I had hoped to have a finished render to show this week, but there are still things I'm unhappy with in this series of shots, so it'll take another day.
Here are some things I've worked through on this 30 second block:
1. First time with hand-drawn character animation
This is the biggest one. The color layers were separating from the lines (in a bad spatial way, not in the good layers way). Onion skinning was glitchy, and drawing the character upside down was an extra challenge to start with. I am more or less happy with the cool shadows I got though, by having my invisible 3D previs model match the motions to make shadows for the 2D character.
2. Camera movement
Tracking the camera to a curve was a mess, plain and simple. There are still camera issues in one of the shots, and weirdly, the graph editor isn't helping.
3. Grease pencil effects
I'm used to overlap and color issues by now, but I need to find a way to mitigate the jiggle on the main character's hair. It's rigged and works properly, but in rendering, there are error frames where the hair streaks across the frame to get into place.
4. Timing
Some parts of this 30 second block are good, particularly in the beginning, but latter areas need to be retimed.
Goals for next week:
As much as I'd enjoy the variety of some shorter shots, I'm going to focus on what's story-essential first, so I'll be tackling the opening 30 seconds, which start off very similar to a shot I've already completed. Now that I'm more comfortable handling the 2D elements, it should go smoother this time.
Other Notes
In fortunate news, my late night working schedule is even more convenient than I thought. A bunch of haunted houses by my apartment host scream fests until 2 AM, so I wasn't going to sleep anyway!