x Helen x

Artefact Two

2012-02-14T06:21:00.005-08:00

This is a drawing of mine to show how changing different parts of the face look when trying to create an expression can make an emotion be more believable. With the first drawing I only drew the mouth smiling, and it looks lifeless and flat. The second drawing I drew the lines that are made around your eyes and cheeks when you smile along with drawing the mouth smiling. I think it has made the drawing look more realistic and has life in it.

http://youtu.be/7fRLs32GQbo

Artefact two research

2012-02-13T12:38:00.003-08:00

After my first artefact I have realised that to properly show expression and emotions I need to use reference material so that what I create is more realistic. For the previous artefact I animated the face into expressions which I think portray an emotion when really there is a lot more to each emotion.

When looking for reference material I came across this website http://www.cedarseed.com/fire/emotut.html which is basically a tutorial on how to draw facial expressions and emotions.

For example when you smile, there is more to just making your mouth wider. When you are truly smiling and not pretending to smile there are many parts of your face that change, not just your mouth, like your eyes for example.

I have also found an article of 3D World Magazine (edition 150) where it gives you five tips for believable faces.

So I think my second artefact will look at animating an expression using various parts of the face, not just one for example the mouth. Doing this makes the emotion believable so then the audience can relate to the character

Artefact one

2012-02-13T12:20:00.002-08:00

For my first artefact I want to look at how you can show how a character is feeling through their expression. I was going to use my own character to animate but I think I will be able to produce an artefact that clearly shows what I want easier using a ready rigged model. So I am going to use the max rig from the 11 second club. Because all the rigging and modelling has been done well it is easier for me to use and everything will work correctly.

I have been thinking about what emotion I want to show and when playing around with the rig I decided to go with an anxious or worried emotion as that is a feeling I feel a lot! Below is an image showing my ideas for how I want the animation to go.

http://youtu.be/oC40I712Rtk

Still doing work...

2012-02-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

I have now added more to the bed, a bedside table and a lamp! The images are a bit bright I put in an omni light as there were a lot of shadows before

New chimney

2012-02-13T06:32:00.001-08:00

This is my new chimney idea I think it is a lot better than my previous one and once it is textured it will look like a proper cottage chimney and log burner.

Thinking about the interior of the cottage

2012-02-13T03:49:00.001-08:00

After discussing my work in tutorial today I have realised that my current room design is too modern for what I first wanted. I think it became too modern because I did not collect reference images for interiors of cottages. The chimney is brick like inside cottages, but the type of brick doesn't look right and the wallpaper is completely wrong. Also the edges are too straight, I think the walls and edges need to look a bit less 'perfect' and more rugged.

I have now collected some images which show how many cottages look, with a traditional bricked fireplace with an old log burner and plain wall. I think having a plain wall will be better as having a floral design might make the scene too busy. Many of the images show that cottages have big beams in them which might make my interior look more realistic.

Room so far

2012-02-13T00:50:00.001-08:00

Character Modelling update

2012-02-10T14:50:00.001-08:00

More sketchbook

2012-02-07T02:05:00.001-08:00

Here are more images from my sketchbook showing potential grandmother clothing and my initial wolf and scenery ideas

Sketchbook

2012-02-07T01:58:00.001-08:00

I wanted to upload some pictures showing a bit of what I have done in my sketch book. It isn't all properly finished how I want but I need to be showing on here what work I have done!

Illustrator Lee-Ann Donaldson

2012-01-25T02:22:00.000-08:00

I was looking at 3d artists' website and came across an image that I liked..

I really like how it looks quite simple, and I think this could be a good look for the illustrated part of my animation. I would obviously do it in my own way and not just copy this but I think this is some good inspiration!

5 Ways To Get Your Portfolio Noticed

2012-01-25T02:09:00.000-08:00

Here is an article from computer arts magazine :)

http://www.computerarts.co.uk/features/five-ways-get-your-portfolio-noticed

Cottage inspiration

2012-01-23T07:12:00.000-08:00

I love this! I think this sort of look is perfect for my 'grandmothers cottage'

Drawing

2012-01-23T06:15:00.000-08:00

This is a drawing I did today using some new 'promarker' pens :) There are really good colours for drawing people in the pack that I have but they do have other packs that contain brighter colours rather than pastely ones.

Inspiration

2012-01-23T05:54:00.000-08:00

Into the Forest by Anthony Browne has been a good book to look at as I really like the illustrations for it and I think I could use a similar look in my animation where I will have my character running through a wood.

After tutorial it has been suggested that to make my animation a bit shorter I could make the end illustrated. We were talking about how to go about doing this and my tutor said that I could have the character moving but keep the background still if that makes sense? Then someone suggested looking at this song video

Still Run from DANTE NOU on Vimeo.

I would only have one environment that would be illustrated but this video has been helpful to look at different ways things can be done

Update on the face

2012-01-14T14:05:00.001-08:00

It is taking me a while as I want to make sure it looks good and I haven't done anything this detailed before. I have used the symmetry modifier so I don't have to do both sides of the face separately. That would definitely take me a lot longer to model it.. probably wouldnt be finished modelling til april ha

2012-01-12T10:33:00.000-08:00

First week back after Christmas

2012-01-12T06:29:00.000-08:00

Over christmas I was doing a bit of sketching and just getting some ideas going for my characters in my sketch book. In my tutorial on monday we were told we were going to start showing stuff that we are doing next week. I don't want to just show sketches so I have begun making my first character, red riding hood.

I have done some quick sketches to use as reference images when creating this.

I began with the nose as I thought it is at the centre of the face and would be easier to work out from that. I have never made a human face before and I think I have done a good job so far of quite a fiddly bit of the face!

Deadline week!

2011-12-07T11:51:00.000-08:00

Handed in research essay fine, handed in context essay fine. (even though so many people were confused about what to write for it, and people were told to put things in to their essays that weren't written on the brief..). Sent my proposal to Roma for checking, whilst getting Andy to be my 'stand in' client and got all my forms signed. Now just need to go to the printing place tomorrow to get it printed and bound and then I'm finished! I tried to make it look professional and had this illustration ( by me) on the front cover.

5 images for catalogue

2011-11-23T05:40:00.000-08:00

I have chosen my 5 images. I want them to show my character modelling, but also an illustration from first year and one from this year as I would like to either go into character modelling or design and I think they show my skills well. I also think they are good choices because they show my journey and how I have developed on this course.

Client project

2011-11-21T04:38:00.000-08:00

For the client project I was going to take a brief from a competition, for eg the d&ad competition. But at the moment all their briefs aren't really to my liking and time is running out, and we can't really wait for them to put up an animation one for it to then be rubbish... so after talking with Roma she said I can make up my own brief.. so I am going to do my own interpretation/adaption of little red riding hood. If I tried to recreate the whole story it would be too much work so we decided it would be better to just do a small part of it. I am still undecided on which bit to do, I think I would like to include a bit of the forest and what happens inside grandmas house with the whole 'oh what big eyes you have' because that is a big part of the story... or I don't know if I should change it and make it a whole new story but just have the same red cape/coat.

acting for animators 'webinar'

2011-11-16T15:48:00.001-08:00

http://www.escapestudios.co.uk/acting-for-animators/

eating my words now...

2011-11-16T15:13:00.001-08:00

I said before pixar haven't made a film with a female lead.. now they are bringing out this film called Brave and its main character is a girl... a very boyish girl.. but nonetheless a girl. It must be Disneys doing, they love having female main characters....

Looks cool though

research project thoughts

2011-11-16T03:34:00.000-08:00

Had a meeting with Baris yesterday which went really well where we discussed ideas for the report. Had tutorial later with him as well and no one else turned up so I had another one to one pretty much about my report again :)

We were looking at what I like, which is character design and discussed empathy and narrative and correlation with design.. and other stuff!

I have been trying to think of possible questions or topics and have come up with this so far.. But I need to think of something instead of "how"

How does modelling help to create empathy in a narrative
How would you model life and personality in to a still character
How can you model a still character and be able to immediately identify their personality
The way emotion and personality are shown in a still character
How does (a specific modelling technique) enhance the animation process

From this I think I am interested at looking at emotion/personality/life in a still character. I don't like how still character sounds.. static, stationary, unanimated, motionless, immobile are other words I could use....

The ways emotion and personality are shown in an unanimated character... ???

so that would be the topic and the question would be what are the ways in which emotion and personality are shown in an unanimated character...?? Maybe ask what techniques are used to create emotion and personality..

I really dont know if this is any good?

So many question marks!

something i madeeee

2011-11-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

Just a quick thing I did

2011-11-13T07:52:00.001-08:00

A drawing I did on my tablet in photoshop, I used a photo as a guide. It was just a quick thing I did as I haven't used my tablet in a while

Computer arts article

2011-11-13T06:52:00.000-08:00

Making the most of social media

"Social media is a great way to reach new clients – but it’s a double-edged sword. Here’s how to promote yourself effectively"

http://www.computerarts.co.uk/features/making-most-social-media

I thought that this was interesting as it talks about promoting yourself and your 'brand' and thats what we have been thinking about in our context lectures

How things are going

2011-11-13T06:43:00.000-08:00

Sim client - finished

Start up factory report - finished (although worried about failing now after lecture with jools)

Research project - arranged a meeting with tutor to sort my topic out as its not going to work

Client project - going to do a competition, have been looking at ycn and d&ad sites and have seen a few that I would like to do but none that really stand out to me yet I'm hoping for a more character based one

Exhibition images and rationale thing - no idea what images to use I think I will create something new that shows me and my personality

Have been having issues with uni at the moment as I really am not enjoying it but hopefully things will start to get better once I sort out my work.. its the last year so I can't give up now :)

Twinings advert

2011-11-10T04:44:00.000-08:00

Everybody is loving this new twinings advert.. I think mainly because of the song, and it is different.

I found this website of an online magazine called Skwigly who interviewed the makers of the advert, a company called Psyop who are represented through london company Smuggler. I think it is a shame they couldn't use an english company to make the advert, as im sure twinings is english? :s but hey it is a lovely advert and here is the link to an interview with the creative team behind it.

http://www.skwigly.co.uk/twinings-gets-you-back-to-you/

It is really interesting how they made it :)

Some general thoughts

2011-11-10T03:36:00.000-08:00

I was reading an article about Pixar, and it brought up that none of the Pixar films have a female lead character. I had never noticed this before and was shocked.. one because I didnt notice.. and two I thought why havent they created a female lead... Are they sexist..? or is it just there hasn't been a film directed by a woman at Pixar? Maybe they are worried they will lose ratings if there is a female lead character... girls are happy to watch films no matter what gender the character is (when it comes to animated films) but I think boys won't want to watch it as much as they may be seen as a loser or whatever. It makes me also worry about jobs for women in this industry. I know there are many jobs like animators, compositors etc that a lot a women have careers in.. but why haven't we aimed higher? Why has every film by pixar been directed by a man. Surely we have just as much storytelling ability and imagination as men?

I have always thought it would be amazing to work for pixar.. but what if they don't encourage you to go further and push yourself or don't think you are as good as the male animation graduate next to you?

research project

2011-11-10T03:30:00.000-08:00

deadline last week of term... 3 weeks and a bit remaining. Panicking a little as my idea is rubbish still :(

here is a quick mindmap type thing I did about what I could write about.

I have already sent of a proposal to my tutor, which hasnt been acknowledged.. so I have now sent it to simon who will hopefully help me :S

Jelly bean stop motion music video

2011-11-07T02:05:00.000-08:00

This website has 2 videos on it, one the music video, the other how the music video was made.

"This music video for the song “In Your Arms” by Kina Grannis is a stop-motion animation done with a background composed of jelly beans. It’s a crazy project that required 22 months, 1,357 hours, 30 people, and 288,000 jelly beans. They could have used CGI, of course, but each frame was carefully created by hand and photographed with a still camera. It’s even more mind-blowing given this fact: none of it was done with a green screen."

http://www.petapixel.com/2011/11/03/stop-motion-music-video-shot-over-two-years-with-288000-jelly-beans/

Simulated Client

2011-10-30T14:31:00.001-07:00

The finished video

These images show the characters, the hall way background, the props and the final background. They were all hand drawn by me.

New Year, Final Year

2011-10-30T03:09:00.000-07:00

First two projects - Simulated Client and 2000 Word Report.

For the simulated client we had to create an advertisement for the Alumni Association and this had to be done within 3 weeks. I decided to create an animation based on stop motion which told the journey from a university student to becoming a business woman. I will put pictures up next and show the final piece.

For the report we have to think of a new business and a service or product it offers. My idea is to create educational animations to use in schools. There is already online services that do this but no company does ones for online and videos that can be shown in the school.

Gnomeo and Juliet

2011-08-04T03:57:00.000-07:00

I am someone who is a bit of a child when it comes to films. I love all the disney, pixar and dreamworks films and I watched Gnomeo and Juliet and thought it was great :) it was funny and lovely and good for both kids and adults which I think is really good for these kind of films. But the main thing I really liked was how the characters actually looked like they were made from pottery like real garden gnomes, when they moved they even made like the chink noise. I think it was really good detail that made the film really good to watch (for someone interested in making animations) my family just enjoyed the film for what it was but im always looking at a technical side of it as well as enjoying the story and just watching it if you know what I mean.

New start

2011-08-04T03:40:00.000-07:00

Definitely need to sort all this stuff out now I feel my results for 2nd year were rubbish and I really need to up my game and get great results for 3rd year if I want any chance against all the 3d mad people in getting a job after uni.

In this next year we have a simulated 3 week project which last year was based on piracy.. then we have the rest of the year to a client based project, whilst on top of that write a 3000-4000 word report/dissertation thing based on anything within multimedia.

This client project part I am worried about as I do not know who to go for for it, there are competitions that you can use to do it as they set a brief, or you can ask your tutor for a brief or you can go out and find a client who will set you up with something. I am not sure if I want to ask a tutor for a brief incase I get one from a tutor who knows nothing about animation and I am worried about going out and finding a client as it will be hard to find one and then keep visiting them and communicating with them unless the company was like directly in nottingham centre (otherwise I have no way of travelling to them)

And im still deciding what to base my personal research project on (the essay thing). I am thinking something based on animation, where I can discuss the importance of different elements of making an animation/animated film/short what have you.. ie the lighting, texturing, the connection with the audience, the story....

So I am looking forward to the upcoming year but im not at the same time as it is going to be really independent working and we are hardly in uni again it seems really pointless paying the same tuition fees as someone who is in 9-5 everyday of the week. I think as I am not as good and motivated as some students I need to be in lessons for more than 4 hours a week so I feel it is worth going in to uni (when i can sit at home and work). And hopefully I will get a good tutor this year who actually knows about the pathway we chose.....

500 word rational

2011-05-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

For my project I decided to base my animation on the matrix “dojo” scene. I thought this would be the best out of the three choices as it focused more on the characters and their movements than the scenery. I think I would like to do a career that is more involved with character animation rather than visualisation for example and choosing the scene from Frankenstein for example, felt to me that it focused more on how the scenery looked. I decided I wanted to create an animation that had similarities to the matrix dojo scene but I wanted to create characters and an environment that were from my imagination. I knew I wanted to have two characters, and have them both based upon cats. One was to be older and wiser and the other young and over weight, being taught how to fight by the older cat. After developing my ideas more and playing around with designs I decided the old and wise cat should be just a ‘cooler’ looking cat but keep to the same idea of him teaching the other cat. I then needed them to have a good environment to fight in that would fit with the characters so I started designing a jungle-based environment that was set at twilight. I used images from avatar as an influence with this and this led me on to wanting floating particles in my jungle setting. I began actually building the characters first and then rigging them as I thought this would be the hardest part and it gave me time to re do parts or fix parts that didn’t work. I found the rigging quite easy to do, but then I sometimes would miss out one step and the whole rig wouldn’t work. I think with more practice this would stop happening and I could be more adventurous. I enjoyed making my scene and to help me I used online tutorials to help make the grass and particles. I used the hair and fur modifier to make the grass, I was worried that this would increase rendering time but it didn’t when I tested it. I then followed a tutorial to make my particles glow and it only worked when you did something called a video post. This ended up in me waiting for over twenty hours of rendering before I realised that it was not actually making a video file. So I researched more in to after effects and found a way of creating particles in that, and so rendered my animation the normal way and then added the particles later. I then added voices and music in premiere as it was easier to cut up the video and sound and speed up and slow down different bits of the animation.

I think with this project I learned a lot and worked better with my time management so I could get everything done on time. I definitely learned new things which I can use in my third year for example the particle tool, skin modifier and after effects. I think I need to be more confident with the software and find it more fun than a chore as this would make me want to practice with it lots and my work would improve. I am pleased with what I produced and am and am looking forward to my next challenge

Final Things

2011-05-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

My animation

Animatic

Finished 2nd year!!

2011-05-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

Finally finished my second year and final project. I started rendering early this time as last term I left it all till the last minute and it all went wrong and my animation ended up being rubbish. I tried using aftereffects to make the particles in the end and then cut it all up and added sound on premiere which I think worked nicely. I even handed my work in at like 10am on deadline day!! normally it is a mad rush at 3/4pm haha. I really wanted it to something good for like my skill level. I think I definitely need to be more into 3ds max and think of it as being more fun than hard work as it makes me not want to play around and experiment like a lot of other people do with random things. :) so overall I am happy with what I did for once!

Update

2011-05-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

Think I have sorted most of the issues I have had with my characters. I just need to do the hard stuff now ha ha.. need to just animate now really.. I think I may struggle as I get confused with all my timings and how many frames is a good amount for each movement for example. But I have a few days to get this sorted then I have lots of time for rendering and editing and all that stuff.

Here are the latest images

Cat material ideas

2011-05-13T10:10:00.001-07:00

Finally managed to sort out a texture for my cats. I first made this texture on photoshop and it looked like this on the first image. Then I clicked on a different part of the rollout menu for uvw wrap and got the effect in the second image. I think I prefer the second one as it is the look I was aiming for. I am trying to get them to look like they would belong and be camoflaged in a pandora (avatar) environment

Newest

2011-05-09T08:20:00.000-07:00

I need to get the particles in better positions and sort the lighting out a bit. The random rectangle is there because that is the height of my characters and I wanted to make sure my scene was the right size as last term I made it way too big

glowing particles

2011-05-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

I did it :) I followed a tutorial on how to make something glow, and did this on a sphere.. then when I had played around a bit with it I added the material onto the emitter and it made this!

Glow

2011-05-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

I made this just now. I want lots of these floating about in my scene. I have been playing around with a particle cloud and want to see if I can get the particles to have this effect

View from my bedroom window

2011-05-08T12:11:00.000-07:00

reactor

2011-04-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

just a thing we did in lesson today. shouldve put a material on the ball really i think to make it look real

fatter one

2011-04-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

nearly finished character 1

2011-04-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

blue moon

2011-04-13T06:21:00.000-07:00

Could have something like this as a background.

Work work work

2011-04-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

Trying to just get on with all my work now, especially as that portfolio stuff is over and done with and I want to really knuckle down and do some good work.

So this morning I have been playing around with lighting. Normally I am RUBBISH at everything to do with 3ds max, like my last project was really naff looking so I am trying to work hard at making things look good. I was getting myself all confused with things, then I realised I have a wholeee book on how to use 3ds max and everything was happy again.

So I have been trying to get a certain look for my scene.. and I added in a

background just to get a general look.. I cant really use it as it isnt mine so will have to probably make my own somehow.. I also have been playing around with the hair and fur modifier to make grass :)

I want to be able to have streams of light coming through but I am not sure how to do this and I think the tree needs to be more illuminated

because if there were characters there you wouldn't be able to see them very well. Also if I was to use a background like this I think the tree needs to be bigger!

New influence for project

2011-04-12T01:20:00.000-07:00

Was watching tv the other day as you do and a lloyds tsb advert came on, and I already really like the style of these adverts.. but this new one was based in a forest. I love the way everything looks and the lighting and particles in the air.. it is how I imagine mine to kind of look, but I would have the colours more blue and make it look like it was getting on to 'twilight' rather than during the day.

My Portfolio

2011-04-12T01:14:00.000-07:00

For my portfolio I mainly made a website showing my work and to give me an online presence. I also handed in a dvd that I made which had a slideshow of my work.

www.wix.com/xhelenx_x/portfolio1

video about new nintendo 3ds

2011-03-31T12:44:00.001-07:00

http://live.nintendo3ds.nintendo-europe.com/

My Flickr Album

2011-03-11T09:35:00.000-08:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28069996@N02/

Back movement

2011-03-09T05:12:00.000-08:00

Its a bit fast and scary looking but you get the general idea!

The body used was one andy made, and we had to make our own spine and rig it all up, i then added a different material to make it render faster as it is just a practice thing.

10 steps to landing a job in CG

2011-03-03T11:04:00.000-08:00

3D world magazine have an article giving advice on getting a job. Heres the link: http://www.3dworldmag.com/2011/03/02/get-a-job-in-cg-in-10-simple-steps/2/

First paragraph says:

#1 Research your course

As public awareness of 3D has grown, so have the number of ‘me too’ degrees.

Avoid general multimedia courses that only offer 3D as a module – they won’t provide enough depth.

Isnt that pretty much what our course is.. fills me with hope lol

One leg walk

2011-03-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51u46dbc7pU

The leg was made by andy but I rigged it all myself. Im trying to do this all to practice it lots.

Paintings

2011-01-28T03:04:00.001-08:00

I am trying to do other art work when not in uni so I don't get out of practice with other things. This is the finally finished painting I did for my room which I think I showed half completed earlier in my blog. The second is a painting of my dog I have done as he is soo cute :) I think it does look realistic and he really stares at you its kind of freaky :P

New drawing

2011-01-26T14:27:00.000-08:00

Drawing from my tablet

2011-01-25T12:56:00.000-08:00

This is taken from my previous drawing of a cheetah. It is the same apart from the spots. I really like how the face looks.

Presentation

2011-01-25T12:44:00.000-08:00

Today I did my presentation to show Andy and Roma my ideas for our next project - Working to a script.. I have decided to use the matrix dojo scene to base my idea on. After talking today I have decided to definitely use 2 cheetahs, as they are elegant and quick. I will have to wrig them like you would a human as a four legged animal would be very hard to do. One Cheetah will look older, wiser and slimmer and the other cheetah looking younger and fatter. The basic idea is that the older cheetah is trying to teach the younger one how to be better and be the hero he could be. With my initial drawings Andy said that the wise cheetah looks fatter in the face than the other, and that I should make the fatter cheetah more fluffy and shorter to make it look younger. They also both gave helpful ideas towards my environment. I am basing it on the Pandora jungle in Avatar and I want to set it at twilight as I think the lighting would look lovely and the images below have a really good feel to them.

Below are some of the images I included in my presentation.

Polygon modelling

2011-01-12T06:15:00.000-08:00

Trying to do work with 3ds max outside of uni work to try and get better at it. Am following a tutorial at the moment on how to make a monster with polygon modelling. I think it is how I could make my character for uni project so its cool :)

Screen shots. Can't believe I actually made something that looks good!!

In seminar today

2011-01-11T05:49:00.000-08:00

We were shown this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I0D_pEAk6E

It is an animation made by a student called The Dancing Thief. Its good to look at the relationship between two characters and how they differ.

Im a roll tonight!

2011-01-10T14:48:00.001-08:00

Drawing :)

2011-01-10T11:54:00.000-08:00

Working to a script project

2011-01-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

Select one of the 3 scripts that are contained within the brief or one of your own choice. (matrix, frankenstein, fantastic voyage)

Interpret the script planning mise en scène character design and cinematography.

I think I want to do the scene from the matrix. I'm thinking that as many of the people on my course are male that they will make their animations very action filled with guns and boy stuff :P so I want mine to be different. I think you can make the dojo scene look quite pretty and girly but still keep the idea behind it. I have had this initial idea of my scene being jungle-like and I imagine it like the pandora jungle in Avatar. I also think after Andys idea of making the characters bunnys, I want mine to be cheetahs or leopards.. although you dont get those animals in the jungle.. Hmmmmm might have to change to a panther or tiger, and I know they are in the jungle as they are in the jungle book :P haha

now thinking of panthers... look at this!!

Drawings on photoshop

2011-01-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

I wanted to practice more with my graphics tablet, so I decided to draw my eye. Its not very good as the lines are wobbly and I did it from quite far away so didn't see that some bits look rubbish :P but I thought I would put it on here anyway and Learrnnn froom ittt :)

This is a picture I created from looking at my wall paper. The wallpaper is pink and black, so I made my image look a lot different and brighter in colour.

Learn professional animation techniques for free

2011-01-10T09:03:00.000-08:00

Taken from 3d World Website:

- The guys over at Les Shamans have released a new and free e-book compiling a range of know-how, techniques, and anecdotes from animation professionals, including Pixar’s Victor Navone.

Animation Insiders #1 is aimed at passionate animators looking to surpass their limits and acquire new techniques.

In the introduction the book is said to be an alternative to the many guides for animation that are already out there. What makes Animation Insiders different is the variety of techniques presented from real professional animators. “This is what we call ‘gold’,” it says.

Alongside Pixar’s Victor Navone’s are contributing chapters from supervising animator at DreamWorks Animation, Jason Ryan, Jason Martinsen, who recently worked on Iron Man 2 for Double Negative, and Jason Schleifer, well known for his animation work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

http://book.lesshamans.com/

Christmas

2011-01-05T11:02:00.000-08:00

is over now :( go back to university on sunday.. Looking forward to it in a way because of the new project, but I have liked being at home not having to worry about anything!

I was given a graphics tablet for christmas :) I reallllly like drawing so now I can draw on photoshop and things and don't have to scan in drawings to then edit on illustrator or whatever!!

This is the first thing I drew quickly whilst waiting for christmas dinner :)

New program about Pixar on bbc

2011-01-04T14:38:00.000-08:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00x9cdm/Pixar_25_Magic_Moments/

Was good to watch :)

Finished

2010-12-11T03:31:00.000-08:00

After much stress and everything going wrong like usual I have finally finished my first term. I have liked this project because I was able to do lots of drawing and I think that is one of my strengths whereas I am rubbish at this whole 3ds max stuff :( ah well I will just have to practice lots and then hopefully I will become the most amazing animator in the world haha..

Here are my finished bits, I'm just glad its over :P

my robot

2010-12-06T12:44:00.000-08:00

robot eye

2010-12-03T04:54:00.000-08:00

Mars Planets Advert

2010-12-01T02:33:00.000-08:00

my funny walk

2010-11-29T06:34:00.001-08:00

first attempt at robot walk

2010-11-28T13:02:00.001-08:00

3D animation from 3d world magazine website

2010-11-18T05:48:00.000-08:00

http://www.3dworldmag.com/2010/11/16/in-focus-readers-portfolio-1/

Page from 3D world magazine site where 3D World reader Jamie Martin explains the process behind making his C.R.A.B. Robot, a conceptual policing sentry.

Amazing 3ds max work

2010-11-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSGx4bBU9Qc

Some design ideas

2010-11-03T09:43:00.001-07:00

30 and 60 second quick sketches

2010-11-03T09:40:00.001-07:00

This was an exercise we did in our storyboarding seminar

Recently made bits from seminars

2010-11-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

Planet Orrery

Vase

Robot Leg

Presentation

2010-10-25T04:00:00.001-07:00

I did my presentation last week. My idea was to have a female robot walking along a beach, she is arrogant and thinks she is a good looking robot, as she is walking she flicks her hair (slow motion style) and tries to show off infront of some men playing football on the beach. As she is walking she gets closer and closer to a hole dug in the sand and you think she will fall in it, making herself look stupid, but she smugly steps over it... to then get hit in the face with their football.

My feedback to my presentation was good with some good suggestions..

Could have robot walking down a promenade
Do you have to see the footballers, as this would mean a lot of modelling
Could have a football or even a volley ball bounce in and out of shot
Instead of water have an oil sea
Instead of a ball could something more robot like hit her
The robot could stand there as well doing posing, maybe blowing kisses

I didn't have many ideas about my environment but Andy said the beach idea would work, I think I need to make it fit with the robot though aswell, like the oil sea, and have the buildings around to look quite futuristic..

Just need to crack on with it now :S

Another thing..

2010-10-25T03:53:00.000-07:00

We have also been discussing developing our network online, like using blogs and different social networks. I currently have this blog and use facebook.. I don't know what other ones would be useful. I wouldn't want to add professional people on my facebook as they would see photos and status' that would make me look not very professional so I don't know if I should join twitter and follow companies and discuss things on there :s

I was reading this document on the now called social network and it talks about starting your day in the expanding social network. Plinky, Aviary, Google reader, Delicious,and jQuery are mentioned and to be honest I haven't heard of them before. So I'm thinking it may be a good idea to check them out..

Networking

2010-10-25T03:44:00.000-07:00

Developing My Network report

Task: Research and identify three companies in your network that you

will be following over the next few months. Write a report (2000

words) that explains your considerations, describes the companies

identified and discusses the types of companies researched and

rejected.

This is our first assignment for our context lessons. It does seem better than previous essays, and I'm so glad it isn't another visual one!

I decided to start looking for companies, and decided to look for ones in both Nottingham and areas around my home town like Cambridge and Peterborough. I started by just typing into google "animation companies in Nottingham" which didn't get many good results. After talking to my friend, she suggested using yell.com.. I thought duh of course! I wasted so much time scrolling down lists on google.. So yeah now I searched on yell.com and have found five companies at the moment in Nottingham, Cambridge and Peterborough. One of the companies could be quite hard for me to get to so that may be a reason to reject them..

Anyway I'm quite happy with that and now I need to contact them to develop my network :)

Redboard 3D storyboarding software

2010-10-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

Looked at this website today for redboard in our seminar, you still need drawing skill to use it which I like.

Simple game like controls, arrange characters, vehicles, props and camera angle
Use quick and simple models
Draw over the 3D with Redboard's paint tools
Export completed storyboards with cameras, character positions and timing to Autodesk Maya
Easily view tweened camera, character and prop animation created directly from the Redboard storyboard sequence
Use a standard EDL to your favourite editing software in Redboard for animation timing and automatic route sheet creation

http://www.redboard.tv/howredboardworks.php

Collage

2010-10-14T05:27:00.001-07:00

In our visualisation lesson we had to create collages of images to research possible backgrounds and ideas for our animation..

I made one of different robots and one of different scenes

Robot Ideas

2010-10-14T04:08:00.000-07:00

I have been drawing out different robot bits and some quick ideas I have for a robot. I am not sure what kind of robot I want, Ive seen other peoples ideas and theyre soo good and complicated I think Id want to make mine quite simple.. I think I will have a play on 3ds max and see what I can do because I was told in my presentation I have got to be more confident and more adventurous with my ideas.

These are two ideas I quickly drew out in one of our lessons. I dont know if I would be able to capture the same expressions and things on 3ds max though.. have to see how it goes.

New project

2010-10-14T03:39:00.000-07:00

This term we have been giving the task of creating a robot that has to walk, trip, slip and fall. We are looking at slapstick videos like those of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as influences.

"The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte. When struck, the battacchio produces a loud smacking noise, though little force is transferred from the object to the person being struck."

Back to uni

2010-10-14T03:02:00.000-07:00

Start of a new year now and I plan to actually be good at using 3ds max :) as I now have it on my laptop so I don't have to trek into uni everyday.

Over the summer I started that autodesk 3ds max foundation for games book which was good as I already knew most of the content at the start, but I found out some things I didn't know and now I am on to the harder stuff.

I didn't do much else, but I started a painting to hang in my new room! Still haven't had to finish it yet :(

My Film Ambient Vapour

2010-05-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here is our groups finished film

I actually preferred moving image a lot more this term than the first term. Think it was because of my brilliant group :D haha

Final Quiz and 500 word rational

2010-05-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

Quiz by ~xhtuffx on deviant ART

When thinking about my quiz I wasn't sure at first what to base it on that other people would know things about and would enjoy using. I researched into other quiz games online, and popular ones such as trivial pursuit and who wants to be a millionaire? to think about genres, styles and questions. I decided that a general knowledge quiz would be best to do because then there are a wide range of questions you could use and it wouldn't just be based on one thing that someone might not know any answers too. I then thought I could have three rounds that could appeal to a range of users and that would also make it easier on deciding what questions to use. I went with a nature, music and sport round with a range of questions in them which some were easy and some where the answer was not so obvious. For example there is a question "Who is this tennis player" with a picture beside it which is a face everyone should know, and the available answers also make it easier to narrow down which one is right. And there is another question "what does a dendrologist study?" and I think this a more difficult question because it may not be something everyone would know. I wanted to use my own drawings to illustrate my quiz and I think it makes it more personal to me, although it did mean it took me a long time to make all the different drawings. I think this also makes it look visually pleasing and easy to look at as there are no flashing images or colours that clash. The text I used is also easy to read and isn't too fancy or strange so it fits with my quiz style. I began with a start page that leads you to instructions or the first round, and then the quiz starts with animations in between each round, and you get a final score at the end. I struggled a lot with the actionscript, finding it difficult to make each frame go to the next correct frame, and getting the score to work. It was also very tedious trying to get all the text to fly into the screen and make motion tweens. I also found it confusing and difficult to import videos and music and they often didn't work and so this has made my quiz really simple. I think it is very hard to use actionscript especially when you aren't entirely sure how it works or aren't confident in using it. I think my quiz is easy to use and the questions make you think and give you confidence that you can answer the more harder ones. I think to reward the user more I would put a score table at the end so they can improve their score and beat other users. I think my quiz could have been a lot better if I understood flash more and so I could be more imaginative with what I could put in my quiz.

finished stop motion

2010-05-12T13:13:00.001-07:00

Rightttt

2010-05-12T13:05:00.001-07:00

So everything is coming to an end now. My group had finished our film and editing it.. but we now have to edit it again because the harddrive we saved it on corrupted!! annoying. Anyway this is a photo from behind the scenes of our filming.. Lots of smoke was needed for this scene!

Started my visual essay now its really hard to think of ways to explain things without using words.. i think on powerpoint it will let me put sound on some slides, so i could always do a voice over of some parts or all parts.. but i hate my voice!!! ive planned out what i want to put in my essay too and i think it is going to be alright. I've got to do some finishing touches to my 3d work.. one bit keeps playing up but i think i can sort that tomorrow and im getting there with my flash.. its taking me ages because i keep changing and adding bits. hopefully i can get it all done and my essay and presentation can be gooood.

oh and i also edited my stop motion so now it has music and it looks a bit more professional.

How Pixar do it

2010-05-05T13:19:00.001-07:00

My stop motion

2010-05-05T13:09:00.001-07:00

Moving image

2010-05-05T00:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had our first day of filming.. it went wrong to begin with because we didnt know we had to give staff 24hrs notice before we used a smoke machine.. but it was fine because then we decided to go and shoot scenes that we were going to do today.. and now today we can do the smoke machine scenes because Charlotte sorted it all out with the staff yesterday. It was a good day of filming I think we worked well together and we got a few scenes done. So that is better than none at all which it could have been if we hadnt decided to do the other scenes instead..

I took a few photos on my phone but I cant get them onto my laptop yet :(

studioAKA

2010-05-05T00:37:00.000-07:00

studioAKA is multi BAFTA-winning animation production company. They have made adverts for Lloyds TSB, Guinness and BUPA. They have also made some short and medium length films. This is one of their adverts for Lloyds TSB about mobile banking.

And this is a film that they have made called JOJO IN THE STARS with director Marc Craste. It is a black and white animation about a small creature who seeks out the woman of his dreams.

I like this company because I like the characters they have designed and I think the adverts are different to others ones, they are enjoyable to watch and have their own little story.

Just saw this

2010-05-05T00:23:00.001-07:00

http://www.skittles.com/#

I was looking through other students blogs from 2nd year and saw that they had been looking at this website for skittles so I thought I would take a look. You have to scroll down to look at all the information they have on the site and it keeps going round in a big loop (I didnt realise this until I kept thinking hmm I swear I've seen this bit before..) I like how it is all bright and colourful and it isn't boring to look at all the stuff on the website because of the way they have displayed it and illustrated things.

Story board drawings

2010-04-30T02:00:00.000-07:00

Here are my 3 drawings for our storyboard.

Ambient Vapour

2010-04-30T01:59:00.001-07:00

In our film there is a poster saying Ambient Vapour - Contact Yourself. We wanted it to be quite simple.