POST PRODUCTION - MASTER CLASS: ep. 1 "The Curriculum"

"The Story of the Curriculum"

*This series is indestructible: ie. Messages from this series will NOT self destruct: (An ongoing series regarding all things in motion, film & animation)

After a great deal of reflection and thought, regarding:

1️⃣ what I can share here

2️⃣ what I cannot share here

3️⃣ what should be shared here

4️⃣ what I'm willing to share here

5️⃣ what is best to share here

This isn't about words. It's about LIFE and it's about YOUR STORY.

WHY?

@Jake Van Clief

has inspired me... (in more ways than one)

I have been wondering for a while, about the best way I could contribute to this community, without compromising my own company or current endeavors. Instead of providing random comments and knowledge, I have decided to pick one of the several areas in which I possess an advanced knowledge, and I intend to exhaust this topic completely.

The topic of choice is: POST PRODUCTION (Video, Animation & FX), which is what my actual degree is in. I went to the Art Institute of Las Vegas, where my primary instructor was: a Lighting Director and Animation Director: on films such as Shrek, Antz and Toy Story. He worked for Disney and Dreamworks, for more than a combined 30 years. After teaching at the Art Institute of Las Vegas for many years, he now does murals and paintings, you can see his website here: https://lee-lanier-paints.com/

Of course, having a degree in an artistic industry, isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Why?
Because talent & skill were always the barrier to entry, not credentials.

Jake has said that everyone has loved what he's doing with his animations
Why?
Is it because the animations themselves are exceptional... no, and they aren't bad at all, but the technical aspects of animation are NOT why people enjoy them, and they are NOT the PURPOSE.

EVERY ANIMATION, does in fact have a purpose. Which is quite simply, to tell a story. Jake's animations are effective because, he's got a great story to tell! And if you have a great story, the audience will forgive imperfections in its delivery. Hence the existence of films that fall into the category of

"Cult Classics" - the name itself, tells us all we need to know. A cult is a fringe group and in the context of cinema, the concept is this: A movie that society has deemed as irregular, meaning most people shouldn't like it, but some do anyway.
Many aspects of animation can be dismissed as an element of style rather than a component that should be judged harshly.

In this series, I plan to cover a number of topics related to our case study project, as a sample project will help us work out every detail needed to pitch a show concept, to a studio or network, which will require: a logo, website, script, sound, character development and design and many other aspects such as concept art, slates, lighting and writing, along with all the necessary marketing & collateral material, +swag:

////////////////////////////////////////////////////// SPEC /////////////////////////////////////////////////

TV Show Name: ?????

Category: 3D Animation (Live Action)

Format: fictional TV show

Pilot Episodes: 01

Character Design: (premade)

Character Voice: ?????

Additional Characters: ?????

Location: ?????

Set Design: ?????

Style: ?????

Deliverabe: ?????

Brand Kit: ?????

////////////////////////////////////////////////////// SPEC /////////////////////////////////////////////////

as you will see below, I have already generated and run a walk test for the primary character of this sample project. This happens to be a design which I was in the middle of creating for an animated project years ago and which the backers pulled the plug on too soon. In my opinion we had hardly gotten anywhere and they just didn't have the right attitude to work on a film project. Nevertheless the project came to a screeching halt and they never paid me for this drawing here so I'm free and clear to use it as I see fit.

Therefore I dusted it off, uploaded it to AI, and I got back a character straight away. It literally took me longer to write this article than it did to create the character in 3D, which was just fed to the AI. I got back the 3D character, which then I was able to use as reference for the animation walk test.

We've asked it not to speak or do anything. This is always the first test once you've got a character ready and the rigging is done: just to make them walk and start to figure out what kind of style they walk with. How do you control their movement based on the geometry of the character itself? This will all play a central role when designing a character. You have to think these things out, right?

If you notice the way that I did the feet here, it is not necessarily exactly the way that a beaver's feet might look but I needed to make something that isn't going to fall apart when it tries to be animated. Yes so enjoy the preview here. This will be an ongoing series and the reason I'm writing it is because there's one thing that all of you have in common and it's a great story. You folks need to be able to tell your story but you can't tell your story without some tools. I'm going to give you some of the tools that you need to tell your very own story.

Jake has his style for telling his story and on this one, given my background, we're going to go all out. Hopefully a lot of you learn a great deal about how to present yourself and create your own marketing and advertising material. If you can create enough noise, you don't have to pay for marketing and advertising. It comes to you. That's what the whole influences thing is all about but the difference is they're generating fake interest buzz. It's fleeting. It goes away quickly. If you can create something amazing then you could stand the test of time and you could have a far greater impact than you might ever dream.

I want to see all of you be able to tell your story in an effective way so you can see the rest of your dreams come true as well. I hope you enjoyed the little previews here and there'll be a lot more coming in the near-term future regarding this little in-house project, which I will perform in front of all of you so that you can learn about animation. I hope you all enjoy it very much!

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POST PRODUCTION - MASTER CLASS: ep. 1 "The Curriculum"