A Slight Set Back...

So, turns out my graphics card has died on me, at least I think that's what the problem is...If I need to wipe my pc, all is lost!! But it won't be the case, else that would suck to say the least...wish me luck, else its bye bye to the competition idea - along with a lot of work....yikes.

So, What am I up to lately?

Having watched and loved Stuart Sumida's talk and anatomy of fighting within animation (two of my favourite things) I have decided to get a few small projects on the go. Firstly I want to create small sequences from various Bruce Lee fight moments, to focus my timing, and weight. I can often blow my mind thinking too much about grand animation projects, when all I want to be doing is the actual animation itself. I just want to create some clips and see where I go.
Secondly: A friend of mine created a great model of the Batman villain, "Bane" unfortunately the project never went the distance and he has kindly lent me the model in which to hone my animation skills, that is once I have developed my rigging abilities to get the big guy moving. Bring on the smashing! Project number three:

Canamation, Red Bull have been jabbing at me for a few weeks now with there adverts in the cinema about "Canamation" Their animation competition. Looking into it the deadline is close, so I can at best only do a small entry. But at least its exposure, there are only a few entrants as yet and most importantly, the two prizes I could compete for include software and a laptop...(yay!) and a placement at the Mill! If anything it would just be nice to have some industry professionals have a look at something I did. Plus If i got anywhere with it people I know could see my stuff in the cinema and thats pretty cool...Got my plate loaded this month, wish me luck! -Paul out

Dr. Stuart Sumida - " The Anatomy Of A Fight"

Well, I remember one animator saying to me once, when asked "What should my show reel be like" He said that "It should show your interests" Or something like that...it was a while ago anyway. Thinking back now along those lines I thought I would go ahead and do what a few people have discouraged me from doing and that's some animation tests for a fight sequence. In an Ideal world I would be working on cut sequences for games animating exactly that! and to help me a long the way I will be consulting the help of Dr. Stuart Sumida. He is a bit of a wizz with anatomy and animation and having watched a talk of his a few years back at Animex I thought I would watch his latest Webimar on "the anatomy of a fight"

"Dr. Sumida is the animation industry's foremost authority on anatomy and fight choreography. In this exclusive webinar, he shares the key points of animating realistic human/human, human/animal and animal/animal fight sequences. He also reviews Animation Mentor student shots and highlights how our programs teach you the proper techniques to kick butt with your animation".
-Sounds pretty cool but It's at 3am and with my track record of falling asleep during lectures this will be interesting, Should hopefully give me a kick up the backside and squeeze in some animating hours...else I'm not gonna get anywhere...considering today's job market I might as well. Paul Out!

Website:

Well I'm applying for a few positions up in the north, so I thought it might be a good idea to get the website back up, after my service provider saw fit to take it down without telling me...never the less it's back up, now all I need is something worth going on it!

www.paulfeltwell.co.uk

Linked In:

For a while I have been hearing about Linked in, So the other day I signed up. Yes its another form to fill in with your various information again, but its been very interesting to view my friends profiles. It lists their jobs and previous experiences. One such example shows how they climbed the ladder from Runner to Jnr. Animator for Framestore. So I will continue to stare in awe and hopes of my own such career path....Enough staring lets get on with it!

CCA animation project:

Here it is anyway, at long last, a bit of this years work:
Well, I ran out of time but I would like to come back and add to this. It's more likely that I will just make something from scratch for my next show reel. I enjoyed Uni but I looking forward to starting something new, this will serve well as a marker to beat. Anyway enjoy!



Personal observations:

Some of the syncing is out, not sure if it was a render issue or something I missed. I would like to have worked on the hands too as they just seem to tween from one static position to the next. Some minor jolting here and there too. Well it all serves well as practice to a small deadline.

Paul out

Some reference stuff:

Just for a giggle, I thought I would add a bit of my reference footage from one of my Uni animations from this year. Enjoy :)

Uni work stills:

Because I haven't managed to get hold of the final copy of my group project I decided to settle for now with some stills.






The characters I got to animate this year!

Degreeeeeeeeeeeeeee....eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...eee

Well that's that, I got my final grade. In the end I had to settle with a 2:1 yes I'm a bit disappointed that I missed out on a 1st. But its onwards and upwards. Determined to get a decent show reel together and make my mark. But where to start...

Well I just applied for jobseekers, that's a start I suppose.

Digital City: North East New Tech

As with every industry its not what but WHO you know and I happen to know someone who works will most of the North Easts...well the local North East Games and Tech companies at Digital city. So thankfully I was invited down to Boho one for the first in what I hope will be many of the North East New Tech events!

I know I'm just a humble wannabe Animator and this tech stuff tends to woosh over my head but most of it was pretty interesting, and I'm not just talking about the buffet. Had a preview to Google+ which was nice considering I'm yet to receive an invite (wimper*) but the best moment of the night was the "headliner" Atom Hawk. They gave a talk about what they were up to recently, but I was kinda distracted away from the main screen by the two artists they had either side doing a live demonstration of concept design. Other then making me realize how much my own pencil work sucks, it was a good inspirational boost to get myself up the backside and get on with things!

Guess its time to go pester some game companies...*GRIN*