Progress!

I have been very busy since my last blog (hence the lack of blog posts.) I am currently working solely for Kernel which is the main 3D animated film being produced in our year. Since completing a lot of concept design work I have also created the new storyboard for Kernel. From this, I have been able to develop an animatic that has progressed through 6 stages (from an epic 6 mins 38 secs down to a more realistic 4 mins 11 secs.) In the process of refining the animatic, I have kept the essential story information, cut out whats not needed and maintained a good sense of pace and rhythm.

From the animatic, Olly and Hugh have been creating block-throughs in Maya. These Maya shots - that dictate basic animation and camera moves - are being carefully timed to fit with the animatic. (I have also helped by going into Maya and adjusting the camera sequencer lengths to block-through shots that were completed prior to the final animatic.)  The idea is that people who're doing the animating can work within the appropriately timed shots that maintain the correct pacing to the film as a whole. Its an intuitive process and of course, the animation will probably not stick to the frame counter exactly - so long as it roughly fits with all the original timings then we're on the right track!

My roles on the project have extended to editing and compositing for which I have been getting to grips with Adobe Premiere (CS5.5) and The Foundry's Nuke (6.3 v2) software. For both of these I have been working my way through some helpful books - 'Adobe Premiere - classroom in a book' and 'Nuke 101' by Ron Ganbar. Both of which, give you files and exercises to work through. As the editor, I will be constantly updating a premiere project file, as the shots gradually progress from the block through stage to animation and eventually the final composited shots.

The image below shows what I have learned most recently in Nuke. Using a rendered 3D sequence of exr images, I have rebuilt a basic beauty pass which mirrors the way a beauty pass would be created in Maya. The advantage here though, is that the beauty pass has been divided to its essential elements - which I can tweek independently. Working this way should prove highly efficient as it allows one to have good aesthetic control over the shots and save on the lengthy processing and rendering times Maya would incur. The bonus is that the files that Ganbar has provided with his book is of a lemming 'road-skiing' using a car. Amazing!

The Kernel team have been working really well together and it feels like we're building up a creative symbiosis of all our talents. If we maintain this kind of momentum then we should have something good to show by the deadline which is now less then 100 days away!

Aside from Kernel, I have been working on the dissertation and am currently 2 weeks away from completing a Web Communication Dreamweaver AQA course. Busy busy busy!

Level 3 Pitch Presentation and Showreel

Here is my pitch presentation (that was presented at our Animation Pitch forum) designed to showcase my skills and method of working in Concept Art, Environments and Storyboarding.

The subsequent showreel also demonstrates my skills in Compositing and Animation.

These are areas I would like to focus on throughout my third year and hopefully build up an Industry standard portfolio/showreel. It may be that I end up focusing down onto one of these areas or that I continue to be more of a generalist. Time will tell! Ultimately, I would like to work in the Industry on feature films, short films, music promos etc..

Presentation

The only bit that isn't really explained - as it's a presentation the explaining was done verbally - is after my first concept piece. The subsequent slides show how I produced that piece, starting on a city I put together in my room made from things found around the house (for initial reference and inspiration.) It builds up from there switching between Maya models and working over it with pencils and pastels.

Final Pitch

Animation and Compositing Showreel



This was produced a bit last minute and combines work from my Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Film, my previous Showreel and my last main project from Uni 'Colours and Cogs' that I produced at the end of level 2.

The Hoovering - storyboards for our short film

I have spent a few hours today designing these storyboards. I think my drawing has improved as a result of going to a lot of the life drawing sessions. The storyboards are for a short 90 second film we are going to make - a horror spoof about a hoover.
If you click on them they will expand..





I think its quite a funny idea.

Knight Rider storyboard

I like that storyboarding is an interdisciplinary skill and can be used for Live Action as well as Animation. Its an area I am definitely interested in as It seems to offer a fair bit of creative license.