BREATHING LIFE INTO LOGOS:: ::
March 19th, 2010 :: Joseph Krzemienski
BEFORE (2D logo)
AFTER (3D Logo)
So guess what, Atomic Robo has a great Logo. For the Fictory’s purposes, we faced a conundrum. Do we take and use a cool logo, or do we go the extra mile and create something amazing from an already strong foundation. After a little talk between myself and 3D supervisor, Allen Clements, we opted for the later. Later on we’ll give some behind the scenes on the actual process leading to the results pictured. But for now just rest your eyes on some delicious before and after shots…
…..mmmmmm that’s good.
Posted in Atomic Robo: Last Stop, Fictory Production Blog
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS:: ::
March 14th, 2010 :: Jeff McComsey
Hey Gang,
Lots of great stuff happening this week in the studio. Saturday started with The Fictory’s first field trip to a local train yard to shoot some reference pics for the upcoming train yard scenes in the short. It was cold and wet but we got some great pics that will help us populate future scenes! One of the cooler things I was tasked with this week was creating patches for a close up of Robo’s vintage bomber jacket. Hardcore Robo fans will catch the references to past adventures. I composited the Patches on to the still of his leather jacket and have included a preview for you guys!
-JEFF McCOMSEY
Posted in Atomic Robo: Last Stop, Fictory Production Blog
NEENER NEENER:: ::
March 10th, 2010 :: Joseph Krzemienski
Hey, it’s no secret. The Fictory is staffed entirely by friggin’ nerds. So when Jeff suggested we sit down and podcast with the dudes from n3rdcast (that’s nerdcast for the web-illiterate out there) I said “Post Haste!”
You really can’t beat free promotion, coffee and good conversation. N3rdcast hosts Kwip and Dr. Sexy Fickes, no relation to the Fictory, joined us early Saturday morning. Before the Robo crew arrived, we had a nice long conversation about Atomic Robo: Last Stop, some previous Fictory projects and just generally cool stuff. So if you want some sweet auditory stimulation I highly suggest you click this link to LISTEN NOW… and subscribe the the n3rdcast’s regular podcasting schedule. And while your earlobes are filtering in the goodness, be sure to check out some costumed tomfoolery with the insanely talented Featherweight.
- Joe
Posted in Atomic Robo: Last Stop, Fictory Production Blog, Press/News
ANATOMY OF A SCENE 01 – COMPOSITING ::
February 26th, 2010 :: Joseph Krzemienski
How do I best put this…. Producing Animation is hard. Really hard. A tremendous amount of time, talent, and resources go in to each frame of Atomic Robo: Last Stop. Having said that, it’s also a blast! We get to draw AND talk about nerdy stuff all day.
This week the team convinced me to post a small snippet of the animation as it exists right now. So here’s the process to get to the video. Those of you with short attention spans might want to tune out about now…
I sit down with my creative team, Jeff McComsey and Dominic Vivona. And we take a look at our script written by Brian Clevinger and your’s truly.
Step 01: From discussions on the script, I tell the guys where I would like our “camera” placed. On of the things that’s special about the Fictory Method, is that we treat animation like live action when preparing a shot.
Step 02: Jacked up on coffee, Jeff creates a storyboard based on our discussion. From here I approve the shot or we go back to the drawing board (literally) until it’s up to snuff.
Step 03: I take the completed board and create an animatic. The animatic is cut to the exact timing and framing for the shot.
Step 04: Dom and I start war gaming the actual animation, acting out the scene and roughing the animation. Jeff and I discuss background color feel and scale, he gets to work.
Step 05: Jeff creates the finished pencil and we hand over Dom’s key frame animation to our tweeners (in between animators). In the meantime I create a rough composite with the resources available.
Step 06: Tweens are finished, animation is approved and colored, and backgrounds renders are completed.
Step 07: I take everything, bring it into the computer and put the stank-on-it. After fiddling with some knobs and pressing my computer’s animate button, the rough composite is dropped into our final film timeline.
Whew, thanks for bearing with me through all that. That’s just a small part of the processes we go through to bring you a sweet ass animation. Please enjoy a few seconds of the posted clip! Keep in mind this is NOT a finished shot. Just a rough composite.
Posted in Atomic Robo: Last Stop, Education, Fictory Production Blog
ANATOMY OF A SCENE 02 – TRADITIONAL ANIMATION:: ::
February 24th, 2010 :: Dominic Vivona
Hey all, Production Director, Dominic Vivona here for our next installment of gross anatomy 101 animation style.
Once our animatics and backgrounds are completed for any given scene we go directly into working the key frames. To establish a well grounded character we need to have a solid idea of what environment our action will be taking place in. Key frames can begin as soon as we have this understanding so here we are going to show the key frames laid on top of the first element of the background (the background continues to grow with elements for the mid-ground, foreground, color, etc.). After we are finished with key frames the ball moves steadily along to “tweening” and coloring all of the frames. Then on to compositing (stay tuned for the next post!).
As I’m sure you noticed, Robo seems to be missing something from his ever lovin’ hands. Not to fear Atomic Robo writer, Brian Clevinger, sent us over a great pick on what type of gun Robo should be wielding in this here our little moving picture project. I must say, it’s a perfect fit. In some scenes we composite in elements rather than draw them together. As is the case for this scene, we rendered the gun separately. Here is the concept for said hand canon.
Posted in Atomic Robo: Last Stop, Education, Fictory Production Blog
