Out of Reach

Behind

2008-02-23T12:58:00.001-08:00

Yup, I hate to say it but it's true. Issues outside of University have limited my work time on the production, and i'm a fair bit behind! However, I do have most of my set built (not textured, but built) and I shall post images of it as soon as I take some, i.e. when I open Maya back up.

I also have a completely modelled and UV'd Ioan character! (Again, I will post pics of this stuff shortly) He did have blend shapes built into his face, but in Friday's update with Mr Manning, they proved problematic and OTT, so although it sets me back a while, in the interest of doing better I have started building a facial rig system using the Stop Staring Animation guide by Jason Osipa.

I've done the nurbs shape test, and I have rigged Ioan's face the way stated, but until I can get the custom shelf for building the rest, I have to stop. I'll render out a playblast when next i'm in Maya and stick it up (hopefully).

Deadline Looming

2007-12-10T04:50:00.001-08:00

Yes, posts have been sparse, this is due to those little things called deadlines. The dissertation was first, and now it's the Final Major Project. ARGGGHHHH!!! *ahem* well...yes...I have completed the production bible, which you can see here:

http://www.an-aim-ation.co.uk/BLOG/OutOfReachProductionBible.pdf

That is if you want to, oh, and it's a big file so bear that in mind. No point in posting any individual images of work, as they're all in there now. The other parts of the project are being worked on as we speak, not sure if i'm going to have the animation tests done in time, but we can only hope eh?

I will post at the end of this week and let you know how the hand in and presentation went...and hopefully i'll have some new stuff to show.

What i'm doing

2007-11-29T08:27:00.000-08:00

I said I'd update, so here we go:

Currently, i'm trudging through all my work and starting to lay it out in my production bible. It's taking a while because i've got a lot of files to sort through and i'm also missing things, so i'm trying to fill in the gaps.

I'm also working on my FULL animatic, not just the filmed storyboard anymore. Trying to make it neat and tidy so it's easily understood. Should have that done by...Sunday? (As it's inbetween everything else it's taking longer...and yes, I know to focus on one thing at a time but my brain
wanders onto different tasks easily!!) Anyway, when it's done i'll post it here once more.

Um...the model has gone on hold for the time being while all the paperwork is sorted, I am down to the mouth on the faceplate and the body is in almost the same state as I showed you before.

Since I don't really have anything to show on here right now as it's all in progress, I'll stick a little piece of concept art up to keep you happy:

EEP!

2007-11-27T03:57:00.001-08:00

Ok...I know I missed a weekend update, but there is reason for that!! I had paying work to do. Yes! Money distracted me from my uni work! I had some book illustrations to do. And I also had a tiger commission sketch to do (again, small version of it, tis A3 normally):

Now these are done though, I can continue with film work and post later this week. So don't worry, be happy!

Patch modelling is confusing!!

2007-11-22T03:45:00.000-08:00

Yes, not going to stick much up as it's just a flying visit, but I thought I would update. Got the basic structure of the body (minus hands and feet) built. Needs a lot of work...but at least the base is there:

Then I started thinking about the head..."Oh dear, I've never really built a functioning head before...where do I start?!" I tried continuing with box modelling, but I couldn't seem to get the loops and bits right. I tried nurbs, and sub divisional surfaces all with no joy.

And finally I found a tutorial that has helped a lot!! It's actually a tutorial for making a "Dobby House Elf" from Harry Potter, but it has nice images that explain the process of head building using patch modelling. It's insanly confusing when you start, but it seems to be working for me so far. This is the progress at about 45 minutes:

It's not much I know, but when you think it came from a single plane and i've just been extruding and such, AND it's my first go at it, it's not all THAT bad!

Just some more work

2007-11-18T07:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, so...started modelling Ioan in Maya this weekend. My goal is to have him ready to animate with by the end of this week. Not textured necessarily...but Modelled, UV mapped, Rigged. Tall order, but hey! It's gotta be done. Here's the start:

And this is one of the props i've built so far...Ioan's mug, hoorah for room filling objects!!!

This weekend I have also started my budget plan, in conjunction with updating my schedule, Friday's talk with Katherine McQueen from A Productions was extremely useful, so thankyou a lot for setting that up tutors!!

Hmm...what else? Oh yes, I started painting some new concept art/colour and lighting examples. When they're finished i'll put them here. Also drew up a new list of sounds I'd need for the film, and a list of objects/props. Need to start drawing the designs for those soon.

Finally, to relax a bit...I decided to do a promotional picture of Ioan, so you can see that HERE.

Revised Animatic

2007-11-16T01:06:00.001-08:00

Ok...so here's the filmed storyboard with the alterations James suggested. It will be a full animatic soon, but for now...this shall do.

APPROVAL!!!!!!

2007-11-12T09:03:00.000-08:00

...with a few changes! Hehe. But yes! Finally have an idea that both I and the tutors are happy with. James said about some minor changes that would be better, so I've made those...but my Premiere is failing me so I can post it until i've exported it in uni i'm afraid.

Production on things start this week, hopefully the character, but I have started making various objects to fill up the set.

Will update later this week!

New Animatic...well...filmed storyboard at least!

2007-11-06T07:06:00.000-08:00

As I said I would, I am updating. If you want to see the animatic that went so bad in the crit, you can see it HERE please bear in mind it only has temporary sound and it's only here for documentation and development purposes.

So, now the new one, (at the bottom of this post) it's only a filmed storyboard and not a full animatic because I think I should get feedback on the general idea before I start putting more time into a full thing.

Hopefully the story will explain itself, but if it doesn't (eep), here's a quick over-view:

There's a guy that is making a kit robot, and he gets to the last piece...but he drops it. Upon looking under the cupboard he discovers that there's a hole in the floor. And guess what? Yup. That's where the last little piece went. He tries to reach down through the hole but fails to reach the part.

He then has an idea. He shall create a tool...a tool so crazy it may actually work...and then he can finish his remote control robot! So he wanders around collecting various things, from the shed, drawers, etc. He then constructs this odd looking contraption, that he lowers into the hole, and he gets the last piece of his model back. Hoorah! He fits the last piece and is happy with both of his achievments.

ANDDDDDD it has a moral! YES! You heard me correctly! A moral! It is one that was told in Aesops fables, about a crow and a pitcher. And the moral is:

"Necessity is the mother of invention"

Finally...my film has a point. Hopefully. Lol.

Bonfire Night!

2007-11-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

Yes...I know I missed yesterday's update. But there is reason for that. Here goes the explanation:

Friday's crit went...well..badly. I did finish my changes and my animatic for it, which I shall link here once I resize it tomorrow just for development purposes. I went up first in the crit and it was pointed out that my film was well...pointless. And I agree. I wasn't that happy with it. So I listened to everything the tutors had to say, and James explained about there being 2 main story types in film, and I'd picked the harder one.

SO! Over the weekend, I wrote down a multitude of ways to change my idea, but keep things I was happy with, such as the character. I started storyboarding and what not, and I came up with something I am fairly happy with. Made notes, spoke to peers about it, got some feedback, altered it a bit. All that stuff. And I thought, hey! I can make that into a filmed storyboard/animatic by Monday night...i'll update then!

I was wrong. Not in the fact that I couldn't do it in the timeframe, but I never took into account that it was Bonfire Night...and I have a dog and 2 cats that are all terrified of fireworks. I spent the whole night looking after them and didn't get any work done at all except for the individual frames. So I appologise and will get the animatic up tomorrow.

And now, I shall leave you with a pic of my poor pooch, who decided it was safest to sit in the bath during all of the commotion...even though thats the loudest spot to be in ¬_¬

I'm tired and going to bed. Night.

Major Story Change!!

2007-10-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

Ok...so I know I said about the animatic, and it was practically done by Friday, but then we had the group tutorial with James. He looked through my story and pointed out some valid problems...the biggest one...my film didn't have any real drive or a decent ending. SO! Working from what he and Scott said, and talked about with me, i'm working on some changes.

The main structure will stay the same, it's just about altering some points to give it a better flow and such. I've got 2 ideas that i'm storyboarding at the moment, and then i'll choose the better out of those two. One contains a microwave meal, the other turns my character into a slightly obsessive model maker/collector.

You'll get a better understanding when I get the storyboards up. They're going a little slowly because I have a cold, but they should be done and ready to go by tomorrow.

Ok...I know i've been lazy

2007-10-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know i've been really lazy and not posted in ages. Theres been a lot of things for that really, the main one being "oh i'll just wait till I get this far in my work and then i'll update the blog". So...no more of that, I will be updating as regularily as possible.

Lets get started on this then, it's gonna be a long one.

The current working title for my film is "What a Storm" and the synopsis is as follows:

During a storm, a young chap is trapped in his home by the weather and tries to find ways to occupy his evening.

Not very interesting I know, but as James Manning said on friday, I must "make something uninteresting, interesting". So that is my challenge.

So what have I done work wise thus far I hear you ask....well, i'm going to try and link some of that now. I've written my first draft script (which is undertaking amendments as you read this, wonderful suggestions made by peers!!) You can read it HERE.

I've drawn up my 1st full draft storyboard, again this is being changed constantly; You can view the current version (without notation) HERE.

I have designed my character, to the most part, although his body is still debatable. You can see some of the preliminary to final face designs, and a character bio HERE.

I've modelled a clay version of my characters head, just in a stationary position. I've started a second showing a happy emotion, but that is still a work in process. I'm also hoping to make a full body model for reference. You can see pictures of the first model HERE. I did film a lot of the making of it, for documentation purposes, so when I have time to edit that down, i'll post a link. (You get to see me go a bit doolally at 2am in the morning, yay!)

I've started my animatic, which i'm hoping to have finished by the end of this week, again, that will be posted on here as soon as possible.

Um...I've started a few concept art pieces to try and get a feel for the lighting and appearance i'm wanting for the film, as soon as those are finished in colour they'll be up here. Also did some dynamics tests in maya, just breifly, to see if it was a plausible idea for me to have heavy rain. Didn't come out too badly considering it was a quick attempt. Made a time management sheet; notes on props and sounds that i'll need. Oh, and spoke to some people about being the voice on the radio (as long as that part of the film stays in of course).

So yes, sorry for the long update...and the long wait for the long update. It won't happen again...I hope.

If it's not one thing it's another....

2007-08-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true. There seems to be something constantly getting in my way in my attempts to do work for this project. My computer was broken, and once it was fixed I thought everything would be ok and I could get back into the rhythm of work, but no.

Migranes struck, severe ones that stopped me working, and I have now been fitted with some nice little metal rims around my eyes...also my dog's been ill. So i'm sorry for the lack of well...anything...but thats life I suppose.

On a plus note, I now have my very own, brand new, partially finished website!!! http://www.an-aim-ation.co.uk/ ...Hold the fanfare please... Hehe, anyway, will update with actual work as soon as I possibly can. New glass-eyed Aimee signing off.

Road Trip!

2007-07-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know it's been a long while since I put anything on here, but there's good reason for it. My computer is dead. So all my scans and work up to date is unaccessable for the time being. It also means I can't put together my animatic. BUT I have still been working away on my idea, the idea you won't know about until I can get my storyboard scans off my computer. Today I went on a road trip up to Blaenavon area and such...researching houses. All will become clear once you see the storyboards and animatic. So until then...here's a picture of me taking a picture from today. Will upload some more once my pc is fixed.

YooHoo...!

2007-07-03T06:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know, it's been a fair while since my last update. And yes! I have an idea! But I just haven't had any time at all to draw it up and such, mostly because of my life being filled with making posters for a charity event. Anyway, I WILL get it done as soon as possible, and hopefully an animatic too, once i've finished making the notes I want. I also want to stick my current showreel up on here, updated it with Matt Walker's amazing short, Operator! Thankyou Matt for the honour of working with you on it!

Eep to the deadline

2007-06-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Yup...didn't get my idea sorted in time for my personal deadline, but I suppose that's life. Just had so much going on over the weekend with my volunteer work, then the London outing yesterday...so I will aim for the end of the week now. I MUST have something stable by the end of the week.

Hehe...I got to see a drunk James Manning yesterday...and he squirted milk all over himself >.< *giggle*

The start

2007-06-23T07:45:00.001-07:00

Yes, this is the start of my year long blog about my final film. I'm leaving the blog appearance on a basic layout until I come up with an idea for the film, then I shall stylise this page like a crazy pimped out monkey!

As of current, there is no idea...well....there are a few, but nothing I want to settle on yet. I submitted my original and well planned idea to the mighty James Manning, but he pointed out that it was a fairly un-original idea, and since that day I have not been happy with it either. So it's back to the drawing board, literally. I'm working like a kid on a sugar rush to come up with something, because my personal deadline for a base idea is Monday. This seems far too close, but i'm doing my best to stick to it. Hopefully there shall be some sort of update on Monday...possibly Tuesday...because i'm out of town Monday ¬_¬