Ruby Rocket, The Big Blog!

Episodes 4 and 5 Delivered!

2008-09-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Holy frijoles! We did it! All episodes delivered right on schedule!

I always tried to remain optimistic about meeting the deadline, but it really wasn't until three days ago that I honestly felt certain I was going to make it. Then of course a mysterious computer problem shook my confidence! For some reason that I still can't explain, I couldn't get episode 4 to render properly. I finally managed it by hooking up extra drives to accommodate the 200GB disk cache After Effects seemed to suddenly need. (200GB!)

I don't know when the shows are going live on Aniboom.com, but I'll post the link as soon as they do. In the meantime, enjoy some screen shots.

EPISODE 4: THE BIG GUY

EPISODE 5: THE BIG WIND UP

What is going to happen next? It's a mystery! Hopefully to be solved in the Ruby Rocket television series! Demand it!

Episode 3 Delivered!

2008-08-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

This is Ruby's first adventure outside of her dank basement office. A late night visit to her "man on the inside" Rick, to collect some much needed information and sexual tension.

If I may say so, it's looking extraordinarily beautiful! Episodes 4 and 5 next week! (God willing)

Episode 2 Delivered!

2008-08-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

Episode 2 got out the door today as scheduled! Here are some screen shots...

Super sweet!

Two more weeks and three more episodes!

Episode 1 Delivered!

2008-08-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

The first show is sent to Aniboom today, right on schedule! Unfortunately, they've asked me not to post it on the web, and I appreciate their position. Watch for it soon on Aniboom.com. In the meantime, here's some screen shots...

It looks and sounds great! Thanks to everybody who contributed! One down, four to go!

Backgrounds!

2008-08-05T16:04:00.000-07:00

Marshall Short is doing a terrific job on the backgrounds! Maintaining the spirit of my original oil paintings for the first Ruby short, but doing it digitally, and much faster than I could. He took on a huge task (I was hoping Ruby would never leave her office!) and it's looking great!

We're going to have to write a few new scenes to take place in that dining room so it gets more screen time!

Episode 3, Composite Test

2008-08-05T00:27:00.000-07:00

I've been working on determining the settings for the final composites of Episode 3. Thought I'd share the results. The compression makes it look pretty crappy, but I better get used to that. It's a web cartoon, after all. You should see it in it's HD glory!

Scene 421 fix

2008-07-31T07:04:00.000-07:00

This is a scene of the young man of privilege, William Winston Wheekly getting it on with a lowly speak easy cigarette girl. Her gesture was supposed to vaguely recall Ruby, but it's been decided that popping a cigarette out of your cleavage is too much a Ruby signature move, and we DON'T want people thinking that this is Ruby.

I gave the animator, Temris Ridge these instructions: "I want you to change that animation to Wheekly placing a cigarette into the cigarette girl's mouth, and her suggestively accepting it. Not a very subtle metaphore, but subtlety is for lesser men!" Here's her retake:

Makes me blush!

New Intro

2008-07-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

The lovely and talented Morgan Sheffield edited together this fancy new intro sequence

Episode 1, Sound Design, first draft

2008-07-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

This audio is incomplete and not mixed, but sounding pretty damn good!

Episode Titles

2008-06-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

Ruby Gets Spruced Up!

2008-06-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

Now that's fine animation!

Three Stages of Wheekly

2008-06-16T23:31:00.000-07:00

As it was my duty today to prepare episode 4 for animation, that left me no choice but to finally design the Honorable Mayor William Winston Wheekly.

Episode 1, Rough Animation Complete!

2008-06-16T23:24:00.000-07:00

This is a much more complete delivery than I expected to make. Episode one is running about two weeks ahead of schedule! This version has the assisting and inking done for all but a few scenes and that wasn't scheduled to be complete until June 28th.

The audio is still rough placeholder. Especially noticeably absent is the audio for Pixie and Ruby's struggle in the bathroom.

The unfortunate flip side to being ahead on Ep 1 is that Ep 2 is a bit behind. We have a rough animation delivery of episode two scheduled for next week, but I think it's unlikely we'll manage that entirely. All together we're still on track with the project.

Production Progress Report

2008-06-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today ends the first week of production and I'd say it's going alright. I'm a bit behind on animation, but way ahead on inking, so hopefully that will sort of work itself out. I'm worried I over estimated what I can accomplish. I have too many kids (1 kid) and not enough wives to take care of them (1 wife). Maybe I didn't account for not being able to work 24/7. I needed to produce 1800 frames before today, but I only managed 1543. (Still pretty good, eh?) You could argue it was a tough week for production because so many things got in the way; several meetings, a long reference shoot, and many lingering issues from preproduction that I had to deal with. But my worry is those distractions will be typical, rather than the exception.

Another worry is that each episode is running long. That's just extra footage for me to produce, because there's just no money to pay anybody else to do it, even if people are willing. Episode 1 is almost 600 frames over our budget.

Though we're not quite behind schedule yet, I'm sustaining a posture of rushed panic and I'm thinking a diet of exclusively Snickers bars and Red Bull is just the thing to make this happen.

But personally, I think it's looking pretty sweet! The animation is a blast to do! Here's a couple animated scenes in progress:

Character Colors

2008-06-08T19:01:00.000-07:00

Title cards

2008-05-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

Here's a draft version of what the title cards will look like, being worked on by Aaron Pendland

Some Mayor Wheeklys

2008-05-23T23:06:00.000-07:00

What does Mayor Wheekly look like? Do you see him here somewhere?

Pixie Expressions

2008-05-23T01:39:00.000-07:00

Rick Expressions

2008-05-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

Here's some Ricks. Not a perfect turn around, but it gets the point across.

I'd done a bunch of work on his suit a while back, only to learn he's naked the whole time! I want his body to be fit, but rather normal. I don't think people in the '40s pumped up like movie stars do now. That chest hair is going to be a bitch, but I think it's important.

Character Line Up 1

2008-05-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

Your suggestion that Pixie is taller than Ruby threw me. I always had Pixie in my mind as a petite little waif and imagined Ruby somewhat taller and chunkier. I started this character line up to work out the issue. More characters to come.

Rick is 6'2", Ruby 5'4" and Pixie 5'8"

Mrs. Van Doorn

2008-04-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

I love all of the Mrs. Van Doorn designs! All of them!

Fox stoles! Dead animals on women's shoulders!

In the first one, she's a little younger and sexier than I had in mind. However, I think that character needs to be saved and kept on deck, cause she is something else!

The second round of drawings is more on track for Mrs. Van Doorn. I love the one of her alone in the drawing. That one and one in the middle on the three character page of designs are close in my opinion. Maybe the glasses from the one in the middle put on the drawing where she's alone would be perfect!

Fox Stole

2008-04-23T22:57:00.000-07:00

Fox Stole will be a character.

Isn't there a John Waters character named Mink Stole?

Aaaah, Pixie

2008-04-23T22:48:00.000-07:00

Okay.

I picked dress three in the first drawing and dress one in the second one you posted. I like it best by far. I'd like that - and I'd like to see for the sake of seeing, that dress with a snug skirt to the ankle.

I can totally see how the professional dresses make her seem older and some seem very, um, prairie-like. She's prettier and more stylish than that.

Hair and face - I like both best in drawing #1 in the last post of hair and faces. I like them very much in that one. The others are similar but slightly older looking and #4 looks like a different character to me.

Proportions! Oh crap! I still think I see Ruby as much curvier and shorter and I imagined Pixie very, very thin and very tall. Taller than Ruby. Almost gangly.

Truncated Intro

2008-04-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

It seems a shame to spend so much time on the transition in the truncated intro when you have so many beautiful images in the longer version.

I like the length but really want to see more within that time. What about a montage of shots dissolving quickly from one to another with minimal camera movement and tight on just the action? Or is it the camera movement you like best?

I'd like to see:

Alley shot opener without camera movement. We see the cat run out of the image then dissolve to:

Shot of Ruby swinging across alley. Dissolve to:

Shot of Ruby listening to guys with guy tied up:

Shot of Ruby leaning on lamp with no camera movement

Blows smoke to intro.

What do you think?

The Office

2008-04-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm behind so I have lots of catching up to do. I will start with the office.

For someone who has picked up her entire life and moved across the country five or six times, I find myself very slow about accepting change when it comes to ideas I have in my head about Ruby.

So, of course, I love the three drawings that look pretty similar to each other. They also look pretty similar to the original, just with a bathroom door.

Things I also like:

-Pixie not having a desk and sitting in the chair across from Ruby. And then when a client comes in and sits in her chair, she has to flitter about like the Pixie she is.

-I love the idea of the murphy bed right where you drew it in the other drawings and where the water cooler is in my favorite drawings. Of course she lives there too. However, I don't think she has much else that's homey. A coffee pot? Probably. A hot plate? Maybe. Did they have those? I love the potential of playing with a clothes line in her office.

-The idea of her fellow office mates. Maybe instead of the mirror bathroom they share a bathroom between them. Awkwardness potential there.

Things I like but am not completely sold on:

-The water heater in the office. What if it were something people had to walk by on their way to the office? Or if it were in the bathroom?

Narrowing in on Pixie

2008-04-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

Since the animation will be drawn directly in Flash, I've been completing the final stages of character design in Flash. I picked my favorite, girliest hair styles. These are all supposed to be the same face, based on one of the early sketches I liked.

Right now I don't have a clear favorite. I could go for any one of these.

I also picked my favorite dress styles for Pixie and drew some new mannequins.
I'm finding it a challenge to dress her professionally, but make her look younger than Ruby. Also, these are too similar to Ruby's proportions. (You know I always wanted to make Ruby bigger. Now for contrast I have to whittle Pixie down to almost nothing. Maybe that's appropriate for her, though.)

Here's a quick go at a Ruby/Pixie comparison:

More VanDorn

2008-04-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

I found these amazing fox stole pictures. (Fox Stole is a good name for a character) When did it fall out of fashion to wrap something with a head on it around your shoulders?

Here's a couple more takes on Mrs. VanDorn

You know what? I'm thinking this character might be a job for Robin Ator!

More Pixies

2008-04-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

Ignoring her face just now, here's a bunch of dresses and hair styles.

VanDorn 1

2008-04-16T22:20:00.001-07:00

Here's a first stab at client VanDorn.

Trunkated Intro

2008-04-15T22:16:00.000-07:00

I figure we move all the credits to the end. Easy breezey new intro. What do you think? (Please forgive the hideous song edit!)

Ruby's Office

2008-04-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

I'm desperate not to do extra work, but I'm not sure the office paintings from the short will work in the new series. Though you never see this much at once, here's her office from the short:
In the short it was for the most part just Ruby and she didn't move much. There's three people crowded in there now and all kinds of business going on.

Here it is without the desk and chairs:

I still want it to be dank and cramped but we need a bathroom door and I want to play with the space a little bit.

These are hardly any different. Just slightly different views of practically the same office. Sounds like I meant to do that, but the fact is I'd get started and just end up with almost the same thing again. That last one revives an idea I had for the original short that didn't make it in, and that is a big water heater/furnace/boiler thingy right in her office. Like she pays half the rent of anybody else by taking the boiler room.
I thought doing this might help me. Doing the floor plan made me think about how, for practical reasons, things are laid out as mirror images, so her neighbor would have his bathroom right up against hers. It made me think maybe there was some comic potential in thinking about who might be her basement office neighbor.

As with character design, I think I want to work from storyboards and see where the actually needs of the story determine the needs of the background.

Here's two more sketches that revive an old notion about her office, that she lives there as well. This would make her office a little bit bigger, but still plenty dank and cramped. I've put in a murphy bed (that would usually be put away up into the wall) and sort of a kitchen area with a utility sink, an ice box and a hot plate and a clothes line.

Very glamorous!

Sound Design Test

2008-04-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

My friend David is very enthusiastic about Ruby Rocket and has been interested in contributing to the sound design. Though he has music recording experience, foley is not something he's really done before, so I gave him the animation test to put sound to. I suggested he drop in the coughing, just so it wouldn't be distracting that it was missing, and he added a "OH!" from Ruby after he head slam, but I explained typically we'd have animated to a voice track already.

He did a really remarkable job! The levels could be played with, depending on what you want to hear, I would bring the ambient street noise up and the chair squeaks down, but he put together a really rich and convincing sound environment! I say let's enlist him!

Expression Sheets

2008-04-11T20:32:00.000-07:00

Now that some animation tests have gone out I'm really self-conscious of how little information people have on Ruby to work from. So I put together some expressions sheets to help show how her face smooshes around. Some images are drawn from the short, some are from the animation test I just did, and some are new but hopefully representative of Ruby and her general attitude.

Naturally, the idea is that I'll continue to build and refine these sheets as work is done that really seems to nail the character. And of course for all the characters eventually.

Some Pixies

2008-04-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

Still working on Pixie Stick. Ready for some feedback, I think.

Ways Pixie's intended to contrast Ruby visually:

Blond
Thin eyebrows
Skinnier
Younger (17 or 18? I imagine a young girl going to a vocational secretary school instead of high school.)
Softer and more conventionally "cheese-cake" sexy, but-girl-next-door innocent to Ruby's (accidental) sultry.

And I didn't have much time for it, but I couldn't resist starting work on this:

Ruby Model Sheet, Take 2

2008-04-04T17:43:00.001-07:00

I think you like a slimmer Ruby than I tend to draw. Though the "man-ish" criticism is well taken. Here's a slimmer Ruby with a little more baby fat in the face, not so square in the jaw, bigger eyes. Oh yeah! and new shoes. (Old shoes actually, she's wearing these in the short)

4s Experiment

2008-04-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

Have I actually mentioned how fucking terrified I am by our proposed production schedule? Maybe it's been obvious. I keep looking for compromises in the animation that will get it done faster. The Flash thing didn't work out, not only because I hate how it looked, but mostly because it won't really save any time. I considered dropping the shadow matte process, but unfortunately it's just not a Ruby Rocket Adventure without it. Then I starting playing with the frame rate. I suggested 24fps instead of 30. That bought us a 20% savings, but now I'm thinking we can take that farther.

So here's my latest suggestion...animating on 4s! Here's what it looks like:

And for a larger version you can actually see: http://www.niemannworks.com/rubyrocket/tests/4s.mov

This might be a compromise I can live with, and it buys us a huge savings. I definitely like twos better, but not TWICE AS MUCH!

This scene is 30fps on 4s, coming out to 7.5 cells per second (some seconds will have 7 frames, some will have 8). We could consider going to 24fps on 4s, getting us down to 6 cells per second, but that might be taking the animation quality down a bit too far for my taste. Plus at 24fps, I was anticipating some problems with digital formats, which prefer 30fps (actually 29.97, that's a whole 'nother puzzle to solve later) So 30fps might save some headaches.

It would also be possible to fill in the gaps later. When a deadline is tight, I like to make the project look "finished" as soon as possible. You can't spend the whole schedule making scene one look perfect and neglect the rest. So you get everything painted, you get everything moving that has to be, and then you sweeten the animation as time allows. This 4s notion works really well for that. We can get episodes looking complete, and then continue sweetening based on priorities. And the way After Effects works into our pipeline, new animation should drop right in without any additional work needing to be done on the comps, except to re-render.

I'm starting to like this plan!

Still fucking terrified!

Animation Tests Phase 3 and 4

2008-04-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd update the blog on how the animation test has been going. I shortened the test so that I could spend more time on the process rather than the animation itself, but I do want to complete this scene because this will be useful to have as a sound design test and for other things.

This is the animation assisting stage done over the rough animation, still drawn directly in Flash.

Typically this would then go to a clean up artist, but in an attempt to turn a negative (no time or money - that's actually TWO negatives) into a positive, this still very rough animation will be the new "look" of the cartoon.

And here's all the elements put together in a comp:

I can live with this, but I think it can be better. Still working on some After Effects magic to tweak the look. For a larger version you can actually see, go here: http://www.niemannworks.com/rubyrocket/tests/comp.mov

Murder is Fun!

2008-03-20T00:09:00.000-07:00

I’m too tired to draw, too wired to sleep. Settle in for an essay. (What’s a blog for but the ramblings of someone who thinks their thoughts worth reading about?)

As you know, I served on a jury a couple weeks ago and it really got me thinking about murder and violence as entertainment. My case involved a woman who’s husband had hired someone to kill her. It's a scenario totally out of noir fiction and it was hard to believe it was real. I mean, how do you even go about doing something like that?

The woman is an emergency room nurse. She came home from work one night, took off her shoes and started sorting her mail. Suddenly, a man jumped out from behind her bedroom door swinging a hammer at her head. Can you even imagine? What a nightmare! It was a typical claw hammer discovered later to have been picked up out of the woman’s own tool box. The woman fought. He said, You’re a tough one. It’s the only thing he said. Perhaps counter-intuitively, she leaned in to him which reduced the force of his blows and made hitting her awkward. She actually wrestled the hammer away from him and hit him with it, then tried to flee. He tackled her and they struggled on the ground. The woman testified at this point that she expected to die. She bit and scratched at him with the deliberate intention of leaving DNA evidence on herself and on him, hoping it would help the police identify and apprehend him. However, she managed to swing around on top of him, so that he was lying face down and she was kneeling on his back. She’s an obese woman and the images conjured during testimony of their struggle are almost comical. She got her arm around his throat and held tight. She saw him turning purple and eased up. She offered to call an ambulance. (When asked for her exact words she said, “Tell me who sent you and I’ll call a fucking ambulance”) The man only started struggling again and the woman was convinced she wouldn’t stand a chance if she lost her position on top of him. So she resumed her choke hold until he passed out, and then she fled to her neighbors. It was later discovered that she had killed him.

I was a juror in her civil trial, so I didn’t have to determine her husband’s guilt. He’d plead guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and is serving jail time. The trial was to determine damages, medical expenses and pain and suffering. We had little difficulty finding in her favor. (The last trial I was a juror on was over a fender bender, and we spent a lot longer trying to come to an agreement on that one) She suspected her husband was behind the attack. Though she couldn’t imagine him capable, they were going through a divorce and she couldn’t imagine any other enemies. Ends up the attacker had her husbands name and phone number in a bag he had brought with him to her house, so it wasn’t much of a mystery.

Watching her testify about her ordeal and what her life has been like since made me realize, no matter how good an actor is, there’s still always part of you appreciating the performance. You don’t actually believe it. Hearing this woman tell her story I was moved like I never really have been.

Now, I loves me a good murder, with some juicey violence on the side, but attending the trial was entirely unpleasant. I realize even as I say that, the story is tremendously “entertaining”. It was difficult for me to talk about for awhile afterward because people seemed too tittilated and eager to hear the details. It felt like an exploitation of her horrible trauma.

I’m fascinated by that line between where I’m entertained and where I find it unsavory. And I’m fascinated by movies that cross that line. I have yet to fully understand what defines the line, but there are certain things I’ve figured out.

Cartooniness helps. Quentin Terentino is a perfect example of a film maker who takes me there, and then sometimes just beyond. I can watch delightedly as bullets fly, swords swoosh, and for good measure, some spikey ball on a chain crashes through stuff. I can giggle boyishly when geysers of blood spray out of someone’s decapitated neck, or someone gets their crown sliced off, exposing their brain. But then, broken arm – OUCH! Can’t look. There’s something about a joint bending the wrong way I just have a hard time dealing with.

The film Sin City, as I imagine you’re aware, is a faithfully recreated film version of the comic book. I’m a big fan of both. This provides perfect examples of how essentially identical imagery in different formats elicits different responses. At least in me. For example, there’s a scene where Marv is brutally interrogating his way toward Goldie’s killer. I found this sequence really amusing and entertaining in the comic book, I just didn’t think it was funny in the same way to see him dragging a guy behind a car in the film version.

Another interesting example of crossing the line is the TV series Veronica Mars. I was a big fan of the first two seasons. (Well, the first season and a half. I thought the second season screwed it pretty bad at the end there, mostly due to Steve Guttenberg.) The first season revolved around the mystery of who killed Veronica’s best friend. Lots of twists and turns, highly entertaining, surprising and satisfying conclusion. The second season opened great. It established a pretty interesting mystery that I assumed was going to be the season’s thread. THEN – in the last couple of minutes, a school bus Veronica was supposed to be on is sabotaged and flies off a cliff into the rocky ocean surf, killing all aboard. I squealed with delight. An interesting reaction to seeing a school bus full of kids plunge to their deaths. It’s a horrible, horrible thing if you take it seriously at all. But of course there was nothing serious about it, and it was especially delightful because I was already perfectly satisfied with the episode, and then they suddenly and unexpectedly cranked the intrigue up to 11!

Season three, however, lost all my good will. The main arc revolved around a serial rapist, prompting the telling comment, Murder is more fun than rape!

So cartooniness and a lack of a real sense of gravity or tragedy can help make the violence entertaining and palletable. But that’s not the way it has to be, either. It’s easy to think of tons of examples where taking the events seriously is indeed the point. The tension you feel can be very real and uncomfortable AND entertaining. That’s a little outside the scope of Ruby Rocket, I believe, so I’ll leave off that discussion for now.

I’ve actually spent some time trying to imagine “funny” murders, or situations that might lend themselves to the noir, yet comedic world Ruby inhabits. I had the idea of a poor guy who gets his hat nailed to his head. I imagine a scene where he’s tied to a chair and getting worked over by a couple of thugs. Teasingly, like school yard bullies, they smack him or punch him and his hat flies off every time they do. They keep replacing it, taunting him. “Why can’t you keep your hat on?” Punch. “Windy day, huh?” Smack. Finally someone comes up with a solution to keep his hat on and nails it into his skull.

I like the idea of finding a dead man tied to a chair with his hat nailed on, but I also thought it would be “funny” if the guy actually didn’t die, but it was determined to be too dangerous to remove the nail. So he goes through the show with a hat nailed to his head. Of course they nailed it on crooked! In this scenario he becomes a recurring character and it wouldn’t even be necessary to show the scene where this happens to him. It’s just part of his back story.

When does something cross the line into offensive, or when do you shake your head and chuckle but say, that’s horrible! What’s it got to do with Ruby Rocket? I don’t know. You’re the writer.

Animation Tests Phase 2

2008-03-18T23:05:00.000-07:00

I kind of messed up my time sheet tally by reworking the animation on the scribble pass. I spent another 5 1/2 hours tweaking the timing and adding frames. The action in the earlier version was pretty jerky and fast in spots and hard to read, but my intention here was to compare different methods in terms of time vs results and now it's maybe not a fair comparison. Here's the second version of the scribble pass.

I also couldn't stop myself from trying to include some nuance like a little chuckle to herself when she realizes the cigarette is in her dress. Really a waste of time considering the purpose of this test. I doubt I'll be able to pull it off even, and I know I'm over-doing it. Like I said, I couldn't help myself.

Finally, I got busy on the "clean up" stage. Here's an experiment where I took the drawings to an assisted state that would normally then go to the clean up artist. But in this case, I'm thinking maybe it's our "look". I didn't get to finish, but it's worth posting this partial, considering our meeting tomorrow.

I'm encouraged by these results, but I'm anxious to see it taken to completion and see how good we can make it look. This "cleaned up" segment is 70 frames, about 2.3 seconds, and took me 4 hours.

Some Tests

2008-03-16T00:59:00.000-07:00

Seemed to me the only way to answer some of the difficult questions about how long it'll take, how much it'll cost, and what it'll look like to make Ruby into a Flash cartoon was to start doing it. Over the last couple of days, whenever I could find some time, I've been knocking out a short scene; 11 seconds of Ruby having some trouble lighting her cigarette.

Here's the process I envisioned. It starts with a stage I call the "Scribble Pass"

You could also call this "rough animation". This took me five hours to do.

It's a little hard to tell what's going on in this tiny movie. The idea is she's looking tough and cool as she takes a cigarette from behind her ear, but she drops it. It falls down her dress, but in her attempt to catch it she slams her head on her desk. She sees stars briefly (metaphorically, it's not that kind of cartoon), takes the cigarette out of her cleavage and lights it. She looses her cool one more time in a coughing fit but redeems herself in the end with a sultry look to the camera.

Here's where we have a choice. What I'd prefer to do at this stage with enough time and money is a traditional "assist". Add smoothness and details and basically make the animation clear enough for a clean up artist. The alternative I've been imagining is to "Flash-ify" the assist stage. That is, to break the elements of the character up into pieces, put each on it's own level and "cheat" the in-betweens in Flash. That's what I've done.

I'm calling this the "Flash Pass".

And I'm hating it!

It took me 10 more hours to take it to this stage and I would still call it far from complete. If I'm going to make myself happy with the animation I'm going to have to spend probably a lot of time nudging and tweaking all those tweens around. I'd also anticipate a certain amount of frame by frame fixes. Stuff like making sure the joints meet up just right. I also wouldn't be surprised to find a number of mistakes, like stuff being on the wrong layer.

What I'm trying to say is it's not looking like this process is the big time and money saver I'd hoped.

I'm going to try to continue this process. I think it's wielding some good hard information that will serve us well in discussions with Aniboom.

Another test I've started involves the "post" process. I took a cell from the original short and went through the process of reproducing it in Flash. Here's the result:
The clean up, paint, and tones were all pretty easy to do. Much faster and easier in fact than the original process. I'm still interested in bringing this into After Effects and figuring out how to soften or "chunk up" the vector line a bit, so it doesn't look so vector like. And I want to try to develop a process for giving it more of the look of a painted cell shot under a camera. (Maybe I'd get the best results painting cells and shooting them under a camera) I haven't done any work on that yet, but that's my goal. (Basically to obscure the crappy animation with a bunch of digital filters!)

Sex and Model Sheets

2008-02-29T15:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've got two entries to catch up on.

First - the sex "will they or won't they" issue. I agree that this issue is pretty "done." I also think tension is what makes a story engaging, and sexual tension is riveting to most people.

I also agree that the way our story can be different is that we know, and the audience will know, and the characters know - they already did. And we know they most likely will again. So the question, and the tension, in my mind is - when will they? And why will they? And how will it start this time? And what will happen when it's done? That kind of tension. Which is cool to me. It's deeper and more dynamic.

Because the more important question to me is - which one will change? They can't just be together because they are so different. Rick can't accept her totally because she is so not what he - and the world at the time - think a woman "should" be. So, will she eventually settle down? Will he eventually change his rigid definition of what's right? Will they meet in the middle? I don't know! And in the meantime, they will struggle with their feelings and their different views of the world, and with doing it and not doing it depending on the day and the circumstances and their emotional state. That's engaging - to me, anyway.

Wow. That was a tirade. Felt good though. And I think that makes sense to me. Does it make sense to you?

Now, the model sheet. Yay! A model sheet! How nice and exciting to see!

There's stuff I love about it, and stuff I'm going to knit-pick about it.

I love all the faces except the full front view. It's great to see her face take shape from all of those angles.

The front view has the thing that bothers me about some of the shots in the short. But it's driving me crazy that I can't pinpoint what it is exactly that I don't like! Are the eyes too far apart? Is the jaw just a bit too square, too manly? It's so damn close, but there's something too hard about it.

As for her body, it's the same thing. A little too manly. I'd like to see more curves for sure. I'd like her shoulders to be less broad, and her hips and butt rounder. I want her to be feminine and soft to an extreme - to contrast her more masculine personality traits.

Make sense?

Ruby Rocket Model

2008-02-27T14:22:00.000-08:00

A new turn around drawing of Ruby Rocket. What do you think? I'm trying to keep her with realistic human proportions. About 7 heads high rather than the typical cartoon/comic book 9 or even 10. I tried not to make her too muscular or masculine, though I did want her to look like she enjoys a burger and fries on occasion. I didn't work too hard on her face for this turn around, though I do think here she resembles the "Ruby we like" from the short. She maybe looks a little bit young in the face to me, but close ups will add a few years of hard living.

Bitch bitch bitch bitching bitch follows. Feel free to skip this part:
I've recently upgraded to CS3 which I've kind of been waiting for to dive into Photoshop. I've used Photoshop a lot for manipulating images, but I can't think of a time I've ever actually created anything from scratch using it. This is the first, and I'm finding it a HUGE pain in the ass! I'm finding the drawing tools totally annoying and trying to do a turn around with out decent onion skinning or frame stepping features is a nightmare! Of course you can affect the transparency of your layers, but you have to type in the percentage every time, so you can't flip back and forth around the drawings very easily. Things were actually easier once I spread them out instead of drawing the figures in the same position the way you would on animation paper, but then I was constantly drawing on the wrong layer. You're working on one figure, referencing the ones on either side, and then of course you notice little things on the other drawings you want to fix. I couldn't keep my wits about me well enough to change layers every time, so my file's a total mess!

Of course I'm sure there are certainly a million tips and tricks for doing what I want, and naturally I'm going to be uncomfortable using an unfamiliar program that's as complex as Photoshop. I'm frustrated today, but I'm sticking with it.

Sex in the Rubiverse

2008-02-24T23:30:00.000-08:00

On the one hand, I'm really sick of every show having a "Will they? Won't they?" relationship between the two leads. I'd like to have something a little more original or unexpected.

But that means they're having sex, right? Because if they're not having sex, then naturally everyone's asking the question, will they. It could be bold to just go and do it right off. Demolish the cliche by appearing to set up a seasons-long question, and then as soon as people recognize the set up - they doink.

One show that I thought broke the stereotype nicely in the opposite way was The X-files. Chris Carter, making no secret about it, said early on and repeatedly that Mulder and Scully would never have sex. But the fans always speculated anyway, so the will they/won't they tension was part of the show without the creators having to be distracted by it or even address it at all. I'm not saying that's right for Ruby and Rick, I just admire how that show handled it.

A broader question might be, does our show depict sex with a 1930s sensibility, or is it set in the 1930s but with a 21st century attitude toward sex? That is to say, nothing goes on now that didn't go on then, even if it wasn't depicted in the movies of the time. Sometimes people just want to "get some" and I'm sure that was just as true then. Is Ruby's the type to unashamedly have some fun casual sex? Is she our bridge from Ingrid Berman in Casablanca to those lunatics from Sex and the City?

Is all that well beyond the scope of anything we need to deal with right now?

I should be sleeping, but I altered Rick's Butt picture instead:

I think I'd like it to be a little more clear that he's holding something over his privates. I think it's somehow sexier if we can tell he's covered from Ruby's point of view.

Nice Ass!

2008-02-24T17:01:00.000-08:00

That sketch is hilarious! And hot!

When I first saw it, I enjoyed it just the way it was - but then read your post and agreed with you. I like the idea that the background could be the kitchen and that he should have a gun - as if he were sleeping, then woke up thinking someone was breaking in, then saw it was her. And it would absolutely be like Ruby to let herself into his place.

I think her arm is still too masculine (I know! I'm a pain!) even in silhouette.

And as for sex in the show in general, I love the idea that we play around it - just like this sketch. Like she is always pushing the boundary and he's the one who maintains it. And like anyone who maintains a boundary because he thinks he should, and not because he wants to, he probably fails maintaining it every now and then.

These are my first thoughts on sex in Ruby Rocket.

Rick's Butt

2008-02-22T10:38:00.000-08:00

This isn't necessarily what I had in mind when I said I was anxious to see more of Rick.

For me, Ruby Rocket is all about twisting the cliches. The cartoon embraces them, but also turns them upside down. The noir-ish idea I had first was a view of Ruby's (probably) naked silhouette over Rick's shoulder. That's the cliche. I even imagined her holding a gun. Pleasantly cheesey, I thought! But the thing to do was turn that around.

Now I'm disappointed I made the room behind Ruby look like it might be a bedroom. I think it would be better if Ruby was in the kitchen or something, like she had just let herself in while Rick was showering. I'm also wishing I'd put a gun in Rick's hand. I may or may not take the time to make those changes.

Let's talk soon about Ruby and Rick's relationship, and how sex fits into the cartoon.

Recent Sketches

2008-02-22T10:26:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've been trying to get comfortable with digital painting. I've been devoting a little "fun sketch time" each day, working directly on the computer.

Though the cartoon will be in color, working in black and white has helped me ease into the digital painting tools. And I think as exercises in tone, these drawings will help me a lot when I'm working in color.

Rick Bellow. He was fun! I'm excited to work with him some more.

About Ruby Rocket

2008-02-21T14:16:00.000-08:00

It had been a long night and Ruby Rocket, Private Detective needed a stiff one... Then HE walked in!

DVD cover

Welcome to the Ruby Rocket production blog, intended essentially to be used as a communication tool by the creators. It's also on the web, so maybe you just found it.

Screen shot

Ruby Rocket, Private Detective is the brain child of Stacey Hallal and Sam Niemann who have somehow managed to produce a 3 minute short featuring the hard-boiled, hard drinking, hard-headed character.

We're making more!