Thoughts

It is becoming increasingly closer to my 3rd year at uni, now with this there is excitement for new projects but it also comes with tons of stress. Hoping to minimize that last bit i need to do as much as i can before uni starts so my idea is solid and already in pipeline.

I've had a couple ideas of a film that i could make, some ideas were pure crap and some had something there but still not great.
I would love to animate a music video, only a couple of minutes so perfect time for 3rd year project.

It would be really nice to animate a video to any songs by Matt Berry from the album Witchazel. This in particular has been some very inspiring and relaxing music to work to and have always had a few ideas for them.

Another idea i had was to create a train (again with the trains!) where all the windows were a gateway out to a different landscape. Such as a snowy mountain caps, camels in a desert, jungle waterfall, rainy city... etc. I've already thought lightly into this project if it might be viable. Problems that are around; No story to it :/ terrible problem that is.

Update on the pistol model

Nothing fancy with the rendering settings, But this is the latest version of the pistol model I'm working on.

I was bored

I am very bored and very hot thanks to the summer weather, Not as hot as my free holiday in Ibiza but I won't get into that.

I haven't done any pure maya modelling in a while so started on this revolver. Hoping for it to be something i texture aswell and doing a few more advanced techniques like baking textures along with using normal, bump map and specular maps.

First Public Showing

So Thursday night I had the pleasure of seeing my 2nd year film among many other locally made videos at the very first Lincoln Shorts Festival.

The night was really enjoyable, I'd say there were approximately 20-30 short films most no more then 5 minutes. Had some great live music by some talented people and one extremely talented guitarist/singer.



I was nervous when this screen came up, I knew that it went down well in the odeon to animation students and there families and friends, but this was completely public and open to anyone so was unsure of there reaction.

It seemed to go well and people understood it (i hope) had a few laughs and smiles on the final reveal.

Overall the night was thoroughly enjoyable and its aim to show people how much film making talent there is in the local area I think was definitely achieved. Just gotta beat down that competition when it come's to any jobs :P

Blocking

Finished on the blocking. Gonna work on it tomorrow hopefully, adding some inbetweens and adding a little more character and smooth motion.

We have made Contact!

In all honesty today hasn't been as productive as i thought. However I've been getting familiar with the new 2012 version of Maya which was some bugs which I think I've worked around. Also taken a short while to refresh my memory on animations tools. Suprisingly the graph editor hasn't had any kind of impact and as it was before was a breeze to fly through and adjust key frames.

The picture is just the contacts for a walk cycle to be done on 2 beats (steps a second) its been a while since i attempted maya animation never mind a walk cycle so just picking it back up and can hopefully fly through the next couple of poses.

Update

So it's been a short while since officialy finishing my 2nd year and not too long from officialy finishing work on our 2nd year film show for the degree show, However lately I have had a break and now i plan to get back into the flow.

I am still unsure about what I'm doing for a 3rd year project but i know i want to do it in 3D so Modelling and animation is what i am focusing on this summer. Animation will need more attention and projects, as it has been a fair while since i last did any.

I'm starting right at the basics again to get me back into the animation mindset (instead of the rigging/modelling/compisiting one i've had the past year) so I'm going to use the norman rig for walk cycles and other type animation.

I will start with poses and body animation work using normal pose to pose methods and will leave lip syncing out for now.

Degree Show

Well yesterday was the degree show for all years that took place at the odeon right in the centre of lincoln.
I didn't get chance to visit last years as i was busy working however this year i didnt know what to expect. I was suprised to see the biggest screen in the odeon packed and we were struggling for seats. How cool is that. I later found out people from a local newspaper and college were there so thats pretty impressive.

The show was great everyones work looked stunning on the big screen and i was nervous when ours came on. However when people laughed at the imp reveal i had a big smile on my face and was so pleased.

After the show our lecturer sean wrapped it up with some awards for best 1st, 2nd and 3rd year films. I am happy to announce that our film won the 2nd year best film along with another group. SO happy :D