Job Done...
The animating is complete. It's taken about 3 and a half months of patience, very late nights, lots of drawing, writing and animating, and it's pretty much there. All that's left to do now is the sound and editing. I also need to come up with some sort of intro. Nothing fancy though.In theory, for me anyway, the concept of animation is pretty simple. But tonnes of hard work goes into it. Sitting at a computer for hours on end using an animation software may sound relaxing and easy, but it is very draining. Animating every single bit of movement is no stroll in the park. There are pegs and camera movements and using the correct movement cursor to make sure you're actually moving limbs and characters across a screen that go into it. Also, having to draw all of the locations, different angles and movements of characters and background props takes up a lot of time.
Being a film graduate, animating never crossed my mind. But I thought I'd branch out and develop my skills and knowledge somewhere else and thought, "Fuck it". I don't have to rely on anyone else to be somewhere at a certain time, I don't have to rely on someone else to hit deadlines, and I have the freedom to do whatever the hell I want. That's the beauty of animation. If I want to ram a massive space battle with explosions and lots of things going on, I don't need money or people to do it. Just a pen, paper and imagination. This is my project. I make every executive and creative decision, and no one else is there to say, "No, you can't do that". I'm not working for anyone, I have no limits, and I love that.
I don't have a solid future plan for what the 'show' will actually be about or what the genre will come under. During a discussion with some friends I actually compared it to the American sitcom 'Seinfeld', which was said to be a show about nothing. But I take back that comment. I care about a lot of issues, both personal and worldwide, and I do plan on slipping those into future episodes. Whether it's an episode relevant to something in the news, or if it's a flashback or nod to my childhood/people from back home, I am going to be putting a lot of me into it.
I do massively look forward to putting it online for people to watch. A few people have told me that they can't wait to see it, which is nice to hear. My house mates constantly ask how it's going, and they're always supporting and lending their ideas to me which is also nice. All in all, this animation is for my friends and family, which will become more clear to see in future episodes. As I've said before, there will be a lot of private jokes that no one else will get.
For now though, I plan to have some earlier nights. The story for the next episode is being worked on, so until then there won't be endless late nights of a 5am bed time. Well, there might be.
