"Do I really want to work in games or animation for the rest of my life?"

It is pretty evident that the last half  year has kept me pretty busy work wise and as such the number of blog posts as come to a standstill for the most part. This is partly due to my work being confidential and I can't always share details. But mostly it's because my personal projects feature more dominantly in my blog and I just haven't been doing them lately.

So I suppose my first bit of news is that I am no longer working at Bearded Pixel. As expected the company only had a set budget for various members of staff up till March. As they were unable to secure additional funding, they are now operating with the bare minimum sized team. I have at times assisted with problems related to my field, but for me it's time to move on.
To summarise my experience at the studio I would say I am grateful for the experience, though for large segments of time, I didn't really enjoy it. I developed my skills to a level of a more than competent junior. Mostly in rigging, but the last few months saw me crank out a large amount of animation. Nothing I'm overly proud of, but it was valuable practice working to specification and deadlines.
The nature of games work often means very little time off. As a result I've found myself craving other activities now I've finished my position. For me the experience was a partial answer to the big question. "Do I really want to work in games or animation for the rest of my life?". Initially I would say no, but this is based off the experience of one small studio on its maiden project. I would say at times I really struggled having to work close quarters with 3 other people and always at a computer. But the main distraction was not always having enough work to get on with. Either that or having so much piled on at once the stress would make my eyes throb. I enjoyed having so much to do the hours would fly by on the odd occasion it would reach that middle ground. I've discovered there were few problems in rigging I wasn't able to solve on this project no matter how long it took to figure out, I would always get there. Working in unity however proved a little tricky with the programmers and my limited knowledge of unity/ max synchronisation. We always got there in the end, but I still have many unanswered questions and problems is love to tackle once more! There was a lot of good that came from my position at BP, but in general I really didn't enjoy it. I owe to myself to try another studio or two before I can get a definitive answer.
If nothing else, I am very happy with the question I have answered this year... "What's it like working in the games industry?". That is one thing I will never have to wonder again and thankfully, will not be hanging over me the rest of my life! I would hate to think back 10 years from now and regret not trying hard enough to get where I am now, future is bright and to anyone who may see this. Push on, don't stop working, you are your only obstacle the rest is only a matter of time.

Work hard! It's all worth it. Take care.

Happy (Belated) New Year! Mission accomplished!

First of all Happy New Year to all those people not reading this page! May it be a productive one for you all! With that said, now to explain the second half of the title. It occurred to me the other day when thinking about doing my next post that I should have a look back through my early posts. This usually serves as morale booster as progression over time begins to become clear. When looking at my very first post however I was reminded of the reason I started using a blog in the first place. I wanted this blog to read as a "How I did it!" sort of thing. Now I no I'm not alone in getting a job in the Animation industry and its certainly an achievement a number of my class mates have all shared. But If anyone were to ask "How did you do it?!" and its something many wide eyed animation students have asked, I know, having been in the presence of some awesome animation superstars in the past. But anyway, if someone were to ask what I did and what steps I took, each post on here showed my process month by month, week by week and at some points daily updates. Finally I'm at a stage in my working life that is noteworthy, at least to a humble fellow student looking for work.
Flicking through, if I had to summarize the core points that were important in achieving my goal it would be that through persistence of learning and a continually growing drive to succeed got me through. The act of remaining passionate about my goal hopefully showed not only in the amount of posts on here but also the content. I noticed that over time the written content became gradually more and more positive and more enthusiastic about new findings in my studies.
In the end my job was offered by a fellow college student, playing into the age old saying "Its not what, but who you know". It was certainly true to some extent in the sense that I saw the job on his Facebook Wall.
So it's fair to say this year, is the first in a good few that I have suceeded in completing all the goals I set myself this time last year. If nothing else, this job will bring me the experience needed to continue in my animation career.
All the best for the new year guys!


http://youtu.be/xzeu1z02QKQ

Blast from the past: Go on, have a giggle

Today I managed to find a copy of my old university group project! Its not the worst student work in the world and it certainly makes me appreciate how far we have all come. I was of course responsible for the rigging and animation.. sadly though it came down to only a week of animation time.. which was clearly reflected in the render. Oh well its nice to look back to it. Enjoy.

It's ALIIIIVE!!

Nothing special, just a one step Walk test for the first functioning iteration of the Ork rig.

Enjoy!

- Paul out.

Rigging Progress!

As promised, here is a more detailed update about my current working life as a Character TD. I've settled into a decent work flow now, having finally familiarized myself with where everything is in 3DSMax. The biggest worry I had when starting out in this new role was the idea of not being able to bring my skills over from XSI. But after customising all the toolbars to have everything quickly available to me and learning the lingo its been a breeze! Sadly XSI is being phased out as best I can tell, so moving over to a new package sooner rather than later was a good move. Its a bonus to be paid to do so as well! Like learning to animate in a different package you mostly just need to know where the graph buttons are along with the keyframe,Translate and rotate buttons are. When it comes to rigging however its more about the technical terms for the processes, Parenting (XSI)  = Linking (Max) etc. It did get frustrating at first trying to find everything, but I got there! Moreover I have replaced most of the long winded processes like parameter wiring for slider controls with some simple Scripts. I still can't get used to the idea of me writing my own scripts... its insane! and really cool.

Anyhoo, the picture in the top left is on a Rig Kit I made, some parts of it are mainly just for reference. But for the most part it can be directly applied to any given humanoid and comes with some basic parameters wired in to allow a quick deformation test if needed. Each rig I make gets a bit cleaner and usually more complex so sadly despite this effort, my rig kit may well be outdated within a few days.. oh well its all progress.

                       
To the right we have the first character rigged with my first rig kit! (Model courtesy of Marcus Mills)  I've posed it in a walk cycle key just to show its actually working. This is also the first model I have rigged that has successfully been manipulated within a game engine! That might not mean much to most people, especially gamers. But for me it was extremely exciting and a career first. SO much to learn and improve on but I couldn't be happier with how its going!



More soon.

- Paul out.

"Where on Earth have you been?" - New Job, New beginning, Neeeeeeew!

It hasn't escaped my notice that I haven't posted in what must have been over 5 weeks. Finally, however it is for an ultimately good reason! "Drum Role please" ...I have a job! Yes it finally happened, I have landed myself that all important first industry job. I am now officially Character Technical Director and Lead Animator for "Bearded Pixel" a brand new indie games developer in Warwickshire!
I have been here a little over a month now, the time has flown and I'm loving it. Mostly I have been developing biped rigs to be fitted to any and all future characters as well as a few animals too. There's been a lot of learning and still loads more to be done! The animation is having to take a back seat for now whilst the character rigging needs seeing to and then it will be down to me to get it all moving.
I am picking up a lot of nice new tricks, never thought I would enter the realms of code and scripting, but I have to say the little I have done so far has made my life a lot easier. All those long winded processes in rigging I can narrow down to a few mouse clicks... awesome!

Anyway, here's a bit of what I have been up to. Using a donor model I pulled from a free model site I have been practising my bird rigging capabilities. Its not quite 100% clean but the wings flow naturally and I've managed a few automated wing fold controls which will save time when it comes to animate it finally.

I'll be updating again soon, so stay tuned!


-Paul out.

Life changes and career beginnings:

I am aware that I have been setting a trend of late.. Posting once or twice and then throwing myself to the wind for a few months of inactivity where the blog is concerned. I will do my best over the coming months to amend this and also to tie up the loose ends I am leaving in regards to the progress of various projects I have talked about.

So, life changes. Sadly a long term relationship that turned long distance came to a close not too long ago. Emotional set back aside, it has for now at least cleared my schedule of many or any breaks for the foreseeable future. I really have been needing to finally get onto the career ladder and maybe the life of a singleton is needed for now to help that happen.

To balance the scale, the plus side of recent weeks is that I have been busy beavering away on a trial project for a new start up Indie game company in my area. I am in good standing with them and stand a really good chance of being hired as an Animator/rigger. There will be a lot of opportunities to learn along the way and I am really looking forward to getting stuck into what will essential feel like I am being paid to learn. Which beyond awesome!

Rigs! Yes rigs, I have used a number of them in the past and whereas up till now the only rig I have ever truly loved using was the Animation Mentor "Stewart" rig, now we have a new creator in the mix. I'd like to welcome to the scene, Joe Daniels. Joe has taken time to create an awesome rig pack for Maya animators. The rig consists of no less then 12 human rigs of both sexes and every body type. Now you may be thinking at first glance they don't look too dissimilar to other mannequin style rigs that have gone before..but, these ones are really very simple to use and quick to pose and repose for a great animation work flow and are incredibly affordable. The controls are simple and easy to use and don't have convoluted controls for a simple move and rotate. Something I have found with other rigs is that 2 controls are needed just for that..which can really increase posing time.

I have opted to try out the Muscular rigs as I am all about the action sequences. I received the Dex, Herc and Ugg rigs all for $10! So I salute you Joe and look forward to your future works.

A link a video of the rigs in action and how to buy them yourself can be found bellow

Body Mechanics Rigs
Joe's blog

I will upload some test videos of these rigs shortly!