Newsletter -- May 28, 2002
An apology from a slacker moviemaker...
Nah, it's not that I'm a slacker, it's actually that I've been crazy busy at the movie -- too much so that I've forgotten to send out an update.
If you haven't gone to the site lately http://www.petting-zoo.org/Movies_Dreamquest.html please do so.
Since my last note, I've uploaded quite a few things. I uploaded some short sample animations, a track of music from the movie, some more pictures, and been updating the Production Diary as regularly as I remember.
Two pretty big chunks are now finished. First, the storyboards. Yeah, I know, I ought to have done those last Autumn, but I was busy with other stuff! Anyway, the storyboards represent a HUGE piece of the puzzle. They're the blueprint for each and every scene in the movie. To give you an idea of how many scenes there are in this movie, I "number" them using a 3-letter code (AAA, AAB, AAC, ... AAZ, ABA, etc.) Basically counting in base-26. The last sequence is CHP, which is more than 2200 scenes! Holy crap! Am I ever going to need help on THIS baby! (see below)
The second big chunk, which also solidly nails timing down, is the voice track. Admittedly, it sounds weird to hear these long gaps of silence, punctuated by conversations, but it'll all sound great once we get the music, background sound, and SFX in. I really want to thank all my voice talent. Man, these people were awesome! It was so fun doing voices that I'm tempted to plan another animation, just to catch all the people who couldn't make it and the people who ended up with bad recordings and I couldn't redo 'cause of time.
Speaking of music, Cyoakha's sent in half a dozen tracks already and all I can say is that we are ALL in for a huge treat! It's absolutely gorgeous and twisted and bizarre and beautiful. I couldn't have asked for anything else! I've uploaded one of them, a song entitled "And If I Fall" to the Downloads section. This music goes with Carter's journey up Ngranek to view the carven face of the gods and his eventual capture by the nightgaunts. Ooooooh, cool!
I'm diving into the "Leica reel" now, which is like a quickie animation sequence. For those of you who have seen The Testament of Tom Jacoby, think of it as animation at that level. Even though each scene will be relatively easy to build, 2200 of ANYTHING is a lot! Wish me luck!
After that, I do more detailed animation on each of those 2200 scenes, unless one of my wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Assistant Animators has already done it.
The Dream-Quest site has been quite attractive lately. We were mentioned on memepool.com, among others, and the hits from that mention alone jumped up to 1000 a day! Please let your friends know about the site and send 'em by to check it out.
Here's where I ask for help:
I really need people who know Photoshop to help with the animation on Dream-Quest. They don't have to know animation, just basic image editing. Plus, I give them very good, explicit directions, and I answer questions promptly.
I can't pay them, but I CAN offer screen credit (Assistant Animator) and a copy of the finished movie when it's done. I can also offer links to their site from the DQ site.
If anyone knows anyone who can print out a bunch of 11x17 color posters (maybe even a hundred?!), I'd be right grateful too!
On a personal note, I watched a movie the other night called "20 Dates". I liked it a lot more than I expected to. And "Spider-Man". Loved it!
Okay, time for me to stop screwing around and get back to work.
Dream, people, dream!
Edward
