Semester 1 - Character Implementation

If you refer back to one of my earlier entries, Character Implementation was started back in the Summer with the design of ten opposing characters; my characters were all interlinking. The opposing features were their personality traits. My target audience was pre-school children. I wanted the characters to be simple in design so that animating them later on would be easier. The main difference between my characters is that they don't have legs; therefore making a walk cycle impossible. I overcame this by creating two other models in smaller sizes to create the illusion of a walk cycle.

As you can see I didn't take too much time to make the smallest model, as this would only be on screen for a spilt second. Overall, I am pleased with how the models turned out. The only downside was that the white plasticine picked up a lot of dust and dirt. It also became damaged quite easily, I found that after a few frames had been taken the plasticine would need to be patched up.

I liked the final outcome although the final final didn't convert into HD, this is something I would like to rectify at a later date.

Second Semester...

Sorry for my absence! The blog has had to take a back seat in life over recent months. Every time I found a few spare minutes, I meant to write. Although I would then get distracted by something else... whoops.

Over the past two days we have had to present to the level 6 students and vice versa. The presentations on Thursday were for level 5 student to "sell" themselves and their work to the level 6 students. Today's presentations were the level 6 students presenting to us - level 5. These presentations are part of the Assistant Animator module, which is part of Puppet Performance. 

In all honesty, I really wasn't prepared for this one. I pretty much ignored it until last minute, as I hate presentations. I'm not very good at "selling" myself, as I lack confidence in my work anyway, so why would I want to show it to other people? Alas I made a showreel, but I can't help but feel I was scraping the barrel; so to speak, with the animations included in my showreel. In fact I felt a little embarrassed at my showreel. I don't know why, I shouldn't really feel like that as people have complimented  me on my work and I have good feedback from tutors in the past. 

I didn't prepare a powerpoint presentation; I really wish I had. I am terrible at speaking in front of large audiences. I didn't mention any of my strong points or what I could offer the level 6 students. I just sat there and said "As you can see from my showreel I am a character animator. I can also assist in building sets and making puppets. I'd like to think I'm easy to get along with and I am open to ideas"... or something along those lines. Quite pitiful really. One of the lecturers asked several questions to try and prise more information out of me. On reflection it was abysmal, I could have done A LOT better. 

I am confident in Photoshop and Premier. I have a good knowledge of Final cut pro and I have basic knowledge of Audacity, After Effects and Mudbox. I can just about handle Maya, haha. I can make clothing for puppets and fairly detailed plasticine models [non humanoid]. I have also done some voice acting recently, which was quite enjoyable. I have also had previous experience in graphic design, web design and photography. Alas due to lack of preparation and laziness on my part, I didn't get this across to any of the level 6 students.

Moaning aside, here is my current showreel: