May Update: Trollywood, Concept Art & Going to Annecy!

Dear Patrons,

Hello hello! Still alive, though this month's update has been a bit delayed since I was away for a week. There's lots to be done and oh so few hours in a day, so let's jump right into it!

TROLLYWOOD:

I'd hoped to share some of the pictures from the talk in this part, but it looks like they'll need a bit more time to sort through it all. I might make a seperate post with them later. I had a super nice time though! I think going to these types of events really does a lot to reinvigorate me creatively, I always feel so full of energy when I come back.

I was a bit nervous for the talk itself. I've done the 45 min+ artist talks in chill environments before, but the last time I had to do that one in Farum, it didn't feel great. While I was able to talk for the whole period, it was like there was a frog stuck in my throat and I recall having a hard time remembering to breathe. It was probably just a combination of being really over-worked in that period and having a hard time connecting to that particular crowd, but I was kind of afraid that it was going to develop into something that'd stick with me.

It was with this in the back of my mind, that my heart started pounding quite heavily in the first 2 minutes of the Trollywood talk. Even stopping to breath, it was difficult to regain control. So I snuck in a video slide a bit ahead of time and took the moment to re-focus. After that, things went quite smoothly, and I even had a lot of fun presenting! I'm really happy to have had this opportunity to counter that past negative experience and regain some confidence in my public speaking.

I didn't have any particular networking goals for this festival. Mostly, it was a small respite awat from work. But I was still super happy to meet and greet some familiar as well as and new faces and I had a very cozy time!

CONCEPT ART:

In this month's piece of concept art we're going to the amusement park! Now, abandoned amusement parks have definitely been done beofre, but it's for a good reason - it's a super interesting setting! I've been wanting to put Zale and Elva in one ever since I stumbled on an overgrown amusement park while visiting Japan with my mom, many many years back.

This is definitely something we'll come back to for more location exploration, but for now we only did a few thumbnails for potential concept images. These, like the final image, were done by Nicole Di Fresco.

This was one of the first concept images we worked on, when we were just realizing that we'd have time to make some on top of the backgrounds for the teaser. This was definitely a big break-through on figuring out the color vibrance that we'd been struggling with in the teaser backgrounds (we ended up getting there more-so through compositing in the end).

Unfortunately, a lot of work-in-progress of these concept pieces was lost, since the artists only delivered the finished files and otherwise worked locally. It would have been interesting to see our back-and-forth on the characters. Maybe I'll be able to salvage it from our Slack one day. But anyhow, I did draw-overs on all characters in all our concept pieces to keep things consistent, but I've since noticed that I gave Elva too much forehead on this one, which does bug me a bit. It is just an early concept piece, so it's not like we were going for full perfection, but I'd definitely give myself some red-lining if I could go back in time. But Nicole, on the other hand, did such a good job balancing the abandoned eerie setting with the light tone!

TV-SERIES WRAPPING UP:

Last month concluded animation production on the TV-series I've been supervising! We made it, and even with some time to spare, no crunch needed! It was super cozy, and I'm going to miss working with this crew. I'm still on the project for the rest of this month, to help out compositing and do some extra marketing tasks. But the sun is shining, and it sure does feel odd to still be chugging along on these last teeny tiny bits and bobs. Anyhow, just going to have to take it one tiny step at a time.

INDIE PROJECT:

I'm also still helping out on the indie project I talked about last month! Don't really have anything I can show, but it's taking enough of my extra free drawing time that I thought I should mention it.

NEW SHORT FILM:

Ok, so this one I don't have a whole lot of visual stuff to show from yet, since I've mostly been writing on it, but I've got another little project in the works. Like you've seen in some of the previous months' posts, I've been trying to expand my options with other potential projects while waiting for Tales of Zale to move forward. The problem with those two, is that neither really seem to fit into the time scope and funding schemes I have in front of me right now at this moment. So those are likely going to be more long-term ventures, nice to have ready if the opportunity arises.

Meanwhile, I do have a strong feeling of needing to build my skillsets as a Director further, as well as testing out techniques and improving my craftmanship. So a smaller and more easily feasable project would be beneficial. I had this idea for a short film for adults/young adults that I'm pretty sure I could execute in 5 minutes or less. Meaning, that even if I were only able to secure miniscual funding for it, I'd still be able to make it on my own. On top of that, it takes place in only one room, which makes it managable in scope, and gives me the opportunity to experiment with suff like layouting in Blender, which I've been wanting to get into for a long time for the sake of future projects.

It ticks a lot of boxes, so I am considering to at least develop it far enough to submit it to a couple of Danish pitch competitions to put it to the test and get the ball rolling. Right now I am just raising options, because the exact shaping of the future is somewhat uncertain. But if I take it further, I'll be sure to post more details next time!

GOING TO ANNECY:

Next month I'll be going to Annecy! Wonder if I'll see any of you there?

ROUND-UP:

It's a short update this month. On top of all the things listed here, I also had to take some time off to help my mom move her drawing school. Which was quite the heavy load! There's been many little things pulling in different directions, and some stuff I can't show quite yet...

Aaaaand just as I'm writing, the possibility of doing some test animation on ToZ at the studio was just brought up. See what I mean about many little directions? I don't dislike that though, it just makes for a slightly messy update post. Alrighty, off I go, back into the frey!

 Whatever these little seeds sown sprout into, I look forward to sharing the journey with you all!

All the best,

Sif

PS: Greetings from some happy birds: