Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Animation Ahoy!

The saga continues.

Presented my Genre and the Moving Image pitch last week, which I reckon went fairly well. I presented my investigations on the Science Fiction genre, and therefore pitched a concept for a 1950's Science Fiction parody animation, thusly named: It Came From Across the Universe.

Just a matter of seeing who would wish to assist me in bringing it to fruition.

For Visual Analysis and Critical Reflection, I have decided to investigate the spectacle of the Gold Coast Hospital. It was an idea concocted by myself and my mum (who happens to be a nurse), and would allow us to come up with an animated concept to detourn (divert) the hospital spectacle.

I paid a visit to her ward last weekend to do some sketching, observing the atmosphere, looking for symbols and such. The other nurses didn't seem to mind, and mum was all to happy to assist by pointing out various aspects.

It shall be interesting to see what we could come up with to detourn the spectacle (for better or worse).

CGI Animation is most interesting. We recently finished the task of animating a lamp rig, particularly Luxo Jr. made famous by Pixar Animation. Here's my submission:


It's a lot of fun bringing to life that in which has no life (or so we think). The movement still needs some fine tuning, and ideally I would like to put in a dust particle effect to create the look of 'debris'. Took me some time to fix up the light-linking though, since light seemed to shine out the back of Luxo Senior's head.

Amusing, but not the effect I required, so it looks better this time round.

It's both fun and frustrating to apply the principles of animation, for which I originally applied to hand-drawn elements, into a 3-dimensional universe. There are benefits and disadvantages with such ease and options, and I can see why it's important to spend the time needed to get it right. You can tell the difference when someone has just tweened two key frames in the timeline, compared to someone who's practically animated frame by frame.

Nonetheless, it's a good experience. Just hope it can score me a job.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Blogged but not Forgotten

With my recently restored internet, I'm figuring it would be excellent (and a challenge) to continue updating my blog with my latest happenings, even if just for me.

For those who do read up on my blog, I thank you for your support.

As an update from my previous blog, I was wrong in assuming the extra task required would be a film project. In some sense it is, but it's meant to be apart of Genre and the Moving Image, which will be in the form of a second assessment for task 2 or 3. The third assessment is an audio-visual project (essentially a short film, or an animatic) to present to our teacher.

Since the audio-visual project is meant to be about our chosen Genre to investigate, Begone, Little Wolf 2 will not be scheduled as I boasted before.

So far, it's been merely keeping up with my required tasks: assessments, animation tasks, keeping on schedule. The usual hoo-ha.

I've had small inkling to do another short film, but with no major uni-based requirement, I feel no strong need. The ideas keep coming, but I'm hesitant to begin another short film project in the event that I feel it is too difficult and quit, or get side-tracked with other commitments.

However, with our CGI-Animation teacher encouraging us to improve, collecting video clips and pushing for that little bit more, I begin to wonder if I'm doing myself an injustice. Many of my CGI clips I have made seem...average. Adequate, you could say. Enough to get a good mark, but not fantastic.

I wonder if I should be pushing myself that little extra mile, just to see what I can do, what I can prove. I stare at the short animated lamp I have recently made and think "what more could I do? What else can I push to get more feel?" But quickly it is replaced by the same feeling, "Ah, she'll be right".

I guess the same could be said for my animation film projects; that while I feel the need to test my skills again, I feel safer by not doing one.

A portion of which is because of the anxiety I felt during last years movie-making experience. While this time, it would be made entirely by myself, there's still that worry, that possible stress of having to work on a film by myself.

Perhaps this is mainly superficial and will eventually pass and bring on that need to make a new film. Slowly but surely I find time to develop new ideas and concept, ones in which could be achieved by my lonesome.

I want to be an animator. Perhaps it's time I prove it.



On a side note, Visual Analysis and Critical Reflection is turning out to be an experience in itself. I illustrate with this drawing.