I finished the flashback sequence drawings last week, but have been so focused on putting things together that I've been forgetting to update the blog with them, so here they go. Some of these do have some animation, such as the shots with the fire, latter one being animated, and others will be drawings fading into each other. Also, elements of most of these drawings are on different layers so there will be a certain kind of 3D effect on pans, dolls and zooms.

Ainya sleeping

And here is the shot coloured. Tomorrow I will finish up the background for this shot with some overlapping grass, and also try to come up with a design for the dagger which I seem to forget about constantly, even though its grand importance to the film... I will also see to it that I'll start drawing more of the flashback sequence pen sketches.

Here's the shot of the faungirl sleeping. The head movement looks a bit rushed when she breathes out, but then I don't think the shot needs more than this. It will be shorter in the trailer too. Time to colour it. I'll do my best to get it all done today so I can then focus on the flashback sequences.

Finding

Here it is, coloured and all done.

I've never posted a process screenshot before so here's a frame from the finding shot. Drawing the shadow lines proved to take longer in this shot than in any of the other ones, but now the colouring is about half way through, so it should be fine. It doesn't look very organized, but I can find myself in this.

Here's the current shot of the troll finding the footprints next to the tombstone. This shot really brought out the non-animator side of me (which I suppose is more than half). I messed up the first head turn and now to fix it I'll have to fix all the following frames. For now I don't consider this a priority, so I won't be doing that until I've completed the more important things. It used to be a lot worse though, but after help from Denise I got some details tidied up that at least made the movement smoother, even if there are still structure and volume issues.

(I always advise to put the quality on best and watch full screen so the lines will be clear)

Also I coloured the determination shot.

Next I will be adding the shadow lines on the finding shot so then I can take it to Photoshop for colouring. Hopefully I'll have this shot done by today! Then I just have the faun girl's breathing cycle to animate and colour and finally the rest of the pen sketches for the flashback sequences. Still, I cannot forget that I need to leave a few days for compositing, so I won't be laying back comfortably just yet!

On another note, my friend made a title design that I'm pleased with, so this is the final thing!

For something different, a friend of mine is arranging a font for the title of my film. These are the two first tests. As we both came to agree, the first one is a bit Tolkien like, although very lovely. I decided to go with the second one which has a nice runic feel to it.

Because about a month ago or so I found an animated short titled The troll, the faun and the tree (very upsetting indeed, but at least it is very different from my film and my first concepts were done before that short was uploaded on youtube) I decided to change the title of my film to either 'The Troll's Dagger' or simply 'Dagger'. After some thought I decided that a one word title would not be fitting for a fantasy piece so I'm going with the first idea.
I'm currently working on the animation of the profile shot by the tombstone which is proving to be more troublesome than I thought. After that I have left the breathing cycle of the faungirl.