Beethoven the Composer...Not the Dog

The verdict for our leading lady's new name is Seshet. Which I just thought sounded cool and "Egyptian," but apparently it IS Egyptian. According to a few sources, Seshet is translated into "Scribe" from ancient Egyptian. Scribe? Big whoop, right? Except when you consider that most scholars think women in Ancient Egypt were illiterate (not by choice), a female scribe was breaking the mold. So Ancient Egyptian girl power!! All hail Seshet!

Now for some girls that aren't scribes by any means. These are the After FX puppets for Benu's ditsy admirers. Benu is the brawny boy in the middle.

In other news, Seshet has a run-in with a certain famous composer named Ludwig van Beethoven in the film. Well, a bust of his head, at least. Here he is, and he's happy to see you.

Speaking of composers...I'm looking for one. I'll keep you updated on what happens with that. I think it's about time for Seshet to painting-hop with a soundtrack.

Beauty and the Benu

First off, a realization: so I googled the word Sesh and it means a few things. No big deal. But one thing that it means, according to the Urban Dictionary is: "A 'session' in which one smokes cannabis sativa through the use of a bong with a collective of friends." Totally fine, but maybe not fine for the name of our fair Egyptian lady. So, I'm thinking maybe Sesha or Seshet (still Sesh, but different). I'm taking votes!

In other news, the After FX Hieroglyphic puppets have proven to be quite a challenge, but I think I'm on the right track. I've cut a lot of the needless Egyptian characters from the party section, so now it's only Sesha/Seshet and the brawny Benu and his team of female admirers that I have to worry about. The idea now is that this is a small piece broken off of a much bigger wall found in some Ancient Egyptian tomb...or something. But the main focus now is also that Sesha/Seshet is stuck in not only a flat, dimensionless medium, but also trapped with emotionally flat, dimensionless people. This also means that Princess Sesha/Seshet shouldn't be a princess anymore, to make her even more left out of the crowd (so much for this blog's URL).

Here's the flattest, dimensionless of them all, Benu (he looks good in a mini-skirt though):

I've also cut the Warhol painting that Sesha/Seshet travels through, in favor of focusing on the other paintings. I'm in a constant process of streamlining as the deadline creeps up. So, talk amongst yourselves. I'll give a topic: Princess Sesh is neither a princess nor a sesh, discuss.

Walk Like an Egyptian

So here is Sesh as her hieroglyphic self. She may be flat, two-dimensional and stiff, but she's still got her sass. I created the following in Photoshop, with each body part having it's own layer. I can then import all of the elements into After FX, parent them together and create a nifty hieroglyphic puppet. That's the plan anyway. I also made her slightly transparent so that the ancient wall can be seen through her a bit as she moves on it. I hope it's selling the idea.

Sesh is soooo over this blog and just wants to go home and get some turkey!

A Change of Plans

After an unsuccessful attempt at capturing the distinct look of Egyptian hieroglyphics in some animation tests last week, I think I will try another technique. Some of my classmates have suggested that I make puppets in After FX, so I will try that...but I'll tackle that a little later.

So, to not hold back the momentum of my film, I will animate 2 short shots of the security guard flipping the lights off in the museum from the beginning of the film. I will use my tried and true pencil and paper for these. Here are the story panels I will cover:

The Massive Character Design Post

So here's the massive post with some of my character designs for the secondary characters. There are quite a few! Most of the paintings that Sesh goes into introduces some sort of new character. I'll just show them in order of appearance.

First, the Security Guard that turns off the lights in the museum at the beginning.

Next come the Egyptians that Sesh lives with in the hieroglyphic wall painting. I tried to make them as flat and hieroglyphic-y as possible. I hope I can move them!

Then Benu, who is the brawny, brainless man who tries to woo Sesh with his bulging muscles.

Wherever Benu goes, these ditzy admirers follow.

When Sesh enters the lush oil painted landscape, she is unexpectedly attacked by a pack of hunting dogs. I wanted them to be greyhound-esque.

And finally, Sesh makes her way to the charcoal sketch of graceful dancers. I tried some more jazzy dancers for this go round, but I'm also considering some elegant ballerinas instead. I added the dramatic lighting just for the sketches, cause I'm not quite sure if I can/want to achieve this effect for the final film.

Well, now I think we're all caught up. What do you guys think of the designs? Next I'll try to post my animation tests for the Hieroglyphic Seq!

Animatic - Hieroglyphic Sequence

I started storyboarding Gallery Girl back in April. Several drafts later....I'm on the latest draft. But this one seems to be the most concrete. I cut an animatic in September, and I'm still hammering it out. I have, however, settled on the sequence in which we meet Sesh in her mundane hieroglyphic wall painting. I've started animation on this particular seq and I'll post animation tests soon. But for now, I thought I'd share this portion of my animatic.

At this point in the film, the museum has closed for the night. All of the visitors have left, and the museum's security guard has just shut off all the lights. All of them, except for two. One on an oil painted landscape, and the other on the Hieroglyphic wall that Sesh is in.

More Sesh Designs

These Sesh character designs are from September. This blog is slowly catching up to where I'm at now in the production (animation phase). I'll try to post some animation tests in the weeks to come. But for now, the designs of Sesh in the various mediums that she finds herself in throughout the film.

First, Sesh as a charcoal sketch. She will be joining a group of sketched dancers in this sequence, so she changes from her tight, confining Egyptian dress into a freeing leotard.

Finally, I painted Sesh using oil paints. This is the first time I've ever used oils, so it's not exactly the way I wanted it to turn out. I'm not going to use actual paint for the sequence in which Sesh becomes oil painted (rather, it will be digital in some form or another), but I just wanted to get a feel for the medium.


By the way, if anyone has any suggestions for how to get a consistent oil painted look that can also be animated, please let me know! And feel free to give comments on these designs!