Reflection of the last 2 years

When i first joined this course i had no idea how to do any sort of animation, i was actually slightly worried incase the course wasnt for me, but once i started i found the course very interesting, in the first year we learnt all sorts of animation techniques such as 2D stop motion, 2.5D animation, 3D animation, rotoscoping and loads more.
I quickly found what my strengths and my weaknesses were on the course and by the second year i realised that my main strengths were mostly focused on the motion graphics and visual side. I think i learnt this the most from one of the live briefs for E4 in which i created a 10 second sting, my animation showed a 3D E4 logo bulging up and down and eventually exploading, turning 360 degree's then repeating, i was so happy with the outcome of that animation and it remains to be one of my favourites in the last 2 years.
I also found that another one of my strengths is 3D modeling as i have modeled quite a few characters and objects within my course and one of my favourites is where i modeled and animated the character 'Stimpy' from 'The Ren and Stimpy Show'.
The course has also help gain skills for working within a group which is really usefull for getting ready to work in the industry as we had to each do one part of the animation and keep the communication flowing within the group, just like people in the industry would go about it.
One thing i havent done much in at all in these last 2 years is 2D work as it is one of my weaknesses but i think i will attempt to gain more skills in the 2D side sometime in the near future as 2D animation is one of the things that really interests me about the subject.
Overall i am really glad i chose this course, i have gained many skills and friends, and to be honest, im kind of sad that its all over soon.

Falling blocks animation complete.

Yesterday i rendered my falling blocks animation, i left the computer to render over night and found out this morning that it has worked really well, i am very happy with the outcome of this animation i think i may even add some sound to this animation if i find the time, and here it is...

Day trip to see Paranorman at the cinema

A few months ago the class went to see Paranorman, and since then it has become one of my favourite films and i now have it on DVD.
Paranorman is a stop motion animation film about a boy called Norman who can see ghosts and nobody else can and doesn't believe him, he then accidentally angers a witch who summons zombies and he becomes a hero as he is the only person who can stop them.
I watched a special feature of this movie a few weeks ago and i was amazed at how the film was actually animated, each character had tons of different faces which just clicked onto the head for each facial expression. The whole production process of this film must have taken absolutely ages to complete but in my opinion it was deffinatly worth it as it is a brilliant film.
I think i would maybe like to try out doing a stop motion animation one day.

Talk with children's book illustrator Paul Hess.

A few weeks ago now. Children's book illustrator Paul Hess came into the studio to have a chat with the class about what it is like to work in the industry and having an agent etc.
The talk was very informative and interesting to be actually told what it is like to be working as a professional from a professional.
He also brought with him a few of his books for us to have a look at, one was called 'Nail Soup' and one was his peter pan pop up book that he actually said had sold out and he made quite a lot of money from it, enough in fact to have a year out from working.
Another thing he brought was a portfolio of his work and showed us the process and techniques he uses in his work, he works mainly in watercolours but says that he fancies trying new things as he has been doing that for quite a while. He told us that he had been trying out digital painting more recently.
He also showed us that when the work is sent in to a client for a book or something, sometimes the quality of it doesn't stay the same and sometimes they could end up filling something in by taking it from another one of your previous paintings, for example a background etc. without mentioning it to you first.
Here are a few examples of Paul Hess's work...

Festival Research

Pictoplasma

Pictoplasma is a massive animation and illustration festival that focuses mainly on character design and is hosted in both Berlin and New York, they hold talks from illustrators and animators from all around the globe. Every year on my animation course we get the chance to go to Berlin to see it and sometimes New york if you can afford it. Sadly though, i have not been able to afford Berlin or New York in the 3 years i have been here, which is very unfortunate as I would have loved to be able to go as i think the talks and events would be very helpful and i think i would learn a lot from the experience.

This year they held talks from some of the artists i have mentioned previously such as one of my favourite artists Jeff Soto and one of my more recent favourites BAKEA.

They also host a lot of workshops in which you get to design your own characters and models and also get to keep your creations once you are finished with it which i think is another really good thing about it as you could end up walking away with new skills or techniques learnt which can be useful for your own work in the future.

I really do hope to go to one of the Pictoplasma festivals one year.

Animex

Animex is a more local animation festival to me as it is hosted in Teeside, this is slightly similar to the Pictoplasma festival as it holds talks and workshops from a range of different animators, illustrators, designers and game designers.

It is really helpful to go to these festivals as you can get the opportunity to chat to successful animators etc. and if you are interested in working in the industry you could even hand them one and maybe they could get in touch with a few jobs for you or even hire you.

Problems with current animation!

Throughout yesterday and today i have came across a lot of problems with this animation as dynamics are very unpredictable when using them in Cinema 4D, every time i was saving the animation then going back and opening it up the big E4 logo reveal would be all messed up and distorted as the blocks would fall differently to how i originally saved them, today i had sorted the animation out once again ready to render, so i began to render it and after 4 hours of rendering it i previewed the progress of the animation only to find that the blocks were falling differently once again, this was very frustrating and i even considered giving up as i could not understand why this was happening.
I then began to google how to create keyframes for the blocks so that they would stay the same every time they fell, and came across one thread in a forum on the website C4Dcafe.
I followed the simple instructions that one user mentioned on how to do this, i then saved the project, closed it down, and opened it up again and yes, it stayed the same as i left it!
The above video is the 'Test' render of when it did not work, i will begin rendering the working animation tomorrow and hopefully upload the animation onto here tomorrow too.

Will Sweeney

Another Artist that i quite like is an artist called Will Sweeney, he is a london based illustrator and a graphic artist who specializes in comics, animations, clothing designs and music artwork.
Although i don't really take part in much illustration i still really like will's style, and the characters he has designed.
I feel that i have always been quite inspired by comic books and comic art as i am a big fan of comics and graphic novels and once even considered trying to get into the comics industry as a career.
I would really like to start drawing again and gain more illustrative skills sometime.
I really like the way his work looks like the more traditional style comic art, which is like when the images are drawn with pencil first and then traced over with pen to give the artwork the finishing touch.
i also like some of the colour palettes he uses too with a lot of things in the images being in just the one colour with shading, then the background would be coloured in a different color etc. which is a very simple way to colour up and would help with time constraints, and it still manages to look good at the same time.