The AniJam!

The weekend before last a team of 9 of my classmates and myself attended the AniJam! A 48 hour animation challenge and competition held in Glasgow by Smudge digital. http://theanijam.com/

We produced this stunning short film in that impossible time frame and i am very proud to announce we were granted 2nd place overall and public favourite merit!

We also gained some fame in the run up to the winners and prizes being announced: http://dundee.stv.tv/articles/314136-djcad-team-enter-the-48-hour-animation-competition-the-anijam-2015/

The experience was intense! But i am so glad i did it, it was refreshing to begin and end a project so fast, not to dwell on any part for want of time, and to work so closely with good, talented friends. Being forced to develop my own skills and pull my best talent out of the bag under pressure was invigorating and the whole experience left me feeling encouraged and positive about my abilities as an animator and storyteller.

I was disappointed only by the lack of contact with the amazing judges we were all so excited to meet, and the free food and drink on offer… and also the lack of tickets available for the official screening of our films!

I’m very glad to have a piece of this film for my showreel though, and finally some 2D animation after nothing but 3D for so long! One of the main reasons i came back into education was to build a greater range of 2D animation into my showreel, so i’m glad to finally have a finished piece of digital 2D animation to show off on top of my hand drawn graduate film.

Acting Research

I filmed a run through of an original play a friend of mine wrote, directed and performed in called “The Last Wolf of Scotland”. All the actors wore minimal costumes and makeup and used their body language, mannerisms, voices and expressions to convincingly act as a pack of wolves.

please see my personal project blog for more details on how i will use this for my research: http://fallofthewolf.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/acting-reference-for-wolf-characters.html

Going Live has taken over!

Okay, i’ve been busy working on our going Live project and it’s gone through some major changes! First of all i was in charge of modelling our hybrid character: the wolf eating grandma!, so i used my existing skinny wolf mesh and added a new head around existing Grandma- already modelled by Fincher

UV mapping the hybrid, it then went on to be textured by Fincher.

Texturing my Skinny wolf model! Textures made by Sandra, applied by me

After feedback from our clients, our project assets had to change a little. Little round riding hood was criticized as “not looking finished”. I designed some concepts to add minimal detail to her existing mesh…

i got to work adding some detail to her existing mesh that would help her fit the polished look of my skinny wolf model, which was praised

UV mapping and texturing LRRH’s new details: Apron and bow with improved sleeves and braids. textures made by Sandra, applied by me.

Morphing my hybrid model to make an exaggerated blendshape. I used soft selection and the lattice deformer to achieve a more extreme progression of the big bad wolf’s difficult meal.

We made some serious cuts to the length of our project after feedback from our clients that it was too ambitious to be completed to a high standard giving the time and man-power we have remaining.

The new (much shorter) animatic that i put together!

The group feels a lot more confident about being able to complete the project to a high standard now.

Reflection on Practice:

I need to update this blog more…

The goals thing i was doing has slipped a little, and i really need to pick it up again especially since it’s crunch time for our research module and mid way/ kick off for animating on Going Live, AND me and a few others in my class have decided to go to a 48 hour animation event in Glasgow this coming weekend! http://theanijam.com/

I’m really proud of the commitment i made to perfecting my modelling and texturing for Going Live. But i am still falling behind with tasks that involve stepping out of my comfort zone. So i need to be braver and take these tasks by the horns! Now more than ever i need to stay in control of my production management role since my co-manager has to take some time away from the project.

My personal project has fallen far down my list of priorities which i am not proud of… i hope to pick up the pace on it again this week after conducting some research that links my personal project with my research paper.

Going Live and Reflection on Practice

I’m not sure how much i’m allowed to reveal on a public blog, but i feel the need to record the work that i’ve been putting into the Going Live project this semester. For the past 3 weeks my roles have been: 3D modeller and developer for a main character, actor liaison, script editor & story developer and animatic compositor.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhBeW4ds30g&feature=youtu.be

I’ve been trying to set realistic goals for myself to complete, both for uni and unrelated, so far this has been helping me feel like i am progressing. I say “realistic” goals because of course i’ve been setting goals, both daily and more long term, for myself for a long time but have always struggled to stick to these goals- i find that often the goals are over ambitious for the timescale that i set them for. This leads to me not completing the unrealistic goals and therefore punishing myself for failure, this leads to me slowing down in progress because of generally feeling down. I say goals for outside of uni as well because i find that if i let personal issues slide because of uni work they can start to weigh on my mind and again- make me feel like i’m failing.

I’ve been trying this new, more realistic system for the past few weeks and i’m proud of myself for largely sticking to it so far. It has resulted in a more even spread of tasks for various modules being up and running simultaneously much earlier than i previously would have hoped to start work on assignments: it seems to be encouraging a “one baby step at a time” mentality for me which is definitely helping me feel less overwhelmed than i did last semester.

Something else that is helping me take one step at a time is my new effort to separate pressing commitments from fun commitments than can wait.

I’ve been actively using a notepad daily to record group meeting notes, daily goals and thoughts, and then referring back to it later, this is helping me organise my thoughts, feel a little calmer and helping me relax a little better at night, knowing that i don’t have to remember everything i have to do for tomorrow- it’s written down already.

Going forward from this i’m definitely going to carry on utilising the same methods: i may start to refine my weekly goals to make sure i include a goal for each separate project. I’d definitely like to dive into production for my personal project as soon as possible however slow and steady the start may be owing to Going Live, so i want to push myself forward faster with that. I also need to find time to start working on more paintings to sell at Dee-Con- a personal goal i set myself around about christmas when i re-discovered my wacom.

Personal project progress

https://vimeo.com/117868142

A new animatic with better timing, and sound to help tell the story!

Last week i also met up with Malcolm and Sean to discuss the technical aspects of my film that i still needed to get my head around, such as tracking, rotoscope masks,  specific equipment for filming, and compositing. The meeting spurred me to put a proper shot list together with my head of camera work. I would like to shoot both empty shots to place 2D characters into and live action acted shots as reference, and to help me with my research, then i would also like to shoot empty shots AFTER the live action acted shots: if an actor disturbs anything in the scenery (e.g. flattens grass), then this can be used to enhance the believability of the animated characters.

Along with a shot list I plan to have a finalised design settled upon for my wolf cub by the end of this week, i have been meeting with Bimpe for creature design help.

I’m running just a tad behind schedule on my personal project- mainly because of the demands of the research module and Going Live which now requires daily meetings… i expected it to suffer but i’m still determined to not let it slip and to work away at it a little each week, completing vital research and locking down character designs and tests.