Morphy is Complete

So after countless fails in the animating, (though it helped me learn some things), and 3 attempts before I packaged it in Adobe Premiere correctly (a horrific program), my Morphy animation is complete. I think he ended up jumping a little fast, but to fix that problem I would have to remake most of the animation which I didn't have time for, so lets pretend Morphy is a super hero who can jump rather fast :] Also, any mistake in the light grey box around the outside are allowed, as that is outside of the frame an audience would see in a film. Enjoy:

Just Another Manic Monday

So yesterday I had another 3D lecture and a Flash one as well. The 3D was awesome, and though I often find Maya challenging at 9am, it wasn't too bad, though i occasionally miss things when Georg goes so fast, but most of it I get. Thinking I may need to get glasses though....  The Flash was fun too, we learnt more about how to use symbols and symbols in symbols and camera pans, and we also learnt basic cut out animation, and I loved it and would have done more at home if i didn't have everything else to do. I got straight down to my storyboarding and 3D assignment when i got home, and got far with the 3D "Morphy" task we were given, but when I watched it back I had slowed the character down significantly and had to delete about 100 frames. So this its the version so far. Still a work in progress, lots more to do, and some kinks to iron out:

So that character there is Morphy a brilliant rig that has been released online. Georg has limited it for us so we don't get lost in sliders and parts of the body to move. Basically have to make him cross the platforms, which is harder than you think, as there is so much that your body does as you jump or move that you don't even notice. Its getting me odd looks from flat mates when i jump from chair to chair in the kitchen.....

i also watched Kung Fu Panda yesterday for our visual presentation, as Freddie suggested we do it and I have nothing against it. Thinking of mentioning how the western world view Asia and the oriental, taking about the use of Chinese art as inspiration for parts of the film and how the settings are all in stereotypical mountainsides with pagodas everywhere full of noodles and dim sum. Also find it interesting that the townspeople in the film are all pigs and duck, which I think are two traditional Chinese meat, because I think beef was from a western influence, though I cannot be sure as researching this proves difficult, all I seem to get is news articles about meat prices dropping in china.

Storyboarding Pirates

I just realised I havent been posting my storyboard project, so I will throw up 6 boards today. We have to draw boards for one of three scripts, so here is the script:

By Simon Daniels, Yuki Hau & Andy Guest

Final Draft, 19.11.2009

EXT. NIGHT

A calm sea and a full moon. The Pirate ship Narwhal is sailing away

from the bay of an island. We can just see a town where several

buildings are on fire.

INTERIOR: THE CAPTAINS QUARTERS.

The Pirate captain is sitting at his desk writing in the Ship’s Log.

The room is filled with all manner of booty.

CAPTAIN TREMAINE (Voiceover – plays over subsequent scenes)

August 13

surprise, so we did. Those landlubbers didn’t stand a chance! We

looted the Mayor’s Hall of all its lovely booty - the mates are a

proud crew indeed! Discovered a cave full o’ doubloons, we did, and

chest after chest of silver, all for the taking. Swiped enough

barrels of rum to keep these hearties happy for months!! We’re loaded

to the gunwhales, we are. The ship is ‘eavy and a-heavin and the lads

are as merry as sand turtles on a full moon night!

Cut to crew on deck night time, dancing and singing sea shanties. One

pirate plays an accordion and another plays a pipe as they sit on

coils of rope. Some pirates form a circle clapping while another

dances a drunken Hornpipe in the centre. He falls over and a hearty

cheer goes up. One pirate hangs by one arm from the rigging, waving a

jug of rum in the other. One pirate chases a monkey, which has stolen

his hat and is jumping along the mast. A parrot flaps around

squawking loudly.

The Captain narrates over the scene on the deck

CAPTAIN (Voiceover)

Just then it happened - came from nowhere she did - the mightiest

storm you’ll ever see in all the Seven Seas!

Thunder claps sound and lighting flashes, with forks dancing about

the mast & sails. Waves crash over the deck. The crew are crying out

and running to their action stations.

The ship is lifted high on a wave and plunges down into the trough.

Waves crash over the deck and wash into the hold where treasure is

piled up.

The Captain comes running out of his quarters and drags himself up

the stairs to the upper deck and the steering wheel. Rain pelting

down, high waves looming on all sides and the ship rocking violently.

CAPTAIN (shouting)

All hands ahoy! Square the main sail! Lower the riggin! (He wrestles

with the wheel) Swing us through, lads or we’ll all be sleeping on

the sea bed with the fishes tonight, so we will!

SAILOR’S VOICES

- The ship’s too heavy in the water, Cap’n!

th 1735: it has been a good ‘ole day. We took the town by

–

She’ll never make it to port!

ZOO TROOP & THE LOST PIRATE TREASURE

More Sync

Thought I would briefly show a sneak peak of another bit of lip syncing that I have decided to attempt. I wanted to try syncing to music, and wanted to do a different style of drawing for it and so busted out my tablet. Its only a work in progress so this is all I have right now, and I had to use myself as a model because nobody wants to pose pulling funny phonetic faces.

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

So today we had our first cinematography lecture, which is pretty much a day long thing, 10 until 4 with a few breaks. The lecturer was Frankie Keung, who a cameraman and film director/cinematographer who has worked with people such as Jackie Chan and John Woo. Its amazing to be able to work with and learn from people who have worked on such big projects on a weekly basis, one of the part of this course that I love.

We learnt all about various shots, and how to use exposure, zoom, aperture etc. It might sound rather basic, but you have to start somewhere right? Besides there was plenty he taught use about cameras and their various films, lenses and components that I didn't know.
We each got to try out the video camera which he brought, though I cant remember what sort of camera it was. I quite quickly got the hang of it, and learnt the basics of using one. He also briefly showed us how to set them up, using the tripod and plane as well. All in all it was a good day, and I look forward to next weeks lecture.

Look Out, an Invisible Wall!....

So my walking Burt assignment in Maya is complete, full with facial features. Bear in mind, all I have done is move it, I shall learn to people a model later. Comment with what you think:

Learning to Walk

So we learnt about how to make a model walk in Maya today. I havent done the assignment to go with it yet, but am about to sit down and get it done. So while I do that, you can watch the walk I did in the lecture earlier today. meet Burt, the walking ball:

All Synchronised

We learnt to Lip Sync in Flash today, and I love it. I started one in class but once i got home made a new one from scratch, animating the eyes as well as the mouth. Here is the first one I did, while in the lecture:

I didn't finish it because i felt i could create a new improved version at home, and i wanted to test if i could still remember how to do the parts at the beginning of the lecture. Here is the finished product:

And More from BAF

Okay so my last post was just about the winner of various award and the animations I loved from the categories, If you haven't looked at it yet, its stuffed full o links for you to look at :] I thought I would talk about some of the highlights of the week, though just because I haven't mentioned it doesn't mean it was bad, I just may not have my notes on it right now.

This is where the festival was held: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/

One cool thing, is we got to watch Studio Ghibli's new film, Arietty on the big screen. Its an Anime adaptation of the Borrowers, and it was rather good, especially the beautiful hand painted backdrops. http://www.arriettymovie.co.uk/

My favourite talk was defiantly the one given by Andy Schmitt from Pixar. he spoke the the Pixar Pipeline (the order in which the animation is put together) and the way they make films, showing loads of examples from their latest film, Cars 2. Although I haven't seen Cars 2 This was really inter sting, and it showed how the film was developed, where the researched for it, what inspired them, etc. This was a really inspiring talk, and he spoke all about the atmosphere at Pixar andall the different areas that go into a film, and then there was a brief Q & A. I'm sorry to say that he said nothing of an Incredibles 2, but we can keep hoping people....

There was also a very interesting talk on 3D scanning, which was more aimed at the Gaming area, but obviously, that involves Animation. The speaker (who's name eludes me) was from a company called Ten24, and he talked about the different kinds of 3D scanner and showed us an example of one, talking about the pros and cons of using them. we even got a glimpse of 4D scanning which is effectively video scanning which was truly amazing.

BAF is Ended

So we returned  home from Bradford Animation Festival yesterday after a week packed with fun and awesome animations, games and people. I wont be able to talk about everything that I saw, as there was so much, but I shall mention my favourite parts
here is the BAF Website if you want more: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/BradfordAnimationFestival.aspx
To show you how much there was to do, here are all my used tickets:

I will start at the end, the Award ceremony. There were different categories of animation, full of work submitted from around the globe, with many truly stunning pieces. the categories were: Professional Film (from those who make a living out of animation), Student Films, Commercials, Music Videos and Films for Children. I shall put links to the winners films, or failing that trailers for them and will then throw in some of my favourites.
Professional:  A Morning Stroll, by Grant Orchard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEqbr5stBE4&feature=player_embedded
Student: 366 Days (366 Tage), by Johannes Schiehsl http://vimeo.com/24329270
Commercial: The Girl effect, by Mighty Nice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e8xgF0JtVg
Music Video: Miss daisy Cutter, by Laen Sanches  http://vimeo.com/13492236
Films for Children: Tiger, by Janis Cimermanis http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/sprockets/2011/201102260043020
and The Itch of the Golden Nit. by Sarah Cox http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIFJtm7mDUA
and The Grand Prix Winner: Nullabor, by Alister Lockhart and Patrick Sarell (Cant find a trailer)

Other ones I personally loved were The Monster of Nix (http://www.monsterofnix.com/), The Backwater Gospel (http://backwatergospel.blogspot.com/) and The Lost Town of Switez (http://www.switez.com/)

Bradford Day One

So we rolled up in the coach on Monday after all day on the road and then we just chilled in the hotel. But today, Tuesday morning, we went straight to the Bradford Media Museum to where the festival was being held. we had tickets to a bunch of lectures and the first day is all about Gaming, Games design and other similar things. The after we acquired our passes we got to play around on all sorts of old consoles ranging from the NES (Nintendo entertainment System) to the Comodore.
Soon we were off to talk number one, all about The Image_Metrics Faceware software. It plugs straight into most big animation software and so you don't have to learn new software. What it does is take normal video footage and without any markers (as you would need with motion capture) and uses it as reference for your model to base its movement on. From there its takes a bit of work, but it is much quicker than the alternative manual work.
This software was used in all sorts of hits like Crysis 2 and Red dead redemption. Its free to download though if you want to convert video footage into the format faceware can use then you need to play.
That was my favourite talk as it was very animation based. the others of the day were interesting, but not all that relevent to animation. There was one on game story-lines, one on Independent design companies,one on a software called unity, one speaking all about creating Kinectimals and Disneyland Adventure Kinect(which was cool) and the final one on learning in gaming. We also watched an experimental film called Vlogger which was interesting but not all that good, and it broke down before the end so it never finished.
I may update this post at a later date, using my notes, when I`m not using someone else's laptop in the early hours of the morning before another day of festival fun.

Late Again...

So once again I have been neglecting my blog, and so I have come up with a solution to bring my posts to the internet more often, so soon the blog shall be thrithing once more. I have finally comandeered somebodies camera and taken photos of some more life drawing.
The first three are done with ink diluted with water and were all short poses, usually a minute or under. The are only meant to improve technique and so arent pretty tom look at as I overlapped the drawings o save paper. The last one is a drawing I began, but then someone else carried it on with a different mediacreating a nice clash of styles.

 I also took photos of my sketchbook project to draw some of the animal skulls from the biosciences departments cabinets. They had a huge variaty of skulls from hippos to monkey skeletons, and they were a lot of fun and I may go back and draw more at a later stage.
The first was a hippo skull, which was huge and really interesting. The one drawn with my blue pencil was a full monkey skeleton, then the third drawing is a dolphin skull I think. The final page of drawings is a couple of monkeys and rodents.