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I put together an animatic for the film over the break. Now we have a really good idea how this thing is shaping up. It is really fantastic to finally see these guys moving around on screen, and the animatic has gotten a good response from everyone who has seen it. It is just the shot in the arm that I needed at this time. It really gives me confidence in the direction I am going with this film.

Of course, the best part of putting together this animatic is that the wrinkles really start to show themselves, and boy does this film have some wrinkles. I will be ironing them out this weekend in preparation for the upcoming recording session.

In this weeks podcast, we discuss the animatic in a bit more detail. Give it a listen.

Well I haven’t been posting much lately so you know that means I have been working hard. Annabelle’s Bistro is coming along nicely. We have been creating animation tests left and right as well as working hard to get the set built. The latest podcast goes into some more detail about all of that.

For those of you who are podcast subscribers, last week you got a little treat in the form of concept designs and exclusive early model tests. Kyle and Katie put together a nice little PDF to show some of that off. The rest of you fear not! for I bring good tidings of great joy:

In addition, I have been giving the script a gentle massage…yet again… I think I have become so familiar with it at this point, I can probably recite the entire script from memory. Perhaps even sing it to the tune of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire.

This weeks podcast marks the triumphant return of my two co-hosts. We discuss our first impressions of Maya and how perseverance and hard work can help overcome the challenges that new 3D artists face. I think its going to be exciting to look back on this podcast at the end of the project just to see how far my students have come in a short amount of time.

For the record, Even though I have some critical things to say about WALL-E, I do think it is an amazing film and is one of my favorite Pixar films to date. No hate mail please!

You can listen to the podcast here, or subscribe via iTunes, or grab the RSS.

NOTE: I have heard that some peoples iTunes feed have not updated with episode 5 yet either. (titled Episode 3: Scriptwriting Session) If you are one of the affected, you may want to try re-subscribing to the podcast. I apologize for the inconvenience.

My original intent was to jump from the treatment directly to storyboarding. However, considering that the crew is fairly large, It is probably a good idea to develop a full script just to insure that everyone is on the same page creatively.

I did some research this weekend on how I should go about formatting the script and frankly, it seems that as far as animation goes, there isn’t one “right way” of doing things. Everybody seems to have different thoughts on the matter. With that in mind, I decided to go ahead and write the script in the way that I felt best suited my needs.

And so, this little three and a half minute film has a script that is nine pages long. Every shot described, every action captured. It turned out to be a very valuable exercise. The scriptwriting process revealed a lot of flaws in the story and gave us a great opportunity to address these flaws before they became an issue later in the game. The entire script was analyzed in great detail to determine the best way to set the tone, present the characters, and make with the funny.

This weeks podcast gives you a little insight on how we took an interesting idea, and turned it into an entertaining story…we hope.

You can listen to the podcast here, or subscribe via iTunes, or grab the RSS.

The third installment of our little podcast is up and available now. This week we discuss the Proof of Concept for Annabelle’s Bistro. The show is now enhanced with awesome new music and a brand new microphone! Professionalism better look out, cause we are coming!

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The second episode of the Annabelle’s Bistro Podcast is up and available now. This week we kick back and discuss some of our favorite animated films from our childhood, and I let slip just how little I know about release dates. (I also speak up a little louder this time.)

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Enjoy!

Many of you have been asking how Annabelle’s Bistro has been going and unfortunately, I have been unable to let a lot of information out of the bag in recent months. Now that all the details have been worked out, and production is in full swing, I can reassure everyone that the film is alive and well…and better than ever!

I am an instructor in the Multimedia department at Bradley University, and recently the department expressed interest in producing the film at the university. This was an opportunity that I simply could not pass up. The only thing I love more than animation is teaching, and getting the chance to do both and have it relate directly to Annabelle’s Bistro is amazing! We have many talented students in the program and with their help, this film will become something that it would never had been had I continued to plug away on my own.

I have secured the domain annabelles-bistro.com. This will serve as a spot on the web for the film to live. The site will contain quite a few cool features including a detailed production blog maintained by everyone working on the film. Look for that to go live in early December.

In addition, two of my students are producing The Official Annabelle’s Bistro Podcast. This will be a weekly podcast which will chronicle the production of the short film. It is up and available now so feel free to follow along as we work diligently to complete the film by June 1st, 2009. (yikes!)

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