Concept footage

A concept 3d piece for a music video, im quite pleased with this, and also from making this i have learnt some technicalities. I have used about 5 different render passes, and blended them all together in photoshop, all using multiply, except specular, i had to use a different one.

(I then aded a photoshop effect to make it poster like, and im thinking about using it for some batch images in a later test)

3d moddeling hell

Today i have been working on some more current models for the brief i am working with Tom, and also i have met with a vis com guy and talked about his drawing that he has done, for which i have created into a 3d character, and lastly, i made a canopy for my 3d Dodge truck, for my main FMP project. So all day i have been alternating between 3 projects, and then at the end of the day, me and ma college discussed plans and concept ideas for a music video that i am making for someone,(so i guess thats a 4th), oh also did i mention the guy who i am making a 3d charcter for, hes designing me a character for a personal project of mine, which again is a portfolio filler. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, projects on my mind right now!!!!

At the moment, im trying to focus on the current brief, as the deadline for that is very soon, and i have a lot of work still for that. So if any of you tutors reads this, you will know i am trying to work hard as possible, so chill! :p

loved this short about crabs!

Yes, after watching this, i did kind of wish i had seen it before i handed my dissertation in, because there was some interesting things in there, that could have backed up some of my points that i was making. What i found very strange, in this film, is the use of subtle, yet dark humour, the narration, was very serious in the sound, yet certain gags and events that happened on screen, and also was subtitled. I always enjoy watching a film that is completely away from the whole Holywood thing, in that of style, humour etc. Its always nice to see a variation in the story telling format, it inspires me, and makes me want to make something like that, in a traditional sense. It has even given me ideas about my overall style in my war account for my FMP, i know what everything should look, i just want to design some kind of overall uniqueness to it, as i know alot of CG animated stuff, can seem very 'samey'.

There was this video, that i found on Aniboom, which to me was a good example, of overusing the 'squash and stretch' method, and it did kind of annoy me, as every single movement, there was some kind of wobble or stretching,and i thort it was just beeing abused too much, but that might be my opinion.

Audio and other things

Today i worked on some sketches on my plans for the 3d assets for the piece that i am doing for a YCN brief, that was what i did.
What i discussed with Matt was that of two things. One was the fact of landscape scenery generation software, and the other was the fact of my audio, the narration is hard to understand by people who are not from Yorkshire, which was something that i had not realized. The solution to this is subtitles, as it would be useful for the people from the local area etc. However, i would like to keep the original audio, and not have subtitles to ruin it, so im going to explore this issue.

Here we go....

Story development at the moment has been fairly consistant, i have been filtering thru some of my interviewed audio footage that i gained over xmas, and i have been working on this, my anamatics have changed somewhat from a first idea.
I have had dilemmas where for instance, the actual storyboards weren't very interesting and as comical as other storyboards, the thing that i dont want is bits of the animated film to not relate to each scene, in terms of composition. At the moment i have some storyboard images to add, and also a soundtrack that i have someone working on as well.

I said this;

Earlier i was saying that i was wanting to get out of the old habbit of using maya, but after speaking with matt, this is a BAD idea, i am sticking to maya and not gunna leave its side. It is pointless going into seperate peograms doing things like texturing etc, when you can all do it in maya, there are loads of programs that cud do better texturing, but i am ONLY delaying the inevitable!

some dreamworks related ranting

OK, here goes, i have noticed this thing that a few dreamworks animated films/ shorts seem to do a lot. In Shrek, Kunf fu panda, and Father of the Pride, i have noticed that the character animation is way too smooth, and for me its one of those things which i pick up on in a very subtle way, but it seems to make a big difference to how i enjoy the film. Ok i havnt done a lot of CG animation yet, but i believe its just not believable enuff, it kinda makes me cringe. I think i may see it more in human looking characters than animals/ monsters/ ogers etc, so thats what i have to say.
Thanks.