Now that my thumbnails are all done and the film actually plays out "well enough" in my head, I moved to the computer (TVPaint and Maya) to work on the animatic; and since everything about this film is different than the old film (The type of story, medium and style) then why not a different approach to prerpo too?
Well, to make things a little tighter this time around I roughed out my compositions and cameras in a CG placeholder set, which freed me to further explore and flesh out the acting choices in a very early stage in the process.
1- Figure out the camera beats in CG.
2- Playblast it.
3- Block acting traditionally in TVPaint.
Here's an example:
Notice the amount of breakdowns done so early in the process. I don't know whether it is a smart thing or not but for now, I'm enjoying it. Here's how it looks like in motion:
Keep checking in. More to come.