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I honestly can’t believe I’ve never done Howl fanart until now.

I’ll have prints of this at Anime Expo next month!

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Show Reel -

- Best work in a show reel is often shown at the beginning, so it will attract the attention of the audience and they wont turn to the next show reel.

- Variation of the different types of thing that you are able to do along with what it is that you have done and an example of what you are doing

- Contact details should be shown at the end, e.g the studio that you work at and/ or the producers name, ways that people will be able to get into contact with you.

- Label different skills that you are showing off so people will be able to look for that specific skill and that you just didn't come across it by mistake

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This is the link which directs you straight to my behance web page.

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Evaluation - 2D Animation;

For this project I was given the task of making a 30 second long animation with audio. I could animate what I liked as long as it met with the criteria.

At the begging of this project I did research on the history of animation along with thinking what I could do for my animation piece. With this in mind I did what I tend to do best when thinking up of ideas, I started to draw different pictures in my sketch book and see if I could come up with a good story to go with it. After doing that I came up with the idea of creating Tal and Sora. At first I was quite happy with making my idea come to life, however, after a few weeks of starting the project I realised that it was going to be a lot harder than I expected. This is because I had to scratch back some of the detail in the animation - resulting with me not being 100% happy with the final out come. I also found it hard by the shear fact that I was using Photoshop to creat this animation, which didn’t really help with my case already.

After a while I did start to get the hang of using photoshop and found it more easier to work with as time went on. There was a point in the production of this animation that I lost all my work that I did on my animation due to having some technical difficulties with my computer, but, I think I have remembered most of the footage to create the animation that I have now.

All in all, I am quite happy with the animation I got in the end, although I wasn’t able to everything that I wanted to do to the animation, for example, towards the end of the animation making everything slowly turn into fray and white. However, I am happy with the colours that I used and in toll the animation itself.

Feed Back -

The feed back that I received from friends and family was all basically the same, "that black screens last for too long" along with "the ending didn't really make that much sense". I did however get some good feed back from it as well, like; "the backgrounds that you made was really cool" with, "it's cute and well made".

These are two pieces of feed back that I got from two of my friends, saying the same thing that I have previously said before. It tells me that the actual animation that I have made is good, however, I will need to be more careful with the cut out scenes, along with me having to put more depth in the animation that I have created. The feed back that I received was mostly good with a few negatives like the one that are above.  

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This is the final render for Oly's class project.

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Okay, so here is the pitch that I did for Oly's class (in front of Oly). Oly gave me a few pointer for the production of the animation so that everything will go smoothly.  I will need to prioritise the scenes in my animation, because the idea that I have might be quite time consuming and I might not be able to get the animation done if that is the case. I will also need to make simpler versions of Sora and Tal, they have too much detail on the especially Tal and the detail on his wings. Lastly, I will need to start thinking about what audio that I will need to have to pull this whole animation together.

All of these tasks I have done. I have took the main frames that will be needed and am now in the process of filling in the in between frames so it actually looks like the animation has some form of movement. I have created simpler versions of Tal and Sora in the actual animation. The audio that I will be using in the animation will be Dragon Roost Island Zelda Dubstep by Ephixa.

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Examples of Digital Communicating in the Creative Industry;

In this modern age there are many different ways to communicate with other people; all of which can be used for different reasons and in different ways.

Tumblr -

Tumblr can be used as a social media website or as an online portfolio. By using it as a portfolio many people will be able to see what kind of artwork that you do. This is also a very good way to show your work to online companies to see what kind of style of work that you do.

Behance - 

Behance is basically an online protfoilo that will enable people from the creative industry to look at your artwork. It isn't really used for any written work for it is just an online portfolio, however it is a website where people do get recognised and can sometime lead into getting hired.

Youtube -

Youtube is international meaning that people all over the world will post different things in hope that they will be noticed/ watched by many different people. This is a good way to promote your work because it's where you can upload your animations so you can kind of use it as a show reel.

 Facebook -

Just like Tumblr, Facebook is a social media site that you can use as a portfolio for your work. By creating your own page people will then be able to follow you and the work that you do. It is often used for socializing with friends and letting them know what your doing that day, nut it can be used for business purposes as well.

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In this document I have composed all the things that I will do to my website once I have set it up. I have thought up of having a dark background because most of my work tends to be in black and white with the occasional coloured photo, so by having the dark colours in the background my pictures will stand out a bit more. I picked the theme that I did because I thought that the theme looked quite professional and tidy, giving off a decent standard of work will be produced.

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3D Animation; Theory and Application.

Animation is used daily in modern life, for example it’s used in; film productions, advertising, TV shows and within creating architecture. With having such a large part to play in the media and/ or the building industry the different uses and ways that 3D Animation can bend into, vary with many different possibilities that can grow from this. By using these processes we are then able to create things that don’t exists in this day and age, example, James Cameron’s “ Avatar”. The better part of this film was mostly created by using 3D animation and modelling, varying from, Pandora’s life forms, the nature, the buildings, even the actual planet itself, looking at it from a space station! With the technology to create 3D animation and models, it makes creating an animated film easier than it has been 15 years ago. 

Creating a 3D animated piece, however, still has some key points that will help make the animation run more smoothly.  

Key framing - 

Keyframing is the simplest form of animation an object, its the "key" frames that are needed in an animation. Once all the animating has been completed, this can then be made into the keyframes (the main frames that are needed to make the animation). This translates all the animating into the keyframes and works well instead of having to calculate each and every move that the object will need to make for the animation to run smoothly.

Graph Editor - 

Graph Editor in Maya is an application that will allow you to see the movements of a selected object. this is shown on a graph and depending on the movements that the object has been told to do, the Animation curves  will either go up or down, really steeply or fairly shallow depending on how fast or slow the object is moving. Graph Editor will also record any key frames that have been made; Maya will then interoperate the movements to create the Curves. 

Active/ passive rigid bodies - 

Rigid bodies will not be changed. There are 2 different types of rigid bodies: passive rigid bodies and active rigid bodies. Passive bodies can influence active ones, though they cannot be influenced or changed by other bodies. The active bodies can be influenced by other rigid bodies as well as interactions. Active bodies cannot be controlled by the user but passive bodies can be controlled through all of the key frames.

nDynamics - 

Dynamics simulations can be a powerful tool when trying to generate realistic looking effects that would be very difficult to achieve manually. Example, if you are trying to create a waterfall and you need the water to look realistic, by using nDynamics the program will create a stimulation that will make it look as real as possible. By using nDynamics you will not need to do any key framing for it to work because the program will automatically think of the sequence.

Cameras - 

Cameras, in Maya, can be key framed in the same way as any other object. They are very useful as they enable the user to work with camera angles and techniques such as panning and zooming, in order to create a more interesting animation. It also enable you to jump from camera to camera like they do in film and TV sequences. This enable the animator to really exaggerate on certain parts of film footage, for example, say there is a villain that needs to look large and superior, by making the camera look up to the villain it will give off this impression.  

Constraints - 

There are several different types of constraints, though these can only be applied to rigid bodies. A nail constraint will set a point in which the body will rotate. The length from this spot and the object is fixed. A pin constraint is used for 2 bodies. This will create a rigid rod between the 2 bodies. Think of this like creating a mobile with different objects at the base. A spring constraint will use a pivot point though the distance from the point to this object can contract and stretch. A hinge constraint uses an axis through the object. The axis is fixed and the object can rotate around the hinge.

Rigging - 

Rigging is when you have a character’s rig is basically the skeleton of the charter. The model is constricted to a series of controls and joints which enables the animator to move the model as they wish. While some rigs are very simple to follow, others can be staggeringly complex - such as the one’s seen in Pixar films.

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Task One: Job roles in the Animation Industry -

Animation Director or Supervisor -

The Animation Directors are responsible for the quality of the animation, for keeping it on brief and for delivering constant performances, by assigning or casting the correct Animators for the job. The job of Animation Director may only exist on larger projects and can often be combined with the role of director for smaller productions.

They also receive and interpret the brief form the director and other relevant departments. They then guide, supervise and review the work that has been produced by the Animators and Assistant Animators.

2D Animation (computer) - 

Animators do everything relating to their scenes, including plotting the camera movements, editing the soundtrack (if needed), placing information on dope sheets and producing a composited version of their work for comments from the Director or Animation Director. 

In toll, the role of a 2D animator is the same as another kind of animator, beside the fact of 2D animators using different tools to create their animation. Most 2D animators in the UK tend to use either Flash or CelAction, the animation process can differ from either programmes. 

2D Animation (drawn) -

A 2D animator whom of which draws all of the frames, are often given a brief form the director, Animation director or Key Animator, and use established, designs, models and layouts, so when it come to the animation being created the movement will appear on screen. The animators create a series of static drawings, for when it is placed into a sequence it will give the illusion of movement.

So in principle, the jobs role of the Animator is the same for all animation techniques. the only difference being is that of the tools used and in some of the skills that are required.

3D Computer Animator -

Computer Animators produce images, when recorded in sequence and projected create the illusion of movement. In charter animation, they maybe cast like actors, for their special talents, this can vary from comedy to horror, people to animals and song and dance to slow motion. On other projects they maybe selected for their particular  technical skills and abilities.

Depending on the project, Computer Animators follow a brief form the Director, Animation Director or Lead Animator. They refer to established designs, layouts, models and existing characteristics when creating movement which will appear on screen.

Stop Motion Animator -

With this job, I would personally say that patience and detail plays a key part in this field of work. this is because for this line of work you will need to animate puppets or models frame by frame to create a performance and provide the action that has been outlined in the story boards that have been provided by the head animator or director. With this job there is also another job which is quite similar: assistant Stop Motion Animator. Their job is to help the animators with the work that they are doing.

CG Modeller - 

A CG Modeller is someone who models all the 3D models that will be needed of the CGI Project. Example, avatar, this film was basically made all from CGI and clearly someone had to model everything in it, so this is what this job looks at and does.

Compositor -

These are the people that construct the final image by combining layers of previously-created material, including rendered computer animation, special effects, graphics, 2D animation, live action and static background plates.

Digital Painter -

Digital Painters are the ones who add colour to the images that have been created by the Animators.

Editing Assistant Animation -

They support the Editor/ Editors and editing department, including logging the audio and visual material received, loading it into the computer and keeping detailed records.

Head of Model Making -

Head of Model Making are responsible for the creative running and overall management of the model making department. Along with working closely with the Director and Production Designer to translate their vision into models or puppets that will work for the project.

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Unit 67: evaluation -

For this unit I have produced a 5 second animation of a dogs walk cycle. By doing so I had to look for a rigged body so that I could animate it. For this part of the project I searched on the Internet to look of a rigged body that actually worked, after I found a rigged body on Creative Crash that was when I started animating the dog. Before i had the chance to start animating my rigged body I was told to do some research on key thing in 3D Animation, things such as; keyframing, graph editor, camera constraints etc. and as I always say , this part proved to be the hardest for me, because not only did I know what these things where, but I had no idea as to how to explain them. The beginning process was a bit slow for me meaning that I wasted the first week of animating the dog by simply finding other things to do in the mean time. This as it turned out, towards the end of the project, was a big mistake, because, not only wasn't I able to complete making the animation, but it wasn't for the length of time that I wanted as well. In toll I think that I did a pretty good job with my first 3D animation project and if I didn't waste time at the beginning of the project I might of been able to create the animation that I want to from the start. However I am quite happy with the results that I got in the end.

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This is a play blast of my animation, of which that i will finish shortly and will render along with it.