- Happy belated Halloween!
- Sombra is out and looks pretty awesome, wasn't too keen on the booping but after seeing everyone else's reaction I now get it.
- Nearly fainted and got all dizzy at work. I think it was going from walking to standing for 30 mins and my body was like oh great time to sleep! Mildly mortifying, I ended up going home, I was fine one moment and the next I started feeling all hot and cold and my back was going wrong and.. ugh life. The second week and already a day off, wonderful start body.
- Fall is here! Everything is so pretty right now. especially the stars, the mornings have such clear skys and when I'm walking back after my shift everything has raindrops on it all looks very beautiful.
- I gave up on NaNoWriMo when I couldn't come up with a good plot, but here are the plans below. - Have received my Imgur secret Santa and sent it all off! Photos will follow soon once they have received it :D
- A-Z of duck game concepts is slowly underway. Very, very slowly....
November - #NaNoWriMo2106 Story time :D! Plan is to have main character play the stereotypical old man "teacher" role who just wants to find love, but keeps getting interrupted by all the heroes who need a hand, something a bit silly 50,000 words here we come! Time to google how to actually write something with structure.... Or just 12 romance/hero cliches coming up. I've also just realised that this is what 12,000 words a week which if my dissertations was anything to go by is 3 full days of writing, not including time to correct everything O.O insanity. 4200 per chapter for 12 chapters, so around 9 pages. I'll break each chapter up into a part 1. 2 and 3 I think. 1400 per part. Heroes journeyOrdinary world - show hero coming for aid Ignore call to adventure Ignore supernatural aid Pass up on the helper Pass up on the mentor Ignore temptations and deal with the challenges intelligently Revelation - Death to all heroes - "Ordeal" Avoid transformation and remain as self from the start Reward Start the return to the beginning Atonement Back to the start all aloneHero cliches 2345 678Blood Knight - Anti hero, loves a good fight, solve problems with brute force, wandering martial artist looking to test his skills, defeat means friendship, deliberate disadvantage to himself (not left-handed), attacking a city allows to be scene so that best warriors will be sent. Challenge Seeker - The more the get beat down the more excited they get, wants to be the very best, plays multiple games at once to save time and challenge himself, despises idleness, adding feathers to cap with "impossible" tasks. Combat Sadomasochist - Moan in ecstasy, lap up the blood, intense dance like battle, no mercy, sticking fingers in wounds, laugh in the pain, keeps fighting until truly dead, torture as a hobby, scars as rewards, removing pain would upset them greatly. Death Seeker - Dishonoured, traumatised, criminal, looking for someone to kill them as redemption and final glory, finds a reason to live and then dies, accepts increasingly dangerous missions, capture rape and death of a loved one, resurrected by a necromancer and pulled into a life of servitude All rounder - The chick, the big guy, the smart guy, they have a balance of skills, main skill leadership to push and pull everyone together (Schizophrenic person?) Element - Oh so you can work fire? You must wear red and have a hot feisty temper. The fool - Does no wrong, receives no pain, the chosen one, siphon good luck from others causing them bad luck, bend over at just the right time, barely knows who enemies are Science hero - science fiction save the day, genius, photographic memory, for the good of the world, a little bit crazy. Messiah - Chosen one, true companions, betrayal, persecution of non believers, killed, resurrected, second coming, would die 1000 times to reach goal but would also kill 1000 people to reach goal, charismatic with a little fear to drive it. Breaking it - By defeating the big bad they start something even worse, saving a princess who is the head of a dictatorship, succeeds at goal but with a very high price, better the devil you know. Byronic Hero - Vampire, attractive, over thinker, tall dark and snarky, rebellion and superiority, disrespectful or rank or privilege, self-centered, intelligent, brooding. Fake hero -Romance clichesLove before first sight Boy meets girl Just friends Will they or won't they Nothing is the same anymore Relationship upgrade Your princess is in another castle Boy looses girl Boy finds girl Did not get the girl They do Together in death.
Imgur secret santa from last year did not deliver :< Maybe this year will be better! I deleted all my messages because of a phantom message (^ Chaos) that won't go away, so have it copied here as o.o not sure proof? ~o.o~
Dear imgur user, i am almost ready with your secret santa giftyness (now not so secret oops) but i apologies in advance if it does not get to you in time, recent life issues etc. kind of took my mind away from it but hopefully now i can get it sent. Also apologies if my gifts are not too great, I am 17 on an apprenticeship for minimum wage so i did my best! anyway I hope you have a great Christmas and enjoy what i was able to do for you (hopefully next year you get someone rich and good with timing :p) +1 to you.
Update: I sent it, they sent it back, i sent it again, they have sent it back to me AGAIN. I am so very sorry for this, not sure when it is going to happen now but quite possibly after Christmas. Very sorry for the inconvenience
Heya, no worries don't stress! Thank you in advance my wonderful Santa human :) Can I double check the address you have? I might have written in wrong and that's why it's sending back? :< My birthday is in February so if all else fails aim for then :D! Merry Christmas and happy new year! Also super cool with the apprenticeship good luck with that :D
I don't think it's an address problem, The post service in Coventry is generally really shitty and they constantly mess up and return to sender, first time they told me it wasn't correctly packaged and labelled for it's size but meh, i'm tying!
So here's the crack, I'm through the Christmas stress and your birthday is coming up so expect a late Christmas but hopefully early birthday present from the worlds worst secret santa! very sorry, Hopefully if you do it again you'll get someone much better :p
I got the job! Induction day is Thursday and then I will be starting soon after I think! Early mornings here I come :D
4am - 8am every day save Monday and Tuesday, which are days Isaac has off so we can do more game things then :)
I can go see my parents Sunday day and come back Monday/Tuesday
And for going round my boyfriends dads on Saturday day (We'd normally go round Friday night - Saturday)
So it works :D And I shall become a bat that sleeps at 8pm
Interview was lovely, I had a very nice cup of tea made for me which made me less nervous and talking to the interveiwer was a really nice thing, she is a wonderful women and I'm glad I'm going to get to work with her. Now to meet all the other wonderful humans :D
My boyfriends mum also got me a wonderful congrats gift, she was going to give it for christmas but was all excited so she gave it to me now! It is a koala lunch box with my name on it o3o I am being so very very spoilt right now.
Internet
For some reason my internet keeps cutting out :< Ethernet cables have not worked since moving here and the wifi was working somewhat but now it just cuts out. I can disconnect and reconnect and it will last around 1 minute(sometimes longer but generaly not that long) , then I get a yellow warning sign that says, nope, no internet for you o..o Luckily most of the work is offline, blender and unity both working just fine. So it's just working out how to use them....And I can steal my boyfriends computer for a quick overwatch game >.>.....I still have not got any of the skins I would like, but oh well~
Duck
The game is coming along swimmingly, still trying to work out Blender, uv unwrapping and texturing.... Have yet to move on to rigging and weight painting let alone animation....Though my refernce folder has grown substancially, all of a sudden I'm noticing a fair amount of ducks everywhere.
It's been a while and I needed somewhere to collect my thoughts and make plans so I'm writing rather early in the morning. As such I predict today will be a good day, full of efficiency and productivity! (And a lucky one where I shall get the Junkrat Halloween skin.) Health - 8/10 This past month has been like having repeat doses of freshers flu without the fun of freshers. I am sorry to all the people I will have unwittingly infected, but may your immune systems be the stronger for it, like mine hopefully is.
1) Rubber duck model 2) Fix normal duck model 3) Bread basket model 4) Slice of bread model 5) Send off 360 video 6) Inktober animation 7) Inktober drawing 8) - 9) - 10) -
Quick catch up
Completed BFX. - insert link here soon so you can watch it's wonderful ness-
360 video for charity Create Acting as the producer, semi director, lighting, compositer, some VFX, and HRness. Good things - I learned a lot //First time doing lighting and thought it went okay // met some wonderful people // got to make a 360 video // because of the careers fair at BFX festival got to meet both Random 42, and Double Negative! There were also a couple other companies who were lovely and there was a VR advertising agency nearby also which was awesome to see. // I had a lot of fun, mostly at the start // Nice reason to meet up with Porstmouth humans who were wonderful and really helped me out // Found out I can work for 24 hours in one go (energy drinks are not a good idea at this point) Bad things - Group work with constant bickering and trying to single one person out was tedious to deal with //I did not produce well, I should have been a lot stricter from the get go and not taken BS from people, following up on deadlines and checking people are actually doing what they said they would not just doing their own thing and not talking with me. // Ran out of time for rendering so was trying to complete at home without VRAY and a bad internet connection (when it connected at all) // When 360 renders go wrong they are not easy to fix and dealing with 4k is incredibly tedious //Found out I can work for 24 hours in one go (energy drinks are not a good idea at this point)
Made some awesome business cards! - Aren't they pretty o3o
Using munchkin as a design guide and banana print to print, a very good company would recommend.
Now making a duck game with Isaac - It's a game where you feed ducks
We are using Blender and Unity, one thing Blender definitely has on Maya is the lack of crashing, it's a little unusual to navigate however and I am still getting used to moving around and picking up on the hotkeys and general ways of working but there are lots of tutorials so this is good.
Applied for part time job at Sainsburys - Wish me luck!
Interview on Friday, I have heard good things about the company and the times are early, early morning, which gives me the rest of the day (that I'm awake) to work on game projects and can help fund a VR course I have seen and am hoping to do (though is £1500 so I'm unsure I can take part right now) this is assuming I get the job -fingers crossed- If it does fall through.... I have no plans right now, I don't think animation companies will accept me just yet, but by this time next month I hope to have an incredibly strong reel.
I am doing inktober - Or was and now I'm doing some animations
Kinda O.o, My plan was to do an animated reveal of the drawings however that was taking a lot longer than expected, new plan! Is just get 10 done by end of October! You can see above the ones I've started, the animation is pretty simple, and inside the blue is where the drawing will be.
Ring a ring a roses - My roses are dying/dead but I have a new rose so all is good
They aren't 100% dead yet.... But realistically what's left of them won't survive much longer. When I came back from BFX I found two of the pots sitting in a couple inches of water, so being drowned after being left outside and then catching the black spot which they were only just recovering from. And then for my part I over fed them which created a horrible ammonia smell when they got watered too much and in general isn't good for the plants as they will flurry for a short time but then won't take in the nutrients that they need (found out after googling the smell).... I'm finding this surprisingly more upsetting that I would expect, I think it's because I kept the oldest alive for three years and I wasn't the best with them but they didn't die, but when left with people I trusted with plants and throught my own neglect, they ended up dying, not intentionally, but still... I currently have them sitting in rice to try and dry it up, as of yet it has not worked but we shall see ^^ ah well, at least roses are my biggest concern right now, could be a lot worse.
- Mini update - I have a new rose! A second ago one was just gifted to me as they thought it would make me happy and it is a white rose which is the perfect colour o.o and it is in full bloom and I will love it and look after it and all is well in the world of Rosie.
Overwatch - Good game, I can mostly only play support well but it's fun.
Just as a note to self more than anything, I've gone from really liking to playing Symettera and Mercy, to Mei and Lucio, but also Genji, Junkrat and Zenyatta I really enjoy, Ana and D.Va are characters I'm trying to get the hang of also, Ana for her tea emotes and D.va because it would be good to play at least one tank to an okay standard o.o A good game, I'm not amazing at it but it's
So what's happened... I'm at home again, Brexit, brother disowned me, my team got into BFX competition, graduated from university with a 2:1, my role players are still up on the moon, starting a games company with my partner, have also downloaded Grammarly, made an Imgur friend, started habit RPG again.
Home,
Well, as much as I like house Tetris and having a clear out, I have to say that after now moving for the 4th time it's gotten a little tedious. The hardest part is fitting a houses worth of bits and bobs from my Portsmouth home into one room, needless to say, much has been sent to the charity shops. I am thinking about becoming somewhat of a minimalist, over the next two years I shall probably be moving twice (to my partners' parents for one year and then to our own place after, and then in the next 5 years possibly moving to Canada?) which means I have two years to sort through what I actually use and want, and what is just taking up space.
Brexit,
Now I was rather torn which way to vote in that I was rather apathetic. I think both political stances were hideous in the fear mongering and misconstruing of information, utterly disgusting that they are not being held accountable and that we as a nation have chosen these people to 'lead' us, but I honestly felt that it really wouldn't make that much of a difference either way. In the end, I voted in as it seemed the safest option and whilst I think the EU and the UK are both flawed the EU was the lesser of two evils and I trust them somewhat more than our government.
The fallout afterwards has been rather dramatic. Game of Thrones may indeed have finished but the drama from British politics the first week was rather entertaining - in the, I can't stop watching the horror show sort of way.
Brother dearest,
I signed the petition for the second referendum where 70% of the population would need to vote with a 60% majority. Feeling that 2% is too small a majority for such a large decision and that signing was a valid way of expressing this. My brother commented on the post say "The vote has been cast! Were out!! And good riddens to it!" I then corrected riddens in a pm, I realise now I should have mentioned we're as well. Below is the wonderful conversation that took place.
Myself - riddance o.o Him - Who gives a fuck!! Typical brainwashed student you turned out to be sis... Generations would be so proud of spineless little geeks that want to roll over and give up the country like yourself. . You think parts of Portsmouth were full of scum.. You wait till you meet the imported ones! Tataa! Myself - Wow talking to your sis like that so cool 😊geek wise didn't realise that being intelligent was a negative. And if you think immigration is going to change wake up😂 Him - Tell you what little twat sis... About time you jogged on with your mum and fuckwit dad... I am awake to the world we live in..and I know immigration isn't going to stop like that.. You're the one about to get a rude awakening to the real world.. Have fun! Oh and get a job and sort your own fucking PlayStation out you two faced little shit.. Have a nice life
I would also like to add that if anyone else talked to me in such a way I would gladly cut them out off my life without a second thought, and whilst at the time I was upset and angry, after realising he had blocked both my mother and myself (with no word to her) I am no longer sad. In fact, I can now safely say I was more upset breaking up with my ex-boyfriend of a year, than considering not having any contact with this man who I called brother for 21. So as it stands I simply do not care, but as he is family if for whatever reason he apologises (which I honestly doubt he will) and wants to rebuild a bridge then I shall consider it, and if he ever does need my help (which again I doubt he ever will) then I shall at first try to do what I can. It's not that he means or meant nothing to me, of course, I will feel sad time to time, for the relationship that could have been, but I will not waste my emotions over such a person, my life does not revolve or even involve him and past this post I shall not mention him.
BFX
Perhaps I should have written about my brother last as it's put me in a rather pissed off mood XD. Either way! I didn't get into the Framestore application BUT for BFX WE GOT IN! "WE ARE IN!!!!! Team spectrum is going to Bournemouth :D Thank you guys for making this a success so far, hope it continues <3 !!!!!"
I put together the pitch video >.>....So many flaws I've noticed after. Firstly the animatic I put together is really confusing and just showing the storyboard with a voice over explaining would have been potentially a lot clearer. 4 of our audios are in Mono, not stereo D:, the audio for the voices is often not loud enough, and the white background boxes sometimes don't move with the video on top... Also, the pause for Scott should have been shorter....
I have emailed a couple of companies for help on 360 and M7 virtual replied! They were very helpful over the phone, though it was rather strange O.o Everything seemed to be going okay and the phone call just cut, I tried calling back but it was constantly engaged and they've since not replied to my email o.O But he tell me about https://github.com/making360/making360/releases which is a whole pdf on making 360 video! Super exciting ^.^
The BFX humans themselves have been super helpful and have really good ideas and are so professional! Which is really refreshing after Portsmouth and gives me hope for the industry.
We arrive on the 10th and will be there for 7 weeks I think miscommunication is going to be my biggest annoyance over the summer but it's going to be a lot of fun! And time-consuming XD
University of Portsmouth
I have officially graduated with a 2:1. I now have approximately £40,000 of debt, and if I get a job at £25,000 a year I can pay it off in 23 years, as they only take 9% of what you earn over £21,000 though this is subject to change depending on if the debts are sold on. Yay.
I wonder what I have to show for it. I met my wonderful partner <3 lots of interesting people and some very good friends, I've had the opportunity to take part in societies and social groups I otherwise would not have met and even start my own society. Host a morning radio show with a friend, and go on to hosting my own roleplay group which has somewhat boosted both my interpersonal skills and also storytelling. I am now more confident in writing complaint letters (sadly, because of how the course was run in my second year). I have also had access to some very sophisticated equipment, resources such as digital tutors and their library that has quite a few good books, they had bookable lessons to learn programs one to one though mostly only for half an hour, life drawing lessons every Wednesday, and in the final year I finally sussed out which tutors give good feedback for me and which to avoid, so I have learnt a lot from them. And I even had a chance to partake in a game jam which even a novice like myself had a lot of fun on.
Teaching wise? The first year I had 6 units: 4 I felt were good and introduced us well to animation I felt like I was actively learning when taking these and receiving useful feedback.
1 which was a slightly more advanced version of media studies and I think should be replaced with the theory we learn in the second year that is actively relevant. And then there is Narrative and Visual research that I give a half mark each, as similar to the media studies think these should have incorporated what was "Taught" in the second year and something more advanced and at a higher level of academic practice.
For the second and the third year?
Out of the 10 units that make up the years, I feel I was actively taught in 3 of them. Cartoon, this unit didn't teach cartoon per se like we were expecting because of a new tutor on the course but instead was somewhere between cartoon and 2D advanced principles in 2nd year.
Production contexts which taught animation history and some animation theories which really should have been taught in the first year, also from the second year.
And advanced visual effects in the third year were I was being taught how to use Houdini and Nuke and also the theory and practices around the effects we were learning. Very good unit, sadly the practicals were only for an hour which really wasn't enough time it should have been 2.
The rest of the units were either at what I consider an A level standard of thinking or had the attitude of "Here this is the brief get on with it and we will give you feedback" which wasn't what I came to university for I came to work smartly not trial and error which I can do at home and until later in the third year was not very helpful in general. Quite a few tutors really don't give helpful feedback, and I mainly put this down to them in part not listening and myself in part giving poor explanations.
I feel these last two years have largely been a waste of time. With inefficient teaching practices and a below university level that ultimately hasn't taught me skills for the workplace and I could have learnt more not wasting my time with the course but instead teaching myself at home. So I shall see how the next year goes, and if my motivation holds up to me learning without the pressure of deadlines.
In my opinion, the University of Portsmouth BA animation course has some very nice tutors, lots of professional resources and really does give you a lot of opportunities for self-study which I feel should take between 50-60% of your time on the course. But in regards to being actively taught, be they using programs or a higher level of thinking or directly relevant theories, Portsmouth is lacking. As from what I have experienced, the course is largely a waste of time and if you want to actually learn anything 90% will come from self-study. And the 10% you are taught is not worth £9000 a year.
So, now it's just working on the BFX entry, waiting to hear or not hear from Framestore, game jam, and moving home. Also hoping to run a couple of sessions for chapter 2 of the dragon dynasty campaign.
I keep getting this really weird cold feeling, I started getting it around April the 25th, and thought it was maybe because of stress? Though I am still feeling it. It's as if I've eaten a mint, and then drunk some water. Very weird. Another weird thing is when I had impending deadlines I had a normal sleeping pattern! And now they are over it's returned to being awake at random hours, I think I need to use my brain more in the day to actually be tired, but it does mean I can catch up on all the anime I've missed.
I think I'll be graduating university with a 2:1, the only way I won't be is if I fail and have to retake the last two units I've yet to get feedback on. Either way I'm considering myself done so I have bought no mans sky!!!!! I say I bought it... My mum and dad did as a congrats gift <3 <3 <3 o.o It is coming out in less than a month <3 And I will name everything koala!
My plan for the summer is to not make a to do list like I do normally but try learning and focussing on one thing each day/week, mostly to do with VR, traditional art, driving, games, coding etc. Will vary from day to day I guess. A really cool group I've found is daily spitpaint on Facebook, which is really fun. They have 4 briefs and you draw one for 30 mins, once the timer goes of that's it you stop. I'm using koalas as the main focus, it's so hard to do anything good in 30 minutes! There are lots of crazy good artists on there as well though which is pretty fun.
VR game wise I think we are going to try and get one out for Christmas, a second over the next 1-2 years and then a third after that maybe another 2-3 years, slowly learning more and more. So many ideas! Right now we have the three p's :D Poi, Puppets and Puzzles. Just trying to get them to work :L Isaac is doing a super awesome job, I think he is really enjoying messing around in unity and figuring out how to stop things going wrong.
So my sleeping pattering is currently 5am - 1pm. I have found that whilst I can easily motivate myself to push through the tiredness and sleep a little later each day, waking up and just dealing with it has so far failed. I'm such a lazy human.
But yes, portfolio plans! - Will work on this until it is done then work on major/ other parts :)
CV - Pictures to add and variants to make. The pictures will be going inside the red boxes.
Business card - To test and print (There is an inside and a pocket that it goes in)
Inside front
Inside back
Pocket front
Pocket back (When slides over the koala it shows him dancing *3*)
Website - To do o...o YAY - Will probably use tumbler
Portfolio - Has been bought :) Now just to get the work done and print it!
It's so green o3o And I have a green pen and usbs. It shall stand out I hope, and I won't be able to loose it easily.
Inside shall have 5 A3 projects, plan is to have the middle pages on acetate, so in example with TtR you would be able to see the front and back of the characters, against the background or just the backgrounds. It's going to be Landscape and at the bottom of each will be a color border (Different color per project) and within the color it will say what the project is and have icons of the programs used to make it.
8 Days to get this all finished and then another 1 1/2 for printing shenanigans. I wonder if I will finish Dexter in that time?
Intro
1) Jelsa - Blue
- Storyboard and character sketches
- A// Final environment - Nuke and Houdini
- A// Environment with character and effects - Nuke, Maya, Houdini
- VFX breakdown - Houdini
2) Space 360 - Green
- Concept art - Photoshop
- A// Stars and planets - Blender
- A// Stars and other planets - Blender
- VFX breakdown - Blender
3) DD game - Red
- Environment and game sketches, showing reference and close ups
- A// Female Max + Grovlov - Photoshop
- A// Male Max + Grovlov - Photoshop
- Environment modeling and texturing - Blender and Photoshop
4) TtR - Orange
- Storyboard and character sketches - Flash
- A// Timmy and scythe expression and poses - Flash
- A// Lylah expressions and poses - Flash
- Backgrounds - Flash and blender
5) Paper people - Purple
- Concept art
- Storyboard so far
