Production// Rendering and reflection

Today was the day. I stayed up all night, working on the animation. My arm hurt. My eyes hurt. But my heart was throbbing with anticipation of seeing my film breath on it's on (finishing the animation).

I slept at 5am, waiting for my university to open up it's doors and allow me to enter it in order to render out a final version of the film (because I don't have after effects on my own computer). However waking up, I realised I hadn't rendered out the audio. That morning I worked on little details of the film, as James worked his socks off.

An hour before my university closed shop, we reached the studio. Hurrying to put everything together and create the credits - I FINALLY MANAGED TO RENDER OUT THE FILM. For the credits on the spot I used the text option in After Effects to credit others who worked on the show, using an orange. Orange like a fox. And as I sat there, waiting for the render complete sound that After Effects has been giving my ears for the past 3 years. I thought about the last 3 years. I started using After Effects after not using anything digitally at all in my work, after a few lessons in my first year. At the same time I started using Photoshop and after this project I've become much more comfortable using the software with my own work. I really want to focus on using After Effects more in the future, especially since I'm planning on expanding on my freelance stuff next year. After that blessed sound happened, I anxious watched it over with James and I was finally happy. Despite set backs, losing a month of work because of health issues and general 'third year stress' I managed to reach the deadline for the most ambitious film I've made to date and what James brought to the project as Sound Designer just made the whole film come together.

Noticeable things I'd change but can't right now:

• Repeating of a 4 frames of motion half way into the animation, instead of a 'still' character.
• Lip movement off in some frames of scene 2.
• Highlight in the final few shots, planning on making them more neon in the future.
• Some edges of characters are missing little segments of colour.

I'm planning on going back and perfecting these issues before submitting the film to anything, like if I ever submitted it to a festival. James also pointed out he wasn't 100% happy with some of the sound effects/balancing. So both of us will continue working the film in order to reach deadlines for submitting this film to festivals.