Summary

Well then, here we are. 2 days to go and I am officially done with BA Animation. With that in mind I have been putting my folders together for marking today, making sure it's all there. Compiled into little jpegs and avi's it doesn't look like a years work lol. Hopefully my blog speaks to the work I've done.

Speaking of which I have been reviewing my blog and I'm pretty sure it illustrates what I've been up to quite well. I really hope whoever marks it has a little gander at our group blog as well though since I posted stuff there that isn't on my personal blog. It also shows how good our group communication has been which I think is part of the marking criteria.

In any case I guess I will quickly recap the main things I have done on the project:

Storyboards
Concept work
Character Models
UV Mapping
Animation

In the past few weeks I have also been helping with rendering and composoting. I tried my hand at a little texturing but could not get the hang of it so it's not really important. All of the above things should be covered in my blog and also in my folders for hand in but I figured a quick list here for whoever be marking this would be helpful.

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So onto my feelings regarding how the project has gone. I'll try and keep this short since I have a tendency to ramble on in these posts.

In regards to the film, I think it's great that we have a nearly completed film and will almost certainly finish it for the degree show however I think it shows that we have had to rush things out at the end. Dan mentioned something the other day about just having 10 shots that look amazing being better than a whole film that is rushed. I'm inclined to agree and it kind of bums me out that the film doesn't look as we thought it was going to at the start or even mid-way through the project. Still we have worked to a production pipeline and this is the first time that any of us have done this, so to meet the deadline is an achievment in itself. Despite not being as polished as we would have liked I think there is still a lot of good stuff in this film.

In regards to the group, I'm proud to have had the oppertunity to work with everyone in team Whack'd, they are talented, dedicated individuals and it has been my pleasure to work with them. I think that our communication has been pretty awesome, even with someone like myself who works from home a lot. Our team blog is a testament to this clocking in over 500 posts and shows constant progress updates for fellow team members. In particular though I think Dan S deserves a big shout out, he has had a finger in every pie throughout production, not to mention his work for the degree show and website. The mans a machine.

In regards to me, coming into this year I was not very confident in my own abilities. I almost left the course at the end of the 2nd year and was still unsure if I should be here. While I still think I have a long way to go, I think that I have grown a lot in this past year strengthening my 3D and drawn skills and learning a few new ones. In the end I'm glad I stayed on but now I'm ready to move on. Whether I make it into the industry or not hopefully I will be walking away from this course with a degree and proof to myself that I could do it. I also have a new found resolve to keep at my drawing since it can only get better.

Well I think that's the last of me on this here blog.

Increase the Peace.

Josh Cook.

Return to form

Ugh I can't even be bothered to type. I got dog stink all over me and I wanna go and wash it off.

I was away all weekend house sitting and looking after the dogs of some people while they were away which means I've been absent from blogging my usual amount since they don't have a wireless connection. Yadda Yadda, it was a hastle. However I did finish off two more shots since last I posted which brings me to the end of my animating career. Thank Christ. I think that was my last contracted task, so technically anything I do from here on is pro bono. Well actually it's all been pro bono...I shouldn't have signed that contract.

Still I wanna see this flipping film finished so from here on out I'm going to be setting up renders I think. I don't know how to sort out vanguard but I'll whizz in to college tomorrow to find the answer and thus will begin the tedium. I'm kind of in the mood for some monotonous work though. Just clicking a bunch of crap, not sketching something or getting the timing right on some animation.

On another note I got my bill for my studies at Ravensbourne over the weekend reminding me that I am 14 grand in debt, Huraay! In spite of that, I actually can't wait to be done with this course and education as a whole. It's sort of scary that I'm going to have to go and get a job but at the same time I just want to move on, regardless of what I end up doing I need a new chapter. I can't wait to see the back of Ravensbourne and I mean that in the nicest way possible :P

Gravity

Trying to remember to update stuff here since I get graded on it. Might have to do a big huge re-cap post to make sure that I cover everything I did. I forget if I posted everything I did or not. It seems trivial to have to prove what is already proven. hopefully the examiners will check our team blog because we've all been mega active on that. clocked over 500 posts I think lol.

Anyway, the above playblast is a shot I did yesterday. One of Spence's that I picked up. Turned out ok, just a quick close up. I already put it on the team blog but I figured I'd stick it up here as well. I have since moved on to the next shot on my list.

So far it's going a bit shit. Having some trouble with it but I shall perservere. Considering I initially wanted as little animation as possible I seem to have taken on quite a bit :/ them's the breaks I suppose. It fills my folders which is good, but at the same time I can't help but think that our film will suffer for having my pooptastic animation all over it lol. I'd rather have a wicked looking film than fill a folder which I care nothing about.

Getting a bit heavy up in here. Better lighten the mood.

What's white and can't climb trees?...A fridge

What's white and blue and can't climb trees?...A fridge in a denim jacket

There. All better? Good. See y'as next time.

reCAP in your ass!

Now to explain that lower post a little for my benefit and yours. Came in to college today, gotta show up once in a while, right?

Anyway we ran through the shot list, hopefully for a final time. Since animation to spence is like garlic to a vampire we had to dish out his shots to make sure they get done. Since I just finished up 4 other shots and only have one more to do I jumped on two of those. One should be cakeage and the other is a bit harder but I can hopefully get it done.

My deadline is this weekend, meaning if I finish by like Saturday then I may have to jump on another shot afterwards, block it out maybe. We'll see where I'm at come Saturday.

If we're lucky then Ferhan might be able to get a friend of his to animate some shots for us, which shall lighten the load for all.

mo updates to come.

Reminder

Shot 32: Side view of target- crouching looking through the blinds
Shot 37: Close up on gun-CLICK-out of bullets
Shot 48: Ninja Details-Cracking Knuckles

(Ignore this, just a reminder for me)

Shoot off screen to reload

Little update over here. Just put the finishing touches on this other shot, finally! This isn't a great version to watch since it's pretty small and there are a bunch of little details which make this, like the gun cocking when he reloads or the secondary animation on the tie. It's still pretty ameteur stuff but it's better than what I usually put out in terms of actul animation so I'm a little proud.

If someone better than me went in and cleaned it up a little I reckon it would look pretty cool. In any case I'm kind of happy about it and I think I've improved a little. However I still have pretty much no interest in actually animating.

I wanna draw gawdamnit! I keep saying that but I havn't been drawing enough recently, I keep putting off finishing pictures and just doodling rather than drawing any keepers. When I'm not working on the project though I just wanna chill and play some games. While I enjoy drawing, it's still sort of work to me as I'm doing it to better myself and further my employability prospects. Can't wait to be done with this course so I can hit the sketchbook again.

Anyway, for now I have to play around with the Ninja rig and get down some short but sweet animations for that.

pop a cap

block-out of this next shot so far. Been having some troubles with it. Walking for one, made it a mid-shot to avoid focus on feet :P needed to keep it kind of slow because this part of the film is quite tense and the pace slows down a bit.

I havn't got any movement in the upper body really because I need to make him reload his gun, so I didn't want to wave his arms all about only to have to change it up afterwards. Him levelling the gun is just to test the angle, which I quite like so I'll probly leave it the same.

boozahol

Finished this shot off on Saturday but I only uploaded it to the team-blog. Got a bit sidetracked since so I'm just uploading it here now. I think it turned out alright, for me anyway :)

Moved onto the next shot today.