Swing

Also something that Mark Woodcock has been working on is a swing that is being comped into the footage of the bus passing (previous post) The point of the cg swing is to have smoke passing past it interacting and moving the swing seat and chains.



As part of this shot we wanted to bulk it up a bit with some more cg elements, I took responsibility of this task, modeling and texturing a low res playground that is currently being comped into the shot  

Roto Time..

One of the shots we wanted on the day just wasnt possible, we wanted to get a bus passing an area that the particular bus we wanted to folm.. didnt pass. So we had to use out initiative we began by using one frame just traveling across camera in nuke with a heck load of blur.. looked awful :/ So the next plan of action was to roto the bus we wanted from another shot we filmed else where. Mark woodcock has been working on the shot so far and once comped and the perspective toyed with it should fit in nicely once adjusted :)

Dirtt.

As part of the smoke effect we want to have the smoke kind of damaging/ destructing the environment as it moves along. For This Josh Parks has been working in nuke to create this effect along with using particles to instance debris that will interact with the smoke.

Smoke Lift Chase

Some of the particles that Josh Curtis has been working on for the lift shot

Lift shot

I just had a quick flick back through some posts and it doesnt look live ive mentioned it before, but this is one of the shots that one of my team mates, Tim Blake has been working on, for this shot we aim to have smoke following  the lift as it travels up. A few images from start to finish.. 

Took a break

Ok so I i know I had only just started on the blog catch up but i took a break for an hour or so..  not to chillax and sit on my back side but to a talk that was at the university today. One taken by Senior Animator Carla Prada of Microsoft's Soho Studios.  

Not usually one of my usual's ide attend as it was more animation and game based, and the number of VFX students were low. However after going over some of the projects Carla had worked on made me realize that the industry we're applying for is not a fixed route, she went in as a 2D animator, went on to games like tonic trouble, tv shows like Angelica Anaconda then moving onto first person shooters like Haze. starting in 2D and moving through to digital animation and games is a huge leap, highlighting the fact that you have to be easy with how you work. Don't just sign your self up to one thing straight away, make your skills stretch as far as possible.

She covered a few things that most of us were all aware of, for example the way that you essentially become the directors bitch.. do what your told

- even if means recreating the scene you just spent weeks on, 6 times over, to create something you actually think is crap and the director likes :/ 

- How important it is to have the base knowledge 

Though she studied as a 2D animator and went on to 3D/games etc, she mentioned that her 2D work/skills weren't wasted. The 2D skills are the base, the life drawing, understanding anatomy etc, basically all the things that were drummed into us for 1st year and the start of second. Later she brought up this same concept of getting the grounding skills, saying that your forever learning. Talking about her experiences with motion capture, At first the decision to use mo cap was one animators shunned however after a while she enjoyed the technique as she learnt this whole new world of movement that can be used and understood to enhance animation. 

She also covered a few points..

- Getting into industry - how you reel should look, how long it should be, what work to include etc. One thing I never get over is how basic some peoples reels are?! like without doubt her reel was really good, but aesthetically, its .. so ....basic? I totally get that with good artists, their work sells them, not the dressing of they're reels/websites/cv's etc but.. meh I guess its just me, I quite like to see a well designed pleasing theme/look/style when presented with work.. (probs the 2years of graphic arts kicking in there i suppose) 

- looking for work - she went over a few places to look for work and what kind to look at, interns, networking etc

- Some basic interview knowledge, its always dam good to actually know about the company your applying for.. don't just turn up not knowing the difference between the company and Sainsburys :/ Its also a good idea to take a hard copy of your reel to leave it behind, or have some crit when there.

Its good to know what software the company uses, even if you just trial some different packages so you not a complete dunce when they stick you in front of houdini when your a maya expert. 

Another good thing to be aware of is situations they might put you in, scenarios, they want to get the most out of you so they'l want to know if you can work well in teams, can problem solve and sometimes whether you can lead if the opportunity ever came up.

She also went over some tips for when you start your first job but its all pretty common sense, i think if i write any more il be going into biography territory.

Overall it was a good talk to attend, someone asked a good question, " is there any skills that you would go back and learn if you had the opportunity?" and she said the more technical skills, rigging and skinning came up as she said she has a technical artist sitting along side her when she works to tweak or fix any problems.    .. which reminds me, i really need to get that rigging reel finished :/

Edit revision

Just going over the edit again, not much to up date on this so far but i though I might mention a bit about the sound track.

To start off with we took inspiration on sound from these two tracks..




One from our source inspiration for the film, 'London Bus' sound track - ratta tat Loud Pipes


And the other Natures design, a track mixed by one of my team mates friends. 




Now.. All well and good. But there was a distinct problem, these tracks are great, but the focus on one theme, both kind of upbeat, which is great.. for the opening shots of the film that is. When the cup gets dropped I wanted the whole mood to change, and these songs couldn't offer that, even cut up they weren't all that dramatic. So I had a bit of a problem, team mates were asking me to produce a sound, with tracks that don't really fit the bill. 


So on went the hours of searching.. and after a while I realized that i wasn't going to find a single sounds track that could represent our film, I had to create one. 

Being the first time Ive created any kind of sound.. i think its not a bad attempt but i still think it needs a little more tweaking, but it'l get there, onto the next post!

Scheduling

Something I should have posted at the beginning i know, but defiantly work a mention as its an important part of the process :)
This has basically been the ruler of our personal film, essentially the "to do" list of the film. So far ide say were roughly half way through, and if we continue to make a steady pace should finish the project bang on time.

 Listed are tasks from editing right through to high res particle simulations we're slowly working though the jobs list :)

  

A heavy two weeks to come..

So, now back after the easter break, that wasnt really a break at all.. having worked 120 hours over two weeks didnt leave me feeling chilled and prepared for the end of semester b. Though I'm not particularly behind in work im not exactly ahead :/ so the next few weeks are going to be mental on the course work side of things. This post is generally stating how bogged down i'm going to be in the near uture listing all the lovley projects i need to get done :)

So where it be finished or still in progress il be posting about..

- Infugo updates edit/roto's/Cg Lift/smoke sims/park assets/scheduling and comping
-  Cinesite work
- website updates

along with some other stuff I cant really remember right now..

Rigging

A little bit of rigging here.. I did fairly well in a rigging exam and thought it might be an idea to pursue the idea a little further. This is the character rig I created for the self modeling project, thought I would document the start and hopefully the progression of my rigging journey :) 

Edit updates

Okk so its about time I gave a bit of an update of the film edit :)


Despite our awesome day of shooting there's just a few shots that we didn't manage to get but its no biggie, I think so far its all going pretty well yet I think we've lost our way on the narrative/concept side of things as everyone I show it to dont really get what it is we've made :/ I know we're not expected to create a best selling story line but something that makes some kind of sense would be nice.

However, the day is not done and there is still a few weeks to come up with a great looking film, Ive got a good team and have no doubt that we will work something out, Its all been sweet so far! #filmsawinner