The Final stage!

So here I am back for a final year of university. After a lazy summer of small infrequent jobs and generally doing not a lot its time to knuckle down and smash out some serious work.

So what's to come this year?

Animex: Always a great inspiration and a great chance to meet some great personalities from the industry, I always look forward to this.

The Vis awards: I believe this has been renamed for this year, a competition to potentially earn an internship. Once again I will be entering, mainly to get some kind of idea of the progression I have made within the year, the job at the end of it would be nice too.

Well, if I can get past the initial struggle that is the start of my 4 projects, hopefully I can get on with a full years animating.

...Wish me luck!

...Defeat

So I suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Masters students, taking the first 3 spots in the Vis awards character animation category.
Overall I was a little disappointed with the ceremony as a whole. Didn't get any feed back on my interview performance or my work and there wasn't really anyone from Ubisoft to talk to. But they have deadlines and that.

Alas, I will face my final year of university. But that's a long way off yet, got the whole summer to practice and before that I still have 2 modules to finish by next friday!

Pah, a minor set back. Sooo plans? finish year 2 (finally) and start hitting the 11 second club and see how far up the ladder I can get over the summer, may even have a go at some 2D as well.

Paul out.

My Gnome animation!

So heres a low quality version of the 2D animation I was working on...was until multiple backups were simultaneously corrupted by a virus. So this version only has one character animated and its lacking its shading. Anyway, enjoy!


Paul

Short listed!

Finally the results for stage 2 are in, Ive been short listed along with 5 other people in my category. Its gonna be a tough call but, where I may lack a little confidence in my entry I'll make up for In my interview. As long as they see what I have to offer I should be fine!

I'll know more at the end of the week! - interview is tomorrow!

Paul

My entry!

So this is my entry, its actually a work in progress for uni, but having nothing else to hand I had to finish this to the best standard I could in the time I had. I'll work on this piece for a while until its final hand in.

I'll go into detail on my personal thoughts on the animation when its no longer fresh in my mind. But my main thoughts are that its lacking personality, seems to start off ok, but after a while the character just seems to go through the motions. Something for me to work on for the final take!

I'll say a little more at a later date.

Paul

The Vis awards!

http://awards.scm.tees.ac.uk/

"The Vis Awards are designed to recognise and reward animation, games, digital music and software development techniques that have been developed by final year undergraduate, postgraduate and research students at the Teesside University".

So I did it, I entered the Vis awards under the character animation category. I wasnt 100% happy with my entry but having no completed work before hand I had to go with what I had. That being said I did spend a number of weeks on it. I'm not expecting a win but I look to use this opportunity to gain valuable feed back from industry proffessionals as well as what could be contacts for the future!

I'll be posting the video later this weekend!

Paul

Taking the first steps...

Hi, I'm Paul and basically... I want to animate for a living.

This blog will basically be tracking my progress as I attempt to break into the industry! This will either aid other future students or be a testament to my pending failure :)

Here I will be posting video diaries, examples of work and any helpful information I come across.

So, a little about me. I started off on a games design course at college, focussing mainly on concepts for games as well as 3D modelling, using 3DS Max.

After 2 years it was time to head to university. I was accepted at Teesside university in 2007 and I've been here ever since studying Digital character animation. I reached my second year without hitch, however part way through year 2 I decided it was best to resit part of it again to ensure better marks, gain more experience and have a better chance at gaining that all important placement year within the industry!

So here I am, placement time! its now or never. I am currently working on my show reel to show to potential employers. I also plan on entering the "Vis awards" in the character animation category, which could earn me a years internship with Ubisoft reflections.

So stay tuned! - i'll be posting work and videos in the coming weeks!

Paul