NEW HORIZONS

19 September 2013

Fragments of Time

The New Horizon module is based around what inspires me and where my inspirations will take me in the future.

When I began the FdA course my trail of thought was aimed towards 3D animation and character design. Over the course of two years I found that my direction had changed quite dramatically. I have taken a very keen interest in film and special effects.

For this module I will be discussing various animators and filmmakers that have inspired me, and various techniques that have inspired me, and my work.

Final Major Project....

 

Ok finally 2 more videos for you. This first one was what i made for semester 1 before Christmas 2011....i just had export problems and have only just now sorted it all out.

This one is my Final Major Project for the end of my year 2. It was a joint project with a class mate and it was a live brief for Saint Francis Hospice.

3D Character Animation

FINALLYYYYYYYYYYYY i completed my 3D Character Animation after all of the blood, sweat, and tears [YES tears...and many of them].

A lot has happened in the last year and i haven't really had a lot of time to post any new blog entries [as you will  notice], but here is my latest Movie.

The theme here was 'Combat Moves' and we had to produce a short movie demonstrating that we can animate a character to do some moves.

This was harder than i anticipated and with sheer determination and some help from really good mates....i managed it.

I was seriously considering giving up the course due to so many outside problems that were taking their toll. But now i have completed this and i hope i can move on to the next projects and complete the course in the summer.

thanks peeps....please leave comments and let me know what you think :)

E Sting for E4

OK i have just uploaded my final animation for the 10 second E Sting competition for E4!

It is called E-Smash and will be live on the E4 site over the next day or so i think once they have checked its content.

But here it is for my Blogends (Blog-Friends...see what i did there?):

Sketching Ideas

If i was worried about getting bored (as in previous posts), then i don't need to worry as i don't have just ONE new project to get working on, i now have two.

So the first one is something i have wanted to do for a while now. Although i haven't animated a lot at the moment, i have habits already. I get most of my inspiration from music, and can sometimes hear a particular song and really get into it, and picture an animation in my head. I guess the songs that work best for me are the ones that tell a story, obviously, because that's what animation (to me) is about fundamentally.

I always picture great things in my head, but always struggle to convey this in my work as my abilities are still a little limited. So i am going to take on board everything i have learned from the few animations i have already done, and hopefully it can be something really good. This new one will be a faster paced animation which for me will be a challenge because there will need to be a lot of action and fast paced movements to time it against the song words. The song is only 1 minute 29 seconds, so i have to fit a lot in and still make it look like a story.

There is a longer version of the song, but if there is one thing i have learned...it's not to make things more complicated than they need to be!

I have been rough sketching some ideas for one of the characters. There will be two. The story is about friendship and how important it is so i think two characters is enough to show this. It is a very simple story.

They are a little rough and just the first ideas that came to me. Surprisingly i just started drawing the shapes for the head and body and came up with him. For me that is a big step forward. I really have trouble with character design, but i have been reading quite a few books on drawing and character design and they seem to be having an effect.

I will post sketches as i go along and hopefully you can watch with me as my animation is put together :)

Walking Animation

I have only just managed to get this animation uploaded after many months and a lot of hassle with frame dropping and file size.

This was the first 2D module given to us last semester and it was my first EVER time using Flash, and first ever time animating.

The module was based around the Walk Cycle as it is supposed to be one of the most complicated things to crack....as i found out. Hours and hours of frame-by-frame animation, knowing that somehow there was an easier way to do it - I just didn't know how at this stage. I tried to show the walk from most angles and not just take the easy way out and show the side view. The most difficult view for me to animate was from the front. Foreshortening did not come easy to me. Especially as i am not too confident with my drawing abilities anyway.

So here it is, Chaz n Dave. Chaz is the boy....and he is on a mission :)
Please leave comments below and you can follow by blog, or subscribe to my YouTube channel if you like :)

New Projects

After handing in all of my work for this year and strangely not having to stress about meeting deadlines at the moment....I am on the hunt for some new projects to keep me from going insane (although i enjoy not having the huge workload at the moment, it HAS only been a matter of days and the novelty is slowly wearing thin and I don't mind admitting I am getting BORED - already).

I want to do some short animations, 30 seconds - 1 min, just to get some practice in and try different styles. I want a more fluid look to my animations and more of a sketched appearance rather than stiff cardboard like characters, so over the next few days I will be sketching from many different books I have, trying to understand the basics of character movement and timing. Then hopefully i will feel more confident to sketch WITHOUT looking in the books. I will post some sketches after i have done a few to let you see how i am getting on.

If anyone has any suggestions or ideas for any animated shorts, please feel free to leave a comment below :) The funnier the better. I want to experiment with voices and sounds rather than just animate to music - which is what i tend to automatically do.

Will keep you updated on my progress.

I may even get a ReviewFriday in tomorrow.....haven't done one of those for a LONG time!