Growth and trying something new. I had made a mention in the previous post about the Intro Theme + Clip for The Opposite 12th Hour, but if you’ve haven’t watched it, it’ll only take a minute and let me know what you think.
The process and overall timeline, ended up working out well. I know personally the clip runs a bit short but to get out when I wanted, I had to compromise. I think it works fine as an actual sampling of things to come.
Over on Instagram I have been adding additional content and I will continue to post behind the scenes, and the continuing production photos and video over there. I want to go into the archive and see what sort of storyboard footage I can pull together.
Hello again. I am back with another update, this time it is about a new Creative Drive video. This Creative Drive looks into the breakdown and process that went into making the opening animation. I know the animation has been done for quite awhile, I just wanted to give some perspective on how it was made. So that’s what I did, have a watch I think it came looking fine.
Etsy? Yes indeed I have officially released the screen prints for The Opposite 12th Hour. The designs include the main logo graphic The Opposite 12th Hour, ECD | Egg Chicken Dragon, ULD | Uri Loves Donuts and the OPB | Onioodles Pop-up Box and there’s also a really cool TO12H acrylic pin over on the Etsy shop too, so check that out if you’d like. Setting up the Etsy shop has been something I’ve been looking forward to doing, if you like any of the items, the shirts are screen printed by hand by me. The pins were not made by me, but they were designed by me and so are the packing cards they are attached to.
One more thing of note is Instagram. I’m going to try and release more images and possibly some video over on the Instagram page. It definitely has been a very busy time and I think that is good. With this update I’d like to thank everyone who has seen The Opposite 12th Hour | TO12H Intro Theme + Clip “This is Horrible” and the other video of the side by side. Until next time. -bryan
This is HUGE. It has finally happened, the long promised and vaguely seen glimpses of The Opposite 12th Hour has finally arrived in it’s animated form. I am very excited, this was a lot of work to get to this point and here we are. There are not just one, but two version of the Intro + clip. Yes there are indeed two versions of TO12H goodness, and both are as equally as delicious.
The Opposite 12th Hour – Intro Theme + Clip
The opening theme takes a look into the characters and locations that are nestled inside of the world of Preston Hill where The Opposite 12th Hour takes place. We meet Vincent who pulls a box and unravels. Then there’s Sam his friend, and we have our ghost named Elisabeth who inhabits Vincent’s house, once her house. There’s old man Lou who is not fond of kids or Vincent. Then we have location set pieces of Vincent’s house and Sam’s house and offsite locations left in disrepair.
The clip “This Is Horrible” features Nikola (Vincent’s dad) and Uri a small-mini, mini-small unicorn with a compulsive need to stay fueled on the nectar of donuts and other sweets. As we venture into attic, we find Nikola working on flavors for his hot sauces, sweet sauces and barbeque sauces. But the current batch of sauce seems to be rubbish and that is why this is horrible.
Please enjoy the Intro Theme + Clip “This Is Horrible” featuring Nikola and Uri from the scene up in the attic.
The Opposite 12th Hour – Intro Theme + Clip (side by side)
Side by side is basically just that, it is a side by side comparison to the animatic. The animatic was all drawn my hand and cut apart and reassembled in the edit. Some shots have varied but for most part this is the blue print I follow as I create the animation. As can be seen in the Animatic is very to little detail, just a slice of an idea and then populating that idea to a full vision is a long process and trying to find a style for that vision took time and realizing that the white space needed a world to be drawn was a far underestimated journey in itself.
Okay, I know it’s been a long time since the last update. There’s been a lot of things to catch up on, and I will definitely say that this process has been all consuming. And well, there’s things to show. Below are Images from the Intro and the attic scene. We have Elisabeth on a swing, Vincent and the minimizer, old man Lou at home, Uri and the donut, he loves those things and last but not least we have Nikola up in the attic.
Elisabeth on a swing, swinging.
Vincent and the minimizer. It’s time for a snack.
Old man Lou at home.
Nikola up in the attic.
Uri loves donuts.
Let’s see what else there is to be shown. There’s a behind the scenes Creative Drive VOD so you can take a look at that, it’s a walkthrough video of how I go through the background coloring process.
Well, hello, hello, hello… The saga continues on this journey of TO12H | The Opposite 12th Hour. Catching up on what’s what, well, I’ve finished music production for the intro so that’s progress. Finding the right tone ended up being a process of it’s own, but in the end I got something that fits. Scene 7 has been tightened in the edit to give it better pacing, the edit doesn’t differ much from the initial cut, but it definitely helps. I had also gone back through the animatic and recreated the camera cuts and focal lengths in 3D and then based my sketches after those cuts, same idea if you’re sketching from Still Life.
TO12H – Attic! COLOR – INK – 3D
So what’s happening now? Currently I’m still on backgrounds, sketching, redrawing and inking and I’ve continued with those at a steady pace for the first episode (Egg Chicken Dragon.) Those backgrounds include the second half of scene 7 that is the attic as well exterior shots for sequence 5 and they’re coming together nicely.
Now back to the show. I’ve been up in the attic working on things, I’ve been inking lines, crafting the tone of the color palette and setting up all of the shots for the upper most part of the house. There’s an image below to get a look into the attic. I still have a lot left to do, but I’ve also gotten a lot done. Currently all of the backgrounds have been finalized for the opening 27 shots for the 30 second intro sequence, I touched on that a bit before, there’s a theme song for TO12H | The Opposite 12th Hour. All of the opening shots are assembled with the parallaxing backgrounds and any of the additional animation i.e. elemental and environmental are complete. Then there’s also character animation that needs to get rigged and animated and plugged back into the final shots, so that should be fun.
TO12H | The Opposite 12th Hour – Nikola’s attic background art design
The attic sequence has turned into a lofty bit and I’ve been chipping away at it in two parts. The first half of the attic sequence is what I attend on releasing in a showcase piece with the intro animation that will establish the overall feel of the style, world, and characters.
A brief reflection so far on the stream and the sessions of Creative Drive. A few months had gone into planning and preparing the idea of producing a stream to create art and to do it live and now it’s happening.
All of the pieces were created and all of the tests had been run. The opening animation that plays after the starting soon visual took a month to produce. The name itself was in flux until I decided on Creative Drive. I sketched out a few images of the wordage and I settled on a design that I had inked, I scanned it, I made it digital and that’s the logo as it is now with both variations. I had worked on creating and producing each of the music tracks that have been incorporated with the holding screens, starting, pausing, stream over etc… Figuring out the cameras for the drawing table and how to get the OBS and the Deckboard app and all of those components to work. The swipe transitions and the overlays were created and a last minute decision to do rotating logos were added as well. I wanted something that would be very encompassing in quality and craft of both from a sound design and visual design approach to the entirety of the presentation.
Now there was a question I needed to the answer for myself and that was, what now? Are you sure you want to start streaming? Click yes. And there we go, that was it. That was the answer. The inner feeling of stage fright of performing and to begin with no material. Just go in and make something up. That’s what you do. Go do it.
So that’s what I did, I wanted to pursue all of the phases from the conception of the idea through the mundane and tedious moments of creation all the way to the final awe moments of completion of the art. Project BCM (Botanical Commandical Mechanical) is the the first project that is being created through these sessions. So far so good, stop by and take a Creative Drive. Until next time. -bryan
Things are continuing to move along at a steady pace, there’s new animation and new graphical overlays that are being designed and put into place. Clanging paperclips and sloshing water? That’s right I’ve been dabbling around in some Foley SFX to animated visual cues, it’s been fun coming up with sounds and using different techniques to add weight to the shots. Then on the other side of the sound gamut, I’ve been producing multiple music tracks that are going to be used for the new project. A new project? A question to answer another question. What up stream?
Jabber Studios | Creative Drive on Twitch.tv/jabberstudios
That’s right, I’m getting a live stream ready to go and I invite you to join me as I take a “Creative Drive.” I’ve been looking forward to making this happen for some time and I think I got everything on the tech-side figured out and ready to go. It’s something new and something out of the old comfort zone. It’s going to be an ongoing process that will change and evolve as things tend to do, but you got to take a step before you begin a journey.
So that’s what’s been happening behind the curtain. There you be, there it goes and I’ll be seeing you soon. Head on over to the twitch channel and hit the follow button to get notifications of when I’m going live. Until next time. -bryan
Hello, once again. I’m back with another long awaited posting. As the up hill climb continues on The Opposite 12th Hour | TO12H I’ve been getting the intro into a good place to finish the remaining shots with the backgrounds and animation. I’ve also taken to the sky to map out a large portion of Preston Hill and it’s surrounding areas. So everything I had in my head has been sketched out with topography, I got a map. A lot of what needs to get finished is getting there, everything is looking good and moving forward.
Vincent’s house the aptly named Blurrium Estate – Sketch animatic, 3D mock up, final ink and color.
The next steps are to wrap up the 20 plus backgrounds for the intro and the preview scene, as well as getting all of the characters rigged and animated for both of the sequences. Then from there continue to get the rest of episode 001 Egg Chicken Dragon completed.
Things are moving along and a release is near for the opening theme of TO12H | The Opposite 12th Hour. I still have a few more background sections left to complete and then I’ll be jumping back into the character animations.
I’ve been spending a lot of time on these 27 shots and setting up all of the compositing for the final edit. I’ve tested out the motion for timing with temporary placeholders for the character builds and everything flows flawlessly. The checklist I’ve been chipping away at is under half of the 300+ items that need to be either corrected or created, so there’s progress.
