Multimedia Blog.

Enough modelling for today...

2012-02-23T11:15:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I will work on the hair, eye balls and the detail in and around his face.
Quite happy with the outcome so far....

Progress on Derek's head...

2012-02-23T08:11:00.000-08:00

Definitely shapes the head a lot better than the other model....

Still working on his forehead and the back of his head, maybe another post later! :)

Brand new Derek!

2012-02-22T08:26:00.000-08:00

I decided to start modelling the head from a tutorial on Digital Tutors because it allows you to model shape the head exactly how you want it. I think this will eventually work out better when I've finished, although this is taking a lot longer than I thought. Also, I am going to apply the hair on the character after the head is shaped.

I just wish I wasn't working tonight so I could finish him :o( I'm on a roleeeeeeeeeeeee!

Really unhappy with this...

2012-02-22T04:26:00.000-08:00

I am NOT happy with my character modelling at all. I suppose it is my first attempt at character modelling but the face is an odd shape and it doesn't look anything like my drawing. The body isn't too bad but it doesn't have to personality that I wanted to achieve. Maybe if textures were applied it might not look as bad, but anyway... I am starting again today (PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT) - I hope!!!

I have also subscribed to Digital Tutors, it's very exciting! wooooooo!

This time I will blog stages of the modelling of my character....

DVD Menu Progress!

2012-02-15T09:41:00.000-08:00

Here are a few images and screen shots of my DVD menu for the context two project. I used Adobe Photoshop to create the designs and Adobe Encore to produce the DVD Menu.

Screenshot

Flowchart of the pages and videos linking together

(The browny/orangey colour over the text is the colour that appears when you hover over the buttons with your mouse.)

Opening Page

Second page with the links to my work

Finalised Work Page

Interview with Gabriele Ranfagni that you should check out!

2012-02-12T14:30:00.000-08:00

Came across this interview with animator Gabriele Ranfagni. Inspired me to draw a lot more than I already do and to speak to more animators in the industry to help each other out. (well maybe they might have to help me more, ha ha)

Link below:
http://simplymaya.com/articles/gabriele-ranfagni/gabriele-ranfagni-interview-24-08-2011.mhtml

Showreel title!

2012-02-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

Here is my showreel 'title', it's pretty plain but I think it works quite effectively. Going to add some swish sound effects and have a song throughout the whole reel..... (This is only the opening title)

Carlos Baena!

2012-01-31T14:01:00.000-08:00

I came across Carlos Baena's website earlier and it really inspired me with all the resources and tips and tricks he has on his website to help people like me. He mentioned what to think about when creating a showreel and sending it to companies. This really inspired me towards creating my own showreel which I am currently working on. Carlos is also a co founder for Animation Mentor, which started in March 2005. Animation Mentor is something I'd love to do in the future, however finding the cash for it is a bit tricky. Maybe one day ayeeee! Character animation is what I want to get good at.

http://www.carlosbaena.com/

Check out his website, very inspiring!
Below are some of his 3D artwork.........

Drunken-ness!

2012-01-31T12:18:00.000-08:00

Great inspiration for my silent comedy animation:

Thinking about whats going to happen in my comedy animation is rather tricky to plan out as my character has to fall, trip, pick something up and etc. Basically, we have to make Andy (our tutor) laugh and it obviously has to be animated well. So, a few things I have thought about, about drunk people and cartoons:

1) Hiccups - a lot of 1990's cartoons tend to use hiccups in drunk scenes
2) Friendly? - people sometimes act over friendly
3) Wobbly - can't really stand still or straight
4) Slow reaction - reflex's are useless
5) Lack of balance - find it hard to stand
6) 'Seeing Double' - spinning rooms
7) Confident - don't care what they do or say
8) Emotional - hormonal

Showreels for inspiration!

2012-01-30T04:07:00.000-08:00

I could go on and on, the amount I've looked at...............

Rough Sketch!

2012-01-30T03:52:00.000-08:00

Contemplating whether to subscribe to Digital Tutors because I really want to learn character animation in more depth. The free tutorials I find online don't seem to cover a lot. I would also like to learn a lot more of Maya especially for character animation.

Below is a rough sketch of my old man that I am going to model in 3Ds Max. For now the sketches below are suitable for me to start modelling. I want to create a drunken old man, so his clothes will be a little worn when I add textures to the 'drunk' haha!... think I might call him 'Derek' - Derek the drunk! Although my grandad was called Derek and I'm pretty sure he wasn't a drunk. Oh well!

So, below is a rough sketch and I will keep blogging screen shots of me modelling Derek, enjoy......

Update...

2012-01-26T05:05:00.000-08:00

Updates of new projects...

Visualisation Project 2 Brief:
A well designed environment can act as a form of expression to communication a story visually and is important in setting the time, place and mood of any game, animation or architectural visualisation.
For this project you will need to design, model, texture, light and render 60sec walkthrough of a location of your choice based on a published story or script from a different time period. The interior location should be set either in a room in a residence or monumental space i.e. church, factory or historical building. You will need to include all the visual elements such as the furniture and objects that described in the story.
The design of a location is an important for supporting a story and the characters. It is essential to consider the different architectural periods, genres, dramatic atmosphere and mood, colour and lighting conditions of the location.
Two locations have been provided for your use; see the page 2 & 3 of this document. If you choose your own story you will need to submit the passage/s taken from the original text that you have used.

The book I am going to use for this project is 'Flowers in the Attic' by Virginia Andrews. I think working on this novel for this project could create a really nice and effective visual from a certain passage from the book. I haven't decided on which chapter yet but I will post it on here when I have chosen.

Maya:

Unfortunately I asked our tutor and there isn't a brief for this project, which is a bit annoying. I'm not very clear on what we have to produce to be honest, so I will have to speak to him properly. However, we've been recently learning the basics of Maya and last week we learnt how to create particle effects. It is still rather confusing getting to know Maya but tutorials online and the seminars are really helping me get my head around it better.

Testy test!

2012-01-20T03:18:00.000-08:00

With out self illumination and light.......

With out self illumination but WITH a light.......

Evaluation & 'The Art Of Seeing'

2012-01-20T02:47:00.000-08:00

For the ‘Still Life’ visualisation project, we had to produce four still renders of a ‘Still Life’ scene which included designing, modelling, texturing and rendering using 3Ds Max. For this we had to collect and model at least six objects for our scenes. Our influence for this project is painter Ralph Goings and Visualisation Artist Alex Roman.

For the project I researched many visualisation artists and photographs to get inspiration for creating my own scene. I found a visualisation artist who really inspires me and as from now I follow him on blogger. His name is Daniil Alikov, who is currently working at Lucasfilm Animation in Singapore. I originally came across his working when researching for visualisation artists and saw his work on ‘Still Life’ (As shown below).

The lighting and shadows in the image above really inspired me. I wanted to create something dull and dingy within my own work for this project. I focused on researching the lighting and textures for the project, which is where I thought a mantel piece would be the perfect idea for the sort of scene I desire. I think the lighting would work really effectively, especially the lighting from a fire.

Therefore, I started to look at images of mantel pieces and think about the objects that I could collect and model in 3Ds Max. I also thought about composition of how the objects are laid out within the scene.

In seminars, we learnt how to model simple objects to quite complex objects from reference images. We also learnt how to add relevant cameras and lighting for our scenes, whilst thinking about composition, along with developing skills with the modifier tool ‘Unwrap UVW’ to texture our objects.

First of all I had an idea to make a series of four mantel pieces, which would show a story through time of a family moving out of the house and a new family moving in. My ideas started off with an old dusty mantel piece, which then moved onto the mantel piece and wearing out, through to it getting re furnished and then modernised with fresh new objects in the scene. However this did not go to plan, as I wanted to spend a lot of time texturing the scene and making it look as realistic as I could. So, I planned to stick with one mantel piece that then eventually gets worn out over time, for example the objects would become more rustier and worn. I also thought about adding cracks to the mirror and getting rid of the photo in the photo frame to show signs of a broken family as a narrative.

Therefore I used my reference images to start modelling the objects for my scene, where I used the skills I’d learnt in seminars to create the feel and atmosphere of the scene. Throughout the process of this project I thought the most difficult part was using the Unwrap UVW modifier. At first I wasn’t confident using this tool, but as I thought myself how to use it I then improved so much more. I learnt that you have to spend a lot of time on this to get the result you want. I am still not fluent in the tool but I would say I enjoyed using this and applying the textures the most throughout this project, even If I found it difficult.

Overall I have a learnt a lot from this project. I would say mainly I have developed my skills in visualisation, especially texturing and lighting. I think feedback from other people throughout this project has helped me a lot, along with reference images to see how detailed an object actually comes across. I will continue to use and enhance these skills further, as this has given me a better understanding for visualisation.

'The Art of Seeing'

As a task for this project we were asked to create a texture/lighting online library. For this I photographed several textures around where I live that I thought were interesting and had abstract feel to them. When taking images I thought about textures that people don’t really see or look for. I used my macro lens on my camera to be able to show detail of the textures and surroundings. I thought this was a motivating task to complete for the project, because it made me think about texturing the minors details within my work.

My 'Art of Seeing' Flickr Libary: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lyslop/sets/72157628951328587/

More Test Renders!

2012-01-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

Visualisation

2012-01-19T03:15:00.000-08:00

Below is my progress of the mantel piece that I have modelled, designed, textured and rendered in 3Ds Max. I still need to work on textures a bit more, as I am also doing close up renders of the objects wearing out.

Test renders:

Screen shot:

11 Second Club!

2012-01-13T05:29:00.000-08:00

I've been working with the MAX rig, thanks to Peter Starostin and James Hunt. I have started off animating a walk cycle, although I'm not posting it on my blog just yet because I'd prefer it to be a bit better :-)

I really want to start entering the 11 Second Club, however I don't think I've mastered everything just yet, sooooo I'm spending a lot of time learning how to animate characters. In my last animation project 'The Chess Player', I was told to focus on my timing so I have been researching more on timing than anything lately. I also got a book for Christmas called 'Timing for Animators' which is really useful.

I'm inspired by a lot of the entries from the 11 Second Club. However, one that I really inspires me is the winner from May 2011. I think the timing works brilliantly and it shows you don't need facials to make a great animation. It is also inspiration for my next animation project....

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T07:34:00.000-08:00

2012 is going to be a good one for me! I've decided my new years resolution is to draw more and get better at it. When I start back at uni, I'm going to join the life drawing sessions which will help me a lot.
I'm also going to try as much as possible enter into the 11 second club's animations every month. Although... since I'm not very experienced in animation as I'd like to be, I have started animating with free rigs online. I really really really want to be a character animator!

Last night I watched Pixar: 25 Magic Moments on BBC3, which was similar to the documentary: Pixar's Story which I watched a few years ago. They both really inspire to work harder to get where I want to be.
When they were talking about the animators who work at Pixar, they mentioned that they have one animator working on only 2 to 4 minutes of the entire film. Which I thought was crazy, but amazing!

Bobby Podesta (Supervising Animator at Pixar) mentioned " A good animated film looks like one person animated everything but a great animated film looks like nobody animated at all."

I thought this quote was interesting to think about. Meaning, a great animation looks like it has been filmed by actors because the animation is that good.

I also enjoyed how parts of what happens in the featured films reflect on something that has happened in the directors or animators life. They also add the code A113 somewhere in all of the featured films, as this was the room where it all began at California Institute of the Arts.

I keep thinking and thinking about my next animation project at University. We have to create a Silent Comedy character animation. Where the character has to apparently think, decide, pick something up, drop something, walk, climb, trip, slip, and fall. So lately I keep thinking what my animation could be based on to make the audience laugh.

I watched a short animation recently, where I thought of a similar ideas for the character to walk across a busy road by dodging the cars driving past and then when the character reaches to the other side, he gets knocked over by something like a cyclist. However, I thought this might be a bit of a challenge and I need to make sure the animation is good because this is purely based on the quality of the animation.

I keep thinking of other ideas that I could possibly use, but nothing has been a favourite so far.

Life and bee-boy!

2011-12-28T14:20:00.000-08:00

Today I went to see Puss In Boots in 3D at the cinema with my Dad. Overall I thought it was brilliant! I concentrated on the animating throughout the film along with all the other animated films and shorts I watch. I always feel much more inspired, especially after watching The Adventures Of Tin Tin a few weeks ago, as I was more intrigued about the visualistion. Infact, all I seem to only watch nowadays are animated films, I love it!

Recently I downloaded the Bee-Boy free 3Ds Max rig, where I have been playing around animating with him, which has been fun! I haven't animated a 3D character yet and I really want to gain skills in this area of animation. Also, I have a project at University on a 'silent comedy' character animation. Therefore, I want to learn as much as possible for myself and the project.

Evaluation

2011-12-19T07:31:00.000-08:00

For the project ‘Fantasy Olympics’ we were asked to design a thirty second, 2D promotional advert for a fantasy Olympic sport event. To do this we used Adobe After Effects.

Over the past nine weeks we learnt compositing using Adobe After Effects. I developed a lot of skills along the way as this was my first time compositing in After Effects. We were taught how to design, model, texture and also how to add lighting, cameras and experimenting with techniques for animating.

The main idea for my fantasy Olympic sport was aliens vs. humans on a race to the opponent’s planet using space boots for the Olympic year 56000. To start the project I designed my characters for the advert. When doing this I thought about the characters silhouettes, which can relate to the branding of the advert.

To begin I designed and sketched my characters and scanned them into Adobe Photoshop. To finalise the character I drew over them in Photoshop to create a clean finish. I selected areas of the characters to separate the layers to be able to animate in After Effects. I also used the same method for the environment.

When setting up a new composition I imported all my layers, copied and arranged them into the composition. I started using the position tool to start animating my images which I then went on to using the puppet tool and the opacity tool to animate. From browsing on the internet, I learnt how to add in a particle world effect which enabled me to create the shooting star effect from the two planets.

I had never used After Effects before although I thought I picked it up quite well because of previously and currently using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Flash. Where I noticed After Effects was slightly a combine of the two.

What I found difficult about the program was at first finding where all the tools were situated to be able to animate. I think it would be great to have a valued skill in compositing. I still need to learn a lot more about compositing. Therefore I am going to practice over Christmas so I can carry out projects a lot more fluently.

What I became aware of is that you can export your animations through After Effects rather than using Adobe Premiere Pro. I really do not like to work in Premiere Pro and as a result I thought using After Effects to finalise my work would be better for me to expand my work and I would also be able to composit my work further and add sounds which means I can export it a lot more easily and stress-free. I will most likely use After Effects in all my projects now, which will help me out a great deal.

Overall, I wasn’t sure about the program at first but when I got use to it I really enjoyed the whole process of producing my Olympic Fantasy advert. I managed to learn the program myself and I also helped others with their own work too. On the whole I learnt a lot from this project and it has given the incentive to learn more.

Fantasy Olympics

2011-12-12T15:26:00.000-08:00

Inspiration...

2011-12-06T04:43:00.000-08:00

I'm really inspired by these digitial images below which are created by different cg artists. I would love to produce work like this. They also give me some ideas for my character designs for my next animation project...

Jason Baldwin
Software: Maya

Fabricio Moraes
Software: 3ds max, Photoshop

Luis Arizaga Rico
Software: 3ds max, mental ray, Photoshop

AE 'Fantasy Olympics'

2011-12-05T15:19:00.000-08:00

Working on the after effects project is going ok. However it is taking a little longer to complete because I'm not very confident in the program.
Over Christmas I'm going to work on compositing in after effects so I can work more fluently in the program.

Visualisation Project

2011-12-05T15:06:00.000-08:00

For the 'Still Life' project, we are asked to design, model and render four still life images in 3Ds Max. Below I have put together a mood board of some images that relate to my idea for this project...

My main idea is close ups of mantelpieces and the ornaments on them. My designs for this would be different mantelpieces, old to modern. I was also thinking I could add a photo frame onto each separate render of a certain person growing up. For this I could use photographs of someone in my family. I thought this would show an inspiring narrative side to my designs and the outcome would be really effective.

For this I will undertake my own primary research where I will take photographs of existing mantelpieces and textures. This will help me with some inspiration so I can start sketching and designing my own models.

AE.....

2011-12-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

My two new characters that I have changed, I prefer these much better....

AE project quick blog...

2011-11-29T06:47:00.000-08:00

I have changed my human character design, however it still needs cleaning up. I am working on the alien design now.
I changed my designs because my original character designs seemed a little to childish.

Mr Bamboo!

2011-11-28T11:12:00.000-08:00

Today I bought a bamboo drawing tablet! So exciting, I've been wanting one for a while and finally the day as come ha-ha!So I am currently sat watching Megamind and working on the After effects project with Mr Bamboo.

We were also given the brief last week for our next animation project called 'Silent Comedy', which is due in April. I am really looking forward to starting the project when I have got my other projects sorted.

Inspiration for this is the short animation 'Bath Time'...

The Chess Player

2011-11-24T05:43:00.000-08:00

Over the past six weeks, I worked on the animation project ‘The Chess Player’. This involved, designing, modelling and animating a self defeating robotic chess game, mainly focusing on your animating skills. Throughout the six weeks we were taught how to model, rig, texture and light our environment. From that we then had to create our own model and environment from our designs.

Firstly I started off creating full robot (as you can see from recent on my blogs). Although this didn’t work quite as much as I would have liked it too, so I changed my design and produced a robotic arm. However I decided to stick with the chess board and chess pieces that I had originally designed and modelled.
I started off designing my robot arm from sketches /drawings and then began modelling it in 3Ds Max. It didn’t take me long to model and rig the arm, I would say about four hours at the most. This was because I’d already learnt everything whilst creating my robot beforehand.

I then gave myself a few days to begin animating the robotic arm, so I had enough time to edit bits if needed. The storyboard I designed made me believe that the animation would last approximately two minutes at the most, so I made sure I had the camera angles set up so I could animate the different shots together. I would say I took about one and half days to animate, texture and light the scene. This meant I had time to render the different shots and then edit in Adobe PremierePro.

Towards the end when finalising the project I had difficulty with exporting in PremierePro. When I began exporting it would stop several times and come up with ‘error’ on the screen, I tried many ways to fix this such as deleting files for more space on my hard drive, using a different computer, saving it to a different area but then luckily it was successful and exported with no problem. I thought this was a bit strange because I did a test of the start of my animation and that exported with no problem. This is something I need to take into consideration when exporting my files in the future.

I also had a problem with the video size. It exported out at 1920x1080 when I rendered it at 1280x720. I think this is also down to PremierePro and I might have exported differently. Overall I need to get to know PremierePro at lot more fluently. Therefore I will do this before finalising my next project, so I can use it confidently throughout my work.

During the six weeks on this project I have learnt a great amount of skills in 3Ds Max such as, modelling, texturing, lighting, rigging and animating. This project was definitely very beneficial for me and I enjoyed every minute of it. I have also realised whilst working on this project that I have become very passionate about the animating aspect of the project and it has made me certain that I would like to focus on developing my skills to become an animator in the future. I do also enjoy the modelling aspects of the projects but I love animating and I could do it all day long if need be.

Overall this project had been a great experience for me and I am especially looking forward to the next animation project.

The Chess Player

2011-11-20T09:48:00.000-08:00

Here is my final animation for The Chess Player module. However I am going to re export it because it hasn't come out at the right size. Any comments would be great...

Updating you all again...

2011-11-15T17:48:00.000-08:00

Since the test animation I blogged the other day called 'Another quick post...' I have previously changed some of my textures and added wonderful bump maps onto textures. I love bump mapping!

I have also added camera angles and a lot more animation, I have also changed some animation too. I'm currently rendering at the moment, which is exciting but long....

Bump!

2011-11-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

A bump map makes a hell of a difference when texturing in 3ds max. In todays seminar we learn't how to use the modifier - Unwrap UVW. I also learnt some more about bump mapping, although I did use this a little last year. Below are two screen shots of the bump map I created in today's seminar (I hope you can see it properly on here)...

without the bump map

with the bump map

Another quick post...

2011-11-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

Another quick post of a test of my robotic chess animation, although there's more animating to do which I am currently doing now and I need to add more 'sly' movements i.e. to make it more realistic, which I am also doing now. Watching the test made me think it is a bit slow in parts.

...could do with a packet of monster munch :-|

Untitled from Alyssa Brookes on Vimeo.

Quick update...

2011-11-14T05:48:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to show how I'm getting along with my animation. I have finished the texturing and lighting and I am currently animating at the moment :o)

Any positive comments and any comments to say what you think I should change would be useful...

So far...

2011-11-11T11:44:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to show you the development of 'The Chess Player'. I still need to do the texturing and other minor things. I think i've caught up fast since I changed my whole blooming idea ha-ha! Screen shots of 3ds max below...

Massive change of plan!

2011-11-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

So my original plan for 'The Chess Player' project was for the robot's right arm to detach from its body and jump around the chess board to play itself.

Personally, I think my robot and the idea for the animation won't work as well as I'd like it to. First of all both of my robot's arms will not reach to the other side of the chess board and I think I'd create a better piece of animation with robotic arms defeating itself rather than a full robot. This project is based on our animation skills rather than modelling so I think it would benefit me.

However I do not regret creating my robot in any way what so ever, it was fun and I have learnt hell of a lot about modelling and rigging.

Therefore, I have designed a brand new robot arm which I am going to model and rig tonight so I can get started on the animating tomorrow. Below is a quick screenshot of what I have done so far and I am not leaving uni until it is done - dum dum durrr! I will blog my completed robot arm tonight.....

Development of 'The Chess Player'

2011-11-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

From Andy's tutorial's I have produced my own robot, however it is not finished just yet. I have modelled the robot, rigged it's arms, fingers and I have also made a little eye that blinks, which I think is proper cool :). Here are a few screen shots of the development for the project.

Context 2!

2011-10-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

For the network report for the context two module, I have contacted companies that really inspire me, seeing whether it would be possible to have a work experience placement with them over the summer, or whether I could come in and have a chat. I am still waiting on some replies, although I know they will all be busy with other things. I just really hope they get back to me.

I am also thinking of contacting Bournemouth University about there MA Computer Animation course and maybe someone could give me some feedback on my work and how I could improve and etc.
Phil in the seminar the other week mentioned he knows a woman who works at the University who is a script writer so we thought it would be worth giving her an email, which is also what I plan on doing.

Meanwhile, I have been working on my essay. However I am generally really interested in some work experience regardless to the report. I was planning on contacting companies for a placement, irrelevant to the essay. It would be a great opportunity to experience the industry and work with the companies I inspire.

Anyway, I shall let you know how it goes! Fingers crossed for me.

Fantasy Olympics

2011-10-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

Rough character designs for the after effects project.

Robot Sketch

2011-10-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

Today Andy demonstrated how to animate the tutorial robot arm we created over the past week. I really enjoyed animating today and I learnt a hell of a lot in a short space of time. I have still got to finish the animation but I am close to finishing, which is my plan for tomorrow. It has made me think about leaning more towards the animation side of things rather than character modelling for a future career. I enjoy animating and I don't get bored easily :o)

Tonight I have sketched a robot design for 'The Chess Player' project and scanned it onto my computer to show you all, whayy! I'll expand the drawing into its different view points and detail, which then I will blog as soon as possible. I will also show the developments of me modelling the character in 3ds max using screenshots, as I am starting that tomorrow!

Andre Kutscherauer

2011-10-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

I have found a 3D artist that inspires me for 'The Chess Player' project called Andre Kutscherauer who creates robotic art using 3Ds max Adobe Photoshop. I particularly like a 3D artwork called 'Selfillumination'. I really think I could relate to this within my design ideas. Below are images of the 'Selfillumination'....

Project Three!

2011-10-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

Our third project is based on After Effects. For this we have to create an advert which is thirty seconds long for the Olympics, however the sport that we advertise has to be a 'fantasy' sport. For example, shot put underwater.

From discussion of the brief in the previous seminar, I am guessing we have to create a 3D environment and a 2D character but then again I'm also guessing it could be entirely up to you.

So, I have planned my 'fantasy' sport to be 56 000 000 000 metre (googled it) races to mars! I have been sketching some human and alien character designs because I was thinking the race could be Humans Vs Aliens. I am currently working on a storyboard.

Problem: I have left my scanner lead at home in Huddersfield so unfortunately I cannot scan them onto my computer at the moment, however I will go into uni to do it.

On thursday we have to present our idea to the seminar class.

I have made a quick moodboard of images that inspire me.

Choo Choo!

2011-10-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

To practice our modelling skills for the 'Still Life' project, we were given a toy trains dimenions and from that we had to model the train in 3ds max.

This is my outcome. I like to show screen shots of my models in 3ds max, so you can see the different view points.

Numéro Deux!

2011-10-10T04:31:00.000-07:00

Project two is called 'Still Life'. For the brief we have to design, model and render four still life scenes using at least six objects. Influences to be taken into account for this project are photographs, still life images, painter Ralph Goings and visualisation artist Alex Roman.
Ralph Goings is an American artist who composes everyday life's environments. In the 70's, 80's and 90's he produced still life paintings of objects and interiors of fast food restaurants.

"My paintings are about light, about the way things look in their environment and especially about how things look painted.
Form, color and space are at the whim of reality, their discovery and organization is the assignment of the realist painter."

---Ralph Goings -- 1978
http://www.ralphlgoings.com/

Alex Roman is a visualisation artist who develops growing new creations. He has always tried new and abstract techniques within his art and is constantly experimenting with new styles and new intentions. He not only sells paintings, he has his work printed onto watches to sell and he continues to envolve his ideas.

'The Chess Player'

2011-10-10T03:56:00.000-07:00

I’ve been working on some 3ds max tutorials to practice modelling for the project ‘The Chess Player’ using YouTube. I’ve started modelling chess pieces, although I might be using a different design for the chess pieces for my final design but I haven’t decided yet.

Oh yeah!

2011-10-09T16:04:00.000-07:00

First week back at Trent, moving onto the finest pathway... virtual environments! Firstly we have a project called ‘The Chess Player’ which is designing and animating a model of a self-defeating robotic chess game using 3ds max.

Inspiration for this project is the wonderful ‘Geri’s Game’ short film by Pixar. I am currently researching and doodling some ideas that are looking good so far, I will scan these in onto my computer as soon as I’ve tweaked them a little. However I am really looking forward to this project and I’m sure I will learn a hell of a lot!

http://youtu.be/1m7dcbIKvlw

My Haunted House Animation!

2011-05-22T05:50:00.000-07:00

http://vimeo.com/24048025

Comments please!

Emma and Guy's Wedding! (My sister)

2011-05-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

Emma and Guy hired two men who had recently graduated, to film their wedding from start to finish. Here is what they produced, I think it is brilliant! (Made me cry!)

http://www.youtube.com/embed/jghsBh0sSOE

HOWDO!

2011-04-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while but I am currently up to date with everything. At the moment I am spending a lot of time on my haunted house animation and my visual essay.

I finished my website before easter, this is the link -

http://www.alyssabrookes.net76.net/

Comments welcome :o)

DIGITAL ME!

2011-03-24T18:36:00.000-07:00

Working on the notice board ideas for the other pages.....

Please check out my previous blog and comment whether this design is better, I personally think it does. Still working on the other pages.

Visual Essay Notes!

2011-03-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

1. Character talks to the camera about what the essay is about
2. Three doors- each door is a different environment (Moving Image, Interactive and Virtual Environments)
3. The character walk through each door, the first door being the one I dislike the most. I.e. The environment being the most disliked designed to be gloomy and dull, with dead end signs. Moving Image is the one I dislike to most, therefore I will show this will maybe a film set, camera and etc. I will also have the character talking.
4. For the third door i.e. Virtual Environments, I will show this by using bright colours and different paths (no dead ends), which take you to my chosen practitioners, inspiration and my own work.
5. The character moves with the camera throughout. I will use facial expressions and body language with the character to show its emotions. Also I will use dull and happy music to enhance to mood of the character. I.e. the character being me.
6. If it is possible I would like to edit some YouTube clips from professionals talking about the industry and etc of my chosen pathway.
7. After the character has took the audience through the different paths in my chosen pathway, it then finishes with a stop motion, indicating why I have chosen this certain pathway.
8. Stop motion - drawings/crafts (Example for inspiration below)
9. Credits- references

10. Programs- 3D studio max, Photoshop and possibly Flash

http://vimeo.com/21259793 - Inspiration for the stop motion

To do
Plan what the character is going to say
Plan any text or titles for the essay
Choose music for the background
Continue making the essay
Stop motion

To think about
Target audience
Terminology
Techniques
Get feedback
What areas inside the pathway am I interested in most?
How to render altogether
Inspiring individuals

Practitioners
John Constable
Walter Crane
Kidrobot- individual designers?
Andrea Joesph
Pixar- individual designers?

MORE TO ADD...

Improvements?

2011-03-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

So, I recently blogged about getting rid of the notice board idea, however I then thought it would look quite nice on the contact page but within the content. Although afterwards I thought it would look better if each page had the same idea because most people don't always click onto the contact page so it could end up being a waste.

Homepage:

About:

Contact:

You can see how the 'Contact' page looks more effective than the others (Others not fully completed yet)
Feedback would be appreciated please.............

DIGITAL ME!

2011-03-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging much for the DIGITALME project which isn't good. However over the past four weeks I have been spending a lot of time on photoshop and dreamweaver to make sure it all looks good and makes sense.
For the past four weeks we have been playing about with Dreamweaver to get the hang of it and basically developing out website week by week.

When completed I will gather some feedback so I can improve it.
Next: 500 evaluation

Change Of Plan?

2011-03-02T07:12:00.000-08:00

Apparently my 'cork board' design idea for my website would be too complicated to code, which is annoying because i've already started designing it but never mind!

I will blog my next idea with a wire frame. In the mean time check out the photo manipulations below...

Interactive Inspiration & Ideas!

2011-03-02T05:12:00.000-08:00

For the interactive DIGITAL-ME project, I have a few ideas in my mind what my layout will look like. I plan to base it on a cork board for the home page and the links are notes and pictures pinned onto the cork board which then turn into a scrap book when you click onto the link. I thought this would work well because its quite quirky and different to other websites, which potentially could make it stand out.
I have researched existing websites and I have found tons that have inspired me. Below are some that stood out to me.

I also enjoy photography so I will be including that into my website. And I thought the homepage above was quite inspiring because of the man in the background holding the contents page. This is something I might explore when designing.

I tend to use a lot of colours in my work, like the websites above but I also like the mix of a white background and then the colours to stand out, a bit like this homepage below...

Interactive - Week One!

2011-02-18T15:29:00.000-08:00

In the first week we were given the project brief which is to create a website/portfolio about yourself. The project is called DigitalMe. To start we were introduced HTML on dreamweaver and CSS. We were taught how to code a layout from scratch, this will continue and expand for the next three weeks. We also were asked to produce a moodboard about yourself. This is a nice way to visually show somebody what you enjoy. I also produced a sheet of different types of typography which is shown beneath with my moodboard.

I have previously studied typography at college, so I have a good understanding of what its all about. However I will continue to research typography to go towards the text I will use within my website.

'Ticket' and Evaluation!

2011-02-15T13:29:00.000-08:00

To evaluate the moving image project named ‘Interpretation’, I will discuss the previous five weeks. Firstly we were put into groups and each group was given a script. In my group was, Charis, Sam, Alex, Steph and Lauren. We were given a script called ‘Ticket’ and from the script we were all assigned specific roles. My role was the sound and production designer.
As a group we all listened to everyone’s ideas and decided on basing our film on a 1960’s romance genre, where we concentrated on the black and white tones and the sound from existing films, which captures the ambience.

After deciding on the genre, we planned our pre-production of the film. Charis, the producer set everyone certain jobs to make sure all the pre-production was done before the film making. I was in charge of the sound treatment however, we had trouble with the location because we planned on filming on a bus, tram or train but after discussing it we thought it would be more than likely impossible to get permission for either. As a result we decided to film in the Arboretum. When filming we added a short shot of a tram passing by, which helped break up the scenes and it also makes the audience be aware of what was happening.

We had the risk assessments checked and booked the equipment to start filming in week four. In spite of this, a day before filming the female and male actor was unavailable to film the following day. Although Alex, the director managed to find a male actor for filming and after some time asking around for a female actor, Alex ended up playing her role. The filming went quite well and the lighting and sounds turn out nicely. However I made a mistake of filming the entire film, as it was not my specific role and to be honest Steph, the camera and lighting team member should have stopped me or I should have not done it in the first place, however I did enjoy filming. At the end of week four we decided we needed a few more shots to develop the film a bit further and I wanted to add more sound effects within the film.

In week five we planned to meet, however towards the end of the project we had problems with certain members of the team not contributing. At the end of week five we finished editing and added all the effects we decided on. As I was the sound designer, it was crucial that I worked with Sam, the editor. Another problem occurred because it was only me and Sam staying behind to get the film done and the other members of the team didn’t make much input.

Overall I believe we developed a good use of strategies and managed to solve any problems during the pre-production and filming. We made our film quite abstract which makes the novel of the film fairly quirky and unpredictable.

http://vimeo.com/19975362

Break Down!

2011-02-15T05:48:00.000-08:00

Week one

As mentioned in another blog, week one was simply being put into groups of five or six and then given specific roles to work together as a team for the short film. My role was the sound and production designer. It was important for me to research my role, as I only knew a little about it.

After sorting out the groups, each group was given a script to work from. Ours was called 'Ticket'. It wasn't too long and we could also change things slightly if we wanted. We all had a look at the script and came up with ideas that we could use to make the film interesting. Phil the lecturer, also showed everyone some examples of short films so we could look at how they use camera angles, lighting and sound.

We then went on to combining everyone’s ideas in our group and starting to plan a written and illustrated story board so everyone knows what is happening when filming. We also planned a short presentation to show next week, to outline what our film was going to be about.

From week one to week two, I went on to research sound and production design so I would have a full understanding of the two roles. On previous blogs I have written about the research I found.

Week two

In week two each group presented to everyone, what there film is about i.e. genre, what the characters are like and how the film will be filmed i.e. shots, techniques, sounds and effects. This gave Phil a clearer outline about how our ideas have been put together and he then helped us with any parts we might have been unsure about.

In Friday’s seminar we were introduced to Frame Forge and Celtex. Celtex is used to plan out what we will need to bring to when filming and who will need to bring them. Frame Forge is a programme to show the scenes throughout a film much clearer than being hand drawn. Everyone in our group had a go at using these two programmes, which we therefore created a more detailed storyboard.

We also made a plan on excel of what needs to be done from week two to week three. I was in charge of producing the sound treatment for the film.

Week three

Week three was thinking about the pre-production of our film. We had to make sure we had everything we needed before jumping into filming. This is important so you and the team are certain what is going to happen on the day of filming and how long, approximately it is going to take. This includes, storyboards, script, equipment, risk assessment forms, permission for filming at the chosen location, lease form, sounds, actors, props, costume and other safety equipment such as shelter for the equipment if it rains on the day.

In the second seminar we all discussed composition with Deborah and then practiced using these techniques ourselves within our groups. We also experimented with different ways to shoot i.e. filming walking backwards, which was about timing and balance. After having a better understanding of different techniques we went onto manipulating our storyboard slightly, as a group. We then all planned days for filming during week four, which we then emailed the equipment store to book what we needed to film.

Week four

During week four we started filming. The equipment we used was a HDV video camera, sound microphone, tripod and a reflector. The filming went well and the lighting outside was good for the shots. In the seminars in week four, we watched a few short films to show other edits and then I and the editor (Sam) started to edit the film ourselves. We got feedback in both seminars and went from there.

When we were editing the film we thought it would work well adding a few more shots into the film, therefore we arranged to film during week five.

Week five

We filmed our last few shots in week five, which was our final week of moving image. After filming I and Sam started to edit and add sound into the edits. This took longer than we thought because we had many effects to add into the film. I helped Sam edit the film as I am the sound designer and I made sure the sound was clear to hear especially the dialog and made sure the music fitted well with each scene.

Finally when we finished our edit we went on the exporting the film which took the P**S....

(We will upload our film onto Vimeo and write a 500 word evaluation by Tuesday 15^th Feb)

V&A Museum!

2011-01-30T10:23:00.000-08:00

photograph taken by myself.

For first year of Multimedia Design, we all went on a trip to the V&A museum in London. The aim of going was to find certain practitioners that inspired you and your own work. This was the first time I had been to the V&A museum and I didn't expect it to be that big. I thought the building was beautiful and after this blog I will go on to research the V&A building's history.

The museum is split into parts, Asia, Europe, modern, materials and techniques and exhibitions. They all had their own unique artifacts and sculptures which were either 18, 19 or 20th century. We managed to look around the museum as much as possible and along the way I found some inspiring artists.

When looking through all the separate galleries, I wasn't so much interested in the 18/19th century antiques however, they were gorgeous to look at but I think my own work doesn't relate to that sense of style.

I was mainly intrigued by the isotype gallery, painting and drawings, stained glass and photography. To find practitioners at the V&A I thought these three areas would be key to use towards my own work, since I am mainly focusing on virtual environments as my chosen pathway for the next two years. The images below show the artwork in each area that inspired me the most. I have written a brief description to show why I am inspired by them. (I photographed all the images below and manipulated them only slightly to present them more attractively and clearer.)

Isotype

Isotype (International System Of TYpographic Picture Education) is a method of constructing and publishing information using visual graphic materials. These are pictogram's of people or objects that communicate visually to people of all ages. It shows a clear design method for educational and development of knowledge.

From the images above you can see on the right hand side, the design titles 'Unemployment In Great Britian' and below give a clear example of the dates and small graphic pictures of people. This shows us a quick and easy message to what it is trying to get across to the viewers.

There are three creators of Isotype. Otto Neurath, Marie Neurath and Gerd Arntz. Otto Neurath is the intellectual leader of Isotype, who spent his lifetime embracing political economy, sociology, philosophy, urbanism and visual communication. He was also the director of the Social and Economic Museum of Vienna. Marie Neurath became a creative author in the 1950's and 60's designing children's books on history and science subjects. Gerd Arntz worked at the Social and Economic Museum of Vienna producing pictogram's and gave Isotype its outstanding graphic style.

I have decided to use Isotype within my research for my visual essay because I think this will help me to show my work visually and since my chosen pathway for level two is virtual environments (animation), I consider the style of graphics used in Isotype can relate to the design in my own work. I tend to use block, bold and bright colours within my work, which keeps it quite modern and clear. This applies insignificantly to the graphic style of Isotype. I will continue to research further on Isotype, which can potentially work towards my ideas for presenting my essay.

Paintings & Drawings

In the paintings & drawings gallery, I came across these paintings by an artist named John Constable. The detail of each painting made them stand out to me and the artist uses similar landscape images. Constable uses pencil sketches to produce his work. He was an English romantic painter, who painted the surroundings of is home - "I should paint my own paintings best".

I definitely consider to use him to relate to my own work because he creates brilliant landscape paintings which connects with the reality of virtual environments. In animation it is crucial to have an artistic background and I personally think John Constable can help me throughout my research to be able to capture the environments within an animation. I will continue to research John Constable and his paintings.

I also came across children's books in the paintings & drawing gallery, as shown above. The artist is called Walter Crane who was a English artist and book illustrator. Crane is a well known children's book creator of his generation. As you can see above, he has developed numerous illustrated children's books with some minor text during the 19th and 20th century. I was interested by the style of the drawings and how you can see that they are quite aged by the costume design and detail.

On the bottom right image, you can see the sketched illustration and the painted version. This is nice to see, because you can see a simple development of the drawing. I would like to use this practitioner towards my own work to show the contrast and familiarity within my animation and character design work.

Photography

The photography gallery was quite small and a security woman kept telling us to not take photographs for some reason, but I managed to take the two above. The image on the left was produced by an artist named Robert Heinecken. I read the blurb about the photographs and I thought it was interesting because Heinecken believed there was too many photographic images. He named this ARE YOU REA, which extenuates REAL/REALLY. He used this to explore consumer culture and self-image.

The image on the right is by an artist named Henry Holmes Smith. In his portfolio he explains 'As the syrup lens runs down the sheet of glass it causes light falling on it to refract, making marks that celebrate life itself. This celebration, in turn, honours sight and in this double celebration I honour not only light and sight but true master, L. Moholy-Nagy, as well.'

I'm inspired by this photograph because it is very unique and abstract and it keeps you thinking about the image. It also looks quite modern and stylish, yet the meaning behind it is very detailed, as shown above.

I could explore these two artists because even if their artwork doesn't inspire my own, there style of thinking about design could possibly inspire me to think more creatively.

Stained Glass

I thought the stained glass gallery was interesting because of the fine detail and how they tell a story visually, which is a great feature to explore for my own work. The three images above (I have manipulated them slightly) tells the story - The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee. The story depicts the miracle of Jesus calming the Sea's Of Galilee, which is from the Gospel Of Mark of the Christian Bible.

This is unique and delicate, especially the stained glass artwork which shows a narrative understanding of the testament in the bible.

I purposely picked out this piece of stained glass because the people in the artwork look a lot like modern cartoon characters compared to the stained glass artwork we normally see. Originally stained glass artwork has many people shown, which tells a story however this doesn't seem to be narrative. The main aspect I like about stained glass artwork is the colours used. They always seem to be bright and colourful to look at, which makes it attractive and graceful. This would be useful to research, as they use different materials and in college I made a candle holder using stained glass, which I could possibly included within my visual essay.

After selecting the practitioners and information from the V&A museum, I will now expand and research my chosen artists. I will also use these artists to relate to others who are similar.

Isotype, John Constable, Walter Crane will be considered as the main practitioners I have selected from the trip to use towards my visual essay. Yet, I will also explore photography and stained glass in a way of thinking about design as a concept.

Overall the V&A museum was a great opportunity and I am pleased with the practitioners I have found, which can potentially inspire my own work.

Role Two: Production Designer!

2011-01-26T09:39:00.000-08:00

My other role during the film making is the production designer, as well as sound designer. It is important to know exactly what I will be in charge of during the making of our film.

What is a production designer? - My understanding is that the production designer is head of the art department in film. This means working with the producer and director to visually set the style of a scene to tell a story. Therefore before and after shooting I will be focusing on the style and the visual feel. As a production designer, it is also required to help with the costume designer and hair and make-up artist to guide them to create the appearance and trend we desire to create. I will also work with the location manager, the special effects director and photography to secure the sense of visual aspects.

However as we only have roles for the producer, director, editor, camera and lighting and sound and production designer because there isn't enough of us in the group. We have set each other additional roles, such as costume and prop design, location, description of characters and etc. We have also assigned roles which involves being responsible for all the risk assessments and permission. As my main role is the sound and production designer, I will be working with more or less all of the members in our group because it is important for me to create the ambience and feel that reacts to the audience.

"Film is ultimately a visual medium, its visual material is almost like another actor, itself creating a mood and eliciting an emotional reaction from the audience. Just think how much the production design in Todd Haynes’ "Far From Heaven" contributed to the overall effectiveness of his story. It is the PD’s responsibility to find the right visual and spatial elements that best convey the film’s theme and emotion."
http://newenglandfilm.com/news/archives/03january/pd.htm

I think I will work well as the production designer within the film making.
As an individual, I personally like anything to look organized and stylish whether its from a piece of writing to the layout of your bedroom or even a blog on this journal. I think this will be a great role for me to undertake and explore.

Ticket?

2011-01-20T15:48:00.000-08:00

Over the past two weeks I have researched sound design and thought about what techniques we could use within our film called 'Ticket'. Our film is about a girl (Lisa) who seems to sit at a bus stop/bench for a long period of time day after day. Then one day a boy (Sam) starts talking to her and she seems to know a lot about this boy. So, overall we have decided that Lisa's character is quite shy, quirky but intelligent and Sam's character is quite popular and out going. The main ambience we want to create for the audience is romance, however we want to make sure it keeps the viewers interested throughout. An idea I have for this is flash-backs of her or his past which shows why they have opposite personalities or even flash-backs to how Lisa knows so much about Sam.

As I am the sound designer, I have been looking into what sounds would suit the type of mood we want to create. Sound is ideal, as it is an important factor to create the atmosphere. Since romance is our focus point, I have looked at music from other films used to set the mood.

I would also like to create synchronous sound effects such as, the sound of opening a fizzy drink I.E. recorded the sound separately and overlay onto the film. Another idea is, Lisa or Sam might have earphones in their ears listening to music. Therefore the music could be edited onto the film so the audience can hear what he or she is listening to. It could then possibly flip to the other person talking, which means you would hear the music only slightly and hear the other person speaking. These are all synchronous effects. Asynchronous sound effects could be used when Lisa is sat on the bench I.E. traffic noises, as though it would be coming from where the camera is filming.

I have been assigned to write a sound treatment for my role as the sound designer. I have many ideas for the sound, however when we plan the scenes out clearly I will be able to write a description on the sound techniques scene by scene, as it depends on the location. In our group discussion on Friday (21stJan), we will plan out a detailed plan of each scene and give every member of the group a copy, which then means I can get started on practicing recording sounds and using the equipment.

Sound and Production Designer!

2011-01-20T10:36:00.000-08:00

" Before computer editing, sound editor used to reelaudio tape players to record sound."

I have researched my role as a sound designer for our short film. I used filmsound.org to research and learn my own understanding of sound. They are mainly broken down into three main areas these are:

sound effects, music and dialog.

Sounds Effects

Synchronous and asynchronous sounds are used within sound effects.

Synchronous means sounds are synchronized to what is happening within the film. Its basically a combination of visual and sound working together on screen. For example, sounds might be recorded separately for parts of a scene and then edited to increase or decrease the pitch of the sound. I.E. door creak, to create the mood of the film and keep the audience interested. A door creak may make the audience feel anxious and fearful to what might happen next.

Asynchronous means more or less the opposite to synchronous. Sound effects would be used that do not match what is on screen. It makes the audience visualise what might be happening in the background of the film (which is not on screen). For example, a couple might be talking in a kitchen in the house and throughout, sound might be used such as an ambience sound that is coming from outside on the street, but the focus is on the characters reaction in the 'kitchen'.

So, I think synchronous and asynchronous would work nicely within our work and I will look further into them both before filming. They would work well braking down the awkward parts during the film, as we have planned to make the connection between the two characters quite uncomfortable. Camera techniques could also be used to grab the audiences attention.

Music

Music is used to set the mood of the scene to keep the audience interested, link to different scenes and to make the audience feel emotional.

Certain short sounds and music can be recognised that relates to a certain action or film. For example, when we here 'durdum durdum' (If you get the gist) we automatically think of sharks swimming in the water I.E. The film, Jaws. Another example would be Randy Newman who sings 'You've got a friend in me', everyone who here's this song would most likely think of the animated film Toy Story, as it is the theme song. This is also popular in the public eye, which makes the music familiar.

This is something to think about when making sound for our film. Even little effects like the 'durdum durdum' makes the audience feel the mood you are trying to create because they can relate to the sounds.

Dialog

Voices can be heard throughout a a film using many different techniques.

One technique is called voice over, usually abbreviated VO in scripts. Voice over is a narrative commentary or concept used over visuals in a film or advert. This means you cannot see the person speaking, you can only hear them. A good example of this is commercials

I.E. http://www.e4.com/video/W3fec1rCXEERjWqtZ9U3eg/play.e4

(Peter Dickson - Voice Over for channel E4 adverts)

Dialog is not always used whilst filming on set. Some dialog is recorded off location and put onto the film when editing. When film making, they sometimes shoot silent, MOS (Motion Omit Sound) which means the crew can film without being perfectly quite. It might also be used in case of background noises on location. Therefore the dialog would be recorded in a studio/booth. Although a highly directional microphone can be used to control the sound on location.

Sometimes when dialog editing, it is common that the editor might use a word in the dialog to complete another, if it was distorted in anyway.

Dialog in film is important to make sure it is clear throughout any film. I think this will be the most difficult part of sound and I will need to practice with the equipment before filming. Yet, it is recommended to record dialog when filming on a external location.

Moving Image!

2011-01-16T16:47:00.000-08:00

For our first five week project, we were put into groups and given a short script to work from for the next five weeks. The script we have been assigned to is called 'Ticket' which is about a girl and a boy meeting at a bus stop/bench. We were all given roles, these were producer, director, editor, sound and production designer and camera and lighting. I am the sound and production designer. This basically means that I will be in charge of making sure the sound is clear and also what sounds to use within the film. Such as, music, voices, sound effects and etc. This will involve making my own sound effects for the film and using different pitches to enhance the ambience and feel of the scenes within the film which I will work and discuss this with the editor I.E. Samantha :-)

For my own role, I will continue to research, test my own sounds and use the equipment to my best ability. I am mainly looking into creating sound effects such as, crunching of leaves and fizzy drink bottles opening and etc.

I will blog plenty.

Threshold Concept!

2011-01-16T16:23:00.000-08:00

In our first lecture back from Christmas, we were introduced to Threshold Concepts and discussed them briefly.
"A threshold concept is like a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something, without which the learner can not progress. Meyer & Land (2003)"

We then watched a film called eXistenZ for the rest of the lecture. The film was about virtual reality gaming. It was quite strange, but it kept you thinking throughout the film.

We were given three words to write and relate to towards the film. These were:

Narrative

Interactivity

Convergence

The film showed narrative as though you questioned what was happening throughout the film. It showed both fantasy and reality, however it was unsure whether the scenes you where watching were either. It definitely developed a story throughout. Interactivity was used within the characters and theory of the film. It also keeps you, as the audience intrigued about what is going on in the game, making you think, why they are doing this and where its going to end. It also keeps you relating back to previous scenes. Convergence works with what you might think or imagine what is going to happen throughout the film.

Module One!

2011-01-03T18:01:00.000-08:00

Animation
http://vimeo.com/17954966 (improved version)

http://vimeo.com/16214913 (original version)

Interactive
(Alyssa Brookes)
http://makingnewmaps.com/

Moving Image
http://vimeo.com/17332808

Buzz Interactive Space!

2010-12-02T21:15:00.000-08:00

RIGHT

LEFT

RIGHT

DR. SAW

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR

Interactive Space!

2010-11-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

Starting the first week of Interactive Space, we all were taught how to use Dreamweaver and the html codes. To be honest it seemed a little confusing, but as the week went on I managed to get my head around everything a bit better. The aim of this project is to be able to create a narrative sequence using photographs that link together to create a short story. For the audience, the key is to make it exciting for them to use. For example, finding the link to the next page or making them go through different paths and etc.

Therefore to start we were all asked to take three different sequences. Each sequence had to be only five images. This helped me with ideas and what would be likeable to look at. When doing this I also thought about composition when taking my sequences and I also used Adobe Photoshop to edit them slightly, especially the third sequence where I decided to use different shades to create the feeling of the image.

Meg is lost in the fridge.

Meg finds her friends.

she's happy she has found them.

suddenly something falls on Meg's head.

Meg dies and her friends are shocked.
POOR MEG.

oven off.

turn oven on.

turn timer on.

timer goes off.

full cupboard

going down.

running out of food.

only a pot noodle left.

all gone.

Car Crash One Shot!

2010-11-25T09:11:00.000-08:00

Throughout the three weeks I have learnt about filming, composition, lighting, sound effects and I have also learnt programmes such as Adobe Premiere Pro. From this I and my group were able to create a one shot film. Throughout the three weeks we researched and found inspiration that we gathered together to create ideas for our one shot film.

Our main idea was using spot lighting; to do this we used three lights and gels. The reason we used three lights is because the car crash moved to different areas of the room. For example, when the person in the car moved to the centre of the room, the light that was shining on him switched off and the centre light then turned on as he got to where the centre light was pointing.

We also used grey gels, we put more than one gel on each light to make it quite dim, and this helped to set the mood to how we planned. We turned all the main lights off in the studio and tested the spot lights to make sure they only focused on one area.

When everything was in place we practiced about five or six times before filming, this was important to get right because of the timing for the lights and actors. After filming we then went to edit our film using Adobe Premiere Pro to add sound effects, such as thunder, rain, traffic noises, horns, car sounds and etc. We took all the sound out from filming, because you could hear the clicking of the light switches and the rolling of the chairs. Adobe Premiere Pro is also good for diming the lighting and changing different visual effects on the film.

When we were happy with our final edits we then rendered the film as our final. Overall I was happy with our group effort and how our one shot film worked out. I have learnt a lot over the three weeks, especially with setting up and using the lighting. I will now go on to edit the film myself, to enhance the video and to show my own edits.

Car Crash One Shot Film:

http://vimeo.com/17332808

One Shot Lighting!

2010-11-25T08:16:00.000-08:00

During week two of One Shot Film we focused on the use of lighting that we will be using within our film. Therefore in our groups we all practiced different lighting skills. We had to create the lighting so it looked as though it was daylight. When filming, we had to base it on an interview but the main aspect of doing this was to be able to understand setting up the lights and using them correctly to set different moods and atmospheres.

For this we were given a video camera, a tripod, one light and gels for the light. We set it all up as shown and moved the equipment around a few times until we were happy with the set up. We set the interview next to a window, which helped because it brought more light into the scene. The gels used for lighting help set the mood of your shot depending on what colour gels you use. For this we used a light blue colour, which made the scene look more tranquil and soft.

Doing this task helped us a lot and we now can think about what gels and how many lights we will want for our one shot film.

Looking back to our inspiration, our lighting is mainly going to be spot lights. Therefore we all discussed together that we would need around three lights and grey/black gels to dim the lighting and set the atmosphere. We then worked out how we would put it together and how the spot lights would work and then picked a date to start filming.

One shot Research and Inspiration!

2010-11-03T10:36:00.000-07:00

Research
From watching existing one shot films, I thought it would be interesting and also good for our group to research a mixture of short one shot films before jumping straight into filming our own. The research could also give us inspiration for our own ideas, which we could work with when planning out what we are planning to create.
Whilst watching the one shot films we were able to find, we thought it would be best to show which films inspired us the most. Therefore we could talk about how we could possibly use similar elements that we have seen to boost up our own ideas.

The particular one shot short film below was interesting to include in my research because of the use of depth of field within the shot. I personally liked how the the woman is in the foreground and the two males are in the background, and the shot pans out slightly and focuses on the two men in the background.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zyyn6UGlFc

I also like this one shot film because it captures all the elements of the fighting the audience want to see but in one shot. I think this would be quite hard to film but I like this because you follow the movement of the character in the film. This would be a good way to make the audience feel like they are apart of the film, as they might feel as though they're interacting with the characters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8kqNSQn5QU

Inspiration
Recently I watched Lee Evans at The o2 Arena on DVD one night with a friend. As I was watching I thought the speed dating part (shown below) would be really effective for the use of lighting within our one shot film. So when we all met to discuss our ideas, I showed them the clip to see what they thought. We came up with various ideas that would go well with the similar style of lighting. However we wanted the storyline of the film to be quite gloomy and dull, which we suggested would work nicely with the spot lighting. To do this we thought of a variety of effects we could use to set the atmosphere within the shot. We talked about the different sound effects such as, thunder, rain and street noises, depending on what we were going to base the one shot film on. Therefore we thought it would be a good idea to decide what our film was going to be about. We all agreed on the spot lighting, the sound effects and how we wanted to set a dim atmosphere, which develops a sad, lonely or scary mood for the audience. Therefore we came up with two main ideas. Firstly we thought of a person’s life in different stages, for example, growing up and then the person dies in an accident. The second idea was a car crash, which showed the build up to how the two cars crash. We decided together as a group that the car crash would work a lot better because we could use more sound effects and we could also block out any sound from filming, such as the light switches flicking on and off. As a result, the clip of Lee Evans above is our main inspiration for this project.

One Shot Film!

2010-10-29T05:48:00.000-07:00

To begin One Shot Film, we were put into groups of four and given a brief for the project called ‘You Decide’. In the first week we made a practice one shot film that lasted one minute. We were given two areas where we could film, the grave yard or the auditorium. When thinking of rough ideas for our practice film, we decided to use the auditorium. Before filming we came up with a storyline, this was basically a tramp sat on a bench, then along comes a posh lady and sits next to the tramp. The tramp the walks away and the posh lady drinks the alcohol. After thinking of the storyline, we thought of different ways to how we could stand and move the camera, but only once. In the end we came to a decision which was starting off with the camera zoomed onto a bottle of vodka and then the camera zooms out onto the scene. We thought this would work well, as the audience could then realise what the prop was and grasp what kind of character the person acted who was holding the vodka.

For this we created a risk assessment. This included who could possibly be affected in the activity, but not only the people you’re working with. It also involves the general public and any other individuals. We also had to think about vulnerable people such as children and people with disabilities. As a result, we produced a risk assessment before undertaking the practice film.

We used a tripod and a panasonic video camera for the task. However we could only pan/zoom the camera once and the camera could not be moved or stopped at any time.

After a few attempts, we were happy with our outcome and went to edit the practice one shot using Adobe Premiere Pro. We presented our film to everyone and gathered feedback on what they liked and how it could be improved. From that, we could then take it into consideration when filming our final one shot film. For our final one shot film we can choose our own location and any storyline, hence the title ‘You Decide’ which I am looking forward to working on.

Practice One Shot Film:

http://vimeo.com/17333696

My Station Ident!

2010-10-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

Over the past three weeks, I was commissioned to produce a thirty second station ident using 3D Studio Max. The ident had to be about you, for example your facebook, twitter or anything you enjoy, which then merged together to create an ident for your own TV channel.

Throughout the three weeks, we have had seminar lessons to learn 3D Studio Max. At first I thought it was difficult to get the hang of but with the understanding of the programme from the seminars, I was then able to learn some more techniques from tutorials on YouTube which helped me a lot.

For inspiration, I firstly looked at all the BBC, ITV, CHANNEL 4 idents to give me a few ideas. However I tend to be inspired by bright colours and cartoon styles in most work I do, which I thought would be great for this project. Therefore I researched various idents and clips with the similar styles to give me an insight for my own station ident.

(In the bibliography at the bottom are some links to my inspiration)

On the internet there is a lot of discussion whether tropes used in media are good or bad. My understanding of tropes is what TV writers, directors, actors and etc, use to control the audiences outlook. Tropes are often used to show fiction, which helps us to not just focus on the reality in life, which is why people think badly about different tropes they have seen.

Looking at semiotics and genre in some of the clips on the internet, I thought would be good to use these within my work to create something relatively abstract. This would most likely catch the audience’s attention to a large extent.

From researching and developing some inspiration, I came up with a few designs that I sketched. I then had to take into consideration, my ability of skills using 3D Studio Max to which I then finally came up with a completed design for my station ident. My final design is basically, a bright blue sky with clouds as the background, with bright bold letters ‘ADB’ which are my initials and then a bumble bee which fly’s around the screen. The design relates to me, because I love animals and bright colours. Which is why I thought a bright sky would work well for the background and I decided on a bumble bee because I personally think it would work well with the background and their cute, as strange as it might sound.

With the help from seminars classes and YouTube, I began producing my animation. There were a few ups and downs along the way, such as timing and pressing buttons I shouldn’t have pressed but in the end I was happy with my animation. The next step was to add sound using Adobe Premiere Pro. Sound is very important, especially for an animation or it could lose the audiences interest.

You could say the genre for my ident is for children so it could be classed as adventure, but when people watch my ident I assume they would most likely think it was for a cartoon TV channel or something similar.

I also use semiotics, this is the title of the TV channel ‘ADB’ and I also have a sign at the end which comes into the scene which says ‘Press red now’. I use different camera angles and animations to create them visually throughout the ident.

Bibliography

Inspiration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4rTLuKXAZo&p=4D9A3CFD3CC7A268&playnext=1&index=57

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcwxSbNrRro&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q-nkaiY5GM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty8gbAu8yi8&feature=related

3D Studio MaxTutorials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waZUq0Xueuc&p=ED11FF91AB389FCC&playnext=1&index=44

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEJfMPBpuLI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_JzFMBAoz4&feature=related

My Station Ident (without sound):

http://vimeo.com/16214913

My Multimedia!

2010-10-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

For my multimedia, I will discuss the one and only FUJIFILM S1000FD camera! I have had this camera for about two years now and I personally think it’s a great camera to work with.

I previously studied a national diploma in design at college. Part of the diploma was photography, therefore when I started the course I thought it would be a good idea to buy a decent camera. I was looking for a camera that had plenty of features such as optical zoom, macro, stabilisation and versatile shooting.

I researched various cameras on the Internet before I came to a decision, such as canon 550d, Nikon d3000 and many more. What also caught my eye were cameras that were compact but manageable to use, I thought this would be perfect for location photography.

In the end I found the Fujifilm s1000fd camera, where it had everything I needed and more. The camera is a small compacted (SLR style) digital camera, which had all the features I wanted, and also panorama shooting, red-eye removal, face detection and SUPER macro. It additionally had 10.0 mega pixels and 12x optical zoom, which was brilliant for such a small camera. It cost me around one-hundred and fifty pounds, which I thought was a reasonable price.

I was happy with the camera, it produced me quality photographs, it didn't give me any bother and I still use it to this day. I’m unlikely to buy a new camera, unless I need a new one or something better catches my eye. Nevertheless the design and features are great but I think the desire to buy the upgrade of the product isn’t as essential as it might be for products such as the iPhone. Yet, there are thousands of reasons to why this might be.

Overall I enjoy using my camera and I think it's worth every penny!

My Inspiration!

2010-10-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

These are some images of inspiration that I would like to use towards my work in multimedia, sometime throughout the year. I think the images below would be great inspiration to use towards different character designs for animation. Each character also looks as though you can sense what kind of personality it might have if it was animated.

I WISH.....

...I COULD DRAW LIKE THAT!

http://planetoddity.com/awesome-pencil-drawings-from-students-notebooks/

3D Animation!

2010-10-12T05:03:00.000-07:00

To create various 3D animations I have used Autodesk 3D Max. Below are some short practice animations that I have done to just simply try and get the hang of the programme a bit better.

(One jump)

There will be more animations to add to this blog.

My Design Process!

2010-10-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

For context one, I will discuss the design process I used from a previous project. This will show what different methods I used to accomplish the end result.

In my second year at college, I studied a project called functional art. For the unit our group went on two trips, one to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the other to Leeds City Centre. The aim of the trips was to take detailed photographs of the sculptures, nature and architecture from both trips. This was primary research that we used towards our own inspiration for the project.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Image: http://www.ysp.co.uk/

We also had to base our designs on a artist. I chose Piet Mondrian to research, because his work inspired me the most and I thought I could create some quite unique and stylish designs with the structure and primary colours that he tended to use within his work. From looking back at the photos from the two trips, I created two collages of inspiration, to which I could work with when sketching my ideas.

The purpose of functional art was to design and manufacture a product that was eye- catching and appealing to look at, rather than the purpose of the product. Therefore we gathered secondary research to choose what product we would like to design, for this project. I decided to base my designs on a candle holder. I chose this product because they are mainly produced for the visual side of the product, therefore I can create something attractive and striking with its own unique purpose.

First of all everyone started off with rough sketches of ideas. From that we then evaluated everyone’s ideas in groups, which I thought was reasonable to do, because I gathered loads of feedback whether it was negative or positive to which I could then relate back to when I was developing my ideas.

From my design ideas I chose one to develop. My development showed how everything would be manufactured together, what materials I would use, and the measurements of all the different parts to make the product. I slightly changed the design to make its purpose a little more interesting. I added a bowl that sited on top of the candle holder, so it could be used for liquid incense. So when the candle heats up the bowl it gives off a nice refreshing fragrance. When I felt I was happy with my developments I made a 3D CAD model of my final design using Autodesk Inventor (As shown below).

Therefore I could use this in the workshop to help manufacture my product. To do this I used, welding, brazing, forging, glass cutting, sanding and more. (Below is a photograph of my candle holder that I manufactured but without the glass artwork around the top).

To be honest, making the candle holder wasn’t easy. And it was also my first time in the workshop making a product out of metal. However with practice I learnt a lot in the end, so it was worth it. Afterwards I tested the product by taking a series of photographs to show how the product worked. I also wrote an evaluation about the whole project.

P.S. All of my designs and final photographs of the candle holder (including the glass work) are on my computer in Huddersfield at home and at college. When I get hold of the images I will add them onto this blog. I will also add my manufacturing log onto the blog which shows how I made my product step by step.

Chapter one!

2010-10-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

Well.
The crazy world of Multimedia begins!