COVID Dystopia: ZOE Depth for Store Monkeys

Posted on by Thor

I am excited for this shot since the ZOE Depth did such a good job of recreating a long store aisle. When the camera move is added it will far surpass the previous version of the shot.The animated monkeys are ready to be imported as three separate layers to add to the depth. The two foreground monkeys will disappear rather quickly as the camera moves up the aisle and zooms in on the baby monkey.

The scene looks darker in the 3D diorama view which can be rotated to see the depth, but the color and values are corrected automatically when imported into After Effects. By the end of the day today I will see how this all falls together.

COVID Dystopia: Last Tail

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Today I just need to finish up animation on the last tail in this scene. I still need to add some darker values on the smallest monkey up the aisle as well. I then have to add shadows under all the monkeys and start exporting movies with green screens. The green masks might make that tricky. I don’t want the masks to become partially transparent.

I plan to composite the scene in After Effects as well today. I want to use ZOE depth so that a camera move up the aisle will feel dimensional. I will export 3 separate movies so they can be stacked in depth. If the ZOE method doesn’t work out I already have the scene composited with depth using Volumax. I would just need to replace still images wit the animated movie movies in deep space.

I had another rejection yesterday from a film festival, so I need to start thinking about which film festivals to submit to next. I am making a expenses spread sheet for my 2023 taxes and it turns out that Film Festival submission fees are the biggest expenses I have had in making this film. Facing rejection week after week becomes taxing over time. Once I have all the papers sent off to the accountant and the government has reached into my pocket and taken its cut, I might once again be able to breath a sigh of relief.

 

COVID Dystopia: The 11th Monkey

Posted on by Thor

Yesterday I animated two more monkeys in COVID Dystopia. I had to completely redo the animation on one monkey because the Callipeg program refused to allow me to erase. Instead of erasing the program would replace the element with a color. Initially the eraser would work but when I scrolled back in the timeline it would reappear as a color block in the shape of what I had erased. I closed and reopened the program and rebooted the iPad but the problem persisted. Such a glaring glitch will guarantee that I do not use this animation program next time I wok on an animated film.

The only way to get the animated monkey to work was to completely redo it. Since I already knew what I wanted the monkey to do, the animation went much faster the second time. Playback faltered with all the layers I had for each monkey, so I also had to compress the layers down to allow for smooth play back. The small monkey holding the toilet paper is the only monkey that has all the layers in case I want to go back and edit his animation.

Today I have three more monkeys to animate. All three have very subtle animation but with fluid tail movement. After this scene is finished I plan to go back and add animation to several of the rhinos in a previous shot shared. I figure if I animate the rhinos on either side of the single masked audience member, having them look at the masked man will help focus the audiences attention. The other 50 or so rhinos can remain still.

COVID Dystopia: Animating the Monkey Scrum

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I animated four monkeys in the monkey scrum yesterday. There will be three more monkeys in front of this grouping and one monkey further down the aisle. All the animation I did yesterday was quite contained so that the leaping monkey is the action that should catch an audience’s eye.

The animation that remains is more complex since the monkeys will be walking or shifting their weight forward. There are so many layers now that the Callipeg program is struggling to play them all back. I might have to merge layers as I add more animation to keep the scene from freezing up. I should copy the scene today and work on the copy just in case the program does indeed fail.

Last night Pam helped in making plans for the trip to Berlin. We also wrote the festival organizer to see if he has advice about the best places to stay. With a six hour time difference I think I will be teaching virtual art classes until 2AM from Germany. I have to double check the schedule against the flight times and screening times of the festival. COVID Dystopia screens in the 6PM time slot on Sunday February 11, 2024 at the Babylon Theater. On the day before, screenings start at 6PM through about 10PM. Then there is a mixer for directors and producers at the Griffin, an “American Style” bar.

Pam and I watched a Rick Steves youTube video about Berlin to get a feel for what else to see in the historic city. My father fought in Germany at the end of WWII. He would have wanted to push into the city but he was tasked with cleaning out the resistance in the industrial Ruhr Pocked West of the city. I know which cities he fought in and would like to follow that route someday, but that will have to be another trip. Pam and I will be flying about 24 yours to be in Berlin for about 48 hours. It is quite a whirl wind but it is a once in a lifeline opportunity.

The Germans seem to appreciate COVID Dystopia‘s macabre outlook on the worlds failed response to a virulent virus.

COVID Dystopia: Animating the Monkey Scrum

Posted on by Thor

Most of my effort went into animating the monkey who leaps, reaches but falls short of the prize.The arm reaching was the challenge. I wanted the reach to happen quickly and then slow down as the monkey dropped back to the floor.  The lower half of the monkeys is hidden by the mass of monkeys all around him, so that mace the job much easier.

With that finished, I added a simply movement to one of the monkeys in the scrum. There is another group of four monkeys in front of this mass, so part of this animation sill be hidden. All together I have nine more monkeys to animate. The movements for each should be much more subtle than the leap I just finished animating.

Animation for all the monkey tails is already done, but I will import that at the end. I am hoping that today will be another two monkey day.

COVID Dystopia: Official Selection at the Berlin Short Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia is an official selection at the Berlin Short Film Festival. Pam and I ordered new passports and they came back surprisingly fast. My film will screen on February 11, 2024 at the 6PM screening slot. The Babylon Theater is located at Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30, Berlin, Germany. Today we will make plans for plane flights and an air B&B inn Berlin. I found a nice place within walking distance of the theater but we aren’t sure of flight times yet. These international festivals don’t give much time for making plans.

I am of course curious about the films in my screening block. I found a couple on youTube. One was an interview in German about stereotypes associated with Germans. The other, also in German I gave up on. I will not watch any others, I would rather see them on the big screen.

There is one social event where film makers can mix and mingle. It is being held at an “American Style” bar. The place is a hole in the wall dive with graffiti on the facade. It is quite a walk from the theater. There is quite a bit of large graffiti in the neighborhood reminiscent of the days of the Berlin Wall.

This screening should be quite an adventure. I know a minimal amount of German after studying it in high school. I really never got past counting to ten however and all that conjugation stuff threw me for a loop.

COVID Dystopia: Shot 8 Baby Monkey Animated

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I finished animating the baby monkey yesterday in Callipeg. The toilet paper animation could be imported from the previous version of the scene. That strand of toilet paper used to wave in place, so I had to animate it moving as the hand rises. I also had to rotate a bit so it has some weight and drops with gravity.

I have about a dozen more monkeys to animate since they are fighting in a scrum below the baby monkey. I am teaching virtual art classes for eight hours today, so I likely will not finish any animation. My hope is to just get the key poses done on one of the monkeys.

The two foreground monkeys are just a held cell. However I animated the gun being raised. The two foreground monkeys disappear out of the shot rather fast since the camera pushes in towards the baby monkey.

I am animating on a flat version of the background but the final plan is to add depth to the store aisle. Rather than exporting all the monkeys on a single layer I will export then on separate layers so they can be stacked back in space in After Effects. I already have the camera move in place so the new animation will just have to replace the still layers I already have done.

COVID Dystopia: Shot 8 Start Animation

Posted on by Thor

Today I am starting animation on the monkeys fighting over toilet paper. Animation of the toilet paper waving in the breeze and tails is already done. I imported the tail animation from the previous version of the scene and now realize it is blurry. I will need to redraw the tails to sharpen up the lines.

I will start the animation with the baby monkey holding the toilet paper. The hands, feet and head will be held cells but I will go in and fully animate the arms and body. The plan is to have the monkey leaning forward and then rear back when another monkey leaps for the toilet paper. This is a very short scene at just over one second and it has the camera zooming in. I might calm down the zoom if the animation turns out well.

There is a lot of scribbling and cross hatching in the monkey’s fur. I am debating if I will replicate this texture throughout the animation or simplify it. Since there are about a dozen monkeys I will be working on this scene for days.

COVID Dystopia Shot 8

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With Shot 6, The Screaming Monkey, I did go in and add animation of the mouth opening as it screams. The added animation did help the scene.

In this shot the tails are animated along with the strand of toilet paper and the hand of the reaching monkey bends at the wrist. I think I am going to go in  and fully animate the crowd of monkeys scrabbling for the TP. I suspect that adding ZOE Depth to the background could also help the scene.

Fully animating this scene will be a real challenge so it will be sharing the animation as it is done.

COVID Dystopia: Shot 6

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Shot 6 of COVID Dystopia is of a surreal view of a sports bar. I went to South Carolina to help my sister celebrate her 80th birthday. My other brothers and sister wanted to meet a t a sports bar before we went to the celebration. The sports bear we were supposed to meet at was super crowded, although I noticed there was plenty of outdoor seating which would have been my preference. We met instead at a small restaurant across the parking lot of the strip mall.

My brother claimed I looked like Darth Vader as I approached the entry in my long winter trench coat and N-95 mask. If I could find an n-95 mask that looked like Darth Vader’s mask I would wear it. Family seem to think I am crazy for taking precautions while I think everyone else is crazy for pretending that the pandemic has ended. This second indoor dining spot was empty except my family crowed around one table. The space had no HEPA filtration system to keep costumers safe. I ordered a coke and took a few sips by slipping up my mask. I know this wasn’t ideal but the risk benefit had to be measured. Most people have abandoned all COVID precautions and I am just learning what layered risks I am willing to take.

The previous day I taught a virtual art class from a Starbucks because the trailer I was staying in had horrible WiFi. Over two hours I sipped an iced coffee while teaching the class. Starbucks was crowded when the class started but emptied out by the time the class ended. I was seated near the entry door which kept blowing open which I liked. I was a cold breeze but at least fresh air was circulating.

Seeing this shot as a still, I am noticing that some of the breath and spatter seems out of place. I will check the scene again and check the breath layer of placement and scale. I might separate each breath into its own layer so each can be scaled from a center which would be at the person’s mouth.