Technical research

I'm continuing to do my technical research. This week, I managed to finish reading a few books that really are must-reads for thesis projects.

Story, by Robert McKee
The Art and Science of Digital Compositing, by Ron Brinkmann
Inspired 3D Short Film Production, by Jeremy Cantor and Pepe Valencia

I can honestly say that Story has changed my life, in terms of how I think about films, how I write, and even how I live. Anyone who is interested in writing screenplays is not qualified to do so until he or she has read this book.

After reading The Art and Science of Digital Compositing I have come to the conclusion that After Effects is not a compositing program. It's really more of a 2D effects program and motion design program, but doesn't really get into the kind of compositing that Ron Brinkmann describes, at least not in depth. I've decided that I'm going to have to learn Shake and/or Fusion and/or XSI sometime in the near future.

I'm not sure why anyone would attempt to do thesis project without reading Inspired 3D Short Film Production. We really should have covered everything in Chapters 1-11 in thesis previz, and I feel like we only covered chapters 2,5, and 10. In any case, story and design points are still up in the air, at least for me.

I've been doing more research into fluids and its turning out to be a major pain in the ass. I thought there might be some tweakable out-of-the-box solution for "creature bursting out of bubbling liquid" but apparently there isn't. THis is going to take some major R&D, which means I'm going to have to fly through the modeling, texturing, rigging, and maybe even animating stages. My focus, therefore, is going to be on the lighting and visual effects. The problem is, I don't see how I can fly through modeling or texturing unless I make it pretty simple. I know from experience that it isn't possible to fly through animation, so that's just something I'm going to have to muscle out.

Between working on my reel, donqui xote, and getting ready for my ICT internship in LA, I will be working on character design and ironing out that story once and for all. This means another animatic, hopefully one that is completely dreived from my other versions.

Stuff to get done before June:
-finalized story beats
-finalized 2D animatic in story reel form
-character design sketches
-model the well
-model the final ingredient vial
-fluid test: ingredient pouring liquid
-fluid test: ingredient pouring just a drop
-fluid test: bubbling liquid in well
-fluid test: splash
-fluid test: mixing two fluids of different viscosities