Planning

My goal right now for this project is to get it moving. I had a some good chats yesterday with Martin and Ruben about the technical aspects of this project. I want to preserve the painted and hand crafted aesthetic in my test images, but use the computer to my advantage to speed this process up. I have split up the various elements in Fia's swimming image into what would be shot on set and what would be composited later using After Effects.

The head, hair part and nose will be crafted and animated on set. The parts of her body that are out of the water will be made out of cardstock and replacement animated. The ripples from the water will be paint on glass. All of these things will be animated simultaneously in stop motion. I am hoping once the 3D station in the camera room is free, I will be able to do this with luma matting - for now I will have to use a white background and a bright light underneath. It may just have to be thinner paper than the cardstock I am using in order to get the contrast I want. It is just something I will have to test for now...

The body parts that are seen underwater, underwater reflections, eyes, cheeks, mouth and hair will be painted by hand, scanned, and then tracked to follow the head. James brought to my attention today that I won't be able to do the paint on glass until I animate the body, because the ripples are secondary to that; they also create the halo effect around Fia's body. I think for now I will try without, and create the halo primarily around what body parts are above water.

These are my sketchbook notes:














I painted some character concept art for Fia today as well. I backlit them as well after insistence from James...