I just watched...

This really interesting film about Pixar animation studios and their journey to becoming a successful studio. it was really interesting, as the directors for each of the feature length films discussed the problems that they faced on the indiviual productions, starting off with the first toy story. I remember wacthing that and being totally amazazed and it was good to hear about how it came to be and the processes that were gone through to achieve it.

der kleine Maulwurf- the small mole

My friend from back home sent me a link to the animation on youtube to cheer my up just before our deadline. Its all about this little mole awakening from its hibernation.
I like the simplistic style of the piece and I think that the Backgrounds are really beautiful, though not realistic.

Always disappointed in the end.

I dont understand where I am going wrong? How did I manage to get a 71. for the presentation when Holly and I put such little amount of work in? And how, When I have worked sooo damn hard this term on these groups projects, getting involved wherever I could, did I only get another meagre 61!? I feel as though all the work was for nothing, not really recognised. Should this be expected as this is how my future in animation will be?

Reading through the feedback from the group project, it was not even mention that I was involved in pre porduction for both the students project and the Library project. It feels as though that was totally ignored. I also did some sound work unlike many others.

I found the group crit on tuesday very frustrating and even upsetting at one point.
It wasn't necessary to ask me to discuss that particular quote in front of everyone, as it put strain on a currently rather fragile friendship, which had already been truly pushed to its limits during this last project.

I don't feel I can thoroughly review my work and talk through my frustrations with things through a blog as they are public and very readily available to my classmates who I would not wish to offend.

Fin.

It's such a relief to be able to say I am finished, and there is nothing left to do for this deadline. I've enjoyed this last term even though I have found the work quite testing and a little frustrating at times. I've learnt a lot about the importance of good communication within a team and how vital it is, in order to get work produced on time. I would say I have also experienced bad communication from others, when involved in their groups and hope that they know better for the next project we all undertake.

If I were a producer again, I would try to arrange a prompt briefing about the project as it really delayed the beginning of the prodcuction, not knowing what w were meant o be doing and I felt as though the post production team were simply left to sit about with nothing to occupy them. Though I did try to encourage them to get involved in pre production for over teams while we waited to hear from MARK.

This year has had a steep learning curve, but I think, and hope I done ok and am looking forward to working ten times harder next year!

Sound for Walk You Lazy $%&*!

Yesterday Charlotte asked me if I could put the sound to James' animation of an old man trying to catch the bus but the bus driver put up an offensive message and drives off.
I used the foley sound that we recorded on tuesday in the studio of me humming in a manly fashion as well as several different sounds which i downloaded from The Free Sound Project (Which incidently i think is one of the most useful websites i've used in a long while) I was really pleased with how the sounds lined up with action and it quite interesting to see how adding sound to a piece can change it so dramatically.

A Soundless Rhino

This is the quicktime of my rhino before putting it into Premiere and adding the voice clip and slamming door sounds. Although I am very pleased with the piece in genral and think the actual lip synch looks good, I m not happy with the characters walk and if I had more time I would definately do a lot more work on it, to get it looking likea fluid motion as at the moment it seems quite stilted.

the end is nigh

the project is coming to an end, and i'm really pleased that two out of the three animations have been completed. However I am concerned about Alex's animation as he seems set on making it more and more complicated and completing it is reliant on there being good weathe rin the next day and a half.
I have also just recieved an email from Anna at MARK, with feedback about Ceri's animation asking fro it to have the colours inverted, the end section removed and the rest of it to be made to last the full 15 seconds. How can I ask Ceri to basically start all over again, when he has already worked so hard?

With the Students project all my lip synching is complete and I am just waiting for Richard to arrive and supply a cleaner version of the voice track and then i can render the animation and it will be complete which is exciting!

Gathering all my work together has been quite an experience and taught me that an organised desktop might be a good idea for next year!

Switching Teams

I found myself frustrated yesterday evening to find that a member of my animating team had decided to switch to a different group, swapping with someone else without informing me.
How I am suppose to check people are doing their work, and working in line with the brief if i dont even know that they are part of my team, im not sure.

Rhino Animation

For holly's group, the lip synching, I am animating a rhino bulider character, that is talking about work never ending. I'm glad to be having a chance to animate along side my role as a producer but I am concerned that I am not working a fast as those that are just animating. I find it quite difficult to concentrate on the task in hand long enough to get much done. But I am determined to complete one animation for this group project task.

I had to drop some of the action from the sequence as it is only quite a short section of speech, and the storyboard had quite a lot of action in it.

Production!

I'm very excited about production on these MARK animations having finally begun today. After hearing back from our client about which concepts they liked, myself and my three animators met this morning to decide who was going to be doing what and hopefully the work is well underway.
I have asked them to have a considerable amount done by monday morning so I can email Anna at MARK with the progress, and check that the work is heading inthe direction that she was hoping for.
Fingers Crossed all should go according to plan.

Pre Production

Pre production has been far more stressful than i though it would, for this project. I think this is because in the beginning we all thought this would be the easiest and quickest, so nobody seems eager to crack on with it and i have struggled to get work out of my preporduction team until the very deadline.

Cherie's Fish

This is the confused fish desin that I will be storyboarding. It was designed by Cherie, and I think she has really capture the dim goldfish look in the facial expressions.