My entry for this month!

I didn't get to do everything I wanted, I suppose thats the nature of a deadline. I just need to get quicker each time. I'm still not happy that I can't get a simple render done, I did go through the trouble of learning basic lighting and rendering, but ah well thats another tutorial for another time. Anyway the animation was at least fleshed out. This month I probably shouldn't leave it so close to the deadline.
Anyhoo heres the final thing. I don't think I'll do anymore to it. Got plenty of other things I want to work on instead.

its 3.30 am... I'm going to bed zzZZzz

My personal notes:

Some of the facial expressions seem to be guess work, I didn't plan for enough time to get any subtle eyebrow motions. I did very little with the hands. The right hand just stays planted, this time round I was quite fixated on just making sure the limbs didn't wobble through the desk that I left it there.. Doh.  I had trouble with the mouth controls this time round, I couldn't create the shapes I want as easily as last time. I eventually got full control back but I had already messed up the first section. I did go back and alter it later although one of the joining words doesn't really read properly . its the end of "favourite...Remember?" Oh and I left the button hand to just float after jabbing the button a few times.

Plus points. I got a lot more body motion in then the last piece. I had a fair bit for fun and I had more than 10 minutes to spare this time :) I'm very criticising of my own work but I know I suck and i'm happy to work harder to get a better result.. i'm getting my chi together, just you wait!

11 Second Club June: Progress so far

So the last two weeks have been spent mostly watching tutorials, scratching my head and wondering what all the equivalent functions from XSI that made my animating life a whole lot easier are called in Maya, or if they exist at all even. So this time round I thought enough was enough and so I have set about finding answers. I know Maya seems to be an industry favourite or at least favoured among most studios but so far most of the tricks I learnt have been fairly long winded in or require a mass of script. But after a little tinker time, I seem to have the hang of the basics again (its like learning to walk again sometimes).

So anyways, this week has been a great learning week. Having to stop and start my animation to solve these varied mysteries has been a pain, but its definitely been worth it! This week my work has actually been flowing and it can only get better right?

Anyhoo Favourite new toys of the week? well remember that issue I had in my last animation with the wrists dancing through the work surface? Well I gots me a script for that too now. Finding the "Enable stepped preview" function is another amazing function that can only be explained as sorcery, has sped up my work no end! Last entry I was actually going in circles removing all my efforts at splining by constantly switching between stepped and splined... turns out you can't do that and keep all your work in ....I could in XSI.. *grumble* Ah well, this mode is awesome, cus its just an illuuuusion and doesn't mess with your keying info and your lovely curves in the graph editor. So yeah, thats pretty cool, thanks for that btw Kenny Roy, loving the site so far.

Heres my 11 Second club for June so Far!
Half the scene is missing along with a character and the facial animation. But thats all to come along with the finished polished version. Enjoy

More on me:

Watching a lecture today on resumes/C.V's gave me the idea, well more like strengthened my feelings towards making my Reel and C.V really show a bit more of me. Assuming that the animation industry doesn't care one bit about my previous experience surviving Primark, this allows a little more space to tell them who I am. I'm not about to write down absolutely everything I like to do in place of previous experience but I would like my blog and (soon to be renovated) Portfolio site to paint an accurate picture of why I am nothing like all the other desperate soles gunning for a job.
So who am I? and what do I do when I'm animating? What do I aim to achieve this year, how will I go about this and am I achieving my goals? My interests can really be broken down into categories, all of which are artistic in nature.

-Martial Arts:
Since the age of 16 I've been studying one form or another. Having started with Karate I later moved to university, where after sampling a few of the local classes decided to opt for a hybrid system called Seiken-Do. This class was created by a 3rd generation Bruce Lee student, combining Wing Chun, Brazilian Jujitsu and the theories of Jeet Kune Do with the discipline found in a traditional Japanese Dojo. I studied within this class for 5 years working my way up to a competent assistant to my instructors. One of my greatest joys/passions was teaching people within this class, to see the expressions light up on their face at the discovery of something new.
I don't profess to be the next action hero or anything, but the lessons learnt within those classes and the confidence gained will stick with me constantly.
     
              -What Martial arts gave me:
Confidence: This life discipline really teaches you what your body and mind can be pushed to achieve, knowing your body and by extension yourself takes away a degree of stress from many of life's situations.
Understanding of weight, structure, base, center and forces generated within the body. These are all areas that transfer across to my current focus, animation.

Unfortunately I have had to sideline my Martial arts studies in hopes of getting a job.

-Voice acting and performance:
Having being raised as part of a church going family I am no stranger to small theatre productions and musical performances. Although at the time I really didn't appreciate the amount of my time invested in the various choirs, brass bands and orchestras. However, my now natural sense of rhythm and timing has been well utilised throughout my later endeavours in both martial arts and animation.
I have keen observational skills towards the performance of others, giving me an edge in creating character voices and often accurate impressions. With time I hope to gain the confidence to upload some of these and develop the skill further.

              -Through my previous experiences I have developed valuable skills in acting out the pieces I wish to animate.

Drawing and other artist pieces:
It is sad to say that i'm not of a drawer these days. When compared to people my fellow ex-class mates and even people younger than myself I don't stand out too much. At a younger age it was different, I regularly enjoyed studying and copying images from my comic books. It is now one of my missions to improve this skill which has lain dormant for far too long.

One of my recent scribbles for a "draw off" with a friend

One of my current and long term projects is my 10,000 picture box which I hope to steadily grow from the lowly double figures I currently have.

This skill will certainly come in handy in speeding up my key pose sketches and storyboarding.






All of these skills compliment each other is some way and more importantly the other skills each feed in to expanding my knowledge and understanding of animation and motion or the way we move. One of things I am battling hard to do right now is to surround myself with new and awesome people! People who are actually good at what the do, who love it and aim to improve on these things. These people will raise you up and help you when you need it. I have at least one awesome friend in each of these subjects when I need a hand and its the fastest way to learn!


Long post I know, hopefully it doesn't read as a lecture or some boastful craptacular drivel :P

-Rock on people, Felty out.

Ideas for 11 second club June:

So, I am going ahead with Junes 11 second club entry. I have just over 8 days in which to do it. So its achievable. Especially if Improve my workflow/methods and dont leave the house for a few days.

This months audio has the first character getting excited over a game, my interpretation is that he has just come across if for the first time in however long. So the first thing that comes into mind is an arcade type scene, my scene consists of two angles, the camera is the view of the character from the arcade screen (seen above)  and the starting angle is from the right side of the arcade cabinet (below) This time round I decided I wanted it to make the scene look presentable.. Instead of just doing a playblast. I don't really like the idea of spending time learning other disciplines other than animation at the moment. My usual view on the subject is "I can learn all that other stuff once I have a job". But to be honest it didn't take too long to pick up basic lighting tricks. Well you can see what I have managed to achieve so far.. I lit the character ok, but that was with grey panels in the background, having just added a background image it feels as though I have just thrown all that tinker time down the toilet! Ah well I can figure that out when im resting my brain from animation. Theres a yellow glow on the characters face for now, it is supposed to be as if its being emitted from the screen, but I don't yet know what colour it would be or how it should really look. More research is needed for that one.. Well anyhoo the scene basics are laid out. Just need to animate the flippin thing now! Wish me luck

-Paul out

Tough Mudder!

In a completely unrelated topic, I recently completed one of the Tough Mudder courses in London woop! I do have my goals outside of the animation world of course and Ive decided lately that my only two goals (for the most part) will involve either animation or Physical challenges. Entering daft challenges keeps me exercising for fear of thoroughly embarrassing myself.

I made it through this one with the company of my fellow nutty enthusiasts to finish at a respectable time of 2.5 hours which is just about an hour faster than the average. I'm currently considering my next challenge. I was originally aiming to do a marathon but as I didn't get around to it this year I seem to now favouring the assault course runs instead. Think i'll have a crack at the Spartan race next!

In more animation related news, I'm still looking to do the 11 Second club entry and try and get a routine going, but why is it I always end up with no more than a week to do it in rather than the whole month? I'm really not organised. Ah well, here goes!






(Btw thats me on the far right)

Kenny Roy.com - No more desk scenes, Problem solved!

In other news I recently decided to further my studies at KennyRoy.com! A few of my friends have recommended him in the past, though I never really gave it much though the fact that both my friends have had industry jobs should have been a clear indicator that I should have visited the site long ago.

The site contains video lectures for sale that answer many FAQ's that pop up among animation students all over. After watching a few lectures on the basics of workflow and having started a few projects of my own I began to ask a familiar question to myself again and again. "Surely there is a more professional method to keeping a characters elbows still when interacting with a surface?" I'll be honest, my usual time frames for animating these scenes tend to push me for the cowards option of cutting out the legs. Thinking to myself that half the body is half the work... if anything its just half the learning. So I searched the site and found nothing in the archives close to what I wanted to achieve, so I decided to ask a friend in the industry what they would do. Her first answer was to do as I had been doing, though in all fairness someone of her skill level would make a far better job of it. Her second tip was, if I hadn't already to use the Kenny Roy site. But she also provided a link to a lecture which low and behold was on my exact question! Freaky huh?

The video showed a fairly simple method of adapting the current rig I use by adding a simple bone chain and parent constraining some locator nodes to other parts of the rig in order to have the rest of it orbit/pivot around the desired point, in this case the elbow. Now that might sound like nonsense to some, but having just spent a year learning to rig it is familiar territory I am more than happy to have worked through before. The most important lesson that I have learnt from this video however came from the following statement "Why are you doing so many shots of people behind a desk? You wont get those shots on the job, not if its your first one" lol he has a point. I wont animate anyone behind a desk anymore...Problem solved :)

11 Second Club: What they say

Unfortunately with the calibre of my entry the comments were less useful than I would like. The method for commenting it seems is that each registered member has the opportunity to vote and comment on each entry. With there being 200+ entries you find yourself steaming through and not giving each one enough justice. Only one comment actually made note of what could do to improve which is what I thought was the whole point. Others comments just point to the fact they didn't bother observe it much.

Oh well this just means I need to aim higher to get the attention of those who would offer some some feedback and breakdown of my work.

My own person notes are that I should start by finishing it and the notes from the 11 Second club critiques are that the cigarette hand, fingers open at one point which would result in a burn and also that the whole thing is rigid due to the bodies subtle motions not being fleshed out.
On top of that I want to finish working on the timing, I didn't get any of the dramatic feel that I wanted from the eye and head motions, I could use a bit of punctuation and snap, the whole thing seems to be a singular pace. I think there is a degree of camera staging and lighting I would also like to use in future to achieve greater theatricality.

11 Second Club May Entry!

Well I finally managed it, I entered the 11 second club.  My entry was still a WIP which is a shame really. But at least my rank should be significantly better when I upload a completed one in the future.

So heres the video, I didn't get to smooth all the motions out, the acting is minimalistic to be honest and I didn't even get to animate the hands properly. I'm going to finish this one, It can be my bench mark to beat. This months entry was more about just getting involved in it. I have wanted to since university so I'm just happy to have done it.

I was working up to the deadline, mainly on working out how to render, compress and upload.
In fact learning all those things in the last hour felt like an epic battle, after all if your going to stay up till 4am with a 9am work shift the following morning you want it to work fairly badly! Truth be told I wasn't even sure my entry had been uploaded successfully untila few days after. They will destroy me with any critiques I may get, but I can just use them to fix the obvious problems :)