Personal Branding Experimentation- 2nd Attempt

After some feedback I played around with my logo without using the disk, with my own hand writing included in all the text. So far I prefer 1, 3 and 4.

Personal Branding Experimentation

For a while now, I've been thinking about my personal branding. Moving into my final year means that I have to start promoting myself and my work since I will hopefully be getting in touch with important people from the industry.

I started with working on my logo after Phil advised me to use one of Megan's thumbnails as part of it. I wanted to keep it bold and easy to remember with my own signature on it. Out of these designs I prefer the last which could work nicely like a watermark. Any feedback would be much appreciated :)

Work Experience and Year 2 Evaluation Post

I haven't posted anything for a while but this post will pretty much sum up what I've been up to for the last few months. Before evaluating Year 2, I would like to show you what I've produced for my Work Experience while working for Butch Auntie as part of my curriculum.

Work Experience

Working for someone outside university for 5 weeks was a great experience as we had a first taste of what awaits for us in the future as CG Artists. The workflow was quite relaxing compared to what we had to face during the year but we also had to be well prepared for any sudden changes or extra work our client could ask us for. Also it was vital for us to be communicative, to update our clients with our progress and not hesitate to ask them questions regarding our work.

This is the showreel me and Dayle put together. The video shows our first 'Mini Project' called Priscilla which we worked on together and clips of our individual work on the 3D and 2D team for the second 'Mini Project' called Mayfair. Enjoy!

Year 2 Evaluation

My second Year in CGArts and Animation in UCA Rochester was a very tiring but a rewarding one. I got to work on areas that I've been waiting for since first year like Character Design and had a great time during the learning progress. Although going deeper into the software was very hard, my sleepless nights and fights with Maya paid off. I think my best decision through the year was to take over character modelling and rigging for our first Group Project which allowed me to understand the Character process better and helped me create my own again on my Transcription. 

I overall found 2nd Year a 'ticket' to allow me to make greater work during 3rd Year and cannot wait to get started again. Now that my software knowledge has improved I am going to put it into greater use and practice on it even more, especially animation which I really want to improve on.

Summer Plans

My initial plans for this summer was to work on my First Dissertation Draft, prepare myself for my Minor Project, finish some unfinished tutorials and of course relax to recharge my batteries for the upcoming final year. 

What I did not expect was that I was going to work on a summer group project with another 8 of my coursemates in a group called Nanomation. Our aim is to make an animation and even though we might not finish it, it will be a good way to keep us active during summer.

Also, worth mentioning is that I had the amazing opportunity to work in New Designers in London where this year's graduates got to show their work to the public and promote themselves. It was an exciting two days of talking to people about the course and University and showing what students can achieve in only 3 years time. I would like to congratulate the 3rd years for the amazing work they showed and made the course proud. Very impressive :)

So roll on 3rd year in September :)

Maya: Intro to Mental Ray Continued

Lighting Profiles: IES Lighting Information Files

Mental Ray: Using Maya Layered Shaders with Mental Ray Nodes

Mental Ray: Round Corners Node

Depth of Field: Using Luminance Depth

Maya: N-Cloth Continued

NCloth Part 5: Custom Presets & Component to Component Constraint (Balloons)

NCloth Part 6: Tearable Surface Constraint (Marbles)

NCloth Part 7: Weld Adjacent Borders Constraint (Candy Bag)

Maya: High Res Character Modelling- Head Complete

Maya: Intro to N-cloth

NCloth Part 1: Flags (Ncloth, Collider, & Nucleus)

NCloth Part 2: Netting (Indirect Deformation)



NCloth Part 3: Bouncy Castle (Cache Blending)

NCloth Part 4: Rope Bridge (Transform Constraints)

Maya: Hi Res Characters- Face (mouth and nose)

Lighting & Rendering 3: Intro to Mental Ray Continued

Gallery Rendering Part 2: Render Layers

Using Ambient Occlusion with Displacement Maps

Sub Surface Scattering Part 1: Grapes

Sub Surface Scattering Part 2: Cartoon Shader

Ambient Occlusion Lighting & Light Decay

Maya: High-Res Character:Upper Torso Adding Geometry

Maya: Intro to Dynamic Bodies (week 2)

Soft Bodies Part 1: Flesh

Soft Bodies Part 2: Cloth / Marble

Soft Bodies Part 3: Snow

Soft Bodies Part 4: Water

Soft Bodies Part 5: Bubbles

Maya: Intro to Dynamic Bodies

Active / Passive Bodies: Stand In Object (Chain Links)

Active / Passive Bodies: Hinge & Spring Constraints (Catapult)

Active / Passive Bodies: Nail Constraint (Newton’s Cradle)

Active / Passive Bodies: Pin Constraint (Earing)

Maya: Hi Res Characters Part 1 - Modelling(Torso blocking)

Transcription: Unit Evaluation

I think I found Megan :D

Transcription started about 12 weeks ago and I cannot believe we already handed it in. Our first individual project which gave us the freedom to do whatever we want was an exciting one. It opened  up our horizons to what we can achieve in that short amount of time.

For me, doing a short animation to myself was something I wanted to do since first year but never thought I could achieve it due to the amount of problems I was faced with technology every day. But after a lot of effort I finally managed to do it and be proud of my first, not perfect, but reasonable animation.Time management was important in this this project as I was aiming to get my rendering done before I left for home and spend a lot of time of editing while I was there.
Probably the most interesting part to work on was animating Megan which was my first attempt in character performance. I used real footage and even went on an Animation gig in London where I seaked some advice from a professional animator from Double Negative.
 I very much enjoyed the whole progress,from the interview to the thumbnails and from the modelling to animating. My skills improved dramatically and I am confident enough to takeover more tasks.
So now, we get to work with Pete Wallace as part of our work experience

  

Transcription: I present to you "Megan's Alien" !

And after 10 weeks of hard work it is finally done. I am pleased with it but it could have been better in terms of animation. I hope you enjoy it :)

My incomplete turnaround will be edited after the crit.


The Art of Megans Alien

Technical Paper- Megan's Alien

CD Design

DVD Case Design

Transcription: Megan's Alien- Coming soon!

With all things going to plan I hope this turns out well. Hope I don't disappoint :P

Transcription: Film Review on Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Director: Ari Folman

Producer: Ari Folman, Serge Lalou,Gerhard Meixner, Yael Nahlieli, Roman Paul

Year: 2008

This extraordinary animated documentary by Ari Folman unfolds some of the tragedies behind the Sabra and Chatila massacres of the 1982 Lebanese war, which according to him Israel has decided to forget about. His masterpiece is something like a mix between a dream and a trip down memory lane, a hyper-real rotoscoped footage that tells the stories of the interviewees in the most capturing way. Peter Bradshaw points out that: "The film uses hyperreal rotoscope-animation techniques, similar to those made famous by Bob Sabiston and Richard Linklater. Live-action footage on videotape has been digitally converted into a bizarre dreamscape in which reality is resolved into something between two and three dimensions." (Bradshaw.2008)

Fig.2: The scenery

What made the film so unique was for its clever of colours and shadows. The two most common colours used in the film is yellow and black, one for used for brightness and the other for shadows. It is rather amazing how those to colours was all that the film needed to portray the events of war, like overhanging clouds not letting the light of the sun peak through them and the toxic yellow sky often symbolizing the war aftermath. Even the way the shadows used  to cover up parts of the characters' faces and the eyes always always appeared bright under their helmets or under a casting shadow.
Perhaps the most shocking part of the film is the ending where Folman turns the stylised animation into a real news footage. The sudden shot of an angelic child's face emerging from the rubble, was a reality-shock, a reminder that the events actually happened and are not just made up stories that interviewees made for the sake of the film. " 'Waltz' is by no means the world’s only animated documentary, a phrase that sounds at first like a cinematic oxymoron." (Scott.2008)This film is no story, but a documentary based on real life experiences told by real life figures

Fig.3: The animation turning into reality. 

List of Illustrations

Fig.1: Film Poster At: http://movietally.blogspot.com/2010/06/waltz-with-bashir-2008.html (11/3/2012)

Fig.2:    At: http://www.reverseshot.com/article/waltz_bashir  (11/3/2012)

Fig.3:   At: http://guriguriblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/waltz-with-bashir-memorialising-through-animation/  (11/3/2012)

Bibliography

Bradshaw Peter (2008). Waltz with Bashir   At: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/nov/21/waltz-with-bashir-folman (accessed on 12/4/2012)


A.O Scott (2008) Inside a Veteran’s Nightmare At: http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/movies/26bash.html (accessed on 12/4/2012)

@Phil Framing Practice: Essay Breakdown

Hello Phil,

Hope you are enjoying your holidays? I was wondering if you could have a look at my essay structure. I am not sure if I've gone too broad again. I tried to cover up the main traits that makes animation in each culture unique.

Thanks in advance.

Essay Question: What does animation connote culturally in the East and West?

Intro

 What connects and what makes cultures different? All cultures have an art identity, and one of them is animation, an art form which has taken different directions globally.

Main Body

Chapter 1- What does animation denote?

- Animation means moving image.

- How did it start? Very brief history (Zoetrope, Praxinoscope)

- What makes it so fascinating and satisfying to us humans?

- Metamorphosis in animation (forming images) - unique narrative continuity

Chapter 2- Animation in Popular Culture 

- How has animation spread globally?

- What is it used for? (Education, Entertainment..)

- How is it different on each part of the world? (America, Europe, Asia)

- What are the themes covered in animation?

- Binary Oppositions

Chapter 3- Animation in the West

- Brief History

- Walt Disney and Disneytification

- Disney Animation: Child Friendly (avoiding to make any comments on sex or violence)

- Disney's Hyperreal Worlds

- The Preference in "Unlikely Heroes"

Chapter 4- Animation in the East

- Anime Origins (Osamu Tezuka)

- Hayao Miyazaki - His worlds are about alternative realities

       Shojo: Feminism in his films (strength plus vulnerability in a way that is intriguingly feminine)

       "My neighbour Totoro" : The Parallels of the loss of a family member

- Other themes anime covers:

        "Akira": Adolescence, Identity, Feeling of Entrapment

       "Barefoot Gen", "Grave of the Fireflies": War Aftermath, Victim’s history, innocent children devastated by war’s destruction.

Conclusion


Culture is identified by what makes us different or unique. Animation  has its origins in the key factors and values of culture. Despite their variations they all have common aims: To provoke emotions or speaks about forbidden themes.

      

Transcription: Alien's 3D Progress

With the hand drawn animation of the alien progressing I couldn't help not to work on his 3D model, too. Now that I see him alive ( even if he is just skinned) I am tempted to work on him more with a very basic rig on his eyes, body and a few blendshapes. 

His animation will be fairly simple with him entering the screen waving 'Goo Goo Ga!" like Megan mentioned. Of course this will be during the credits, as the main animation of Megan is completed.

 The Alien's basic rig.

Maya: Mental Ray: Portal Lights and HDR images

Portal Lights 

Mental Ray: HDR (High Dynamic Range) Images Part 1

Mental Ray: HDR Images Part 2 (HDR Gallery Rendering)