Hommage du Hommage a Matisse est Libere!

That's French for "Hommage du Hommage a Matisse is released"! Check it out!

Very excited to have this film out there, and I'm hoping it goes well in my Paris class as well! (And doing well on the internet can't hurt...hehe). I mixed several forms, first thinking paper, then a realistic type of adding pieces, then decided to take a calculator/Game & Watch approach for the Fireworks in a mixture I think worked out rather well, but really, see for yourself!

The other projects are going great too! Interstitial is getting its final in-betweens, and camra is just about wrapping up. The animation I did in those projects I'm looking forward to showing off on this blog as well, when I get the chance! Mighty Girl's on the finishing concepts in terms of setting up the film, and I'd share more of it, but I've already talked about Might Girl quite a bit!

Now, enjoy Hommage du Hommage a Matisse!

One step Forwards, One Backwards, and Another Forwards

This previous week has been an interesting one with many twists and turns. Let's get right into it.

We'll start off with the bad news to get that out of the way. Our camra idea we initially had we rejected by our client,  so unfortunately we have to go back and do it all over. Again. So there will be a bit of a last minute rush when it comes to actually getting this picture animated. Or whatever amounts of animation it will have at this point.

Now on to the better news: It's one more week until I can release Hommage du Hommage a Matisse! I can't wait to show it to you all! The Intersection Animation is also going well as I have learned some basic Toon Boom animation. The real crime there is I don't have enough time to really experiment with the program, but hey, what are you gonna do?

Brawl Minus is also kicking and back in development for version 4.0. Asides from heading the project, I will also be revising some of my artwork I had previously made for Minus 3.3, as some of the characters could potentially look better. Maybe I'll share one or two on here if I don't have much to post about in a certain week. We're aiming for a release date of the end of the year or so.

As for Mighty Girl I'd like to explain a little about Mighty Girl and Mighty Dog, the stars of the show, themselves. Mighty Girl's ability, as you could probably guess by her name, is her mighty strength. She may be tiny-sized, but she pack the power of planets in her punches! She's truly a force to be reckoned with! As for Mighty Dog, due to being a dog, Mighty Dog lacks combat abilities outside of his ferocious bite. However, he does make up for it with the power of flight! Being able to soar through the skies, Mighty Dog is probably the best fetch player you'll ever meet! Not only that, but since Mighty Girl herself can't fly around, she relies on trusty Mighty Dog to get her to the scene of the crime in the nick of time! Here's Mighty Dog, flying by with Mighty Girl on his back right now!

 We'll be taking off, now! Until next week!

My Master Plan, and Introducing Master Mom!

Another week of developments has developed, and I think it's at a point where the rest of my semester has been planned out!

The Matisse Piece I had mentioned yesterday now has a final name: Hommage du Hommage a Matisse! The translation is pretty simple, it's just named exactly what it is: A tribute of a tribute to Matisse. I couldn't find the name of the piece, but I guess it's a good thing I didn't, since this is a much more enjoyable title!

The two collaborative projects are going well. cmera is having its drawing materials compiled to produce the sets and shots of the film which will then be animated within the next month! The other one, which is the opening for the end-of-the-year animation show, is in a bit more of a rough development, between both me and my assigned partner, but we'll have things figured out for next week (we still have to do it, after all)

Now as for Mighty Girl, I would like to introduce a new character, but I think Mighty Girl would rather do that herself. "Villains Database 002: My mother! You may think that she's nice and sweet when she's playing with me, making cookies together, and reading me nice bedtime stories....BUT! In reality, she is the evil Master Mom! She's mean and bossy, and ALWAYS has to have her way! She's smart and cunning, so be careful! Here's a picture, so you know what to look out for: On the left is her nice...sweet....lovely disguise, and on the right is her real sinister identity as Master Mom! Beware!"

That's all for this week! Next week I'll be giving some more details on Mighty Girl, as well a bit more info on the other projects, so stay tuned!

Promotions and Projects!

Busy week I've had, and now I can at least say I have tons of stuff in the works. Let's get started.

Soon after establishing this blog as my personal one, I also made a facebook page which you can find Here. I also made a Twitter account, which while it may not see much use right now, it can be much more applicable in the future, but if you follow me on my Twitter here, I could learn the site more and more. I'm considering other venues such as remaking a Tumblr, learning Instagram, and maybe even setting up a different DeviantArt, but these are all jobs for other days.

Now, onto the projects! First I'll discuss the one I discussed before, Mighty Girl. The story of a young girl playing Super Hero has to also sort out her real life as a young girl, but the mudane days of growing up are made much more interesting with the power of imagination! I've thumbnailed a bunch of storyboards (I'll show those another time should the occasion call for it), and I think I'm all set on how the film is going to play out! Feedback from my teachers will help me shape it into something that may not only be more doable, but better as well. We'll have to see!

As for the other projects, I will also be involved in two collaborative projects: An advertisement for an organization called camra (the lowercase is intentional) which encourages alternative forms of presenting research in universities, and the other collaboration is for the opening of the animation show for my university. For the camra project, I will be taking on the role of Sound Designer, Production Manager, and Animator, while for the University project I will be taking the role of Director and Animator!

There is one other tidbit I have to share, and that's a third project, currently called Les Amis de Paris, in which Pierre Matisse, grandson of Henri Matisse, has a paper-cut out he made in tribute to his grandfather come to life with animation! I'm not gonna show off the animation, but I will show my recreation of the piece. The animation itself will premiere in about two weeks.

I've got my share of work ahead of me! I'll see you guys next week!

Blog Revival!

Blogs are pretty cool because they can exist past their original purpose. I was debating what to do with this thing last week, but I thought to myself...I'm just gonna keep posting on it. Hopefully weekly if I can. I've always wanted a personal blog, so I'm gonna have fun with this thing! Hope you don't mind, Prof.

With beginning development of my Junior Piece, I feel as if I should begin promotions and promoting and all the things I can do to make things a little more interesting. The subject I'm most interested to talk about on this blog right now is for certain going to be that piece, but as more projects become appropriate for discussing out in the open, I'll discuss them here.

About my junior animation, I will be creating a 90 second to 2 minute animation in Adobe Flash CS6 (We're actually allowed to animate it in whatever we want, but Flash is my lifestyle and my main tool of trade) for the Spring 2015 Semester. Good fun. My story, Mighty Girl, will be about capturing a young girl's imagination and the world around her. The story's gonna be really fun to make, and I can't wait to show you its developments. For now, here's a design concept of Mighty Girl herself and her loyal companion, Mighty Dog!

But what other topics will be posted here, you ask? You can expect various other artworks, personal pieces, as well as developments on Mighty Girl, Brawl Minus, and many more! Or  Stay tuned for more news!

C'est Done!

C'est Si Bon is finally finished!



Sadly, I could not
get the song on time, so the video will ultimately never be what it
could have been, but c'est bon.



Magnifique!

10/13 Update!

Back once again, and here to provide more updates for the progress of C'est si Bon!

I should discuss the progress on my piece. I've got a steady amount of work done, which is good considering there's one week left, but on this last week it feels as if I have hit a road bump, a creative block, a blank in my mind. I'll have to sort it out one way or another, and the way I figure it all out will surely be for the best!

Now for the screenshots!

9-29 Weekly Update

Still no song from Jazzy. I wish I could have gotten a response so I could have an update on the song end of things. I'll try again this week.

I got all the animations I forecasted this week done on time! I kinda got nuts with little details in accurately recapturing Shakespeare & Co. in the 1920s, but I think it looks worth it. I'm starting to connect the dots a little with this movie, which is also really good! Still uncertain about how a few shots will play out, but time will tell. Here's a few screenshots of what I have added this week.

The first shot is  of not only the cafe (the second shot in the movie, also an establishing shot), but also the ever-so vigilant V-Cam in action! This long-time friend of mine allows me to do a large variety of shots and camera movements easily in Flash. The camera doesn't show up in the final product, since it's doing camera work

 The second is of James Joyce and Sylvia Beach in front of Shakespeare and Company. I spent a bit contemplating who would be the one entering Shakespeare and Co., but since Sylvia Beach published Joyce's book Ulysses, I realized he'd be the perfect choice!

Update for the 22nd

Animatic presented, and I must say it wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. Sadly my computer doesn't like exporting things as formats not known as .swf, so I had to present that and say things as they happened, but other than that it was fine.

The focus is still 1920s Paris, but instead of searching for a protagonist, I just decided that there shouldn't be a protagonist, instead having it change from artist to artist as I show off the lovely city and lovely life, as well as everyone in it. This way is much easier than deciding who should represent it.

A concern the substitute had was if I was going to be able to realistically accomplish my piece on time, which is an understandable concern. Another student suggested puppet animation with cut-outs. Not sure how that would go, but working with lots and lots of motion tweens and drawing from the waist up to avoid walk cycles are for certain good ideas.

This is the first shot, an opening of the city, to show it's about the whole city.

Here's the opening shot!

Review results

I figured I should post an update now that I had my ideas reviewed in class, and it took my idea and completely swiped the rug from under my feet. (Is that the right expression?) with one huge word: RESEARCH.

Research the song:While I had the right idea of the song, I know nothing about the man who wrote it or the context of the song or the hollywood movie it was known for being used in. Research is certainly needed in these areas.

Research Eartha Kitt: Had I only looked at my artist's list a few hours before class, and I would have noticed she was actually an artist there at the time. This means I'll need to look into her life, and consider if the protagonist should be her or Hemingway. Kitt would be more interesting as she's the artist herself, which gives her a huge edge over Hemingway despite me knowing more about him.

Research Paris: What does it look like? Hemingway's stories could come in handy, as cafes are quite different than what we see of them in America, and capturing Parisian life is what I'm really trying to do, and thus is the most important part of the project. This time was lively, and I should really show that somehow, my idea was a little too calm. Makes sense it was calm based on Hemingway's stories, but Parisian life was way more than that.

Basically, I have to go back to the drawing board. Next time, I'll be ready!

More thoughts on the project+concepts

It's been a bit since the blog has been updated. Perhaps I should begin with introductions again. I'm Marc Weidlich, and I am currently going to be creating a 30 second animation for a musician who currently goes by the name Jazzy, who I have been communicating with via email.

Great news, I finally got my song! I will be creating an animation to "C'est si Bon" in the style of Eartha Kitt. This is pretty good, since it's easy to take inspiration from my Les Amis de Paris class, which focuses on the life of the artists in Paris in the 1920s. The book we're currently reading there is called "The Moveable Feast"by Ernest Hemingway, in which he describes in vivid detail what life was like in Paris, as well as all of the artists he met. I figured a day in the life of Hemingway in Paris would be an interesting style to take and show.

While there is no animatic yet, I have two scans showing a little bit of the ideas in my mind, as well as a drawing or two.



 I have recently learned that I'm only animating 30 seconds to be played over a 3 minute song, though, so that just raises questions and confusion that I need to get sorted out.

The animatic should be ready by next week, likely to be accompanied by some progress. Wish me luck!

Initial Thoughts on Project

Upon starting Collab Workshop, my first project will involve working with musicians to make music videos for their songs. This sounds like great fun, and will have plenty of room with creativity. On top of that, I could use more experience in working with others, and this is the perfect opportunity. It's not the first time I'm animating over music, and it's always a fun subject to revisit.

My partner Jazzy seems to specialize in soul, and is making something upbeat. I was thinking of possibly using a brighter color palette and animating in Flash. I'm not 100% on the direction yet, but the opening to Monsters Inc. certainly comes to mind.

All in all, I look forward to this project!

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