This weekend

Although after submission its still important that I, and Sam (and probably all directors) stay focused and concentrate on the film. Its still not finished and we still have a lot of work to prepare for printing and the Degree Show. Yesterday I have been organising my professional website and domain name for contacts to view and e-mail :) nothing on it YET... but its all ready to get set up and get going

I now have contact@danshufflebotham.co.uk

as well as danshufflebotham@hotmail.com

and today I will be setting up my business cards to send to printing ... not sure which ones to use just yet... but I have two which I am currently looking at :)

The Final Submission for Marking

Sorting out the folders was a long tedious task and took longer than I thought it would. I had always thought it would take a while to figure out what goes where and just in general - displaying a years worth of work on one disc at the end of term. Making sure it is displayed in the correct manner was essential for me. I dislike knowing that I could have just added a nice boarder to an image and the examiner been slightly more impressed. Same as the Dvd Case and presentation of the work itself. If you only hand in a blank case with a scribble on - theres a lack of presentation from the start - whereas if you hand in a finished beautifully rendered shot from the film or your own work the person marking the film will have a more positive first impression.

The folders themselves I think came out quite well. I ended up having more animation than I expected and am still working on the film so my own showreel will continue to grow. I have recently spoken to Lewis (director of Pirates) and mentioned that I would love to work on his film and help him render if I have time prior the Degree show. I'd like to see both Gnomes and Pirates finished - however I fear that one.... maybe even both may not get completed for the show which is disheartening. My Animation Folder managed to span across about 5 minutes in total of all animations - and some of them look quite nice so I'm happy with that. Prior to this year... I had not really touched animation - my first ever attempt where I'm putting effort into it is within my Character Animation submission and was the Character Rig downloaded from the net being bored sitting on a ledge. My 2D effects Folder however is not complete yet however I will have to do more this next week as bullets go though a variety of different objects - eg sofas and walls... No-one else has considered this or even pointed out that NO bullets have flown past yet which I find it doesn't really make sense without it. haha.

The Artist and Technical folder.... both of mine appear very strong in my opinion and therefore I was stumped when attempting to chose one folder to be marked on more than the others. I left out the 'main' section altogether and hopefully this will not go against me and it'll be possible to see my dedication, hard work and overall time and effort I put in on this project.

Team Whack'd

I think the team 85% of the time worked well. I think this is approximately right as we occasionally had a break down in communication - especially when it came down to the production side of things - as directors, Sam and i discussed what we would do differently within the year and I think one key point I brought up was to keep the blogs regularly updated to get regular feedback. Sam himself wasn't great at this - but he did it a lot more than other people within the class who only blog LAST MINUTE of term attempting to boost their grades. As you can probably tell as you read this I've actually grown to enjoy blogging and writing my thoughts down as I go along and I'm considering keeping a Blog for future reference when I do pieces of animation and effects. Hopefully this will keep me in contact with some of the like minded individuals that I wouldn't want to lose contact with.

A lot of people have really come into their own this year as there was the MASSIVE task of creating a variety of films. I'd like to thank a number of people who I think deserve thanks and recognition. Firstly Sam - my Co-director. Picking up on everything I miss which is great .. keeping me in check and vice versa. Secondly Ferhan - he deserves a GREAT deal of recognition on this project - from the first day he was saying 'I can't animate at all...I can't rig' He was right... he couldn't to be fair as he had never tried it before. He not only LEARNT to rig for the project, LEARNT to animate but he was willing to work on a shot over and over again until I was satisfied with it - in the end I struggled to find too many things wrong with some of them. His animation has DEFINITELY improved over the last two terms however his frame of mind was always in the right place and I personally was very grateful he was part of our team. The whole team have been good though and we all have come together to create something quite nice at the end of it.

The list continues with Simon Harvey - although at the start of the year he was wrapped up in PO/Splay research - he had little time for classmates - the closer it got to deadline Simon began help out more and more people in the class with this new techniques he's learnt from his research. He's learnt so much this year in a variety of areas and I was quite saddened to not see his name down for Best Techy Award - Simon ... you would have got my vote if its any consolation.

Finally - Tom. Tom last year - not a great competitor, nervous in Maya and worried when things went a bit wrong or the screen goes a funny colour etc.

THIS year - I hope his confidence is now booming because his animation has developed at a LIGHTNING pace and his overall knowledge of Maya has complemented this - not afraid to ask for help and has a thirst to understand methods which work has really evolved his skills into a new Uber TOM. So I take my hat off to you sir and I wish you luck in the future.

Where to go from now. Hopefully we can render those final shots and composite the FINAL film. Not entirely sure if Kai is still doing sound for us... what he had done sounds good so far... and I'm intrigued to see what the final piece will sound like. Lewis' Scores for music were wicked. He's another guy who's taken up a BIG role as director, struggled but managed to produce something to remember :) I hope you finish mate. Keep on going. Nearly there now... the end is SO close...

Ouch

Time is correct... its late... pulling an all nighter... yay lol

It'll hurt but it'll be worth it. Lots of Coffee ... awake awake.

There Goes Another Day

Wednesday seemed to fly by. Why am I not surprised though. The team and myself are running into a various amount of problems now... with textures, effects, and grading that we'd love to have sorted out earlier however it has come to the point where it is looking as though we will be handing in an incomplete film. All shots are animated however - some characters have been animated with NURBS eyeballs... meaning we cannot texture them with the correct textures... meaning either I will have to fix it SOMEHOW in After Effects or.... fix the eyeball problem. I am yet to try. Spencer and Stu realised Monday evening however I've been too busy doing so much else that I havn't had time to collect any of those files and have a look. Will be on it tomorrow though mind you. Have to. I don't have much time to blog now. Times are stressful.

Working on Gnomes shot... deadline tomorrow.

Had to team-blog message Spencer about the Grading beginning to turn into something which was too dark and sinister for the film we originally set out making...

Tuesday - The Last One

This is the last Tuesday before deadline... we had the room - which was AWESOME. I thought I'd see more Pirates in considering they have .... a total of about 1 shot rendered... just good ol' Tom working hard away on almost everything. Gotta credit that guy - he's done great things this year. Today Sam, Ferhan, myself, Stu and Josh pretty much dominated our 3rd Year room which was sweet. Managed to get a fair bit done personally. I think Stu needed to be a bit more on the ball with what he's doing... I don't want to baby sit ya Stu ... get your shots rendered - find a comp and get cracking on it. Someone mentioned after (I'm not going to name names...) that he'd been playing either games or on Facebook ... everything BUT Maya/AE for about half an hour.... If you need helping out Stu ... just shout. I'd be happy to give you a hand every now and again... but you gotta grab a comp with Vanguard access... set up the lights and get those shots out for compositing. I'm happy with the progress Spencer has made... at least he's coming in but it would be slightly more helpful if he could render a few shots and find the directories that he needs rather than us pointing them out each time and setting them up... I haven't got enough time in the day to mask the entire 3min Film to the quality I would like... For the degree show I should be able to have some nice bits done to a good standard I hope . Anyway... enough blogging for now. I got Gnomes stuff to crack on with.

Also.

I've almost finished compositing my lengthly animation (character) mov together... in total so far - with three versions of each - its LONG and I keep finding bits I've tweaked and altered in other shots but I'm leaving some out as I didn't play a major part in the animation in that shot. I've been giving advice and pointers to people all throughout the project and more verbal feedback more than anything - a LOT to Ferhan as he is always in as well as Sam when he was animating, I hope it shows in their work - and in mine.

Moi Shot

Stole it from Sam... as he was taking AGES over this shot ... took a few days to do it... on and off - took me about 2 and a bit hours so far.... not looking too shabby either.

The FInal Monday

Today has been about gathering information and how to present our final films and our submissions for Grading. I was in at 8am and got a lot done in the first two hours... when people started turning up... I got less done... around 11... it was HOT HOT HOT and I couldn't concentrate with 1: people being annoying around me 2: people being distracting and 3: the heat.

I managed to composite one shot of Ferhans dynamics... I don't know if I'm happy with it yet. It was the shot of the target as he 'throws up' almost ... but actually just spitting out his drink. I shall go back to this in the morning and see if I can get it looking better with a fresh pair of eyes.

Dan Dalli told us a LOAD of info - and I'm glad I took it all down in a word doc so that I can refer back to it over the week. I have an idea for the Degree show to help the team... but this will have to wait as its still in its initial stages.

Tonight I have made progress with the Gnomes animation however am not ready to show a playblast on here just yet... that'll come tomorrow night. Matt and I have set myself a deadline for Thursday so that Matt can animate the scene as he bursts out of the Pot... I still have no idea of camera angle... front on... I know that.. but how far back.... and whats in shot.... I'm still not sure lol. I have tried to time it from the animatic however theres bound to be a slight difference ... only a few frames mind you.... but still... it may alter the WHOLE film... I joke.... but it may mean theres a pause somewhere there shouldn't be. As I said... I've tried to time it and I hope its accurate.

Right... bed now... getting up for the 8am College shift ... til 7pm leave... (maybe 7...duno might be later)

Edits

Editing other peoples work.

Its looking better from what it was I think...

still not finished.

Lighting Renders

We are now at the stage where the lights have to be tweaked in EVERY shot for the character and the camera position. Its difficult to get what we want but we are managing. Stu added in an extra 6 area lights in which most were casting shadows in order to create the correct ambience around the round... After realising this was not rendering on Vanguard... for the unknown reason ... I went in ... took out the lights and added in one extra point light and fiddled round with some of the other ones already in the scene.... and it rendered ok. :)

Lil Less Square

Another Gnomes playblast - shatter test with new... more EDGEY and less straight geometry.... obviously just a block out...

Progress and work ethics

Josh has now realised how tedius this task is - setting up the lighting in each and everyshot is a mission and the texture files need to be altered in an attempt to get ANY render out at all. I'm glad he is now more ablidged to help, Sam, myself and Ferhan setting up renders. I think this is Sarahs problem she is having currently but she appears to not be listening to what I have to say which is a shame - EACH TEXTURE OF leaf being loaded is 4000x4000 meaning how ever many leaves you have (lets say 40) 40 x 1600 PIXELS = 64,000 pixels on TEXTURES on LEAVES... as well as poly count etc could really weigh down the college computers - they aren't that good.

Kai's audio I heard for the first time yesterday and I was happy with it - personally there are a couple of sounds I would alter but they will do for now. I think I would like to grab the SFX hard drive tomorrow or early next week just as a back up incase either Kai runs off out of the blue or falls ill .... or we need to alter something last minute. Stewart has nearly finished his animations now which is a load off of my mind as I was beginning to have doubts if he could do so many.

Ferhans mate from last years 3rd Year have been overseeing some of his animations while he has been working as well which is good to get some instant feedback from someone who isn't weighed down with work.

I'm still a bit worried about the textures getting shot up as Spencer is not UVing the Pirates ship which he basically said it just wont get done in time for the deadline... the idea was that as bullets come through, the room looks slightly more shot up... with holes appearing.... textures... on different objects eg... couch.... table... either way I'm going to have to see what happens early next week about this. I mentioned it to him the other day... must remember to mention it again!

I think we have finally got most the animations done now... which is good news obviously. There are a few still lingering around but they are generally the easy ones. I have done all but one now... and I am currently working on the Gnomes Explode for SV.

I had to tweak Josh's animation with the Blinds as well as the characters movement as well... its still not great but I didn't want to have to re-work the whole thing. Preview below.
Things changed - the FOOT behind moves now rather than being totally static - the fingers are animated... the blinds move/swing as they have just been dropped... the blinds break for the character to look out of.

Today

Was annoying.
I set off renders... and got a couple back. I had to re-animate a certain section of one of the shots before I could send it off to Vanguard (which has been done now) I then had to light this same scene however the texture files were messing up so much that it wouldn't even render ANYTHING.... after deleting a few of Stewarts objects and changing a few textures ... that are pretty much in darkness ANYWAY I could finally render out a few things... Mu said it was something to do with the Production Quality I was attempting to see as well as the FULL 1024x576.... rather than the preview mode and a smaller Res... Shall be trying that in future... even though it went REALLY bad pixellation and REALLY small.. I managed to start seeing alterations a lot quicker than that of what we had previously. I think the High Res textures ... some reaching 4000x4000 for a Bump map and Specular Map and then obviously Colour Map... was reaching a bit high considering they are not the focal point of the film. Yes we want it to look nice ... but we want to be able to render it as well. Obviously Spencer put a lot of effort in so when we need the high res versions we can obviously keep them in but otherwise we might need to turn them down and render them out - just so we have a finished film.
It was taking about an hour and a half PER FRAME with the high textures... turned down they reached about 15-20mins... which is about right.

It would appear

Only myself and Stewart came in today... I was struggling to cope sending off all the files on my own - as well as tweaking the lighting for them. Sam had an MOT... which takes any normal car an hour - but him all day... Because Sams car had an MOT - this meant Josh would obviously not come in as he would have to travel on his own!!! - Ferhan ... havn't a clue where he was but he did say that he couldn't make it in... so thats fair enough I suppose - he works hard so all is cool. Spencer - no sign from him today... we tried to get him to animate ... gave him shots... even though we wanted him to - we forced him to move the lil guy...he says he has done... but won't show us a preview.. anything would have been better to work with eg a BLOCK out rather than nudda.

Now he is writing on the Blog that we are all doing well and to keep it up... and for us to get all the rendering done so that he can come in and composite it together... which is a bit annoying - he is expecting us to not only animate all the shots... light them, reassign textures on Vanguard... check they are looking correct in terms of framing and cameras.... set them off to the render Farm... and then he'll come in at the end and grade them... obviously WE ... as in Sam, myself and Ferhan have to check them all or we might get the feeling that the words...'pointless me coming in today then really huh?' might pop up.... just feels a bit awkward at the moment.

The team however is working well other than that. We all have our ups and downs but I think we be doing well :)

Vanguard Review

So far we have on Vanguard...

'Scope 7'

'Scope Comp'

Shot_01 + Shot 01

Shot02

Shot_03

Shot5

Shot7 + Shot_07

Shot_08

Shot9

Shot10 + Shot10v2 + Shot10v3

Shot12

Shot15

Shot15b

Shot16

Shot24

Shot27

Shot36Beauty+ Shot36Occy

...so far... thats not enough to make a film we are having problems with the computers handling Spencers texture files at the moment considering they are too higher res for us to preview on college machines.... When halved the res of a few textures we can view the renders and test the lights easily... we may have to adjust this permanently if we continue to struggle - Sam and the other guys have gone home now and I just thought I'd stay behind to set one more render up before I leave. Hitman Reload with Shot 27.

I have completed one of my shots that was supposed to be completed by Monday - but it doesn't matter too much considering we have PLENTY to render ... and not enough people to set them running!!!

Still a long way off completion unfortunately ... the end is...very ....very far away in my eyes - a lot more late evenings and a lot more renders going wrong and tweaking lights.

Today

Been good today... hopefully more of the same tomorrow. Sam, myself and Ferhan managed to render out this many shots today. We did well. Meeting our 5 a Day Deadline currently. However my animation is currently suffering for everyone elses rendering which is a BUGGER. But the show must go on! Going to wake up early I hope and get a comp in the Cave to set things to VGuard. Stu came out with some good shots today - I just wish he had of done some more animating when we had more time rather than leaving it to last minute - THINK of how good the film COULD have looked.... ah... nevermind. The four of us have done well today so we just need to keep churning out those Render passes.

BOOM!

Once again I've been blowing stuff up for films... I love it... a little bit... but it looks alight - still need to animate some of the bits actually fall closer to the camera... however will need the set for that - needs to hit the floor and react with it etc.

As its moving at speed - I figured the shapes wouldn't matter too much - probably blur them anyhow using a radial. Might test it later in AE....

Gnomes do Pot and Crack...

Sarah asked me to model her cracked flower Pot (the crack part not the entire model) before Macho breaks it up.... and then to continue to explode it.... so far so good. Probably use the shatter tool for the basis of the next part.

Step one.... the crack?

let me know if you want alterations... the texture I just slapped on obviously lol

Shot.... Something

I uploaded this AGES ago... blogger is pants... but ... I think it was A final version of something.

This is the second half of the 'fake shot'

WeeKap

... this week and next I'm sure I'll be continuing - I've been literally lighting EVERY scene as well as setting them up for Vanguard. Its difficult to light Spencers room with the textures not displaying correctly or crashing the comps and uni so we have to either display a VERY small size or do IPR renders giving us snipets of the final outcome... or guess and then batch render. Either way we are finding ways round it... even if it is the long way lol.

I am currently lighting every shot in the motel room and the apartment. The only lighting I havn't had any influence on would be that of the exterior set up which Sam has set up... and it looks GOOD :)

Shot 28 development

One of my earlier playblasts of this shot... there are Many more to come I did tonight.

this is a later version... but not the final. That Post will come up Saturday whilst I am animating and rendering :) on the farm and my laptop and batching. Was trying to get him shocked... by getting to jump up... this was slowly getting somewhere and then I realised he wouldn't be supprised or shocked as the bullets had already come through...so I'll cut that out... lol

Was testing the rig as well as I wanted to see if I could use the squash and stretch appropriately.

Sam and I are going to have a date on the Farm on a Saturday....beautiful.

Shot 35

Almost Final? Its getting there... still would like a TIE cluster or two... to animate with... but we'll see.

I've had a lot of comments to lift the head earlier... but I quite like it where it is atm... it wouldn't take 5 mins to lift it earlier... but I'm happy where it is... adding anticipation to what you know is coming is one of the 12 :)

Shot 35 Playblasts

1 Very Old1

22 Not So Old

Deadline Updates

Been keeping too it and its GOING well :)

Shot 27 - The reload through the wall

Shot 35 - Hitman coming through the door (without lattice)

DEADLINE - WEDNESDAY EVENING! - - - - - - - - - MET

Shot 26 - Target against the wall

DEADLINE - FRIDAY EVENING

Shot 42 - Gun Swing over to light switch

Shot 47 - Over Hitmans Shoulder Ninja Party

MONDAY DEADLINE - not met due to rendering. :(

Wednesday

We had a very good day. Had the whole team in today which was good (but Josh stayed home) am considering requesting that he learns compositing in either photoshop or AE for the team as he is nearly finished his animations now. Would be good. I managed to get my shots just ABOUT done - even though I would change bits to it - but some of this would mean that I would have to re-model a whole door and texture it the same so I can Lattice it ... to get some nice exaggeration - will be done for the FINAL but not now... I want the other shots done first me thinks.

Gnomes work:

Today I managed to crack up a bit more of th

e Gnomes pot... looking ok I think but we'll see if SV likes it - more cracks etc... just let me know.... download the file - drag onto your desktop and draw on it in photoshop and then post it on yours... too much effort... tell me tomorrow :P

Do we see it side on...I cannot remember... if so then the side will have to be cracked - I shall check the animatic.

PS the Green Square is so that I can see the front when she sent me the file. :)

Tomorrows forecast:

I need to work on the RAVE LIVE IDENT - as this 3D version needs to be DONE and composited tomorrow. This has number one priority now so will have to wait and see about that. I hopefully can get some more of my animations done in the evening depending on what time Max and I finish the 3D version of the Ident... we have animated the new version - when it came too close to the camera in 3D it blew your brains and the glasses didn't work ... so we've done a different version - Max likes it so thats cool.... COOL in the Hood.

tired now... interview tomorrow - excited.. scared.... earlier.

Will be in tomorrow (Thursday) in the afternoon ASAP - sorry for any inconvenience.

Invitations

This evening Simon and I blitzed through 70 e-mail address of companies in an attempt to raise their awareness of our degree show. They were tailored for the Animation course yes but we DID mention the other courses. They were tailored for our course because:

1 - WE FOUND THE INVITES

2 - THEY ARE ANIMATION COMPANIES

3 - WE ARE SENDING THE INVITES

4 - ITS BEEN MY TIME AND EFFORT SO FAR ON THIS LIST.

I'm not entirely sure how the list has gone for Graphics and Moving Image but I'm glad we've made a start on ours.

I've heard back from a personal contact from Chart Show Channels - the Director and he will be giving his animation team that I worked with the invite unfortunately he cannot make it himself. I know a number of the guys down there though so to have any of them will be good. I have also contacted a number of other people personally in a hope they come along to the show.

My deadlines

Been working on these since Monday - my personal deadlines

Shot 27 - The reload through the wall

Shot 35 - Hitman coming through the door (without lattice)

DEADLINE - WEDNESDAY EVENING!

Shot 26 - Target against the wall

DEADLINE - FRIDAY EVENING

Shot 42 - Gun Swing over to light switch

Shot 47 - Over Hitmans Shoulder Ninja Party

MONDAY DEADLINE

Finally we have a shot I picked up from Spencer - but I might give back to him as its VERY simple using a previous shot

Shot 24 - shot 16 almost backwards?

MONDAY AS WELL.

Monday Mornings are always hell with a lil bit of Tuesday

Especially when you wake up before your alarm and can't get to sleep the night before - I think everyone is feeling the pressure to be honest. I see tears in some of the graphics students eyes as they struggle to get their work done. Poor gals. In the meantime - in project Whack'd we managed to sort out a number of shot lists which is coolios. We have all given ourselves deadlines - as a team we went through the shots we all had left to do and decided to give ourselves QUICK deadlines. eg - my first one is Wednesday. I think this will help Stewart get his animation ON! At least I hope so. He's now got difficult shots to do - but Sam, myself and Ferhan are catching him up in terms of animation folders. Good news for them but bad for Stu as his shots are getting taken up.

Monday saw the team come together (except Spencer) and Stu did a half day... I tried to get my laptop on the render Farm however need to download the Qube software to get it up and running - might have a scout round tomorrow for it on le net. Breakdown of my deadlines will be in the next post.

Tuesday - Spencer and I were the only two in from Whack'd. Spencer confirmed he'd be in tomorrow to help sort out Z-depth and render layer which is cool. Our shot 5 didn't happen again today - AH ***p I forgot to set that to render before I left. Will have to do that first thing tomorrow morning - DONT FORGET!

Spencer said he is willing to animate some BG bits and bobs so thats cool - if needs be I'll give him one of my half done shots and he can tweak bits for me as I'm constantly being pushed for time by deadlines. Sarah has asked for my help/I offered stupidly (with my work load lol) to smash a flower pot... WITH MY WORK LOAD!? must be nuts... but I said I would help out if I could and as theres no MAJOR deadline on that just yet - I can get it done in my own time :) Already done a lil bit of it today - cracked it around a lil but thats not the hard bit - the worst bit is going to be the explode - just like the RL logo.... but we'll see how it goes

Rave Live logo will need to be altered as it schiz's out when it gets too close.... so I might blow it up and reverse it.... hold it... and then blow it up...reverse it.... this happening before it goes too far into the camera as that was the main problem. I attempted a 360 spin however I don't think it's feesable in the time we have left now.

The Degree show logo has not been touched now... however has made progress from the last shot I have posted on the blog. So I'm happy its moving along. Chelsea was excited to see it in '3D' ... I sent her that image below..... and .... I was like - that is literally .... just a texture slapped on lol she didn't understand I don't think. But it is coming along. Hope Dalli likes it- obviously not going to get credited ... but it'll be nice at the show. Do it for the Show and for the animation guys.

Key Posing Shot 35

Just been key posing the hitman for now bursting through the door... not too fussed about the door at the moment... but I would LOVE to sort it out at a later date - will really ADD to the exaggeration in our animation.

And some more bad news (maybe good!?)

It would appear that our amazing and OUTSTANDING degree show which I've been slaving over .... is guna be a flop.

Ever heard of ANNECY? well ... the dates TOTALLY clash with our degree show dates however its a 4 day conference - we cannot match the quality and class of that however we can compete in years to come.... As it is in France I am hoping that we only lose some of the bigger companies that can afford to take a lot of their team / talent scouts across the channel whereas smaller companies will look for an alternative .... us :D I hope. This means that bigger companies who only take the TOP notch candidates into their team (and would probably laugh at our animations and turn their noses up) may not be attending. We will therefore be able to concentrate on smaller companies who are in NEED of staff and looking to expand. Once our skills have continued to develop at the smaller companies we will be able to move into bigger companies if WE want to.... if WE choose... the ball will be in OUR court.

I have to try and stay positive... haven't got a great deal going on for me at the moment - read my post below if you don't know what I'm going on about.

http://www.annecy.org/home ---- For your ease the Link to Annecy

Ok

Don't get me wrong.... I LOVE animation and the process and everything that goes into it... I texturing is cool... modelling and UVing I'm fine with... lighting is fun.... I get it... its all a big long process we've all got to go through at the moment but at the moment I'm getting ridiculously stressed with everything else piling on top of me... I'm trying to animate currently... I wanted to lattice a door and bend it slightly when the Hitman shoulder barges it in... but due to the way it was modelled (WITH HOLES) I'm really struggling to do so... so I've got three options that I can see -
1 - spend time to re-model a door and then re-texture - JUST FOR MY SHOT
2 - spend time in after effects and use the puppet tool to bend it out of shape - but the shadow layer will not bend so I have kind of already ruled that out (unless I bend the shadow too.... but I think this may look a bit funny.
3 - Leave it out... which would be a shame as I think it could look quite nice exaggeration.

I'm just not sure at the moment... and I'm getting quite fed up with the amount of pressure the entire course has put on me. I will not go into this now... I want the degree show list to start being sent tomorrow (Monday) as it CANNOT wait any more - we want people to COME to this show and not have anyone there is not an option. I'm beginning to feel that my work is suffering a great deal now - I have no time to animate my shots... no time to have any free time really to unwind an relax - my relax time is driving between locations to do work... I have even started doing bits for the Degree show at part time job as the manager owes me a few favours. As I feel my work is beginning to suffer I feel like I'm sorting a degree show which will help other groups get a job.... and not helping myself at all... but then I think I am not that selfish to just say screw them I'm leaving the degree show for someone else....I want to help people who have helped me and those who deserve it which inspires me on but to what cost will be... where will my work stand at the end of the day and will I even get credited for half the stuff I do... Doing Rave Live pieces and Degree Show animations were never my top priority... but as they were quick and easy they were always there ... being a burden in my head... and now I'm just putting more and more in there too.... and its just starting to eat away at me. Supposed to be organising a team (with Sam) but it seems like its just me organising our sound with Kai... sorting out files for people to animate in - approving animations collecting textures off of Spencer and doing extra days at Rave to get things rendered. Sam please help me, step up a bit and start giving constructive criticism on all the animations - unfortunately its hard to do so over the blog, yet everyone gets so distracted by individuals in the class - if you feel like your getting distracted tell them to f*off if you don't want to be because at this rate - our film is going to be far from finished to the quality it should be. We should be able to work alongside people that are doing a similar thing to us in a WORKING environment. Sure have a break here and there but your break might not be the best timing for someone else... so this doesn't mean play your music as loud as possible through the speakers.... jump on balloons and shout as loud as possible or go....'HEY EVERYBODY...LOOK AT THIS'. I strongly think the work ethos has dissolved this year and with lack of a tutor being present in the room various members in the group have turned into school boys unfortunately.

I'm well up for a laugh from time to time ... but there is a time and a place - and for the next Month I'd love to concentrate on the film.

Many a time I have considered dropping out... quitting the film and just in general taking a year out but I've stuck with it. I doubt my choice everyday now... and I am beginning to think I have made the wrong decision so far.

**** this

Sam and Josh (and all)

Got some official documents... that Mike gave me... coz they are so official. lol I've had them for ages coz I havn't seen you guys for ages... I suggest you fill them out and hand them in tomorrow (if your in)

In other news.... I have attempted to render a few shots on Vanguard yesterday (yes Saturday :( )... all passes BUT Z-depth. Got one complete shot out... but will need to re-render... was just a tester for compositing and what not....

Anyway...back to the Animation Woop WOop.

Ps I've left my reload Shot for now....coz its REALLY sucking on my...ti**ies lol

Hasn't taken long so far

Only spent about 30 mins to 45 mins on it... and its not looking too bad... need to spend a bit of time of the side textures but we'll see how that goes later on today (if I get round to it)

Rave Live

You may remember I was doing Rave Live logos and I dents... like this video below..

Well heres the finished version.... I haven't actually given this to the Rave Live guys yet - they didn't ask for the glow and what not... or the shatter to be honest.. oh well.... that was all me.

Phil gave me the idea of doing the same kind of thing for the degree show.... MORE WORK OH JOY lol... so I don't know if I'll do it or not...

If I were to do it the logo I would be using is like this screen shot from Chelsea's Indesign File she sent me... mind you ... I don't even know if I'm going to be getting graded for all this cross course stuff so I might have to speak to Dan Dalli about all this to see what he and Mike Smith think. Mind you this object would be FAR easier than the RL as these are all the same shape ... a dream come true for me lol. Anyway.... will speak to Double D on Monday.

Went in to Rave

Saturday and I went into Rave today.
Bah. I set off a number of renders ... I've just been working with the first one - Shot 5. Doesn't look too bad and I'm laying it up ok (I think) but I could do with some Z-depth / DOF ... not sure tbh. Managed to use the Indoor Occlusion... and Shadow Pass and Colour pass... and Diffuse Pass... but Z-depth I shall need to learn....

The shot above obviously doesn't have the fan in it atm ... was going to Pre-compose it and move it into the next section....bt didnt get that far as I got bored with it.

I have also set off shot 1 - which is taking AGES and have started preparing shot 16. Figured instead of doing them in order I'm going to do MY shots for once as currently I feel I need to work a little harder and am letting the team down - need to get cracking with my animation as well which I will hopefully be doing tomorrow.

Indoor Occlusion

Oooo Indoor Occlusion :)

Legs Eleven

Faking the Shots... lol gotta love it .

Progress for Today

Changed all the faces on the page considering some of the ones Max did not work... considering I have never done any HTML before he said I was doing very well which is a good thing I suppose. Just now I'm really tired. Haven't managed to get much animation done again today but I did speak to Carole Mallet about the degree show contact list - none of the other courses have given her anything. I have also given her the bulk of the money. 1190 cash so far. Spencer gave me 25 quid after I had handed the money to Carole so will give her this at a later date as well as JBs other half. I've also set the Rave Live render to Vanguard over night - Max is going to have a VERY high res version on his set up at Rave Live.. as well as the 3D render that will be coming from the ceiling.

Still need to alter the 'CONTACT' on all the pages which I will speak to Max tomorrow.

For Whack'd I believe Kai is coming in tomorrow to talk about the sound - I've got to playblast a number of sequences for Kai to link the sound along to.

Spencer also showed me how to do Occlusion renders inside so that'll save some time + add some time to renders... soooo thats cool. and also Zdepth with shaders etc... hopefully it'll look ok but I need to experiment with them all still.... so little time....it SUCKS.

Inside Out 2010

Image has now been added to the site so its easier to navigate - still waiting for Sarahs images and I'm guessing Max won't have a great deal of time to alter this until after Rave Live on 14th May... I'm supprised he found time to add these up as they are now.

Few problems - Quirke to be deleted - Bates to be deleted ... Spencers Face ... missing? lol

Will get onto Max when I next see/hear from him/see him online.

Blocked out...

Shot 27 I think

Just blocked out for now... showing progress - I finally managed to get the SORT of timing and pose out ok.... I hope. Want to add some swish lil details but we'll see how it goes.

Please ... not too many comments - and don't say that the clip just falls flat - ITS A BLOCK OUT DAMMIT :p

Things to change - MAJOR - timing of leg coming round / add another step...

consider changing angle of hitman reload - to see detail.

Shots Recap

My Shot list so far:

Shot 1 (Door) - Footsteps needed added pre door opening

Shot 5 (Fan)

Shot 12 (Face - Window....I think Ferhan has done this shot) - tbc

Addition - Shot 16 (Ferhans - Look down scope)

Shot 20 (Trigger Finger Close Up)

Shot 26 (Against Wall - Bullets in - slide down wall)

Shot 27 ('Fake Shot' Hitman reloads against wall - Through wall to Target.

Shot 35 (Door - Pause - Hitman bursts in the door)

Shot 42 (Close Up of Gun swing to light)

Shot 47 (Over Hitmans shoulder - Ninja party outside. Look left and right.

BLUE MEANS COMPLETE....

ORANGE MEANS ALMOST THERE

Black is to do!

Bank Holiday Monday

I had to work on Sunday and for 4 hours on bank holiday Monday ... so that kinda sucked up a lot of my day as it was at a STUPID time between 1 - 5 - too early to start anything before and get my teeth into as its like a constant count down til when I need to leave. I did get some more degree show contacts down though before and then checked the websites out after I came back so thats all cool

Over the last few days I've not only been doing a smidge of animation and helping Ferhan with a few of his shots - just pointers and feedback... I've also been going through a RIDICULOUS amount of contacts to invite a variety of different companies to our degree show. I need to speak to Carole Mallett as I think it would be better if the student who KNOWs the contact invites them rather than a general plea to get them to come along - this way it would be seen more as a thank you for speaking to me - taking the time out - and giving me a chance to work with your team... etc rather than... I just think we would be more successful this way. I want to get this sorted this weekend (LATEST). I believe I have completed my shots however I'm sure tweaks will be need to be made to my animation - I already know I need to animate some 'fake' legs behind the door so the hitman walks in behind the light to cause a bit more suspense, anticipation and Oooooo ehhhh about the film :p

Two bits of animation I am currently working on.

Shot 20 is above...

Shot 16 is below... I hope

Tonight

I have to check the contact list I have created so far and then finish off the few pages I need to collect data from - the Games Section. After this - maybe tomorrow I shall cross check it with the old version Simon and I made originally - before Mike Smith told us it was all out of date. Hopefully that will take me to Tuesday when I can see Simon himself and compare what he and I have found.

Yesterday and Todays Update

Yesterday I went into Uni to introduce those guys that were in with the Inside Out website. I showed a number of people how to upload the images correctly and gave Simon the code and the knowledge to alter his and everyone else's sites. Lewis can now alter his teams and help out Pirates (even though he's REALLY afraid to touch it without me there). Gnomes can be altered by Sarah and Yaniv and I have hoped that Yaniv will teach Nathan for Red Rock. And therefore concludes all the team sites. The codes break quite often so they do need to be checked after each time they are altered on each page - these codes are the ones that link back to either peoples pages (from the team site) or back to the Main Animation page. I would like Max to add a roll over the different 3 courses at the top to make them more button esq. And possibly a roll over the animation project image.

Simon has put up Tom Stocker Wrights and Josh Longmoors now. Tom's profile I helped out with a lot but then let Simon loose with Joshes - only a couple of things to alter from what he has done - move the Pirates Logo (under projects) up a couple of tabs. and give the second image - an above margin of 20 pixels to give a gap under the video. Other than that I'm glad Simon is giving me a hand with this so he can chase up the hardest team to get any work off unless you mention promotion or magazine etc :p (talking about PO and Splay) mind you Simon and Phil have been good at handing in work but the other guys have not. lol Spencer has decided that he wants to be on the Site - so he will be paying the 25 pound and not attending the degree show or be considered for any awards etc.... I need to get on Dan Dallis back about sorting the voting out if this IS going to happen.

I also need to get onto Chelsea's back to get digital invites - Simon and I have combined forces to attempt to gather information and a decent sized degree show contact list using the Imagine 2009 Animation Directory. Apparently there is a 2010 one but we are unable to sign this out and take it home - reference only. So Si and I are working through different sections of the book in a hope to broaden the list slightly. Some are based in Oz ... some in italy... all over europe I think - I haven't found any from America I don't think as of yet but I'm only about 100 contacts down out of my 200 pages lol (roughly 5 contacts a page) its going to take a while - all day today probably but hey. Many thanks to Simon for helping me out on this one.