Dana: final version

If you saw the video I posted a few days ago, you already know of all the attempts done on Suicide Friends.  This project has been going for years, and the recent design proved to be (though my favorite) the most taxing.  The traditional animation with Roger Rabbit styled lighting was taking too much time with just one person working on it.  If I continued, this film wouldn't be done for another 8 years.  So I decided to try a digital Dana again.  As the video showed, I did this once and the result wasn't to my liking.  She looked like an alien, but it was the best I could do at the time.  I stopped on the idea of doing a full CG film until I had more practice.  After working on "the Grim" (http://thegrimanimation.blogspot.com/) I believe I've had a good amount of practice and rebuilt Dana.  The result really pushes the first one aside (I honestly feel weird even comparing with these images).  Someday I'll do a traditionally animated film, but I'll wait until I have a crew of animators.  Until then, I'm happy with how Dana is coming along.

Gertrude, with a new do

One of the last things before moving on to clothing and texturing, giving her hair.  The hair on the first model of Gertrude was difficult as I wasn't use to making hair and tried approaching it the same way I sculpt hair on a clay figure.  However, anyone that tells you making something in a 3D program is just like sculpting is not your friend.  Its more like sculpting if your hands were numb and then someone put boxing gloves on them.  At first I always just want to put my hands on the model and just form it.  Fortunately after working on the first short, I'm more use to working with the computer as can be seen in these images

More Grim adjustments

Literally working from head to toe for the next short.  I spent most of today working on Gertrude and I'm now at her feet, though I plan to go back and check everything again.  This time we want to see how far we can take everything with what we know so far.

some personal Hasani sculpture work

Some images of a sculpture I've wanted to make for a while for my personal collection.  This is mostly just for fun.

The Grim Makeover

With animation done on the first short (it's currently going through sound an music) I've been talking to a 3D dynamics artist on how to improve everything for the next.  He's currently testing cloth while I'm making adjustments to the character models for the second short.  You can see the start of these changes in this image below, with the original Gertrude base model from the first short on the left, and the adjusted model on the right.  I hope this project constantly grows and improves with each chapter.

Suicide friends evolution

Here's a look at some of the testing that has gone into Suicide friends.  The project has gone through many changes, once being planned as full stop motion, again as full CG, and another time as a mix of media.  After a lot of testing I found that I can produce stop motion and CG in the time I'd like for this film, but 2D on my own, especially in the desired style, takes a lot of time.  With the amount needed for this project and being done on my own, this film would take about 8 years to complete.  So now I'm looking to produce this film using CG and stop motion.  I'll greatly miss the 2D aspects, but someday when I have a large team I'll tell another story in that style.  I have no shortage of ideas.

Keep Moving Forward

Suicide friends is still moving forward.  However, some things are being modified to make sure this film makes it to completion.  This film is a very small production, and by that I mean a crew of one person at the moment.  After crunching some numbers I found that this film at it's current state would take around 7 to 8 years to complete.  It may sound crazy, but I'm still enthusiastic for this film and I'm determined to find a way to shorten that time.  I'll keep everyone updated on the progress.

Keep Moving Forward.