Out from a Porcelain Place

Oh my god, it's done! It's over! So I have been working on an little independant short film for the last FOUR years that goes by the name of "Porcelain". Little, it is not. And it was meant to take around, I don't know, like 6 months? But now I am finally finished (my role) in it. It was signed to the LINK initiative (State Funding supporting emerging film makers) through some dedicated writing and persistant applications by mr Merks. So I had many reasons why I had a responsibility to see it to the end and not just take off although I sure felt like it many times over.

Let me tell you, trying to traditionally animate a 15 minute film, outside of working full time (and that fulltime work being cartoon animation too), is the most draining thing. It's like doing another 4 year Uni degree. Every deadline is like rushing to finish that lab report or 1000 word essay, complete with 5 hour sleeps days in a row. And every movie we watched, or TV show, or time off we took with friends and family, was never completely enjoyed but instead experienced with varying shades of guilt. Imagine animating 8 hours in a day then going home and rushing dinner down, to animate again for 2 hours, then waking up to animate again, and it goes on and on. Not for just a few weeks, but months...

And in the last leg, which was just before Christmas last year, we were literally working on it til 2am every single night for a month, and in the last couple weeks lead up to the final handover date, getting 3-5 hours sleep only with a couple of all nighters by Tim. And we even had to skip a few precious days at work too due to this, which was ouchy, since that season is nearing it's deadline too and production is being pushed for time. Not to mention countless days of headaches at work trying to stay better than just awake to animate well.

But it's all done now. Tim is just taking care of the sound mix and final edit pass. As much as I am so over it, due to all the time and stress and money lost, I love the Doll character I created and drew, she's so cute. Here's one of my favourite frames of her. So that's what I've been doing for the last months, being so occupied. Only now do I feel it's a new year! I have lots of catching up to do...