Space Ball!

Found this on my drive the other day: an old animation I made. I didn't quite pull the ending off as successfully as I intended, but it's actually not too bad. :-)

New year resolutions

My New year's resolution? Well, duh! - finishing Last Flight of course.

Not that my recent progress has been supersonic; I've been a little unhappy with the shape of the film since seeing it with the first rough sound mix, and have decided to re-edit a few sequences. This has seen me remove the opening narration I introduced a few months ago and replacing it with some titles, which I think works better.

I've also reworked a couple of the seagull shots which were making me cringe every time I saw them - by replacing some of the footage with purchased material from Pond5. Cheating I guess, but it looks much better.

Most dramatically, I've removed a major scene from the film. I kind of already knew that this scene was impeding the flow of the story - but it seemed kind of pivotal - until I took it out. Now it seems like it may have been a good idea - assuming I haven't just rendered the entire movie incomprehensible! ...Which is hard for me to tell, I'm so damn close to it.

An edit has gone to Zane at Sunset Studios now for grading - so am hoping to see some concepts for the colouring of the film shortly, which I'll post up here.

Happy New Year,

DK

Compositing complete!

Woot!

And off to Entirely Sound to hear the first rough sound mix today. Exciting!!!

Prog report for you peeps

We've made leaps and bounds in the last couple of weeks!

The ADR was successfully recorded at Entirely Sound 2 two weeks ago with Kassie and Bevan - and sounded terrific.

Meanwhile the compositing is all but finished - bar a couple of shots that need some polishing up. Then it's off for grading... which the film needs badly - - colours, contrasts and lighting jump around something dreadful, plus the whole thing just needs to be Marsified. It still looks way to "Earthy".

Dylan has been working his magic on the music and come up with some real moody, evocative stuff and will be forwarding it on to Entirely Sound for a first rough mix, which is exciting!

The plan is to have the whole thing ready to go by February... hard to believe, I know, but we'll get there.

I mean, eventually we just have to, right?

ADR Monday

That's Automated Dialogue Replacement to you, pal! We're redubbing all the dialogue in Last Flight to get a pristine, consistent sound throughout. We're also using it as an opportunity to add some more character to the astronaut - grunts, sighs, and comments that hopefully will help the audience to connect with her.

We're also recording with Bevan Chuang - who has graciously agreed to read a version of the newsreader in Mandarin, which will be mixed in with the other versions we have.

In other news - all the CG renders are completed! Woot!

New test from Oana...

Back to it...

Got home from the US at 8am and started working on the film again by the end of the day. That didn't take long! Let's get this puppy wrapped up - before Christmas anyway.

Took a few photos of the Grand Canyon while in the States, among other things(!) and bought a 4.5 billion year old meteorite - as old as the planet.

Lord help, me I'm a geek.

Anyhows, moved all the remaining shots into one folder - and somehow it all looks more manageable... Unfortunately I'm starting my first day at the new Super City today, which I imagine is going to interfere with what I'd rather be doing (the film), so stand by for progress.

(Darn; 2 weeks away and I've forgotten the short cut keys in After Effects!)

All's quiet on the Martian front

I'm in the process of rendering the last two shots that need to be spat outta Vue: a Martian sunrise, and the penultimate shot of the giant canyons. Both are pretty heavy-duty and going to take about a week or two to finish.

Meanwhile, I'm off to the US for a couple of weeks, so will leave the computer to it - there's not much I can do while it's chewing through the renders anyway, so don't be surprised - or concerned -if the site goes quiet for a bit - - Last Flight is still flying! ;-)

Incidentally, I will be taking a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon while I'm in the States, which I imagine is about as close as I'll ever get to a view like the one that' I'm rendering at the moment... Not that I'm complaining; Mars is only my second favourite planet; Earth is still number one with a bullet!

Kassie Watson...

Oh well....

...So much for getting it done by the end of September... You live and learn I suppose...

Anyway, we've made huge progress, completing the majority of the compositing and recolouring. There's two major renders left to do, each which will take 2 weeks, and then finally we should be ready for sound, and the grade - assuming the rest of the compositing is completed by then.

And this film seriously needs a good grade! Colour jumps all over the place - and the whole thing needs to be reddened up considerably.

Anyway, enough for tonight... bed is calling!