"Sole Searching" Rough Blocking - Second Third

Click HERE to view the blocking of the second third of the short.

I added on the rough blocking on the second third of the film. Got some great feedback from David Breaux last week - animator at Rhythm & Hues. But the drill is for us to take one third of the film at a time, get it to a certain point, and then not touch it til the "next round". Not that I would get in trouble for making the suggested changes now, but since I don't show them until the next round, and it will take all of my time to get the next section done as it is, that's probably how it's going to end up anyway.

I feel pretty good about it. There are some poses I'm still not happy with. I really like the presentation of the boot by the sales clerk, though I need to add in a cool breakdown. And the timing (yet again) needs a lot of massaging. I need to make a habit of doing my blocking, letting it sit for a day, and then come back to it with fresh eyes BEFORE I turn it in. Don't want to develop a reputation for bad timing in blocking...

I'm thinking that I probably won't be doing video reference until the second pass of blocking, after the rough blocking has been approved. But once I know the main pose I'm going to hit, I can explore the mechanics of getting into and out of the actions in an interesting way through video reference.

One of the things I have a hard time with is committing to blocking. I'm always trying to come up with something stronger, more entertaining, more appealing, but that there's a road that will never end. "But I can do better!" I say, and my wheels spin for miles and miles.

So I'm figuring out that it's a better plan to do the best you can right now without biting off more than you can chew, and then concentrate on making it look really good.

It's like trying to decide what to make for dinner. Instead of reading through every single recipe in the damn cookbook, you see what you have in the fridge already, and just do the best you can with what you've got. Learn your mistakes, and do better the next time.

Onward and upward.

Something else I'm trying to be aware of as I'm animating is to make the characters specific. The film is too short to really develop things too much, but the characters still need to be individual, unique, and have a sense of personality/history.

For example, since I'll be blocking the girlfriend's performance next, I'm trying to get myself into her head a little bit. How self conscious is she about being so tall? Does she slouch a little bit to not seem so tall? What stage of the relationship is she going through? How important is it to her that her boyfriend makes the effort to equalize their height, at the expense of his "masculine" image even? What conversation have they had that has brought them to this exact moment?

That's what I'm exploring right now, and it's very rewarding. If I can make them live in my mind, I think I have a much better chance making them live on the screen.