Awesome! Just found my Wacom Pen after I thought it was gone forever after being lost for months , had to throw out a scribble!
And only 5 Days till christmas...
And only 5 Days till christmas...
Sunday 20 December 2009
Wednesday 16 December 2009
Some Thoughts
So we've got loads of time of and after having a week of doing as little as possible I'm now itching to do something. So completely (or so it feels) animation un related I have started a painting for my family, I figure two birds one stone. I haven't felt like I have painted since A levels so its all a bit weird getting to grips with it again , but I just love playing with the colour even though it feels like I am trying to regain the orginal skill I had and the build on it. I also vowed I would play with Maya but that seems to be a bit of a struggle to get me going with it. I'm much more enjoying just sketching for now, which feels like procrastinating but it's so much more rewarding.
Just checked out the 11second club as well , it's funny as now I have stepped away from my animation for so long the major fault is so obvious especially as people pointed out. The animation is really "floaty" it lacks punchyness and therefore it is quite boring. I think once you see your animation so many times it almost pays more to just walk away from it and see where its really going wrong as otherwise I just stare through it. I feel a little bit flat as a result as originally it felt like I had made some big improvements but I'm not so sure now.
Just checked out the 11second club as well , it's funny as now I have stepped away from my animation for so long the major fault is so obvious especially as people pointed out. The animation is really "floaty" it lacks punchyness and therefore it is quite boring. I think once you see your animation so many times it almost pays more to just walk away from it and see where its really going wrong as otherwise I just stare through it. I feel a little bit flat as a result as originally it felt like I had made some big improvements but I'm not so sure now.
Sunday 8 November 2009
11second club - ooooo
11 seconds
Scene Layout Actor
This week I started to pull the animation together a bit more, he still has an air of robotics about him. His hands are still not moving and need to be added in and the movement I am still unsure about. I wish I had actually had him moving instead of sitting down now or at least interacting with the camera a bit more.
Week 4s Work - Video with twitch ( see if you can spot it )
So I've added all the other things in that I thought needed to be added, hands are more interactive but still not completely there. I also tried to add some more movement to the general body as he seemed so dead. The lip sync I had a lot of trouble with as I didn't make character sets and did things like keying the whole face, making it impossible to add facial animation after without loads of effort so I had to go through it way to many times. Though this project has taken me a long time I have really really learned to love character animation even if I'm still very average at it. I know next time though that I would be able to work at it a lot quicker and have the idea of working it through much better now.
This scene below has an added twitch as I was trying to add character to the guy, however by the time I decided to establish a character to the guy it was to late. In future I would try and establish it earlier instead of being undecided. This is the smoothest animation I have done and my timing has improved, however he still doesn't seem like a character. I was feeling quite good after I finished this until I looked at some of the 11 second club entries again and thought of what I should have done. The main thing is I have learnt so much from this, I have also found out more about Maya. I would really like to keep up the 11 second club maybe every 2 months as I have found out it really interests me....
The starting posistion really annoys me now!
Scene Layout Actor
So we have been given the task of competing in the 11 second club , the clip was quite challenging I found. It was even more challenging when I came to act it out, I think I'm ready for Hollywood now.....
As its for an animation I was trying to overact to get some exaggeration into it, I think I overdid it. It feels a little bit busy but I'm going to have 2 of the key poses in it that are worked towards and the rest are more subtle and acted out through the hands as they can be very expressive. It is quite an emotional (winey) clip. I'm really looking foward to competing hence doing this months clip. I'm going to work it on him being in the doctors so there will be 2 characters in the scene however the other will just be listening.
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Week 2
This weeks upload my aim was to get out the timing with key poses in so that I wouldn't have to spend ages moving frames about after as I have done in previous projects. The timing is working well but obviously there is no in between really to give out the acceleration and to stop him from looking robotic. This weeks aim is to get his body movement almost finalised so I can spend the final week on facial animation.As its for an animation I was trying to overact to get some exaggeration into it, I think I overdid it. It feels a little bit busy but I'm going to have 2 of the key poses in it that are worked towards and the rest are more subtle and acted out through the hands as they can be very expressive. It is quite an emotional (winey) clip. I'm really looking foward to competing hence doing this months clip. I'm going to work it on him being in the doctors so there will be 2 characters in the scene however the other will just be listening.
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Week 2
______________________________
Week 3This week I started to pull the animation together a bit more, he still has an air of robotics about him. His hands are still not moving and need to be added in and the movement I am still unsure about. I wish I had actually had him moving instead of sitting down now or at least interacting with the camera a bit more.
_________________________________
Week 4s Work - Video with twitch ( see if you can spot it )
So I've added all the other things in that I thought needed to be added, hands are more interactive but still not completely there. I also tried to add some more movement to the general body as he seemed so dead. The lip sync I had a lot of trouble with as I didn't make character sets and did things like keying the whole face, making it impossible to add facial animation after without loads of effort so I had to go through it way to many times. Though this project has taken me a long time I have really really learned to love character animation even if I'm still very average at it. I know next time though that I would be able to work at it a lot quicker and have the idea of working it through much better now.
This scene below has an added twitch as I was trying to add character to the guy, however by the time I decided to establish a character to the guy it was to late. In future I would try and establish it earlier instead of being undecided. This is the smoothest animation I have done and my timing has improved, however he still doesn't seem like a character. I was feeling quite good after I finished this until I looked at some of the 11 second club entries again and thought of what I should have done. The main thing is I have learnt so much from this, I have also found out more about Maya. I would really like to keep up the 11 second club maybe every 2 months as I have found out it really interests me....
The starting posistion really annoys me now!
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Experimental Project
After listening to all the sound files for our Experimental project I have decided to go with " Mally". I figured that if I was going to be working with something for the best part of a month I would go with the one that I liked the most. I also find that it gets my thinking whenever I listen to it which I love. I have identified a few points from the piece to help me get started:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MDc24K_guI&feature=PlayListp=E5BBC5DFF38DA5AC
Heres a quick attempt by myself:
Continuing with the experinental project I came across this really sweet animation produced by a random student on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2iDQtE0MFQ
She uses both sand and dirt as a medium to create an awesome silhouette effect. I also loved that it was using a lot of nature, I went outside to try this out myself and then I started thinking of just using loads of parts from the ground. This way I could incorporate some colour and make it more organic, as ever I'm not quite thinking of the animation but of the concept to what it would look like. I'm thinking now of creating a mini scene like a colourful woodlands or something maybe in a 3D environment from parts from the ground. I just played with some stuff I grabbed from outside to just get a feel for it, obviously its all a mess and there is no real sense but it was fun! With the soundtrack I'm going to want to build it up and it will be no were near the speed of this nor the intensity but I got some general ideas out..
Experimental continues....
Before I get on with my project I am going to spend some time looking and Andrew Goldsworthys work as a base for some inspiration. He has done the most amazing sculptures from objects from the outside, I love the colours and the concepts after Derek showing me his work. I really want to base the animation on some of his pieces but animated to the music, this is probably going to be really difficult though but I would love it if what I have in my head I can get out into an colorful organic animation that maintains the feel of the music.
12 Nov - Further Experimenting
Today I went out on the hunt in the park to find material to use for this project with Andy Goldsworthy in mind. I was on the look out for colours that caught my eye and a large variety so I could animate with them. I wanted to look at simulating some of the colour concepts that I had seen in Goldsworthys work and have a play at anima
ting with them.
1. This is from Goldsworthy except his is lot more polished and smoother looking than mine, basically with this I want the circle in the middle to grow in time to the music and the whole thing to rotate and move. 4 - I was playing and as ever I wanted to do the wave breaking in a silhouette, if I combined this with 1 so that this was inside of it after it had moved.
2. I was looking for something similar to the above picture of one of the pieces I had looked at, I found these which I liked even more with the 3 changing colours, however the camera doesn't pick up the richness of them and makes everything seem really bright so I need to play with the camera settings/ lighting. However I love the negative space you can create with these and the flowing of the same colour from leaf to leaf. I want these to be included in my final experimental.
3. If I can find loads of different hues of the colours then I can have this flowing as an animation and then evolving into 1.
I want to make sure the entire thing links up and isn't just a cut to cut .
Here's another quick play, there is no timing its all very fast just to get all the ideas out.
_________________________________________________________________
So I have 3 days to do this experimental, I thought I would just focus on the animation and nail it in this time. However I really didn't think enough. I went out and about this morning to find leaves etc with some colour variation, only to realise it is in fact winter. There is only variations on greens and browns. Brilliant. So its now time to make the best of a bad situation. I've mapped out what I want to occur in the animation to the music, hopefully the studio will be free enough this week to do it here. As ever great time planning....
- Sounds organic - it flows
- Starts slow and speeds up
- Reminds me of woodlands, the sea crashing on the shore etc at the beginning - then makes me think of a city and someone stuck in the middle of the rush.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MDc24K_guI&feature=PlayListp=E5BBC5DFF38DA5AC
Heres a quick attempt by myself:
Continuing with the experinental project I came across this really sweet animation produced by a random student on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2iDQtE0MFQ
She uses both sand and dirt as a medium to create an awesome silhouette effect. I also loved that it was using a lot of nature, I went outside to try this out myself and then I started thinking of just using loads of parts from the ground. This way I could incorporate some colour and make it more organic, as ever I'm not quite thinking of the animation but of the concept to what it would look like. I'm thinking now of creating a mini scene like a colourful woodlands or something maybe in a 3D environment from parts from the ground. I just played with some stuff I grabbed from outside to just get a feel for it, obviously its all a mess and there is no real sense but it was fun! With the soundtrack I'm going to want to build it up and it will be no were near the speed of this nor the intensity but I got some general ideas out..
Experimental continues....
Before I get on with my project I am going to spend some time looking and Andrew Goldsworthys work as a base for some inspiration. He has done the most amazing sculptures from objects from the outside, I love the colours and the concepts after Derek showing me his work. I really want to base the animation on some of his pieces but animated to the music, this is probably going to be really difficult though but I would love it if what I have in my head I can get out into an colorful organic animation that maintains the feel of the music.
12 Nov - Further Experimenting
Today I went out on the hunt in the park to find material to use for this project with Andy Goldsworthy in mind. I was on the look out for colours that caught my eye and a large variety so I could animate with them. I wanted to look at simulating some of the colour concepts that I had seen in Goldsworthys work and have a play at anima
ting with them.
1. This is from Goldsworthy except his is lot more polished and smoother looking than mine, basically with this I want the circle in the middle to grow in time to the music and the whole thing to rotate and move. 4 - I was playing and as ever I wanted to do the wave breaking in a silhouette, if I combined this with 1 so that this was inside of it after it had moved.
2. I was looking for something similar to the above picture of one of the pieces I had looked at, I found these which I liked even more with the 3 changing colours, however the camera doesn't pick up the richness of them and makes everything seem really bright so I need to play with the camera settings/ lighting. However I love the negative space you can create with these and the flowing of the same colour from leaf to leaf. I want these to be included in my final experimental.
3. If I can find loads of different hues of the colours then I can have this flowing as an animation and then evolving into 1.
I want to make sure the entire thing links up and isn't just a cut to cut .
Here's another quick play, there is no timing its all very fast just to get all the ideas out.
_________________________________________________________________
So I have 3 days to do this experimental, I thought I would just focus on the animation and nail it in this time. However I really didn't think enough. I went out and about this morning to find leaves etc with some colour variation, only to realise it is in fact winter. There is only variations on greens and browns. Brilliant. So its now time to make the best of a bad situation. I've mapped out what I want to occur in the animation to the music, hopefully the studio will be free enough this week to do it here. As ever great time planning....
Monday 2 November 2009
3D Emotion Change
Before I went into the emotion change I tried acting it out, I'm supposed to be watching the football or something and suddenly they score, my acting however is awful. As shows:
I then went on to animate this trying to over exaggerate this and pretty much make it a lot better than my shocking attempt however key poses did help.
After finishing my 3D attempt at emotion change in Maya I feel like I have got worse. I have learnt a lot about Maya this week but the performance was really really average. I was gutted with the timing of the jump and the way it floated, I also really wanted to get more anticipation into the anxiety part more twitchy actions and the like. The part where I went wrong was getting the timing right, I'm not sure of the best way to efficiently change the timing of the animation to add gaps etc in 3D. The only way I get it to work is if I take all the parts separately and move them in the graph editor accordingly as otherwise something is always left behind even though I could swear they are all under one Character set. This is something I will have to learn for this next project which I am really looking forward to. Watching the pieces on the 11 second club are really inspiring if not daunting. Most of the winning pieces are from animators with years of experience but it's pretty sweet to have a set brief almost like it was set by a client for a film. I have read a few of the interviews from the winners and I'm going to go about this one starting of with a basic 2D block out animation to really get the idea of what I want from the character and then try and make it work in 3D fluidly.
I then went on to animate this trying to over exaggerate this and pretty much make it a lot better than my shocking attempt however key poses did help.
After finishing my 3D attempt at emotion change in Maya I feel like I have got worse. I have learnt a lot about Maya this week but the performance was really really average. I was gutted with the timing of the jump and the way it floated, I also really wanted to get more anticipation into the anxiety part more twitchy actions and the like. The part where I went wrong was getting the timing right, I'm not sure of the best way to efficiently change the timing of the animation to add gaps etc in 3D. The only way I get it to work is if I take all the parts separately and move them in the graph editor accordingly as otherwise something is always left behind even though I could swear they are all under one Character set. This is something I will have to learn for this next project which I am really looking forward to. Watching the pieces on the 11 second club are really inspiring if not daunting. Most of the winning pieces are from animators with years of experience but it's pretty sweet to have a set brief almost like it was set by a client for a film. I have read a few of the interviews from the winners and I'm going to go about this one starting of with a basic 2D block out animation to really get the idea of what I want from the character and then try and make it work in 3D fluidly.
Monday 26 October 2009
1001....
Week 2s task was to animate lifting a box. I had to get stuck into this early as I was off for the weekend and I knew for me it would be a slow process. At first I was really happy with how it was going I got the hang of the graph editor and I was getting a bit of natural character into Dee before he lifted the box. From there it then all went wrong really as he was off balance, I had problems establishing the weight without the box going through Dee etc etc. My first run through I key framed the box on its way up as well before Matt showed me how to constrain. This did make it appear more like it was being a little affected by gravity at the beginning but soon lost that on its way up. When I realized that the lift was too fast and the box was rocking a bit I realized I had to redo the arms.
When I went to improve it I lost a lot of the anticipation as I was getting annoyed with Maya and just started to rush it through, it shows as Dee picks up the box with no effort to start with and then the weight develops. Overall its a bit average. However for the first time I really started to enjoy using Maya as I found my way around without trouble to start with, times changed towards the 2nd half as I messed up and lost patience with myself.
When I went to improve it I lost a lot of the anticipation as I was getting annoyed with Maya and just started to rush it through, it shows as Dee picks up the box with no effort to start with and then the weight develops. Overall its a bit average. However for the first time I really started to enjoy using Maya as I found my way around without trouble to start with, times changed towards the 2nd half as I messed up and lost patience with myself.
Walk - Task 1
To carry on my 3D efforts I thought I would try doing the walk cycle again in 3D. I thought it would be quite easy seeing as we had done it already last year, but it was weird getting back into the flow. I started trying to use the graph editor to get the animation smoother but he still slaps his feet to much and I really should have time out the walk before hand instead of just going straight into it.
His feet also slide at one point which I just couldnt get rid off even when I looked in the editor, I feel like I'm starting to get the feel of animating in Maya a little more, I do love the way you can change things so quickly and see what they look like.
His feet also slide at one point which I just couldnt get rid off even when I looked in the editor, I feel like I'm starting to get the feel of animating in Maya a little more, I do love the way you can change things so quickly and see what they look like.
Saturday 17 October 2009
Life Drawing Week 2
For this weeks lifedrawing I was opting to start to use different materials as pencil and charcoal can be quite boring and I want to think about materials for the experimental project. So I went for some Ink lines to mix it up, from the photos it actually looks the same as charcoal. Any way the images above are some quick poses of around 2 mins. The below ones are the sustained poses varying between 10 -20 mins. I can feel myself getting more confident with life drawing, proportions are starting to improve etc so I'm actually enjoying it this year.
Using the ink was different but is so much more satisfying to use than pencil and the like , it just flows across the surface and has more substance. I wish I had used a few differentcolours though to liven them up. My favourite pose is the bottom left, Kathy talked about how the last thing to be able to really accomplish in life drawing is getting the feeling of depth when parts of the body are coming towards you, she talking of over exaggeration to the point of believability that gives it that something extra, I didn't go over the top but this pose has the most depth, even if I didn't quite get it right. The only think that I didn't take to with the ink was the lack of detail that you could get into the face making it difficult not to botch it. Most of them I did just that...
Thursday 15 October 2009
I have spent so much time on Maya this week I'm starting to get to know my way around it a little better. The face project has repeatedly killed my morale as I keep making a botch of what I was doing. It's finally started to come together after I changed the photos I was using as they didnt line up, no matter what I did. So cometh the hour and saviour of the tripod I was away on Maya looping away and at current this is the stage, the lips are a pain so I figured I would get a screen shot of the current model before I botch it and go crazy.
Monday 12 October 2009
Modelling Myself in Maya - Attempt 1.....
Its sadenning that I'm happy I got this far in Maya with modelling as it shows how little I know about the program. This is my first attempt and I am going to start again as there are to many triangles and errors that are a pain to recover so I figured I'd start again and now I know my way around a little more it should be faster. This project is perfect as its really challenging for me and it's teaching me a lot as I knew nothing of modelling before. Hopefully attempt number 2 will be much better and I can actually build on it with some clean modelling. It just annoys me I mess up one bit along the way and dont know how to recover when something isn't going right....
Thursday 8 October 2009
Face Modelling Project 3D
Lifedrawing ... First Session
10 mins 30 mins 10 mins
These are 3 of the main life drawings from todays session. I only did half the session as I felt awful so I was surprised I could actually crack out a few drawings. My favourite of the 3 is the orange one as the lines are crisper and she has more shape. All of them though don't have enough contrast in them and are merely line drawings I need to start working shadow back in to build mass as opposed to just a flat object to bring it to life and out of the paper. Before I went to the session I was dreading it as last year I felt inferior to everyone and it was quite intimidating, I tried to draw with confidence in these and it showed as I got down what I saw quickly ( for me ) without taking forever to decide what should go where. I loved working back on an easel again and I look forward to next week in between I will be doing figurative drawings so I should build a more solid style as I grow in confidence.
Tuesday 6 October 2009
The Dawn
So we have started the year, hence new blog. Definitely keeping on top of it this time as it helps to look back and its satisfying to see how far you come. At the moment my aim is to work through the Maya foundation book and get the hand of modelling characters as I have never had a real go at it. This should hopefully feed on to create my first Maya animation for one of my projects.
Since my last blog the only real thing of note apart from sketching that I have done was a shot at some 2D digital painting on Photo-shop of Fee, as I saw Roys and I thought I'd give it a go, although his was awesome . I started with the eyes and worked my way through, the final part was the hair and it shows as it looks rushed, I got bored and discarded improving it. The eyes are my favourite although they don't have as much life as I would like, I should have chosen a more interesting photo to work from.
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