For those of you who have been following my COVID-19 series, I have had to stop that series since I am now fully engaged in animating for an exhibit at the Orange County Regional History Center. I am animating oral histories, using those stories as the audio for the animation. This process is an all consuming obsession so I have decided to just post small clips each day of the project in progress rather than posing old sketches each day. I haven’t been fully involved in animation since Disney Feature Animation closed over 20 years ago. At Disney I was one of several hundred artists who helped create films that were drawn by hand with 24 drawings for every second of film. I am tipping my toe in again, and having fun solving new challenges every day. Should any animation student find this series of posts they should find it helpful to see what problems and solutions had to be found to keep this project moving with an army of one.
Fade in on this simple title card. The black border is the film safe 1920×1080 aspect ratio. All of my storyboards are done in this black and white style. I am hoping that the boards are finished enough so that I can use the art as the background for the animation itself. I am working digitally keeping the background level separate for drawings of characters and background elements. I jump around each day sometimes animating sometimes boarding and every day compositing it all in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Today I am working on a animation that I consider the cornerstone of the piece I am putting together. It involves lip syncing dialogue and if it goes well, more scenes will be done this way. I find myself acting out actions during the day thinking about the animation to come. An added benefit is that working on animation in the studio keeps me very engaged during the COVID-19 lock down. Anyway, I need to keep these post short since there is tons of boarding and animating left to do.