Day 7473

Super selfish post about things I would do for only me if I got super rich...Because I feel like fantasising right now

1. Paint and upholster all of my furniture same colour and patterns 
2. Have a wall dedicated to all different types of teas and a special mug for each type of tea 
3. Have a glass display dish that always has yummy pastries in it 
4. Physical copy of all my favourite manga/anime/books/movies/tvshows 
5. Have a 3 screen computer where one screen is a wacom 
6. Flash, Photoshop, premier, after effects, unity, unreal, Maya, mudbox  professional versions 
7. A mirror wall/doored wardrobe  
8. Really good camera and light box and whole punch paper thing 
9. Book case of different types of papers or at least a shelf 
10. 7 pairs of super awesome and comfy and won't break knee high lace up boots 
11. A mini rose garden full of white and red roses
12. Cosplay outfits and wigs for CC, Saber, Shirayuki, Monet, Celty
13. A super big bubble bath with a shelf of awesome smelling soaps 
14. Poi, glow in the dark, flag, fire(3 ball), sparkler
15. All of my clothes would be super comfy and super cute 
16. Completely memory foam mattress
17. Piano, Japanese, 121 lessons 
18. Trips to the places in the world I want to see 
19. Have a studio to create the animations well and the money to advertise well      
20. Big oven with at least 4 shelfs o.o 

Day 7463

Animation feedback year 2

Group

TB1
Very clear and strong evidence of your production tasks and organisation of the group, as well as delegated tasks and feedback. A stronger focus on changes and updates to individual schedules over the year would have beneficial. Texturing work is of a good quality, and exploring other software to resolve seam issues shows independent learning. Other similar softwares that you might want to look into include Mari and ZBrush. The end result of the project is lit and rendered to a good standard, complementing the animated narrative.
The filmed acting reference has helped, but ensure that you yourself act out the performances too, this ensures that you have more reference and motion studies to use, and it also allows you to more easily step inside the mindset of the character and it’s performance. Some inconsistencies in the animation across the project, you need to work closely as a team to ensure that all scenes meet a similar standard to ensure a cohesive end project,
TB2
Initial concept of the project using animation to interact with filmed footage was very strong.
Some initial indication of the breakdown of roles and scheduling for the project, but you haven’t really elaborated on any adjustments or changes that were necessary over the production that would have altered the organisation of the animation production.
The filming of this project should have been completed first after scouting out possible locations. By retro-fitting the animations to the footage later there is disconnect between to two elements, with slipping occurring and the animation not conforming to the perspective of the footage. Ultimately the illusion of both elements existing in the same space is broken.
To assist with this all footage should have been filmed on a tripod to allow for smooth and stable camera moves, helping with the camera tracking.
Some advanced subjects explored including matte cleanup painting for backgrounds, camera and object tracking. The backgrounds should be created as a separate element and composited later using After Effects or Nuke, make sure the patches are camera tracked to avoid slipping. Additional research needs to be done in terms of Visual Effects and exploring what is needed on set to make the inclusion of VFX as easy as possible.

Sovis

PART1
Your work in this project is of high standards . The rotroscoping is well done and It has a strong style .it fits very well with the backgrounds. You have a lot of talent and have a great potential to make something very good next year .
I am also really impress with the self -directed After Effects studies .
Well done
PART2
The story works well .
You could improve it by changing the framing in some shots . You go from a Long shot to a Extreme Close up of the male character and this cut does not work .
It will work better if you go from a Longs shot to Middle shots to a Close ups . Cutting from one to the other otherwise the cuts are too abrupt . There are very rare occasion where filmmakers go from a LS to a Extreme Close Up and this rare exceptions have to do with the a particular point in the narrative which in your film is not the case.
Also in terms of composition you will benefit by using the rule of thirds .
Check this url to understand better these rules
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds
You could work more a bit more on the colour pallet and tone of the film and add depth by adding lighting in your backgrounds by having highlighting some areas .
Otherwise the story works well

3D (Not the tiger) 

The walk reads quite well. The intent is there in the performance. The posing is a little unbalanced at times. The feet posing also a little awkward. You’ve captured some personality in this walk which is good....obviously.
Sleeping animation reads quite well. There’s some nice little ear twitches and head shakes. However some movements feel isolated, e.g. when he rolls back a little, this movement is not really echoed in his legs. Use reference – if you act this out you’ll notice how every little movement will cause other movements throughout your body. Would like to have seen him wake-up too.
Lip-sync reads okay. Unfortunately the video loses the audio sync. The mouth appears to be well posed and timed. I would allow the mouth to stay open after some phrases as it takes in breath.
Also I feel the head movement could be more expressive to the dialogue.
Boy animation is quite nicely paced. Some movements are too rigid, needing some settle movement, rather than move-then-static. Like with your sleep animation, some movements feel isolated, rather than the whole body working together.
Overall, some good moments of animation. Always use reference to help your understand how the body moves – act it out before animating.

Visual research 

TB1: Where are the drawings you produced in the workshops? Upload them for final submission.
Project – fabulous and exciting visual research for ‘Owl and Pussycat’. Great character designs – many of them could be taken further in to Production. Explore backgrounds in the same way and finalise a storyboard – also a mood board which reveals which style you will use. You are very talented – make sure you attend regularly in order to receive as much feedback as possible – especially L6. I especially like the food colouring owl! Toilet roll invention – great – would like to see this in action. Well done ☺
TB2: Good exploration of a wide variety of media and materials. The Owl designs are particularly strong and appealing. Excellent research – I’m pleased to see you exploring the 12 principles and composition to consider the audience. It is not clear which is your chosen technique and process for a finalised animation however you have produced some wonderful work during this unit and I hope this approach continues in L6 for all your pre-production work. I suggest you continue with this project before L6 in order to have another finalised animation for your show-reel next year.

Cartoon 

I think your sense of kinetics is fair, and your ideas are good, but your drawing is shaky. And you'll need drawing even to work on a tablet.You need to be able to visualise your ideas with more clarity before you start a scene, and spend more time planning your animation instead of diving straight in. same for all media.Making story sketches is key. All animators do that before animation, including Pixar animators; I know because I've seen their drawings!Drawing regularly will help with whichever type of animation you do because it develops your sense of visual awareness, improves staging and composition and strengthens your character poses.

Essays (written up by me from the paper version. )

I found this to be an enormously frustrating piece of work. As you present a beautifully ordered, well researched and considered set of ideas and contexts deploying very useful sources set into an incredibly creative and intriguing primary example. I love, love, loved the way you worked with the brief here entirely and would have maybe like you to have expanded the research more into areas of how advertising imagery operates, image making, star signification etc. (After all, who is Audrey Hepburn? Why is she important here? What cultural connotations does she bear?)

My main qualm is that the question asks you to address Well's chapter but that you actually go nowhere near it other than an incredibly brief, skimmed and inconclusive set of opening statements that doesn't really take the ideas on with any clarity or indeed use them as the necessary intellectual drive for this narrative. You're basically not fully answering the question here as intensely as you need to - that, for me seeing the work and care that has gone into this, is so frustrating, as mining those very ideas, extrapolating and extending from them explicitly would have lent this a cast iron academic foundation and would have maybe lessoned the slightly fragmented narrative and this process also would have given the (excellent, but still slightly under-worked) primary analysis more meat. The ambition here is so very welcome, though, and I think by large you present here a pretty solid conception of academic practice overall, you just need to ensure you are really considering what the brief is fully asking of you. This really wasn't far off a first piece class of work at all. What was here was a joy to read and it reveals creative, thoughtful endeavour. The citation pattern still needs work, mind, but what was here was very promising and was a good start. Keep checking those slides on Moodle that were posted in support of this essay and around managing secondary and primary research and also on the Harvard APA referencing (Citations are missing or incomplete throughout)

1. Act it out - Something I'm finding a little worrying has come up, as more often than not I do act things out, so clearly I'm not seeing what I need to or rather, I'm not coming to the understanding needed from the actions to convey in the work.... Practice I guess? Perhaps drama/anatomy research... 
2. Group quality check - Perhaps have people working on things throughout the scenes or do a mini test at the beginning to see who is good at what to start with and play to the strengths. Or if continuing with person per scene making sure to split it at camera cuts. 
3. Technique research - Prior in depth planning needed when trying out a new technique, not just trying it out based on current limited knowledge. 
4. Composition - I guess for now having a mental check-list until it starts to become second nature... More planning as well would probably help and getting tutors to review. 
5. Colour pallet, tone, - Don't just judge from the cintiqs, and more research
6. Isolation - My 3D kinda just sucks in general.... I think more practice will probably help with this and perhaps some lessons on digital tutors..See above for act it out... 
7. Not clear -  Present in a more coherent and planned out way that doesn't make sense only to me. 
8. Drawing - Draw more!
9. Planning -  And plan more! 
10. Essays - Make sure answering the question and make it flow more.... and stuffs. 

Day 7451

This post shall contain my face and not much more as it would be useless, boring, and somewhat more mundane than ususal. On a side note, cuteness for today! 

Day 7445

Things of today,
Snake skin boots anyone?

So much yes <3 Very clever and beautiful.

Day 7445

Summer to do list 2015
I want to be amazing at everything... But I won't live long enough for that. So surely the least I can do is know the basic information.  Like a Swiss army knife, but for animation. Perhaps the knife itself will be sharper, more efficient, worn and proven over time compared to the other tools. But the other tools will still be there.

• Game update writing 
• El music video 
• Ali logo
  
•  Take stuff home home
• Change phone contract and become primary user

• Paper people
• GoT
• Jelsa 
• Comic 
• Timmy the reaper episode 1
   
• Summer faces 
• Business cards 
• A5 Drawings 
• A4 Drawings
• Stickers
• Badges
• T-shirts
• Calendars
• Website up and running
• Etsy
  
• Animation
• Storyboarding
• Layout
• Digital Ink and Paint
• Character Design
• Acting for Animation
• Colour
• Life Drawing
• Animation pipelines
• Composition
• (Flash, ToonBoom Harmony)
• Storytelling
• Animatics
• Career Preparation
• Visual Development
• Look Development
• Character Design
• Storyboarding
• Life Drawing
• Digital Painting
• Vehicle & Prop Design
• Environment Design
• Media Studies
• Software Skills (Photoshop, Sketchbook, Flash, Harmony)
• 3D Modeling
• Visual Effects
• Character Design
• Storyboarding
• Compositing
• Sculpting
• Visual Storytelling
• Surfacing
• Lighting
• Rigging
• 3D Texturing
• Matte Paintin

Day 7444

3000 days ago I was 4444 days old.

Life updates.

Passed second year, have yet to find all the feedback however

Went on a lovely weekend holiday to Malta was 90% lovely 10% trepidation, but didn't get burnt and had some nice memories and drawings.

Moved into new house, and have unpacked a large amount of my stuff o.o I have so much stuff.... I also now I have my kettle next to my computer ;) So much tea shall be drank! And no money... I mean no not money at all... I have money for bills, and have paid rent and have about £5-£10 for food each week o.o But... I probably won't be going anywhere or buying anything any time soon... My mum gave me some money as well o.o And it's not like o.o well yes basically I've spent to much XD Should probably find a summer job o.o

Two games on the steam sale that I'm super happy with are Baldors gate 2 <3!!!!!! Which I played when I was younger and it's just o3o it's beautiful <3 and hand of fate which is fun o.o Not sure I love it yet but it's a nice completion's kinda game... So far the story...Doesn't really have much story.

 My DnD world game thing is coming along o3o I'll make an update post soon with all the info that I've decided on but as people have been making characters we've plotted out more of the land o3o and I have ideas about the kinda things that can happen to the characters and yesh! 

Day 7414

Everyone has left the house....

I didn't get much sleep last night so I'm tired at the moment... But I'm rather sad as well. I liked everyone but I'm a little surprised that I actually feel sad not so much for being alone in the house but I think it is the knowledge of the change that has now happened. Everyone gone, we won't be living together next year, we will more than likely drift apart entirely over the next 5 years. So I guess the sadness comes from the foreseeable loss of friendship and the anxiety/fear of change. I think perhaps because I've acknowledged the feeling and made it very real by response

I'll be staying down in Portsmouth over summer again, and buying a cintiq/drawing tablet by the end of June. My plan is to focus on primarily concept art for third year. And make sure that my drawing ability's excel as it's a large week point and I feel like this past year has been some what wasted.  Most of what I have learnt has come from unaided self directed  study that I could have simply done at home. £9000 indeed. Yes the equipment and programs are worth it. Yes the Library is a very good resource and yes out of my 7 tutors 3 of them taught me a lot. Yes the feedback I got from almost all the tutors was invaluable. But the University hasn't prepared my for industry, or helped me decided on an area to specialise, or really taught me over much with the expectation of those 3 tutors, it hasn't stretched my ability's aside from time management. It's not like I didn't learn anything at all, I just feel like what I have learnt could have been taught to a more efficient standard and thus allowed a curriculum that allowed more. I am 80% sure I want to go back, if only to finish the degree...

Rachel is coming back down to move out the rest of her stuff on Wednesday and we are also having another reassessment of the house from the landlord in regards to cleaning then. Isaac is coming down Fridaystaying till Monday then I'm going down to see him on the Wednesday-Sunday, then the week after I'm on holiday (Leaving to go home home Tuesday) Wednesday - Monday, then I come back and on that weeks Wednesday I am moving to next years house... A nice perk of being last in the house is the food donations everyone has given me...So much rice, pasta, potatoes...

So this month is pretty busy and I don't see much work happening. I'm spending today and potentially tomorrow packing everything away (As you can see from the mess on my bed...) but yeah....


So to pack I have:

• Dresses
• Skirts/Shorts 
• Nightwear 
• Trousers/Leggings 
• Jumpers 
• Unmentionables 
• Shoes/Boots 
• Bedding 
• Towels/tea towels 
• Coats/Jackets
  .
• Books 
• Papers
• Stationary 
• Cosmetics 
• Bags 
• Koalas
  .
• Kitchen equipment 
• Food 
• Table and chairs 
• Bean bags 
• TV
• Computer
• Other electronics ( Though luckily Isaac was able to take some) 
• Blue shelf unit 
• Cleaning/Washing products 
• Plants (I'm growing so many things T_T/ :D) 

 Yes... I'll need to take my plants home for the holiday as no one here will be able to water them.... And everything needs to pretty much be packed to save me from stressing when I come back. I'm moving out on the 25th but the tenancy runs our on the 28th so that give me time to do a final deep clean. I feel like I've accumulated rather a lot of stuff...

And now I have these creepy moments of hearing someone going up and down the stairs and it's next door :/

Many things to do... And yet no energy to do them. I think late lunch, cat nap, shower and then just a general clothes tidy up will be a good plan. We shall see.