submission

so all is handed in now and the summer begins.

as far as this term has gone one word comes to mind "busy".

from the very start there has been a lot to think about, with the rave live musion animation, which then didnt go through.

so after musion dropped out i was given more freedom to put in a background and give the piece a more aesthetic feel.

rave live took a lot of preparation and pretty much soaked up my last two weeks, but it was worth it for the experience.

as far as my animation goes i am pleased with the final outcome, the animating looks pretty decent to me and the scenery adds a nice situation. i had wanted to add footprints smoke trails and drag marks in after effects i tried doing this but i would have had to go back and render the character and shadows separately which was not an option with the amount of tasks that i needed to complete.

once the sound was added it gave the piece a different dimension and as such weighs out the special effects that i wanted to add.

the showreel that i have produced i believe is a great showcase of my work and abilities and the interactive dvd i believe couldnt have looked any better, clean and simple is what i was aiming for and i believe that i achieved this through the case the showreel and the interactive dvd.

as a whole this term has pushed me further and i believe that i have learnt more about myself and my abilities along the way and cant wait to come back next year.

dvd case

i made myself a showreel case, drew up a template in photoshop, the design is such that it needs no glue or fixings as it holds itself together.

ravel live

so rave live was yesterday and it was fun.

it was a cool experience and gave us an opportunity to display and exhibit our work.

it is a nice close to the year and this current course.

deserted wit sound

thar be sound in them thar hills.

sound done although the box dragging is a little tin like but im pretty happy.
once again i sat in front of my laptop recording my vocals for the dude and his grunts.
i wanted to include a sound for the logo but i couldn't settle on a sound so left it clean.

deserted from andrew on Vimeo.

interactive showreel

i have spent all day working alongside tom, kofi and keith in ping pong as we all tried to figure out DVD studio pro. by 4 o'clock i had a working dvd that looked great but when i clicked to build and burn to disk it started but then failed, presently all of the video files went missing and could not be re-linked so as alex had left the building by this time i decided it was time to play football and re try the next day.

DVD studio pro sucks

rave live

i have been working alongside ben to get the animation side of things sorted for rave live iv been helping to get people motivated to print their work out and put it onto foam board ready for presenting at the exhibition.
i have also been helping in collecting peoples personal showreels for display at ravelive, this has been tricky as the majority of people have not done a showreel and some of the minority that do have them have iDVD (interactive ones) without a seperate 2 min reel. this means that for a class of 50 students we have around 13 showreels to exhibit at the show....

....disappointing much?

deserted but no sound

here is the current new look for the musion sample, seeing as musion bailed on rave live i thought it would be better to go back and add in the background and ground plane which were not allowed when in use by musion.

Untitled from andrew on Vimeo.

textures

so after the lighting gnomes came back to me asking for textures. at present they asked for 2 props to be textured using a photoshop paint style with the brush sets provided.

so after many versions and going back and forth re-doing the textures here are the current final props.

showreel progression

so i have been continuing to work on my showreel and this is the current piece.

i have also created a background slate for my interactive dvd showreel

showreel 2010 from andrew on Vimeo.

results

so here are the results of the lighting, i think they work pretty well and so did sarah (gnomes director) all i changed was the exposure on the daylight rig and then it was approved.

gnomes and lighting

so as my submission for rave live was in i was approached by the gnomes group to help with their lighting. i have taken this opportunity to further my own skills and knowledge in lighting. a day light rig, afternoon and a dramatic spotlight is required so all in all 3 builds to provide, just enough work for me to be getting on with.

submission

so here is the submission for the deadline, the animation is nearly there but is at a presentable standard.

progress

so had a chat with the rave live team about deadlines and had some mixed results, i was wondering how deffinate the deadline is as there is a lot more work that could be done to improve my work.

so the answer was that the deadline was a guidance for QC and that there was an option for updated submissions .

tempus

so after a couple of renders and some meets with the the client we decided that this was the one



then a day later i recieved a phone call from the phil, the client, saying that the original graphics person had come out with all his work after three weeks of no contact and that they would be using his work over mine. a bit of a bummer but i will get over it.

Tempus

so whilst animating i have also been approached by a broadcasting student in search of an ident.

it is a simple brief but there is very little time as their graphics person has been unobtainable.

so the brief has been very very open all i have to work with is the two words bold and enigmatic.

animating

so im currently animating the sequence but have had to cut the time line down, the initial storyboard when acted out came to around 1 minute this much animation with only a couple of weeks left will end in disaster. so the animation has been cut down to around 30 seconds this is much more achievable in the remaining time frame.

ref footage

so after we had decided upon our final boards we went away and filmed our reference footage with help from a broadcasting student, phil heron. with his help we were able to get some very decent footage recorded which i intend to use as reference for my animation.

meetings

we have had frequent discussions about ideas and what we are to do with our storyboards, i have made a concious effort to communicate with my fellow team mates to ensure that they keep on track with the project as the deadline is very early.

the chosen one

so this storyboard is what i have settled on it involves the character pushing a box on to stage he then proceeds to stretch around and then opens the box, he is also going to be muttering under his breath as he is disappointed with his job . when he opens the box logos will then appear and fly off leaving one to fly around the character.

storyboards

initial storyboards drawn up after the visit to musion. i drew these storyboards based on features presented by musion.

musion

so this video shows the potential for the musion technology, its stage presence at big venues looks very very impressive and can induce a sense of immersion

comments about the ref

clip1

so the first clip showing the norman rig shows a range of versatile uses and a great level of animation, this clip also shows the ability to customise the rig to create a different and individual appearance.

clip2

so clip2 appears to be a guys animation showreel, shows a competent level of animation and is a target for my own animation (as a minimum). there is also varied use of the norman rig and shows examples of how it can be used.

clip3

animation showreel of a very good level. very nice animation with great weighting and exageration this will be my highest target animation as its work that impressess me and ultimately a proposed employer.

very funny animated clip half way through aswell.

ref

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NKZgLhrZJE

tom has persuaded us to use the norman rig and used this video to show why.

the rig is easily customisable and is very versatile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SciFih8l-ks&feature=related

this showreel shows some simple use of the rig and displays the level of animation that i should be aiming for as a minimum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGRR_bq-jRs&NR=1

musion

ben and i were invited to have a meeting with musion in regents street, which was a great opportunity to see whether or not our proposed storyboards would work with the proposed technology. seeing what is capable with the projectors has given me a better grounding for my ideas and as such will let me hone the animation.

oliver at musion was really great and answered all questions and was extremely helpful and supportive, i will be contacting him soon with samples and rushes to make sure it all works.

http://www.musion.co.uk/

focus

so the main idea behind this project is to create a short animated piece that can be intergrated into rave live. the animated pieces must be ready to show on both musion and on screen.

the animated pieces are purely to showcase animation skills, not modelling, texturing or rigging so it was an easy choice to use a pre-made free rig and for us to customise it slightly to personalise it.

we spoke to branding and discussed the appearance of our character and it was decided he would look like a crew member only difference being the colour of the t-shirt as it is meant to be black. the problem with black is that when projected via musion it will be projected as an alpha channel and will appear transparent. this means that our t-shirt will be white, the original design for the shirts which were changed black due to dirt at the venue over the three days.

rave live

so for this term i have to pick from three different projects to complete. the options are working for rave live, either doing animation or idents, to help working on the 3rd year projects or to get an outside brief from an external client.

so to begin with i looked in to the rave live options and the 3rd year work.

so i spoke with both the branding team for rave live and assessed their project and also visited the 3rd year students and informed them of my interest.

as the first week went by it became apparent that the 3rd year projects were very tight and needed a lot done, the issue was obtaining the models to texture as it took 2 weeks to get a test model to texture.

as i was worried about time on this project i decided to dive further into the idents for rave live.

after speaking with various people from the rave live team such as will, emily and calum it was apparent that there was the availability for producing some animated shorts that would be broadcast on the mainstage at ravelive using musion( smoke and mirrors holographic projection)

so i pushed this idea and got together with ben and tom and we decided that it was a good solid idea to work on and if done well would provide exposure for our work.