my work at Flannels cafe|PPP2

    Few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to put my work up on the lovely wall of Gallery at Flannels.

    For people who doesn't know Leeds that well - Flannels is a 3 storey store (something like Harvey Nicholson or Debenhams but with just clothes) near Kirkgate Market. The art gallery cafe is on the third floor and have a different types of work exhibited, curated by Leeds City College/Leeds Art Gallery. Sometimes, the work that lands on those walls isn't perfect for cafe settings, so they've decided to look for people that creates more appropriate art.

     I found about the show opportunity by twitter. I've got 14 different pieces on display and they will stay there for couple more weeks.
     It's my second time putting exhibition up and, as much as I enjoy it, I don't consider myself to be an 'exhibition artist'. Seeing my work hanged on wall is rewarding and makes me feel so proud and happy, but, at the end of a day, I just want to create and don't worry about venues, frames and nails.

The Gaze and The Media|Lecture COP2

Notes from The Gaze and The Media lecture.

Library|PPP2

     I've already written few blog posts on networking, as I've been doing it for few years now. I use blogger, art forums, Behance, Facebook groups and twitter to connect with like minded people. So far all of those social sites proved being useful in my journey. After all, as long as you produce good quality art, you don't really have to worry too much about generating additional traffic.

    Second part of today was to identify book that could help in developing/improving skills mentioned in SWOT analysis (done few weeks ago). I try to visit library on weekly basis, mostly for interesting magazines. For art skills and my problems with anatomy I usually turn to books by G. Bridgman and Vilppu. College library have also a range of books on story boarding and storytelling which I borrow from time to time (still I wish we had Framed Ink available to borrow). Also books on modelling and texturing are helpful and useful. When we get nearer to the end of the module I'll have to look more into design books (for branding, business card design).

World War Z VFX Breakdown|VFX

World War Z - 2013 zombie movie, starring Brad Pitt and distributed by Paramount Pictures, based on a novel by Max Brooks.

World War Z might not be the best zombie movie in the history of cinema, but it was the most expensive one and had the most complex animations of hordes of undead.

MPC studio team worked on over 450 shots for the movie, including crowds zombie hordes in Jerusalem, plane crash scene and epilogue. Below I've attached a short VFX breakdowns video.

VFX breakdown by MPC

Max Wood explains how MPC created various shots (techniques, mo-cap footage), as well as difficulties and challenges they had to overcome.




Extensive insight, Cinesite and use of Nuke over other softwares.

Michele Sciollete (head of VFX technology, Cinesite) demonstrates the use of Nuke and ftrack in World War Z production pipeline. It's almost 30mins long video (talk), but very useful (makes me want to go to Siggraph so much). I've found it very helpful since my video contains a car shot with green screen placed outside. 

Transmedia Seminar|Responsive

29.10.2013 seminar - transmedia.

Transmedia - way of telling stories across multiple platforms. 

Nowadays every series showed on TV or in cinema, have extensions (back stories of characters, different endings, prequels, sequels) on the other platforms. 
The Walking Dead originated from comic books and moved into TV series, web-series, various games, which concentrate on different characters and events. The only element that really connects it all is the world the action is set in.
GI Joe and Transformers started as a series of action figures/toys and moved into cartoons, live action movies, games, comics and even more toys. 
Transmedia is not something happening only in western world, but also visible in Japanese manga/anime, e.g. Sailor Moon series had it's beginning in Sailor V manga, that lead into Sailor Moon manga and anime (with extra filler season and extra characters), movies (animated and live action), games and fan fiction, not to mention various toys and cosplays.
Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) - currently the most popular series by fandom, manga started in 2009 (on going), there are also 2 other series that are getting published in the same time, concentrating on different characters and events. First season of anime finished airing few weeks ago. There are few games scheduled to be released by 2014, same for OAV.

Final Fantasy universe is not only limited to RPG games, but also had characters appearing in movies and OAVs, plus other games like Dissidia and Kingdom Hearts.
Speaking of, Kingdom Hearts is a very good example of trasmedia, merging characters from Disney universe with jRPG characters from Final Fantasy and The World Ends With You into one coherent story (stories). Various games appeared on different consoles, showing little bits of story and contributing to the vast universe.

Oh..is Rachet and Clank really getting a full feature movie?

Above examples shows how important is to make almost every new story transmedia, allowing audience to be much more broader and creating additional buzz. After all people likes to find out extra information about their favorite character or world.

After Effects Induction03|VFX

Adobe After Effects 03 workshop:

• second check box - continuously rasterize - keep Illustrator artwork as vector, indefinable scalable; also useful when working with 3D layers;

•  keyframe interpolation :

•             animation menu - keyframe interpolation menu ;
•             working with motion path - spacial interpolation - bezier/linear curve ; 
•             working with opacity - no motion path - dealing with temporal interpolation ;
•             toggle/hold keyframe (above k.i. in animation drop down menu or can right click on keyframe) - no change between two keyframes, no fade, either opaque or transparent <- can be applied to opacity or position ;

• acceleration - deceleration - easing in/out

 

• easy ease in - initial speed faster, but then slows down;
• keyframes aren't spread equally, more placed towards the end; 
• easy ease out - initial speed slower, increase slowly;
• easy ease - applied on both frames - accelerate and decelerate; 

• graph editor 

• graph editor  helps to make things more realistic;
• rove across time  - select middle frames, when move last frame, the other three moves;

•  can copy path from Illustrator file into the timeline and use it as motion path (AE will add key frames; remember to enable key frames first)

Equipment Inductions|VFX

    For the 25th October we were scheduled to do some filming outside. However, due to bad weather, we had to stick to indoors and moved into Vis-Com studio (and balcony). Whole setting and filming process took almost 5 hrs, which is a lot, when you realise how little footage (and storyline) we took. I guess the setting time could take much more less if we were more experienced with kit.

Kit we had during this session was: crane, tripods, tracks and dolly grips, DSLR camera, monitor, boom, sound recording device, lots of cables and clipping board. We used track and dolly for the first shot and crane for outside, balcony scene.

    Most of people were involved in filming/setting. I was in charge of clapper board, which was fun. I had to keep a track on scene (shot) and take number.

Next week we will process footage, match audio with video and add some VFX in background.

Making of Pacific Rim| VFX

    Pacific Rim (2013) - new action sci-fi movie by Guillermo del Toro, visually stunning monster vs robots awesomeness. Industrial Light & Magic was a company in charge of creating CGI for the movie.
    Storytelling studio Mirada was behind two-minutes long prologue of new Guillermo del Toro film. They've posted VFX breakdowns on YT:



    Models were made in Modo and animated in Maya. What's also interesting is that Mirada was co-founded by Guillermo del Toro. The struggle for them was to match ILM standards and create a believable, engaging short, filled with detailed assets, good lighting and composting. (You can read more here).

Breakdown scenes by ILM:



Suits and helmets were actually 3D printed, painted and used during filming, which is very cool. Each actor had to have few different costumes and helmets.

creature/alien design development02|VFX

Thumbnails and rough sketches for possible creature/alien final design.

   I have to admit the fact that this is the hardest module so far when it comes to creating concept art, since I have to not only come up with good design but also think of how it would be animated. Simply I can't just draw something 'pretty', it need to serve a certain purpose and fit within the story (script) and overall theme.

    Quick thumbnails are good for experimenting with different types of silhouettes and letting ideas flow. I've tried to do a variety of initial sketches to help me determine what will work best as a final design.

    Above is the line of creatures I like the most, with simple but interesting shapes. Personally, alien number 4 is my favourite. I've decided to go with this idea and will produce more finished concepts, iterations and colour/texture options.

Identity|Lecture COP2

Notes from Identity lecture.

Gillian Wearing (born 1963)- English conceptual artist, won Turner Prize in 1997

Forum Feedback|PPP2

    I've started my journey towards the world of art industry few years ago and decided that it's a good time to reflect on the forum/blog feedback I've got so far.
    I've created my main art blog back in September 2010. Back then I've started Access to HE course, even though I had some art related experience before that (finished 2 years of landscape architecture in polish Uni) so I wasn't new to the idea of drawing and sharing work online (my deviantart account is 9 yrs old). However, I never was too fixed at page views /follower count and concentrated solely on uploading and sharing my drawings. After all getting comments from a pro artists under your work can make day much more brighter.
    In 2011 I've started a sketchbook thread on polish art forum (max3d forum) where I got tons of great feedback and tips. Also I met a lot of great concept artists, saw how they started and improved (which inspires me to do better). Another great forum I have my SB thread on is conceptart.org. Again, got great feedback and tips, especially on still life studies. I also have a SB thread on ImagineFX forum. It's a quite small community compare to craziness that goes on conceptart.org, but I like it and got really good advice from people on anatomy and studies.
    I use my blog for (almost) daily updates and try to do bulk updates on forums biweekly (or at least once a month). I'm planning on doing another 'year recap' post soon, since this year was pretty intense for me.

Ryse:Son of Rome cinematic|VFX

 

Ryse: Son of Rome is Crytek's new game thats coming out soon on XboxOne. Platige Image (studio responsible for: cinematics for The Witcher game series, blogged about them in this post) was in charge of creating this great cinematic to promote upcoming title. You can read a bit more about this project on Behance.


LEGEND OF DAMOCLES from Platige Image on Vimeo.

Although it's a film module I've decided to talk a bit more about this trailer and making-of video as it contains a lot of valuable informations. At the end of a day, it's still all about production stages and compositing different bits of footage together.



LEGEND OF DAMOCLES Making of from Platige Image on Vimeo.

I'm really glad that Platige Image shared this making-of as well as extensive amount of pre-production drawings, story- and mood- boards, character and scenery designs and notes on modelling/texturing. I've really like the style of this cinematic, colours, textures and a bit less realistic approach (when compared to in game footage and other trailers). Seeing how it was done and the amount of work involved, made me appreciate it even more. Also this a bit more 'comic book like' stylisation supports storytelling, makes it more mysterious.

Networking|PPP2

    This week seminar was about networking. First task we had to do was to think of reasons why we even need to network and how we can do it. My main aims when it comes to networking are: get a job (studio based or freelance commissions); built connections with like-minded people; get critiques and advices from other artists; showcase my work; create extra traffic for my blog/online portfolio. There are many websites that can be used for social and professional networking as well as attending events and festivals.
    Another part of seminar was to think of local/ national/ international network opportunities that are around us. I broke it up into little lists below:

• local - college, family, friends; regional events, like All Animated, Behance portfolio reviews, Thought Bubble;
• national - game/film/animation festivals and expos (like MCM comic con in London);
• international - websites like Behance, specific art groups on Facebook, CGhub, forums on platforms like ImagineFX and conceptart.org, Society6, Twitter; basically any online social media could be used for international networking. Skype and MSN can be a good tools to establish a communication with clients and friends.

   Personally, I try to get my work posted on quite a few websites. However, it can be challenging to keep up with updates and maintaining a coherent brand (sometimes it feels like an extra job we all have to do). Also, it's quite easy to over do it, by creating profiles on too many websites and not keeping up with updates or (which I personally think is worst thing you can do when starting art journey) showing WIP shots for every each painting and tagging a professional artists under your work (so they will get notified). I believe that if your work is good enough and somewhere online, clients will find you. Making too much fuss is a bad thing and can be easily remembered by clients.

DSLR Induction|VFX

Setting you should be aware of:

• check if  memory card is in;
• reset all setings and format the card;
• camera switch off set to 1 min > disable;
• little toggle switch set to red camera icon (right hand side of camera) for filming;
• stabilization on;
• set the right setting for recording (25fps, PAL <if set to NTSC frame rate can be changed in AE>);
• aperture, white balance, ISO can be easily adjusted (buttons on right hand side, use thumb wheel to scroll up/down; can use AUTO settings);
• to transfer files from camera use a card reader, not USB cable (needs extra software).

Moodboards|VFX

Above moodboard was made to help me with creating a design of my creature/alien for this module. I've used cghub to search for inspirational images, mostly tagged as 'bug' or 'plant'. I've included a variety of designs, looked for interesting shapes and colours. Concepts for inFamous2 game done by West Burt, as well as art by Creature Box,creatures from Rayman: Origins by UbiArt, Brett '2D' Bean and Bobby Chiu mostly informed my design ideas.

Invasion by Bobby Chiu. What I really like about this painting is variety of creature designs crammed in it, with different textures (slime-y bugs next to hard shelled critters) and colours .

Elderbeasts2 by CreatureBox. Really good, crazy concepts. I find the middle guy the most interesting, because of it semi-transparent skin and bright pink polka dots.

Brett '2D' Bean designs for Sluggetra. I don't even know where to start! So many great designs! As they were created for rather young audience (Disney channel show), they're closes to what I want to achive with my final creature/alien concept.

After Effects Introduction02|VFX

Adobe After Effects workshop 02

During this workshop we were working with still images. I've already knew most of the tricks and used my knowledge in the previous post video, however I've listed few useful tips below:

• when setting a new composition remember to set it to the correct size;
• there are film&video presets in Photoshop CS6, however they can be modify (for example canvas size can be bigger than the actual frame size, which allows to pan camera around), when grid is switched on it will show the actual frame size (for reference);
• HDV and HDTV presets (formats) differ in width and pixel aspect ratio;
• .psd files>import as composition> double click at composition to open it>opens exactly like in ps with layers in correct placement (check composition settings and change them to match settings needed for this project>all layers have/share same anchor point);
• composition retain layer sizes>each layer stays in the actual sizeand each layer have specific/own anchor point;  
•  motion blur switch - makes fast footage look more realistic, smoother; imitates camera shutter - can be changed in composition settings >advance>motion blur: shutter angle and shutter phase;
• global adjustments > solid layer that fills whole composition (or just part of it)> apply effect on layer below (works like adjustment layers in Photoshop);
• square switch> makes 3D layer (or can go to layers and make a 3D layer).

Floating Warrior|VFX

Little test I did in After Effects. I used one of my older images and played a little bit with 3D layers and key framing.

Premier Sounds Editing Induction|VFX

Notes from Sound Editing in Premiere Induction:

- Editing sound in Premiere is very similiar to edits that can be done in FinalCutPro;
- Use good quality sounds, 48kHz;
- Broadcast standard for audio: average sound for TV -12dB, cinema -20dB;
- Bars and Tone - used for calibration (colors, average tone on -12dB) - good practice;
- Audio layers can be mono or stereo;
- to fade in/out sound - key frame points on time line and use bezier curve (right click) or can use effects (crossfade, by moving purple bar can change duration), quicker method, but have less control over it;
- key frame technique - can change volume in specific place;
- reverb filter - ADR dialogue can be manipulated to match film settings (can make it sound like it was recorded in e.g. church hall or small room);
- clip speed/duration - change pitch; slowing sounds down - creates alien noise, allows to be creative with sound.

Sound 01|VFX

Notes of sounds I'll need for my final video:

• sliding doors noise;
• footsteps;
• wind/ outside ambient noises;
• keys/keychain jingle;
• door smash;
• radio - bits of free music mixed together;
• alien noises: depending on final design, but look for unusual, weird noises;
• heavy breathing and heart beat;
• car engine noise;
• alien planet noises - again depending on final design; humming, machinery sounds, water splashes.

There will be no dialogue so background/environment noises are very important and have to connect with events happening on screen, support mood and create tension. I'm planning to search BBC sound library CDs we have in college for most of those noises as well as use findsounds.com . However I also consider recording and mixing my own sounds for aliens (which will be fun).

StarWars Sound Documentary|VFX

STAR WARS Sound Documentary Notes:

• sound recording: engine, machinery sounds used for ships; music mixed with machinery to create interesting sound effects;
• ADR - automatic dialogue replacement;
• tracks recorded during shoot are (in most cases) unusable in final film and need to be recorded again; shoot records are used as a guideline;
• number of people involved in sound designing, have different sounds to create (e.g. person responsible only for light sabers noise);
• alien language - conversations in English language slowed down and mixed up;
• Final Mix takes good few weeks to create; foley, ADR and other sounds have to match video.

Consumerism:Persuasion, Society, Brand, Culture|Lecture COP2

Notes from Consumerism:Persuasion, Society, Brand, Culture lecture.

SWOT analysis|PPP2

This week PPP2 seminar task was to do SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis.

As artist/ me - brand
Strengths:

• drawing skills - I'm constantly trying to improve and experiment, develop a personal style of drawing that could be easily recognized by others, 
• storyboarding, concept art, illustration
• ability to work on my own or with team of people, keeping up with deadlines (time management);

Weaknesses:

• 3D modelling, filming, editing; 
• when it comes to branding I'm trying to break into industry, but still doesn't have enough recognition yet; 
• networking- I'm shy and introvert person and find it really hard;

Opportunities:

• as I post a lot of my work online I got few connections with other creative artists, which I'll hopefully benefit from in the future; 
• attending networking events like All Animated, BAF, Creative Networks

Threats:

• other people that I've to compete against; 
• making my brand (portfolio of work) interesting

creature/alien design development01|VFX

First basic sketch of how my creature/ alien could look like:

I went for a generic alien look (a bit like Roger from American Dad) and tried to create an interesting design with simple shapes (ovals, curves). I'm going to do a lot thumbnail silhouettes, as I need a easy to read and regonize shape for my creature/alien. However, from this design I may take the idea of mouth being on top of creature head, single eye and lack of nistrils and ears. Definately have to simplify limbs - legs may be OK to animated, however arms seem to be too complex.

After Effects Introduction|VFX

Introduction to Adobe AfterEffects CS6, notes, shortcuts and other possibly useful info:

• yellow outline > active panel;
• ~ key > active panel fill a screen  (press again to go back to normal view);
• composition> New Composition - same presets for AE amd Premiere sequence;
• specify duriation time;
• space bar> shows composition in it's best ability, but sometimes can play footage slower, hit RAM preview button for better preview of footage;
• resolution drop down menu>can lower resolution for better/faster playback in RAM perview ;
• stopwatch icon> keyframe property;
• <> key frame symbol on timeline;
• select layer and click: P - to access position, A - anchor point, R - rotate, S - scale, T - opacity (hold shift allows you too se multiple properties within selected layer), O - moves to the last point on the layer, B - set beginning of working area to wherever time marker is and E set the end of working area, U - shows properties that been animated (have key frames);
• keyframe interpolation - change curve to e.g. linear.

Premiere Introduction |VFX

Adobe Premiere and After Effects are very similiar pieces of software and it's possible to use both during editing. Below list of few useful shortcuts and other important bits :)

• creating new project: match imported video settings with project settings;
• save project on scratch disk;
• To mark in - I and mark out - O key;
• Zoom in/zoom out: + and - ;
• insert piece of video: , ;
• overwrite video on top of other footage: . ;
  
• to remove gap: select gap and press backspace ;
• key framing effects/changes works same as in AE (little stop watch icon);
• auto save set to every 5 mins;
• when exporting > match sequence settings - goes to same settings as initial video

Stephen Silver and competitions|Responsive

As this module brief ask us to search for a competition to participate I thought it's important to share some important and wise words from Stephen Silver.



Stephen Silver is a Character Designer in animation industry and tutor in schoolism.com. On facebook and YT he shares different career related advices for new artists and art students. I think it's important to pay attention to what competition we submit work to. Sometimes it's better to just create a good piece of work and add to the portfolio.



Few months ago Marvel came up with competition targeted to new comic artists that want to break into industry (and possibly be hired by Marvel). The problem, however is the task people were asked to do. Basically Marvel wanted people to draw their female villain - Harley Quinn, committing suicide in 4 different ways (oh, and she had to be naked in one of a scenes). Personally I think it's totally wrong and this kind of competitions shouldn't be allowed.

Don't take me wrong, there are plenty of 'good' competitions were you get exposure and judged by industry professionals. I've recently entered Rising Star competition organized by ImagineFX magazine. Also Ballistic Publishing submission calls are good opportunity to present the best pieces of your work.  To conclude: I just have to be extra careful when deciding on brief I want to do :) .

Little Freak - Animation

Little Freak is a short 3D animation created by Edwin Shaap and is a part of biggest project (master thesis)



The story is about little boy who.. oopps! Just scroll up and watch it yourself.
I find this little animation quite sad and a bit depressing, which is probably elevated by limited colour pallet to black and white (no colours at all really). Voice acting is very good, emotional and moving. However story itself is really generic and simple. Personally, I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing.


The most impressive part of this animation is the way face of little boy is rendered and animated, with attention to the tiniest detail.


Edwing Shaap shared 'Making - of' video which explains how he achived the end result (and how much time it took him to do it). In the future I'd also try to use a range of different media to achieve the better quality.

My skill set|Responsive

For this module we are encouraged to team up with other people and contribute. 
I can help with storyboarding, concept art and environments as I've done it before and I'm kind of good with drawing. Also it's something I really enjoy doing and like to do in the future. As for my drawing style - I prefer to draw cartoon-y, cute characters and creatures, but I like to be challenged and explore different styles. Examples of my work can be found on my blog and portfolio.

Lectureception - Lecture Programme Induction| COP2

During this lecture we had first a short briefing on lecture programme for this year (concentrated more on theories and movements) and then we went through different things revelant to our courses.

Fish Story (1989 -1995) by Allan Sekulla - photographer and a theorist.
GTA V - newest Rockstar game, but also cultural fenomen, fastest selling and highest grossing in history, also questioned about it's violence.

Saatchi & Saatchi for Gallagher (1993) - series of very interesting cigarette adverts, that, for some people, have sexual connotations.

 Atelier Populaire (1968) - rebelous group of french students that took over the printing studios to produce revolution posters. Originally, all artwork produced during that time, were not for sale or to be displayed on museums walls.

rough script|VFX

    After brainstorming ideas for different stories (read more in this blog post ) I've decided to go with Man/Woman Vs Nature theme.

Below is the rough script for my one minute film:

• character finds a piece of paper (shopping list) on the table, grabs car keys and leaves house, goes through the garden to the car. (idea: title of film written on another piece of paper or half transparent, floating around, added in post);
• while characters is fastening seatbelt/checking mirrors/switching on radio, alien/mutant plant creature gets out from under the car seat/draw and climbs onto dashboard;
• alien/creature character aproach human character, looks at it and then jumps onto his face;
• cut to black;
• character slowly opens eyes, look through car window and sees this fantasy world/planed;
• cut to black;
• credits.

    Human character will be played by my husband, our house/garden/car will be shooting locations - thanks to that I'm more flexible with production dates and can also easily do re-takes if nessesary.

Inspirations|VFX

So here I'm again with another script that involves some extraterestrial beings (or mutants). Clearly I must like them a lot. Before designing stage I thought of doing a research on some of the UFO/aliens movies.

Mars Needs Moms (2011) is a 3D animated movies that used motion capture technique. Made by ImageMovers Digital Studios (ImageMovers now) and released by Disney. I've watched this film recently, and although story wasn't that great, it had really good graphics. However motion capture and it's impact on final animation made me feel a bit uncomfortable - character expressions look unnatural (crossing uncanny valley).

Escape from Planet Earth (2013) Canadian 3D animated movie produced by Rainmaker Entertaiment. Again, not so great (basic story), but enjoyable. Had few good design ideas and was nicely animated.

Aliens vs Monsters (2009) 3D animated movie, produced by DreamWorks and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Probably my favourite from all three. Character designs are very cool, inspired by old alien B-movies, story interesting, animation smooth. Aliens vs Monsters was also nominated and won few animation awards.

VFX production schedule|VFX

Action plan for the next few months of work (known also as VFX module schedule ;) ):

Pre-production stage:

• 4 - 11. 10.13 - brainstorming ideas;
• 11- 18.10.13 - decided on theme, script writing and beginning to create basic storyboards/concept art, consider possible actors and set availability;

                    14.10 - After Effects 1
                    16.10 - Premiere Induction (group A+B)

• 18-25.10.13 - continue drawing concepts, design iterations and storyboard; think and blog about VFX effects that are needed (research), take photos of what actual set would look like;

                     21.10 - After Effects 2
                     23.10 - DSLR Induction (group A+B)

• 25.10- 1.11.13 - storyboard finished, animatic created during this week, continue on researching VFX solutions, colour keys and set designs made during this week; 

                      28.10 - After Effects 3
                      29.10 - green screen and lighting induction with Matt Burton. ask for portable
                       green screen availability and book it for a day (look at shooting footage dates)

• 1.11-8.11.13 - start creating 2D and 3D animation tests (in case of 2D make at least one walk cycle to test design, consider possible design iterations);

                       4.11 - After Effects 4

• 8-15.11.13 - enjoy BAF :) research sound options, model/paint set for green screen part of a film;
• 15-28.11.13 - finalize pre-production stage,complete any outstanding tasks;
• 29.11.13 - interim crit - all pre-production work (research, storyboards, animatic, concept art, tests, VFX solutions) have to be completed by this time and ready to present.

Production stage:

• 2.12-13.12.13 - shooting footage: using my own Hitachi camera, need to borrow portable green screen (booked in advance);

Post-production stage:

• 16.12-23.12.13 - animate 2D/3D part of the film;
• 24.12.13 - 2.1.2014 - christmas break, so take it easy :) take a break, watch movies and blog about them;
• 3 -10.1.2014 - finish animating, start editing whole footage in After Effects;
• 10- 16.1.2014 - continue on editing, add sound, title and credits.

• 17.01.2014 - Final crit session

• 17- 23.1.14 - check if all exercises required for submission are completed, write evaluation and blog posts (if needed), spent more time editing final film according to received crits.

• 24.01.2014 - Submission deadline - so, if you haven't followed above schedule or something horrible happened, it's too late to panic.. sorry.. proceed to plan B (time travel).  But if you followed this mad schedule take a burnt disk (clearly labelled) to Tom between 4 and 4:30.

Introduction to Render Layers|VFX

As a part of our introduction to render layers in Maya we were asked to follow simple tutorial and created a video file in After Effects.

I might be not using Maya in making my final video, however I found today lesson useful when it comes to quick prototyping and checking how things will look like in the end.
Creating new render passes works very similar to layers in Photoshop. Keeping all those different effects separated makes editing effects in After Effects very easy (each pass will be rendered as a separated image sequence).
I've added my own images as a texture to cube.

Reflection pass - first render done with cube, second without, since the cube itself isn't needed in this pass (will be visible in colour pass).

Occlusion pass (that look like Pokoyo animation) is the only pass that doesn't need alpha channels and need to saved as a jpg (other passes need to be in .tiff, .targa or .png format). Self shadowing is only needed between those 2 objects and (same as any other pass) can be changed in After Effects.

After all passes were batch rendered I moved to After Effects to put image sequences together, played a bit with layer settings for each sequence (pass), added back plate and produced final exercise scene.

Responsive| searching for competition

    For this module we were asked to search and participate in one competition or live brief and document our journey through blog posts.
    As illustration, concept art and animation are my main interests I've search for competitions that are looking for work in those fields. Below is a list of competitions that I've found somehow interesting.

http://film.britishcouncil.org/festivals-directory?p=4&deadline=March
http://www.annecy.org/annecy-2014/festival/official-selection
http://www.berwickfilm-artsfest.com/
http://www.carmarthenbayfilmfestival.co.uk/page10.html
http://film.britishcouncil.org/online-short-film-festival-kinodot
http://kinodot.com/eng/
http://www.sapporoshortfest.jp/
http://cinematique.co.uk/
http://www.nowehoryzonty.pl/artykul.do?id=266
http://www.wimbledonshorts.com/
http://www.krakowfilmfestival.pl/en/festival/about_festival
http://www.encounters-festival.org.uk/#/submit-films.html
http://www.awn.com/events/competitive-festivals
http://www.dandad.org/dandad/events?series=New%20Blood
http://www.zlinfest.cz/en/2014/submissions

     There is also a website with a list of animation festivals, were you can find informations about various events around world. Unfortunately most of those websites doesn't have a revelant information for 2013/2014 submissions. I'm planning to come back and check them after few weeks.
     There are also competitions on sites like threadless, deviantart, conceptart.org or cgsociety that are run on regular basis. Moreover Balistic Publishing started shipping Expose 11, so the submission call for issue 12 will be open soon.
     I had a look at D&AD New Blood Awards for past 2 years and found some categories and briefs interesting and challenging. Personally, despite of my extensive research into animation festivals, I might be more into illustration/design related task as it would challenge me more and let me explore different ideas.
     As I mentioned earlier, I'll check above listed websites again in the next few weeks and decide in which competition I want to participate.

Alice in Wonderland|VFX

    Alice in Wonderland (2010) is a fantasy movie directed by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was inspired by fantasy novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll. Although it receiveda mixed reviews from critics and various websites, it was also nominated and won many awards, e.g. for visual effects or costume design.


    Alice in Wonderland movie is a mixture of live action and computer animation, with heavy use of VFX and green screen. Above behind the scene footage shows how some of the scenes in the movie were shot and how many objects had to actually be added in post production stage by VFX crew. Moreover the Red Queen (played by Helena Bonham Carter) had to be 'created' digitally due to unnatural proportions - massive, funny head and quite small body. Another interesting fact is that the movie were originally shot in 2D (with one camera) and then converted into 3D.
    As it action is set in fantasy world, the amount of CGI used shouldn't really be suprising. Still, even with that, Burton managed to keep it fairly realistic and believable. The interactions between human and animated characters seem natural thanks to great amount of CGI usead. Wired published an interesting article about visual challenges set by Alice in Wonderland.

Mosaic Cafe Exhibition|PPP

Few weeks ago I was lucky enough to get exhibition space in Mosaic Cafe in Leeds College of Art.

I've got 10 different marker pieces on display for a good few weeks (possibly until Christmas).

I've to admit: I had a bit of trouble in choosing which pieces I want to show ;).

Putting show together is hard, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to present, a certain theme or type of media that will make all pieces work together. As it's my first ever solo 'show' I'm still very nervous how people will react to it, would they like it or hate it? Will see ;) One thing for sure: it's very exciting :)

Over summer break|PPP2

   Summer break sure gone fast. When I was finishing first year in May I had so many ideas for things I had to try and draw. However I haven't manage to do everything I was planning to but overall I don't think I've wasted that much of my break time.I have a part-time job and as soon as my school break started I got asked to work extra days.Still I've managed to sketch on daily basis and travel a bit.
    I tent to concentrate more on improving my drawings skills than anything else. I did few still life studies over summer to help me get better understanding of form and values. Such quick (max 40mins in my case) studies are very useful and I should be doing them more often.

I'm painting in b&w because I don't want to get distracted by colour, and just concentrate on values.

Below some studies I did few month ago, comparing how much I've improved:

 

By looking at them I've realised that my earlier studies lacked a wide value range, ending up being too bright or too dark. Posting them in my conceptart.org SB thread got me needed crits and comments.