Another Week of Progress

Down below is the first draft of Act 1 of Vermilliion. I spent time clearing up some scenes and modifying others. It's roughly timed out. After I added the voice recording, I realized the lines didn't exactly fit with the visuals. So I added more lines and adjusted them. There are still parts that feel rushed or incomplete. The fall scene needs a lot of actual sequential drawings, and the ending needs some love, too.

One cinematography error is that the bus should always travel in one direction. The gag of the bus backing up and dropping off Adella currently breaks that rule. I cut a panel or two from that scene already, but it needs a few more tweaks before that issue is fully resolved.

I also added hydrangeas to the opening shot. The bright red flowers signify what's to come in the story, and hydrangeas are flowers that are capable of changing colors. It's very symbolic, and I think it elevates the shots. The beats for the rest of the story have been coming along, slowly but surely. A valuable piece of advice that I’ve received is to basically have three versions of the project. Thumbnails, a rough pass, and a final. And I’ll get better as I go. That way I don’t waste time trying to perfect the roughs and make thumbnails look pretty.

I've also been drawing on a plug-in tablet, which has sped up my workflow tremendously! Now that the pieces are roughly in place, my next steps are to finish out the action, art, and backgrounds. I also need to go through each scene and make sure the numbering and naming are on point, but that's another story for another day.

This is a work in progress of the opening shot. I still need to add the city in the background and clean up some of the flowers.