Edditing

Well I have been furiously editing down in 'the dungeon' (the basement) and the suite is really well equiped and I have spent more time downstairs, over the past week. And i am very pleased with the work that i have produced. The only thing which has been a pain, is the fact that i had trouble capturing at the start etc. I would have had that extra edditing time etc and wuld have got the piece even better perfected.

Future thought

I have just found yet an amazing series of short comical sketches, about an unfortunate guy etc. I really like the style of anmation, also it kind of reminds me of the old pink panther cartoons. Which are funny because the main character is constantly a victim of his fate. And we are lauphing at his expense, his pain etc. If i could create a series of animations featuring the same anti-hero, it would be my complete dream.

Its Jerrytime!!

Ive found this really nice example of 2d animated photo montages. Like the montypython style. It has a very strange and bizzre plot. It is based on a series of short films about a guy who narrates and stars in his own show. I really love the style of format, its telling the story and beeing the story at the same time. I think the main reason why i love it so, is its out right wackyness and isnt of typical animation and film formats.

monty python

As some miight be aware of an early post of my attempts of a monty python style animation, i do quite love the 2D photomontage animations thingys that monty python flying circus created. There have been many different companys trying to re-create these styles. There have been tv adds etc, which have copied the style, and always pull off that kind of, 'olde' look to it. Im not sure what you wud call it, but i call it genious. Obviously the newer animations, that come from the origional monty python animations, from Terry Gilliam, are very clean, and in the desperate housewives intro sequence, there is that escence of 3d, mainly due to after effects 3d engine. I like how it is replicated, and modernised, but at the same time, it is a shame cause i like 2d-ness of the monty pythons animations and the highly absence of 3d really does make it extra unique.

cg robot and ww2

introduce robots to world war two and what do you get? Ill tell you what you get, ultimate destruction!haha, no seriously this short film that i have known of for a while was quite a wonderfull thing to watch for me, as i had always wonderd what wud happen if you put ultimate technology into the past. Its kinda like what i wanna do in terms of animation and sureal style. I had known this animated film for a while now, just couldnt find it again. Now have it is for everyone to enjoy. Its just a bizare idea that robots could have existed way before we think, and to unleash their powers when we least expect it. I might even now come up with a similar story, including the past, time travelling and ultimate anailation.

cg robot

The previous week....

...has been bloody hell! I have had many problems when it has come to capyuring second life fotage to tape. First of all when i go down to the dungeon on weds afternoon and find out that it hasnt been set up properly, i was quite infuriated, cause we had to show something on the friday morning for the final crit, and i hadnt even got the footage, never mind the editing. The only decent piece of structue that i had was the edited audio, cause all i had to do was add the visuals to the audio, if you like. So for editing it was quite easy, it was just a matter of choosing the right pose in the footage clips. As i spent all afternoon in the dungeon, trying to set the capture device up, i had many problems where, second life kept on crashing and at the same time i had to keep running up and down them stairs to tell rob, that it had crashed, and to wait etc. Rob was my sl actor, to pose and do a few poses etc. Anyway, once we got it working right, i got rob to controll his character and i recorded this straight to tape. At least i thort it had! I decided to review it before dooing more poses, and for some strange reason there was no footage on the tape, it turns out you have to press the red and the play button at the same time, for it to record to the tape! This was my suggestion to Matt, the dungeon keeper, and he was like 'oh yeah, so it does!' I was quite mad because i had spent a full day trying to organise to get some footage to tape and at the end of the day, left with the same amout of footage as i came with, which was very little, or pretty much nothing. So as soon as i got home, i turned on my PC and got FRAPS working and second life windlight on, which was looking much better and not even crashing, whilst the ones in the dungeon were not as good. So i am pleased i have got full quality graphics rather than lower, which i would have got if i had recorded it onto tape. But at the same time, i was anoyed that i had literally had to start the day all over as soon as i got home, and i wasnt even feeling well enough to go into college in the first place, which means, cause i did it at home, i could have stayed at cozy warm home, where there is comfy chairs and sky tv.

I am very pleased tho to come out in the end a good looking prototype for my final crit, i am happy with it. I have a bit of editing to do, when it comes to sound, i need to get rid of negative comments etc and also i need some more live action footage and second life footage with people working together etc.

qavimator

I have had Avimator for a while now on my pc, i had it for quite a while, it was gathering dust somewhere on one of the sectors of one of my many harddrives. The reason why i havnt used it, was because i belived the layout sucked! You cudnt see the frames on the timeline and there was very little things to do if u made a mistake, and you had to make everything perfect 1st time round, or u wud have to start from scratch. And i believed this was so stupid because u wud have to be a super expert in timing etc, for u to be able to master it etc. Because t was a while since i downloaded it, i looked for a new one, and got the latest one. I was amazed to find that it had seperate timelines for each individual limb and body part. I have made a few poses for my sceen capture session tomorow, and am quite pleased with wat i have done. I am now used to it, and it is actually very easy to do. I am just delighted they sorted the problem out with the keyframes etc. It is much better, tho u cant see the individual frames, u will know because the time slider snaps to each one. So for my final thing i will have custom animations. I am very happy.

interviews and windlight-2 blogs in one

Well i was very happy with my interviewing of fellow class mates, even tho, when i finished interviewing luke, he asked me if he shud send elf in, and i felt like a tutor,lol. Once i got all the footage together i realised that i was gunna have a lot of work to do to edit it all down. I got loads of interesting matterial, probably over half an hours worth. There were a lot of stuff which was great for advertisement purposes and loads of funny stuff, but i have only 2 mins, which is not a lot, when u got a lot of interviewd stuff with loads of questions etc, i just have to cut loads of stuff and only feature like 3 of the 6 or 7 questions that i asked people. But of the selected answers i chose, i feel its the best arangement, for the brief. Theres been certain answers that have been heavily edited, due to pauses, and uming and erring, to get that extra time. I mean, as well as that i have to feature some live action, which i havnt filmed yet, and the final crit is in 3 days!!!It shudnt be too much of a problem tho, cause i know what i want, and its only very quick, maybe a few seconds.
Also the newly founded 'Windlight' an alternative SL client, is so awesome, it features amazing water and amazing skies with editable cloud cover and sea colour!!, its so koool!!! its yet suposed to feature in the normal secondlife client, so its kind of a massive beta test at the moment. Oh so just to let u know, i am filming the sl bits in Windlight.

Edirol R-09

These little devices are so kool and inoitive technology, i borrowed one from the bloke in the dungeon and they are soo good, regarding recording sound, u can set em for the sensitivity of the mic etc, dependent on where you are, conditions etc. I initially borrowed it to record some interviews etc for my moving image brief. What i learnt from the wee device was that it can be set to record people in a room, and only them, even if there is background noise going on. I decided to take it to a gig, last thursday, sneaked it in, and recorded the entire 'Within Temptation' gig (didnt record the support-cause they were shite- they were the 69 eyes and were total dicks, looked like a combination of motley crue, with sound-a-like of HIM and the lead singer looked like vince noir from mighty boosh).
Anyway, i concealed the device in my coat pocket and wraped a few tissues and stuff round it to difuse it. And guesss what it worked really nice. I was very impressed, next time im going to have a more of a professional approach, like make a wind sock or something.lol

regarding personal development

I have just realsied a blog i posted the other week, the day before the moving image lot had there mini presentation thingys in front of mike, i posted something on my old blog page by accident, i am such a gimboid!!!lol, both blogs do look the same, and i must have clicked the new post of that one by accident, cause my new blog site is normally above the old one, must a been sum glitch. bloody blogger!!!!!!!!!!i will avenngeeeeeeeeeee uuuuuuu!!!!
you must read it cause i spent a while gathering the images and stuffff

after effects creation

at the weekend, i was feeling creative, and made a quick animation using a photographs that i had taken and sum of the weberdy web, i wanted to experiment with after effects more, and create like a photo montage animation thing, kinda like the montypython style and the sumo tv adds. This is relating to my gf's obsesion in coke, so she is like an imperial guard to the mighty coke!!