where some character animation is necessary in my animated short film Tron: Defiance and it's slow progress. Every time I try to do it, it sucks so I back out some complexity, then it still sucks, so I backout even more complexity, and then even more. Now it's just a static model that morphs between two positions and I'm going to position the cameras and the scenes so that it won't be noticeable.
I have some basic animation presets like running, standing, one-knee, etc. But some of the scenes require non-standard animation, like mounting a motorcycle, or grabbing the disc off of their back. Hopefully with some clever trickery I might be able to cheat my way around having to do complex character animation.
Other than these obstacles, so far this is coming along very nicely. I've already completed the End Credits sequence which is modelled and animated just like the movie, and I'm going to put in some behind the scenes stuff after the credits to help fill in the awesome music.
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