Diana's Bloggination

Hmm

2012-02-27T12:13:00.000Z

I have come to the decision that i would like my scene to be at night time. Quite simply, because, if it was daytime the pirates be sailing somewhere to pillage. I also want to set a quiet, almost peaceful mood in the camp.
I know that pirates are rowdy and noisy, but they can't be that way all the time. Hence, in camp, whilst they sleep (also known as a drunken stupor) they'll be quiet and still.
The lighting will come from the firelight and the moon. So my colours of choice are orange-yellow and white-blue. I really hop that this turns out the way i visualised.

Looking at Procedural Animation

2012-02-27T12:10:00.000Z

In our lessons with Baris Isikguner, we have been learning procedural animation. We've looked at Dynamics and nDynamics, and it's been pretty hard. But it is mainly as we're using Maya for the first time too.
Honestly, so far I've enjoyed learning Procedural animation, even though it's so technical. You can create wondrous things with just a few figures and shapes.
So with particles in Dynamics, we have made rain, snow and small exploding blobs!

Using nCloth in nDynamics, we've been making realistic cloth. We made a flag, which i put a random script on to make the wind strength look actually real.

Looking at my Pirate Camp

2012-02-17T17:33:00.000Z

So here is some of my pirate camp, that i have constructed. It's mostly cylinders and boxes at the moment, but they will be moulded in to greater things! I need to work more on my layout plan, as i am simply working from a random drawing i did of the camp. So, distance and sizing may be a bit off at the moment.

Oh, and the boxes will be rocks. Just so you know. I will add a floor in too.

Terrain!

2012-01-31T17:44:00.000Z

For today's lesson of visualisation, we was looking at different ways to create terrain in the 3D world. The first way we learnt was the shape merge button. Shape Merge merges splines to objects, creating new edges and polygons on the object. Here, i have created an s shaped path/crater, a hill in the top right and a small mound in the bottom right.

This is how it looked (in stylised Ink) It's quite convincing as a rocky terrain. Such a simple creation.

NEXT, we learnt the Terrain button. It's pretty straight forward. You draw the contours of a mountain in splines, move them to the appropriate heights, then Terrain them.

And this is what you get:

I then decided to make up my own lil Island. I name it Delano!

I submerged it in a plane of water, just because it looks nicer in the stylised coloured pencil.

There was one more way to create a terrain, which was displacement. I had not yet attempted that in the lesson, as i got carried away with my island.

Plot Decision

2012-01-30T21:14:00.002Z

Alrighty then, i just need to finalise my plot for my Comedy Animation. Firstly i wanted to put it in the written form of a Beat-script. A beatscript is an aid to describing a story, before a storyboard is created. Each Beat refers to a new screen shot or change in movement.
So this is my story at the moment, however this is likelysubject to change, due to my ideas changing, through improvement and realism. It is also quite likely that i will want to add smaller details, not mentioned here, to further the plot or drama.

Bell rings
Boy runs out to the playground excited
Boy turns back for someone
Exasperated, Boy returns off-screen to collect Potatoe-Boy
With great effort Boy drags Potato-Boy across panning screen to see-saw
With further effort Boy places Potato-Boy on Left seat of see-saw
When Potato-Boy's weight is settled on, the Left seat sinks to the floor.
Boy races to Right seat of see-saw
Boy cannot get on to his seat. It is too high
Jumping, Boy grabs hold of seat edge
Boy scrambles onto bottom of the seat, having no way to reach the top. Boy hangs there contemplating this.
Potato-Boy slides off Left seat, removing weight
See-saw swings suddenly onto Boy, squishing him against the floor

I choose this story line, as it relates to the innocence of children, and how funny their innocence amuses the older generations. The main showing of innocence is the Boy using a pretend friend in a two-person activity. That children honestly think that such a task could work, with something that doesn't move is naivety. I wanted to play on these feeling that adults have towards children, so that they will find it funny.
This is reflective to adults, who may have done similar things when they were children themselves.

Decided

2012-01-29T18:12:00.000Z

I have made a decision for my visualisation project. I am creating a visual environment for the book The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I love the book, so I'll have no problems reading it again. However, a lot of the scenes happen in a volcanic cavern structure. So, I'll have to do a lot of research for the modelling of that.
I find that having the environment in a natural structure, creates more of a challenge, in comparison to a four-walled room. Overall, this product should be fun!

Researching Portfolios

2012-01-28T10:15:00.000Z

So, i was looking at people's portfolios online, and i have found two types.

Most people have their own websites, with galleries and such.
The rest create an extra page on their blogs, for art and showreels.

I could do either of these, as they would both suit my needs.

However, I've been doubting my abilities to create a website. Due to my shoddy skills in css reflecting badly on my website, I've decided to to drop the idea of a website for now. I need to be concentrating on my showreels of work. These are more important in the long run.

So, for this project i will just be producing a dvd showcasing my work.

Character Designs

2012-01-27T22:02:00.003Z

So here are my initial sketches of my characters:

And here are the designs i settled on:

I wanted the Boy to be cute and youthful. Full of spunk. I definitely want to stick with the shorts design, as that shows he's much younger. I want the Potato Boy to look as inhuman as possible. As it shows clearly that he is an imaginary friend, instead of a real one.

Chosen Idea

2012-01-26T12:29:00.001Z

Okay, so here is the chosen idea of mine: The see-saw scene.
I chose this scene because i can actually visualise the story. It seems more real to me, as it is a part of everyday life. It's something i can relate to. I've been in some strange see-saw incidents in my time, and i find them quite funny on recollection. I hope the audience will find it funny too.

However, In the idea, one of my characters was fat. For this idea to work, i need a heavy person versus a skinny person. I was informed that fat people are harder to control and manipulate with the CAT system. Sooooo.... i decided to change the story a bit. I decided, that there would be a little boy on the see-saw, with his 'friend' Potato Boy. Potato Boy is a sack of potatoes that has been made into a play friend. This keeps the weight in the situation, and is also funny, because the child has no real friends.

Storyboards

2012-01-26T12:23:00.000Z

Here are some little storyboards, for some funny things.

New Visualisation Project

2012-01-24T12:10:00.000Z

So, for our new visualisation project, i have to create a 3d walk-through based upon a literacy extract. It has to be an interior design, although i have a strange feeling that Roma will make us create and texture the outside as well. At least i am allowed to choose my own story.
Not sure what to choose though. Some Jules Verne perhaps? Harry Potter? Maybe some Robin Hobb, she is quite descriptive.

Making a Portfolio

2012-01-23T20:57:00.001Z

I have been instructed to make a portfolio, to showcase my work. This will help my employability, especially if it's on the Internet! So, quite simply i decided to create a website to showcase my awesomeness. As i am an animator, instead of a web designer, i felt this might be a bit hard. However i thought of using the 'website' i made last year, and simply improve upon it. Using Dreamweaver, i would be unstoppable!
Here is the wireframe i settled on:

Elegant in it's simplicity.

My Initial Ideas

2012-01-23T19:31:00.000Z

So i had a range of ideas for this project, some based on robots , as i thought we would be using them this year. They're all based on my own random and slightly violent sense of humour. I mean, people getting hit in the face? That's funny!

Flickr Account

2012-01-22T18:25:00.000Z

My Flickr account address is www.flickr.com/photos/dcmjones
Just wanted to post it, so Roma can find it.

how everything came together

2012-01-19T23:06:00.000Z

yay!
Overall, it's good. I just need to work on my compositions. Something just bugs me about them. My original ideas of plain backgrounds are beginning to seem rather... plain. I may have to change that.

problems with texturing

2012-01-19T23:03:00.001Z

I had to unwrap all of my objects, due to their particular designs and patterns. This was a newly learnt skill, so i wasn't particularly good at it at first. Each of my dolls was a challenge in unwrapping, as they never unwrapped the same way.
Due to the stretching of unwrapping/peeling, the designs were often stretched and distorted themselves, so that they would look correct on the doll.
I applied bump maps, in the correct places on the dolls. These were very intriguing in their effect, as the settings i used (20-30) went in fairly deep in the object. I've been wondering how far 100 setting would go. However the settings i used suited the dolls well.
A new thing i learnt how to do on this project, was using an opacity map for the fans. The fans had various carved designs in them, in which i was originally going to try and remove by the polygons. That would've taken me a very long time. However i used the opacity map to create the carvings. I wasn't sure how to apply them at first, and kept accidentally using bump maps instead.
Overall, I'm the most proud of the plain fan. I think it looks beautiful.

Texturing is a very time consuming practice and my laptop really doesn't like it. It even creates a lag in the Uni computers, so that goes to show that it's hard work. But it makes the end product much more beautiful.

positioning of the objects

2012-01-19T23:00:00.000Z

For the composition of my pieces, i wanted to try the golden spiral and the rule of thirds.

I also decided to use the placement of the objects in the scene to draw the viewers eye to certain areas of the still frame. The Painting :Metalware & pottery by Francisco de Zurbarán is a good example of this. The viewers eyes will follow a certain path along the painting.

Metalware and pottery

I found that the unfolded fan, draws attention to the eye, so i will be able to use them, in these instances.

progress with my modelling

2012-01-19T22:55:00.000Z

As far as the modelling was concerned, the geisha dolls were fairly easy to manipulate and create. This was due to their circular structure, which varied in size and curvature. Although i did have a lot of trouble trying to measure them in the first place. I kept true to all of their measurements, which made everything loads easier in creation.
The fans were interesting to create, as i wasn't decided to have them open or closed. I knew if i had to open/close them in between still frames, i would have got very annoyed (due to me having to rotate each piece 5 degrees at a time). So i created two of each of the fans. One open and one closed. This made it easier for me to import and position swiftly.

Of all the things i modelled for this project, the thing i hated the most was the red geisha's sleeves. They were such an odd shape to create. They took far too long to create in the long run.

One decision i kept having to make was, to meshsmooth or not to meshsmooth. As all the dolls were smooth, in some instances the meshsmooth would deform the shape too much. So i applied it where i could.

Ideas behind the design

2012-01-19T22:51:00.000Z

So i moved on from my original 'shelf collection' to geisha dolls and fans of the oriental variety. I made this choice as the original idea had no link or story behind it. There was no real meaning for the viewer to see. I changed it for the better, as the 'Japanese' Theme looks quite beautiful. I love it!
I researched the dolls online. They are really called kokeshi dolls.

Sourced from wikipedia

They were originally created as gifts and toys for children. In recent times, Kokeshi dolls have become purely ornamental and decorative. I want to focus on Ornamental for this project.

sourced from thejapaneseshop.co.uk

Fantasy Olympics

2011-12-09T22:30:00.000Z

Fantasy Olympics from Diana Jones on Vimeo.

After Effects was a completely new programme to me. As a combination of Premier pro and Photoshop, i found it hard to adapt to, as quite simply it is an effects tool and not primarily an animating one. I had to learn that i was not working in 3d, as i have been previously on this course, and think in only 2-dimensions. I found it hard to wrap my head round 2d 3d creations, but i got there eventually.
What i loved about this project was the recreation of my character Saru! And throwing dodge balls into bunnies faces! HA!
Unfortunately there are a couple problems with my final piece. these include: The fast paced transitions between the scenes, and the sketchy look of my characters. the transitions between each scene seem as if they are cut off too soon, and should last a second or two longer. I had not noticed this at first due to the fast paced feel to the video. My characters, due to their photoshop filling and pen inked outlines, look very amateur. If i was to remake this video, these are the immediate problems i would rectify. But i would also love to expand on the storyboard, the ending is a tad bit abrupt, leaving the viewer let down fast.
Honestly, i feel i could happily make a awesome dodge ball video, due to me being more comfortable with the After Effects programme.
how i understand how it can aid and even create animation.

uniforms for my characters

2011-11-30T12:41:00.001Z

I was just looking at different colour schemes for the uniforms. personally i quite like the black ones, they're quite snazzy!

Saru + Bunny

2011-11-30T12:40:00.001Z

Okay so I've uploaded them to photoshop now. I need to colour them in and separate them all onto to different layers. It shouldn't take me too long.

Okay, i did it! Here's an example of Saru:

okay, so i know he hasn't got a coloured body, but that is because I'm still working on the uniform design. I will obviously add that in when i have decided.

Sea Horse!

2011-11-21T13:45:00.000Z

The Chess Player

2011-11-17T22:49:00.001Z

I've got to say, i have learnt so much in these past few weeks. I've learnt how to animate characters using IK chains, Reaction Manager and Morph Targets. I have also learnt which are the most appropriate for the kind of movement. I've learnt a few different types of constraints, and when to use them. Overall, I've learnt how to animate much better. Personally i feel that my animating skills and enthusiasm has grown a lot.
This project follows my original ideas in a vague way. I wanted originally to have a revolving robot arm playing a full game of chess. That plan grew into two different arms (in looks and personality) playing a game of chess. Unfortunately, my designs of the Old Arm were not made to measure, and he ended up way too big. Also my plot included a full game of chess, which would have lasted well over two-three minutes. Therefore changes needed to be made.
I decided to change the story.The story shortened into the Old Arm knocking some of his pieces over, due to being unable to play the game successfully. Nothing was re sized.

It was only after that i had rendered all my video, that i wanted better textures. I started rendering The Chess Player in these new textures, however it is still rendering as i type this now. I think, that combined with the new layout, lighting and textures, the video would have been more impacting. However the new lighting removed my idea of a dark deep place, that the robots were constrained to. This is what i mainly like about the video. The dark nothingness that surrounds them, making the viewer focus entirely on the game (lit area).
Overall my animating of the robot arms gets better towards the end of the video. My sense of timing is much better now, and i feel i can show emotion/feelings successfully. However my attempted animation of the use of gravity needs a lot of work. imitating gravity is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Perhaps i will work on small videos depicting this. If my animating abilities do get better, i feel that i could work in the animating part of the 3d-pipeline.

I got all my sound clips from Sound Jay.

okay, slight oversight

2011-11-09T18:56:00.000Z

Yup so, there i was animating my 'chess player' short. When i came across a slight problem. this being the size of my old robot compared to the chess pieces. Well, it's not that he's too big, it's that his fingers are, and they open in a too wide arc. I must say, this is all rather bothersome.

So, i can either change my robot arm, or change the story. The pros and cons for each carried little weight, so in the end i simply decided to change the story line, as it was originally quite stupidly long.
So, new stooryline (not that you knew the old one) is this: New Arm wants to play Old Arm in a game of chess. But Old Arm being old and clumsy, keeps knocking over the pieces. New Arm gets angry and and hits Old Arm. Old Arm looks sad. awww

imported everything in

2011-11-01T13:14:00.000Z

old vs new

I'm watching you

2011-10-31T18:14:00.000Z

Baby Arm

2011-10-29T20:57:00.000+01:00

Hmmmmm...

2011-10-29T20:55:00.000+01:00

So my robots have more joints than the one we made in lessons, and I'm wondering how much it will effect the ik chain. I applied it in two different ways to compare them.

-With the ik chain on the first arm part, the movement seems okay, although very scrunched up. I don't know if i want to risk any problems though.

-With the ik chain on the second arm part, the movement is fine. However i have to move the first arm-part separately in animating, which is a bit more hassle.

I'm going to go with the second choice, as i know how to control this much better. In fact i may not need much animation in the lower parts of my robot arms. It will all count on the camera angles, i suppose.

My knight!

2011-10-27T14:04:00.000+01:00

I did something else

2011-10-24T22:34:00.003+01:00

Okay, so the real reason i've not had time to make my chess robots, is that i've been playing with the 'Lessons:Robot'. I admit that he is not lined up properly and tends to go a bit wonky sometimes, but he's still awesome. It's so much fun animating him doing different things. Since i've been doing this, my animating skills are getting better. I'm using my skills repeatedly and improving them.
I'll show you two of the videos now.

There's another video on my vimeo account, feel free to look.

Lessons:Robot Arm

2011-10-19T15:18:00.000+01:00

My Robot Arm

2011-10-19T12:25:00.000+01:00

My initial idea for ' the chess player' project, was to have one robot arm that played itself in a game of chess. The robot arm would revolve around the chess board taking each turn. I wasn't sure how this one would've ended though.

Now i am leaning towards the idea of an old, dodgy robot arm playing a new, sleek robot arm.

I feel that this idea is better, as the two arms already have some personality. Which will also be better for me in showing expression in the animation.
I want the old robot arm to be old, slow, confused, juddering and chunky.
And i want the new robot arm to be sleek, smooth, condescending, suave and basically a know-it-all.

My Fantasy Olympics

2011-10-19T10:44:00.023+01:00

Finally, I've got the scanner working, so i could scan in my character designs and such.

Team logos at the side

So these were my initial drawings for this project. Admittedly, I've used one character before. i just love him so much that i had to use him again! So, it's monkeys versus bunnies in a game of non-grav dodge ball! The spectators are little long armed aliens. the location is a game sphere in space.

Bunny

Monkey

Then i worked on my character design. I made a few expressions that could be used during the game. I doubt that the bunnies will be smiling for long though.

Fantasy Olympics

2011-10-16T22:17:00.000+01:00

Here's the BBC's winter olympics advert for last year. I hope my olympics advert will be this awesome!

My ideas so far for this project revolve around a futuristic non-gravity dodgeball game between angry monkeys and scared bunnies. I drew a few pics to get a feel for it. Unforntunately my scanner has decided, that it does not want to scan anymore. I will upload them when i can.

eggcup thingie

2011-10-13T21:32:00.000+01:00

We modelled this cup thing in class the other day. It was easy to do, with just a spline, outline and lathe. We'll be making a jug next lesson.

I'll apply a metal texture another time.

some work

2011-10-13T19:45:00.000+01:00

I've been working on my chess pieces, because, quite simply, there's nothing wrong with using initiative. So far they're mostly looking good, except my queen. I just can't quite seem to get her crown right.
And there's probably way too many polygons. It's so hard to make things look nice and smooth, and reduce the polygon count.
Anyway, here's some pictures:

I just need to give my king a crown, and sort out some details for my knight.

Objects

2011-10-13T19:23:00.001+01:00

Recently i found some possible objects that could be used for my still life project. As you can see they are completely random stuff off my shelves. But i find that they show some of the intriguing parts of myself.
Here they are:

I am aware i have only chosen five out of my group, but i just didn't want any of the others. Maybe the small bottles will double up the count.

Where i want to be?

2011-10-09T21:04:00.000+01:00

Okay, so i'm doing 3d animation.
-I'd like to do 3d modelling, focusing on characters.
-I would rather cartoony/unrealistic charcaters, as i find that fits better with my style.
-Areas i'd like to do these in are tv and film.
-I wouldn't mind if the environment was CGI or real.
-Unrealistic characters are usually made for teenage/children's programmes.
So really i'd like to work in kid's tv!

I found some companies, that make programmes i like:
Clone wars - Lucasfilm Animation
Make way for noddy - SD Entertainment
Rated A for awesome - Nerd corps Entertainment
Galaktic Football - Alphanim
Code Lyoko - Tania Palumbo
Mickey mouse clubhouse - Walt Disney Television
Waybuloo - Gallus Entertainment
Unforunately for me, all these companies were abroad, which i'm not that interested in. So back to researching!

Orrery

2011-10-08T09:43:00.000+01:00

so... to teach us about the parent-child relationships in animation, Andy got us to make an orrery. I created the first one, basing it's revoultions and apperance on our solar system (accurate when i was taught it in primary school). Unfortunately Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth move significantly faster than the other planets, as you can/or cannot see in the video.
here is orrery 1:

I created a second orrery, completely making it up. I decided on only four planets, narrowing the field of view for the viewer. Also, i thought i'd give my texturing abilities some practice. I find this orrery aesthetically pleasing, more so than the first one. Although i rendered the frames too small, i'll need to upload a bigger version some time later.
here is orrery 2:

soon

2011-09-20T18:39:00.000+01:00

I'll be back in Uni soon, so i thought. It hurt. But i finally decided that i'd try making something hard, to get my 3Ds juices flowing. And here is what i made.
A head.

Not bad. Still a bit pointy in some areas, but still good. I kinda forgot the ears though lol.

My AV Evaluation

2011-05-26T12:09:00.000+01:00

The main ideas for this project were originally a film noir. However it was pointed out to us, that this would be excessively hard for our group. So, it was decided to have a modern film noir movie. Due to the tension of the script and short movie, we used a lot of short shots.
We researched online film noir clips, and lighting techniques. I redrew Najhet’s (Director) storyboards. This helped me visualise my camera shots and angles.
Personally, I have no real previous experience with filming. So this project was a learning curve for me. However I feel I have developed this skill sufficiently and I’m quite proud of our final product.
The locations I found were not all relevant for our filming. However, it was the alleyway scene that changed the most. The alleyway i found was too close to housings and was far too narrow for any side shots. We relocated to an alleyway further away, which effectively was better than the original, in lighting, location, appearance and spacing.
I have learnt how to control the iris in a camera. I have learnt how to contribute to a group.
I would either: stick to the script, and not change it, or completely rewrite the script, based on the 'unknown information' that the character Colin found. Changing the script for our own devices created a few problems and loose ends.
I would like to do more filming for other people. I find it enjoyable. Perhaps some short films or one shot videos.

My VE evaluation

2011-05-26T12:02:00.000+01:00

Monster Cave from Diana Jones on Vimeo.

My main idea for the Scary Ride was Monsters. It was based on children’s books. Not many children’s books have ghosts in them, but many have monsters. Basing my development on the target market of children, I designed the characters to be mildly scary. I wanted the children to be scared as this is a scary ride.

My brain storming revolved around what children are scared of: the dark, being alone etc. I used these in the creation and design of my ride, cart and lighting (or lack of). I was in Waterstones one day, looking in the children’s picture book section. Many books had unusual monsters and animals, but only one book had ghosts in it. Maybe this is because they’re not as scary anymore.

Story boards were created to help the visualisation of the 3D creation. It has helped significantly with the positioning of my characters.

A risk I took was creating the bones for my characters to help them move. I did not fully understand how to use these at all, so I had to learn from random tutorials on the internet. The creation of the bone structure is the easiest part. But the hardest parts were linking them to the skin, and making sure the skin moves correctly. I understand that the envelopes can help this; I have not found the correct procedure for this yet.

One problem was Applying textures to the Waverly theatre, as it was made form a spline, it had complications. To fix this i hid the theatre and created my own walls to fit. I prefer this decision as

the walls are straighter; they don’t have dips and hollows. Most of those were getting in my way.

Another problem was the skin of my characters, creasing and bending in the wrong places. I’ve tried to solve this using the envelopes and have succeeded on a few of the characters. However, some of the characters will not be able to move due to these extreme deformities.

My last problem was the multi-sub layering. I really couldn’t get it to work, so my characters are staying one colour. My main problem was the polygon IDing. I kept applying it wrong.

I have learnt much more about lighting, in this project. I’ve learnt their differences and how to change and manipulate them. There is so much you can do with them. E.g. Flickering lights, Fog and projecting bitmaps within them.

If given another chance at this project, I would create a better bone structure for my characters. Try to understand the bone and skin more, so that I could use it successfully.

I would manage my time more effectively. I would make my characters in the first two weeks, instead of the third and forth, creating more time for my experimental skin and bones. I would’ve aimed to have the rendering started and finished in the fifth week.

My IM Evaluation

2011-05-26T11:59:00.000+01:00

My main intentions for this project were to create a working portfolio that reflects my personality. I wanted, my portfolio to be an extension of myself.
For the portfolio, i created a mood board to develop my ideas. Unfortunately the only part to transfer itself was the colour purple. I chose between two templates for the wire frame of the website. One would've been easier for me, but i didn't choose it. Instead i wanted a vertical navigational bar. To make this work, i had to float the boxes in different places. I did it quite well by myself, and Giselle remedied it for me.
Some problems i found were: floating the footer, padding the content image and reorganising the gallery. Solving the problem with the footer was simple, as Giselle helped me. How ever i do feel that i would have worked at it until it worked. For the content, i wanted a background picture, of scribbles, with overlying writing. However, i wanted the writing to be padded more than the picture. I unfortunately found out that the padding in the content affects both simultaneously. To counteract this i centred the writing so i wouldn't touch the edges of the picture. I know know, that creating a separate div tag, to put the writing in, would've worked just as well. And last of all i found creating the gallery hard, as i wasn't there for the ooriginal lesson. But the main problem was afetr saving and adding the gallery, i didn't know how to access it again to add and change some of the images. I did try to access it many times, but to no avail. I left the gallery with only a few images, which is unfortunate.
I have learnt much more about Dreamweaver in this term than i had before. I've learnt how to create divs, classes. I learnt how to change each one's settings appropriately.
If i was to re-do this project, i know i would make more pages for my animations, and a completely different gallery. I like the programme Adobe Bridge, but i don't like the layouts for the galleries. I would lighten the colourscheme, as i find it a bit too dark/pressing. Also, i would change my profile picture; it's terrible.

my website

2011-05-12T14:27:00.000+01:00

The fifth page is a link to my blog. which you can see right now.
I'm all finished now!

i've been working on my website...

2011-05-07T22:48:00.000+01:00

not a lot, but a decent amount. Here's what I've done:

I scribbled my layout, just how i wanted it! Now it's all purple and messy (quite like me). Things seem to be going to plan. As well as the layout, i also scribbled some creatures. They're awfully nice.
I decided my fifth page will simply be a link to my blog. I've been having some problems with my images on dream weaver, but i am working through it.
After having created my gallery page, i realised i didn't actually have a collection of work to show. So i hunted through all my dp1 work, and found some old stuff of mine.
That's all for now :)

Vertical navigational bar

2011-04-20T12:26:00.002+01:00

I just made my self a vertical navigational bar, just by pressing buttons. Wooo, go me. I hope it doesn't fall apart if i haven't done it right though.

Here it is. I should probably change the colour scheme soon.
I learnt what i did wrong with my horizontal navigational panel. It is now fixed. i also added in the navigational links. It's looking much better, and more like my wire frame.

Now i have to add in all my images/colour.

purple!

2011-04-19T22:36:00.000+01:00

Here's some possible colour schemes that i might use for my portfolio website. I like them. They're pretty.

These are from the Dulux website. I thankee them for sharing these wondrous purples with me.

visualising...

2011-04-19T22:19:00.000+01:00

Just some more bits added to my visual essay.

Yes, that's right. I made teddy bears, and they're having tea! Also made a bowler hat, saucer, whiteboard and an xylophone.

My visual essay so far...

2011-04-18T21:56:00.000+01:00

Just some pics for now:

Turbosmooth, or not to turbosmooth?

Not the actual colouring for any of this. That is to be decided later. :)

designing my wireframe

2011-04-14T16:17:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, i was playing around with my website. So far it looks like this:

It's not all that good, and says complete nonsense. The colour scheme is warm, but probably not what i'll stick with. The image in the header was tiled. It's a fox, by the way.

Today we were designing the wireframe for our websites. I have desined two. I'm not sure which one i'll pick yet. But they are both kept fairly simple, just to stop me going insane.

design 1

design 2

I'm leaning towards the second design, even though having the navigational panel down the side will be a little harder. It will be fun trying to make this. Until i get angry and walk away from the computer.

In the mood for food

2011-04-12T11:58:00.001+01:00

yay!

2011-04-07T15:36:00.000+01:00

My snake isn't that angular! thank turbosmooth!

more of this...

2011-04-07T13:04:00.000+01:00

I finished my shark monsters yesterday. I may have to change their texture, as they're actually quite hard to see in the mist.

Sharks in the depths of the mist

Or maybe i could just change the colour of the mist. I'd rather not change the density.
I am animating my snake today.
I'm hoping he won't look too bent out of shape. This would be because I'm manipulating the polygons to create movement, and he only has eight height segments. I may need to give him a higher polygon count in height to make his bending look more fluid. Fingers crossed.

animating things about

2011-04-05T18:18:00.000+01:00

So, I'm in my holidays. It's nice and stuff.

So yeah, I've been attempting to catch up with my animation. It's going good but i think I'm going crazy. Every time i look back onto the file, the cart (which i previously animated) has decided to become stationary again. Maybe I'm dreaming this. Maybe I'm not saving it properly. Maybe the cart just doesn't want to go round the track.
I don't know.
I might save it to last, then render it before it reverts back again. I will conquer this cart!

Here's some visual updates:

A ghostly figure waiting for the cart

Just hanging about

One shark in - One shark out

Week 5

2011-03-17T12:53:00.000Z

This week, many things have happened. Najhet fell asleep. Kelly ate noodles. Anita got a cold. Jordon shut his knee in a safe.I lay on an alley floor. Sam finally participated. WE all ate Subway.
We finished our filming! Go us! And i must say, my cameras skills are now amazing.
Sam is working very hard in his editing ways. We've viewed the first minute, and it's looking great.
And thats about that.

Week 4

2011-03-11T19:44:00.000Z

We've successfully filmed three locations, but we've still got some to do.Unfortunately, not a long time to film it in.
The Location today was a bit problematic at times, as the office building was fairly small and fairly cluttered. However we prevailed. And only one minor shot was missed.
We'll get it done next week hopefully.

Week 2 & 3

2011-03-11T13:52:00.000Z

Week Two
I haven't done much this week.

So last week Najhet (Director) drew up the storyboard. Tweaks were made to it today, and it has now been passed to me. I'm gonna redraw it, all nice and pretty. I'm doing this for two reasons:
1) We need a neater version with more annotations
2) It will help me, as the camera dude, to visualise the shots that I'll be taking.

Week Three
I've drawn up most of the storyboard now. Turns out Najhet left the last page at home.

We practiced lighting in 106b. Which interestingly is the room we booked for the photography scene. Overall what we learnt from this practice was to use as little lighting as possible, and to close the iris of the camera whilst shooting. This creates the moody, dark feeling we need for our film noir style.

Also, i went back to the alley way to analyse it's abilities/worth. It is actually quite narrow, so any side shoots would be out of the question. Lighting is limited to the midway lamp post. I believe any shots, will have to be taken from the bottom of the stairs. All other locations are fine.

Week 1

2011-02-23T13:03:00.000Z

Our script is Shift.
About a poor paranoid secret seller that gets hunted down.
My first job, allocated by Jordon, is to find suitable locations in Nottingham for our filming. So, not knowing Nottingham very well, i just started walking. As you may guess, after an hour and a half i was quite lost. But that's not important, what's important are these potential locations.

The Arboretum Tunnel

A Back Alley

Revolving Doors in Newton

ECU of Lockers, Waverly

PostBox, Post Office

The last location was where i finally gave up on walking. I liked the continuity of the lampposts. Also they look a bit old fashioned. I found a few old lamp posts, but most were near schools. And that could cause problems.

more work and stuff...

2011-02-16T14:39:00.000Z

So yeah...just a quick update.

Today I've been focusing on the bone structure of my characters. It's going okay, but could be going better. As you can see below, when my ghost's bones bend, he gets a bit crinkly. Which isn't good.

Below here, you can see the shark monster. I added the bone structure in the right pic. The left pic is the rendered scene. luckily, the bones don't show in the render.

And here is some pics of my snake. I realised i hadn't put any up yet, so here you are.

Texturing and all that jazz

2011-02-15T12:59:00.000Z

So far i have added an entrance onto my building. It's all rocky-like. It's similar to my design, with one difference. In my design i had a cave on top of the entrance, but i left that out in the creation. It would've looked good though.

And tthen, i got round to animating the cart. No problems there, it went quite smoothly.

Recently, i added all my textures in the scene. It makes it look much better.

View without waverly walls

close up of floor map

As the Waverly walls were being annoying (it wouldn't let me apply a texture) i made my own. Which are much more co-opperative. They look good.

I applied a snake skin texture to my monster cart. Took me a while to get it looking good though.But it's all good now.

-me again-

Looking at things,

2011-02-14T20:38:00.000Z

for my visual essay.
I was researching the zoetrope, developed from the phenakistoscope. What i found was Pixar's 3D zoetrope of the toy story characters. It looks amazing, by the way, especially when you figure out how it's working.(apparently Studio Ghibli did the 3d zoetrope first- which i've seen on youtube and is pretty cool too)

I was looking at Saatchi & Saatchi, due to the T-Mobile 'Heathrow' advert, and found a wonderfully animated advert for the NSPCC. It was titled 'Weapons of love'. It reflects on how the hands of parents can help and support children. It's simple in design and colour choice, but quite touching. I love the use of silhouettes, as i did an art project on them in the past.

And i decided to surf the internet for character designer portfolios. I found some that i liked a lot. All of them had distinct and recognisable styles. My favourite at the moment is Liron Pe'er. The artist has clear talent, which she can adapt to other styles. Her range in her portfolio shows her flexability in drawing and animation. I admire her drawing skills.

I'm dithering...

2011-02-13T18:37:00.000Z

I'm not sure how to texture my characters. I've been advised to colour them all fun colours like bright red, pink and blue. I know that they're for kids and all that, but they're supposed to be scary, not gay.
I understand that I'm designing it for kids, but i don't want them sitting in my ride thinking "oh, what pretty colours", i want them crying and peeing their pants. It's a scary ride. I don't go easy on kids.

Maybe there is a compromise somewhere. i just need to figure out multi-object colouring again. Can't remember how to do it.

Snowflakes!

2011-02-10T19:29:00.002Z

I just found these awesome websites!

http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/

You can make snowflakes! It's so simple, yet so awesome!

Here's mine, it's inverted so you can see it.

Also found this website:

http://www.zefrank.com/memory/stringspin

which let me make this evergreen tree

and this thing. It's awesome! Woo

i made another monster

2011-02-10T19:01:00.000Z

So i tried getting in uni today, but it was surprisingly busy. So i mooched home to do work instead, and i did this:

He was originally going to have white eyes, but i made them red because it looks freaky. Which in effect is scary. I only failed on the mouth, it wasn't supposed to be round. But that's just how turbosmooth rolls when you're not paying attention to it. I also had to make the teeth longer to compensate for the round mouth.
But anyways, he's looking good, so that's what matters.
-me-

making things...

2011-02-09T19:03:00.000Z

So I've been working on my characters. I'm actually growing to understand 3Ds Max better, especially when creating these. And so far they are going well.
Look see my ghost:

My ghost needs better textures. I'm a bit rubbish at that, but some serious practice tomorrow should solve this.
Look see my Boar:

He's my boar monster. He's hairy and grumpy. And he lives in a cave all on his billy. Poor Boar.

my cart,

2011-02-03T14:07:00.000Z

It's alive!

well not really, but i've been working on the design over the week, and i feel they're kinda at the end. Well here's what i've been doing:

Melt

I needed to make the cart less bulky/fat, so i thought that Melt would reduce the cart to my needs. It worked, but not quite the way i wanted. So i moved on, and just scaled it down. It was more of what i wanted, so i stuck with it, and made adjustments.

Scaled

adjustments

Then i went all designy and made my cart better. Here is the two designs i had in my sketchbook: the ghost and the monster.

Ghost cart

Monster Cart

i'm in the mood

2011-02-02T20:59:00.001Z

I made this whilst looking at the colours and textures i might want to use in my project.

Here's some animals and monsters that may influence my monstar designs.

learning things

2011-02-02T20:39:00.000Z

I learnt more. This lesson was about lighting and it's many wonders! I only used a spot light, but it sure did have a variety of outcomes. As you can see below:

white light with blue shadows

red light

blue light

blue light with leaves bitmap

smoke bitmap

smiley bitmap

fire bitmap

Then after i finished messing around, i looked at what the 3Ds Max programme already had. And then i messed around with them.

Dent

Perlin Marble

Smoke

Wood

Tiles

Overall, a very successful day in the learning of lighting.

-DJ-

learning things

2011-01-26T19:04:00.000Z

'Twas just yesterday, that we were learning how to apply textures to our creations in 3Ds Max. Good times. good times.
I thought i'd post the interesting part. This 'twas when we were creating a translucent entity. It's mainly used for ghosts. I admit, I'm quite likely to use it for mine.

Translucent Entity

I like the translucent one the most. It is much better, i don't like his blurry friend. It makes me feel like i should be drunk, but i'm not. Unusual.

Getting the blur on (80%)

And here is the materieal editor we're using this time. It's different but the same. hmmm.

Making my cart

2011-01-23T18:49:00.000Z

I decided my cart would be very different to the e.g. Roma gave us. As mine is for the littl'uns the measurements can be much smaller. I also decided the cart would be a one seater, so the will children cry 'cause they're all alone.
Mwhahahaaaa!

Making the general shape

Boxing it in

TurboSmooth

I think this looks good at the front, however the door area looks terrible. Perhaps i should use a different modifier for this, or just move each vertices by myself. I'll finish this tomorrow, I've done enough for today.

I got bored...

2011-01-23T17:38:00.000Z

So i looked up the ergonomics of a chair.
I feel that it is important to prevent strain and other related injuries. As a designer of a ride i want to make sure that the users are as comfortable as possible.

from ccosh.ca

This is important stuff and i shall be using in the creation of my cart.

Working

2011-01-23T14:58:00.000Z

Look at me! I'm working!

Yeah anyways, I've been putting together a rough outline of the layout for my Cave/Building. It looks good so far, i just need to work on the details and such, but that can be done once everything is in it's place.

Rough Layout

Next i worked on the track for the cart and camera. It's very wiggly and needs smoothing out a bit. But it should last about 40 secs or more, which is what i need.

Track in top view

Then i remembered needing a design for the track (a cross section). Which is annoying, as i didn't want it to be seen that much. But i guess it needs to exist, and can always be a similar colour to the flooring.

Designs for the track

Out of these three, i chose the last one. It has one connection point with the cart, and looks better in the bends. I like it :)

Progress

2011-01-22T21:48:00.000Z

Sketches and Designs in class

Simple design of the cart

The awesome entrance

Here's some ideas and sketches. Going good so far.

Attack of the sock monster

Two drawings here

The one above is the misty canyon, where the shark monsters live.
The one below is the mountainous region where the great Boar monster lives in his cave.

well yeah. good plans, i just need to make them.

kiddywinkles

2011-01-22T21:23:00.000Z

With kids as the target market, i wanted to base my redesign around them. So i went about thinking 'What scares children?'
I reminisced for half an hour and came up with these:

Sudden loud noises
Being alone
The dark
Getting sucked down the plughole
The monsters under the bed
The boogie man in the cupboard

Overall, these were kinda helpful in my redesign of my ride. I chose to base the ride on monsters, and things that go bump in the night. But overall, even though it's virtual, i don't want it being too scary for the little kiddywinkles.
Peace Out!

Times are changing

2011-01-16T10:49:00.000Z

Ok, so i drew up an easier plan to see for the audience. Here it is:

The floor plans

Area Layout and Building Design

So i was planning it to be super cool! There was going to be a tunnel underground with scary ghosts in it. A dangerous fall through the floorboards. A lovely Balcony showing off the Dining room. A grave yard with a stone angel in it (that episode of Doctor Who freaked me out!). I was going for it all!
But I needed a target audience. Through my already existing designs, children were chosen. It's almost like i was designing for them all along. But the tunnel ride might be too scary for them.
I need to find a theme though, so i'm going out today to read little kiddies books to help me.

But overall, this whole plan is going to change, and that sucks.

Planning things

2011-01-13T12:37:00.000Z

Soooo yeah. As we've only got this week to actually make the building, i thought I'd get planning and what not.
For my building, i decided to study churches. I especially love the windows, which i hope I'll be able to make in 3Ds Max. Overall, my building will look old, derelict and sad. It's a lonely building with no friends. Awwwww.

I've roughly planned a layout. Only two levels and possible a bell tower. The ideas are okay so far.

Here's my design in 3Ds Max, which you can see a bit better. It's just a rough for the moment, so yeah...

Quite simply i need scary things in my house. I wanted ghosts, and then remembered those hanker chief ones i made as a child. They were awesome! Not very scary, but i don't mind about that. I doubt my haunted church-like house will be very scary at all. I might just spoof it.

I decided to give the cart a quick designing too. The top one is a frog-lion. A new species. But the bottom one is the one i want. It's simple, but cheap like most of these rides. Woo!
So far, so good.

Starting my animation project

2011-01-12T10:29:00.000Z

So yeah, this week is all about designing the building for my 'haunted castle ride'. Whoop Whoop!

We were given the layout for the Waverly building (twice, one was wrong) as a practice run in creating the building in 3ds Max. It went okies for me, even though i was hyped up on lucozade tablets.

I quite like the building but i feel that completely designing my own one, around my ride, will have better results. But really, i need to decide on my theme. Every time i think of one, i just get the old fashioned English haunting. Dust, cobwebs and posh-talking ghosts. Looks like I'll be sticking with that one then.

eXisitenZ

2011-01-11T10:17:00.001Z

Weird film

This film made me think, but it also made me disturbed.

eXistenZ
The story was different in slight ways to the world we know. It introduced new ideas and possibilities to us, the viewers. The technology in the film was replaced with bio-synthetics, which just looked damned creepy. There were many clues, in the form of repetition, for the viewers. These clues can only be realised towards the end of the film. "death to the ..." was said far too many times in this film, however it allowed us to link together characters and their motives in the film. Other repeated things were the dog and the gun. Each of these things apparently existing in and outside of the game world. Once again things become related in the film, and interweave 'til the end.
The idea of a gaming world that is so similar to our own, creates the underlying question of the film, are they still in the game? The line between is not known to us, the viewers we can only follow the character Pikul, as he learns the game world and struggles to tell the difference himself.
Overall, the concept behind the film was fantastic. It seems to be a futuristic film. The twist at the end, leaves the viewer with the questions:Has it ended? Are they still in the game? and Is this the real reality?
Personally, although this film was cool, i must now wipe it completely from my memory as all the freaky sexual stuff creeped me out.

Different ideas

2010-12-06T14:02:00.000Z

Okay then, due to the majority of our group not being able to 'draw', we had to change our idea.

Unfortunately we'd already purchased our paper, so we still needed to do something with it. So drawing was still an option for me and Guy. We decided on my strange idea for a cheap animated video.
My idea was to create cut out people and move them around a drawn background. I wanted to move them with my hands, making them a constant part of the video. I thought it would look seriously cheap and funny. Every one else thought it would be cool.

Creating the story and characters were great fun, but it took absolutely ages. For the story we chose an earlier idea based on old Silent Movies. We wanted a Damsel tied to train tracks, with an evil guy (with a twiddly moustache) standing over her laughing evily.

We ended up putting tabs on all the characters so our hands wouldn't reach over the scene too much. they became quite annoying for me.

Two things we didn't think about:
1) How the damsel actually gets kidnapped? we just made an inbetween page.
2) How ink eventually goes through paper. oops. but this was easily covered up by giving the tramp some warmth and comfort of fire.

Overall, it went quite well. Considering we only did two shots.

ideas...

2010-12-01T20:55:00.000Z

I love snow. I do. But not when it stops our group from making our one shot. We're in the last week and we still haven't made it. I am hoping to do it tomorrow, but if everyone doesn't turn up then tough luck, i'm doing it anyway.

Here's the idea for our one shot:

The video will be us drawing all our ideas onto paper. The camera is viewing the paper only, not us. The ideas will hopefully form the words 'you decide' as it's our theme. Above, I've made a small collection of my random ideas.

Progress with Saru

2010-11-26T13:53:00.001Z

I've started adding colour to my interactive space project. It's looking better already!

I still need to find a solution to the arrows though.

My One Shot project

2010-11-25T21:37:00.001Z

Okay, so I'm now on the last project for this module. In this project, we are entering the world of Video Cameras, Lamps and Tripods!

So the project, in our groups, is to create a one shot video. The video is limited to one zoom or pan, and must be on a tripod at all times!
So, we were all pretty stuck for ideas, so i looked at the other group's work, to see if it would spark an idea. They had a range of things (which all started with muggings, strangely enough) but my overall favourite was this ONE. It is so awesomely created and layed out. I really enjoyed anticipating the story behind it.

But i didn't want to take that idea, it feels like stealing. So i did some research into the wider world! And i ended up with the two most loved things, by me, on the TV.

1) The Old Spice advert

Click here for a link

Made by Weidon + Kennedy, this entire video is a one shot. The background is simply moved around him. Overall, it's just awesome!

2) Ok Go's music video

Click here for a link

The video to 'Here it goes again' is one of my favourite music videos. A lot of choreography was involved in this. It looks like so much fun!

My Ninja Simon

2010-11-23T14:48:00.000Z

Here's the first video of the ident, there's no sound yet. Mainly because i can't find good sounds at the moment.
Sorry it's so small. I put the video on blogger instead of vimeo. I'll sort that one out later.

Simon's sword

2010-11-23T14:42:00.000Z

As you might have guessed, this entry is about Simon's sword. I am attempting to make it at the moment. Here's my progress so far:

Pretty cool-looking, i do say so myself. But i went a bit wrong in my Colouring, and it all went red. Then i realised a few other problems with it.

Too many segments in the depth
Not enough segments in the length
Don't know how to make the sword point yet

So i thought I'd create a new one, that looks prettyfull-like!

Yes, i know what you're thinking. It's exactly the same! But it isn't! haha! I chamfered the edges, creating a more rounded off look, and also it's not red. But i couldn't get the right metal colouring, so i decided on a bamboo sword instead.

This sword is much better. I like it.So does Simon

Alrighty then!

2010-11-15T11:45:00.000Z

Oh yeah! Andy fixed my animation!

Thank goodness he did, because i'd really messed it up. Even he didn't know what i'd done. I still don't know. But it's all fixed now. So i'll render it tomorrow, and add pretty sounds and what not!

Ninja Simon will be alive!

ALIVE I TELL YOU!

Back to Saru!

2010-11-09T13:14:00.000Z

Well quite simply, i never felt that my Interactive Space project was finished. It lacked colour and story time!

So i went on photoshop today, and went simple. Real Simple!

I used the paint brush tool to paint on leaves. Heres some:

Pretty leaves

Ivy leaves-bigger

Jungle leaves-with flowers

Just Crazy leaves on top of him

Not so bad, considering i cheated on that one. Will have to get round colouring the pictures. Then putting a better story line on them.

My redesign of Simon

2010-11-05T17:01:00.000Z

Quite simply, I'm not sure what I'm doing yet in 3Ds Max, the whole Bevel and Cone incident has annoyed me. So i have to simplify Simon, to help myself. So overall, this is simple Simon:

rough sketches

The main idea for this redesign came from Rayman (The Game).
He no longer has legs as they require a walking movement, which i don't know how to do yet. The arms no longer exist, which only leave him with hands. Hands are good!

I was deciding on his clothing here.
Should i create folds and creases?

The Sword.
How on earth do i make it? I'm not making a sheath for it!

Keeping with the whole simple theme. I've decided to lower the amount of action in the Ident. It's only 30 seconds anyway!

Rough Storyboard for my Ident

Now i just have to make it in 3Ds Max!

Second Animation Lesson

2010-11-03T12:07:00.000Z

Once again we set off to create something jelly-like! and here is mine!

Looks more like a shark than jelly

Accidentally coloured the back of his head,
when colouring the inside of his mouth

We then had to clone our 'Jelly' person, and change them in different ways.

CLONES!

Look at them all jiggling!

The first (on the left) has his mouth closed a bit.

The second is doing the Twist!

The third is head banging?

The forth has melted a little bit.

The fifth is bending, in some way or form.

A success! I learnt some new buttons today! Whoopee!

Ninja Simon

2010-11-02T17:54:00.001Z

He is a Ninja! Hidden in the darkness!

Sooo...

2010-11-01T19:29:00.008Z

I was attempting to create Simon the Ninja in 3Ds Max, when i suddenly realised, i had no idea how to make his limbs! His body is simple, just a sphere. But his limbs would have to be attached or grown, and then i would have to move them! It's hard trying to figure this stuff out on my own.

But i tried any way. I thought over the modifiers I'd used so far, which weren't many. I ended up with extrude. Trial and error led me to Bevel, which looks better as a limb. Using this tool, i could create Simon's limbs from his body. A simple answer. But will i be able to move and bend the limbs separately from the body? I'll figure that one out tomorrow.

The simple Simon

Using Bevel to create the arms

Then the legs were made

After creating a mock up of Simon's bevel body, i discovered the select and link button. So i tried making Simon's body again, Using cones for the limbs. The cones look alot more like my first design.

Putting my cones on

Making sure the cones are aligned

Look! It's Simon

It took me a few goes to actually link something, but when i added more than three, it decided to unlink itself from random limbs. Shame. I really should do a tutorial, or something, to work that one out.

But my main problem is getting the limbs to move. There is obviously several buttons for it, but i have no idea where or what they are. I need to do some more exploring and experimenting.

Something tells me, that I've made this ridiculously hard for my self. Maybe i need to redesign Simon's body. Make it simple-like.

Researching Idents

2010-11-01T11:23:00.001Z

To help with the planning for my ident, i decided to look at existing ones.
BBC2: Most of BBC2's Idents work around the number two. The 2 is normally the main character/object in the Ident. Something either happens to it, or it does something, like the one below. The remote-controlled 2 drives around the screen haphazardly.

BBC2 Car Ident

Channel 4: Channel 4's recent Idents are amazing. They start of with normal seeming landscapes. But as the camera pans around the number 4 comes together, as can be seen below. What makes it even better, it that the camera keeps panning, and the 4 is lost again.

Living: Most of Living's Idents are quite artistic. Yet they manage to link the Ident to the type of programme coming up next. I like that idea of linking it as such.

CBBC: A children's channel, i thought, would be more suited to me, as i am quite childish and crazy.Their colours are usually based around the green of the logo. Also their Idents are a mass of different places and characters containing either the B or C of CBBC. They use they letters to spell it. Educational, in a way.

So overall, i want movement in my Ident. Something on and off screen, perhaps. Artistic, yet funny or amusing. Maybe a bit of seriousness in there for my Ninja Simon. A background that does not distract the watcher from the goings on. Should my logo be a constant part of the Ident or just appear near the end?
What to do?

Samurai Jack

2010-10-30T15:37:00.000+01:00

Samurai Jack made by Genndy Tartakovsky for the Cartoon Network

I miss the Scotsman! I miss the art. I miss the random creatures. I miss the simple yet awesome plots. I miss the journey. I miss the awesome fights!

But most of all I miss the awesome Samurai Jack!

Who is Samurai Jack, i hear you ask?

Samurai Jack is the last hope for the human race. Only he, trained in all martial arts, can defeat the great AKU. The story of Samurai Jack starts with Jack being flung into the future, by Aku. Every episode Jack is seeking a new way to travel back to the past and to save his people.

Aku made by Genndy Tartakovsky

Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil! But a foolish Samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Aku!

Design Methods

2010-10-30T14:47:00.000+01:00

The more recent design methods include:

Reverse Engineering
Prototyping
Open Sourcing
Market Research

-Prototyping
Prototyping is a process of creating part of, or dummy of a product, to test and demonstrate it's strengths and weaknesses. The prototype can be used to test it's functionality, and to see if any more developments or redesigns are needed before the product is released.

Strengths: It can reduce development time. Saves money, only creating one. Helps the users understand how to use the product better. Can be used to see if it relates to the purchaser's requirements.
Weaknesses: If the prototype has a flaw, then they have to make another. It can cost too much to make.

Rule of Thirds

2010-10-30T13:09:00.000+01:00

We briefly passed over this in my recent Lecture with Jools. It sounded quite intrigueing so i looked up some more about it. From what i found, The rule of thirds is an important rule of compositon.

Here is the rule of thirds. The picture is split up into thirds, both horizontaly and vertically creating a grid. These lines are lines of interest, and at the points they intersect, are points of intersaection. If the object in the photo is put along one of the lines or points of interesction, the photo looks awesome.

Here, i tried some of my own:

View from my Garden

Orange Sock!

Hawthorn Flowers

My First Cacti

I haven't put the lines on, but if you use your imagination, you can see them. All these photos interact with the Thirds Rule.

NINJA ATTACK!

2010-10-29T20:02:00.000+01:00

Okay, so, I have to create a 30 second indent for 'my life'. It can contain anything in it. So i decided: NINJAS! If my life was on TV, I'd want awesome ninjas jumping around, pirates pillaging and British vampires just being awesome. But that's all a bit much for my noob self, so i shall just stick to ninjas. Or just a single ninja.
So i begin the planning stage:

What should my ninja look like?

My First Doodles

My first doodles were pretty simple. i was just trying to work out my ninja's general shape and stature. I chose the circle ninja, as it was really cute, and also would be a simple shape to create. It's small circle body prevents me making any severe animations to it. I can't bend or twist it because it would look distorted.

Once i had the general idea for my ninja, i set out to do better doodles. I think they turned out pretty cool, considering his cuteness.

Shiny sword

The ninja runs on silent feet

The opening scene, maybe?

Woo! Action!

Flying Kick!

Ninja Stars

Next, I have to plan what my ninja will be doing. How it will involve my name/logo? How it can be awesome? My friend Sam had the awesome idea of spelling my name/logo with ninja stars, that my Ninja had thrown. However that would take a lot of ninja stars, and possible too much time.
I grew on that idea, maybe the Ninja could slice my name/logo instead. Sounds intriguing.

Oh and by the way, my Ninja's name is Simon.

My first animation lesson

2010-10-29T10:38:00.003+01:00

As a quick introduction to animation, we were given the task of creating and animating a word. The word was JELLY, and jelly-like it was. We made it jump and jiggle around.
It was very interesting, as whilst playing with the tools, i found that i was learning how to use them appropriately, and how the program works. I like that feeling, it makes me feel competent.

As i stuck to the guideline for this task, i found that i didn't do as much exploration as i could have. Although, Sam and Carl went crazy and started making strange, unknown things. I might give this a go myself, when I'm in Uni next.

Interactive space

2010-10-27T10:38:00.000+01:00

Below is a link to my recently submitted interactive space project.

http://makingnewmaps.com/ Diana Jones (I'm the female with the small afro)

Admittedly, it is not my final design. As it is quite bland, due to it's lack of colour, and does not flow smoothly in some places. I will be working on a better version.
To tell the story better, i will need to use words and meanings understood by my target market. My target market is 6-8 yr olds in Key Stage 1. As i was so focused on the pictures and their links, i did not plan my writing very well. This can be seen due my lack of words in the project. I have now researched on the National Curriculum website, what my target market can expect from reading material.
Extracted from the National Curriculum website:

Understanding text

They should be taught to use grammatical understanding and their knowledge of the content and context of texts to:

understand how word order affects meaning
decipher new words, and confirm or check meaning
work out the sense of a sentence by rereading or reading ahead
focus on meaning derived from the text as a whole
use their knowledge of book conventions, structure, sequence and presentational devices
draw on their background knowledge and understanding of the content.

I have to take this information in account in the redesign of my project. Should there be writing on every page, describing what happens? Will they know what an Armadillo is, or Identify that a Macaw is a Parrot? There's much i need to reflect on for the writng in this project. Perhaps I could use the scroll over html to store information, about these characters. It would help the children's learning and help them understand a bit better.
To present the story better, I'll need to add coulor. I'll add colour to the choices, like originally planned.To help the choices stand out to the rest of the picture. This reduces the amount of exploration, but help's the child focus as well. I will either have to colour the orignal pictures in my sketckbook, or on photoshop. But this also brings out the consideration of the colours themselves. How bright should the colours be? Should the colours be natural, or just entertaing? And will those colours be enugh? I believe i should add colours in to some of the backgrounds or characters. For the background, mostly greens for the leaves and trees and occasional flowers. I might colour the Macaw, as this may help identify it with the children.
The constant use of arrows, to move on to the next picture, annoys me a little. it truly takes away any form of exploration for the child. Perhaps when the pictures are fuller of colour, i can find a way to replace some of the arrows.
But the overall design was good, the main character is cute and compatible with the user. I know the main character is not always consistent, especially in the arms, but that's not so bad, as saru always has the correct amount of resembling limbs. I understand tat many changes need to be made, and i will hopefully get to make them.

Moving on...

2010-10-25T15:12:00.000+01:00

So yeah, now that we've officially finished the Interactive Space project, i decided to get an early start on our next project : Animation!

I'll say it now, that i have no idea how to use 3DS Max. No idea at all. So i thought "lets play with the buttons and see what happens". That didn't work, so i looked up the lesson plan, and followed the simple instructions (not that i found them simple).

I started by making a word. This went terribly wrong (because i had no idea what i was doing), so i moved on to an object. To be specific, a cone. I named him Coney the Cone. Here he is:

Starting off with the general shape

After much fiddling, i gave him a mouth too. but that's where i finally got stuck. I really had no idea what i was doing. And what i managed to do, was a complete fluke.

Coney in mesh form

Unfortunately, at some point i gave Coney a dent in his head. You can see it if you look carefully in the picture above.But overall i had fun. It may have taken a while, but i got somewhere, and that's something to be proud of.

Coney has a mouth

Anyway, i will upload a link later to the 'finished' Interactive space project of mine.

Design Methods

2010-10-23T11:31:00.000+01:00

The more recent design methods include:

Reverse Engineering
Prototyping
Open Sourcing
Market Research

-Reverse Engineering-
Reverse Engineering is the process of re-evaluating a product in the attempt to create a better one.
In reverse engineering:

A product is taken apart to it's fundamental parts. Therefore easier to analyse.
The product is analysed in it's design and uses. How can it be better? What use each part has? What's its function? Can it be manufactured easily? How can it be improved? Is it easily assembled?
Then tested against the user. The information is documented and used to improve the product. If the information is not worthwhile, the product is put through a redesigning process again.

This method is a redesigning process used to create a better product, more compact and aesthetic, than before.