This shot consist of a dozen separate layers which are all moving independently. To allow the coffin to be lowered into the hole, I had to make a layer for the dirt edge in the foreground so the coffin would disappear behind it. The guy with the pic ax has three separate layers of hips, torso and arms holding the pic ax. I tried animating the movement in After Effects but the pivot point is a bear to deal with. I could move the pivot point for one frame and rotate the arms from the shoulder but when I moved to the next frame the arms would move to the center of the screen. There might be a work around but I didn’t have time to deal with the research.
I imported the pic Ax guy into Callipeg and animated him there instead. In Callipeg the pivot point stays where it is placed. The rest of the guys lowering the casket were animated back in After Effects using pin points at each of their joints. I bent each guy forward and bent their knees to allow the casket to be lowered.
Today will be much more challenging, since I have a crowd of people running towards the camera. I will be very lucky if that shot gets finished.
I submitted the film to a film festival in Leeds England yesterday. I read that the festival often shows films of geo-political importance, so I had to get COVID into that mix. Humanities inability to battle a virus has been a geo-political disaster. I have submitted to about a dozen festivals so far and have screened the film twice. Acceptance or rejections are months away. Many of the heavy hitting festivals submission dates are already closed so I might not screen the film at those festivals until 2024. Just researching which of the 9000 festivals to submit to is a full time job.