Thursday - One day left in the week and our cut out animation has been rendered!!!

Hello again - Another update on the MTV Ident.

Today was another successful day. We animated the crab and exported that along with the cow and dog we did yesterday.

Tomorrow the plan is get started with the computer work! We need to clean up the animation and get them ready to composite. I think this will be the interesting part of the project getting more familiar with after effects and cinema 4d. I am looking forward to it, although animating the animals in cut out was pretty fun, moving the animals in random and wierd poses was a good laugh.

There is still the music to sort out but we know what we want so hopefully it wont take too long to get that done.

I think we are working well as a team so far. We are all pitching in with ways to improve the main idea and are all taking part, having our own tasks to do it is a 'group' project and not just one person taking over.

I think being in Simon and Pauls group is a great experience as its making us work harder and force us to make our work up to par(obviously not gonna happen in one project but a good start). It has also made us be a bit more creative and a bit braver with our ideas and the tasks we take on during this project.

Tooosday - Mtv Idents

Hello fellow campers,

Well it's day one of getting stuck in the group project. Yesterday we spent the day sharing our ideas and then picking one we liked. We have decided to go with animals and do this in cut out animation. We were undecided at first on 3d and cut out but this method seems to be more realistic with wanting to have it completed before the xmas holidays.

Today we plan on getting the characters drawn, cut out and then start the filming. The live footage will be provided to us by Simons brother, which will add another element to the project as its scenery from Sweden, so it fits in with our animal theme. We are going to do 'Farm', 'Water' and 'City' for our ththree idents and tie them all together.

I am looking forward to the end result of this as I think it will be pretty good. This project will get us more familiar with cut out animation, compositing and also a bit of sound design. (We have an idea for the soundtrack but we havent decided on who will do it and how it will be done).

Janey and I get the great jobs of cutting out and we are going to look for some sounds for the animals to use as inspiration.

Let the fun begin :/

Environment For Final Project

This is one of the rooms i have made on cinema 4d. Its far from done and the camera is way too fast but this is what i've done so far.

This is another test of the bedroom, again loads still to do but again, its just what i've done so far...the camera movements in this are to show the camera following the light from the window to the bed and then the camera zooming into the alarm clock..

Another ident

This is another ident I like, I like the simple characters.

MTV Idents

I am looking forward to this project as I have been interested in finding out how MTV does most of their idents. I am really happy with our group too, lets just hope we make something great :D

Here are a few of the idents I have seen and like...

This first one is a selection of MTV idents which are filmed in live action areas. I really like the mixed media used and think they are really interesting and make me want to learn how they do it.



The next one, i like how they have the shapes coming out and moving. I have actually used this video as reference for a past project as i like the idea of having the shapes. They can come out of buildings etc and end up morphing into an M.



In the third video i like the splashes of colour that appear.



This fourth video is of old mtv idents, i like the one with the M being a beard and the shaving cream creates the TV.

The final project......where is my motivation!!!

So I am really excited for the outcome of the year end project. I get days where I bursts of engery and then other days where I try but just nothing seems to get done, like today.

We had presentations yesterday and today to get us ready for our January presentation. I havent done mine yet and I dont really want to do it as I am not good with standing infront of everyone and talking through my idea.

I dont even have my walk cycle done for my character, hold on a second....oh yes, thats because the character isnt rigged yet!!! I really need to pull my finger out and make this animation the best thing i've ever done.

I have come up with another idea too. My animation is about Squegg who is going to go through his morning routine in the style of a music video. My other idea i had was inspired by the car ads that have animations following the cars. I thought I could add designs when he takes his steps and also there could be designs as he is getting ready. This will add more to the scene.

I have looked up ways of doing this and found a tutorial online which involves cinema 4d and photoshop. It says to create a spline in cinema 4d and add colour etc and then save it and open the file in photoshop to outline it and add the shading. It looks pretty cool, so i will give that a go and will post my results.

I need to do soooo much for this project and instead of talking about it I should really get on with it. This winter weather does not have motivation attached to it! Lets see how much I get done with the next two days off.....to be continued!!!!!

Inspiration for final animation

I have found a video, finally!! (Thanks to good ol' Janey!!). I wanted to use this technique of animations on buildings for my final animation to make it more interesting. Its also an excuse to learn how to do it because I love these commercials.

I found the other one I was on about through Vimeo.

Nissan Qashqai from pleix on Vimeo.

Stop animation

While looking for animated car ads I came across this video. It is stop motion, 2072 photographs. I thought it was really good.

Enjoy!

Final Film

This is our group project we have been working on. In our group we had Josh, Rachel, Ross and myself.

I think its turned out quite good and so did everyone elses that we watched today.

We have a few more weeks to build up on this video which i think will be beneficial as am sure we can improve in some of the scenes.

Group Projects.....
On monday we were given a brief for our first group project. I wasnt too keen on group work as I remember the second years (last year) had a few issues with people not pulling their weight. As the weeks gone on i'm surprised at how we are getting on with the project and everyone is getting on with their parts.

We havent really made a sheet with who's doing what as we get together a few times during the day to talk through our ideas and what we can work on and how we are getting on. Its good because we are all taking in eachothers ideas and also helping eachother out to expand on the whole animation.

I am having some issues this weekend though with my part as i am suppose to be making an alpha of the green screen videos and also rotoscoping an image but the videos wont open on my laptop so i'm not happy with that result. I am trying again but if it doesnt work then i feel a bit crap that i'm not gonna have it done for monday.

In our group we have Rachel, Josh, Ross and myself. If it turns out the way we are planning then its going to be a good animation!!!!!

So far we have taken pictures of areas we think will work well for our animation, we have taken green screen videos of one of the zombies, storyboards, research on ideas and imagery, and also played around with after effects and photoshop to zombify images. Next week is the filming and putting it all together.

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Group Project

Well here is our group project from Friday. We were given an hour to come up with an idea for pixalation and then film. We tried out the idea twice, ending up with Magical Chairs. In our group was Zoe, Josh, Emma, Ashley, Connor and myself. I think the final result is good, especially when Connor sorted the sound :D

Friday 28th.....

Today hasn't been very successful in getting work on my character done.

I have looked at the university courses and starting filling in the UCAS forms. Northumberia has a few good courses and there is one at Teesside too.

This weekend will be working on my environment and my character. Making him do the walk cycle and hopefully I can get that somewhat finished by Sunday so that next week is just doing the actual 15 second walk cycle and printing off all my documents (I hope I haven't just jinxed myself there).

Enjoy your weekends everyone!!

Squeggs Leg ooo la la

I am happy with the shapes of the legs now, kind of like karate style pants. I am not worrying about the texturing at the moment for the clothes for the line test.

But yes i am happy with this shape.

I also was going to make his hands rounder but then thought i like how they arent perfectly round as it adds to his character and i like them like this :D

Old Cartoons

This is a video i found while searching Youtube for animations. Its a bit jumpy as its very old and even though there is no sound its still funny.



This is another video that was interesting with different clips of old cartoons. Is good to see the movement of the characters and the simplicity of the frames.

Squegg

As mentioned in the other pose my brain is all over the place is getting things sorted for hand in. So of course i decide to make things difficult for myself and tried out a 3d squegg. I tried different nurbs to see the outcome and the results arreeee.....

I actually kind of like the first one, he looks like a bobble head but i don't know how that would be animated though, unless it just turns and slides along the floor and squegg sways...really way to late in the game to be changing things but like i said i obviously like to challenge myself!!!

Scenery

For my animation i was originally going to do my character walking down the street with things happening along the way but it seems a few people are using streets as their scene..or well at least two :/ So i have decided to make the animation take place inside of a house. Squeggs House.

So far i have only worked on the bathroom...I also attempted to do Squegg in 3D. Yes my brain is doing what it usually does, waits till few days before hand in and wants to change the whole idea! Really need to block the 'creative' side and tell it to shhh and stick to the original plan!!!

I need to do the lighting from the window and finish off the bathroom sinks/mirrors. I also need to add a hallway and maybe some drawers or something and other rooms/items for the house. :D Oh joy

squegg dance

Here is a few of squeggs dancing...

Hello to the second year. I think i have been ill for the most part of this course so here's my first log into the blogs!!

For our project for the second year i am doing an animation about a squid egg, his name is Squegg. Lovely chap that he is. Here are my line tests for the animation (so far....)



This video is of when squeggs leg falls off.



This video is of the walk cycle.



This is from when the leg falls out and yolk pours out. It looks better on dragon then it does on photoshop. I might print off the images and do them on dragon so it looks smoother and plus the drop needs to be bigger.

Things from the TV over the summer - influences

Pop tarts, not only a great snack but they have some pretty good ads too. I liked this one that i saw over the summer. I was interested in what they did to get the houses to 'pop' into bright colourful houses. I will look into this further on the tinternet.



I have just come back from spending two months with three little kids, this show Backyardagins was on EVERYDAY. I actually liked the simplicity of this, the characters look like they are basic shapes which can be done in cinema 4d. I added this clip to the blog as i think it helps for when i'm dong my characters. To help with shapes and also with the movements of them. I think i prefer doing things aimed at kids as i like the colours and simple storys/characters, I do tend to doodle kiddy like characters so think thats something i might look further into for the future.



I also saw a few wrigleys gum ads, i love the charactes in these commercials - i have added one below but there are ALOT more on Youtube.



On Teletoon there quite a few cartoons that i hadnt seen before on which i watched over the summer. One being called Bobs Burgers, i thought it was funny, the characters i wasnt too fond of but the story itself was funny and made me forget about the actual drawings.



This car ad i thought was a really good example of morphing. It looks really neat, and hopefully at some point this year i can look more into morphing big items (such as real cars!)



This is an ad for Tootsie Pop, i liked this as i have a tortoise as one of my characters and thought this may have with reference when i come to make my character.

Not happy with you Vancouver!

For those of you still looking at this over the summer, i am not happy with this place right now.

Vancouver has an animation festival called Siggraph and of course they are doing their confrences and shows the days i'm away, Yes that is right, the day i go away it startes and the day i come back it finishes!!!

For those of you interested in reading more on it or looking at the galleries you can see it all at:

http://www.siggraph.org

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Had to post this as its just made my day :D x


and another one :D

The blink of an eye

Well after a day of two of sleeping after hand in i decided to take another look at cinema 4d and its wonders. Ha, i meant annoyance!

I have managed to do a blinking eye though while looking on line at a few tutorials. I have attempted to make a gopher as well but i only managed to get haf way because i pressed something i shouldnt have it messed up the character. I watched the rest of the tutorial but the gopher looks rubbish. I am finding quite a few good tutorials on line which will be quite good if i get into gear and do some of them. I want to learn more on the mouth as in how to build it and how to make it move. I found one where you can add teeth and tongue. It looks good so i may venture into attempting it soon.

Ur'ine

The final 15 second animation called Ur'ine. He is from Japan but grew up in Germany. This project was a bit of a nightmare at stages, such as having to redo the bones 3 times before it actually worked!! Well here it is, my 3d animation....

Blog up and runnin! - Evaluation Time my Friends

I have been trying to update this but its been off the past few days so i can finally update this thing!!!!

I cant believe thats the first year over already.

At the start of the course i was really looking forward to sgetting on with animation and am still really glad i decided to apply!!

I really enjoyed making the animations but the paperwork i wasnt a fan of. I was quite pleased when we finished our first animation (Alien - Cut out). After researching cut out i liked the idea of this technique and i also think it was the easiest of the projects. My timing is not right in this animation, it should be slower. The jump itself i think is fine but the animation in general moves too quickly. I should have done the build up to the jump a bit slower and then when he is in the air and coming back down should be quicker. Overall i can definitly tell this is my first project as the ending as well was a bit last minute and doesnt look very good. Well in my opinion.  I am happy with how my charater turned out though, i think cut out animation is one i may steer towards.

The next project was Germalot. I liked how i had hand drawn all the assests for this animation. I enjoyed drawing them and then colouring them in photoshop. First time using cinema 4d properly and this is where my hatred came out. The screen kept jumping about every time you pressed the wrong thing everything would move around. Got there in the end but it was not a fun ride. For some parts i actually had to join planes to create the character. The germ itself is actually made up of three planes. I just had to put them into the heirachy so they were attached but i could still animate the three planes seperatly, hense why his head and tail move differently. I also enjoyed doing the blinks. This got me used to the timeline. I drew three sets of eyes for each character, it was when they were open, when they were half closed and then when they were closed. I did like the end result of this as i find it great that after each module i have learned a new skill. Its alwasy fun to watch the outcome of what has taken me a few weeks to do. If i was to redo this animation i would change the transitions and work more on the sound to make it smoother. I do like the characters i came up with so i wouldnt change that.

The E4 ident was a good project for us to work on. Not only is it a great opportunity to get my work out there but it also helped get more familiar with cinema 4d. I liked playing around with the different effects such as the explode. I had tested out a few different ones but am actually happy with how my animation turned out. After completing this animation i felt a bit better about cinema 4d, not brilliant but better. It still likes to play tricks on me by setting imaginary key frames and moving assets around the screen when the slightest change was made. This ident competition ends in July so i may take some time this summer to go through it and see if there is anything else i can amend to make it better. For the sound i had used a sound clip that was already given to us but i amended it a bit by adding some sound effects. I definitly think i grew in regards to sound on this as i spent a bit more time looking into how to put the sounds clips on to Premiere. Good old You Tube and their tutorials.

Ur'ine was probably the best achievement in this course. I was really happy when i finally made him walk, i posted it on facebook right away to see what people thought. I think after each project i get a bit more confidence with my skills. I didnt enjoy the begining part of this project though because of my love for cinema 4d (ha!). It did take me a few tries to get the shapes i wanted and it also took about 3 tries of setting up the bones before they all worked. The walk cycle was quite easy to do, i used the 4 screens to make sure things were lined up and in the right position. I definitly think i like my final animation the best. Its not great i know but i think i am just pleased i managed to get it done on time. If there was a bit more time or if i had of been able to get the animation done quicker i would have liked to of added sound. I may do this over the summer, either find some sounds or create a track on audacity. (will upload this animation once it loads on to youtube).

One item i definitly am not happy about is my character boards. I feel so much more could have been done to this. It basically was the character and i didnt add much to the background, just a plain colour. It could have been a lot more interesting. I also messed up when glueing it. The first one was fine but the second one totally messed up. It went wonky so i tried to take it off and it ripped so i re did it (yes bought new board and paid for another a3 copy!) but then that went wonky too but it was too late to do anything about it because the glue set and i couldnt get it off so i had to hand in a very unpretty, wrinkly storyboard so i'm not expecting any good marks for that :/

Show Reel - In my show reel i didnt notice till after it was rendered but after the first animation it cuts off too quickly, as in the next title cuts into the ending of the animation. Its obviously too late to fix this to resubmit but i can change it and save it for my personal use. I will be happier about the look of it once i fix this. It was also good to do this reel as through the year you dont really think about how much you have learned but watching the videos back made me realise we actually have done quite a lot.

The overall judgement of the past 8 months is  my organisation and time management are rubbish!! I left almost every project to the last minute. The animations themselves i did every day making sure that would be done on time but the paperwork just haunted me. After the first project i realised i really needed to be keeping track of things and taking screen shots and reflecting on each day. So for our next projects i started off good but then after a week or so i went back to my lazy ways and let it all pile up. The worst one was when we had time off too, i just did nothing when i should have been catching up.

There was so much to do for the final project I was going to bed no earlier than three and getting up for half seven all of the final week.  I just couldnt motivate myself to do ANY of the paperwork. I did felt quite disorganised but i wasnt really that stressed which i was surprised about especially with it being the final project. It all was handed in one time so its all gravy i guess.

I am really hoping that in the second year i step up the ball with my animation skills and most definily step up my time management!! That is going to make such a big difference with the quality of my work if i do time plans and stick to them.

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER EVERYONE!!!!!!! xx

Pictoplasma in Berlin

I wasnt one of the lucky ones who got to actually go to this festival (didnt have the monies). I have however looked on line to see what was going on and what it was all about.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pictoplasmar/sets/72157626388159234/ - this has all the photos from the 'character walk'.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pictoplasmar/sets/72157626475119336/ - this is the link for the conference set. There is an image that i liked on this page but it wont let me copy it. Its of a cat head under a mushroom. I'm not really too sure why it stood out but it did.

After looking through the speakers it looks like i have missed a great week. But i guess it means i will just have to make sure i'm on the next trip!

The artists that stood out for me (from reading about them and looking at their work) were:
Guillermo Garcia Carsi - I liked the images on the pictoplasma website. The lighting was really good on them and i also like his characters he has come up with. Different with a bit of humour.
Ree Treweek - I like how he has used real life (animals) and just made them into a nice illustration. Like a fantasy image. The colouring isnt bright but it brings a certain feel to the image making it more likeable.

Even though i have only named two artists here i do think they are all unique and very creative in the work they produce.

Festivals/Competitions

While looking up festivals/competitions in the UK i came across the below link.
http://www.4mations.tv/uk-animation-festivals/

The ones on the home page were for 2009 and 2010 but if you click on the links it takes you to other sites which have more information on when deadlines are and what the catagories are. I will look more into this over the summer when i have a bit more time.

The current one i am looking into is the E4 ident - We did this one in class and the deadline is 1 July so i will be updating mine before this date to enter it.

Another site i found was - http://www.graphiccompetitions.com/animation/ - there isnt any for animation at the moment but will keep an eye out.

This is another website where you can register with them and then you can enter the animation contests through them. You can win money and also build your portfolio - http://en.eyeka.com/animation-signup?origin=en-ggl&origin_param=anim-an&gclid=CJz8r7bg2KgCFcJP4QodeW54_Q

This one isnt one that i would go for right now but thought it was interesting. Its a compeition where you have to create music for an animation - http://www.annecy.org/home. There is festivals too, one of them is in June. Will look more into details after next week when all my other work is out the way!!

Actually found one where you can create your own contest!! http://www.motioncontest.com/launch_contest.php..interesting

While watching channel three the other night it came up saying they were looking for new ideas for their ident but when i have looked online i havent found anything so i think i may have dreamt this. TV Channels are good one to look at for compeitions for idents. MTV, BBC etc.

Some images of cartoons i used to watch...

Real Monsters - I liked this cartoon as it was original i thought in regards to the characters. Had a Beetlejuice feel to it! This was shown on Nickelodeon.

Wild Thornberrys - One of the many cartoons i watched when getting in from school with my younger brother. The youngest child (in the leopard pants) was always really hyper and the monkey was more like a human, kind of like Brian from Family Guy.

Rugrats - I like the colours used and the story of rugrats, its like real life but from the view of a baby.

Rocky and Bullwinkel :D

While i was looking for images i found loads of cartoons i used to watch that i had forgotten about!!The ones i also like are Daria, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Hey arnold, Angry Beavers, Tom and Jerry, Cow and Chicken, Bobbys World, SpongeBob, Kim Possible, Ren and Stimpy, Family Guy, Simpsons, Betty Boop, Recess, Looney Tunes, Anamaniacs, Fairly odd parents, dexters labratory, Johnny Bravo, Charlie Brown, Popeye, robot chicken, The oblongs, King of the Hill, Undergrads, courage the cowardly dog, Rocko's modern life- i love cartoons i guess is the point here haha. Not all of them can fit on here.

I didnt really like the marvel cartoons like batman, spiderman, superman...weird because i like the movies. The cartoons were too realistic if that makes sense. I didnt like the style of them.

SWOT!!!!

Well this unfortunatly is taking me back to when i did my marketing course...didnt enjoy that course but atleast i took something from it - how to do a SWOT analysis. We didnt do SMART but we did one called PESTEL which was more looking into Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal factors (these are factors that effect the managers decisons on the organisation...not that you really care haha)

Back to the SWOT:
The project i am going to use for my SWOT is the E4 Ident.

Strenghts - I felt i did good with my skills on using cinema 4d for this project. I felt a bit better about the program by the end of the project as i had tried out a few different techniques.

Weaknesses - The lighting could have been better! I basically experiemented quite a bit with this project and should have focused on one main idea and kept to it. If i had of done this i think i would have produced something better, well something i felt more confident about. Even though i had put using cinema 4d as a strenght i also feel it is a weakness as there is still lots more to learn. I also have a weakness of looking at other peoples work and thinking WOW they are really good and then looking at my work and thinking WOW thats crap. I need to have more confidence in my work and have to keep telling myself its the first year, i'm not gonna be great.

Opportunities - As this is a competition it has great potential to get my work known. It gets my name out there as well. The video is uploaded to the E4 website which means even if it doesnt win it will hopefully still get views. I have also posted the video on you tube and facebook. This is also a great way to get my name and my work known. It could lead to future work and entering into future competitions.

Threats - There are many other people entering into this competition so the threat is other people and their skills. My weakness and threat are the same when it comes to confidence, with out that in some form in my work then am not gonna get anywhere in regards to having a successful career.

Timing!!

Timing is a very big part in animation, it makes or breaks the whole animation!

In my past projects i dont think my timing was very good. Especially in my alien one. In photoshop it looked fine but once it was put onto a quicktime it went really fast. I definily think this is a good video to look at for when thinking about timing. He jumps too quickly. If i was to remake this animation i would place the key frames farther apart to slow the jump down. Or to slow down certains parts of the jump as when people jump in the air it goes quick. I would make the bend down and the landing a little slower than when the alien is actually mid jump.

I actually have a book from the main reading list on Timing but i havent read it yet. I'm not very good at motivating myself to read books, maybe that can be my goal for the summer...READ THE BOOKS I HAVE!!!!

Placing key frames is important as if they are placed too closely together it makes the character move quicker and if they are placed farther apart it slows them down.

My E4 Ident is a good example as we had a soundtrack to put the animation to. I had to play the music in the background as i played the animation at the same time to try and figure out what the movements should be at certain beats. I think putting an animation to sound is a bit easier than adding sound to an animation.

Key frames are great when you have already placed one in, it is capturing that particular stance or movement. This means that when you go to make a new movement and mess up, its fine because that first stance is saved and you dont have to start from the beginning. Or if you have made the movement and added a second keyframe but dont like it, you can delete it and again the first stance is still in place.

For the current project we are working on, 3D character, i will have to update you on the key frames when i finish it. I have played around with the arms though and actually sat moving my arm as if i would if i was walking to get how it works. The arms move at the same time as the legs so i just have to keep that in mind. I will also be people watching, i do this anyways as i find it funny picking up on little things that most people dont see or pay attention to. I tend to over exaggerate it as well if its people i know. Its funnier noticing their reactions to things like if they tripped up on the road or something. Anyways, going off in a tangent - Will go into more detail on the timing of this animation when its done.

Last week of the first year.....

Well the character bones are done. It took 8 hours on friday but i managed to do it...I had planned on going into class but i wasnt paying attention to time and before i knew it it was 6pm.

I created a quicktime video of me trying out the arms moving but after i did this i somehow managed to move the left leg up and now it wont move back so i am going to spend some time later today trying to fix this. (Will upload the video once it lets me!).

I am also planning on getting through AD101 today or at least through most of it seeing as how if i had of been keeping up to date with it it would pretty much be done now!!

Weekly Plan:
Sunday - Update Blogs. Do some more work on Cinema 4d.
Monday to Thursday - I believe we are having a computer lessons to recap on weight painting and things so this week is just completeing teh walk cycle with the character. Out of class i will be working on all the written work that needs to be done.
Thursday - We are making our first year reel. This should be interesting because i think all my work is quite crap but hey ho just means next year i've got to produce something VERY good!!!

This year is all about learning and finding out which niche i am more interested in. I definitly enjoyed the first project we did (cut out) and i also enjoy the drawing of the characters.

Cinema 4d may become my friend once i get used to everything on it. It is a very annoying program, i know people say its never the program its the programmer but you really need to try out my computer. You will understand how annoying it is!

There is still lots to learn about this program so over the summer i plan on introducing my self to everything it has to offer. I feel i have learnt quite a bit on it so far but in a course you have deadlines and basically the time is used to get the projects done using the skills you have just been taught. I now have three months to get more knowledge and will be on my own time with out having deadlines on projects etc.

Character design is quite fun as well. The drawing of it i mean. Once you realise you actually have to make him into something real its a bit like oh...i think now when it comes to designing charcters i will have in mind all the work that goes into making it into somethign moving so i will try to keep it mple as this helps big time in actually getting things done.

With it being the last week i am thinking that i am still really glad i took this course. Best move i've made i think, seeing as how i have been wanting to do it since i was 5!! I may not be the best but thats what this profession is all about, trying to better yourself with each task given. I dont feel like i have progressed actually at all through out the year,but like mentioned the first year is about learning what the possibilities are. I have kind of just felt like i've been focusing too much on expirementing rather than coming up with my own style. Thats what the summer is for, coming up with ideas for future animations

Reet kids, time to get working on this work as there is only a week left!!!!

Last two weeks of module....booo

Weekly Agenda!!!! (argh)
This week is going to be full full FULL of work. All work and no play for Linsey.

Monday was recovering from being back at college and trying to get my head around all the lovely work i still have to do.
Tuesday is filling in my blog and having a tutorial and then picking up where i left off with my work.
Wednesday to next friday - locking myself in a room with my laptop and modules and getting my work complete.

To start:
I need to finish the development of my character. It is completely different to what i started off with and am not really happy about it but its too late to be messing about with it now. After i have my tutorial i will be able to move on and progress with the rest of the module.

The character in progress

I have played around with colour on cinema 4d and tried out different textures last night to see what the character would look like 'all done up'. I still need to connect him all together!!

und w

blog spot

This past week has been very unproductive for me. I had my character and joints last week but then re did the face to make it easier. The imgae i have uploaded for the character kept going missing so i ended up just making it up as i went along. I have completely changed my character from my original idea.

Because i had changed the charcter it meant i had to remove all the joints and re do it. Cinema 4d kept moving the character and i was getting annoyed so havent done much work.

Sixty40

While doing research i came across this australian company called Sixty40. The first few seconds i didnt think there was anything special and then the monopoly board came up. I thought it was fitting with us doing a walk cycle with our animations as it shows the character running. After watching the whole thing i think they are pretty good, i liked the robot trying to dance and then he gets hit by a car, poor guy ha

Sixty40 Reel 2010 from sixty40 on Vimeo.

Dispicable Me

For our project we have to create a character and a scene with no background. After watching dispicable me i noticed that they have a few clips of just the yellow characters on white backgrounds. I thought these were great for reference for when i come to doing my actual animation.



These are the end credits to the movie, about 13 seconds in is when the animation with the white background starts.(it plays a few names and starts up again at 1:25 and 2:13)

Week 2 in AD108

This week i plan to get quite a bit done, or so i hope!

Monday - update blog with 3 examples of animations i found/liked during my research, and working on my 3d character.

Tuesday to Thursday - Working on 3D Character during class time and organising paper work at home

One film I found during the research is Hoodwinked - I watched this film years ago and loved it and then the other night while I was looking through the hard drive I came across it again. Its got all the elements a great animation should have - good characters, good story line and humour.



Another animation I liked was a demo reel with a simple character trying to eat steak but he has no mouth!



A lot of the character animation videos i found had the character lifting or pulling objects. This might be something worth looking into as if loads of demo reels have it then i guess it might be good to know how to do it myself. First things first thought, i need to build my character!!!

In class we were given a hand out to research certain artists and watched a few pieces of their work. I liked all of them as they were quite different to eachother. I liked Gluko and Lennon because it was really random (i posted this clip on last weeks blog).

Another 3d character animation i found was by Daniel Klug - it is a short he created a year ago. I like the movements, the colours and also the simplicity to the characters.

Les Dangereux from Daniel Klug on Vimeo.

Gluko & Lennon ENG from Gluko & Lennon on Vimeo.

This is a video by Gluko and Lennon - i like the simplicity to the characters and background. The story itself is really random which i love. I was laughing at most of it becuase its quite stupid, in a good way though.

3d character research

Week Plan:
Monday - Blog and research
Tuesday - Research
Wednesday - Research and come up with a story to do storyboard
Thursday - storyboard and 3d character mesh in cinema 4d

Meet Buck

Meet Buck from TeamCerf on Vimeo.

I really like this video because of the characters and the lighting. I like how they use different shadings to give effects of light and dark. It looks very well done. I also like the movements on the characters, it shows the emotions very well.

E4 Ident.mov

Another attempt at the e4 ident

This is another ident i did for e4. like mentioned in my other post i am leaving this for now to focus on the current projects.

Mushroom Trial

One of the trials i did for the E4 Ident on cinema 4d

This is a trial i did for the E4 Ident. I spent a few days trying out different endings for the logo.

As the competition doesnt close till July i am going to get the rest of the course work done first and then spend some time updating my ident.

Germalot Animation

This is the second animation we did in class. My anamatic was uploaded a few posts back. I hand drew the images and created the wallpaper and ground in photoshop.
The actual movements were made in Cinema 4d

This animation i feel could be alot better. I did what was needed to be done for the deadline but i think i could do so much more to it. Its a learning curve in regards to what can be done on cinema 4d. I enjoyed drawing out the images and also colouring them on photoshop. I can bring these skills forward in the other projects we are given.

My sound was a bit messed up, i know i can do better on that. I wasnt entirely confident on the sound to begin with, like adding the different sounds together. But after the project was done i had a bit more experience with the programs but bit late to change the animation. I know for next time!!

I am happy with the animation as i did what was asked in the brief. In regards to quality i am not 100% happy with it. I dont think its a particulary good animation but it my first year so i guess i shouldnt be so hard on myself. But its me so i will be, definitly need to be putting more time into researching things so i am better at the programs during the projects not after.

Morph

This is my morph - It is a rhino turning into a tank. I didn't have enough time to do a new one so i had to submit the one we did in class. I have however added a bit more to this, i opened it in photoshop and tried out a few techniques and added sound.

I enjoyed doing the Morph as its always neat to see movies where things morph and also other cartoons. It doesnt take too many frames to get the morph complete as well.

As i was drawing the frames it didnt really seem like it was going to look like anything as it just turns into lines and not an actual object. Once the frames were placed on dragon and the shots were taken it was actually a morph!! yes that sounds stupid because obviously its a morph, thats what the task was. I meant that it was cool to see the outcome of it and its quite a simple thing to produce. I took 4 frames of the first and last image and 2 frames of the middle images. I did this as i felt the first and last image morphed too quickly. I am happy with how it turned out especially after i went on photoshop and tried out a few techniques.

only few days left for AD102 and e4 project - Here is what i hope i achieve this week....

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
- Update blog - Sort out      sound for E4 - Do some of   the written      work to go   along with   the projects - Do morph	- More of the written work. -Organise work into files	- Work more on the Morph and written work - Do the line test with the Morph.	- Make sure all changes are done to E4. - Make sure all written work is done.	Last minute changes. Hand in by 2pm :/

On sunday i managed to spend a few hours on the E4 ident. I got it to where i want it, i just need to add some sound. I have redone this scene at least 100 times - i was happy with the first one i did but i wanted to keep experimenting as i haven't worked with Cinema 4d very much.

I am happy with the final results though (well the final sound isn't uploaded yet).

I started off with the E4 logo in tact and then it explodes and comes back together, secondly i went to see what it would be like if it started with the E4 logo already in little pieces and then it comes together. I tried these two styles with different timings and different sizes of explodes - I do have the test videos which i will upload once i put them on my usb.

There is quite a bit job on this week having lots of things due on friday, the check list is:

- Life drawings, Paintings, Annotation of week
- 25 Frame Morph
- 1500 word essay
- Research on 27 artists

- E4 Ident animation, research file

So glad i did the painting last weekend and got people to read through my essay for me last week. Something in the back of my head must have remembered it was due this week!

Another blog....

This week my goal is to do ALOT more on the E4 ident and complete my 25 frame anamorphic.

over the weekend i managed to get my painting done from AD102 and did a few blog entries. I also had a play around with cinema 4d and tried out the different techniques that can be applied - mostly for the e4 ident. I found the explosion and explosion x to be really good so created a 10 test video. Will add it once i get it off my computer.

Monday - Thursday during class hours i will be working on the E4 ident and the 3D character.
Monday - Sunday at home hours i will work on the anamorphic.

Hopefully will be able to find some lights i can put under the clear box i have like i did for our first project. That will make that anamorphic a heck of a lot easier!!

The Mill - Talk at Northumbria Uni

Last week i attened a lecture about 'The Mill' which was held at Northumbria Uni. I was going into this expecting to gain some good knowledge and/or tricks which i could take forward in my work. Unfortunatly that is not what i left with. The lecture seemed to be the speaker preaching on how good the company is and how good their campaigns are. I have to admit they are really good ad's and i am sure any advertiser would love to be a part of their company.

The one thing that stuck with me was when the speaker said '...its good to be able to do all of this by your self so you do not need to hire an animator...' Very interesting you say this sir,why were we at the lecture when he is basically telling people they would perfer if they could do it themselves :/ Thats us out of a job before we have even started.

The talk was interesting to see what they have done from an advertisers/marketeers point of view and the company itself is amazing.

But from animators point of view i dont think the talk was aimed at us :/

I have looked through their website and there are over 700 ad's in which they have done. All well known, some i didnt even know were done by them! Some include BMW, Budweiser, the superbowl...this is one of their show reels.



They also do a lot of work with Nike...here is the ad they did for the world cup

5 Artists Research

Today's task is to look up the following artists and chose which one we like and why:
Gaston Caba, Tado, Friends with you, Fons Shiedon, Aron Martin.

I quite like these artists as there work seems fun :)

Friends with you

Tado

Gaston Caba
I think the above three artists actually have some similar traits to them. The bright colours and simple characters. I like them because of this though. Makes the work easier in the long run when its simple shapes!

Aaron Martin (he lurves pandas by the looks of things)

Fons Shiedon

The other two artists seem to have a darker tone to their work. Still good though!!

What is left to do :/

Alrighty then...
We have a lot on at the minute and i'm needing to seriously pull my finger out and get working!!

1. 25 Frame anamorphic of animal and machine - I am thinking a cheetah and a train. I have a few photos which i can use to start off with, just need to create my light box and then get drawings!!

2. Life Drawing - I need to type up the annotations of each day (already written up!) And finish the final painting. It is all drawn out and mostly painted, just need to paint the body.

3. Update blog weekly - doing that right now :D

4. E4 Ident - I have the idea and have started creating assets for the animation but not working as a satisfactory speed, i need to really try and get some of it done over the weekend.

5. 3D work - I have created a character which was due this week but as i missed todays lesson i wasnt able to start my 3d process. I do have a cinema 4d book and another book on 3d which i can hopefully read at some point over the weekend to get a better understanding of what we are doing.

6. I have done the essay and research bit from AD102.

7. Need to organise all of the above work to get ready for hand in :/

And breathe!!!!!!

Weekly Plan
This week the aim is to come up with a character to create into a 3d model. And also catch up on other projects so i am able to concentrate more on the E4 ident!!

Week 2 of Ident!

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Update Blog - 5 idents - weekly plan Finish writing proposal and treatment and put on powerpoint Illustrator	Present powerpoint presentation Start the animation

I think La Roux's video for bulletproof is interesting. I like how they have used real life filming and then added sweep nurbs in to add the effect of the shapes moving around her. I like the feel and colour to this video as well. After looking at more of these types of videos i am warming to the idea of using this in my ident.

I was thinking of having buildings with the sweep nurbs flying out from behind the buildings with a 70's style/pop art feel to it. Will see how it gets on as i have the idea in my head but i cant draw it or write it down as good as it looks in my head!!!

Another video i have found that i like is the Coca Cola factory ad, i think the effects and design and this video stood out for me when it first came out in 2006. (and it was that good i still like it now!!).

This week my aim is to get through the presentation and have my idea nailed so i can get to work on actually create the ident.

Week 1 of E4 Ident!

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Update Blog - 5 idents and describe why you chose them	Go through brief Research E4 idents and other idents to see which ones you like and describe why. Research E4 the channel to get an idea of the guidelines and what people like	Storyboard out 3 ideas for the ident	Character design – given a description and draw what you think the character is. Cinema 4D – creating 3D images

We have been given the brief to come up with a 10 second ident for the channel E4. This week the plan is to come up with some ideas, which are hopefully liked!!

Off the top of my head i can already think of some i have seen that i like. I like quite a few of the MTV idents, before starting this course i really like the below two videos - they are the ones which made me think it would be really cool to learn how to do that and to be able to actually have my own work on the tv.

MTV / Joy x 1000% / Mister Furry from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

I like the character design as well as the movement in the above videos. I think its really talented the way that moving one line makes the effect of the character moving closer to the screen or moving in general.

MTV Hits / Pop x 1000% Idents / Part#1 from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

While looking through the MTV ident page, i noticed this video as well on MTV Hits. I think these characters are simple which makes them likeable. It looks like it was easy to make but when you factor in they have the mouths moving and the actual character moving it probably did take some time to time it perfectly.

I also like the MTV Dance idents, i think they are well done, at the moment since i dont know how to do everything on the programs we use i am in awe in how they do this!! i love how they use different shapes to go along with the beats of the song and the illusion is a person dancing.

MTV Dance from Gregory Tanielian on Vimeo.