Animatic

Here's the animated storyboard, or animatic.
A lot of the shots got messed up while rendering them in After Effects, making certain parts waaaaay too light. It's a little distracting, but I made the animatic for the purpose of seeing how the timing and general movements look. And I'm pleased.

You might recall that the original story has one more scene, where the sun and the moon talked about what to do. I removed this scene.
That's because sometimes you have to let go of things. Whenever you make something, it's good to pause occasionally and ask yourself the question "Why am I doing this?", and think about it. Does what you do help your work? Does it add something? Or should you cut it?
And sometimes you realize that adding that space monkey or electric cat just doesn't fit your grim and realistic setting, and you take them out no matter how much you love the idea of having one of those. And your work will be better for it.
This is called 'killing your darlings', and at some point every artist will have to*.

So let's look at the scene, and see what it does:

- it introduces a new character, the sun. And,

- shows the relation between it and the moon.

- it has two people talking.

What would this scene require?
- One or two new backgrounds, and

- a new character (and the accompanying research and design).

Why keep it?
- It adds a little to the story, and

- allows me to show off some more of my animation.

Why not keep it?

- requires a reasonable amount of time for research, design, drawing and animating. I have only a very limited amount of time for the whole animation.

- if cut, the character of the moon will have to offer the alternative to the snake, and eventually make the choice of sacrificing herself, without first consulting with another character. I think this adds to her character's strength.

- The characters talking is a break in the story, as two of the characters are only talking, and the other two waiting for them to finish talking before they can continue. I think breaks can be great for a story, but this is a very short animation, and I think I can keep the pacing up without remotely wearing out the viewer.

So there are my thoughts. I hope to have shown you how I approach a story, and my view on editing.
And because you read through this, I would like to present you with the remaining drawings, in the colors they were meant to have:

*I want to add that I don't like the wording of 'killing your darlings'. I have sketchbooks in which I keep all ideas I cut. This way they can live on, maybe grow stronger. And whenever I need an idea, I will have a sketchbook full of ideas to choose from. It also means I have no way of running out of inspiration, for I have sketchbooks full of things I'd love to make.

The flow of time

One of the problems of a big project is finding motivation to continue along the way, and making sure everything is done in a timely fashion.
Some people are naturally very good at this, and they just keep going.
Usually I'm not one of these ppeople unless I'm already going and in a flow; that moment where you just keep on going because you're doing so well, so why stop? And then I look out of the window and see the sun is rising again. Oops.
While in the flow, everything is fine, but getting there is the difficult path.
There are a few ways of getting there though.

You could imagine the results, and just go for them. Sometimes you just have this amazing idea, and you must draw it badly. You just grab a pencil and go.
I like those moments, but they are very rare.

Usually, it's something exernal that spurs me on, like a deadline.
But deadlines are useless unless there are consequences for missing them. Luckily, deadlines are usually set by a client or a boss and you will be in trouble for not delivering on time. Usually that means getting less to eat for a while, and food is one of my prime motivations (for anything really. Offer me food works like rubbing a genie's lamp.)
But for this, I set and enforce my own deadlines. And most people can tell from experience that you can suddenly become very flexible with deadlines when you set them for yourself. So I'll need to have someone else who is able to call me out on missing a deadline.
That would be you.
So I'll tell you my current milestone deadline, and you may call me out on missing it. In fact, I insist.

The (animated) storyboard must be complete by sunday the 21st.

Here's the checklist, I'll update it when progress is made:

(Complete!)
All storyboard sketches made.

(Complete!)
All storyboard shots drawn.

(Complete!)
All storyboard shots animated, rendered and uploaded.


And here's one shot done already :) :

The man hiding from the rain, the snake in the shadows.