Lily's Lupin Adventure

A blog dedicated to all things Team Lupin!

[lilymei526]

Blog Post #10

The final blog post from the first semester of working on Team Lupin! I feel like I have definitely grown so much as an artist and done things that I’ve either felt scared to do or told myself that I am not good at, so that feels amazing to me! I really didn’t think that I would be so involved in the story creation, but I am so glad that I was half of it, and I can’t imagine what Lupin would be like if I was not a part of it. It has made me more confident in my ability to collaborate and create. I am so proud of my story contributions and my collaboration skills.

A major part of collaboration is learning your team members habits, strengths and weaknesses. It shocked me that we were all so different despite taking the same classes for the past 2 and half years! Obviously we are all separate people, but it is so interesting to see how different, yet similar we all are. It is both fun and not fun to navigate, but extremely rewarding when done right.

Personally, I think I could have communicated better this semester, and I think that goes for all of my team members too. I like to think that I’ll get better at it as time goes on, but that is one of my goals for the next two semesters of this project. Another goal of mine is to be better at animation so that I can help Lupin be the best it can be, and guide my team members to a level of quality that we will all be impressed with and proud of.

I think our group was able to adapt so well during our first semester, but we were not without our individual frustrations. From losing a team member, to technical difficulties, I think Team Lupin is resilient and we will continue to grow stronger. It was very hard to delegate work and focus on steadfast progress in the beginning, but once our story was nailed down, the ball started rolling! We became very motivated once we got great reception from our 2d animatic as well. The personal struggles were definitely there, especially in the beginning. I think our group is very emotionally intelligent and supportive of each other though, so I don’t see tons of fighting in our future (fingers crossed). I do feel that everyone’s strengths are being used well, I love that all our team members are so eager to work. I do think that eagerness to work leads to a bit of a work imbalance sometimes though, sometimes a person would end up with way too much to work on while others were asking for work. Overall, I think we crushed this semester and we are in a great spot to keep it moving next semester. We have great work ethic, great emotional support, and very talented artists!

Some goals for the group next semester would be to get good at communicating EVERYTHING. And to keep each other’s quality in check, and not be afraid to critique something.

Keep up the good work, Team Lupin!

[lilymei526]

Blog Post #9

This week Team Lupin is full steam ahead on a (very) rudimentary 3D animatic! We got quite a few assets done and made some significant progress on the Adam and Lupin models. Its so exciting to see my group members make progress on the models, I'm always so impressed with them! I can't model my way out of a box, so even basic things are so cool to me.

I think our team dynamic has also improved significantly as we've moved into a more steady workflow! We moved into a room where we can all work in close proximity to each other, and that was so much fun being able to actually talk to each other while we work.

We'll be grinding in the meantime to get our 3D animatic done by tuesday, so we can piece it all together well before the due date!

Here is a sneak peek!

[lilymei526]

Blog Post #8

I am happy to report that Lupin has been under steady production as of lately! It feels good to have our assets in production, and my team members are doing such a great job at the models for Lupin and Adam! I feel a bit bad right now because my strengths do not lie in the current phase that we're in (modeling and UV layouts), but I'm always here for my group to provide a helping hand wherever I can. Its kind of comical how bad I am at modeling, so I politely asked my team members to never assign me a model, lest it turn out like literal poop. I can however, UV some things! Im also not the best at it, but it is a thing I can do!

(if there are any UV layout nerds out there. do not tell me how bad these are. I know.)

Trust, once we get into animation my time will come again! Then Lily will be back on top!!

I think right now what our group lacks the most is structure and organization. I feel like this is common amongst group projects, and even the other senior shorts. I have complete faith that I can assist our team in that, and we will overcome! But its nothing detrimental (yet).

Next week, we'll be modeling some more, UVing some more, and I will be working on the long long long shot list. (Maybe we'll even get to some test textures!)

[lilymei526]

Blog post #7

I am proud to announce that Team Lupin is officially back! No longer are we in a creative slump, and no longer will we be wishy washy with our direction EVER AGAIN. I am so so relieved as I’m sure my group members are too. Finally Eowyn and I were able to craft a clear storyline that cuts out any fluff and unnecessary exposition. Then we grinded like crazy to get an animatic with full sound and music! I’m so proud of our team because we really did that! The cherry on top was being able to present it to a group of our peers and it being incredibly well received. Our brains were so fried that we thought we had crafted something that only our minds could comprehend, but that was not the case! It is very reassuring that our peers and professors accepted it with open arms, we are feeling invigorated!

We have learned so so much from this story writing phase, but the main thing that I will take away is that you can’t force a good thing to come in a short amount of time, and that the viewer is smarter than you know. A part of what was so hard in our story process was feeling like we needed to provide context for everything, but having that air of mystery was crucial to our success. Eowyn and I were watching some short films and both agreed that the best ones are the ones where you dont catch all the details first, but on the rewatch it all makes sense. We wanted to channel that into our film, and I think we’re doing a good job at it so far. This was super hard, and I’m excited to not work on story anymore!

Up next for Team Lupin is asset production and R&D FINALLY. Thankfully our other group members have been working on assets during the confusion, so we actually are not far behind at all. Full steam ahead on assets, and rigging tests for this next week.

Yippee!!!

[lilymei526]

Blog post #6

This past week has been a bit of slow progress on the story side of Lupin, but the rest of the team has been great at getting some assets done! Eowyn and I have been working hard on hammering out a clear, impactful story, but its proving to be a bit harder than it seems. Luckily we have great professors around us who help guide us! After watching a few animated shorts for inspiration, Eowyn and I have a script that is mostly done, but we need to re-write a bit based on instructor feedback. Taking so long to write is a bit tiring, but it is our first time writing like this, so we must be patient with ourselves!

Hopefully this week we can FINALLY finish writing the script and do a ton of storyboards over the spring break.

[lilymei526]

Blog post #5

This week brought a lot of insight to the team and story. We had the privilege of meeting with an alumni from the DAC who gave us a lot of great advice with our story. Unfortunately now everything is in shambles as we try and figure out a clear direction for the story. We learned that we were focusing way too hard on exposition that didn’t support the north star of the story, and that we need to shift focus to our theme of grief. Its very hard to pivot to a simpler story, especially after building up so much of the lore, but its something that is inevitable if we want to make a great short film. We are currently trying to figure out the story structure, and downsized our story team to just Eowyn and I. Unfortunately we love to get distracted, so we need to hold ourselves accountable, but I believe in our ability to create something clear and to the point!

A lot of the work I did this week was a bit fruitless because of this new pivot, however, I’ll still include some pictures of the storyboards I edited and also a silly drawing that I made instead of working on actual work.

Keep going, team Lupin!

[lilymei526]

Blog post #4

This week, Team Lupin really honed in on creating a final basis for our story. We’ve pivoted a lot since our initial storyline, but hopefully our changes reflect the many hours spent trying to perfect our story. I believe our plot is much more clear this time around and I do not foresee it changing massively any time soon! I’m very impressed with the team’s participation on story this week, we emphasized it a lot and I think the whole group came together and collaborated regardless of if they’re writers or not. Every voice counts in situations like this, and it is so important to us to know how our story will be perceived by diverse perspectives. I was annoying every person in my life to know their thoughts on the direction of the story!

Some of us met virtually to write down thoughts on a white board (even though it kind of turned into a doodle session) and then most of us met later on to hammer out the completion of the script.

Next steps are storyboarding, and we’ve even been thinking about voices and music. All hands are on deck for storyboard this coming week, and everybody got assigned a piece of storyboard so that we can work as quickly as possible. With some quality control, of course. I think a big lesson for us this week was that we need to be even more communicative with each other. Not just with work, but also emotions and workload, a lot of strain and bad feelings can be resolved with communication and the ability to be a bit vulnerable with people who care about you. And of course, we love our team!

[lilymei526]

Blog post #3.5

This was a big week for Team Lupin as we decided to pivot our story after piecing together our animatic. After putting all of our storyboards in place and adding a bit of audio, the group decided that our story had a few holes, felt rushed, and a bit jumbled. Eowyn and I have drafted up a second version of a story outline to hopefully get fully storyboarded next week. It is hard realizing that our story was less than perfect and starting semi-new, but I think it is much better to let go, than to hold onto something that just is not working.

In addition to the color keys and story writing, I have also assumed a “leader” position on the team for the near future, something scary, yet very exciting! Our group heavily values equal input from every team member, so there really is no “leader”, however I will be wrangling all the group members, checking in, and assigning some work for them. At my job I’m an assistant manager, so I feel comfortable in a light leadership role, but I’m still grateful for my team members giving me a guiding hand.

So far our story has changed quite a bit, and we’re waiting for the next in person team meeting to present our ideas to everyone. I am very curious to see what the group thinks because Eowyn and I were absolutely fried after contemplating story beats, so having everyone’s input is very important. Theres plenty of wiggle room, and I’m hoping that my team members will ask lots of questions and have other ideas, thats the best way to perfect something. As much as we need to expedite this new storyboard, I definitely do not want to storyboard something that we are not going to use. Again.

Big crunch time for next week, as we work on our new storyboard and dip into some research and development in Blender. Most of us are unfamiliar with it, so I think this time so early into our production is the perfect time for us to dip our toes in and mess around in there. Good luck, Team Lupin!

[lilymei526]

Blog post #3

For this week, Team Lupin worked hard to finish up storyboards, create new 3D assets, and establish colors for our key scenes! This week I focused on finishing up the emotional climax storyboard so that our group can have a full animatic for presentation day.

I really enjoy doing storyboards because it challenges my brain to think about screen design and staging, rather than just creating a good drawing. I like to challenge myself and try different staging elements and camera angles to create visual contrast for each frame. I wish I could do all of our storyboards!

I also worked on a few color keys for different parts of our story, with more to come! I do not consider myself an environment artist at all, and I struggle a lot with backgrounds in my personal art. This was a very fun exercise regardless, and I feel like I learned a lot!

These were my original color keys.

These are my color keys after my team members input!

I’m so glad to have the experience and input of my team members because they really helped my skills grow in this process. From color picking to contrast levels, my team members helped my color keys come to life!

I’m very excited for the rest of the class to see our animatic and what Team Lupin has been up to, I’m already so proud of us. I’m also excited to see what everyone else has been cooking up!

Next week we’re going into Blender testing and R&D, which should be exciting!

[lilymei526]

Blog post #2

This week focused on storyboard progression, script writing, early asset production, laying out all of our documents, and team building!

While my other team members were modeling and sculpting some of our first assets, I was helping our story production team flesh out a finalized draft of the script, finished the concept for our scientist character, and created storyboards. I also helped create the asset list and shot list for our production, but we still have much to work on as we come to our conclusion on story production. No setbacks yet, except that we're moving a bit slow. Slow yet thorough!

I really enjoy this part of the pipeline where everyone is brainstorming and creating beautiful artwork to go along with our ideas. I love seeing everyone's perspective and getting to be a part of that.

Going forward, we must finish the storyboards and finally nail down our script and story, so that we can move onto asset production!

I wont lie, my storyboards are not as artistically gifted as I wanted. But the bones for great screen design are there!

[lilymei526]

First Post!

Since last semester’s group projects, I had been looking forward to the senior shorts! Of course, group projects come with their own hurdles; none of which I was immune to, but, I will stand firm on the fact that I love group projects. I adore collaboration, especially with artists I look up to and people who can do things that I can’t. Thats why I was very excited to be a part of team Lupin! I had been secretly admiring the talent of my team members for the past few years, and I’m so happy to work with them and contribute to this awesome story.

These first few classes have been both fun and challenging. I truly feel like I have a voice in this project, and that is wonderful. All of my group members feel mutual about the fact that this is a team effort and that everyone contributes something unique. Trying to figure out team schedules and communication is always difficult, but I'm confident that our group is full of people who can overcome these hurdles.

So far, we have focused on nailing down the finalized story structure, and finalized concept art. I contributed some ideas for story structure in class, and drew a few different concepts for Lupin’s grown up outfit, as well as got used to drawing him in general. Finally for clothing we opted for a brown jumpsuit with a green shirt underneath, reflected in Eowyn’s drawing.

Next up for us is concept art for environments, and storyboarding!