COVID Film: New Opening Shot

Posted on by Thor

To screen my film which was essentially a story reel at the time,at the Orlando International Fringe Festival, I had to put a disclaimer in front of it. That disclaimer said, “Content Warning: Contains some mature language and content, including depictions of illness and death. Viewer discretion is advised.” After six film festival rejections so far, I suspect judges are predisposed to reject the film as soon as they see this nine second Content Warning.

I decided to start the film with a new opening shot that fills the slot the content warning held. The new shot is a nine second pan down a NYC street following an ambulance which is the only vehicle moving on the streets. The existing audio is of an ambulance siren so this makes perfect sense. I finished the yesterday but didn’t complete the painting since I had worked on several other scenes as well.

This scene opens with a close up on the window and the virus rolls up to the open window as if looking out. The camera pulls back and pans left to follow the ambulance as it rushes down the street. The pan moves from vanishing point to vanishing point.

I am basing the nocturnal scene on a painting I did of the twin Towers from my Stuyvesant Town Apartment back in the late 1980s. This shot is of Third Avenue but the lighting is the same with a variety of apartment windows glowing like stars in the night sky. This is going to be a fun painting to finish.

I am also looking forward to figuring out the animation of the ambulance. It should be fun to figure out how to animate the lights blinking wildly and I need to find a good way to have the headlights illuminate the street. At nine seconds long, this is the longest shot in the film, so I have to make it worthy of the screen time. Should a festival need the warning, I will place it back over this shot.

COVID Film: Animating the Skull Toss

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In the previous version of this shot I only animated the skull arching towards the crowd.I decided I need to animate the former president throwing the skull as he slowly walks the stage. In the previous animation I did I moved the skull in After Effects. The trouble is that there is little opportunity to change the timing of the animation. I got it to move on the arch but with very even timing.

I tried animating the skull in Callipeg using the transform tool but a very similar problem arose in that the timing was too even. Computers seem to insist one even timing. I finally decided I had to animate frame by frame repositioning the skull for each position so I had control of the spacing between frames.

I am half way finished with animating the former president. His arm moves fast but the walk is ponderous and slow. I am assuming the audience will only have time to see the skull movement and will not pay attention to the walk. I am debating about some tie movement. That will be subtle if I move it at all. For now the idea of animating the crowd or flags is overkill.

COVID Film: Animating a Flying Cow

Posted on by Thor

In this scene I am animating the flying cow. I had animated it previously but that pass had only a leg move. I decided to get the cow into a full on gallop as it flies through the air backwards. I animated the gallop as a cycle in place. The cow will be much smaller and moving backwards. Once the animation is complete and painted, I plan to merge all the layers and move the existing animation. I might also rotate the cow a bit.

The tail animation still needs to be done. I am imagining a rather frantic tail movement since it is wagging and also being buffeted by high velocity winds. The funnel of the tornado was animated as well and I plan to paint it rather roughly to tr and replicate the spinning shape. I will likely add a subtle movement to the virus as well using pins in After Effects.

I have to still animate the flying tractor and broken boards. I will see if I can do this using the transformation tool. I could also do this animation in After Effects. The house is already animated. I used the transformation tools in Callipeg to move it on a simple arc. It moves rather slow so a camera move was added to the first shot to speed up the scene. I will probably keep the same camera move after animation is complete.

COVID Film: Norway Superspreader

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I cut this shot into the film yesterday, replacing one of the Winter Park Art Festival superspreader shots. One of those shot had one guy in flames holding his girlfriend’s hand and then the next shot was pf the entire crowd on fire. Since the shots were so identical they started to feel like a mistake rather than a progression. That section of the film features scenes which are engulfed in flames. I decided this worked fine since it has the gentle romantic glow of Christmas candles. This replaced the first shot, offering a gentle glow and then the inferno to follow.

I was considering walking all these characters toward the camera, but with the depth map added, I so far feel like there is enough motion already offered in the shot which is less than a second long. I pulled out another shot which had vaguely cloaked nudity with the thought that the single shot might keep some judges from considering screening the film. My best bet however might be to look for film festivals that embrace horror and shock value in their screenings.

COVID was rejected by Leeds International Film Festival in Ireland today.

COVID Film: Canned Lightning or Hand Drawn?

Posted on by Thor

I spent a day learning how to create some canned lighting in After Effects using expressions and a myriad of effect presets. The effect of all that experimenting is on the bottom. I wasn’t satisfied with the options available. In the original illustration I had created lighting which branches and spread out much further.

I created hand drawn lighting for another shot and realized that by creating the lightning by hand I had much more control over the shapes created. I decided to go back and redo this Zeus scene with the hand drawn approach. Lightning happens extremely fast. Each bolt lasts for just a few frames. So I animated each bolt with a small flash near the finger and then the next frame would have the entirety of the bold painted. The next frame would have a very thin version of the same bolt. After the initial flash, I would create a copy of the lightning bolt and paint it black. That black frame could be felt but not seen. I created the effect the the light was so bright that it burned the retinas.

I repeated the process for a series of bolts in quick succession. The final bold I allowed to trail off by breaking up the thin bolt over two frames. Looking at the scene now I think I want to lightly paint the tips of the flashes a pink color and I need to re-import the hand with a pink glove.

I decided the and drawn lighting will be what I use in the film. It ties in better with the look and style of the film overall.

COVID: SS Texts Final Composite

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I finished compositing this shot yesterday. It all came together as I had hoped. The third SS agent I animated had the largest arm swings and that kept the scene from being too stiff. Since some elements are rock solid, I am always looking for a delicate balance between stillness and action.

Today I am editing in an entirely new shot into the film. I decided that one shot is too controversial to be included. Many of my paintings are insanely controversial, but I need to find the right balance that will start getting accepted into festivals. The new shot I am pulling together is grim but has some warmth. The shot now in the film was chosen simply because a figure was mummified and in a hospital. The new shot still had a sickly patient but they are surrounded by caring parents. I also can add some simple animation to the shot which will add the the ongoing chaos as the film speeds forward.

COVID: Animating SS Agents

Posted on by Thor

I considered animating the SS agents in slow motion but that looked to unnatural. Instead I kept fast motion through the run and then spent one third of the time getting them to settle into a final stance. It worked out well. I haven’t added shadows yet under the agents. That will anchor then to the ground plane. The shadow of the agent leaping over the cell phone will be painted on a layer behind the held cell of the phone. That will allow the opaque phone to cut off the shadow cleanly.

With the second agent I tried the run with the agents arms stiff as a held cell. That looked very unnatural, so then I tried flailing the arms about but that looked too crazy. I finally animated the arms straight out front but going up and down a bit and then slapping down at the end. That was just enough action to work without looking distracting.

I painted the background to fill in where the agents once stood. This allows for me to move them all without a hole appearing behind them. That new painting was used to create the depth map. I didn’t bother painting the tire on the car since the tire will never be seen. The two foreground agents will be very still although I might shift their weight a tiny bit.

I have one more agent to animate today. My plan is to have that agent fill in the empty space behind the other tow agents thus filling in the empty space. I would cut off that animation without settling the action at the end. That means I will have to space out the keys further apart to get a fast run. He will have to start from behind the car of perhaps even off screen to make that happen. Each run has three primary keys so I will compare the spacing to the previous runs.

I should have the scene finished and composited before I start virtual teaching in the afternoon.

COVID: SSTextss

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Yesterday I met four new students during six hours of online courses. I always enjoy the first courses since I get to discover the ambitions of new aspiring artists. After the classes I needed to relax, but I set up this shot in Procreate to start animating today.To set up a shot I isolate each character on their own level so I can animate each independently.

My plan is to animate the three agents who are running towards the virus. The two agents in the foreground will remain rock solid as held cells. They will save me from having to draw quite a few legs. My thought is that I would like these guys moving in slow motion but that means more drawings on ones. I have my work cut out for me.

The other agents will move only slightly. The agent with the mini machine gun will raise his gun a bit and the two police will lean into the virus ever so slightly. That animation will involve a lot less work. My iPad just informed me that I have been working on the film for 11 hours a day last week. Time to get back to it.

COVID: What Virus?

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In this shot the camera trucks downward a bit. I added some subtle animation of the legs kicking on the guy who is doing a handstand. The day was quite productive with 5  shots completed. I was finishing animation on this scene around midnight.

The 4 animal shots work really nice now that they are animated. I am using animation to draw the viewers eyes to certain sections of the scene so that they are ready for the next shot. I have finished most of the most complicated shots but part of me wants to go back and refine some of the animation. The scene on the beach with the zombies in particular stands out. I animated broken limbs and off balance walks, but they are detracting from looking at the beautiful woman wearing a mask. I might go back and slow down all the zombies so they move in slow motion. It could be as easy as getting rid of a lot of drawings or it might mean adding a whole lot of inbetweens.

I will be setting up to work on the iPhone assassination scene. Secret service agents can remain rock solid and still but there is a guy rushing towards the virus being pinned against a wall. I am thinking he may also need to move in slow motion. Each time I view the short, my list of refinements grows. The fact that 3 film festivals have rejected the film so far inspires me to keep making it better. But the hard edged lyrics and imagery aren’t for everyone.

COVID: Lion’s Den

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Yesterday as another day of animating lions. I noticed that the human skull on the floor is a bit lost in the quick shot, so I animated the male lion stepping on it. If there was time I would have him bat it about like a kitten with a toy.

I just need to add more paint to the second lioness to tie her into the look of the scene. I do this by first painting shadows and then highlights. The challenge is to try and do this consistently from cell to cell so that the paint doesn’t crawl too much.

Getting the lioness to walk away from the camera was quite a challenge and I am happy that I pulled it off. Other lions in the background will move subtly but I plan to animate then using pins in After Effects. The nurse will also lean forward ever so subtly again using pins to key frame the existing painting.

Yesterday I got a congratulatory note form filmFreeway with animating balloons ext to let me know COVID was a Finalist with the FilmQuest Film Festival in Utah. The note had buttons to share the news on Facebook and Twitter. I punched both buttons in my excitement. After some research on being a finalist, I found out that the film was not accepted to be screened. It was just one of the top 75 films that was cut at the last minute. There is still a possibility that the festival might screen the film online. This makes sense since those who would appreciate the film are likely COVID cautious and thus would not attend a crowded indoor festival.

My list of rejections so far include, Global Peace Film Festival, Film Quest and Saint Louis International Film Festival. My record now is 2 screenings and 3 rejections. I am coming to terms with the fact that I have created a film that no one wants to screen, since everyone wants to forget and move on. Most are vaxed and relaxed. However vaccines do not stop infections or long COVID symptoms. The main point of my film is that the pandemic is not over, and no one wants to hear that. Every rejection hurts, but every time I get bad news I apply to another festival until I find judges brave enough to screen COVID.