Drawing a Hand Right!

Every scene of this film will be a struggle. I have resigned myself to that fact. With resignation comes acceptance. I now accept that each scene will take three weeks to complete which means the film will take 2.3 years to complete. That is, however, a number I REFUSE to accept. So I'll continue with the same urgency to get this film done.

I'm one week into drawing Sc. 44, a closeup of Honey's hand reaching to turn the bathroom door knob. I shot video reference of my own hand and printed successive screenshots to help with the drawing. Despite the reference, I'm still struggling to get it right. Below is the evidence of this struggle:

With each attempt, I'm improving my understanding of the construction of the hand. I learned from the last scene's struggles that understanding from the beginning the full construction of an object makes it infinitely easier to animate it later. I'd rather put in the time now to draw the hand right so that all of the drawings that come after will be right, too.

And it's only been ONE week!

Scene 17 completed!

Absent the music since I have yet to purchase the rights:

Charting the Progress

Recently I decided to dedicate FIVE precious hours to a non-creative activity. I made a single chart that provides all of the essential scene-related information I need regularly: scene number, scene duration, scene description and the scene's percentage of the entire film. Additionally, I decided that every time a scene's completed, I'd add a thumbnail that provides a quick view of my progress.

Aside from providing information, creating the chart made me determine the final number of scenes in the film. When exporting from Storyboard Pro to Animate Pro, SBP generated scenes automatically (I haven't researched it but I don't think the user has any control over that process.) As a result, SBP produced 75 AP scenes. But some of those "scenes" were moments that occur in larger scenes so I can combine some of those scenes into one. As a result, I've gone from 75 scenes to 57! This is HUGELY beneficial psychologically. Although the amount of work hasn't changed, knowing that I have to complete 57 instead of 75 scenes just makes me feel better!

And if I feel better I'm more likely to work harder and be more optimistic about completing this thing!

Whatever it takes…

Scene 16 completed!

It took awhile (too long!) but it's done!

Searching For Luthor's Expression

I wanted a solid expression for Luthor's lip lick in Scene 16. Of course it didn't come easily and required four days and three pages of attempts before I found the right one.

First attempts.

Second attempts.

Finally found it! (I went with the circled expression.)

Luthor Model Sheet/Turnaround—Body

In the interest of time (as of today, I have 278 days until completion deadline), I decided to do a full body design of Luthor in only the front and back views. I'm confident that I'll be able to base all other views on these two:

Next post: Luthor does his sexy LL Cool J lip lick!

Luthor Model Sheet/Turnaround—Head

The final inked model sheet for Luthor's head:

It's neither great nor perfect BUT it's good enough. With my deadline being Dec. 31, 2013 (279 days left) there's no time to fuss around. All that matters is that I'm satisfied with it. I'm looking forward to watching Luthor transform from this neutral expression to all of the dramatic acting he has to do!

Next post: Luthor's full body turnaround.