I’m trying to crank out a short segment this weekend. This shot has Helen Cooper leaving the basement, with Judy taking her place to watch over young Karen.
I started off tracing the background and foreground elements, but to change things up, I’m using my “cartoon” style on the characters. Does it save time? Well, there’s a lot more planning up front, drawing all the character pieces. Once that’s done, it’s simpler to move them around… except Helen has to turn around to leave! I haven’t drawn her from the rear yet, so it’s back to the drawing board.
Here’s the first part of the animation. Helen stands up:
It was a marathon session tonight. Just me and my Ustream channel and a few friendly observers.
Lo and behold, I’ve finished the scene. The leering, lurching Bill Hinzman zombie attacks Barbara, she screams, and Johnny leaps to the rescue. It’s only 14 seconds, but I think I put in more hours on this section than the last one, if possible.
All in all, my method is pretty… methodical. George Romero is a director who uses a lot of cuts and handheld work, which means time intensive roto.
Enjoy the scene below. I’m sending it off to director Mike Schneider and going to bed.
Same section as last time, but now Johnny has lip sync, the zombie is properly rotoscoped, and so is Barbara.
Roto is tedious. I’m doing sketchy work, but every 2 frames. That’s 15 times a second. Per character. Now my wrist hurts.
To prove it, I actually recorded my work habits with a webcam today. See my Ustream channel for two hours of NOTLD:R Roto work.
Really, it’s boring. Don’t bother.
But, you can enjoy the animated result below:
Weeks later, I’m back on this “Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated” scene. I’m jumping around a bit, so Johnny still needs lip sync. The Hinzman zombie is a junky placeholder — I’m thinking of rotoscoping him in that shot. There’s also a severe lack of Barbara there.
But… I wanted to get this test up to show what I’ve been doing with Johnny. He’s probably the most fun character to draw so far. Something about the horned-rim glasses, I guess.
All this week, while I was focused on animating a few scenes, Mike Schneider was thinking about the big picture. He was getting all the pieces in place for a relaunch of the Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated website, along with a new trailer for the project.
Behold, the latest trailer! If you watch closely, you’ll see some of my animation.
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