multimedia journal

500 Word Rational

2011-05-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

Over the past 2 terms I have been working on my interpretation of the dojo scene from the Matrix. I decided on this script over the others for two reasons; The Matrix is one of my favourite films and because I really wanted to improve my animating skills and knew this project would definitely challenge me.
I decided to change the scene by setting it in an old gloomy American saloon. I also decided on a comic book effect as it worked successfully in my first project and I already knew of numerous artists to draw influence from.
If there is one thing the first project taught me, it was that planning is the most crucial part of the process. I thought to myself that as long as I keep up with all the work and spread the work load evenly over the time we were given than the outcome will be exactly as I planned. However there is one thing I did not plan for; random problems that are unforeseeable. These problems would then go unnoticed to me until it was far too late. For example, my Morpheus character could not move much and talk at the same time otherwise he would transform into a cluster of polygons and vertices (you will notice that whenever he talks, he is hardly moving at all). There was no explanation for why it did this, but if I realised before I started animating I could have fixed it and saved myself a lot of work. Looking back, I now know that I should have thoroughly tested everything aspect of my project as soon as I finish it.
I also realised that because I was painting my textures and then importing them to an 'Ink and Paint' material, my dark and gloomy bar became not so dark. This killed any atmosphere I tried to put into the room, so I decided to change the set to make the textures seem less contrasting. Although this was an improvement, I was still dissatisfied with the final set.
Looking back at the outcome of the project, I am disappointed with the animation. It looks nothing like how I wanted it to and I don't think it portrays how much work went into it. However, I am pleased with my improved skills and how much knowledge I have gained. In a way, I am glad this project became much more difficult than I expected. Most problems that occurred I either now know how to fix or know what not to do next time around. I am especially pleased with how much my animation has improved. It's amazing how long winded I made the animating process on 'Of Bots and Bananas'.
Looking forward, I want to work over the summer to improve my texturing, character modelling, skinning, using more interesting and PLANNING. And when I say planning, i mean everything to the tiniest detail, so noting suprises me when it come to render time. Now I know what I have to do to be at the level I want for the third year. Oh, and I need to spend much more time on collecting and adding sound. The sound on this project does it no favours at all.

Material Library

2011-03-24T17:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47410635@N05/

Models

2011-02-24T01:16:00.000-08:00

Here is the work I have completed so far;

Next steps are to model my other character, rig both and then find and create the textures for everything. It is going to be a long week.

How big is infinity?

2011-02-17T07:39:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post, I am currently modelling my set and two characters so I will put some photos up once I complete them. Over the past week I have found a few videos which I found interesting;

The first is just for anybody who was in the lecture about the hive where any hopes of getting a job after uni were effectively gunned down

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12483355

The second is a video that blew my mind (almost literally) about the foundations of maths and physics

http://www.documentary24.com/dangerous-knowledge-the-true-nature-of-reality--483/

and the last video is a lecture made interesting by a very simple but powerful animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Initial Ideas

2011-01-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

Over the break I thought about my next project very briefly but didn't come up with anything important. I was playing with the idea of cartoon/anime style but on it's own I don't think this is enough to call it my 're-working' of the dojo scene. As we are working from a script, there can be no changes to the story, which means the only changes I can make are to the style, setting and characters. However, because the scene is a simulation, the choices of scene or character are endless.

My first thought was what to do with the characters. You could make them animals, robots, zombies/aliens, or humans. I'm not particularly interested in using animals, I don't want to use robots again and I don't think 2 zombies fighting would do the speed of the scene justice. Then I had the idea, what if I used humans but changed the time it is set. Long story short, my current idea is setting the scene in a western tavern with cowboys/bandits. All I can think about whilst writing this is Morpheus playing La Resa Dei Conti on the piano in the tavern. I will combine these characters and setting with styles that I find interesting and we will see what happens.

2011-01-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

I should have put this on before I got distracted by Christmas, but here it is! Mixed feelings about it really. I know how much tie and effort went into it so when I look at it I am not disappointed. But the shadows look crap, the sound effects are pretty poor and the timing of the whole video isn't right. I think it's all down to my planning not quite being up to scratch. I could go into this in more detail but I don't think my internet connection could handle that much text being uploaded. Basically I need to make sure I plan EVERYTHING before I start modeling and animating on my next project.

On the positive side, I think it was a good introduction on character animation. I can use the skills I have gained to build on our last project of the second year. Although, the amount of work it is going to take seems quite daunting so I need to make sure I keep on top of it all.

Of Bots and Bananas

2010-11-04T01:56:00.000-07:00

Havent posted anything in a while so the best thing to do is probably update you with everything I have been doing on my project. When I firt started the project, I knew I wanted my character to look, so this is where I started. I wanted my character to look out of proportion the same way that Mickey Mouse is out of proportion. Big hands, big feet, big head and round belly. This was my starting point for the general body shape. After this images, of Clank from 'Ratchet and Clank' helped me to finalise the shape and detail. However, now I have started modelling, the design may change if I encounter any problems. I alsowanted my character to work as a clock. Dont know why, just thought it was interesting and it might add a bit more charater. This is why I added a ticking metranome tie which also is useful when it comes to my opening sequence in the animation. This is how my final design looked for my robot;

To this point I have rigged his arms and legs almost without issues, however there is a slight problem with the "FootRoll" which I need to sort out. This week I am trying to create and rig the head. I am playing with the idea of having him not speaking but just using noises to portray his emotions.This is how it looked at the time of this post;

Thats as much as I can stand to write about my character and I think I have covered about everything so I will move on to story and setting.

Originally I was going for some optimistic, unfunny story about an island and banana, but after my presentation this has all changed. I took Andy's advise and stook with the infinte room. But then I got hit by the idea of having somebody other than the main character in control of the furniture in the room. This came from playing portal. I liked the idea of somebody watching over and doing things to 'distract' my charcter simply for their own enjoyment. As it stand I am torn between this or just having my character slip and fall as he moves closer and further away to the furniture. Either way the set will look the same, and will have influences from portal. So I really need to crack on, try and get all the modelling done for monday (which is actually a realistic possibility) and make a decision on the story by then.

Moving image

2010-04-29T00:58:00.000-07:00

In week one of the moving image module, I was appointed producer of the script 'Shift'. Up to now, as a group, we have decided what kind of film we want it to be and organised some form of schedule for the shoot. Althougth, this will have to be confirmed this next Friday. Also, we have worked on a storyboard for the first scene ans start of the second. As producer, I have organised a time for us to film in Biocity reception for an hour and also found us an actor from the performing arts course. Between now and next week I will need to make sure we have all locations ready, all equipment ready and all the risk assessment sheets are prepared.

When thinking about the film, I always picture it to be like this:

2 weeks work

2010-04-15T00:59:00.000-07:00

Over the holiday, I have been mainly working on my super villain lair. After too many hours work it is finally complete, all that is required now is for me to put all the images on premier and edit. Turns out there was much more work than i expected as it all failed epically when adding matrerial to walls and lighting certain objects. After working through it all though, i have learnt so much from tutorials and from the shhets that Andy gave us and feel alot more comfortable using the software. One new skill i did learn was about creating new materials. For example, i created the leather on the armchair by using this image in the 'bump' section:

After doing this i changed the diffuse colour to what i wanted it to be and here is the final result:

I have also been working on my quiz. I have got all the buttons, backgrounds and images ready. I just need to get into waverly and try and put it all together on flash. I think its ounds a lot easier than it is actually going to be.

context task

2010-03-23T03:41:00.000-07:00

better last minute than never...

After interviewing one person in the group and hearing what people had to say in the groups we came up with the questions with, i can see that;

- most people start their project in the same way. That is by watching videos and films, articles, other people's work and also by talking to their peers. In doing this we can take all good features and ideas and mix them in with our own.

- Another subject that was highlighted was the importance of self evaluation. Being able to look back, see something doesnt work and then go back and change it can make the difference between a finished piece of work and a well-polished piece of work. I think it is this attention that can make somebody stand out against the rest.

2010-03-18T01:43:00.000-07:00

This week, I have considered which quiz to do. I really liked the idea of a riddle quiz, however narrowing the answers down from an almost infinite number to 4, seems to make it a little easy. Also, there are alot less riddles in films than i expected. Apart from in Batman, where quite frankly, they are ridiculous.

If you have watched that i think you will agree that if i put those riddles in a quiz, almost everybody will come out with the score of 0. Never the less, i have started creating the layout and function of the quiz. After watching that though, i do think that giving it a riddler theme would be quite interesting. Once i have come to a decision on what it is going to be on i can start adding design and questions. If anybody can give me the names of films with a good riddle in, i would be very grateful.

Still my 3d work isnt finished. i have set myself a deadline to have it done by as i keep putting it off for other distractions. rest assured though, that it will be done.

Heavy Rain will be the end of me

2010-03-04T01:10:00.000-08:00

To be completely honest, this week I have been obsessed with Heavy Rain. The only break i really got was when my playstation caught the bug and stopped me for a day. As far as my interactive narrative goes, i am considering making a quiz on riddles. I could use videos from films, obviously find some questions on the internet. The only problem would be that i don't know whether i could have text entry to input an answer. If i have to narrow it down to 3 or 4 answers, it makes the whole thing a lot easier. I will think of designs that i could use, but as of yet it is still only an idea. Probably change my mind by next week.

not much to report

2010-02-25T00:02:00.000-08:00

Still trying to finish my virtual environment. Slowly but surely getting there, at the minute I am just finishing the lighting then it 'simply' requires me to add in the camera. Hopefully have that done and photos up for next week. Also, started the flash segment this week. All I can really do so far is consider ideas so I am thinking about what people would find interesting, fun, and something I can fill all the criteria with.

3d update

2010-02-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks, I have been attempting to model a lair and also the props to go inside. Most of my time has been spent practising with 3ds max and finding solutions to any problems that pop up using tutorials. I have found in most cases of modeling it is just a matter of finding the right method to get to the final outcome. I have been working from photo references that are on the intrenet, brief sketches I have made like the one below:

At the moment I have almost finished all modelling, is adding material to the objects and after that i will add light to the set. Although the process is long, I do really enjoy creating objects and am looking forward to seeing the final outcome of my design. Here are a couple of examples of some the work I have produced:

Research

2010-01-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

I have always considered myself to have a skill in art. Over the past 5 years, I have studied everything from painting to 3D structures. I have done this for GCSE and A-level. More than anything though, I have done it because I really enjoy it and is what I wanted to do. I have done it the way I have because in my opinion it is the easiest way to get into an art and design industry in the future. People did try to persuade me to do a art foundation first to make sure that multimedia was right for me, but i didn't think this was necessary. I have always loved animation in films and games and decided that hat is the path I want to go down in the future. As of yet, I have not decided if I would prefer to go into animation of game design.
By researching aspects of these skills or any media that may influence my work, i will become overall a batter practitioner. It will help me know what is going on in the world where i study. It will obviously improve my skills as I watch tutorials, and looking at work that other people have done will give me more ideas. By broadening my knowledge of the subject, it will look more impressive when i come to an interview and I will always be able to look back at my research for ideas.
When it comes from starting research, I don't think that there are any insignificant starting points. I am sure that by starting at one point, you will have to look at all of them to fully understand the subject you are studying. I think a good position is to start from the front. By looking at reactions for something and then going back and looking how it was done, you will begin to see what makes a good product. And then you can look at why it was made like it was. In doing this, you can see the effects of all the different influences on the product and be able to see how they all interlink.

3D Lair

2010-01-20T15:43:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday I started on a lair for a super hero/villain. I decided to design a lair for 'The Joker' as I thought it would be the most interesting considering his characteristics. I considered many characters, mainly from the Batman franchise, based on interesting personality traits that would mean weird and wonderful interiors. I was also going to pick 'V' from 'V for Vendetta' as the shadow gallery built up in the novel is one of the most unique building designs I have ever come across. However, the Joker's theatrical, hysterical and yet insane personality gave my ideas almost no constrictions as nothing could go too far.
So far, I have built the walls of the hideaway. In my head I know what is going in each room. I have decided on having a theatre/library, armoury, transport and what can only be explained as a novelty room. By this time next week, I plan to have sketches of my designs on here.
As far as influences are concerned. I have looked at his personality in all the comics that I have with him in. I have also obviously watched 'The Dark Knight' and played 'Arkham Asylum'. All these things I have considered when deciding what would go in the den. However as different writers portray him in different ways this because complicated as some personalities contradict one another. I am hoping to create the lair in the style of 'Fear and Loathing'. The bazooko circus scene gives the circus the sinister appearance that I hope to achieve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0ktKSRs6a4

Multimedia outside of university

2010-01-17T11:06:00.000-08:00

When outside of university, I develop my skills as a practioner by drawing designs and ideas for characters or scenery onto a graphics tablet. I also browse deviantart for a variety of influences from any type of media. However, after talking in last weeks seminar, I was given the idea of posting my work on there and following other artists that I like. Also, by commenting other people's work I will get feeback on my own.
I also take influenece from many other forms of media such as novels, comics and articles that may affect the discipline. Youtube is also a good source for watching tutorials on software, and interviews and discussions with key figures in the industry. Again, by subscibing to animators and artists, I can follow how they develop and go back to them in the future when i am looking for ideas.

End of design practice 1!

2009-12-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

I have finally finished my pixilation project. The film reel, silent movie music and sepia effect really add to the putcome. here it is:

Also, my interactive narrative is also complete and on deviant art. If you do have a go i know that it is quite an obscure idea but i think it works quite well. It is based on the idea of the butterfly effect and my outcomes are very dramatic to emphasise this. I did design 4/5 of the characters myself (I think it is obvious which one I didn't design) but did have influences from UP 3D and other cartoon characters. The final product works quite successfully i believe. I would have liked to have offered more choices to the user and more outcomes but as more choices are put in, the frame rate grows exponentially. Also, with a bit more time I would have inproved the drawings but this was impossible. I did find it quite tricky to do but after I got the hang of it, it all came together quite quickly. I have realised i should have made the objects buttons and not just the text, I apologise to anybody who finds this frustrating. So here it is, the final edit:

http://jkirkie91.deviantart.com/art/interactive-narrative-146729273

Overall, I think that the past 9 weeks have been successful and I am pleased with the outcomes. Looking forward to some of the projects next year after reading the briefs but for now going to enjoy the break.

interactive narrative

2009-12-09T16:17:00.000-08:00

2 weeks into the project now and i have my idea completed now, and also have most drawings done. I would try and explain but I wouldn't know where to begin. Basically, it all came from the idea of the butterfly effect. The idea that one event no matter how insignificant it may seem could have a massive effect on the future. So my flash consists of the user selecting the future over the period of a day. Unfortunately I could not have much of a web of events as th more options the user has the more frames it would take up. The designs for my character have basically come from a combition of pixar characters and random photos i have found on google. All that is needed now is for the last few sketches to be complete and the buttons added and it hopefully should be complete by Friday!
On a side note, I watched UP 3D last week. The first 3D film I have seen and thought it was one of the greatest cinematic experiences I have ever had. Story line, characters and presentation was amazing. Also the use of 3D wasn't used as a gimic and really added to the film.

one-shot

2009-11-16T09:30:00.000-08:00

To begin to project i looked at videos of other short films to try and get ideas. i found this one intriguing and interesting but it didnt spark any ideas:

i also found a video with different objects travelling forward or backwards in time. this became an idea for the group production but was decided against when we finalised our idea.

We filmed our one-shot on saturday and are ready to edit in the next seminar so video should be up after that

a working progress

2009-10-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

this is my pixilation at the end of the 3 weeks. it seems to work quite well together although i am going to improve it. i am going a sepia effect to the images to give it a silent movie feel to it and also add the piano music to go with it. i haven't included a chunk of photos in this initial videos as it wouldn't work without me editing the photos first. these will be in the final edit though. by the end of all 9 weeks, the video will look completely different and hopefully much better.

influences on pixilation

2009-10-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

after being given the project brief i started to think of ideas immediately. most of these came from videos i had watched recently. i watched a few music videos from the maccabbees after seeing them at Leeds festival and found the backbone of my ideas from here,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0QgGS5FK7w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5i3-8RWvFA&feature=fvst
i liked the idea of having objects transforming and also changing people's faces and portraying emotion by adding things over them. this idea was also in the music video Andy showed us on the first animation seminar but i can't remember what it was. i also liked some effects used in the film Donnie Darko which i may bring into the video. i also highly recommend this film to anybody who has not seen it.
all photos have gone well and have editing has finished for most of them apart from some that need special attention. so by friday the video should be on youtube but the completed version will need a little more time.

the future of storytelling panel

2009-10-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

i've just watched the conference from X06. thought that it was interesting having peter jackson commenting on the subject as well coming from a film background and not that of gaming. to me it seems as though the future of storytelling lies in almost a completely new kind of category with the ciematics of film, interaction of gaming and imagination and creativity from reading. this of course would mean that all kinds of different experiences would have to be created to suit different people.the problem though with having interactive experince where you start at A and have to get to B, and you can get there however you please, is that the adventure is resting completely on your shoulders. this means that you won't be put in these memorable situations that film, books and games do. you will have to find them yourself.

2009-10-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

After reading the task for the first essay i've tried to think of an initial plan of the structure. So far i am thinking:
1) introduction - explaining what design methods are and which 3 i will focus on
2) paragraph on each explaining what they are, pros/cons etc
3) compare all three. which one is better than the others?
4) conclusion - briefly go into everything i have mentioned and round the essay off.