More delays, a bit more work

Yes, it's been a while since I posted, and it's not because I've been so busy rendering. We are still fighting over issues which should have been resolved at the storyboard stage - if we had a storyboard.

And now, the geologists at the other end have said, oh, yes, we forgot the explosion of Yellowstone, two million years ago. Add that bit in, will you?

Yarg!

I have made some test renders of a few scenes. Here is a frame from a sequence of early continents folding:


And here's a frame from a sequence of lava squeezing into spreading cracks:

Getting organized

It's been my experience that, when taking on a big project, you can't possibly be organized enough. I am so far behind in this project, without having really gotten started, that I've decided I'd better get organized quick.

Or maybe it's just my way of putting off the real work - I dunno.

Anyway, I've put together a shot list in Excel so I can track which shots are where, at a glance. So far, most shots are nowhere.

Waiting

Well, I way way way behind schedule. Because of the lack of a real storyboard, it's been hard to get everyone to agree on what we'll be seeing in the final animation. And because the 'chain of communication and command' is so long and spread out, it takes forever to get anything done.

The director told me last week that they'd hired a new guy who could draw and was setting him to work on some storyboard sketches, but I still haven't seen them and, when I do get them, that'll mean I've finally got the storyboard - something that was supposed to happen a month ago.

The animatic - basically an animated storyboard - was due 3 weeks ago, and can't be done without a storyboard to animate.

So the clock ticks and the calendar turns and I'm starting to sweat more and more over the mid-July due date.


Argh!!