Something a little more fun.

Now don't the title confuse you, I enjoy most of what I animate. The only issue I have at the moment is time constraints. I have a lot of places to be lately and it squashes down the time I can commit to the monthly competition I like. So as a break, today I decided I would animate something off the top of my head that appeals to me. No deadline guidelines, just creativity.

So here it is, it's using the Animation Mentor free Stewart rig again ( for links on getting it yourself follow the link on youtube in the about section) I hope to do a minute sequence using this character, acting him out as some sort of ninja-esk guy. Think part Bruce Lee, part parkour wizard and one part 007 and you get the idea of all the stuff I want to do with it. So heres the first test to get me flowing again. Enjoy!



It's short and sweet at only a few seconds. I need to alter the arms at the end as they appear to pull in and backwards which is a bit off.

Getting off to a good start?

Throughout last year my blog featured some snippets of work I had done on potential entries for the 11 Second club. Now if I remember rightly I have attempted to enter as many as 6 maybe more... I always take a look at the site on the first of every month and scope out the new sound clip. Now I may have once again left it too late to enter this months as I have no more than 10 days to work on it. But reviewing the past years work and knowledge gained I can see that my work speed has increased many times over. I don't make the same mistakes that cause me to circle round to re-correct one thing over and over. So I am optimistic about this months entry, having formed a strong idea for it and having no work days cropping up between now and the deadline to get in the way. Last year I only managed to enter two out of the full 12 competitions, my second score was higher than the first. My rank was higher by 3% roughly and my mark went up by 0.79 stars with the highest possible mark being 11 and winning entrants getting around the 7.5 mark. Looking back, both those videos were terrible and both were completed before I even started my animation course with Animtutor. So I am really looking forward to creating a strong entry and gauging my new skills against last years work!

This time I have decided to slow myself down a bit, as I often get carried away. I have gone back to the basics from my college days studying film making. I've done my shot list, set up the scene, set up each camera shot and even made a short animatic. This year, planning is the key!

So heres a clip from the animatic, enjoy!

Interview!

So I'm off to an exciting start for 2014 already! Just before Christmas a close friend gave me a heads up about his company hiring runners. So after he did me a solid favour and put in a good word I sent in my application and extras. It can't have gone too badly considering they have offered me an interview, as it is a runner position I hopefully just need to show up and be myself. They haven't asked me to bring anything with me.    
    
So anyways the company in question is Prime Focus World. A company that first came to my

attention for a number of cool projects they have been working on and will be working on such as "Gravity, "Maleficent" and "Sin City". I obviously payed more attention when said friend got a job with them last year. The company seems to offer quite an array of interesting services such as film to 3D conversion as well as VFX. The friend in question told me its not an overly large studio and he really enjoys working there and thats more than enough for me. Looking at all the future projects they have on their site its looking to be the first job I've been excited to be interviewed for! Well its certainly the first film industry interview I've ever been offered!

Bring it on 2014!

New Year, more progress and a heap of learning ahead!

Happy New Year people! Yes I've been away for a while but I've been partying continuously with the family at no less than 7 parties. No it wasn't sessions of endless brain cell battery, more a continuos battle of the board games and stuffing myself silly.
Anyhoo this year will be a great year, on a number of previous occasions I have stated "This will be my year!" in a rather stereotypical manner the like of which featured top to bottom on ever Facebook feed world over. However this year is stands the best chance of being my best yet thanks to the foundations laid by the labours of last year. This time last year I was trapped paying rent whilst working every hour sent in a job I didn't want. There and then I decided to make a change to leave no matter how hard and get myself in the film industry! So here I am 8 months later with my first showreel (of many to come). Granted i don't love it, but the point is it is there finally and I will continue to beat it into shape till I get that all important foot in the door! All other years I have allowed every excuse not to take what I want. But not anymore! I learnt so much in 2013 and how time has flown, this is the year of the first job wherever it may be!

Thanks to a truly excellent mentor Jim Finlay, I finally feel I have the tools to keep my studies going and work on some personal projects I really love. I am psyched to be applying to some really exciting London studios in the coming months. Its the first time since sitting wide eyed at the Animex festival 2013 that I have been excited at the idea of working within the film industry. In 2013 I fought past my health issues, failing hardware and battled financial issues to get myself a working desktop and start my studies again! I completed the 13 mile Tough Mudder course with some excellent friends and had my first ever interview in the industry I want to be a part of. 2013 was a hard year and to be honest 2014 doesn't stand a chance!

I'll quit ranting now, heres an update on the weight lift video I've played with. Its still in the blocking phase and a little jolty from some miss placed keys but I'll work out the kinks shortly!