Client Project - CD/DVD Cases

I have now handed in my client project onto DVD and also posted thank you letters with CDs of the finished video to the relevant people at Smoke & Mirrors who made this project and its completion possible.






It took me some time to find the right templates so I thought i'd post them up.

For regular DVD cases I would recommend this site: http://www.wizbit.net/12cm_dvd_case_artwork_template.htm

For regular CD cases (try the first two - front and back): http://duplication.mimeo.com/action/DownloadsView


Soundtrack: Led Zeppelin - The Wanton Song

Client Project - Positively Compositing

After my feedback on Monday, I spent the entire of Tuesday morning, afternoon, evening and Wednesday morning (until 5am), fixing the parts of the animation that needed addressing. This included the...
- ears
- feet not touching the ground and sliding
- front and back body not showing any weight
- head not rotating enough
- tail not loose enough

I sent it back to Smoke & MIrrors, they were happy with it and were kind enough to render it for me using their incredibly powerful renderfarm. So i'm back in After Effects now putting all the pieces together again.

I plan to render it and send it back to Smoke & MIrrors tomorrow to get the final judgement.

I'm still not completely satisfied with the ears because there isn't enough weight. I know why though... I realised earlier hat I tried to animate both ears at the same time! Bad move because it's better to animate everything individually!! But, overall it's a good piece of animation (and going to be a fine piece of compositing too) so unless they ask me to redo the ears, this composite will be it. I don't mind if they ask me to do it again, as they said I could use the renderfarm another time too so it won't take me long to make the changes. As many people in my group have experienced this term, rendering has been the time consuming factor!

Client Project - Good News and Bad News

Just taking a break and thought i'd post an update...

Today I showed my completed rendered and composited footage to the class. There wasn't a lot of feedback only that the animation needed improving, specifically the head up/down movement, and the feet not reaching the ground (though this is because the plane on the shadow pass wasn't high enough to meet his foot.

After the class I sent across the footage to Smoke & Mirrors for my clients opinion too. I received a great list of things that needed improving in the animation, lighting and compositing stages. I then received some uber awesome advice from the one of the animators at Smoke & MIrrors and the animation is beginning to look better ten fold!

So the good news is that I got some useful feedback...

The bad news is that I have to do SO much work in such a LITTLE space of time. It means another all-nighter tonight, which is going to be really hard as I didn't sleep much last night (because I was working).

Oh well. I guess this is what happens when you show the completed final work of a project. People see what it's going to look like and straight away see things that they don't like. Which is completely fair, but in an ideal world these criticisms could be mentioned earlier on in production!

Break's over. Back to the grind!


Soundtrack: Antonín Dvořák - Serenade for strings in E - III. Scherzo: Vivace

Client Project - A Gigantic Leap

Last night I was stressing out so much because of how far behind I am. According to my Gantt Chart I should be compositing and I still hadn't got my rig working!
...It's all about time management; an art, nay, a craft!!

I've been working on the PRP artefacts and SPP essays/research while working on the client project and having to find time for everything has been a challenge. So last night I presented myself with two options; stay up all night and rig the dog, or talk to smoke and mirrors about all the problems and ask to use their rig. The latter however, to me felt like I would be cheating, so full speed ahead, I threw myself into the rig setup.

And I did it! =)...


This meant that I could finally start the fun part: ANIMATION! As you can see from the screen shot above, I have started blocking the run cycle. So I really feel like i'm moving ahead with things now.

Update (06/03/10):
Again last night and this morning I started work on the materials. I'm using 'Mia_Material_x' with Mental Ray in Maya 2009. As you can see the colour is not quite there yet but the plastic/metal material is making it look more robotic now. I need to get an image from Smoke and Mirrors, that the head uses as refraction.

So basically Client Project is out of my hands until Monday. I will finally be able to present a run cycle to my tutorial group first thing Monday though. I'm looking forward to showing it and getting feedback.



Soundtrack: Rush - What You're Doing

London; 3 Studios in 1 day!

Today was fantastic! I couldn't have hoped for it to go any better. I got back from London a little earlier and I had to post the happenings of today while it's still fresh in my mind...

I started by making my way to Shepherds Bush...


...where I would attend the open day at Escape Studios.




I saw their facilities and learnt how they teach their courses. It looks really good - with 12 students to one or sometimes two teachers, the £8k+ for 12 weeks (for the animation course that's 6 weeks 'Maya Core' (basic maya training) and 6 weeks animation). It almost seems worth it! Still not sure at the moment though.
I also learnt about the industry, such as what is expected of a junior artist/animator as they enter the studios after university/escape courses.

After that I started to make my way to Soho (not before stopping for a bit of lunch though).


My first stop in Soho was at Smoke & Mirrors.


I had arranged to meet with Rebekah (head of 3D), simply to introduce myself as she is my client for the Client Project. The meeting lasted around an hour which was just enough time to have a laugh as well as talk about the client project. She gave me a better idea as to how I might composite the dog now and also offered the rig if I have any trouble with it, which is great to know, but I will try first a few times to rig the dog before taking the easy option.

I had a few hours to kill, so I wondered around the streets of Soho and finally sat myself in Starbucks for a coffee and to continue reading Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. While I was there I was watching the people go past and who did I see to my surprise but Liza Tarbuck...


...yes! I kid thee not. Liza Tarbuck while I was in Starbucks. To me, she must now be known as Liza Starbuck!

After my brief moment of excitement had passed by, another moment of excitement waved over me as I realised it was time to amble over to The Mill.


Once there I was met by two lovely and friendly women who told me a lot about the studio and about the role of a runner, then invited me on the studio tour. I got to see most of the suites; flame, smoke, 3D, telecine etc. and the runners who were currently working there. It was strange to think that at the end of March I would be doing what they are doing and who knows, they might be working at The Mill more permanently! Running at The Mill is going to be an amazing opportunity to one day work on films and I am more than just excited at the prospect!


Soundtrack: Dälek - No Question

GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY! Term two already!

First day back of the second term and I have the same old feeling of uttering the question: 'what the hell is actually going on?' and of course my favourite... 'what the hell am I going to do?' *sigh* I can't imagine life without that same old lost feelings. In this situation though, it's good for me to write down a few thoughts so I can check back later and make sure i'm heading in the right direction.

PRP - Practice-Led Research (Term 2 & 3)

• Create 6 or more artefacts - important to show variety, originality, coherence and quality of ideas, rather than a final polished product.
• Show strong reasoning.
• Connection as to why they have been created.
• Substantial quantities of material i.e. log/sketch book, journal etc. documenting creation.

Give a presentation every two weeks with supervisor and group for new artefacts and 300 word evaluation.

One of my first artefacts will be a survey to provide me with broad understanding. The other artefacts, *i think*, will be very short animations in conjunction with the research paper question, showing different ways of bringing a character to life through different processes of animation e.g. eye movements to show thinking, moving the hip leading to show confidence etc.
I will set up the same sort of tests to make them easier to compare.

Final presentation (viva voce 1) tells a broad story with evidence.

IT'S ABOUT ENQUIRY - COME OUT WITH A STORY TO TELL

Live Client Project

• My Client is the 3D department of Smoke & Mirrors, London. They created an ad for Telekom Austria in August 2009, but were not satisfied with the animation and compositing of the 3D sheepdog because of the time restraint.
• You can watch their ad by going to www.smoke-mirrors.com > reels > 3d > 'Telekom' Austria.
• They want me to recreate the robotic sheepdog (sheepdog of the future) animate it herding sheep and composite onto their footage.
• The final product will be approximately 8 seconds of footage, which is four different shots. However, if time doesn't permit me I can choose to only take on one, or however many scenes are realistic.
• To keep with the studios software and facilities I will be modeling, texturing and rigging with either 3ds Max or Maya, animating, lighting and rendering with Maya and compositing with either boujou or PFTrack

After speaking to Rebekah, Head of 3D at S&M, I have learnt that the problem with the dog was the comp; the sheep wool was washed over and looks too white. And the animation; the dog needs more weight and it looks like it's moving on a track.

I'm happy to be doing a quadruped animation, even though I have only worked with bipeds because I think it will help me understand FK and IK rigs better. Also, to be exploring compositing a little bit with some help from Rob Antil is good because I know nothing about it really. After my phone call to Rebekah, she was surprised that I didn't know much about compositing as a junior!
My only disappointment with the project is that it isn't focusing on narrative; a story. I would really like to be making a short film or something. But this I suppose, is the realistic truth that a lot of 3D work (for example, Hot Knife) is going to be in the future; for commercial purposes.

I am however, on a more positive end, very excited about working with Smoke & Mirrors on this project. The dog is something that they are going to be working on again soon so I feel privileged to have been given the chance to work on it before they do because they are bound to see my work and who knows what could happen if it's good enough...

Notes
1. Viva Voce is a Latin phrase literally meaning "with living voice," but most often translated as "by word of mouth."
adjective
(esp. of an examination) oral rather than written.

adverb
orally rather than in writing.

noun (also viva) Brit.
an oral examination, typically for an academic qualification.
ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from medieval Latin, literally ‘with the living voice.’


Soundtrack: Kol Simcha - Hakotel

Live Client Project - New Brief!

After a conversation today with Smoke & Mirrors I found out that they will be sending me a new brief. It seems that their pitch didn't win the Churchill Dog advert and Glassworks did.


Follow this link to read about and watch the finished advert.

My only problem with this is that the product ended up different to what Churchill required in their brief. I was told the the whole dog needed to be animated; as it walks along a path and then jumps up onto a wall, then talks to the camera. In all they just animated the head and facial expressions!
Also, I don't like the kitchen scene very much. It says in the description that there were reactions from both kids, well, only one laughed, the other had her head in her food.

Anyway, I should receive my new brief tomorrow lunch time!


Soundtrack: Billy Holiday - Body and Soul

Live Client Project

I have just completed the first part of my final year major project; Personal Research Project. The research paper was an enquiry into the methodologies animators use as core principles to bringing characters to life.

Now my new big project is the Live Client. I have managed to secure a brief from Smoke & Mirrors in Soho, London. My brief is to re-design, model, rig, animate and place into a scene the new dog for the insurance company; Churchill. Many people from the UK will know this 'thespian of pantomime' dog all too well, so it's a great privilege for me to have the challenge of the re-design!
Smoke and Mirrors have more recently adverts such as; Rock Band Beatles, BBC Electric Proms 2009. Music Videos such as; Paolo Nutini - Pencil Full of Lead. They are one of the top leading Post Production studios in the UK. They have Maya specialists there so I will be working in Maya to get the most advice from their 3D artists.

More info soon!

Music: Freddie Hubbard - Red Clay

Update (before I go on holiday)

Have had quite a productive week...

I got the train to London on Monday to meet with Elliot and go to see Waiting For Godot at the Haymarket Theatre on the following day. So on Monday we had the entire day to venture round London. We went to the British Museum and Buckingham Palace.





In the evening we went to the Short & Sweet film evening down on Brick Lane. They played 8 films. The first short film was called Bitch by Dom Bridges. It was really funny and I enjoyed it a lot.




Another film I really enjoyed was Dix by BIF Pictures. I noticed in the credits that The Mill did the animation! Great work...



After the film showing we went to Ain't Nothin' But... a lovely little blues bar near Carnaby Street and saw Pete G and the Magni Tones (not to be mistaken for Peter Green from Fleetwood Mac)!

So on Tuesday morning we went to the Haymarket Theatre to get our tickets for Waiting For Godot. We were there at 10.30am sharp to get hold of the limited tickets they release everyday for £10 (with restricted view). But when we got there, we were told that people had been queuing and waiting in sleeping bags outside the theatre from 4am!!

Not to let that bother us I called Smoke & Mirrors to try and have a look in the studio. They agreed and I arranged to meet someone there and be shown around that afternoon. S&M run a huge post-pro operation and have a great network and team of artists to make that process happen with ease.
They have made; Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother, 118 118 Who You Gonna Call, Vision Express Eye Exam and many more.

Soon I will be organising my course (Multimedia:Vitural Environment) to go on a trip down to London to look in Smoke & Mirrors, The Mill and another 3D studio.

Since coming back home I have discovered that my laptop (Macbook Pro) has the capability to record time-lapse videos. I will be posting my experiments soon.

Tomorrow i'm on an early flight out of the country for 10 days. Will post all the things I got up to then.
Bye for now! :)


Music: Rachel's - Water From The Same Source