Faithfulness & Finishing

The film is finished! (-apart from a number of tweaks and fixes, of course.) This fall has been a whirlwind of activity, as I had to have the film finished for class. Having just passed through all of that, I can't help but remember where I was one year ago--before I even created this blog. That fall, God put this desire in my heart, causing me to reason that this was what I needed to do and that was the time I needed to learn how to do it. I had no idea what I was doing all term, and everybody (including me) knew it, yet God had purposed this and planned out several things that kept me at it.

God put the spotlight on Nebuchadnezzar early on--actually having me do a project in an earlier class on him. Before long, my secular professor became fixated on the character of Nebuchadnezzar--thinking that he was too interesting to pass up. Another big encouragement was from godly individuals at the church that I had just started going to that term. More godly people from that church, including the pastor, have continued to be encouraging. Actually, God also had three individuals at that church fill some critical parts in the production. I decided put the Lord in the credits under "Special Thanks to..." mainly because He's done so much I couldn't figure out any other single spot to put Him. I can't thank Him enough for all of that, or for how much my skill and ability have grown just working with His guidance.

These pictures you see are frames from the actual film, though some may be enhanced later when I fix a few things. I do want to point out a few things about these frames, as God has continued to bless and be faithful. First of all, as you can see, Neb has a brand new bed, and it's a much more fitting bed for royalty. A Christian game design major who I met and befriended this term textured it for me. The lighting here is one of the things I'm going to work on to try and enhance. I'm trying to strike a nice balance between the soft orange glow of the candles and the soft blue of the moonlight coming in through the windows. At the moment the lighting is a bit inconsistent.

Another thing I'd like to point out is an addition to the rig that my assistant animator (one of the individuals from my church) came up with. He noted that when people are dreaming you can see their eyes darting back and forth in REM sleep, even while closed. All I needed to make this work was allow the eyelids to rotate left and right, instead of just up and down. This isn't that noticeable when he's moving all around in his sleep, but adds a nice touch.

I made a slight addition to the dream so when the stone enters the scene, the sky darkens, referencing Matthew 24:29. Even though that detail wasn't actually mentioned, it seems reasonable that Neb would perhaps not have mentioned that if it did. The only real light in the scene during this part is the super bright light coming from behind the stone.

I ended up having a challenge I didn't anticipate with the visual effects for the statue's destruction. My visual effects guy found himself so bogged down with work that he was unable to do it. He told me this around midterm time, and, by the grace of God, I was able to figure out how to do particle effects with Maya in less than a week. The VFX guy's reaction to the effects shot was "you've got to show me how to do that sometime." This frame is from the start of the visual effects. It cuts to show the whole statue being vaporized and blown away in the wind. As an added bonus, the statue seems to turn towards the direction the stone was coming from--as if it is giving honor to the Lord in its final moment.

At the end of the term, I watched as the music that my music guy composed (he's also from my church) and the visual part of the film synced up near perfectly without us actually doing the necessary work to make it that in sync. As he said, "God did that." I then watched as another person from my church and another friend of mine came to record some of the brass parts of the music. Again, things happened that leave you with no other choice than to say, "God did that," (and the people He put on all these tasks did excellent). Later, I showed the film to the professor who taught me how to animate, who also happens to be a Christian. He gave me great advice on what to fix and expressed interest in wanting to see me do the next part of the story--the one with all the other characters I modeled. God puts nothing to waste--I was wondering were those guys would come back into the picture.

This definitely isn't the end of this blog, nor is it the end of my pursuit of Biblical animation. Stay tuned for more.
:)