Industry now…

Well in Animation class last Friday, the teacher said that the current trends of industry is that they are looking for animation… now I’m not too too bad at animation it’s just not my first choice of career.

I figured that once I finished my modeling reel, I can add some more animation and therefore have 2 reels, one to show off the modeling and another to show off the animation. I already have some idea of how I would like my characters to interact in the ‘animation’ part.

Also a few weeks ago I downloaded the ‘andy’ rig for animation class since it had more human proportions.  The hips are ‘broken’ and the arms are a bit funny, and the head is a bit big but all in all it’s WAY more proportioned than generi or bloke.

Personally I prefer generi’s controls and after talking to my animation instructor about the rigs, he said that with andy I’m produced my best animation so far.  I think my original theory about my needing human proportions on my rig to animate well was right… also it may be because I think andy is a more aesthetically pleasing rig so I’m happier working with it.

When I talked about andy’s disproportionate head ‘getting in the way’ my instructor said that I should stop thinking in terms of ‘the head is big and in the way’ and start thinking in terms of ‘this is what the movement is sort of like and now how can I make the rig do something similar’

-sharon

Scheduling

So I wrote a schedule in my planner of all my projects and what I was going to do on them every day.  I liek this, instead of just ‘project due on this date’ I have ‘unwrap, add simple textures’ or ‘do simple lights’ and ‘block in this part of animation’ and I feel so much more organized!

I have also done a rough previs and colour scheme for class and it has been approved by both my portfolio teacher and my 3D Design teacher so I’m going to use it!  Analogous colour scheme and I just made a professional email account on gmail.

Now I’m going to send my info and color scheme to my good friend Mimi in the New Media program and she shall help me design my business card! *jumps for joy and dances*

-Sharon

title… title.. always needing a title here?

Sometimes I just can’t think of a title to put up there!

Anyways, last week I was thinking of finishing my presentation project for career prep class with Liam right away and present tomorrow, Monday, since I would like to get it over with… but after some thinking and Liam talking to Katie and other stuff like that, we decided “why rush when we have 3 weeks to finish it?” and well, we aren’t going to present tomorrow…

Then on Tuesday I think we start the Compositing ‘half class in, half class out’ thing with Mac.

I have created a schedule for myself from the most important assignments to the least important assignments! First, my previs and colour scheme which I believe is due on Wednesday. I planned out all my camera shots on paper, now I just have to do them!

Then I’ve got an animation fight/dance sequence due Friday.

Next, I need to unwrap and texture my junkyard for texturing class and then I must unwrap, texture, light and render the candles scene for my production class.

Then there is also the character I must do for my design class! I need to make a proper character sheet for the soldier uniform and start working on it.

Oh yeah! also on Friday I helped Max from the other class make the boobs on his model. It was my first attempt at making boobs and I think I did a swell job =) All that drawing and knowing that boobs are ‘tear shaped’ and point ‘slightly to the side’ since women breast-feed and all was all helpful because real women don’t have boobs that stick straight out like Austin Powers fem-bots…

One more thing! Russel, the program head, said that my colour scheme should be more muted because in Regency everything is gaudy, the furniture, the decorations etc. so the colour scheme should be muted to balance everything.

-Sharon

industry night and demo starting

Industry night last Wednesday was interesting.  The industry people were pretty much ‘concealing’ themselves among the crowd.  A lot of the class didn’t show up o industry night though… but there were a lot more animators than here in this class.

Devon’s demo reel was really popular and I think Morgan’s demo really turned out looking good (of course he still wans to work on it and actually get the entire story in).  I collected a copy of all my friends’ demos at the end of the night.

During the evening I collected EVERYONES’ business card so I could study the designs.  Overall the New Media and Design students had WAY nicer business cards (well that’s obvious, that’s what THEIR expertise is!) I’m going to get some of my friends in the New Media program to help me with mine =D

I helped Simon make his business card although I haven’t had time to scan it yet… (been totally on and off sick this past week *sigh)

On Saturday I managed to make Morgan’s head which I plan on using for my demo reel!  But I am not happy with this head… so I’m going to make it again! The more I make Morgan’s head, the better I’m going to get at making Morgan’s head.

-Sharon