Chew TV

I'm working with Kat on the Chew TV ident project. Today we pitched our two ideas to Andy, Kathy and two guys from Chew TV. I was pretty nervous, I was sure I wouldn't be able to get any words out, but I was surprised how well we handled it.

We came up with our ideas by sitting down together in the studio, and just throwing random ideas at each other. We came up with things like werewolves to pizza delivery men. This was a great way to do this because we could expand on one of our ideas with two different points of view. We had loads of detailed ideas that we had to narrow down to the two that we pitched today.

Our first idea is an ident set in a space station canteen full of aliens getting their equivalent of lunch. The machine malfunctions... its as if its clogged with something...

As the pressure builds it blasts whatever was blocking it onto the tray, and the alien get covered in the goo...

The room fills with steam from the broken machine and the camera pans over the aliens shoulders as they gather around the tray...

...to reveal that the chew logo was the thing causing the problem. And the background fades to black.

I'm really looking forward to getting started on animating and creating the sound for this ident. We will have to capture and create all sorts of sound effects, from alien to machinery.

Our second idea is of animated speech bubbles floating up the screen... boring and ordinary. Which are then suddenly knocked out of the way by the chew logo. Its all going to be hard work, but I think the outcomes will be worth it. As soon as we've learnt how to use flash a bit more we can get a move on.

Backgrounds!

I finally finished my last 2D background. I went for a monochromatic fantasy forest setting, and I really like the beams of moonlight shining through the trees and the growing mushrooms. The main problem with this image is that when I came to print it out, no matter how bright I made it, the printer printed it the same darkness every time. You couldn't see the detail in the distance because it looked black. I don't know how to solve that problem really... except print it somewhere else...

These are a couple of renders from my Maya project. I was quite proud with my little 'bedsit' environment, but I've seen other people work and they look so detailed and amazing. I took most of my time getting the lighting right for the mood and the detail on the texture. I ended up getting frustrated with Maya and came to write my blog instead. But its back to it now to improve it some more.

Finally, One Thing Crossed Off My List...

So I've finally finished and handed in my essay so I can focus on a few other things. I really am not a writing kind of person, I'd rather be inventing some fantastic worlds to create backgrounds for. It felt like an age of worry when I had half the word count and nothing more to say, but its done. No more essay-ness until the mega horrible dissertation...

I've done two of my 2D backgrounds and just have the colour scheme and the Maya ones left to do this week. I think Ill work on these without really realising because its what I enjoy doing. Here my room background. I enjoyed painting each part differently on Photoshop. However, I could of created more contrast between light and dark, but then again you would loose the detail.

I have some ideas for the next ones... But you'll have to wait until they're finished.

First Week Back...

Well its the end of the first week back to ol' Falmouth, and it defiantly doesn't feel like were being eased back in after the Christmas holidays. The first term feels completely different, i.e the learning curve just got a whole lot steeper. I knew we had an essay for history and theory, which I was just about getting my head around what the questions mean. I'm not looking forward to this referencing thing, but the lecture notes will help with the research side.

Learning how to model in Maya was pretty good and I enjoyed it. I decided I'd better write down everything because its quite possible I would forget some vital thing next time. Even though I enjoyed it, it was still hard work and a lot of information to take in (polygons have stupid rules!). I don't know how I'm going to piece together a room out of them.

Wednesday was the day that ruined the 'first week back' vibe! I thought it would just be a morning tutorial on how to use this new programme 'After Effects'. Little did I know that it was more like you have a week to learn how to use this programme and produce the graphics for the broadcasting students. I think every ones brains nearly fried that day. It was time for a quick lunch and then settle into Pete's tutorial. I think I got the basic principles and didn't give up.

Our group worked all of Friday to get something done towards it. this involved a lot of tutorial searching and frustratedly following complicated instructions (most of which ended in something you didn't really expect).

Thursday was more work loaded onto us, three backgrounds. But I think Ill enjoy doing it more then somethings (essay) and I don't need to learn a new stupidly complicated programme to do it either. Ive already got a load of ideas going around in my head for what to do. Well I hope next week doesn't have as many unpleasant surprises....

Walk Cycles

Walk cycles return again! Well practice makes perfect I guess... But I think that's a long way off. This whole thing started with our walks being filmed, which for some was a task to see how silly s walk they could do. I stuck with a playful/thoughtful walk that I sometimes do. Walking up and down in front of everyone did feel a little embarrassing, but I was happy with the results (And I believed my walk is possible to animate).

Before I started animating I went through all the little details of my walk like;

• The way my arms swing and that they hang a little at the top of the arc,
• How one of my legs stays straight through half of the cycle,
• My legs accelerate as they are swung forwards,
• The direction my hips swing as the weight goes from one leg to the other.

It doesn't look like a very long list but I found it quite tricky taking all of them into account at the same time.

I decided to get Maya out of the way while there were computers free. I had a play around with the new rig and when I finally knuckled down I had a few problems with silly mistakes I had made and had to start again. But I'm pleased with the final result, especially the little hip wiggle that I have. What I found hard is that my recorded walk is from side on, so its hard to tell what the rest of the body is doing. Easy solution... Do the walk for real!

Time seems to fly when your animating, I guess its the concentration and problem solving.

With the 2-D animation I spent ages on working out how I was going to get all my points into it. I think I did OK with that. However, I'm not completely happy with the arms and how they don't really have much momentum. But I'm quite pleased with how the legs move, and I think Ive got the timing pretty right.

Until next time...

More walking!

Well, some more walk cycles it ll be...

Making the 3-D rig walk on the spot wasn't too difficult, and I'd would like to think I'm starting to get the hang of this Maya thing. They was less confusion about what to change to fix what, and more actual work.

The 2-D walk with character/emotion was much more difficult to do. I had to do lots of 'depressed walking'. I tried to think about what was happening with each limb, and the way my shoulders, hips and head moved. I'm not so sure about the way the hands more, I think they may be a bit too airy. The movement of the legs and feet are alright, but could appear more heavy and really drag along.

Cube Man gets Legs!

Well now we've moved onto walks the cube man has evolved some limbs and is able to walk around!

I like the idea that with walks there are key positions that the legs go into throughout the cycle. The main problem I had was getting the drawing in the right order because I filled in around the key frames. But I got there in the end.

I think its the arms in this cycle that give this character an angry looking walk, because they never straighten and the balls for hands look a little like fists... Maybe the next one will look less determined and more friendly.