About time

So I know I have the conker project to work but to make sure I'm not constantly working on this. I want to animated a dual dialogue piece since I haven't really done that for a loooooong time.
so I spent this day preparing for animating with the audio I have chosen.



So here is the audio from saw 2 I believe, a nice little piece
then I created a short animatic with the key poses

then after tat I recorded myself, mainly focusing on the facial expressions.

so here is the scene ready for me. feeling pretty confident and giving myself 2 weeks to complete it.
Then its back with the conker project

stay tuned for more

Cheers!

Conkers! part 2

Hi again!

Here is part 2 of my mini project that involves conkers!

so lets show what happens next in this journey of a project.

so after completing the rig and skinning for my character I needed some story to help show this character off the most. Something simple, fun and cute to go along with it's look and desired personality.

So here is an animatic that I did very shortly to show what I mean.

I realise that after making this animatic that I would need a flower to animate, so I made one from scratch.

simple ebough flower to animate with, not after any awards for this plant of the year award!

Then adding the joints so the petals can fall and I can control them properly with out any tedious fiddling.

so after all the naming and grouping together of different mesh objects it was time to bind.

After binding the joints to the mesh I went to weight painting so that I can separate the petals from the head of the flower.

Success! I finished weight painting and the petal is free!

Then putting the models in their poses ready to animate.

Part 3 will be up soon of the coming animation along with the flash facial expressions to have a 2D/3D feel to it.

Thanks again for reading, See you next time !!!

Conkers! part 1

Right terribly sorry about it being not as active as usual here. just moved back home with my mother to take care of her while I work and search for a career BUSY TIMES!

So far so good I have been to animate for a short but cant go into too much detail so we shall see how that turns out.

So this will be the start of my own independent work. making characters and animating them however I

 So years back I had a design for a vinyl figure called 'Conkers' and whilst being in uni and all other crazy stuff. I left behind the idea but since learning new skills and how to 3D model I jumps to the opportunity to finally make it.

one of my main influences was a couple of game grumps animated videos that fans have made. one animation called EsquireBob and another PixlPit

both made smaller more cute lookalikes of the main hosts to the game grumps channel.

the first video has more rigged and organic shapes features including movable eyes and rigged mouth for dialogue.

The second one is more square and less defined as a body that they are more like cubed cut out people, but what I loved most about this was the option to use flash animation to make the facial expressions and mimic the dialogue.

So I decided to mix a bit of both and come up with my earlier redesign of my little guy.

 my first initial model had the leaves a little thin with thumbs but i thought lets make it easier and more natural to have normal leaf like arms. did a bit of more research into leaves and conker leaves as a matter of fact.


 as you can see in the image below they look more organic and will be nice to rig later on too.

after the arms I looked into changing the spikes on the shell to be more bigger and short making them almost like little sharp stumps. friendly looking for a younger audience. 

Set up the rig nice and simple I don't want anything to complex just some nice stretching and bouncing for my little guy.

looking good and I have flattened the front of the face so I can apply my flash animation for the expressions.

Then finally the skinning which I will show you the next part to this wonderful little creature.

For now doing work experience this week so i should finish it up pretty quickly!

TILL THEN 

BYE!

Oh this studio is too great for me.... such beauty!

My showreel

So here is everything I have been working up to and I must say it has been a hell of a time to remember.

Frame Store visit

Yesterday we had a couple of representatives from frame store come in to the uni and talk with us individually to see how we were doing, what are skills are thus far and what we wanna do or be for when we graduate. We had 10 minutes each which we cherished whilst talking to the members.

The two members were very friendly and modest people that a great sense of humor and an open mind. I enjoyed discussing my near or far plans with them to see what they thought, they told me that having a main skill is essential and rewarding. They supported my ideas for the future and gave their respects for the risks I'm willing to take to chase my dream.

After are individual sessions we went to the larger presentation room where they both showed the companies work, personal work and the needed requirements to join frame store. I really enjoyed the show reels including the personal ones presented by  Michael Elder. They were well presented where the videos didn't but entertained me to the highest peak. I really enjoyed Michael Elders the most because not only were their older pieces of work but he also included life drawings and photos of his clay models which has inspired me to add some of my own for my future show-reel.

The tips they gave when creating a show reel were ones that were not new to me but I enjoyed hearing their point of view on what makes one to remember. Also other tips were on how to improve and also what books to look at to improves ones own skills.

Lastly another word of wisdom that wasn't new to me was the quickest way to get into a studio/ company is to become a runner, serving tea and coffee but also gaining skills when being taught and getting to know the company's main workers. This to me sounds like a nice idea since I'm pretty good at making a brew but also a social butterfly so meeting new people is my 'cup of tea'.

All in all, I really enjoyed the people and their talks and I learned that even people that haven't quite reached their dreams can have so much wisdom but also be really modest at the same time and that's a rarity in my opinion


So thank you frame store for visiting our university and I hope to see you in the near future.

Dance Project: Rounding up all the Blocks and splines

Been a very busy Easter break but lets see what I have been able to do for the Dance Project

I have had some personal matters attend to so it has been very difficult to keep up with my coursework.

So lets start scene from scene with all their either final blocks or being in the middle of some splining. 

Scene 19 more or less complete anymore polish will be done when the rest are near the polish level but that wont be till a week or two.

Dont threat by the thumbnail, there is a video here of scene 20 the hip and bash scene where Donna hips away Regina. a very toony scene full of stretching and quick lunges. In block form but in a couple of days will be into spline and getting messy.

 Again thumbnail wont show. scene 21 is thr largest and most difficult scene out of all of them. The twirl and dance are the most challenging tasks I have done thus far. but hopefully will be the most rewarding.

Here is scene 22, the aftermath of reginas impact with Donna's hips. simple 'get up and go' near to polish but still have a few kinks to work out.

Deadline for this is around 4 weeks time so fingers crossed that I achieve this with some pride !!!

Inspiration Post 2: Ice Age by Blue Sky Studio

Ice age (2002)

by 

Blue Sky studio

Here are two clips showing some of the 'Behind the scenes' of the production.

As a child my mind was all over 2D animated films because they were different and eye catching, something you can only see on the screen. I know 'Toystory' was the main production that began the 3D animation. But something Ice age was unique.

It was a creature populated film that was humorous to all ages, had a good story and the characters were all very lovable where you knew everyone had... mostly good intentions. 

Part1

Part2

After watching the film I would wait till the very end to watch the extras as they sometimes added to VHS's back in the 90's. I never knew how they made toy story or bugs life since it was a new typed of media, but when blue sky show the whole process to create the characters and animated them I was overwhelmed with awe. 

The character designs were my favorite part of this to see the before ideas for each character towards their final outcome then the clay models and finally the movement for each character and what the artists and animators went through. 

After that first watch I re-watched it over and over from the start of the film to the end of the extras that I soon began drawing even more and taking in inspiration thanks to the extras. 

I wanted to do some myself with all of the activities they went through because I saw how much fun the people who created the film had doing this.

I guess you can say that yes 2D animated films started my love for animation but 3 the process to create this 3D animated film or more speaking Ice Age helped begin my path to being a CG Generalist.

So thank you Blue Sky Studios for creating this film and more like it and inspiring me to become who I am today.