I promised I'd put these up

Heres a few reference images we were using in our project.... Sorry I didn't put them up sooner :p

All done

All rendered.... all handed in....all finished.
We made a dvd cover and everything. Masking took a long time but it got a good look out. The snow looks nice and the lighting is just about right. Possibly change a couple of things looking back but in general I think the edit I did with the sound works really well and goes in time quite well. Really enjoyed working with Matt throughout this project as I knew he was reliable and a good animator. The animation in each of the shots were done realyl well by him (all his work) I didn't need to animate anything except for the transitions and effects (eg smoke and snow). We came together at the start of this project with BIG thoughts and BIG plans... I think we did pretty well at achieving these and I duno about him but I thought we did a great job :) Nice one Matt. Was a pleasure.

Alley Scene

Rendered it now... its very late...well early actually.
Effects in. I'm tired. Bed. now.

Final Transition

Think thins could work.... figured finishing on white would be more appropriate considering the tag line we are using. Post and let me know what you think. Can't alter at uni.



please note... it actually finishes with white...not a white dot. I juts cut down the render too far for the preview :P

Thats What I Thought...

Matt and I have progressed well and today we got the well done from Jared however he did bring something to our attention that only a fresh pair of eyes would notice which was to do with the lighting. Our character, Jim, was very dark in his snowey scenes and this REALLY didnt make much sense and the light is often bounced RIGHT back up off the snow and therefore we have been tweaking our shots... its never too late
A lot of things have been going wrong ALL over the place. A lot of them have been fixed and a lot of them we've thrown all caution to the wind and just said "we'll get it in Post"... and we really have. All the snow, most the lighting, grading, transitions, skyies.... all done in Post. And the snow trail, snow being kicked up etc... all in post. This project has really been keeping Matt and I busy in the post production stage as each render comes hot off the press we are immediately tweaking pretty much the whole shot and creating a whole extra lil something special :)
Have enjoyed it.... and theres ONE NIGHT LEFT!

bloggy bloggerson

Just an idea... that I dont think we'll use to be honest but hey. nevermind :p. Was just an idea of the lines CHasing the character before he gets to the final slope :p

Matt....

changed my mind...I'm not fixing the glitching...you can 2mr if you want....but its WAYyyyyy too much effort for me 2night lol

Fixed

Just noticed the mistake of the lines into the darkness....fixed now...



ta da...i hope lol
let me know what you think it needs.... etc.

One Of the last?

Just put a fade at the end as well Matt....
Was thinking if I do the TGAs 2night I could have that shot finished and rendered away... only I can't render at Rave as I dont hav trapcode (meaning I'd hav to render 2mr afternoon/night back at mine again)... so will make a start on some of the tgas.

The Final Countdown

So here we go. The deadline is coming up quickly... but are Matt and I worried.... not.....THAT much...just a lil bit....well..... we think we'll finish.... pretty sure we will...... but anyway here's the list of whats going down over the next couple of days in more detail!!!

Matt's DREADLINE (DREAD THE DEAD!)
Wednesday night -
Finish Alley Animation TONIGHT!
Dvd cover (I'll bring one tomorrow)

Thursday Day at Rave -
Landing Transition Animation FINISH before 3pm
MPP (microsoft Project) bits and bobs
Re-Back Up HD's On each others.

Thursday Night after Rave -
Record Audio and sort the sound out once and for all (if you can think of anything else let me know.

Friday Day -
Audio and compilation by Mid-day!


My Line of the Dead!
Wednesday Night -
The Finale transition finish with lines and maybe some more snow?
Go through and fix the tga's involved within the final shot so they no longer glitch... oh what joy :(

Thursday Day
Render the Alley shot now Matt has finished animating it.
Transition for the Alley can also be rendered after 3pm when Matt finishes it.
Approval Dvd cover and mutual agreement
Graphics/Grading
Slope down hill blend shapes

Thursday Night
Smoke within the alley and MORE MASKING!!!
Final render of alley

Friday Day
Compositing check sounds and final BIG render.
Burn Dvd Midday!

Another One

Yeah.... matt and I are on a ROLLLLLLLo :)

Please note - the sky has been DE blued slightly :D

Latest And loveliest :) (thanks stu)

Stu helped with this title here :) spelling :D haha.
This is the animation by Matt and effects (not done yet) by me... had to render out a few different lighting situations considering the snow lost quality in BUMPiness with the stronger lights... but now ... all fixed :D

We will revise the timing for this shot later today - seems too floaty at the beginning.

Update On the Update

Just another Idea of things that could happen for this transition.
Will be good to see what Matt has now he's finished it.

Note to Matt - Have you completed the Run/first transition into the Snow... as we could get that rendering Tuesday Morning? What do you think? Let me know ta. Got work 2night just so you know but other than that should be around for talking.

The Use Of Words In Animation

Classic. Found this whilst doing me-'ol contextual...which I just finished by the way. Went over by a little bit but I'm just glad it's actually over. This isn't directly related but I kinda liked it... was kinda weird and wonderful :p... crazy lil idol dude and his Jam :D

Back On The Ball

So I've done a little work today which I'm happy to actually be doing as I've still got Contextual Looming over me which is annoying. Hopefully I'll sort that out over the weekend. Even though for some reason the deadline reads 8.30am Monday morning and Kieron said we'd have until midday. Not sure if everyone knows about this or if we'll be able to upload after 8.30am but I'm guna get mine in before just in case. Saves all the EHoo-HA Monday when people are trying to upload and it wont let them (maybe!)

Anyway this transition. I'm thinking it needs to be less glow - possibly swap the glow to the first part of the effects and then have it come into normal. Got a few more ideas as well for this (this was the Maya and AE version) going to try the AE only version which could work better ... more Free....but meh. Anyway. I'm going home as I'm tired. :(

What Have I been doing!?

Contextual studies - simple as. Not only have I had to prepare for the presentation with a load of images set up and think about what I was going to talk about (I think it went ok) I have been again neglecting this project as I've been swamped with Contextual fever - The essay which according to Kieron, should have been prepared a long time ago and sorted out already... is hard to write when he doesn't really specify a target to write towards. No goal... I seriously don't recall getting a copy of the brief which is a ***** but hey. I searched moodle but only found the CVA Contextual upload point for 2008. Hope thats the one we are supposed to be working with and uploading too. I've nearly finished it now but the whole Contextual project this term has been an outrage to put it lightly and Mr Dennis had the nerve to have a go at us for not being in the room and set up when he waltses in the CVA lab yr 2 room 20mins after 10. If we HAD of been prompt and started we'd have to start again for him being the tutor. Not only was he rude to each individual while we were setting up and preparing but he also had his phone on loud and recieved text messages a number of times whilst students were presenting. Contextual Studies this term has really annoyed me. I understand there is a need for it in our curriculum to broaden our horizons however I feel that rushing something in the last two weeks of the year is not the way to go! Especially when everyone else has two attempts at doing a presentation (moving image I believe) and are now practising disertation writing I feel that we may see the outcome of this next year as our disertations the quality which they should rightfuly have....
Animating has been put on the back burner yet again... which really annoys me. I want our piece to look pretty good and due to this contextual work we have had to sacrifice yet again.

ROA Update

What a success. The team really pulled together with Phil's Branding and character, Sarah running Dan G around and me spending money which I shouldn't have been we all came together and managed to get the exhibition up in time for the 4th June. Got a lot of interest as well. I felt I was being pretty demanding on the front line of getting people inside our room by literally stopping every person with a green pass walking by and asking them if they had seen the showreel yet but I had to let people know we were there. Well done Tom for thinking up the Sandwich board even though it really didn't sound like a good idea straight out.... it really did work as it caught peoples eye. Animators would do almost anything to get noticed :p I suppose but yeah it worked so I'm very happy the guys chose to chase it up and put it together. I know everyone played there part and some opportunities may come up due to it ... possibly from the guy from Last man standing which Phil and I met, first in the libary and then second time I grabbed him when he walked past to tell him about animation...
All in all... the show was really well put together, even if it seemed a little last minute due to broadcasters and we didn't really have a layout as such to follow as Dan was busy with the showreel - which really looked fab mind you... the guys did well on that. Grigsby did well, the team did well - Dalli and Jared were both around when we needed which was cool and Mike cheers for the preperation eg foam board funding and print credits.

CVA really came together and last night showed how the entire college came together as a whole to become RAVE ON AIR. Good show by all departments and I personally had a really good time. Elaine ... oh dear... few too many ....but hey it was worth it!
:D

THe ROA Show Looms

I'm not guna lie.... I've been not doing any of this Burton Project as its been put on hold for Rave On Air and Showreel Business which has very pressing deadlines which are a fair bit closer. My showreel I hope to have playing on a computer in Emerald I'm constantly working on and hoping that my third attempt will work better than the pixellated first two. The way I've got around this occuring is in fact using a different program altogehter. Originally using Dvd Studio Pro... which seemed REALLY easy and simple to use I found the resolution of the menus just seemed to mess up and the video transitions were as clear as day. So quite annoying after rendering it and burning it twice hoping it'll work. Third attempt will using in the process using Encore. Other than struggling with software myself and Phil have been aiding Dan Grigsby with the ROA Animation Exhibition. I think we've helped out a fair bit in trying to print posters and getting peoples work in and buying foam board etc for the show.

Pressure is on...

I'm sure that everyone is feeling the pressures of the deadlines this week. Not only do we have a Rave On Air Deadline to meet (which Matt and I are still pushing for but its looking more and more doubtful as problems keep cropping up) we also have a PPD submission for Friday which I spent my Bank Holiday and this evening doing. ALSO have to prepare stills for the exhibition and prepare a dvd showreel for the exhibition.... and on top of all that my showreel dvd is REALLY complex... so its going to be a LONG week for me I think. In other news we had a Lighting tutorial lecture with Sultan today which was quite benifical in some ways and in others he reiterated what I already knew. ... You win some you lose some. As for this Burton Project. I believe we could do it. I've been working on the transition again. Attempting a complete fade to white this time... Think it works better however I'll really have to see what camera angles and what animation I get to play with after Matt has rendered the finished run and snowboard away form the camera in the second shot.

Time is of the essence my dear Watson!



still only using masks though in After effects and a cheeky lens flare that isnt really visible lol

Try...Try....TRY AGAIN!

putting it bluntly... I was annoyed at the first attempt and couldn't stop thinking about it...so tried again!!! Here we are now... at another attempt I think this one is better than the first... coz the first just made me wanted to cry it was so appauling.... theres clearly room for improvement ... I definately know that...but I think something like this COULD work...COULD.....possibly tweak the footage earlier... slightly before the jump...but hey...we'll see how it goes :p

Really not too happy with this...

Yeah so this is by far one of the worst things I've tried to do so far... It could easily be better..but I'm nakrd to tell the truth... been working on my work for the year 2 show at ROA... Eugh. I think I might give it a rest for tonight. Going to have a fair bit to show at the show though I think it all goes to plan :D

Transition....

As you can see it SORT of nearly works without anywork....well....not really....it'll look 10x better if I can achieve the look I'm going for ... lol

Newer....Slightly Improved Render...Maybe?

So this time I added the extra light... and pushed the camera back a bit so it TURNS...otherwise we'll be looking upside down...and it just wouldn't have worked AT ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! lol But yeah...looks vaguely better I feel...will work with this for now to do a couple of examples of transitions for Matt.

Lighting Bad...Animation Bad.... PUrrrrFect

Yeah.....Bad animation done here so I can play around with the idea of a transition before Matt gets there with the animation (please note I really wasn't trying to animate... so it is AWEFUL! haha.... I've decided to re-render with an extra light to light the character slightly more as this is SOOOOoooo Bad..... yeah...ahem. New render coming up soon.

Jump 02

This is the second to last shot of our animation. Quite happy the way its turned out actually. Just need a bit of animation on it... might put some snow on it providing there is time... also don't pay any attention to the trees as these will be sorted out in 'post' providing there is time. If there is not any time before ROA I will definately do it for the final submission of this piece :D

Ms Project Update

As you can see from the project I've cut a number of things such as Approval from Burton etc as we are seriously lacking time. Matt and I have been having ups and downs throughout the day so far.... a loss of a file as Matt saved over a walk cycle... wasn't a major loss but obviously nothing great. The environment is getting better and better as I continue to work on shots. Still more to do though on both our parts unfortunately... will be glad when RAVE ON AIR is gone and done.

Final Jump Image

Alley Render

Ok...not sure if this will work considering its only 2MB apparently .... or maybe my Mac is being a bit special in its old age.... think I might get a new bad boy soon ...over summer maybe? yeahhhhh :p

Bigger Shot

Its getting there....still.... slowly. More to be done still though. Ach!

IronSky

Just loving the concept work of Ironsky right now..Cheers Sam....
Iron Sky.net :D

Matt Finished? HARDLY

Matt finished the Rig today... means hes done right.... HA...yeah right... now he's animating... we both are here and there from now on. Looks as though he's done a good job on the rig though which will help us when animating our DUUUUUDE. Time is of the essence however I believe Matt and I are beginning to doubt meeting the Rave On Air deadline as are many of the groups what with the other project for Dan Dalli going on as well and different renders taking up time!!! We'll have to see how the end of this week pans out. Think its going to have to be a late one on Friday for me as I have work all evening Thursday - UBER LAME! Eugh....

Getting There

Yet another Image for the Blog

Been playing around with the light fog etc for a while now and getting the lighting in the back right... this is what I've got so far.

Shot is getting there

Its taking a while but I think its worth it. Been tweaking the lights this morning along with some tweaks of the set.... barely noticeable but the subtle things are what always makes a good render :D

Not TOTALLY Related

Ok so this isn't exactly to do with this project but I just thought I'd mention it - today we had a really good lecture from Peter about how to use Studio Pro to create a DVD and I think we are all set to make a showreel DVD for Double D's Unit. I'm happy. The morning probably would have been enough but I'm glad we had the afternoon as well with him to chuck a few questions on how to do a few other bits and bobs such as slideshows etc. Took a lot of notes and BOY am I glad :D

New Character for BG scenes

Just altered all of Matts hard work in an attempt to create some background characters to cheer him on. Not entirely sure on if we'll use him but it would be nice if I could do a few more (as they will be so small it won't matter too much as long as the silhouette isn't too samey.

Another Test .Mov

Annnnnnnd with the smoke I created in After Effects.



Put this together in about 30 mins however its not perfect but hopefully if I have time I could get a nice render out for the final thing :)

ps...textures etc missing as I sent it to vanguard and just wanted a quick result to see if the AE was possible how I thought it was.... it was apparently but still quite difficult.

Schedule Update

So we are falling behind a little but I think we can manage. We'll step up the effort a little bit and try a bit harder. Efforts MUST BE DOUBLED FOR THE FINAL WEEKS!!! COME ON MATT, LETS DO IT!!!

Most Recent Render

More Images... I-Ka-Rummmba!

Research really is on going:

I might try and model this type of landscape using maya... then it won't look so fake fake... trees in the right density in the right places :p

Forest

Just slapped a few trees in there....just a few :p Building a rail to grind along and a few 'stands' maybe a couple of fences to put in to keep people back etc... we'll see how it goes :)

Snow?

Its....Snow... for our close up shots :) and the snow lighting obviously!

Deadline Moved

More pressure has been put on us now as the deadline has been moved forward to the 29th of May... That really doesn't leave long and it means Matt and I are going to have to pull our socks up considerably to get all the animation and effects we want - hopefully it'll look good for Rave on Air however I know a lot of the students are thinking that the Rave on Air Version won't even pass QC in fear of strobing of not being title safe. Matt and I want it a very high quality if possible however may not get this for Rave on Air... even though we don't want to settle for ... well.... for presenting ourselves as a lesser version than ourselves almost.

Soft Modification Tool

Using the Soft Modification tool today and creating a quick sample/snow scene for our boarder from Burtons to have some fun and tricks with :)

The Latest

Slowly...working.... must do..... ok just a quick break :p

Hey Matt,

Just so you know I haven't done too much to the work you've already seen on the blog. As you know I'm playing dodgeball 2night and staying out so will be in tomorrow probably around lunch time. I am definately coming in tomorrow so I will see you then.
Cheers mate.
Keep up the work.
Don't forget to shoot into the sky (don't shoot at us .... or we'll dodge) anway see you tomorrow.
Dan

Not happy with this.

Texture really needs more work as I'm attempting to create my own its a bit of a hassle.. but I will prevail. I obviously turned up the lights a lil bit considering I noticed most my posts you can't actually see... Gar!

Tuesday Morning - Blue Zoo

Tuesdy morning we had a pretty decent lecture from Blue-Zoo Animation studios who came in to talk about their work for a few hours. They seemed a lot more ... 'Student' esq with a style of professionalism that you don't get too often. Only a few other companies that have come to give lectures have had this quality and I really do think that this different approach to the lecture helps to communicate to the students on a ground level which they can all understand. Instead of rabbiting on about what they've done and how BRILLIANT they are just showing us piece of piece of work they actually broke apart their shots and spoke about the different passes they used to create their desired effects - the different layers etc. I found this very useful and slightly inspiring also. I'm glad Matt and I have allowed time for this in our rendering stage. Layers included, shadow, diffuse, dirt, colour and occlusion obviously. Some examples of their work can be seen on their website:

http://www.blue-zoo.co.uk/animation/video/show/80 (thats just a video of Stitch up Show Down. Which they spoke about a lot. I think I'm glad they focused on these characters as they were enjoyable to watch and no one had really anything negative to say. All good fun (not for the characters though getting torn apart)

All in all I think nearly everyone enjoyed the lecture. :D great stuff and more of the same please!

MS Project

Try Again...

Just realised that previous post didn't have a bike...so...thereeee we go!

Occlusion and Development