TH17.5 short progress #5 (Because I can't be bothered coming up with witty titles anymore) (Patreon)

Progress continues, hoping to finally get through the "hard" part of the animation. Technically speaking, the entire process is the hard part, but if I had to call a part the "hardest" in this case, it would be this crazy 40 second action sequence that is completely nuts to work on. From the moment the dialogue ends until the break where Okina shows up for her cameo, it has been intense getting through this non-stop action sequence. I'm so glad the entire thing isn't just action and the third act is less action heavy. There were times I had to stop and take a nap because it was mentally draining.

But looks like switching to the new workflow explained in the bi-weekly report seemed to have worked as I have managed to rough 28 cuts and out of those 28, 19 have so far been sketched. But the only reason why I manged to get this far is because they're not finished. They still need to go through a second pass, which will reflect on the animated gifs below. Right now I just want to concentrate on getting the test footage out and seeing what I need to improve while I finish these cuts, so don't expect smooth animation at this time as many frames are still missing from these gifs.

The idea behind these two cuts is that Yuuma is flying towards Flandre and the camera will zoom in on Flandre for a few seconds on the her first frame before she swings her attack. I really don't like how she "snaps" into the second frame. I really need to add an inbetween to smooth that out.

I'm also going say that I don't like that pose I gave Yuuma. It feels to static. Ironically, I felt I gave her a more dynamic pose in the storyboard.

In fact, I'm noticing that a lot of the storyboard frames look better than some of the sketches I am drawing, which all feel so stiff. I'll probably go back and redraw them using the storyboards as a reference.

A clash but something happens that causes Yuuma to be concerned. A very simple three frame animation. I do believe one more frame would smooth it out, but at the same time, I'm working on a tight budget of Not-enough-time-except-for-the-bare-essentials. There are some things I have to compromise if I want to get this animation out before the end of this... century.

Also, I'm starting to regret giving Yuuma this design. Now that I've come this far, she feels "off", like I didn't drew her well. That's because I have used the same method I have done for the funnies, use Dairi's artwork as reference. However, I feel that Yuuma didn't came out right and it has to do with her hair. I can't really figure out how to get her hair right and Dairi's artwork isn't really enough to convey it in 3rd dimension, so I'm really tempted to give her a new concept and redraw every frame I have done up to that point with the new design. If I choose to this, then I better do it now so that I won't have to do it for every cut.

Keyframes of Yuuma being blown away. Nothing much to say other than it needs inbetweens.

Ghastly hands pop out of the oil and hold Flandre in place. I don't think anyone who has done 17.5 fan works has ever done anything with those lanky hands that pop out during the final battle with Yuuma. I may be the first to do so, maybe.

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I still have 9 more cuts for the second act, which is probably the hardest part as it involves Flandre transforming into a bat. My goal for this week is to not only finished these 9 cuts by then but to get to Okina, signifying the beginning of the third act and entering the final stretch. That should be easier to work with since the action is practically over. oh man, I can't wait because I really want to get to that test footage and proceed to the second passing.

Stick around guys, it's not over yet.