Life Drawing Session Four

3rd November 2011

For this life drawing lesson the model sat on some sort of box with material draped over it.We all sat in a circle around him and rotated every 5 minutes. In the end we had 12 drawings of the model in the same position but from different angles. 

There are a couple of proportion problems with some of the drawings but overall I'm really happy.

3D Tutorial - Wine Glass

This wasn't a tutorial from my tutor but from youtube! This is what I did..

First I imported an image and used the curve tool to trace round one half of the image.

I then deleted the image to be left with what I drew with the curve tool

I then revolved it which made my wine glass! (just like in the other tutorial where we made a vase)

This is my glass in smooth shade

Next I wanted to make my glass look real... So I changed my wine glass from nurbs to polygons. The green one is the new polygon wine glass. And then I deleted the other one.

I used the 'Phong' render, made the colour white and the transparency high so that it became see through. I then added some lighting to it. And the black screen to the right it what it looked like when rendered. I wasn't very happy with this as you can't see the glass apart from where the light is hitting it- you can barely make out what it is. I couldn't work out how to change the black background as I think this is part of the problem. Something I'll investigate further...maybe ask my peers.

Contextualising Design Lecture 3rd November 2011

Innovation by Dan Berry

What Fingers Do

Smart Phones

Dan Berry took us through a sort of timeline of different phones and how they developed. For example he started off with his very first phone, I can't remember the name of it but it was so old that it had an antenna! He then went on to the launch of the smart phones and pointed out the key pad, how you controlled and used the phones by only using buttons. Finally he came to the Iphone and commented on how now instead of having just buttons to use, you had the whole screen and lots of different interfaces, and that now the phone was more than a phone because it had all these different apps on it. 

The Book That You Read

Comic on an Ipad

Dan then went onto Ipads and how they are used. He used a number of images of news and blog web pages that displayed headlines such as 'Ipad and Kindle are killing books'. He showed us a video of someone looking at a comic on the Ipad, how they could zoom into a particular image to look at it and the scroll across or down or look at the whole thing at once. I personally think that this won't destroy the publishing industry and books because there will be people that still want to be able to have a physical book in their hands and turns real pages over to read the next page. Myself being one of them. 

The Book That Reads You

Kindle 2

This is where the lecture got interesting. Dan then started to tell us about all the information and data that the Ipads, Kindles and Iphones are gathering. For example, Ipad and Kindle both have GPS and so if you are reading an article/ book then they know where you are reading it, they can also find out what time you read and what the lighting conditions are like. Ipads have a tiny camera at the top so you can call your friends and family to have a video conversation...right? Yes, but they can also use that camera to pick up micro expressions on your face to know how you feel about something you are reading. Another example is of the video of the person looking at a comic on their Ipad..Marvel can gather information about how long someone looks at a certain picture and how long it take for them to look at a whole comic. Most people would read about all of this and feel uncomfortable, I did too, but when you think about it, all of this information they are gathering can be used to improve certain aspects of the whole experience of either reading a book, or a comic etc.. 

Another thing that came up was Facebook and about how the site stores absolutely loads of information just about one person. I can't remember any and I did have enough time to write them down...mainly because there we so many! But it was incredible. 

Machines of Loving Grace

And then Dan ended it with a poem..

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it"

-Alan Kay

Overall I enjoyed this lecture and found it very interesting. Imagine in the future if I create an animation and people watch it through something like the Ipad, I could gather information about how the audience react to it, where they watch it and what time they watch it. There is also some more technology just coming out where a camera/computer can estimate what age a person is and what ethnicity they are...which would be even better for finding out who your audience is! Obviously not everyone is going to like the idea of their actions being watched but I think that if you use this technology within moderation then it should be fine. 

3D Tutorial November 1st October 2011

Yet Another 3D Tutorial in Maya!

In this tutorial we learnt how to use curves to create a 3d object, how to paint on an object, add hair to it and do a simple key frame animation.

This first one was using the curve tool to create a 'S' 

And then we created a circle and put it at the end of the 'S', highlighted the circle and 'S' and then extruded it and this was the result...

A 3D S! (sounds like I'm referring to the the Nintendo 3DS, I assure you I'm not!) 

Then we used the curve tool again in the front view and drew on half of the grid what we thought would be a shape of a vase

From that we then made a 3D vase!

Next we went onto making a simple face from a sphere by simply painting the face onn

We then added hair onto it! 

Unfortunately time was running out and so our tutor went through how to do a simple key frame animation of the head bouncing into and then out of the screen quickly, and so I have no screen shots of that you show. 

Overall I felt that this was the most successful tutorial in 3D yet and I really enjoyed it! Bring on the next one!

The Message - Character Behaviour 2nd November

Moving Onwards - Storyboard and Character Development

Today I have come up with the final character design and final story board! (Atleast I think so for now!)

And so this is my storyboard (still needs to be rendered)...

Silence except from the birdsong, the birdsong remains through out

The farmer pops up from behind the wall and puts the rock onto the wall

"Oh hello there! With the sheep work up to date the early winter is the time to try to catch up on fencing and a few odd pieces of stone walling. 

It's a job that makes me feel in touch with generations past who worked the land at Borough Farm"

"On one occasion whilst widening a gateway, I found a glass bottle of creosote embedded in the earth in the middle of the wall."

"Creosote was a cure for foot rot in sheep used long before antibiotic treatments were available."

"And was probably left by a shepherd at that very spot."

"Looking at the miles of stones walls that weave through the farm, it's obvious that my forebears had rather more skill at walling than I do."

"I also suspect that they had rather more time, indeed it must have been life times of work to create the walls to divide the fields.

It'll probably take me a couple of days to finish my little repairs.

And when I stand back to look at my work afterwards... "

...provided that I don't study it too hard, it should blend in well with those experts of long ago."

"Right, I best get on!"

Farmer picks up another rock

He then puts the rock onto the wall

Scratches his head and bends over to pick up another rock...image fades out.

Overall I'm very happy with this storyboard. The character interacts with his environment and because he's in front of the camera a lot I can really get into his behaviour and personality! I'm really looking forward to making this animation now. 

Next I did some of the farmers character turnaround..

Overall I'm very happy with the turnaround. I feel that this is my best character turnaround yet!...Most probably because I've really got into my characters personality because of the diary entry I am using and because I really enjoyed creating him! The next thing I'm going to do is a character sheet of different expressions and poses, create a mood board for the animation and then do all of the render work!

The Message - Character Behaviour

Old Idea and Thumbnail Storyboard

I discovered that I hadn't posted this on my blog! As you can see by the date that I did it a long time ago...Almost a month now! This is the old idea I had for the character behaviour brief..the one of showing a process of one of the crops on a farm and I came up with a rough thumbnail storyboard for it...

If I had used this idea it would have been way too long but mainly wouldn't have answered the brief as the character is hardly seen and doesn't interact with the environment!

The Message - Walk Cycle

I have done another walk cycle experience from 'The Animators Survial Kit'. This one looks at the arm movement in particular. This is the video..

The legs are a bit jumpy and do a bit funny but overall I am very happy with the arm movement. I enjoyed doing a different arm movement than I have been. It makes the walk much moe interesting and lively.