Brudders in 'Scareplane'

[ddrake]

I'd love to see some behind the scenes stuff if you find the time for it.

[Greenlaw]

Okay, will do. I'll put together a 'behind the scenes' type article on our website, including the storyboards and other development items, and follow through with other stages of production.

BTW, a while back I created an article about storyboarding 'Happy Box'--here's the link if you're curious: Storyboarding 'Happy Box'. One thing I learned this time around with 'Scareplane' was that, other than technical R&D, there really isn't a lot of difference between preproduction for 3D and 2D.

I guess I could show the animatic, dopesheet and other items that laid the ground work for 'Scareplane'. That reminds me, I didn't do a character sheet for this project but in retrospect I probably should have. It might sound weird but I had to keep referencing my own comic strip for how to draw the characters, which wasn't always helpful because I've never been consistent about how they're drawn in the strip. Since we intend to do a series and eventually hire a couple of other artists, I need to get that nailed down.

G.

[3deeguy]

Greenlaw, the info in the link was exactly what I needed. I'll bookmark your site. One of the points that stands out is write the idea down and start with a script. Stick to the blueprint. None of this has occurred to me but when you see it "Aha!".
A friend asked me to draw a cartoonized picture of him that he could use online for his DJ business. It took me four days to draw something 'I' was satisfied with. Eventhough he raved because it was better than he expected I quickly learned that people use your work as a starting point. I spent another two or three days for his adjustments. I have a day job. That's a lot of work for something that was a plain cartoon drawing.
Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Greenlaw]

Our first indie project as Little Green Dog was a silly 'puppetry' thing called 'Hello Frankenstein'. You can watch it here: Hello Frankenstein

I bring this up because we also have a comparison reel online that may help illustrate the importance of having a clear 'blueprint' before diving into a production: Making 'Hello Frankenstein'

Pay attention to the upper left and lower right corners, and you'll see that we followed the boards very, very closely. Because we made the decision to stick to the boards, we were able to get this project completed in just a couple of weeks, working only in evenings and the weekends. (It was a rough time because my 'day job' during this same period was designing and animating for a couple of Call of Duty commercials and I had to put in a lot of OT on those jobs.) Having the storyboards drawn and cut to an animatic allowed us to create lists of what we needed to proceed and finish the project. Then, we figured out a time schedule for each stage of production (building props and costumes, shooting, compositing, editing and final mixing,) and we cut down or minimized anything that kept us from reaching our deadline. (Even thought this was a non-commercial project, we were committed to presenting it at a Halloween themed event that year, so the delivery date was an absolute.)

On this project, the crew was just me, Alisa, and the cats. Our daughter Sienna didn't exist yet, so we actually had a smaller crew back then.

Hope this answers a few more questions for you.

G.

[neeters_guy]

Thanks for the all the production details. I think many of us have to deal the realities of being small indie productions so this is really helpful. (It's a good thing your cats aren't temperamental actor types .)