Music Video Production Diary

Brent Lowrie · Post by **Brent Lowrie** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:07 am

... and here is the Lieca Reel...

http://www.brentlowrie.com/Yewande/Yewa ... careel.mov

Cheers!

DarthFurby · Post by **DarthFurby** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:08 am

Nice job with the animatic. Really good stuff so far.

Brent Lowrie · Post by **Brent Lowrie** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:57 am

Thanks... starting to freak out now though with a fast approaching deadline. Here is a production still:

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 6:59 am

I like your drawing style. It is straight and realistic.
Five fingers in the hand of the driver indicates that this is a realistic music video and non a cartoonish one. Isn'y it?

rplate · Post by **rplate** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:09 pm

Brent Lowrie wrote:Thanks... starting to freak out now though with a fast approaching deadline. Here is a production still:

After being to your web site and seeing how capable you are and the experience you have had I don't think you'll freak out. Obviously you have been down this road before. I love your work.

Was that production still done in Anime Studio as a vector drawing? If so, how do you get such clean drawing effects? Will the shade, ie car window, look that good in a swf export from AS?

Brent Lowrie · Post by **Brent Lowrie** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:23 pm

Thanks rplate for the vote of confidence and kind words.

All the work in the still was done in AS Pro with the exception of the textural background which was done in Photoshop and imported as an image. Seeing as this is going to Quicktime for edit into the final live-action bookend footage, there was no need to test the swf export. To be honest I haven't played with that much yet. For oninne presentation, I would rather export to video and import into Flash as Flash video as it plays back much better than Flash vectors.

The image is just made up of shapes with varying fills, outlines and effects, sometimes layered with adjusted opacity (in the case of the windows). Many of the lines have had their line widths adjusted to get a thick-to-thin look. Otherwise, nothing special. Thanks again.

Brent Lowrie · Post by **Brent Lowrie** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 8:47 pm

Well, my portion of the music video is completed and delivered. Sorry I haven't been updating this thread more often but I have been putting in some very long hours just to get it delivered on time. I made a significant investment in this production as I saw this as an opportunity to do something new and different from what I have been producing for the last year and also to give Anime Studio Pro a good test drive. The budget for this was tiny but I think the investment was worth it. The client is very happy and I can't wait to see the final cut.

So, here are some production stills for ya...

Sequence 1 Scene 1 - Establishing Shot

Sequence 2 Scene 1

Sequence 2 Scene 2

Sequence 2 Scene 3

Sequence 2 Scene 4

Sequence 2 Scene 5

Sequence 2 Scene 6

Sequence 2 Scene 7

Sequence 2 Scene 8

Sequence 2 Scene 9

Brent Lowrie · Post by **Brent Lowrie** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 8:57 pm

...and finally, here are the finished video clips. I hope you enjoy them...

Opening Establishing Shot

http://www.brentlowrie.com/Yewande/Yewande_sq1_sml.mov

Main Animated Sequence

http://www.brentlowrie.com/Yewande/Yewande_sq2_sml.mov

These will be edited into live action footage for the final video which I hope to have a copy of in a few days.

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:10 pm

Wow!

The man animated sequence is awesome!!!. Good job!!!

Only one tip. Could you make the smoke from top view of the city move slower. In this way it will be according to the distance of the view and the size of the city.

Regards
Genete

human · Post by **human** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:20 pm

Wow, I really admire your work, for so many reasons.

The moral of the story about your vid is that small movements mean a lot.

This is consistent with what one can learn from rotoscoping feature-movie footage (in the public domain, of course!).

I see far too much exaggeration of movement in modern animation for my taste.

Staging smaller movements also has the benefit of less risk/less work by the animator.

(My only caveat is that the quality of motion in the arm lift at the end is slightly less natural/convincing than the other action....)

Brent Lowrie · Post by **Brent Lowrie** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:37 pm

Genete
Thanks! I agree with your comment about the smoke. I wanted all the smoke to be much slower but couldn't get it figured out in time. Changing the velocity seemed to only affect the slope of the plume and not the speed of the particles. If you have any tips for next time, it would be much appreciated.

human
Thanks for the comments. I agree with you as well on the am movement of the last scene. I'm really not happy with that last scene but frankly I was running out of steam, patience and time. I would like to be able to do more trad animation in ASP without using switch layers so I could jump back and forth to boned animation.

I didn't have time to block the last scene enough an build rigs to accommodate all the action I a really wanted to use. I will have to play some more to explore my options is ASP.

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:53 pm

I've done a smoke using the built in script from LM and setting it to 200 when asked for smoke lifetime.
After been created remove the flame layer and modify the settings of the particles (smoke) layer properties to this:

It would let you a more realistic smoke for that view.
Cheers!
Genete

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:46 am

Wow man, you're working well!

If I may suggest making the movements larger and more exaggerated instead of small, subtle movements.

Otherwise, your design and 'modelling' is superb! (But make the movements larger so that they really come to life!)

Good luck with this. Looking great.

Brent Lowrie · Post by **Brent Lowrie** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 12:16 am

Thanks guys, the feedback is very much appreciated and I'll certainly put your suggestions to work in my next production. Cheers!