Vacation Working

So, I've been trying to listen to everyone and not work like crazy over the break but that has presented one big problem. I took a break for a few days around Christmas and my Birthday, but when I was trying to get back into it, I felt really fumbly and wasn't as productive/good.

Anyways, here are a couple things I've been working on.

First, I did another shot for the hand drawn thesis Tug of War:

Second, I've been working on the cg thesis, No Strings Attached a bit. We are currently working on blocking out all of our shots before going too far into polish. I started just kind of hitting random shots based on how much time I have and how difficult the shot should be. This break a sort of revelation occurred to me. We have been assigned shots in small sequences throughout the film, and it seems like the best way to attack this would be to tackle it by mini sequence. I threw my shots into After Effects so that I could see them working together and it has been really great to work out not only what's happening in each shot, but how each one works with the next. This has both created and helped solve problems, but being able to step back and look at how it's all working together has helped me tighten it all up into a much better sequence.

In case you don't know, blocking means that the characters are going to pop from one pose to the next without smooth transitions. I often get a little overzealous and do what would be called blocking plus, where I don't just put in the main story poses, but put in more poses to help describe the action and timing.

Another last note, the camera staging and such is being handled by someone else, so the staging and layout is still sort of organic at this point.